Field notes,
in long form.
Build logs, technical write-ups, and the occasional opinion. Mostly about software, sometimes about Hawaii, always from the operator.
Davis-Bacon vs. Hawaiʻi Chapter 104: the overtime math that creates back-wage findings
Hawaiʻi's prevailing wage law and the federal Davis-Bacon Act compute overtime differently — different triggers, and a different base. A sub who learned one and applies it to the other either underpays or overbids. Here is the actual math, worked on real wage-determination numbers, plus how to tell which regime governs your job.
Five products, one maritime spine
Binnacle started as crew credential tracking and turned into five products — fleet compliance, a pilot association dispatch board, harbor management, USCG exam prep, and an ARPA radar simulator. Why they share a data model, and why the regulated middle of an industry is a better place to build than the consumer edge.
What is a TMK number in Hawaii, and how do you look one up?
TMK stands for Tax Map Key — the unique parcel identifier used by all four Hawaiian counties. Every real estate transaction, permit application, and zoning lookup in Hawaii starts with the TMK. Here's how the system works and the fastest way to find one.
Building Hawaii Insurability Brief: A Free Property Hazard Lookup for Hawaii Homeowners
A builder's account of why we built a free 10-field hazard lookup for Hawaii properties — lava zone, FEMA flood, tsunami, coastline distance, hurricane wind, wildfire risk, BFE, shoreline management area, roof age, and carrier availability — and how the freemium model works.
Building AI-native products on Claude: a Honolulu studio's playbook
Six products live, all built against the Anthropic Claude API. Here's how we structure AI calls in production, what we cache and what we don't, how we keep latency under 2 seconds for user-facing flows, and the patterns that have actually shipped — not the hype.
Hawaii GET tax on SaaS subscriptions: a practical guide
Hawaii taxes SaaS revenue differently than most US states — and very few founders know the rules until their first G-45 return is overdue. Here's how Hawaii's General Excise Tax actually works for subscription software businesses, with the rates, the forms, and the traps.
From hand-cut joinery to AI-native software
Ikena Design & Build started in Alaska timber-frame and Honolulu finish carpentry. Today it ships software. The standard didn't change — the substrate did. Here's the through-line, and why a contractor's instincts make a good operator-engineer.
Why we charge for discovery (and why $5,000 is the floor)
Most software shops give discovery away for free and lose money on every engagement that doesn't convert. We charge $5,000 to $15,000 for a paid discovery phase, credited toward the build. Here's the math, the reasoning, and the kind of client this filter is built for.
Why we mirrored every TMK in Hawaiʻi as TypeScript
We built a complete, queryable map of every parcel, building footprint, and address in the islands — 56 million lines of typed public-record data. Here's why a Honolulu software studio writes its own GIS layer instead of renting one.