Ross's Micro Blog

My Schoolbot data needs updating. And its incorrectness is highlighting how much I’ve come to depend on it.

I need to find a keen, helpful, tech-savvy school to pilot this with at some point.

Oh gosh. I forgot to say. I’ve made it!! I had an almost-funny tweet read out the No Plans To Merge podcast.

I’m done now. I’m going to stop posting and Tweeting while I’m ahead.

Oh, hello, Hay Fever. You’re about two weeks early then!! 😬

Hah. I think we left our car unlocked. And the world’s worst opportunistic thrives opened it and had a rummage around.

Mostly it looks like they wanted a light for a cigarette! 🤷‍♂️

There seem to be more and more of these “quiz”es going round. Here’s a fun one that I made up called “What’s your hereditary title name?”: https://rosswintle.uk/2014/10/whats-your-hereditary-title-name/

But also…personally…I think I’m having a pretty chilled time. Last summer the thought of a BBQ somehow seemed like stressful and overwhelming. Just did my first of the year. Little planning. With some good friends round. Nailed THAT!! 😃

Having one of those fed-up-with-tech times. Almost want to skip Twitter for a bit. People really need to be kinder and more thoughtful and graceful with their words. This is an ongoing theme right now.

I also…to my own utter horror…need some kind of fill-in light for doing video. Because I’m normally back-lit in my office. And now I’m looking at all sorts of “beauty vlogger” products. 😱😱😱😂😂😂

Tried filming myself with the camera built into my monitor yesterday. This is a new thing. I don’t film myself. But needs must.

Anyway. Turns out the camera in my old Apple Cinema Display is rubbish!!

So I need a webcam?!

I feel so noughties!

Most people, when the office internet goes down:

“Ah, internet’s gone down. I’ll go for a coffee/walk, take a break.”

Networking geeks when then internet goes down:

“Why the heck is the internet down? *ping* *dig* *change DNS settings* etc”
🙄

Since starting to take my girl to her pre-school I’ve re-discovered “The Button” by “The Tunnel”.

I’m still not brave enough to press it!

One of the great things about getting a Christmas gift of a variety pack of craft beer has been studying the branding. It’s fascination what a name and a label can make you think about a thing.

…but! Kinda amazed at how the Oikos “brand” I had 8 years or so ago has stood the test of time. Name is still right. Focus on “Communication, collaboration, community” is still right. Self-appointed title of “Creator, Engineer, Advisor” more relevant than ever. 😃🙌

Gosh. Lots of thoughts in my head today after a day of lots of chatting with people. Directions, values, branding. Definitely a year of change…

WordPress/Pinboarders: here you are. Went with the simple “sync-pinboard” name for now. This plugin pulls your pins into a WordPress post type. No display of those pins yet, but you can start archiving/hoarding!

https://wordpress.org/plugins/sync-pinboard/

Oh right. I take my sarcasm back. This is an accessibility device. It’s actually quite important. Please forgive my lack of context and understanding.

Even so…£50?!

OK. I’m curious. What the heck is this “latest technology and software product from Microsoft” and why does it cost £50?

“Big Red Switch”?! Is this some kind of joke?

Personal thing, but the normalisation of casual swearing amongst otherwise-professional people in public is really starting to bother me. I know you want to bring “yourself”, but really, can it not be held back in a professional context or with a potential family audience? 🤔

It also:
– Uses the official Pinboard API (there’s a settings screen for your API key)
– Obeys the API’s rate limits
– Allows you to choose an author for synced pins
– Syncs updated pins from Pinboard (I think!) but does not remove deleted pins

Weekend/holiday hacking: I’ve further developed my Pinboard Sync WordPress plugin. Anyone interested in having this in the WP repo? It:
– Copies Pinboard pins to a WordPress post type
– Includes tags in a custom taxonomy
– Will run through WP Cron and/or a WP-CLI command