Ross Wintle

Creative and curious software developer

Manage on omg.lol
Pencil

rw

Remember Wordle? I LOVE puzzles, and we've accumulated quite a few fun things to do each day as a family. We generally do some of these over the breakfast table. It's AMAZING that all this stuff exists and is so accessible. Here's our favourites.

https://rosswintle.uk/2024/01/puzzles/

2 months ago Respond
Pencil

rw

I made a(nother) static site generator!

What? Why?

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/12/i-made-another-static-site-generator/

(FINALLY got this written and published. It’s not a great piece of writing. My thoughts are all over the place. But this was fun to make.)

2 months ago Respond
Thinking face

rw

I'm not a big end-of-year/start-of-year post guy. But 2023 did become rather chaotic, and I want to start 2024 with some energy and discipline. So... how?

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/12/2024-self-improvement-and-habits/

2 months ago Respond
Pencil

rw

There's a lot going on right now and I've been having a lot of thoughts about what is going on. In some cases I think I've expressed these thoughts well. In other cases, other people have expressed things that have helped me.

Here are some quotes and thoughts...

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/12/quotes-and-thoughts/

3 months ago Respond
Robot

rw

I’m using AI. This tech is amazing. Especially when it enhances human productivity rather than replaces it. But gosh I can see how it breaks the web.

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/11/im-using-ai/

4 months ago Respond
Desktop computer

rw

With PHP 8.3. out tomorrow (can you believe it?!), "Can I PHP" is a great reference of the important new features, and allows you to see at a glance what is new and deprecated in each version:

https://caniphp.com/?version=8.3

4 months ago Respond
Thinking face

rw

Is it just cos I’m old that I want things to be simple.

Simple code.

Simple (or no) dependencies and build processes.

Simple user interfaces with good error messages.

Simple tech with actual buttons and switches.

Simple retail experiences.

Everything is so damn complicated!!

4 months ago
Diya lamp

rw

Am I allowed to celebrate Diwali? Light over darkness? Good over evil?

I’m in. Let’s celebrate that.

Might put some lights up.

🙏🪔

4 months ago
Pencil

rw

The third (and - still can't believe it only lasted so long) last edition of my Beyond WP newsletter on “Tinkering Tools" is now in the archive covering Tinkerwell, Playgrounds and “REPL’s”. All great tools in a PHP developer's toolbox:

https://beyond-wp.com/archive/beyond-wp-3-tinkering-tools

What do you think? Should I do more writing like this? Maybe scale down my ambitions/standards?

4 months ago
Smiling face with sunglasses

rw

Well today I learned that my parent’s EV charger that we borrow show a weird error when you first plug in…

… because it does a random pause of between 1 and 10 minutes before starting to avoid everyone starting a charge at the same time and overloading the grid! 😎

https://www.myenergi.com/guides/smart-charge-point-regulations-explained/

4 months ago Respond
Worried face

rw

This Cloudflare outage is really something. I’ve worked alongside data center operations and I’ve seen multiple-redundant systems fail in chaotic ways like this. It’s so hard to predict. And yet, stuff like “they needed to be physically accessed … access control system was not powered by the battery backups, so it was offline” is such an obvious design flaw with hindsight.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/post-mortem-on-cloudflare-control-plane-and-analytics-outage/

4 months ago
Writing hand

rw

Finally getting round to putting the archive of my Beyond WP emails online.

I’d sad it had such short a run.

I think I set my standards too high.

Perhaps I will pick it up again someday.

I like writing.

4 months ago Respond
Man astronaut

rw

Yay! NASA released another issue of their educational graphic AR comic thing about the first woman going to the moon.

The first one was good.

https://www.nasa.gov/calliefirst/

4 months ago Respond
Grinning face with big eyes

rw

Have added upcoming #PHP v8.3 features to https://caniphp.com now too. 🙌

4 months ago
Raising hands

rw

Yay!

https://caniphp.com/ now has a complete set of PHP 8.2 features/functions/methods.

On to PHP 8.3 in time for next month's release.

(I'm doing this because I'm ill and I'm in bed doing boring things. Not so yay! So send hugs/sympathy, or if you like Can I PHP? you can also buy me a coffee/Lemsip):

https://ko-fi.com/magicroundabout

4 months ago
Writing hand

rw

Remembering.

