Ross's Micro Blog

I’m contemplating the idea that software can be “finished”.

What do you think is the oldest thing that you own that contains software but that has never been updated?

This is a fun little thing. Stick-on capacitive controller for you phone that works with a web-based "OS" that loads up games and touch controls for the controller to work with.

It won't be anything like a real controller, but it looks fun and accessible.

🎩 @binarymoon

https://get.playtil.es/

This is such a wholesome episode of Scott Hanselman’s podcast about the development of Hank Green’s Focus Friend app.

Really gets me thinking about how to use my skills and experiences to do something innovative and what making my own luck might look like.

There’s also a segment at around 18:45 about how “there isn’t a lot in the app that can crash, luckily” which is not actually luck but the result of some good decisions being made.

https://pca.st/episode/0736daba-289a-4b04-bbdd-731d5136dcd3

How have I only just discovered this newsletter. I just browsed the last few issues and it’s GREAT!!!
https://front-end.social/@stefan/115090789410294914

@quicheindustries Hello! Could I please feature request the restoration of a tab’s history when you “Undo close tab”?

I often follow a link from something like a newsletter page, then close the followed link when what I actually wanted to do is go back. Undo close tab seems to not bring the tab’s history.

Could that be possible at some point in the future? 🙏🙏🙏

Next fun holiday project: writing a recursive, regex-based HTML parser for my son in Godot’s Gdscript so he can build a app in Godot that depends on web-scraping some data.

The things we do…

One great thing about WordPress is that people building magazine style sites on it probably don't realising they're publishing an RSS feed too. 😁

The full schedule for LoopConf (London, 25th September) is now out. And I'm sharing a stage with some amazing people.

I'm also working on some fun things for my talk – which is almost going to be a mini conference-within-a-conference!

You can get £50 off a ticket with code “ROSS50”.

👉 https://www.loopconf.com/

This seems like VERY basic coding, but I rarely see newer coders breaking problems down like this.

Background: A while ago I wrote about the basic programming principles I've been using for 30 years.

https://rosswintle.uk/2025/07/the-way-i-code/

I then recorded a video of using those principles.

And I’m extracting some little shorts from it too! Like this!

Not bad for an old dude who skates about once every five years!!

I have this week 100% off with the kids. So will post some of what we're up to.

Today we are Ice Skating – wish me luck!

And the rest of the week is me driving back and forth to Oxford to take kid 1 to these amazing workshops!

https://www.storymuseum.org.uk/story-shapers

So this year, for summer holidays, we did a little experiment.

Rather than “go on holiday”, we’ve stayed at home and used the money we would have spent on travel, accommodation and food for a "summer budget" for days out.

It turns out that it's actually quite hard to spend a couple of hundred pounds each week! But we've been having a ton of fun, not just with days out and activities (bowling, cinema, climbing, etc), but with at-home creative activities.

Fun! And… a success?

Did someone here share the video of the bag-dying guy and say something about him being a master of a craft that they didn’t even know existed? Was that you?

This is REALLY good.

I'm thinking a lot about communication right now and there's a ton of good stuff relevant to my industry and remote work in here.

https://kind.engineering/

There’s some very well thought through reflections on using Claude Code here. I do wonder what I would make of it if I seriously tried it. But do I want to??
https://social.lol/@matti/115028996279496688

Kid: There should be underground trains everywhere!

Wife (not realising): That would be really boring.

Me: 👀

Wife: What?!

Me: Boring?

Everyone except me: 🙄

Trombone Champ is about £5 on the Nintendo Switch right now. I’ve had it 15 minutes and I’ve already had £5 worth of laughing out of it.

Zarathustra… OMG!!! 🤣

This evening my family were talking about whether worms could talk. It was suggested that they might just not be very chatty.

And then I spent about ten minutes attempting to say the words: "introvert invertebrate" 😂

I don’t know why I love the concept of this iOS/MacOS app. I just do! For some reason it’s so much better than AirDrop, iMessaging myself or other options.

A private “Send to Self” chat that syncs using iCloud.

It added photos today and is now perfect!

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bookmarks-send-to-self/id6747897667