Been pushing my @Grok @Bot fleet past chat this week and having it build actual local web pages, dashboards, and small apps on my home network.
Instead of reading walls of chat text every morning, the bots now update a local Command Hub and a few purpose-built tools:
1. Command Hub + Open Questions Queue
When an overnight backlog sprint hits a fork in the road, it doesn't stall or spam me. It drops a multiple-choice card into an Open Questions tab on the hub. I click an option pill over coffee, add a quick note if needed, and send the answers back in one batch.
2. Second-Brain & Bookmark Radar
A nightly local script links my X bookmarks with my Obsidian vault. It surfaces "Forgotten Gems" from older notes with a 1-click button to send the best ones into my Notion Wisdom Journal, and tracks which saved prompts are already live in the fleet so I stop hoarding links I never use.
3. 989-API Public APIs Explorer + Roulette
A local browser for 989 free no-key APIs with a live test runner and a "Pick Random API" button. When I find one worth building with, an in-page modal lets me jot down a project idea and emails my agent to drop a scoped task straight into the Notion backlog.
4. Zero-Token LAN Scorecard + Board Game Night Picker
We moved routine health checks and Pi-hole DNS stats onto local OS timers ($0 in LLM tokens) that compile a static HTML scorecard. And for fun, it built a retro cassette-deck web app synced to our board game shelf that picks tonight's game by player count, time, and mood, weighted toward our "Shelf of Shame" (games we own and still haven't played).
We also set up a Friday "Surprise Project" routine where the bot checks my bookmarks and notes, picks one small useful thing on its own, and ships it before I wake up.
Having agents that can spin up real, persistent UIs on your own hardware changes how you actually use them day to day. 👍
Jeff B. 🥩 retweeted
Where does Austin’s tax money disappear to? A quick look at local fiscal mismanagement:
1️⃣ $100M/yr to consultants with minimal deliverable audits.
2️⃣ $4k/mo per bed for temporary shelter overhead.
3️⃣ 15M–60M+ in utility software contract extensions after system glitches.
4️⃣ Millions in EVs sitting idle in city lots waiting on delayed charging stations, unused.
What else is hiding, out of plain sight?
Taxpayers deserve accountability; the vulnerability deserve care. Vote “aye” on “Prop i” this fall.
Time for another installment of..,
🤖 Made with AI
Violent, random, bloody beating on the packed 801.
Redditors in the comments insisting everything is fine and that this is “very rare.”
These incidents are increasingly common on public transit and at public transit stations — and those trying to wish them away are culpable.
Violent individuals like this belong in jail or in institutional care.
Not on the streets. Not on the busses.
Jeff B. 🥩 retweeted
Follow the money, Austin, and you’ll find an alarming trend in how the city manages non-profit and social service contracts
-Over 44% of targeted service goals were missed.
-Fewer than 25% of the organizations met all expectations.
Yet ATX still paid them 100% in full, with no consequences for underperformance.
Compassionate governance shouldn't just mean writing checks and draining taxpayers of their lifeforce —it means demanding results. Time for stricter fiscal oversight in Austin City Hall.
👇
Vote “aye” on “Prop i” this fall.
#AustinPolitics #LocalGovernment #Transparency
City says the Prop I audit will cost $9.4 million.
Houston's efficiency audit came in under $600,000.
I would ask Austin to show that math but, if they could do that, the audit wouldn’t be necessary.
In councilman Siegel’s newsletter again the city is pushing an estimated $9.4 million cost for the prop I efficiency audit
@KirkPWatson the voters deserve to know how the city came to that number, can you please publish details?
the Houston E&Y efficiency audit was < $600k
Jeff B. 🥩 retweeted
Austin paid more than $5 million to Workers Defense Project, an immigrant-rights group that also runs a political operation to get city officials elected.
In 2020, the group campaigned for Austin's Project Connect transit tax, which included $300 million for "anti-displacement."
Then it got $2 million of that money for "tenant and worker power."
Its PACs helped elect Council Members Fuentes, Velásquez and Siegel. Mayor Pro Tem Chito Vela used to chair its board.
DA José Garza used to run the group and drew a salary from it. The group's PAC backed Garza's 2020 campaign for DA.
So the group that helped put Austin's top prosecutor in office is the same group he used to run, and it's also collecting millions from the city.
Campaign for the tax, collect from the tax, elect your own people to spend it!
Jeff B. 🥩 retweeted
Austin Energy employees stole nearly a million dollars from taxpayers. And that’s just what we caught. What else is going on? What else are they taking? Return transparency to the taxpayers, and vote aye on “Prop i” this election cycle.
$2.34 million ad campaign. $520,000 of it to the three newsrooms that cover City Hall.
KVUE. KXAN. The Statesman.
Nothing says hard-hitting, deep-probing, speak truth-to-power coverage like your subject paying the bills.
Austin City Hall is about to send up to $520,000 to three newsrooms that cover Austin City Hall.
