tools for balance

Last month I built onyx, a map annotation tool to enable self-determination of certain types of location data. This marks what I see as a new milestone in my software development journey. It's my first tool that is broadly useful and applicable outside of the general realm of computing and programming.

Creating according to the the code-it-yourself manifesto, I have built tools for myself for a long time, streamlining my relationship to computing and enabling my creative process. Now, I feel I have a certain mastery of my craft and enough understanding of universal human problems that I have an increased urge to make these broadly useful tools in the vein of onyx. Simple yet powerful, and easy to do with the data what you will.

So here's to tools, here's to the future, and here's to the people who can use these tools to shape the future in a reflection of not the dystopian megacorporate software landscape we've come to know, but the world-centric forward-thinking one that we so desperately need.