What Is This?

The build diary

Red Button is being built in the open, for people whose hands are full. One short entry per day, in plain words: what got built, what broke, what we decided. Newest first.

  1. 30 Jul — Ghost hunting, and plain English everywhere
    Caught a ghost: an old broken upload the phone had been retrying for days, wasting data. It now spots and cancels those, and stops doubting a take the server already holds. And the change log inside the app now reads in plain English, like this one.
  2. 29 Jul — It reads before it thinks, and asks before it saves
    It now reads the company knowledge before deciding what a note means, and offers to save new facts it hears — nothing is saved without a yes. Field tests on holiday Wi-Fi: locked-phone takes landed in under a minute, and one recorded in airplane mode arrived all by itself.
  3. 28 Jul — A night in the field
    A night of field tests. Eight takes on a locked phone: none lost. Learned when iPhones really allow background sending, and planned around it.
  4. 27 Jul — The locked-phone puzzle cracks
    The locked-phone puzzle cracked: press the side button, the screen stays dark, it records and uploads anyway. Missed transcriptions get a second chance. Fixed a rare bug where two copies of one upload could tangle.
  5. 26 Jul — Fixed on a Saturday, plus a six o'clock sweep
    Four recording bugs found by using it on real jobs. All fixed, with tests so they stay fixed. The six o’clock morning sweep switches on.
  6. 25 Jul — Earning the right to press send
    The rules for earning trust get written: it drafts, you press send. Every action asks first until it has earned better.
  7. 24 Jul — What it is, said plainly
    A day spent writing down, in plain words, what this thing actually does and does not do.
  8. 23 Jul — The suggestions inbox and the marked exam
    The suggestions inbox: it proposes, you say yes or bin it. We build it a marked exam, scored on its worst answer.
  9. 22 Jul — The website goes up, and the button gets a twin
    This website goes up. A web twin of the button, so every change is tested in two places.
  10. 21 Jul — A hard day with the camera
    A hard day with the camera. Four tries before it behaved. Every build now shows what changed in it.
  11. 20 Jul — It starts to understand
    It starts picking jobs, materials and prices out of what you say. Receipts by camera.
  12. 19 Jul — It works with the phone locked
    It records from the side button with the phone locked. Every take goes up to our server, and we check it arrived whole. Bugs get reported by pressing the button and saying so.
  13. 18 Jul — One button, one rule
    Day one. One red button that records. First rule written down: never lose a take.