Ross's Micro Blog

It seems that one of my roles in life now is scaring relatives into upgrading 9-year-old smartphones that no longer get security updates. Yes, I hate upgrade cycles too. But the internet is a dangerous place to hang out.

Can anyone hear Ollie a fingerboard?

I’ve tried so many times. Watched so many videos. I just can’t get the thing to leave the ground. Have y’all got blue tack fingers???

This is such a beautiful little retro game. Amazing that you can get it from Pico8 to the Switch!

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@johanpeitz/117127899498830254

I know it’s convenient for sharing information widely, but I frickin hate how not checking Facebook all the time means you miss out on so much. 😕

That’s my local, independent bookshop, that is! Nice to see it getting some attention on here. Their signs are as awesome as their books and coffee!! 😃

https://tech.lgbt/@Natasha_Jay/117116730613346316

Funny. As well as Laravel Herd for local PHP development, there is Yerd and now Lerd!

There’s 23 letters of the alphabet left! Get building, folks!!

https://herd.laravel.com/
https://yerd.app/
https://lerd.sh/

Dare I install any of the open source versions? How much is this AI-generated stuff that’s dangerous on my machine?

This is the equation for every new app now and it’s exhausting.

In more positive, exciting news: Chrome (which I use at work) now has a keyboard shortcut to hide/show the vertical tab bar!

I just had to figure out what was conflicting with it to make it work. But I can now toggle on demand.

Next up, please: Tabs on the right?? 🙏

I just listened to a conference talk on AI. I suppose it was meant to be positive about agentic coding.

But the talk itself said:
– AI is used a lot, but developers trust it little
– Trust in AI coding output is falling, not rising
– AI generated code is generally insecure and poor standard.

Does this not… like… tell us something about these tools?

Do people see these stats and think “Oh yes – that sounds like something we should use”?

My second Taekwondo lesson today.

I felt pretty competent after a week of coaching from my daughter at home (she’s a junior red belt). But I don’t think I’ll continue.

I just don’t find it interesting enough to want to out the effort into learning it. I’m not “hooked”.

I swear that about 2 years ago, laminators were EVERYWHERE. You couldn’t walk the Special Buys of Aldi or the stationary aisle of Asda without seeing huge piles of laminators for sale. Everyone was laminating all the things.

And now I need laminating pouches and they barely exist!!!

If you don’t like your #WordPress browser extensions “AI-native” and “AI-first”, mine is hand-crafted, several years old already, and does many of the same things – and some different ones! It’s $35, but it’s a bargain!

https://turbo-admin.com/

Re:

https://www.therepository.email/official-wordpress-browser-extension-now-available-in-the-chrome-web-store-and-mac-app-store

If, like me, you’re interested in UK plug-in solar/battery, this is an EXCELLENT resource showing the current status of regulations and products – updated as things change:

https://4billionyearson.org/plug-in-solar-uk

I’m so glad I stopped using WordPress for side projects so long ago. Most of my little tools I build are… well… they’re like this:

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/02/a-manifesto-for-small-static-web-apps/

And they don’t need updating! Like, ever. Probably. Yay!

(The minimal build tools need updates, but nothing user-facing is dangerous)

I’ve had this little text-based game in my open tabs for ages. Finally got to playing some of it yesterday. It’s SO clever and well done…

What Happened to the Crew?

https://bushmonkey.itch.io/what-happened-to-the-crew

I’m on holiday. Well, I’m on unpaid parental leave this week.

I don’t think I’ve done any coding since July 31st.

What is happening to me?!

(And no, I’ve not been getting LLMs to code for me either)

So are we recommending that people with Meta’s perv glasses all use them to record the eclipse?

Not while wearing them. That would be bad. But they are the perfect cameras for this, right? You don’t even need a filter or anything. Just point them at the sun and record.

I know this is a really dumb question but I’m a simple guy and I just don’t know this thing.

To make a social “thread”, do all the replies have to be to the original post? Or do you chain all the replies onto the previous one?

I’ve used apps that do it. But I’ve never understood the mechanism.

Rhys has put a lot of effort into this little game. Give it a try! It’s a really good little arcade shooter thing.

https://toot.wales/@rhyswynne/117073164695743521