Oh fun. My anti virus/malware software says VS Code's GitHub Copilot Chat has a dodgy Base64-encoded script in it! You'd think GitHub, of all people, would know not to do that!

I'm not a video games connoisseur but one of my faves on the little PlayDate console, Hyper Meteor, is now on Steam! A tiny asteroids-like game, but so much fun, perfect difficulty level, excellent sound design. I'm gonna wreck a controller playing this. store.steampowered.com/app/1425590/...

This is incredible. And funny. If you understand why. “Horrible edge cases to consider when dealing with music” dustri.org/b/horrible-e...

After this week's firehose, I’m back on my wanting-to-improve-school-comms train again. I'm convinced that there's a relatively simple solution to 80% of most school comms issues. But I also know that schools are focussed on education and care, not comms, and would find process change hard.

A random thing I learned today. Occasionally this live version of the Gin Blossoms “Hey Jealousy” pops up in YouTube. I like the 90s nostalgia of it. youtu.be/wgEQ3FzaS1U They’re on the Jon Stewart Show, and at the end he thanks “Howard Stevenberg” and Howard Stern for being on the show. 1/2

Oh, yay! I didn’t think my LoopConf talk recording was going to be free to watch. But it’s out on YouTube. This was an epic labour of love. I’m so glad I can share it with you. My 25 Lessons from 25 years of software development in (a little over) 25 minutes. youtu.be/cyxQ82L298Y

A new series of my Household Problems drawings (as seen in my newsletter every week). This one: What your leaning fence says about you.

This is an excellent little pop-up calendar app for MacOS. Free. Love it. lowtechguys.com/grila/

Phew! Epic day with the kids: - Science Museum - Minecraft Experience - Getting lost in Westfield Shopping Centre - Finding a Nintendo pop-up store! - Driving to London and back Hooray!!

I'm taking my kids to a thing in London tomorrow and I can only take in a bag that's A4 size or smaller. WHAAAAT?!

I wrote down some thoughts about my hope for #PHP open source: stitcher.io/blog/sponsor...

We played a silly family car game just now. It has raised a very interesting question. What would happen if you exposed a marshmallow to the vacuum of space? We are now down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos titled “X in a vacuum chamber” Can flies fly in a vacuum chamber? Is this even ethical?

I stumbled upon github.com/observablehq... and damn, this is cool. I've been looking for a nicer way to render HTML in JavaScript for ages.

Hacktivate looks like a cool game for MacOS/iOS. Security/code-breaking challenges, teaching text encodings, image processing, and command-line. You probably need to be a beginner computer nerd to not be totally confused (there's a free tutorial). But this seems very clever. www.hacktivate.app

This looks like an amazing resource, and it’s free! (Just some P&P) storytellertactics.com/free-deck

found this weird cable buried in my back garden when I was planting potatoes. couldn't figure out what it was for so I just chopped it up with a shovel. didn't get electrocuted so I assume it was okay. posting here because I can't log into facebook right now

Still trying AI. Last week: Oh. Claude Code seems really clever. It’s guided me to best practice for a thing I don’t know much about. This week: Me consulting the docs and finding out this is not best practice at all, and Claude apologising and tearing its own recommendations to shreds… 1/2

Is “Rotated poop emoji” now a trend in logos? Or is it purely accidental? 🫣 This is the second I’ve seen in as many weeks!

So it turns out that if you barely ever see anyone because you remote work, and then you see many trains, planes, restaurants, bars and offices at a team on-site, you might pick up nasty bugs that you no immunity to. 🤧🤒😴 (Sorry, team. Hanging out with you was great though!!)

"How to build a dev team". Not gonna lie, I freakin' LOVE that Laracasts is doing this kind of content. I've started watching this and it's great. Also... Oi, @jeffreyway.bsky.social ! Get Laracasts on Bluesky or Mastodon will ya? There's plenty of us over here now! 😃

New post: You probably don't want to build "finished software". But what can we learn by thinking about it as a concept? rosswintle.uk/2025/10/soft...

I don’t remember how I found it but Rogue Words is that rare thing: A free iOS game. That’s it. It’s a free game! A roguelike word game with Scrabble influence. Really nicely done. rogue-words.web.app

It still amazes me what they teach 9 and 10 year olds. Homework this week: “Main Focus: How can I make the appropriate choice of pronoun or noun within and across sentences to aid cohesion and avoid repetition?” I’m sorry, do what now?

