Frog Stone Media

04/14/2026

I built a dashboard for my own hobby, and it turned into one of my favorite technical projects of the year.

Paddle Conditions is a real time scoring app for paddlers. You save the spots you care about, and every morning the app tells you whether to go. Lake Natoma this morning: 92 out of 100, best window 9 AM to noon, limiting factor is 55 degree water. Lake Tahoe: 83. Folsom Lake: 91. All of it pulled live from USGS streamflow sensors, CDEC reservoir data, air quality monitors, and weather forecasts.

The reason I am posting it here is not because I think you need a paddling app. It is because the underlying pattern applies to every business I work with. Your customers are already checking multiple sources before they decide. A contractor checking three vendors for lumber prices. A parent checking four weather apps before a day trip. A restaurant owner pulling specials from five suppliers. Each of those is a dashboard waiting to exist.

I built this one with React, Fastify, Drizzle, and a Python Home Assistant integration for the folks who want conditions showing on their smart home dashboard. The saved spot view pulls everything into a single score, surfaces the limiting factor so you know what to watch, and shows hour by hour charts so you can pick your window.

If your business has a version of this problem, the staff who already know the pattern just need the right tool built around how they work.

Case study with the full build: https://devsac.com/projects/paddle-conditions/
Try the app: https://app.paddleconditions.com

04/07/2026

I got to build something fun recently: a full ambient sound mixer that runs entirely in the browser.

The directive was to build a Halloween atmosphere audio mixer visitors could actually interact with. Not a playlist link. Not an embedded Spotify widget. Something custom that felt like part of the site.

So I built a 22-channel audio mixer with individual volume sliders, 10 curated presets (Haunted Mansion, Vampire's Castle, Witch's Cottage...), a party timer that auto-stops when your event ends, and the ability to save your own custom mixes. It all runs client-side with zero backend. Works on phones, tablets, laptops.

This is the kind of project I love. A client has an idea that doesn't exist off the shelf, and I get to figure out how to make it real.

Try it yourself: hallowmix.com/tools/sound-mixer/

04/01/2026

Most businesses have information their customers need but no easy way to find it. A menu, a price list, a service catalog, appointment availability. If people have to call or dig through your site, you're losing them.

I build web tools that solve that. SacGroceries.com is one example. It compares grocery prices across 39 Sacramento stores, from Raley's and Safeway to Nugget Markets and Corti Brothers. 147,000+ prices, updated weekly, all searchable in seconds.

Your business probably has a version of this. Product inventory your customers ask about. Availability they check by phone. Pricing they compare manually. A custom tool built around your workflow turns that into something your customers can use on their own.

If you've been thinking about a better website or a tool that actually works the way your business does, I'd like to hear about it.

https://sacgroceries.com
https://devsac.com/projects/sac-groceries/

03/31/2026

What if your team could reduce the amount of manual product research they do on Amazon?

I built a tool that lets AI do Amazon product research in plain English. Ask for what you need, and it comes back with prices, details, and ready-to-publish affiliate links. What used to take 15 minutes of browser tabs and copy-pasting now takes 10 seconds.

The manual version of this workflow was eating hours every week across multiple projects. Now any site that needs product data gets it instantly, without anyone opening a browser.

Every business has a version of this. Data entry that follows the same steps. Reports pulled from the same three sources. Customer lookups that require four different logins. If your staff can describe the pattern, it can be automated with a tool built around how you already work.

Full case study: https://devsac.com/projects/amazon-creators-api/

06/15/2020

The ideal social media and blogging assistant will help in day to day operations on a part-time basis.

This is for Frog Stone Media's sub-brand, MK Library , which produces lifestyle content as a blogger and social media influencer.

Work location will vary from an in-home office, remote from your home, to on-site for campaigns.

Personality Traits Needed:

◦ Creative thinking
◦ Critical comprehension
◦ Well-organized
◦ Long term thinker
◦ Excels under stress and fast-paced environments
◦ Enjoys continually learning new things

Core Values:

◦ Ethical corporate responsibility
◦ Environmental sustainability
◦ Community impact
◦ Inclusion and equality for all
◦ Encourage personal well-being and growth
◦ Commit to positive action

Responsibilities include:

◦ Increase engagement on social platforms.
◦ Create reports on engagement for campaigns.
◦ Implement marketing strategies.
◦ Update existing blog content.
◦ Research topics.
◦ Assist in producing photo and video content.
◦ Support in executive tasks

Required Skillset and Experience With:

◦ Microsoft Office (Word/Excel)
◦ Google Suite (Gmail/Drive/Docs/Sheets)
◦ Mac OS
◦ Social Media (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit)

Preferred experience and skillset:

◦ Social Media Business Accounts
◦ SEMRush
◦ WordPress
◦ Tailwind
◦ Lightroom
◦ Photoshop
◦ Basic HTML and CSS

06/17/2016

Rich and OG mean something entirely different when you are running a website. Check out this tool we found and see if your OG's are rich and valid: http://smo.knowem.com/ - Supports Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Geo tags.

06/15/2016

This is the ultimate guide on how to optimize WordPress sites to be as fast and efficient as possible.

I've used and tested these methods on sites that are small, to eCommerce with thousands of products, to high traffic sites which receive over 100,000 visits per month.

Running high traffic sites means WordPress optimization is crucial. This is my setup and config for optimizing WordPress with PHP7, cPanel, and WHM.

06/14/2016

WooCommerce 2.6.0 is released! Tons of exciting features, from shipping zones, AJAX shopping carts, and an improved My Account, to name a few. As with major releases of WooCommerce, there will probably be a ton of bugs found in the first few days, with rapid releases being set forth. If you're a rabid updater, go ahead and get dangerous, otherwise, you may want to wait a week or so.

Read up: https://www.woothemes.com/2016/06/woocommerce-26-zipping-zebra/

As a bonus for today, Yoast SEO released a new version which better helps guide content writing for SEO. I'm curious how it stacks of up - looks promising.

Learn more: https://yoast.com/yoast-seo-3-3/

03/08/2016

Team Frog Stone Media has helped fund 52 individuals, groups, and organizations in poverty stricken areas around the world to date! Join us in making an impact around the world: https://www.kiva.org/invitedto/frogstonemedia/by/fsm

When you invest in women, you invest in change. Lend $25 to a woman this International Women's Day and your loan will be matched! kiva.org/her

02/26/2016

Elephate has a pretty great writeup on creating epic titles for your content. Examples, screenshots, and links to tools to help you included:

The title is undoubtedly one of the most important ranking factors for Google: what you put inside the and tags is critical for search engines to understand what your website is about.

People often tend to act online very emotionally, so they are likely to click something like “You’ll NEVER believe what this crazy cat did!” even if cats are generally indifferent to those people.

Of all the emotions curiosity is perhaps the most important for online marketing. That’s why I have decided to discuss it in a separate paragraph.

Knowing how to create interesting, curious or provoking titles will probably boost your conversions, but it’s important not to overact, as it became a domain of ad spammers.