Field notes
How we build and secure real systems for New Zealand businesses. The honest version of how the work is actually done, plain English first and the detail underneath.
Where this goes in the next twelve months
Someone asked how I see AI at work playing out over the next year. My honest guess, no hype and no doom: the capability stops being the story, and 'who signed off on this change' becomes the most important question in the building.
Read the pieceBuilt at breakfast, load-bearing by dinner
A safety fix I nearly filed under Later turned out to be holding up the roof nine hours after I made it. Why you act on the near miss the day you see it.
Read the pieceLetting an AI run my systems
I let an AI agent do most of the hands-on work on real business systems. Boring, proven discipline, not clever code. The honest version, near miss and all.
Read the pieceThe safety check my biggest changes were skipping
A guard meant to catch every change quietly skipped the biggest, most dangerous ones. A textbook failure that only opens up under load.
Read the pieceI left my security system switched off on purpose
I built a system that can block unauthorised changes, then deliberately left it off. What weeks of watching the logs actually showed.
Read the pieceWhy our test site follows the same rules as the real one
A practice site kinder than the real thing cost us real bookings. Why our test copy now enforces exactly what live does.
Read the pieceLocking down a platform
TrustPoint holds the proof that the right people are insured and safe on a building site. How we keep it airtight, plain English first.
Read the pieceStopping spam without Google
Almost all form spam comes from robots that never open your page. We only accept a message from a real person. No Google, no captcha, no tracking.
Read the pieceWhy your emails land in junk, and how we fixed ours
The email you sent never arrived and you had no idea. How we stopped ours going quietly to junk.
Read the pieceHow I know before you do when something breaks
Two ways to find out your website is down: an annoyed customer, or a quiet system that tells you first.
Read the pieceWhat happens if it all burns down
The server dies, the building floods, someone deletes the wrong thing. Why it should be a bad afternoon and not a catastrophe.
Read the pieceWe build this kind of thing for a living
Websites, online systems, software products and ServiceM8 add-ons, built properly, right down to the details most people never notice.
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