Blog - Arthur Dick

git commit -m "Initial commit for 2026"

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 21:47:43 GMT

Friends, Colleagues, and Spiders crawling this site:

We made it. 2025 has officially been deprecated. It is now legacy code. It had some great features, a few critical bugs, and definitely some memory leaks, but it’s time to archive that branch.

From Terminal to SVG

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 16:41:16 GMT

If you've ever tried to explain how a command-line tool works, you know the struggle. A static screenshot is worth a thousand words, but it often fails to capture the interactive, dynamic nature of the terminal. A full-blown video recording or a GIF can do the trick, but they come with their own set of problems: large file sizes, blurry text, and no way for the viewer to pause and inspect the content.

I recently found myself in this very predicament. I was putting the finishing touches on a personal project I've been using for years, a command-line task manager called Perennial Task. It's a simple, file-based tool I built to help me manage recurring responsibilities, those tasks that, like the name suggests, come back recurringly. I wanted to showcase its features in the README file on GitHub, but I felt that a simple block of text wouldn't do it justice. I needed something better.

That's when I had an idea: what if I could record my terminal session and play it back as a lightweight, crisp, and interactive animation? This led me down a rabbit hole, and after a lot of tinkering, I’m excited to introduce my solution: term-to-svg.

Perennial Task Just Got More Flexible

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 22:54:02 GMT

At its heart, Perennial Task has always been about a simple philosophy: giving you total control over your tasks in a way that feels natural, powerful, and timeless. Each task is a file, you own your data, and you manage your responsibilities right from the command line where you work.

In my journey to make Perennial Task the best tool for cultivating recurring responsibilities, I’ve listened to feedback and looked for ways to make the system even more intuitive. Today, I'm thrilled to announce a major update that fundamentally refines how tasks are scheduled, making the application more flexible and powerful than ever before.

Why I Ditched Taskwarrior

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 18:54:50 GMT

In the world of command-line productivity, one tool stands as a titan: Taskwarrior. It's a powerhouse of features, offering sophisticated filtering, tagging, project management, and a rich ecosystem of extensions. When I set out to build my own system, Perennial Task, I knew I wasn't creating a "Taskwarrior killer." I was building something to solve the specific workflow problems I had that Taskwarrior, for all its might, couldn't fix.

The single biggest point of friction, and the primary reason Perennial Task exists, is my philosophical disagreement with how Taskwarrior handles recurring tasks. It’s a subtle difference in logic that has a massive impact on how you manage the routine chores of life.

Automating My Life

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 22:49:31 GMT

I’ve tried them all. The slick, venture-backed to-do list apps with collaborative features I don’t need. The minimalist plain-text systems that are too simple. The web-based platforms that hold my data hostage in the cloud. None of them ever stuck. My needs are simple, but specific: I want a task management system that is text-based, version-controllable, and most importantly, pushes my agenda to me so I don't have to remember to check it.

Frustrated with off-the-shelf solutions, I decided to build my own. The result is Perennial Task, a simple yet powerful task manager written in PHP that runs on my personal server. It’s the backbone of my personal organization, and it ensures I never forget a bill payment, a renewal, or a simple chore.

Here’s how it works.

Beyond the To-Do List

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 21:33:46 GMT

In the bustling marketplace of productivity apps, we're spoiled for choice. Sleek, cloud-based task managers with collaborative features and mobile clients are the norm. But what if the conventional approach to task management doesn't quite fit your workflow? What if you crave simplicity, control, and a system built for the long haul?

Enter Perennial Task, a command-line-based task manager that rethinks the very nature of a to-do list. By examining its inner workings, revealed through its application test suite, we can see it’s not just another app—it's a different philosophy.

From Private Script to Public Utility

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 20:05:32 GMT

Every developer has one: a collection of scripts, tucked away in a ~/bin directory, written for an audience of one. They’re often messy, beautifully pragmatic, and tailored perfectly to a personal workflow. My command-line task manager, which I’ve used for years, was exactly that. It was my digital garden shed, functional and familiar, but not exactly ready for guests.

Recently, I decided to clean it up for a public release. What started as a simple tidying exercise quickly evolved into a complete architectural overhaul. It was a journey of refactoring, future-proofing, and adding the polish required to turn a personal hack into a tool that others might find genuinely useful. I’m calling it Perennial Task, because like the wood lilies that reliably return to our Alberta prairies each summer, some tasks are perennial—they need to be tended to, year after year.

This is the story of that process.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 22:02:19 GMT

In the world of web development, Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) has become a fundamental concept, particularly as applications have evolved to rely on resources from various domains. CORS plays a crucial role in ensuring the security and integrity of web applications by controlling access to resources across different origins. In this comprehensive guide, we'll delve into what CORS is, why it's essential, and how to implement it with PHP.

The Creeping Peril

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 23:16:27 GMT

We throw the word "stupid" around a lot. It's a playground insult, a frustrated driver's exclamation, a casual dismissal of someone we disagree with. But what does it truly mean to be stupid? And more importantly, what happens when stupidity, not just as an individual failing, but as a systemic force, takes the reins of power?

The answer, chillingly, is that it poisons the well. Not just the well of knowledge and reason, but the very foundations of a healthy society, leaving behind a parched landscape of fear, division, and ultimately, self-destruction.

2025

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 19:14:31 GMT

The year 2025 is upon us, and with it comes a unique distinction in the world of mathematics. 2025 is a sum of cubes, a fascinating property. But what exactly does this mean, and why is it so special?