1
Interactive App Canvas
The live dashboard. Calendar, contacts, drafts, trackers — the tools you built, running.
Foundations for curious adults
You already use computers.
Now learn what they can really do.
I sit with you.
I’m Simon. I’ll sit with you while you build real software, and I’ll teach you what the machine is doing — not as a pile of lessons, and not by finishing the work while you watch.
Don’t know what sudo is? It’s the bit where you stop asking the computer nicely.
Most courses make you learn the words first. That’s backwards.
You make a thing. You get stuck. I tell you what the stuck bit is called, why it exists, and what to do with it. Then you go back to the thing. If you can only do it while I’m hovering, we are not done.
You leave able to walk into something unfamiliar and start.
Not a PDF badge. A person who can open a tool I never showed them, read enough of the language to get oriented, and recover when it breaks. Generation is not evidence of mastery.
How the work actually moves
Want. Build. Get stuck. Name it. Fix. Gate.
01
Want
You pick a tool you will actually use.
02
Build
Smallest version that runs on the canvas.
03
Stuck
The page forgets. The API answers rude.
04
Name it
That’s a database. That’s a header. That’s cost.
05
Fix
You change the line. I make you say why.
06
Gate
Safe, private, payable, usable — then it ships.
The desktop environment
A personal command centre on macOS and Windows.
Not a browser tab. Not a video playlist. You download the Sudo Assistant. Three living surfaces.
2
Workshop Console
Editor, sandboxed terminal, local Git, live output. The real machine, without gambling the whole OS.
3
Simon Sidebar
Code-to-English. Boilerplate. Terminal intercept. Sudo Powers on by default.
Feature-driven builds
You build personal utility. Simon tracks developer foundations.
Personal Calendar
A live schedule on the canvas. Dates, loops, sorting. The first thing that has to remember tomorrow.
Python-shaped logic · datetime · variables
Contact Database
Names, notes, relationships that survive a refresh. That's why a table exists.
SQLite · schemas · primary keys
AI Email Drafter
A note that talks to another computer. APIs, JSON, headers, the bill.
REST · JSON · HTTP
Fitness Tracker
Forms, logs, a number that goes up. The interface talking to itself.
HTML forms · events · CSS layout
| On the canvas | What you see | What the ledger sees |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Calendar | A live schedule on the canvas. Events, times, the day as a list. | Variables, lists, loops, datetime, sorting, UI layout. |
| Contact Database | A searchable address book that survives a refresh. | SQLite, schemas, primary keys, SQL CRUD, local persistence. |
| AI Email Drafter | A draft that talks to a model and comes back with a receipt. | APIs, JSON, HTTP, async, tokens, rate limits, the Cost Desk. |
| Fitness Tracker | Logs, forms, a number that goes up. | HTML forms, DOM events, client state, layout. |
| Personal OS — the spine | Shell, vault, brain, dashboard. The laboratory the tools live in. | Hardware, files, processes, memory, what an OS actually does. |
| Dashboard | The first screen on boot. Home for the tools you shipped. | HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, front-end architecture. |
| Brain | An agent inside the assistant, not a tab you lose. | LLMs, tokens, embeddings, RAG, prompts, tool use. |
| Shell | A command line next to the pretty bits. | Terminal, environment variables, pipes, redirection. |
Parallel tracks
You don’t put a seatbelt on because you plan to crash.
You put it on so you can travel at speed. Security, privacy, cost and launch sit inside the work. I’m not your lawyer. I will not invent a score that says “87% secure.”
The Cost Desk
What happens at 100, 1,000, and 10,000 people.
100 users
A quiet VPS
Model bill: Pocket change
You could pay this from lunch.
1,000 users
A real bill
Model bill: Watch the tokens
This is where hobbies become products.
10,000 users
Architecture
Model bill: A second job if you are sloppy
Scale is not a compliment. It is a cost.
Local-first ownership
Your work stays yours. Even if you leave.
Education that evaporates when a subscription ends was never education — it was access. Pause or cancel and the client, the code, and the local SQLite stay yours. Simon goes to sleep. The software does not lock.
Graduate with shipped software, not a PDF certificate.
Your live desktop assistant
Tools on the machine. A GitHub portfolio if you want one.
A personalised course book
Your run: decisions, snippets, concepts actually used.
Demonstrated competency
Modules and criteria you proved. Not attendance.
A slice of the map
Sample modules from the real syllabus.
| No. | Module | Stage | You actually do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01.9 | What Your Computer Is Doing Right Now | Foundations | Start the Personal OS |
| 02 | Operating Systems | Foundations | Name the spine: shell, vault, brain, dashboard |
| 05 | Programming Fundamentals / DNS | II — Teach the machine | Point a name at something you built |
| 13 | Talking to Other Computers | APIs | The email drafter talks next door |
| 15 | Backend Development | Servers | A request that is not the page talking to itself |
| 22 | Testing and Quality | Quality | Break it on purpose. Prove the floor holds. |
| 25 | Product Thinking | VIII — Intend to ship | Say who it is for before you decorate it |
| 29 | Legal Compliance and Responsible Launch | Launch | A launch gate, not a vibe |
| 31 | Computer Science Under the Hood | Depth | Explain why this list is slow at 10,000 rows |
| 39 | Deployment | 13 — Production | A URL that is not localhost — or a decision to stay local |
| 53 | Security Review | 14 — Practice | Security review of the Personal OS |
| 54 | Privacy Review | 14 — Practice | Privacy review of the Personal OS |
| 55 | Cost Review | 14 — Practice | Cost Desk at 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 |
| 56 | UX Review | 14 — Practice | Can someone else use this without you hovering? |
| 57 | Production Readiness | 14 — Practice | Responsible launch verification |
A little sideways
Three pictures. Then we go back down.
Two realities.
You see folders and a login. I see files, auth, APIs.
Break, then debug.
Errors are information. Chaos on purpose.
The launch gate.
It works is not the same as it is safe to use.
The list
Want the knock when the shop opens?
Demo prices below. Leave an address if you want the email when Beside You is a product. I will not sell it.
Demo prices.
Have a Go
Free
the lab in the browser
Talk to Simon. Ship a tool. See whether this is for you. No card.
Beside You
$49
AUD / month · demo
The desktop assistant when sudosimon.com is live. Sudo Powers, the backlog, Launch Gates. Pause and the software stays.
The Long Sit
$390
AUD / year · demo
Two months free if you mean it. Same Standby Guarantee. Prices on this page are samples until the shop is up.
A note to Simon.
No public inbox on this page. The box is enough.
Ready when you are.
Bring a computer you already know how to switch on. That’s the only prerequisite.
Have a goReady. Set. Sudo.