Weeknotes 193

Jeremy Keith on the Web on Mobile

There are mobile web proponents who are in denial about this state of affairs, who seek to place the blame at Apple’s feet for the fact that WebKit is the only rendering engine available on iOS. But WebKit’s limitations have nothing to do with the reasons so many websites suck when experienced on mobile devices. The mobile web sucks just as bad on Android. Apple’s WebKit-only rule on iOS is just a useful scapegoat for the fact that most websites, as experienced on phones, are designed and engineered to suck.

Facts.

gluetun – this will come in handy.

VPN client in a thin Docker container for multiple VPN providers, written in Go, and using OpenVPN or Wireguard, DNS over TLS, with a few proxy servers built-in.

When we bought our new house we decided to get the kind of insurance policies which typically go along with such a purchase. This week I had need to talk to a GP (nothing to worry about!) and I remembered that we had the ability to talk to a private GP thrown-in. Like any right thinking person I’m a supporter of the NHS but getting this appointment was way easier than it would’ve been through my regular GP, and my issue was addressed within 15 minutes.

We are destroying software

Yup.

For Christmas I was bought a pasta making course, and this week we attended. As my friend said “What a great skill to use 2 more times” – true, but I was still looking at pasta machines online before we left the venue 😆

In an act of further procrastination (yawn!) I briefly turned direction towards Home Automation this week by plugging in the Zigbee Coordinator I purchased some months ago. It’s nifty in that you can power it via USB or PoE and communicate with it via USB, Ethernet, or WiFi. I will always chose Ethernet and PoE if given the option as it rules out a whole raft of things that can go wrong with WiFi, and this time was no different.

Unfortunately I don’t have any fancy PoE-capable network equipment at the new house (yet!), which nearly turned into more purchases, but luckily I do own a PoE injector which I used to get it turned on and connected to the network.

The web UI for the coordinator is very nice and looks functional – you can apparently flash the firmware from it but I’m yet to try that. The next step will be to get some accompanying software up and running with our old friend Docker.

Lumon Industries WoeMeter – I’ve not seen Severance, but this is a cool walk-through of a prop made for the show.

Our house is one of those “one socket in each room” type places. For a while I’ve been thinking about getting some sort of desktop power strip, and with the monkeying about I’ve been doing with electronics the time came.

This nifty gadget looks pretty neat clamped to my desk and has USB-C power delivery and USB-A ports too.

It was my birthday this week. Meh.