Ross's Micro Blog

I've discovered some great little indie iOS (and sometimes Android!) apps recently. I wanted to quickly jot down some links to some of them, and links to the places that I found them – usually interesting newsletters.

https://rosswintle.uk/2025/07/newsletters-and-indie-ios-apps/

Features @hiro, @quicheindustries and others that I don't think are here.

This week my phone has occasionally said.

“Charging On Hold. Charging will resume when [device] returns to normal temperature.”

This is what my brain has been like all day.

It just got down to 20°C and it’s nearly midnight. Brain just started working again!

Let’s go people!!!

😆

The internet is so weird.

Years ago, I made a simple interface to Twitter's advanced search.

I stopped using Twitter a long time ago. But this little thing is BY FAR my most visited side project – it gets 4k views a month! (I know that's tiny, but it's all I got. Lol!)

It's the THIRD organic result on Google for “find tweet”.

Amazing.

https://tweet-finder.veryuseful.app/

Elsewhere I just described this as:

“The ancient knowledge, handed down from programmer to programmer over the decades. It is my time to hand it to you.”

This is a much better tagline!
https://crikey.social/@ross/114842599184885598

How I Code. Part 1. Possibly the most important programming knowledge I have.

These three principles have stuck with me for 30 years.

Start with good decomposition. Then use encapsulation to create good abstractions.

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

(Writing this makes me want to overhaul my blog design to make it more readable. It is what it is for now.)

Filling in my WP World profile and remembering all the amazing WordCamps I attended and had the privilege of speaking at in the 2010's. Good times!!

https://thewp.world/presser/ross-wintle/

Decided it was time for a new profile pic. New office. New hat. Glasses-on (as I almost-permanently do these days). And my little avocado friend.

#youTotallyGuacThis

(Don't ask!!)

I try NOT to sarcastically rant too much. But, like, seriously. The last place I would think of having “AI” is in my password manager.

Why, why, why???

Static Analysis, I tell you… it’s a thing!!

So good to see the benefits of it outlined so clearly here.

My intro to it:

https://deliciousbrains.com/php-static-code-analysis/

And I’m sure I have a meetup/conference talk brewing about it too.
https://mastodon.social/@westonruter/114837363266146094

I’m down to just 1 joker to unlock in Balatro.

ONE!!!

I’m so gonna do this.

And then I’ll be free!!!!!

Some fixes for my (free, no login, multi-player, serverless) Scrabble clone today.

1. There's now a display of the current move score.
2. The move list now shows the player number correctly! (Oops!)

Feel free to start a game!

https://words.pico.games/

My friend @tnash is releasing the first module of his #WordPress security course on Thursday.

If you sign up before the end of tomorrow (Wednesday 9th) you should get a £50 discount.

Tim is that rare combination of deeply knowledgeable and experienced AND a great teacher/communicator.

Worth a look:

https://wpsecurity101.com/

Realising I’m not “move slow and fix things”.

Well. I can be.

But my preferred mode is: “move slow and do things right in the first place!”

Anyone for a game of Scrabble?

Make a move then send me the link by DM:

https://words.pico.games/

One of my faves!!! 😍
https://oldbytes.space/@retroguybry/114802597723755211

I really don’t like long drives. But a weekend in York with the family celebrating with good friends and catching up with old ones has been good for the soul.

TIL that switching from CommonJS to ES Modules applies strict mode to all your JS code, and thus, code that you have not modified suddenly errors and breaks. What fun!!!

This is great.

I might try dressing up in a floppy wizard hat with a cow plushie and buying many tins of beans to see what happens.

IYKYK!
https://mastodon.social/@fesshole/114793985255878120

Yesterday on Bluesky someone asked what our all-time favourite song lyric was and it made me go and play a bunch of my favourite songs.

So here’s a little game:

Post a favourite lyric. Don’t tell us the song or artist – we have to figure that out.

I’ll start:

“Look, here comes a Ford Mondeo, isn't he Mr Inconspicuous?”