A little reflection on last week's @loopconf.com I'm so glad this happened. I was honoured to be a contributor. And it reminded me of how important in-person events are, and how hard they are to organise (Thank you, @rzen.net !!!) rosswintle.uk/2025/10/loop...

No, NYT Connections puzzle. Go home. You’re drunk!

I’ve not flown on a plane for about 15 years. I am flying next week. I am SO confused about baggage and check in.

Oh yay! One of my favourite little Playdate games is on Steam too! store.steampowered.com/app/1425590/... (via the excellent Wired write up of the Playdate: www.wired.com/story/three-...)

Can the title of this article have the “for seniors” removed? This sounds like a good direction for TVs for everyone. www.theverge.com/news/785808/...

I've not exported slides for my @loopconf.com talk yet. But honestly, they're not that interesting. However I created a little resources for exploring notes and links about the “25 lessons" that I presented (or was it one lesson?), and you can select lessons and get those notes here: 25.forwp.dev

LoopConf talk done! Phew! Does that stage ever get less intimidating? Thank you everyone for all your lovely feedback. And thank you @loopconf.com and @rzen.net for such an amazing day.

I never meant to be working for a large US corporate, but honestly, this company has some great values and amazing people, and I’m actually really proud to be representing them at LoopConf this week. wpengine.com/blog/loopcon...

Dang, this is SUCH a good article on hiring software engineers: leaddev.com/hiring/how-h...

There is a policeman with a police car stood not far from our primary school gate this morning. People are just driving up and parking on double-yellow lines right in front of him. This is a tiny diorama view of the state of the world right now.

I think this is genuinely the best news story I read this week. Ultralight backpackers going all in on Haribo-branded battery packs. Amazing. www.theverge.com/tech/781387/...

For some reason there is a September School Disco this year. “Golden” from K-Pop Demon hunters was playing on drop-off. 200 tweens trying to hit that high A5 note! I hope the teachers have good ear defenders. 😂

This JavaScript Markdown editor is right up my street. Small, simple, zero dependencies (as far as I can tell). Great work! overtype.dev

2005: Your website looks like it was designed by a 3-year-old and barely works, this can't be a trustworthy source of information 2025: Your website looks like it was designed by a 3-year-old and barely works, this is the last bastion of truth on the Internet

Not gonna lie. All creative activity is kinda on hold until @loopconf.com is done. Will my talk be perfect? Nope. Has it taken on a life of its own? Hell yeah it has! I think it is writing me at this point!! Will there be way more than a half hour talk’s worth of stuff? Oh yes!!

Don't sleep on this opportunity! Contact @rzen.net and join us on 25 Sept!

Oh heck… 😂

Hrm, new phishing scam: "WebFiling is moving to GOV.UK One Login" purportedly from Companies House. Links are all to amazonaws rather than .gov.uk, and the email is from [email protected] or [email protected]

I won’t link it but I read a post on X today that was basically “WordPress has discovered package management and static content sources” But, of course, it’s done it in its very own, proprietary way rather than using existing, mature tech, and arrived there through a very circuitous route. Again!!

Hello fellow WordPress devs! If your schedule permits, I would be honored if you joined me for @loopconf.com on Sept 25th! I personally curated the schedule and couldn't be happier about the diversity of perspectives and experiences we get to hear. Check it out: loopconf.com

Perfect charity social media post. Amazing.

Oh gosh. So many things about me are grumpy-old-man-longs-for-things-to-be-like-the-olden-days right now! And it all feels so rational. Things WERE better. Is this how my parents feel/felt? Or did I grow up in some golden age?

Pico8 Xenon Megablast demake

YO DID YOU PEOPLE SEE THE INSANE DRONE SHOW IN SEOUL FOR KPOP DEMON HUNTERS!?!? youtube.com/shorts/Wnya4...

I keep discovering people who are going to @loopconf.com and it’s getting VERY exciting! So many people I finally get to meet in person. 😃

I have people saved in my phone like “Mary Landlord” and “Jim Maintenance” and it occurs to me that’s the way that Anglo surnames have always worked

I'm getting my music collection out of the cloud. Here's a write-up, including the apps I'm using on MacOS and iOS to do it. Digital music is great. Discovery platforms are great. But I want to OWN my tunes. rosswintle.uk/2025/09/de-c...