Utilitarian, Local-First, Software

I am a Software Developer, Outdoor Retail Specialist and Artist in Southern Arizona. I create software, photographs, audio and text, often focusing on the local landscape.

Over two decades of professional software development have helped me realize that while I have a broad interest in technology, IT, design and programming, I have a particular interest in utilitarian, local-first, and sometimes local-only software.

This isn't always the most popular, celebrated, or sought-after style of software these days - but it is deeply important. The importance has both philosophical and practical concerns:

• Local-First Software - like any software - might violate your privacy and use your data in ways you don't know about or approve of. But good local-first software can run without a network or internet connection, start without needing you to log in to an account, run without someone else's server and keep all your data 100% local! Local-first doesn't magically make software great - just like online sites and services aren't inherently bad - but local-first software can create a situation where you own and hold both the software you use and the data you create - a powerful and interesting combination.
• All software has a cost associated with creation and maintenance - but not all software needs to incur the extra expense and complexity of a server, or a subscription, to run the software... There are some very good reasons why the default these days is to write a website/web application/web service - if your goal is to be everywhere, acquire users quickly and build and monetize a business it is likely your software should be a website/web application/web service! On the other hand, for a huge range of reasons, you might not need, or want, your software to depend on a server being up and running, a monthly subscription charge, or a valid account. Quite a bit of software can run directly from your computer: offline/local-only websites, feed readers, image editors, geo-tagging from local data...
• General-purpose software, even great general-purpose software, imposes a cost on users who don't need/use/want every feature. Excel is a great example - it is amazing software, but most users will have to hunt through the icons and menus for the 10% (5%?) of the functionality they actually need - likely while getting help, suggestions (ai suggestions?) and formula completions for a dizzying array of irrelevant options. Sometimes, the open-ended opportunity that Excel represents is ideal - sometimes, software that does just what you need, the way you want to do it, is a better option. Too few people have gotten the opportunity to work with, and experience the joy and efficiency of, utilitarian software that was designed specifically for them!

All of the software on this site is in development, beta only and without any guarantees - use with caution! I use all of these programs frequently; installers are provided if you want to try them - see the Software page for descriptions and links.

If you are interested in my work please get in touch! Places you can find me:

• Pointless Waymarks - Ramblings, Questionable Geographics, Photographic Half-truths
• cmiles - info - Life, Tech and Unimportant Minutiae
• GitHub - Code!
• [email protected]