On Thursday, the City Council will vote on a $2.34 million ad campaign that includes three local newsrooms:
KVUE: $175,000
KXAN: $175,000
Austin American-Statesman: $170,000
Nearly all of the newsroom money comes from a federal EPA program meant to cut car pollution -- basically to convince people to drive less and take the bus or bike or carpool.
The city doesn't have to take bids, because TX law exempts advertising from competitive bidding. City Hall gets to choose which outlets get paid and how much.
It's on the consent agenda, so it passes without discussion unless a council member pulls it.
Another senseless death made possible by the Austin DA’s office.
UPDATE: Alonzo Mabry is dead.
In March, the 62-year-old was using a computer at Austin's Central Library when the man next to him, Daniel Vasquez, stood up, hit him in the head, and stomped on his skull while he lay unconscious. Then Vasquez went back to his computer.
Mabry died in hospice and Vasquez was charged with murder last week.
Before the library, Vasquez had punched a CapMetro bus driver in the mouth. That was dismissed by prosecutors.
He also punched a mother in the face in front of her 11-year-old son, then punched the woman who tried to stop him. Those were also dismissed.
DA Jose Garza's office sent him to a six-month rehab program instead. He finished in June 2025 and every charge was wiped and he went back to the street.
RT @austinreforms: The current auditing measures Austin has in place can be cancelled at any time
Right now, the Austin comms/marketing de…
Spend. Spend. Spend.
But don’t look at the books.
Just trust us.
How well has that worked so far?
Use Adler’s position as an anti-voter guide and send the message that it’s not their money and they have a duty to be fiscally responsible.
Early voting opens today in Austin and runs through Oct. 30. I'm voting YES on Props A and B for parks, pools, trails, and libraries, and NO on Prop I, a retread of an audit Austin voters already rejected in 2018.
Yes on A. Yes on B. No on I.
ALT Steve Adler smiling and pointing to his I Voted Early sticker next to a red Vote Aqui Here sign.
Promised a reset.
Found the compliance problems. Recommended zero cuts.
But good-ole Kirk Watson is willing to knock $100 off that TruCoat.
Austin promised to "reset" its social-services spending, found tons of compliance problems in their review, and recommended zero cuts.
A Catholic Charities contract to pay immigrants' federal filing fees, even though half its cases don't have a fee. It kept the full $126,720.
A $71,376 mental health contract that served about 4% of the clients it promised. Recommendation was to keep funding it.
A health bus that, two years in, still isn't running. The City has moved its target date six times.
A $349,710 contract with Sickle Cell Texas Marc Thomas Foundation, which the city says inflated its numbers, billed for costs it wasn't allowed to charge, and served people who didn't qualify. Staff proposed cutting it in July but the city extended it at full price anyway.
How did NOTHING get cut? Because every evaluator got the same instruction: if a contractor is underperforming but the "need" is still a real one theoretically, don't recommend a reduction.
In August, the city restored $4.7 million to social services and declared preserving that funding a “policy priority.”
And the city still hasn't released the names of the 26 flagged contracts.
The Audit and Finance Committee gets a briefing on it Wednesday, but nothing is actually up for a vote.
Jeff B. 🥩 retweeted
Straight answers about Prop I / Part 3
Will Prop I cut parks, libraries or pools?
No. Prop I does not cut any service. The review looks for waste, weak internal controls and contracts that underperform, so more of each dollar reaches the services Austin uses. Its top priority, written into the charter, is the cost of living for Austin residents and businesses.
yesforpropi.com/
Jeff B. 🥩 retweeted
Prop I will provide more information to the public about the operation and spending of the City than they have ever seen before. That information forms the foundation for holding the City Council accountable for fixing the systemic problems the City continues to have. That is also why Prop I scares the Hell out of the special interest groups who have been ripping off taxpayers for so long, they couldn’t imagine it ending.
Come on, Austin. Let’s kick those bums out of office.
This November, I want to see every would-be incumbent Rep looking like this:
Tomorrow, early voting starts.
Vote with your heart, but for those who want real change: all incumbents out, and aye on “i.”
Sharing of this link/blog and the more public-safety focused candidates highlighted within appreciated.
Especially on other platforms.
Team #Bowen #Brown #Brock #Brink and #Kam
Three @Grok @Bot templates I built for my own use
1. Multi-Model Transcriber
Audio or video in, transcript out. Runs several local models and merges them into one cleaner transcript. V3 can auto-copy transcripts to storage you choose.
Grab the free template:
x.ai/bot/iQg2eJzD_yun2PDgWvf…
2. Show Indexer
Years ago you did an audio-only podcast. Now you cannot remember which episode covered what. Me too.
Give it a folder of timecoded transcripts (see Multi-Model Transcriber above). It builds a back-of-book keyword index.
Grab the free template:
x.ai/bot/nkjkcrOSlzwygqITa1i…
3. Used Car Scout
Looking for used cars has become an incredible hassle.
Tell it what you need and where you are. It finds reliable used cars nearby and reports what is actually worth looking at.
Grab the free template:
x.ai/bot/MGVxnwyIdbgEl67jiWQ…
You know what strength I hope they find…
Fiscal responsibility.
