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Apple’s contact framework doesn’t understand how we actually connect. In my previous post, I wrote about how Apple’s Contacts app treats your relationships like a filing cabinet — a flat list of static cards with no context, no history, and no awareness of how people actually matter to you. That’s a product problem. But it’s also a technical one. Underneath the Contacts app sits a framework called CNContact, introduced at WWDC 2015 as a replacement for the widely despised AddressBook.framework. AddressBook was a C-based API with no Objective-C layer, opaque types like ABRecordRef, and virtually no error handling. When Apple announced its deprecation, the WWDC audience cheered — one of the loudest reactions in the conference’s history. ...

Coffees This week was packed with trying many different coffees. Subjective Coffee - Westminster - This place was rad. It has a very retro, almost Fallout-style, coffee vibe. Like an old diner with great coffee. They had two coffees available on espresso, which is rare, and one of them was partially natural. It wasn’t my personal favorite, but it was interesting enough to warrant a second visit. SOGO Boards And Beans - This place was also Rad, but it had a more artistic vibe than the old diner one for me. I got overwhelmed by their speciality drinks and did the Toasted Marshmallow latte, and it was out of this world. I did this before my friend said they are supposed to be very particular about their beans and light roasts. So I ordered a light roast espresso that was not a light roast espresso. Or if it was, the shot was pulled way too long. Bottom line, this place is cool. I would do a sweet drink, go here for a treat, not for super high-quality coffee. Navah Coffee House - Westminster - I went here for a coffee and to meet up to sell a backpack. It is super close to where I’m staying, and there is plenty of space to work if you want to work outside the house. The woman serving the coffee was incredibly nice. I ordered a Latte, but what I got was not a Latte. It was a coffee with some sort of warmed, somewhat spiced milk. It actually tasted pretty special for a latte, but not what I ordered. Cute spot, great staff, sub-par coffee. Novo Coffee - Downtown - We ended up here after Little Owl was closed downtown on weekends. The shop is cute, with a few pour-over options, including one meant to be light and fruity, but it wasn’t. They also wouldn’t do an iced pour-over, which annoys me—it’s just math; you account for the ice’s weight. Overall, the place was okay. The company was great, the staff was nice, and it’s a good spot to work, but the coffee wasn’t special. Dillon Coffee Lab - Dillon, CO - This place was out in the mountains, and my friend Stephanie had recommended it to me. When I talked to them about joining HCB last year, they said they don’t do light roasts because of the altitude at which they roast. I can confirm that they don’t do light roasts after visiting. Still, they did an iced pour over that was very fruity and tasted of grapes. I enjoyed it, and I would recommend giving this place a try. Red Buffalo - Silverthorn, CO - This place was very busy. It is downtown, and there were a lot of people in there. They have a very homey vibe. They had high-end pastries and offered an espresso flight (espresso prepared three ways: regular, con panna, and cubana, I believe). They also had some light roasts for purchase. I’m drinking a Costa Rican from them this morning. They gave every indication of being serious about their coffee, but when I went to make it this morning, the bag wasn’t sealed; it was just rolled and twisted. Big red flag for me. The coffee this morning is unique and bright, though, so maybe I’m being too picky. Steep Brewing + Coffee Company - Dillon, CO - This place is a brewery that also serves coffee, but it’s clear they focus more on the beer. They just pour Breckenridge Coffee Roasters rather than their own, and when I asked about a light roast, the answer was simply “no.” I walked out after that. The beer selection looked interesting, but for good coffee, there are better nearby options. Also related to coffee this week, I found CoffeeBeaned, which is supposed to be a list of roasters around the country, but the site is terribly out of date. This is the same thing that happened with Acromaps and something I’m working on for that site; maybe I’ll make something for all the coffee roasters I’m checking out. ...

And it was never that good to begin with. When I was a kid, my dad carried a Filofax everywhere. A thick leather binder stuffed with business cards, meticulously organized. It was his most important professional tool — his grail. He could flip to any section and find exactly who he needed, with notes scribbled in the margins about when they’d last spoken and what they’d discussed. I sometimes wonder if he had a better handle on his network than any of us do now with our phones. ...

