George Kioko

I build small software systems and post what happens. CRMs, scrapers, funnels, spreadsheets that run businesses. Solo in Nairobi. Current experiment pinned.

[George Kioko @georgeships]

I shipped an AI assistant into a prison email system. No links, no images, spam filters from another era. 1,700 plus people use it. Since then every product review I do starts with one question: does this survive the worst environment it will meet?

[George Kioko @georgeships]

If logging a sale, a lead, or a follow up takes more than ten seconds, you will stop logging them. Not because you are lazy. Because you are busy. Build the log around the worst version of your day, not the best one.

[George Kioko @georgeships]

The data is from OpenStreetMap. I only read public DNS, the records every mail server already checks.

39 percent of businesses in one city left this open.

Run the check. What did yours return?

[George Kioko @georgeships]

I pulled 524 Toronto businesses from a free map database, then checked how many could be impersonated by email.

159 can. From their exact domain. Right now.

The method, and a one-line check for your own, below.

[George Kioko @georgeships]

The fix is free. Add one DNS TXT record at _dmarc:

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]

Start in monitor mode, see who is already sending as you, then move the policy to quarantine, then reject. Reject is what blocks it.

[George Kioko @georgeships]

If you want the small Python script that runs these queries and hands you clean JSON, say the word and I will drop it in the replies.

[George Kioko @georgeships]

There is a free, open database of the physical world that most developers have never queried. Every cafe, bank, bike rack, and hospital someone has ever mapped, with structured detail, one HTTP call away, no API key.

I pulled a slice live:

[George Kioko @georgeships]

Most developers reach for a paid API on reflex and never check what is already open.

The best data is often free, structured, and one query away under a name you did not think to look under. Go query your own city.

[George Kioko @georgeships]

Everything I have built, one page: https://t.co/PiPy9lMOG7

[George Kioko @georgeships]

The most hostile place to ship software on the internet is US federal prison email. No links. No images. No apps. Spam filters from 2009.

What I built there is used by 1,700 people. It taught me 8 product rules that work anywhere. Steal them:

[George Kioko @georgeships]

None of this needed a big team or budget. It needed a place with nowhere to hide a weak product. Your constraints are doing you the same favor right now.

I tear one of my builds apart like this every Monday. You pick next: Haulr, Cactus Watch, or my single-file CRM.