iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 21/09/2026

I’m intrigued by the idea that Canada might be an associate member of the EU, possibly followed by Australia and New Zealand. The biggest advantage would be the massive time saving of having passport-free travel within the Schengen zone. The 36 hours of travel will finally be tolerable! #joking

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 08/09/2026

Here's a variation on the "Meat Proxy" idea I mentioned last week. If somebody asks for your opinion, you should assume they've already had a discussion with AI.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 28/08/2026

I just learned the term "Meat Proxy" - a person who uses AI to do their work, but very quickly hands the "completed" output for another person to review. The reviewer is left frustrated they've been handed a pile of AI slop. Is this a phase we go through, or a disagreement on what's "good enough"?

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 16/08/2026

Is everyone busy trying to prove they add "human value"?

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 01/06/2026

I'm old enough to remember people saying "Look at this cool program I wrote in Java", but after a while people stopped saying "in Java" because we normalized that Java was a good tool to use for many applications. At what point in time will we stop saying "using AI", because AI has become normal?

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 06/05/2026

That feeling when AI has taken 4 minutes (and counting) to do a major refactor...

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 04/05/2026

Step Functions users - if you rely on Execution History, you'll love App Inspector (by LocalStack). Not only can you see the data payload for state transitions, but also for every other service invocation across your ENTIRE application! Lambda logs and IAM Policy errors are included!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 22/04/2026

One thing I learned years ago is when visiting another country on "business", the immigration officer would ask if I'll be "writing code" (work - not allowed) as opposed to "discussing software" (business - allowed). Given I no longer write code (thanks to Claude), is everything I do "business"?

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 15/04/2026

Artificial Intelligence has put me out of a job! My 3-year-old son loves to ask "Why?" questions, all day long... but if I don't give him the answer quickly enough, he exclaims "Let's ask Claude!".

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 07/04/2026

Years ago, people would tell me I write too many comments in my code. This was likely due to my decades of experience as a C programmer, working with code you couldn't understand without comments. But times have changed. My friend Claude loves the detailed way I describe what the code should do!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 14/02/2026

A big shout-out to the American Welding Society (AWS), that has apparently existed since 1919. How did I not hear about them earlier? Sorry, I won't be signing up for your training courses. www.aws.org/about/

aws.org

About AWS | Welding Standards and Education

Learn about the American Welding Society (AWS) and its mission to advance the science, technology, and application of welding and allied joining and cutting processes. Explore AWS welding standards,…

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 01/02/2026

Yet again, Stephen Hawking didn’t show up for the picnic I invited him to. #timetraveljokes

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 27/01/2026

Had a great time chatting about Local Testing with AWS Step Functions on the Serverless Office Hours this week. Thanks to Jas Narula, Scott King,and @edjgeek.bsky.social for the opportunity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mdv...

youtube.com

AWS Step Functions Local Testing | Serverless Office Hours

YouTube video by AWS Events

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 03/12/2025

And we're on a roll... here's ANOTHER newly-announced AWS feature that LocalStack already supports. Thanks to our partnership with the AWS Step Functions team, you can use the new TestState enhancements with LocalStack! (AI = Already Implemented!) #localstack #awsstepfunctions #ai

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 19/11/2025

Hmmm... it's a week before re:Invent, and the AWS news feed has been silent for the past 35 minutes... should I be worried? I'd expect a lot more announcements at this time! Oh wait, never mind... another announcement just came in 😉 aws-news.com

aws-news.com

The AWS News Feed

Keep track of AWS news and blogs. See what's hot, read summaries, search, set bookmarks and ratings, and categorize articles with tags.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 21/10/2025

I sometimes miss reading CoEs, especially on days like today. If you know, you know.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 15/10/2025

It's odd to realize that exactly 50 years ago, my mother took me to my first day at school. Happy belated birthday, younger me! Now go and buy shares in a newly-formed startup named Microsoft!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 21/09/2025

I can confirm it's true - AI is making me lazy and not wanting to think too hard about writing code. I had a moment of panic today when GitHub Copilot stopped auto-completing my code, and I was forced to remember the syntax I needed. Turns out my "free credits" expired. github.com/features/cop...

github.com

GitHub Copilot · Your AI pair programmer

GitHub Copilot works alongside you directly in your editor, suggesting whole lines or entire functions for you.

