Gizmo Applications
** The legacy GizmoCMS site is still available here: Legacy GizmoCMS →.
Welcome to Gizmo, a collection of specialized single-page applications designed to solve a variety of problems. They all run exclusively in your browser, with no server side calls. That means, it's super secure. Your data stays right in your browser. While these applications are pretty simple, they can be very useful. I use them all the time.
Available Applications
Gizmo Draw
I've always wanted to write my own programming language, so I built Gizmo Draw. It's like an amalgam of mermaid.js, plantUML, lucidchart, and draw.io, spiced up with a javascript-like language. It's a great tool for drawing simple diagrams using drag and drop, and using the easy, Gizmo programming language to create more complex and dynamic diagrams. It's also a great tool for learning to program, for both kids and adults.
Launch Draw App →
Gizmo Planner
"When will it be done?". I loath those words. Yet, as a software development leader I'm asked that question all the time. You can claim "but we're Agile, we use story points" or "we use Kanban, we pull tickets from the top of the backlog" all you want. Yet, the business promises customers features, and they promise deadlines too. So it always comes back to "when will it be done", no matter how much you protest. This tool is my answer to that quandry, and it's super helpful. Upload a spreadsheet with your tasks, time estimates for each task as well as the skill needed for each task, and out comes an optimized schedule. Or, you can enter your information through the user interface. This is probably the most useful tool I've built, including all the "for hire" commercial work I've done. Give it a try.
Launch Plan App→
Gizmo Notes
Who needs another Notes App? Probably no one. There are lot of great free ones out there, so you've got a lot to choose from. But, they don't run in your browser, which is where you spend most of your time (at least, I do). Gizmo Notes is just a little 'ol Web App with one super power. You can install a plugin for chrome that lets you visit any site, right click, and select the menu option to create a summarized note in Gizmo Notes. Gizmo works its magic and creates a summary of your page in the Gizmo Notes Web App, so you can find it later (and also know what you are looking for. It's like Chrome bookmarks on summarized steroids. Export and and import notes too so you can share them between your machines.
Launch Notes App→
Gizmo Retire
You've got a financial advisor and plenty of spreadsheets, but… when can you retire? It's hard to tell. Can you trust the 4% rule? What about the 25 x salary rule? Gizmo Retire is a financial planner app that lets you test a lot of different financial scenarios with Monte Carlo simulations. What's a Monte Carlo simulation? Well, it doesn't involve betting or traveling to an exotic location. Have a look to find out. This app is fairly complex, so if you find any issues please let me know.
Launch Retire App→