Aaron Alaniz
@aaron.alaniz.xyz
Grateful husband and father of three. Android engineer at Block
📍Corpus Christi, TX 🌊
🌐 aaron.alaniz.xyz
🤘🏽UT Alumni 2012
📍Corpus Christi, TX 🌊
🌐 aaron.alaniz.xyz
🤘🏽UT Alumni 2012
Reposted by Aaron Alaniz
Microdosing AI for Mobile Dev
Small usages with real productivity gains
blog.mmckenna.me
October 27, 2025 at 1:16 PM
chromecast: 60% of the time it works all the time ✨
August 22, 2025 at 1:56 PM
chromecast: 60% of the time it works all the time ✨
I am teaching my son how to play catcher and one new thing I notice catchers doing is showing the target briefly and then placing the glove on the ground. I presume this is so they only catch the ball coming up into the zone as opposed to trying to frame a low pitch. Fascinating!
July 30, 2025 at 1:02 AM
I am teaching my son how to play catcher and one new thing I notice catchers doing is showing the target briefly and then placing the glove on the ground. I presume this is so they only catch the ball coming up into the zone as opposed to trying to frame a low pitch. Fascinating!
Reposted by Aaron Alaniz
Reposted by Aaron Alaniz
Trailblaze got some new updates today! There's an official yaml spec defined in the trailblaze-yaml module. The examples will be updated by the end of this week.
There's also new memory tools available so the agent can remember screen state for later assertions.
github.com/block/trailb...
There's also new memory tools available so the agent can remember screen state for later assertions.
github.com/block/trailb...
GitHub - block/trailblaze: AI-driven mobile testing framework.
AI-driven mobile testing framework. Contribute to block/trailblaze development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
July 16, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Trailblaze got some new updates today! There's an official yaml spec defined in the trailblaze-yaml module. The examples will be updated by the end of this week.
There's also new memory tools available so the agent can remember screen state for later assertions.
github.com/block/trailb...
There's also new memory tools available so the agent can remember screen state for later assertions.
github.com/block/trailb...
As an Android developer I basically have zero visibility into what is happening in Java beyond JDK 8. I am not sure which came first, but it is nice to see convergence on similar concepts like data classes and records.
July 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
As an Android developer I basically have zero visibility into what is happening in Java beyond JDK 8. I am not sure which came first, but it is nice to see convergence on similar concepts like data classes and records.
I gave Omarchy a try and it has made a ten year old laptop fun again. 💻🖲️
aaron.alaniz.xyz/omarchy-trial/
aaron.alaniz.xyz/omarchy-trial/
Omarchy Trial
There is a lot of sameness in technology these days and while convergence is fine, it's nice to explore. The announcement of Omarchy – an opinionated Arch Linux + Hyprland setup – reminded me of the...
aaron.alaniz.xyz
July 14, 2025 at 12:53 AM
I gave Omarchy a try and it has made a ten year old laptop fun again. 💻🖲️
aaron.alaniz.xyz/omarchy-trial/
aaron.alaniz.xyz/omarchy-trial/
I always looked forward to showing my kids the Ocarina of Time — the look of satisfaction after completing the first boss battle, priceless ✨
What a timeless game
What a timeless game
June 28, 2025 at 12:18 AM
I always looked forward to showing my kids the Ocarina of Time — the look of satisfaction after completing the first boss battle, priceless ✨
What a timeless game
What a timeless game
Shift + Esc — the best OOO feature ever made in Slack
June 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Shift + Esc — the best OOO feature ever made in Slack
I discovered that my son has been using my debit card pin code as the password to the playground forts at recess. 🔓
May 21, 2025 at 2:10 PM
I discovered that my son has been using my debit card pin code as the password to the playground forts at recess. 🔓
Reposted by Aaron Alaniz
From a dev at a large tech company:
“We were only allowed to use GitHub Copilot as an AI IDE. It was OK. But then more and more of us used Cursor on side projects and it was *so much better*
Luckily we have have a dev platform team and we
“We were only allowed to use GitHub Copilot as an AI IDE. It was OK. But then more and more of us used Cursor on side projects and it was *so much better*
Luckily we have have a dev platform team and we
May 9, 2025 at 1:44 PM
From a dev at a large tech company:
“We were only allowed to use GitHub Copilot as an AI IDE. It was OK. But then more and more of us used Cursor on side projects and it was *so much better*
Luckily we have have a dev platform team and we
“We were only allowed to use GitHub Copilot as an AI IDE. It was OK. But then more and more of us used Cursor on side projects and it was *so much better*
Luckily we have have a dev platform team and we
I just learned about the Savannah Bananas from the @acquiredfm.bsky.social IPL episode — this is so amazing. I love baseball tradition and nostalgia, but this looks so fun.
thesavannahbananas.com
thesavannahbananas.com
The Savannah Bananas | We Make Baseball Fun!
thesavannahbananas.com
April 30, 2025 at 2:56 PM
I just learned about the Savannah Bananas from the @acquiredfm.bsky.social IPL episode — this is so amazing. I love baseball tradition and nostalgia, but this looks so fun.
thesavannahbananas.com
thesavannahbananas.com
The Fastmail bottom bar I always wanted 🙌🏼
April 29, 2025 at 4:18 PM
The Fastmail bottom bar I always wanted 🙌🏼
My favorite thing about AI is the spike in motivation to write incredible documentation — previously, the incentives were not so tangible. Now, you have immediate feedback about whether your efforts to document something are useful.
