Ross's Micro Blog

I swear I’ve spent about 75% of my “spare time” this holiday season just making sure that all my families devices are charging!!

Well I worked right up til Christmas Eve.

I only just realised I have NINE DAYS OFF!!!

That’s a gift right there!!

After earlier questions, I did a little weekend AI research project.

I tested whether AI can accurately refactor code. Spoiler: It can't! But I had some fun and did some neat meta-programming along the way.

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/12/ai-copilot-and-deterministic-code-refactoring/

After earlier questions, I did a little weekend AI research project.

I tested whether AI can accurately refactor code. Spoiler: It can't! But I had some fun and did some neat meta-programming along the way.

https://rosswintle.test/2024/12/ai-copilot-and-deterministic-code-refactoring/

Thinking about yesterday when I asked Copilot to refactor a loop through an array into a series of discrete steps.

It did it but I checked Every! Single! Change!

Because I know it’s non-deterministic. But I don’t know how non-deterministic it is.

I DO NOT TRUST IT!!

It did the job perfectly. But how was I to know that it would do that?

@mattgrayyes Hello! I’ve had you fireworks video queued up to watch for ages. I just found it and watched it. It’s a great little piece of film and you and the team clearly put a lot of effort into it. Great job. Thanks for entertaining and educating us!! 😃

For ages I’ve thought I’m someone who’s really very bad at making long term predictions. For example, I thought putting cameras in phones was a stupid idea.

But recent experience suggests that I may be quite the visionary sometimes!

– WordPress command palettes
– My social media choices
– Opinions about JavaScript
– Thoughts on the WordPress block editor

Experience has taught me things. There is wisdom in the years.

Klarna took over the Stocard app in the UK. What’s a good way to store loyalty card barcodes on iOS? Can I just add them to wallet somehow?
https://chaos.social/@leyrer/113667064197803074

I was thinking about generative AI today with all these messed up images and videos going round and I decided it’s like a fruit machine. You pull the handle and you might get something good out of it. Or you might not. But one thing happens every time: a very rich person gets a tiny bit richer!

@sarajw How have you been today? Hope it’s been more positive!

I actually shouted “That’s bovine!!” At my computer yesterday. Though I realise I should actually have shouted “NOT SO!”

Loving the legal streams. @questauthority.bsky.social has such a great way with words.

“Have no doubt: ‘not so’ is a two word variant of something that is much more commonly expressed as a single word. And that single word has certain… umm… bovine implications”

Gosh, it's slow work. And not quite there yet. But gosh I had fun with my little PICO-8 cookie-clicker game this evening!

https://santa-factory.pico.games/

Why are some new App Store apps showing “17+ years old”?

Is this an App Store bug?

I’ve seen two this week.

This is somewhat dramatised, but it's also an accurate explainer of my Sunday evening woes.

Come on a journey with me as I – an experienced developer – dive into old WordPress theme code, find myself in an enormous tangle, and question my competence.

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/12/im-not-sure-i-understand-themes-old-wordpress-code-journey/

Proud of myself for getting back to blood donation today. It’s been 10 years!! My 22nd donation was totally fine. They shove a lot of biscuits and water into you these days! And you have to do weird butt-tensing exercises. But it’s all good.

I’m O- so I’m a special “first responder”. Topping up the stock of magic blood for Christmas.

I discovered this feature of PHP while live coding during a conference talk.

It was quite funny.
https://mastodon.social/@nunomaduro/113622551898494766