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Reposted by Peter Smith

LocalStack @localstack.cloud · 11/09/2025

We're so excited to finally get to share some BIG updates! First, AWS Toolkit for VS Code can now connect to LocalStack making it easy to build, debug & test Lambdas directly from your local machine without leaving the comfort of your IDE! Read our tutorial: blog.localstack.cloud/aws-toolkit-...

blog.localstack.cloud

Developing with LocalStack using the AWS Toolkit for VS Code

The new AWS Toolkit for VS Code integration streamlines your serverless development by connecting directly to LocalStack’s AWS emulator. Seamlessly browse resources, deploy SAM projects, and live…

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 11/09/2025

Serverless developers, I'm excited to see this collaboration between LocalStack and the AWS Lambda team. You can now use AWS Toolkit for VSCode with LocalStack, complete with Lambda Debugging, making even easier to develop, debug, and test your applications locally! aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/ac...

aws.amazon.com

Accelerate serverless testing with LocalStack integration in VS Code IDE | Amazon Web Services

AWS is announcing integrated LocalStack support in the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio Code that makes it easier than ever for developers to test and debug serverless applications locally. This…

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 19/08/2025

Without even realizing it, I’ve been using GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and I love it! ❤️ After several years of being frustrated at coding assistants, I’m finally enjoying the experience and getting a productivity boost! I might even pay $10/month for it!

code.visualstudio.com

Announcing a free GitHub Copilot for VS Code

Announcing a free plan for GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code.

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Reposted by Peter Smith

Tobias Schmidt @tpschmidt.com · 13/08/2025

CloudFront Functions and Lambda@Edge are incredibly useful. The only downside is the difficulty in developing and testing them, as deployments take considerable time, and AWS provides no local testing capabilities. This has changed with LocalStack.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 06/08/2025

Hey Step Functions developers - if you need to test your State Machines, and you're sad that Step Functions Local is no longer supported, read my exciting new blog post, then switch to LocalStack instead.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 05/08/2025

First world problems... you try to create an Amazon S3 bucket with a unique name that nobody else in the world would use... but then you realize it's already in use, by yourself at a previous company.

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Reposted by Peter Smith

LocalStack @localstack.cloud · 01/08/2025

When they realize you're faking the whole cloud with LocalStack 😏

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 26/07/2025

Is it just me, or do other people accidentally open the App Store when they really want VSCode? Perhaps it's just me 😑

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 19/07/2025

With the increase in AI-generated videos, at what point should I stop believing what public figures are saying? Or should I ignore everything on social media and only watch news from the BBC? At this point in time, Doctor Who is feeling quite credible!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 25/06/2025

Does anybody else feel less miserable when they look at my odometer reading? (terrible joke of the day).

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 09/06/2025

I just drove by the theatre where I watched Star Wars as a boy in 1977. For months after that I dreamed of having my own R2D2 Droid. Now I realize the 50th anniversary is just two years away, but I own an iPhone not an Android.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 02/06/2025

After relocating to New Zealand, there are two important things I miss from Canada. 1) Central heating, 2) Tim Hortons Sausage BELT with Steeped Tea. But what's really sad is that after eating 100s of Sausage BELTs, I don't have a single photo of those delicious sandwiches! Just one of this cup 😑

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 30/05/2025

And this is yet more proof that Step Functions has one of the best AWS consoles!

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Reposted by Peter Smith

Pooya Paridel @pooyap.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

🔥 AWS Step Functions leveled up with new release! New execution graph updates: • Collapse/Expand Map & Parallel states • New state icons and visual improvements Making operating a complex workflows simple! 🚀 #AWS #Serverless #StepFunction #CloudComputing

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 25/05/2025

Product idea? The “change of address” feature is not a solved problem. After my recent international move, I had 30 places to give my new address to. About 20 were simple online profile updates, but 10 required support calls/tickets. And 4 of those required multiple tickets to the “backend” team!

