Larry Myers

mostly cycling and technology

Daily Note

November 28, 2024

My kids play virtually with their friends, frequently working on Minecraft worlds together. iPads allow Minecraft and FaceTime to run concurrently, allowing them to video chat with each other while playing Minecraft. On the upside, this allows them time to socialize with their cousins who live in other states, and see in person infrequently. When they do this with their friends who live no more than 5 minutes away I fear they are missing out on in person play.

The more I think about this though, I’m not sure I can blame this on the pandemic or the rise of personal screens. Thirty years ago I would play games online with my friends for hours, and the games were far less chill and educational compared to Minecraft. (See: Quake, and later Counterstrike)

I figure I should be thankful my kids are so comfortable with technology and can use it in a healthy way to socialize with their friends.

All Notes →

Articles

Own Your MX Record →

December 3, 2023

Your email address is the most important digital asset you have. Make sure you own and control it.

How to Create an Astro Markdown Plugin →

November 20, 2023

Creating a Markdown plugin for the the Astro framework is great way to make it easier to author content for a static website. This tutorial will show to how to create a basic plugin.

How to Run Your Own Minecraft Server →

October 15, 2023

Want to be the coolest parent ever? Run a home Mincraft server.

We Can Have Nice Things →

August 7, 2023

An explanation of a phrase I've found myself repeating during my career.

The Downsides of Remote Work →

July 7, 2023

Sometimes you need more than the endless solitude of the home office.

About Me

I'm a [Dad, Technologist, Cyclist] living in Chicago with my wife, kids, and cats. There are some ghost shrimp in a fishtank too, but I'm not sure I count them as members of the household.

When I'm not getting paid to code I'm usually playing outside and exploring the city.

Things I've Built

Cycling Weather Forecast

weather.larrymyers.com

There's plenty of weather forecasts out there, but none did a good job of answering the question: "When should I go biking tomorrow?"

So I built one for myself. It's an extremely lightweight traditional webapp with a Go powered backend.

Metra Train Tracker

metra.larrymyers.com

Metra has never had a good train tracker, I doubt they ever will. This is a React app with a Go backend that is geared towards people who want to know when the next train is coming with just a quick glance to their phone.

Wordle Solver

wordle.larrymyers.com

Some days you just don't want to spend the time staring at your 3rd guess trying to figure out a word that fits. I built this wordle solver to allow me to spend more time analyzing guesses and less time trying to think of words.