Ace Hardware, Renaming StoreCast to Continuo, a Fax-Sender Rewrite, and a Day of Real Documentation
A normal shift followed by a long stretch of cleanup and naming work across almost everything I run.
Ace Hardware, then Upload Partners
Worked at Ace Hardware from 13:00 to 17:00, then at Upload Partners from 12:00 to 21:00.
One change to how I use the AI council
Also made a small change to how the council of AI models works: it no longer includes Claude by default, and Claude no longer writes the summary at the end. I still read the answers and write the summary myself — there's no point asking the same AI twice when I already have its answer directly. The council is still there whenever I want a genuine second opinion.
Giving almost every project a real README
Spent a big chunk of today going through nearly every project I maintain and writing, or rewriting, its README properly: what it does, how to install it, how to configure it, and what's actually true about it today instead of what used to be true months ago. A few of the fixes were real corrections, not just polish — one README claimed a feature didn't write any files when it actually does, another still called OmniBridge by its old name, and TicketTracker's README didn't mention that it needs a trusted security certificate to work from a tablet at all. Worth doing properly once instead of letting each project's documentation quietly go stale on its own.
Renaming StoreCast to Continuo
The store music appliance I've been building got a real name: Continuo, replacing the working name "StoreCast." Renamed it everywhere — the installer, the settings, the service, the web interface, even the internal audio channel names — and gave it a real license: the code stays public and is free to use for anyone who isn't selling it; a business that wants to run it commercially pays a yearly fee, and each version becomes fully open-source after four years.
Asked the council what to charge for it, since this is meant to be sold to other businesses eventually, not just run at my own store. Landed on $175 a year per location, with a discount for churches and nonprofits. It's not listed for sale yet — the pricing is set, but it's still invoice-only until I finish building it out.
Starting a real fax-sender rewrite
Also kicked off a project I've been putting off for a while: rewriting my old fax-sending tool in Rust, under the name Invio. Built the basic structure of it today — sending messages, handling attachments, and correctly warning about password-protected files instead of silently skipping them, which was a real complaint about the old version.
OmniBridge and a proxy fix
Released OmniBridge version 18 today with documentation for the Peplink and Epiphan integrations I added recently, and updated the pricing page to reflect the Peplink add-on. Also fixed a real bug in rust-proxy, the program that handles security certificates for all my sites: when it tries to get a certificate for a domain and its usual method fails, it now automatically tries a backup method instead of just giving up.
A lot of store website work
Spent a good chunk of today improving the store website that handles OmniBridge and Continuo licenses — a more mobile-friendly admin area, the ability for customers to sign in with a passkey (a fingerprint, face scan, or security key) instead of typing a password, an optional extra security step after signing in, and the start of automatic renewal reminder emails so a customer doesn't lose their license by accident. All tested carefully before going live, since it's handling real customer accounts and real money.