There is certainly an uncertainty in the immediate future. Geo-political issues, AI and more have spooked companies and investors. Some have slowed down, others have pulled-up the gates. This makes freelance projects difficult.

In Q2, we're writing our own future by reaching out to a few old friends and customers and either rekindling long gone projects (some due to COVID), pushing some internal projects bigger or starting some completely new ideas. If work is hard to find, make your own.

Luckily, we also have one large project that's been brewing for almost a year now finally getting the green light.

We've rounded out our three major camera apps, with two more in testing.

DejaView: Reach back into the past to grab a collage of images.

Ornithoto: Blend multiple frames into a single image to capture motion.

Camelut: A bring-your-own filters camera.

Beta camera apps:

Filters: A shader playground to test different filters and effects.

Blocks: Create pixelated images inspired by the Game Boy camera.

📷 You can read more and download all our camera apps at: https://optional.is/apps/cameras/

In Q1, we published 7 articles, 6 weeknotes and maintained our ◍ Quarternotes newsletter schedule.


Omnibus 02025
https://optional.is/required/2026/01/01/omnibus-02025/
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02025 TIL
https://optional.is/required/2026/01/14/02025-til/
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02025 Annual Report
https://optional.is/required/2026/01/28/02025-annual-report/
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Wyld's Great Globe
https://optional.is/required/2026/02/12/wylds-great-vr-globe/
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Backups 3.0 Remote
https://optional.is/required/2026/02/26/backups-3-0-remote/
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SXSW06
https://optional.is/required/2026/03/12/sxsw-02006/
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Camelut
https://optional.is/required/2026/03/27/camelut/
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📰 optional.is/newsletter/
🗓 optional.is/required/category/weeknotes
📡 optional.is/feeds/

The movie ratings website Rotten Tomatoes started as a passion project in 01998 to rank Jackie Chan's movies. Over the next 30 years, it grew from a niche fan site into the box-office killer it is today.

Just remember, your niche idea might change an entire industry.

Back in May 02024, we talked about the extinct Turnspit Dog (https://optional.is/newsletter/s03e05/).

Another extinct dog, the Salish Wool Dog, was a white, long-haired, Spitz-type dog that was developed and bred by the Coast Salish peoples of what is now Washington state and British Columbia. Its primary purpose was for textile production, the same way we use sheep today.

The Salish Wool Dog is thought to have split from other breeds over 5,000 years ago. During the 1800s, the use of dog wool declined and the breed became extinct somewhere around the late 01800s or early 01900s.

Wikipedia keeps a list of extinct Dog Breeds. Most seem to be hunting or fighting related. Their lines died out as we stopped many of these practices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_dog_breeds