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Reposted by Peter Smith

LocalStack @localstack.cloud · 14/05/2025

Tired of waiting on IAM tickets or racking up surprise AWS bills? @jetbrains.com shows how to build & test a full Spring Boot app with S3 + SQS locally using LocalStack + Testcontainers. Same AWS APIs. No cloud required. 🔗 blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2025/05...

blog.jetbrains.com

Building Cloud-Ready Apps Locally: Spring Boot, AWS, and LocalStack in Action

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 09/05/2025

This LocalStack launch is particularly special to me, as we now support the "mocking" feature from Step Functions Local. Now you can use JSONata and Variables (and other recent Step Functions features) with improved testing support!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 06/05/2025

If you deploy software to an ECS container, but suffer from slow deploy times whenever you make a code change, here's a solution from LocalStack. Code is directly mounted from your local filesystem into the ECS container, so code updates are instant!

blog.localstack.cloud

Developing & Debugging AWS ECS Tasks Locally with LocalStack & VS Code

Learn how to develop and debug AWS ECS tasks locally using LocalStack with Docker bind mounts for code mounting, VS Code for step-through debugging, and hot-reloading to instantly apply changes…

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 28/04/2025

Another funny UX example, this time from Rakuten Viber. The $4.99 worth of credits can be purchased for the low price of $7.99. As far as I can tell, the first $ is USD and the other $ is NZD. 🤦

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 19/04/2025

In typical "Black Mirror" fashion, here's an episode showing how NOT to focus on customer value when building a SaaS subscription offering. www.imdb.com/title/tt3012...

imdb.com

"Black Mirror" Common People (TV Episode 2025) ⭐ 8.1 | Crime, Drama, Mystery

56m | TV-MA

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 15/04/2025

Super-useful hint I learned from The CDK Book. When using CDK with TypeScript, always run with "npx cdk synth" to use the version of CDK from your project, rather than defaulting to your global CDK. thecdkbook.com

thecdkbook.com

The CDK Book

The CDK Book - A Comprehensive Guide to the AWS Cloud Development Kit

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Reposted by Peter Smith

Jones Zachariah Noel 🥑 @zachjonesnoel.bsky.social · 29/03/2025

🥁Join @awsfanboy.com and I on The Zacs' Show Talking AWS where we talk about Step Functions with IDE (VS Code) experience with JSONata and variables. Going live in 15 mins! 🎦 youtube.com/live/_ra7nzt... #StepFunctions #AWS #Serverless

youtube.com

Step Functions from VS Code featuring JSONata

YouTube video by The Zacs' Show Talking AWS

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 29/03/2025

I guess I'm not cool any more. I tried so hard to be an early adopter for Studio Ghibli portraits, but ChatGPT failed five times to render my complete image. It then told me to come back and try tomorrow! Anybody know a better way?

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 27/03/2025

This is the first new release of LocalStack since I joined the company. I didn't contribute to this one, but it's exciting to work at LocalStack where Developer Experience is the highest form of customer obsession.

blog.localstack.cloud

Announcing the LocalStack 4.3 Release

LocalStack 4.3 is now available! This release introduces experimental support for CloudFront Lambda@Edge, new & improved language support in Transcribe, application mode in Managed Service for Apache…

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 22/03/2025

Sigh... perhaps I got used to Amazon's incredibly high standards, but when I try to log onto my banking application today, I'm greeted by a blank screen and lots of JavaScript errors. Eventually I found this notice. An "under maintenance" banner would be better.

rbcroyalbank.com

Important Notice

We’ll be doing some system maintenance this weekend. The outage times are in Eastern Time, unless otherwise noted, and may change due to unforeseen circumstances.

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 22/03/2025

Is remote work challenging? Yes and no... I wake up at 3:30am many days, but that's the joy of working for a European company. Lots of meetings from 4am-8am, followed by focus time until 1pm. After that, I enjoy life... no gridlock traffic, no overcrowded shopping malls... you should try it!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 17/03/2025

When did you first order something from Amazon.com? For me, it was likely this book order from April 26, 1999. The email design has certainly improved over the years, and so has the estimated delivery time (back then it was 2-12 weeks).

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Reposted by Peter Smith

LocalStack @localstack.cloud · 14/03/2025

Deploying straight to AWS 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺? 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲, 𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗼. IAM misconfigurations, API failures, staging breakage—you name it, it happens.

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