When a Five-Minute Job Becomes a Project

For the past two days, I've been working on finally setting up a website for @snapie. To be honest, I thought it would take five minutes, but as usual, things got complicated.

I still haven’t decided on which domain to buy, and I’m trying to be careful about how we pile up expenses. My brother reminds me how easy it is to bleed yourself dry with monthly payments. A few bucks here, a few bucks there—next thing you know, keeping @snapie alive is costing too much. Especially because, at these prices, no amount of blogging can truly offset the cost of the infrastructure I wish we had.

That said, the beta testing is going quite well. New bugs have been reported and squashed, which is always good. But there are also simple ideas being shared that could really improve the app. It’s fascinating how small details can make a big difference. Today, for example, I worked on improving how notifications refresh. Simple enough, I thought—but it took me the better part of the evening. That’s really how coding works: assessing what’s in front of you is mostly an informed guess until you actually try.

Feature-wise, I think @snapie will stay as it is for the Google launch. I’m working with 3Speak on a new way to upload and render videos using their tech, but it’s taking much longer than I imagined. Of course, that says more about my current skill level than anything else—but I’m stubborn enough to learn what needs to be learned.

I haven’t forgotten about the chat feature people have requested. I’ve already built part of a framework for it, but my brother believes my approach should be discarded. A Firebase implementation, he says, makes a lot more sense since it solves the WebSocket challenge—keeping people connected in real time. Since he’s the real dev and I’m still cosplaying, I’ll listen to him on this one.

Maybe it’s not my place to share, but I know my brother won’t. Today, he took the plunge—he bought and powered up a good chunk of Hive. I’ve heard people call Hive a trap of sorts, one that lures you in with the promise of everything but then disappoints you with the challenge of reality. I can understand where that sentiment comes from, but I still think Hive, for all its flaws, is the best thing out there for everyday people.

Putting so much work into @snapie, and seeing what Hive can become, can convince anyone. Yes—even Bitcoin Maxis like my brother can come around too.

— MenO