If we don't remember, we don't have empathy.

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/10/remembering/

5 months ago Respond
Thinking face

rw

I’ve always said I’d like to go and study something like philosophy of maths.

But sometimes I think I’d love to study psychology of computer programming.

Is that a thing?

5 months ago Respond
Thinking face

rw

There was an interesting thing recently where, in a group of developers, the younger/less experienced ones were the ones that liked using Git on the command line. And the older, more-experienced ones shunned the command line for GUIs.

A small data set, for sure. But is there something to learn there?

5 months ago Respond
Raising hands

rw

This resonates so much with me. It’s nice to see a really clear justification for using boring, well-understood and slow-moving technology.

https://boringtechnology.club/

5 months ago Respond
Laptop

rw

So nice to be working on a little greenfield Laravel thing. 😃

5 months ago Respond
Grinning face

rw

A really restful day off today.

Recorded a podcast with some great folks.

Got a flu jab.

Worked on my secret CLI dev tool project.

Watched some YouTube.

Feeling nice and calm.

5 months ago Respond
Thinking face

rw

Programming: Fun, interesting, creative. Also: pays well.

Community/family: Relentless, exhausting, emotional. Also: pays nothing!!

5 months ago Respond
Pencil

rw

I keep finding myself in jobs where I can see a lot of things going on, and I feel a responsibility to make connections.

A quick blog post on how, sometimes, the view from the “Bottom of the Pile” is uniquely broad. And that comes with opportunity, and maybe responsibility too.

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/10/the-view-from-the-bottom-of-the-pile/

5 months ago Respond
Face with rolling eyes

rw

I've been hanging out on other social medias today. There was ONE interesting post from... my kids secondary school!!! And one REALLY good interaction with someone that I know.

But mostly is was boring, aimless scrolling with occasional conspiracy theorists.

I get back onto Mastodon.

Two amazing, funny, interesting posts shared in the first few minutes.

I genuinely appreciate the good stuff on other socials, but gosh it's impossible to curate.

5 months ago Respond
Raising hands

rw

Played this a few days this week. Like Boggle. Quite the challenge!

I played https://squaredle.com 09/29: *77/77 words (+30 bonus words) 📖 In the top 17% by bonus words Play streak: 2

5 months ago Respond
Grinning face with smiling eyes

rw

Ok. It’s not perfect. But it’s here.

For all you The Rest is Politics listeners: Trip Bingo!

Randomly generated bingo cards to enhance your listening.

Enjoy!!

https://trip-bingo.pico.games

5 months ago Respond
Chart increasing

rw

Just realised https://caniphp.com was featured in Jetbrains PHP Annotated newsletter.

That explains the influx of PRs!!

😃

5 months ago Respond
Pizza

rw

Just added me a “/now" page. Might be of interest. Or might not. Complete vanity.

https://rw.omg.lol/now

5 months ago
Grinning face

rw

Every time I go and do stuff on omg.lol I'm reminded of what a brilliant little place it is. Long may it live!!

5 months ago
Automobile

rw

If there’s one thing electric vehicles are really missing it’s an under-car animal detector.

6 months ago Respond
Smiling face with sunglasses

rw

Tooting my own horn again, but today, I - complete React and NextJS noob (kinda) - reviewed a small-but-mighty NextJS middleware change, found a bug, improved it, and then went and wrote tests for it too!

Go me!!!

(Actually very proud of myself today)

6 months ago Respond
Smiling face with sunglasses

rw

I revisited my “10 things I learned in 10 years of freelancing” posts today.

I’m pretty proud of them. Some great advice and wisdom, even if I do say so myself!

Start here!

https://rosswintle.uk/2021/08/10-things-i-learned-about-freelancing-in-ten-years-with-ten-days-to-go-part-1/

6 months ago Respond
Free button

rw

FREE WEBSITES!!!

Clickbait? Moi?

Well… No? I actually build, deploy and host my own side-project websites for (virtually) free.

You have to know what you're doing to some extent. But this post goes into how I quickly spin them up.

