A Privacy-First News App
Over the last few months, I have been working on RSSTracker, a news tracking app powered by RSS feeds that lets you track terms while collecting zero personal data from users. In my day job, I work in Digital Equity, and I see first hand how logins and accounts are a huge barrier to entry for many people. I also see people unwittingly giving over large amounts of personal data to apps without really being aware of how that data is used.
Migrating to Hugo
A New Start
Over the years, I’ve built a few different personal websites for myself. I’ve used React, Go, and most recently Python and Django. It’s always been a rewarding experience learning about web development and having a public-facing site to show for it at the end of the day. Recently, I’ve mostly been using my site as a blog, which is why I picked Django as a framework. While Django is very powerful, it’s probably more than I need for my personal site. I don’t particularly enjoy using Python, and I only occasionally need to make changes to my website. As a result I often find myself relearning things when it’s time to update things.
RSSTracker Retrospective
Over the last few months, I’ve undertaken a fairly substantial programming project: writing a cross platform mobile app with Kotlin Multiplatform. Up until now, I have done some relatively small projects, like my Chess Picker Go webapp, or my small Music Theory API and Demo in C#. I’ve hopped languages a ton and had a relatively hard time committing to something. Then again, as a hobbyist, I’ve been lucky not to have to commit to anything. I have a day job that pays the bills, so I’m free to try out all kinds of goofy programming languages without worrying too much about the job market.