I didn’t expect to make sixty-six bucks in a restaurant — I just wanted to know how Apple lets these “win cash” apps exist. What I found says a lot about how the App Store lost its grip on trust. Note: This piece combines my personal experience as a developer with publicly verifiable facts. Some sections include opinion and interpretation; those are presented as commentary, not as claims of fact. ...

There’s a quiet kind of genius behind GFI steel guitars — the kind that doesn’t get loud applause on forums, but earns respect from anyone who’s ever torn one apart and realized how smartly it’s built. In a world where complexity often gets mistaken for craftsmanship, GFI reminded us that simple can be smart. Their guitars aren’t minimalistic for the sake of it — they’re simple in a good way. Every part has a purpose. Every mechanism is there because it needs to be. There’s no wasted motion, no excess flash, no unnecessary friction — mechanically or otherwise. ...

An in-depth look at how Hollywood’s digital transition quietly dismantled the movie theater business, long before the pandemic.

Jeff Newman’s lessons may be decades old, but for players rooted in Americana and alt-country, they’re as relevant as ever.

Every once in a while, a song pops up on a playlist that stops you in your tracks — not because it’s great, not because it’s bad, but because something in it is just so weird you can’t un-hear it. In this case, I wasn’t digging through Alabama’s catalog on purpose. The Closer You Get (1983) just surfaced on an Apple Radio playlist one day. Left to my own devices, I never would have clicked play. But there it was — and suddenly I was laughing out loud at the snare drum. ...

Two Years With the Chevy Bolt: The Best Car I’ve Ever Owned I’ll say it upfront: the Chevy Bolt is the best car I’ve ever owned. When I decided to go electric, I already knew the Bolt was nearing the end of its run. The 2023 model would be the last—and finding one wasn’t easy. Most dealers were out of stock, and the few that did get them sold them almost immediately. ...

🕹️ 40 Years With the Atari ST: From Zapenu to GitHub Image by Bilby, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. I recently read that the Atari ST turned 40 this year. I remember buying mine at Rosewood Music in Findlay, Ohio, in 1989, using my high school graduation money. I had wanted one ever since 1985, when I first saw it on display at Maumee Valley Computer Center in Defiance, Ohio. That was the year it came out, and it felt like the future. So when I finally got my hands on it — a 16-bit computer with a mouse, a GUI, and built-in MIDI ports — I knew exactly where I was headed. For me, the future was the Atari ST. ...

🎸 What I Learned (and Didn’t) from the “Founding Father Method™” A personal reflection on pedal steel’s most revered (and carefully protected) learning program Disclaimer: This post reflects my personal, good-faith experience as a paying customer of a widely known steel guitar course. It is not intended as defamation, harassment, or commercial harm—only an honest review of a product that didn’t work for me. If it worked for you, that’s great. This is simply my take. ...

What AI Is Doing to Software Development (and What It Can’t Do Yet) I started writing software just before the Internet changed everything. Back then, if you wanted to know how a Windows API worked, you didn’t Google it—you went to the bookshelf. Mine was packed with Microsoft documentation: thousands of pages in thick printed volumes. Win32 Programmer’s Reference, MFC Library, SDK Tools—it took up most of a shelf and all of your patience. ...

For the past few years, I’ve been balancing a range of creative and technical interests — pedal steel guitar, app development, retro computing, and more — all while working full-time at Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, IN. I’ve been part of both the mobile and desktop teams there for over five years, helping build the tools customers use every day. I’ve also moved the blog to a new domain: johnsmusicandtech.com. The name reflects what this space is really about — the intersection of sound and software, strings and code, music and machines. It’s still me writing, just under a name that better fits the shape of things going forward. ...