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/08/free-websites-for-side-projects/

7 months ago Respond
Grinning face

rw

One of the constraints of being employed (nearly two years now!!!) is that side projects aren't really a thing.

So I'm embracing constraints.

I have a secret little #WordPress project that's SO good and I can see how it could quickly turn into “A Thing”.

But it will remain a little thing just for me. It does what I need it to. And that is enough.

On another project someone asked this week “Is this codebase still active?”

The answer was: “This code is finished”

Constraints are good. 😃

7 months ago
Raising hands

rw

What a wild ride this work week has been. Took responsibility for a lot of things. Got a bit frustrated that I had to. Wasn’t sure I’d handled it right. Then, today, had some glowing feedback and affirmation that I’m doing a lot of things very right.

I talk myself down a LOT so I’m gonna bathe in this.

I’m doing good at what I do. And I’m thankful for those that support and encourage me.

7 months ago Respond
Globe showing europe-africa

rw

I’m honestly reaching the point with the climate crisis where some kind of protest or direct action on government and corporations is on my list.

7 months ago Respond
Face with spiral eyes

rw

I actually did a product search off the back of an ad today.

I’m never impressed by ads.

They finally got me.

(But I don’t think they know they did?)

8 months ago Respond
Person lifting weights

rw

Random. But brilliant! https://youareatlas.com/

8 months ago Respond
Oncoming automobile

rw

C/W EV Bore…

Took the EV on another longer (non urban, mainly highway) drive yesterday. With passengers.

100 miles used 50% of the battery. With A/C on most of the way too.

Amazed that we still get 5+ miles per kWh even on a journey like that.

SO happy with our Ioniq. It’s ultra efficient and fast to charge. Definitely a good choice.

I hate that I like a car so much. 😂

8 months ago
Face with spiral eyes

rw

I don’t get why tech people find Mastodon hard.

They understand choosing servers/instances.

They understand the privacy issues of closed corporate-controlled networks.

They’re often proponents of open source.

They usually hate ads.

They like APIs and feeds and nerd stuff.

Confuses me greatly.

8 months ago Respond
🎮

rw

My son is now playing Zelda. He’s so much quicker at picking these things up than I am. Making me feel a bit stupid.

8 months ago
🎮

rw

A very amateur gamer speaks:

So No Mans Sky was half price in the Steam Store. And I have a MacBook. And it works on Macs now. And their return policy is really good.

So I gave it a go to see if it was much better than the Switch version.

And Oh My Goodness this is why you all have Xboxes and stuff!! 😃

8 months ago
Smiling face with sunglasses

rw

Hah. Nice. Someone built a WASM-based #Laravel playground inspired by the in-browser #WordPress Playground

https://github.com/aschmelyun/diode

8 months ago Respond
Automobile

rw

The second post in my now-I’m-an-EV-bore series.

This one is about which electric cars we looked at, which one we bought, and why we bought it.

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/07/the-electric-vehicle-what-and-why/

8 months ago Respond
Cricket game

rw

I had 100% given up on that cricket match on Friday morning. What. A. Rollercoaster.

8 months ago Respond
Face with rolling eyes

rw

I discovered LightningCSS today. Looks like a great replacement for a bunch of build tools for CSS. Built in Rust! Perhaps I can remove a bunch more fragile npm dependencies?!

Oh. But I need to npm install it?

WHY?!

8 months ago Respond
Thinking face

rw

Today I’m thinking about supply-chain attacks in utilities that are written in Go, Rust etc and compiled.

With tools like esbuild and LightningCSS, we only have a single dependency, rather than the hundreds/thousands of dependencies in the tree for an npm-based tool.

But if something is written in Rust and it’s using some off-the-shelf crate/package, would I know about that?

Do all tools dependent on a library get flagged if a package is found to have an issue?

8 months ago Respond
Cricket game

rw

Can I say I frickin LOVE that women’s sport has grown so much these last few years. How it was never such a big thing before I don’t know (*).

But it’s great that it’s a thing now because it’s damn good.

(*) - OK, yes, the patriarchy, I DO know

8 months ago
Radio

rw

The previous post, by the way, was a reaction blog to this REALLY FREAKIN’ EXCELLENT episode of This American Life that looks at intelligence - artificial and otherwise - from a number of different creative angles.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/803/greetings-people-of-earth

8 months ago Respond
Robot

rw

I don’t remember who recommend it, but DANG this episode of “This American Life” that tells stories about intelligence - artificial and otherwise - was good.

