Author: Ross Wintle

@bw Was really cool hearing you on @shoptalkshow. Your home-cooked apps are great. Such a good principle. And I found out about how tech helps your SMA. You’re a very inspiring person to listen to. Keep up all the great stuff you are doing, and thanks for sharing your creativity with the world.

Wow. The Verge printer thing is blowing up.

My history of reading The Verge is that I first went there for trusted reviews. Then I went there for tech news. Their live coverage of Apple Events is excellent. And they have an RSS feed with full content. Which I actually feel mean about consuming because I want them to be paid for their content.

Sometimes it’s too much. Populist tech content. I get that it has to be.

But their editor in chief seems really smart. Listen: https://www.theverge.com/24087834/hank-green-decoder-podcast-google-youtube-web-media-platforms-distribution-future

🫣 Oh no! It’s the school holidays. I’m on DadOps duty. And I’m down to my last two coffee filters!! What do I do? Eat the beans whole and raw? Use a tea strainer or muslin cloth?!Grind them and spread it on toast?!! SEND HELP!!!!!

The Verge article on the best printer in 2024 is just completely brilliant in so many ways.

And also kinda sad.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework

… But now, not only do you not really know what a is, you don’t know what x is either.

And so you shove a ? on the type of x (or things x can become) and off you go again!

Catch errors and absences early. Don’t half-ass your type system… USE IT!

Coding thoughts:

The combination of optional/nullable types and optional chaining gives you so much temptation to write bad code.

It’s become so easy to just add a little ? here and a “| null” there to quickly fix some error you saw.

But it’s a trap!!

Once you start they breed like crazy through your codebase.

It’s weird for me to see:

x = a?.b?.c

Because if you have an a then you should know that you have a b and a c! (I know this is not the case with TypeScript)

…

I’ve been working with it for a while now and I still think that the React eco system is a series of complex and fragile kludges that only exist because everyone wanted to use React. Bundlers. Transpilers. CSS-in-JS. HTML-in-JS. CSS-in-HTML-in-JS. SSR. ISR.

My opinion, of course. I just don’t get it. Maybe I had a bad introduction to it or something. But that spark of understanding simply hasn’t come despite months of open minded exploration.

Haha. WordPress Block Editor in Minecraft. Very good.

https://wpbiz.dev/news/wordpress-for-minecraft-leaked/

Oh wow! TIL from @briancoords that you can get to all the useful links (dev notes, field guide, release schedule) for a #WordPress major release by going to:

https://make.wordpress.org/core/<version>

e.g.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/6.5

SO useful! Thanks, Brian!

Bandle spoiler

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Realising this morning that George Ezra’s shotgun is actually Baby Shark with different words.

I honestly thought I’d had every possible cold/flu bug these last six months. But here I am, in bed, with every inch of my body hurting.

What happened this year?!

Nice BBC article on aphantasia (not being able to see images in your mind):

Aphantasia: Why I cannot picture my children in my mind https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68675976

Next up in my “readable code tips” series:

There is a balance to be found between "inlining" multiple expressions, and using temporary variables.

You may also learn about “short-circuit evaluation” here if you don't know what that is (or you may just put a name to something you already know).

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/03/readable-code-tips-dont-inline-everything/

A while ago I found crosshare.org

The little daily puzzle has become part of my day. But you can make them too! And the constructor is very good.

My kid (8) and I have made a couple of puzzles. They are MOSTLY hers, but I’ve chipped in a bit.

Enjoy!

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/1Bqixf9crDP7jVPiR907/rabbiting-on

https://crosshare.org/crosswords/9x7JGmoJ2bGfre5oVzrQ/adas-first

This smartphone desktop robot thing does look super cute and fun. But also looks super data-slurpy:

“All your precious, ephemeral moments are now kept by him”

“Always observing his surroundings… LOOI can analyze everything he sees”

Also they overdid the gimmicks. And I’d never buy hardware on kickstarter.

Fun idea though.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tangiblefuture/looi-robot-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-desktop-robot

Idea: Gyms should have “quiet sessions” for introverts and neurodiverse folks. The lights and music are SO annoying. 😬

I’ve decided that my new primary KPI at work will be MCPW (Meetings Cancelled Per Week)

😃