Author: Ross Wintle

On a blogging spree and determined to say nice things and be creative without mentioning The Thing that everyone else is talking about!!!

I bought a £20 mini keyboard. And it's surprisingly good! Here's what it's like and how I use it with my phone.

https://rosswintle.uk/2026/02/a-tiny-20-keyboard-and-tips-for-using-it-on-ios/

I had to write about YouSky (see earlier post) as it's one of the main reasons for having this!

I made a big, long, technical post a short time back about building a 1-person "social network" app for "micro-journaling". This is a short post explaining what it is without all the technical details.

https://rosswintle.uk/2026/02/yousky-my-one-person-social-network-short-version/

Apple/Google/Microsoft…

Here’s what we need.

Parental controls but based on a simple vote among the parents.

TOO MANY TIMES it’s like:

“No!”

“But dad said I could!!!”

So we BOTH need to approve it.

(Yes, this would be doubly annoying)

While I'm recommending things, I've been meaning to write a recommendation for the TickTick Todo app for ages. It's really good.

https://rosswintle.uk/2026/02/tick-tick-the-best-to-do-app-you-maybe-dont-know-about/

(No affiliate links here. I'm just trying to post about some things I like and use! 😃)

I got annoyed that my kitchen sponges were falling apart. I tried sustainable, plastic-free versions. And they were actually really good.

https://rosswintle.uk/2026/02/non-plastic-non-scratch-kitchen-sponges-are-pretty-good/

This is excellent. My friend @aurooba with a post in her Leadership topic.

https://aurooba.blog/slow-is-smooth-smooth-is-fast/

I am finding Neurodivergent Insights incredibly helpful as we try to understand both diagnosed and undiagnosed neurodiversity in our family.

Really good stuff. Much of it free. But the printable workbooks are also good.

https://neurodivergentinsights.com/

The response to the #AI pull request and blog thing is SO considered and mature.

It doesn’t surprise me that a maintainer of something like a Python plotting library is an absolute legend with a huge brain and a PhD-level of competence in being a nice person who wants to make the world better.

https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/

Before I start I should clarify that this is a commentary on my own state of mind, not a direct criticism of what has been created. Given that…

My immediate reaction to this was “Ah good. A list of things I should avoid installing on my computer. Thanks!”

My other reaction was an expression of surprise and disappointment that this might have come out of a conversation with … HANK GREEN???

https://www.tinytooltown.com

So… side project hosting moves and upgrades round 1 done.

Next up:

I need to upgrade the map game thing to Laravel 12 and Livewire and move server.

I need to upgrade the card game thing to Laravel 12 and Livewire and move server.

THEN everything will be modern and safe I can do fun stuff!!!

Turbo Admin needs some attention.

Oh, and I need to prepare a meetup talk for early March! EEK! That should probably be first.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@davatron5000/116037194678687994

Data in URLs!!!

This is such a cool idea. I might have to steal it.

@davatron5000 I'd love to hear back if you use this. Do non-tech parents understand the mechanism for using it?

Oh the puns in my family.

My son and wife made a mixed-berry preserve today. As he's into coding video games I suggested this should be called:

"Game Jam"

After some thinking he decided this would be bad as it would taste of meat.

"Oh dear" I (accidentally!) replied.

Mark Kermode reviewing the Melania movie is BRUTAL. Hilariously done, but also maddening and sad.

“It’s a piece of handsomely-mounted, crypto-fascist propaganda.”

“The Trump family prepare to move into the White House, and then you realised it’s a heist movie”

“Basically corruption on a level never before seen. And then it gets really ugly.”

https://youtu.be/DTyUni8dbkE

Isn't it weird that it's someone's job (presumably part time?) to judge Ski Jumping? Or "Big Air" snowboarding.

Can't imagine many people qualify for that role.

#winterOlympics

One of my VPS hosts (a wonderful UK-based company) recently encouraged me to move my VPS to their more modern platform. So I've spun up a new VPS and am manually migrating side-project sites/apps to it.

Most of these are Laravel. Some are fairly major upgrades.

And I'm reminded – having been away from it for a while – of just how nice it is to work with.

Sure it's not for everyone. But it has great docs, amazing tooling, and such a good developer experience.