So good I had to write some thoughts down about it.

"Is ChatGPT clever because it has "theory of mind", or is it stupid because it lacks the instincts that keep a toddler alive.”

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/07/what-is-intelligence-anyway/

8 months ago Respond
Skull and crossbones

rw

The route to death of a social network on my mobile is:

Level 1. App deleted. Try to use just the web app on mobile. Level 2. Ignore on mobile. Only use on desktop occasionally. Level 3. Stop using altogether.

Current status:

Facebook: Level 2.5 - just need schools to stop using it for critical comms

Instagram: Level 1 but only for school stuff. Would be Level 3 otherwise.

Twitter: Level 1

Can you believe I’ve NEVER been on TikTok?

Threads: Level 3 (already!! 😂)

8 months ago Respond
Sad but relieved face

rw

Why are people - governments mostly, but corporations and individuals too - not looking at the climate, utterly freaking out, and making big, serious, fast decisions? Who is leading?!

World's hottest day since records began https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66104822

8 months ago
Red question mark

rw

There's been so much discussion about the NAME of the #WordPress Command Palette, but I've not seen much discussion of the actual feature/functionality.

Styles are broken right now (https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/52097) but what do people think of it?

Does it look like a useful tool?

8 months ago Respond
Smiling face with sunglasses

rw

I have a website you can visit as many times as you like.

You can even get a feed that you can put in an RSS reader (I like Feedbin) with other peoples website feeds.

And you can check your feeds as often as you like.

Magical.

8 months ago
Downcast face with sweat

rw

Am I having a bad day?

Will I regret writing this?

Does it add anything to the converstion?

I don't know. But I feel compelled to write it.

"The web used to be fun and simple and easy to get stuff done with. Now it's discovering that someone who doesn't know what they were doing used a div instead of a button and fixing it involves half a day of poking around files that make no sense and fixing a broken build process.”

I'm tired of web dev!

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/07/im-tired-of-web-dev/

8 months ago Respond
Automobile

rw

This is a really excellent article on the pros and cons of EVs. Debunks lots of myths. LOTS of data.

https://philsturgeon.com/unf-king-the-climate-electric-cars/

8 months ago Respond
Sign of the horns

rw

Dave Grohl just flippin loves his job, doesn’t he?

I want a tenth of his energy at age 54.

9 months ago Respond
Oncoming automobile

rw

I feel less “guilty” driving an electric car. And it NICE to drive.

But… in some of my driving it, I’ve still been stuck in traffic.

And being stuck in traffic is awful. It’s complete dead time. It holds me up. It holds other people up. I can’t work or exercise.

Traffic is crap. And EVs don’t fix traffic.

9 months ago Respond
Exploding head

rw

What did I hear on a podcast today?

Something like:

“There are so many great abstractions in web development. React sits on top of TypeScript and TypeScript sits on top of JavaScript.

It’s so easy now to make a button that you click and something happens nowadays”

Yeah, right. It is. And you don’t need any of those abstractions to do it! It’s amazing!!

9 months ago
Thinking face

rw

Did anyone else read this and think of Severance?

9 months ago Respond
Squinting face with tongue

rw

For those that know…

I really think “Wayfinder” is a bad idea.

We’re already trying to undo “Gutenberg”.

One issue is the precedent we set by not following convention.

Let’s call the dashboard “Widgetville” and the admin bar “Headspace” or something.

I’m being facetious. But…

9 months ago Respond
Zany face

rw

I think that from now on my signature social media post format will be the long-compound-adjective-with-lots-of-hyphens one.

9 months ago Respond
Face with tears of joy

rw

Lol. The what-shall-we-call-the-WordPresss-command-palette GitHub issue is about to blow up then!

https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-discuss-renaming-command-center-tool

9 months ago Respond
Face with rolling eyes

rw

Reading a car recall notice (not for my car).

Good to know motor manufacturers have figured out that whole-car-dies-when-a-tiny-electrical-component-fails-thing since that dodgy Peugeot we bought 15 years ago!