April 28, 2025 at 3:13 PM
My favorite thing about AI is the spike in motivation to write incredible documentation — previously, the incentives were not so tangible. Now, you have immediate feedback about whether your efforts to document something are useful.
I am enjoying shorter lower stakes blogs — here are my findings using Cursor for Android dev for a week 🚀
aaron.alaniz.xyz/cursor-week/
aaron.alaniz.xyz/cursor-week/
A Week with Cursor
Technology waves swell, crest, break onto shore, and then, some time later, mobile developers show up, board in hand. I committed to using Cursor exclusively for a week as my daily driver editor. A we...
aaron.alaniz.xyz
April 18, 2025 at 8:33 PM
I am enjoying shorter lower stakes blogs — here are my findings using Cursor for Android dev for a week 🚀
aaron.alaniz.xyz/cursor-week/
aaron.alaniz.xyz/cursor-week/
Two blogs in a month 🙌🏼 — watch out for feature flag drift in your UI tests.
aaron.alaniz.xyz/rollout-to-u...
aaron.alaniz.xyz/rollout-to-u...
aaron.alaniz.xyz
March 30, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Two blogs in a month 🙌🏼 — watch out for feature flag drift in your UI tests.
aaron.alaniz.xyz/rollout-to-u...
aaron.alaniz.xyz/rollout-to-u...
My kids only seem to want an apple seconds after I have taken the first bite of mine. And it has to be mine.
March 19, 2025 at 7:38 PM
My kids only seem to want an apple seconds after I have taken the first bite of mine. And it has to be mine.
Reposted by Aaron Alaniz
I wrote up some thoughts about the effect of AI on programmer salaries: seldo.com/posts/ai-eff...
March 17, 2025 at 12:49 AM
I wrote up some thoughts about the effect of AI on programmer salaries: seldo.com/posts/ai-eff...
I have about ten rough drafts of random posts I would like to finish some day. I managed to complete one about my first time authoring a Kotlin DSL.
aaron.alaniz.xyz/kotlin-dsl/
aaron.alaniz.xyz/kotlin-dsl/
First Time Experience Authoring a Kotlin DSL
I recently came across a file commented with // TODO convert to DSL. I use this file frequently and while I thought it could be improved, it had never occurred to me that a DSL would help. Feeling cur...
aaron.alaniz.xyz
March 16, 2025 at 11:32 PM
I have about ten rough drafts of random posts I would like to finish some day. I managed to complete one about my first time authoring a Kotlin DSL.
aaron.alaniz.xyz/kotlin-dsl/
aaron.alaniz.xyz/kotlin-dsl/
I tried Cursor for the first time today and it is so smooth ✨ From nothing to solution with a short prompt and some chat assisted debugging. All in place, no app or context switching. 💯💯
March 14, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I tried Cursor for the first time today and it is so smooth ✨ From nothing to solution with a short prompt and some chat assisted debugging. All in place, no app or context switching. 💯💯
Reposted by Aaron Alaniz
A discussion about the differences of @github.com merge options came up at work this week.
I couldn't find a quick explainer I liked so I wrote down what I shared. I hope it's helpful!
blog.mmckenna.me/github-merge...
I couldn't find a quick explainer I liked so I wrote down what I shared. I hope it's helpful!
blog.mmckenna.me/github-merge...
GitHub Merge Strategies: A Visual Explanation
Understanding Merge Commit, Squash Merge, and Rebase Merge
blog.mmckenna.me
March 1, 2025 at 3:28 PM
A discussion about the differences of @github.com merge options came up at work this week.
I couldn't find a quick explainer I liked so I wrote down what I shared. I hope it's helpful!
blog.mmckenna.me/github-merge...
I couldn't find a quick explainer I liked so I wrote down what I shared. I hope it's helpful!
blog.mmckenna.me/github-merge...
This must be while RuleChain exists, but I tried to get fancy composing one TestRule with another and found that it is pretty easy to forget a base.evaluate() call and pass every test suite that uses the rule. 😅
February 13, 2025 at 8:35 PM
This must be while RuleChain exists, but I tried to get fancy composing one TestRule with another and found that it is pretty easy to forget a base.evaluate() call and pass every test suite that uses the rule. 😅
Nothing dates me more as an #AndroidDev than frantically switching off the design view for an xml file.
February 6, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Nothing dates me more as an #AndroidDev than frantically switching off the design view for an xml file.
One of my favorite things to do at work is to edit somebody else's PR description to include a new line between the last line of text and an embedded media file so that the media renders correctly. 😂
February 5, 2025 at 3:19 PM
One of my favorite things to do at work is to edit somebody else's PR description to include a new line between the last line of text and an embedded media file so that the media renders correctly. 😂