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John Balestrieri

@tinrocket.bsky.social
447 followers 176 following 720 posts

Full-time #indie software developer: Computer graphics, computational design, #iOS, #macOS, and a #beagle named Miss Muddypenny. Me: johnbalestrieri.com Apps: tinrocket.com

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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I have a 2" wound on my scalp because I bent over to pick up a pretty leaf and hit my head on the patio door handle. Anyway, here's a picture of some tree garbage.
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Reposted by John Balestrieri
Negative Space Works @negativespaceworks.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Abstrora started from a screen saver that no longer runs. Abstract Motion (2001) drew Mondrian-like color fields, PowerPC only. Abstrora rebuilds that as a native .saver for Apple Silicon and Intel. Free, macOS 12 or later. negativespace.works/abstrora/
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Damn, already exists. Don't trust 1am ideas.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Considering starting a consulting company called Buy The Hour LLC
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
If you can't draw, doodle.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I've been working on parameters that control the stroke styles. Wild that resolution is unlimited.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
No figs this season. The trees died last winter and regrew ~10 ft from the roots. One shoot has 12 fig nubbins.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Fall lounging.
A beagle lying on a cushion with a leaf pattern. The ground is wet.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
eBay has a new AI listing tool in its mobile app, and it's… good.I selected some photos of my second-generation Apple Pencil, adjusted the price, listed it, and sold it within a few hours. I took photos last week and procrastinated listing it because it's normally a PITA.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
She doesn't agree with the change to her feeding schedule.
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Reposted by John Balestrieri
Charlie Chapman @charliemchapman.com · 29/09/2026
This is extremely beta, you've been warned 😄 But definitely give me feedback! testflight.apple.com/join/1yvqnauG
testflight.apple.com
Join the Trimothy beta
Available on iOS
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Nothing projects self-confidence more than giving yourself a haircut.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Touch sparkles are faster now; pure CoreAnimation/CAShapeLayer. Finger touches are circles; Pencil touches are sparkles. Finger or pencil drags show motion. (Selectively—I turned it off for canvas drawing. Double-taps get extra oomf.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Free gift article.
nytimes.com
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
These are just the ones without text on the image.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
We've inherited mass-quantities of kitten postcards, including stacks of multiples.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
If you've seen one fractal, you've seen them all.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Much better: Sparkles on Touches Began only.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Run.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Oh! Where do the treats come out?
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Dark Matter S2, E5 was beautiful, sad, and amazing. A complete 180° episode.
tv.apple.com
Watch Dark Matter - Apple TV
In this mind-bending thriller, Jason Dessen is abducted into an alternate version of his own life. To get back to his real family, Dessen embarks on a…
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Sparkle Touch™ animations for screen recordings. Works across the whole app UI. I'm not sure I need the Touch Up animation after dragging. Maybe only after long drags.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I'm really only iOS. I recently ported an app to Android but it was entirely automated with an LLM coding tool.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Everything I've done can pretty much be done with a Collection View.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I'm not familiar with Procreate; I just designed it one piece at a time.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Worked on my resize and rotation widget. The center anchor is movable. Tap the rotation widget's handle to switch to a mode that lets you set the anchor point, then tap back and drag/rotate. Snapping is shown in pink.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Look, it's late. We're both a little testy.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
iOS 27 with Accessibility's "Reduce Transparency" Off vs. On.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
They stopped making petards after everyone made fun of people being hoisted by their own petards. They now manufacture and sell chainsaws.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A world of difference between "dialing it in" and "phoning it in." 🤔
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I agreed to a price for cutting some fallen limbs before checking the prices for electric chainsaws. 💸
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Well, it's almost winter, anyway.
politico.com
Major TV networks decline White House pool duties
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
More UI and function changes to collections.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
By the time fall rolls around every year, I've forgotten how to make hot coffee, oatmeal, etc.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Library work mostly done. Albums for grouped work. Stacks for related loose stuff. Hide clutter stuff you don't want to delete. You can still access the iCloud file browser if that's how you choose to work.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Libraries with loose pages, albums, and stacks of pages. I abstracted the Serialbox iCloud sync to its own framework.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I crashed most of the day, but the shortest member of the pack kept watch. (Her fur is still growing back from surgery in July.)
A beagle with a black and white coat lying at the foot of a bed. The dog is facing left, with its legs stretched out. The background includes a dimly lit room with wooden floors.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Every year, I double up on vaccine shots, forgetting that it will feel like a steamroller has run over me.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Worth it! Extremely well done.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I finally finished Stray last night, then picked up Tiny Echo again. store.steampowered.com/app/62...
store.steampowered.com
Stray on Steam
Lost, alone and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find their way home.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New Hell unlocked: The eBay app opened into a full-screen, live-streamed Pokémon auction.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
My desk: Cup for lens cloth: white ceramic Coffee cup: also white ceramic
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
No tracing this time. The "expressive" qualities of the line are calculated from key-line drawing points/lengths/angles. The stroke width is the only other user control. In theory, I'll be able to make pencil strokes that convincingly fade and change shape.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
It works! Life drawing. It wasn't frustrating at all. Because I can edit the lines, I kept reshaping until it looked right.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Two different texture scales, and key-line mode.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Paths can have lines that over/undershoot, and they can curve. Layers can have a paper texture that is independent of the stroke's texture.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Ah, my 2021 screenshots didn't overlap paths for a reason: I hadn't solved all the self-intersection issues.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Yikes, the first/last time I had the natural media strokes running was in 2021. Let's see if I can get this running again…
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I added a lot of "desire paths"— for example, you can long-press the canvas to get Select All, etc., but you can also long-press a layer's list row to show the same menu.
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John Balestrieri @tinrocket.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Looks fantastic on a 13" screen. Still working on the UI. The center of the toolbar has view toggles (key-line, background "ghost" mode, etc.), and the pill below the toolbar shows actions for the current selection. You can long-press objects for actions, like inserting points on a path.
Screenshot
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