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 · 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 · 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 · 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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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 · 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 · 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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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 · 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 · 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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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 07/03/2025

Dear @awscloud, I'm wanting to update my contact address for my AWS account, but even though the country is set to Canada, it's asking for my "state". Last I heard, Canada has provinces rather than states, or am I supposed to enter "Canada" as the state now? (joking!)

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 16/12/2024

Cleaning out my basement, preparing to move house... I've been recalling the "free stuff" I've received from companies/universities over the years. It started with pens, drinking mugs, T-shirts, then hacky-sacks, fidget spinners, USB sticks and Bluetooth speakers. The best is the Starbucks cards!

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 10/12/2024

What's the average number of times per day that you blindly click "Accept Cookies"? For me it's about 2-3 times/day, as I stumble across new websites (or after my browser cache was cleared). Does anybody feel more empowered because of this requirement?

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Peter Smith @petersmith.net · 06/12/2024

Apparently it's tradition to post a photo of your laptop and badge on your last day at Amazon. In my case I've made the choice to move to another city, which sadly is 3 hours from the nearest AWS office. This means I can't be in the office 5 days per week, which is becoming the expectation.

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