SideProjects
What I build outside my day job in IT resiliency: a neighborhood odd-jobs idea, a way to tip the kitchen, and a newsletter about keeping AI safe.
HouseDash
Idea stageOrder help for small outdoor jobs the way you’d order dinner. Pick the job, and someone nearby comes to do it.
The jobs nobody wants to hire a company for:
- Shoveling the driveway after a storm
- Cleaning out gutters
- Mowing the lawn
- Washing windows
I’m starting with snow. This winter I’m putting together a call list of local people willing to drive over with a shovel and dig neighbors out.
See how it would work
Pick a job. This is a demo — no real bookings yet.
Choose a job to send out a request.
Tip the Chef
Building the siteThe servers get tipped. The cooks who made your meal usually don’t. Tip the Chef lets diners send a tip straight to the kitchen.
A restaurant puts up a small sign or sticker with a code. A diner who loved the food scans it and tips the chef directly — no splitting it through the front of house.
- Printable sign. A PDF emailed to the chef, ready to print on paper or sticker paper.
- Branded tip page. The chef’s own page where diners send tips.
- Printed stickers — coming later. Professionally printed and shipped.
The AI Guardrail Dispatch
Publishing on SubstackA newsletter about AI safety: the guardrails that keep AI tools in check, where they hold up, and where they don’t.
I’ve spent my career keeping systems at a large insurer secure and recoverable. The Dispatch looks at AI through that same lens.
Read and subscribe on Substack