Coffees This was a light week for coffee because I was working pretty hard at home and mostly brewed Chemex. Sweet Bloom Coffee - Arvada, CO - Despite their reluctance to produce more natural coffees, this place is just awesome. I was able to get a 1:1 with the Gesha from weeks past at the Arvada location, even though it’s no longer available on the website. Olympia Coffee Roasters - Doing their Little Buddy as a Chemex. I’ve found that I use a 1:16 ratio for hot coffee and a 1:10 ratio when pouring it over ice. This remains my most consistent coffee over the past two years. Coffee Ride - Pouring over some of their coffees. I finished the Nicaragua La Bastilla Natural, and as I got to the end of the bag, it really began to grow on me. I have a little bit left of Colombia Finca Villa Betulia Honey Caturron, which still isn’t my favorite. It is a little too funky, even for me. Blue Sparrow - RiNo - I love this place because they do a bunch of different cold brews, including a Japanese-style flash brew, which is really nice. Got a cortado that was okay. It was with their house. Am I the only one who wishes more shops would always have a backup espresso for trying? Life Updates Finally got my Subaru back with the replacement charge port cover. Now I can do that again. I’m excited to save a little more on gas. Got to do brunch with my good friend Tim, who was in the area skiing on vacation. Tim and I have a very antagonistic relationship, which I thoroughly appreciate, and he hasn’t gotten rid of me yet. It’s good to have friends that you can joke around with. Finally did some sewing with the Sailrite on this trip. I made a grocery bag with my friends, but it was too big, so I had to make a smaller one. I learned a bit about sewing binding with the needle position on the LSZ Sailrite. Made 3 dinners last week; one was California burritos, but the challenge is not overfilling them. I failed at that. Another note, chicken thighs marinated in Bachans overnight are really great with rice and broccoli. Tech Updates Continue working on the laser cutting program. There will be some pretty cool updates to that soon. Working with Qt and Python is a challenge, but we are pushing through. Side note: I hate that Python doesn’t support true visibility and protects private variables and methods until I start writing tests, and then I like that I can take shortcuts to manipulate objects quickly to test exactly the part I want. Sacred Space is starting to fill out as a site with some real events. Last week was a little blower in use because of Envision, a major festival at which we are most prevalent. I’m playing around with Plausible.io instead of Google Analytics, and loving it. It shows me traffic across all my websites on a single page, with a better dashboard. Continued work on Authentic Auctions has resulted in the listing and selling of several cars in the past couple of weeks. I’ve also been working on a new format for van information as we move further into that market. Continued working on my research around the CNContact from Apple and running into some interesting notes. I will be posting more notes on it here over the next couple of weeks as I investigate doing something significant here. Incredibly custom web project coming online soon. Moments Brunch at Blackbird in Evergreen with Tim: ...

Continuing on with my weekly update tradition, looking back on what I did last week. Starting with coffee Coffee I realized that I have missed a few places along the way and will continue to bring them out in future weeks. Corvus Coffee - This place is awesome. Okay, I don’t know that, but their coffee is awesome. They have a Hacienda Senora Natural that is tickled me and I can’t stop going and getting it. It is exceptional in all the ways I like a natural. From Costa Rica, really great cherry taste. Sweet Bloom - Again coming in strong. I had them twice. I had an espresso when I needed a quick boost, and even with the house washed it hit. I then found out the other location still had some of the natural gesha that is no longer on the website, this was also great. Atlas Coffee - They carry corvus, but I walked into the location and walked out without ordering. Just didn’t feel like a place I was going to get somethings special. Onto - I may have made the mistake on walking into this place right around chinese new years and the place was packed. Their logo is super cute and I couldn’t resist buying stickers (also their stickers don’t have words, just art, which is the best type of sticker for me). This is not a place where I would expect a great cup of black coffee, but their Vienna was good I got the Black Sesame in the same visit. Queen City Collective Coffee - This place was the find of the week. They had a great natural Ethiopian on espresso and it was just fantastic. They are a bigger shop but when I asked them about wholesale, they said there orders didn’t require large quantities so they could be a good candidate for next years Hanukkah Coffee Box. Coffee Ride - Boulder - I’m going back on my previous statements here. The Nicaragua has really grown on me. I have figured out how to make it in a way that really works. I drink it iced after doing pour over with a 1:10 ratio and I get much better notes. Tech Projects Updates Create a new van template at Authentic Auctions for this van. It made it through auction without sale, but you are getting a lot of van for the asking price, and I wanted a way to show this better. Sacred Space Facilitators have a new view that allows them to create a landing page for them and their events. Wrote a whole TDD (exercise I did for an interview) on how we are going to update the Event object to be more searchable as we keep expanding the number of events we have. We have a lot more events, but that was my business partner, not me. Untitled Multi-Genre Game - This project is still in its infancy and I can’t talk to much about only to say that I download Godot and started looking at how this game engine works. I’m more interested in this from a building and story telling perspective, but I also have some friends who would be people would play with it. Culture Corner - This is an independent initiative I’ve started to connect with old coworkers. The goal is to create a small zoom meeting twice a month for friends to hang out and catch up. Attendance is not required, but if you are interested on getting on the mailing list, fill out this form. Top Secret Project -> This is a project to fix what is wrong with Contacts and CRMs. I have some plans, but it’s still early and I’m ready to share a bunch about it yet, though maybe I’ll write some posts on the parts of the system I think are currently broken this week. Python Qt-App -> This is a project I’m working on as a consultant. I’m helping build out an app that is used for industrial purposes. The current code base was written in Python and Qt with AI and doesn’t have a structure or tests. I’m working on both of those things. There are a couple of other projects on the list that I haven’t enough time to really develop, but I’ll talk more about them in upcoming weeks. ...