Posts

Tackling Synology's Opaque "Invalid File Format" Error

A few months back I bought a new Synology NAS and decided to, on a whim, build an app for it from scratch. Partly to see how well Claude Code could handle it, mostly to see whether the option was open to me. Starting off with the most basic app, the Python backend worked, the tests passed, the SPK archive assembled cleanly, but then Synology’s Package Center rejected it with the error "Invalid file format. Please contact the package developer.". That’s it. No logs, no debug information. Good luck.

DitherWorks

I got my parents a Waveshare PhotoPainter for their anniversary. I wanted the 7-color e-paper digital frame to show photos of the grandkids that rotate every 12hrs and are visible in sheer daylight. Bonus: year-long battery. Challenge was it needed a specialized image format. Now, I could use the provided Python script but it didn’t let me crop the images to the 800x480 aspect ratio, didn’t support a bunch of formats like iPhone’s HEIC/HEIF, and I generally wasn’t too happy with running some hacky script.

Becoming a more self-directing Staff+ individual contributor

I’ve spent the last five years of my career in Staff and Principal roles and have always hit a point where I feared inertia was taking over. In my last two roles, I’ve found a way of refocusing the role that works for me, and LeadDev have kindly asked me to share it with the world. I sincerely hope this helps more people. Please do let me know if it helped you. Continue to read Becoming a more self-directing Staff+ individual contributor.