9 months ago Respond
Face with tears of joy

rw

Someone had commented implying that my battery issue was an EV problem.

It wasn’t.

It was a vehicle electronics issue.

The same thing would have happened with the equivalent ICE or hybrid car.

The irony is that I had 20kWh of power in the car but was not able to use any of it to power the cars electronics!! 😂

9 months ago
Grimacing face

rw

So, hilariously, my fancy new EV broke today. Wouldn’t turn on!! How?

Well, the good news is that the 40kWh main battery is fine.

But there’s also a regular 12v battery that powers…well…everything that’s not the motor. Locks, lights, sound, displays, electronics.

And it turns out that everything turns off when you open the drivers door. But this is NOT the case for the passenger door.

So the media display was left on, the 12v battery drained, and the car was dead.

😬

9 months ago
Automobile

rw

I’m writing an EV (electric vehicle) "cheat sheet” that tries to combine all the different terminology and units into one, independent, succinct, place.

It's in-progress, but nearly complete now.

https://rosswintle.uk/2023/06/my-simple-ev-terminology-cheatsheet/

When researching EV's I found there were lots of articles and videos about the individual topics, but not a place to quickly learn the basics of everything. So this should fix that.

Please send corrections if anything is wrong. Thanks. I hope this is useful for someone.

9 months ago Respond
Grimacing face

rw

I’m sorry. I’m really really sorry. But I tried the latest version of the Gutenberg plugin for WordPress and the UI is just getting worse. I don’t know how this is happening. I don’t even know how to start describing the issues. We’re really at sunk cost fallacy time. Maybe block editing is OK (it’s not, IMO)? But the way pages have been put into the site editor and the way the command centre has been plopped into the UI in several places with inconsistent affordances.

I know it’s beta. But…

9 months ago
Thinking face

rw

Did some training today on biases in the workplace. Really helpful.

I reflected that I don’t judge/stereotype people based on race/gender/colour.

But I’ll completely assume who you are from your communication style and tech choices!

Eeek!!

9 months ago Respond
Construction worker

rw

I’m at the point where I want to just round up all the brilliant people I’ve worked with and start some kind of software agency with them.

THAT would be amazing.

I work with and have worked with some completely brilliant people.

What a joy!!

9 months ago Respond
Hot beverage

rw

I’m more and more convinced that people are missing out on good coffee because “dark roast” has been marketed as “strong” and people want “strong” coffee.

I’m just loving lighter roasts gently filtered.

(Such a #coffeeSnob 😂)

9 months ago Respond
Warning

rw

Testing an integration...

9 months ago Respond
Person biking

rw

Off to work. Cycling in the sun. Great way to start the day.

9 months ago
👨‍👧

rw

Showing omg.lol to my awesome daughter

1 year ago
Downcast face with sweat

rw

When was that “Blue Monday” officially-most-depressing-day-of-the-year? And why is it not over yet?

1 year ago
Downcast face with sweat

rw

Seems I have decided to properly embrace Blue Monday this year. Weather’s crap. I need sleep. I think I’m going to eat every single molecule of carbohydrate that I come across.

1 year ago
Pouting face

rw

Just got a Black Friday email that made me VERY cross.

A curse for the bad-faith web developer:

"May all your domains accidentally expire without notice. May your database become inexplicably corrupt. And may all your backups not be restorable."

1 year ago
🎙

rw

I was on a call yesterday recording for a BBC radio programme and podcast! A little-known thing, but honestly, the producer and host were SO amazingly nice. Such a huge amount of positivity. 10/10 would do it again!

1 year ago
Exploding head

rw

Hang on. What the hell?

PHP comments can start with a '#' ?

Since when?!

😂

#stillLearning #TIL

1 year ago
Disappointed face

rw

A nasty cold has hit me like a truck today. Really wanted to try and progress Turbo Admin to its next release but… 😔

1 year ago
Thought balloon

rw

Here's my collated thoughts on potential exodus from Twitter. The recce's give me hope. But I don't think it properly happens any time soon:

https://rosswintle.uk/2022/10/something-about-twitter/

1 year ago
Sparkles

rw

I have arrived!

1 year ago