Ross's Micro Blog

RE: https://crikey.social/@ross/116212026230320163

Benefit of “Big Phone”: playing games with a Playtile is way better!

https://get.playtil.es/

I tried hard to make it last. But my iPhone 13 Mini was finally despairing at me and the 17e was too good value.

I’m now a “Big Phone” person.

Seriously, how do y’all cope lugging these huge bricks around all day? 😆

I miss 5.4” already.

RE: https://crikey.social/@ross/116195673799872043

For those interested, I added a brief update to this to say what my position with using AI/LLM coding tools on Turbo Admin is.

Short version: I've used some "fancy autocomplete" on it, but that is all I've done and all I plan to do. This is not and will not be vibe coded or agent-assissted.

After a short pause while things were busy, I'll finally have time to put into developing Turbo Admin again. Hooray!

(Turbo Admin, if you don't know, is my magical WordPress browser extension that adds a command palette and other customisations to ALL your WP sites)

https://rosswintle.uk/2026/03/turbo-admin-and-life-update/

ClawCon sounds so very Web 3.0/NFC doesn’t it?

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/890517/openclaw-clawcon-meetup-nyc-open-source-ai

They don't make technology like they used to.

I just found an old hand-held Garmin GPS device. It's at least 18 years old.

Takes 2 AA batteries, so no problem powering it. But it was stuck showing the wrong date and time from 2006, and no way to update that.

Garmin released an update for this device at some point that fixes this.

Their updater software from 2019 still works.

I found a mini-USB cable.

All updated and working fine!

Amazing. (And kudos to Garmin for the update)

RE: https://mastodon.social/@BristolWPMeetup/116176186874140814

This guy was a legend. So positive and generous. Still can’t believe this is real. 😢

I’m stuck on iPhone. But I have consistently, for many years, bought one of the cheapest, smallest models. They last 4 years minimum after a battery replacement. I would honestly keep my 13 Mini. It’s just great!

£1k on a phone when you can spend half that seem bonkers.

What are so many people doing with £1000 smart phones?!

I just don’t get it.

I’m weird.

I generally encourage people to buy “good stuff” if they can with tech. To spend a bit more than they think they should on quality products.

But phones… I just don’t get it. I want a cheap, small phone.

The Vergecast covering the new Apple products said that “the volume seller in the last (iPhone) round I think was actually the Pro”.

The cheapest iPhone 17 Pro is £1,099

I just can’t imagine spending that much on a pocket device.

The 17e with 60hz screen and 1 camera looks fine!

It was so good to head to my local WordPress Meetup today. Such a kind and smart and generous bunch of people. It was really refreshing.

Do I know anyone here that has any responsibility for PHP.net?

@derickr @saramg ?

I’m trying to find out if the site has implemented some new rate limits for APIs and downloads. Can you help? Or do you know who can?

A thought.

We hold “I love you” up as the ultimate phrase of affirmation.

But I often find something more specific is more powerful.

“I trust you”
“I feel safe with you”
“You make me laugh”
“You are a kind person”
“I enjoy hanging out with you”

Love is utterly necessary – as is communicating it. But the concept is vague.

Sometimes simple, specific words are better.

Is anyone talking about the fact that privatising knowledge and skills in a paywalled AI system, AND having that system drive up the prices of tech, could increase inequality? I’ve been thinking about this. Is this a problem?

I've been thinking about how I tend to prefer simple video games. I don't really care for massively multi-player games, or games with ultra-realistic graphics. It just doesn't bother me.

Seeing this "low-poly" racing game on Itch confirms this, especially after I tried the ridiculous “Gear.Club" on Apple Arcade this morning.

Traks looks like an absolute blast of an arcade driving game.

Shame I only have MacOS as a viable platform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8739a2k_H4

What’s that you say? Ben Folds is playing Bristol in November?

BOOK THE BABYSITTER NOW!!!!!

I just boosted it, but this is a very good essay on LLM coding and one that I kinda align with.

I would add in some hesitations about the maturity of the LLM tools, the potential rug-pull/bubble-collapse and the fact that having a real human TA is more valuable. (As well as All-The-Issues).

But this is a good take.

https://htmx.org/essays/yes-and/

Realising that most of my fears about LLM-based AI services can be summed up thus:

The mega corps want to create Knowledge-as-a-Service.

They made your TV a subscription.

They made your music a subscription.

They made your books a subscription.

They made your car a subscription.

Now they want you to become dependent on them for knowledge for a monthly fee.