@vonExplaino@mstdn.social
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

vonExplaino

@vonExplaino@mstdn.social

Steampulp omnitologist. Ludicrology a specialty. Coder in PHP, Go, and JS. Puns ala cart.
He/ him.
Hear me at
@CopperheartPod

Anti-fascism.
Views are my own, not my employer.

#nobridge

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ramsey, to php
@ramsey@phpc.social avatar

I was looking at this Sass (SCSS) compiler, written in , and I noticed something very odd.

Under “requires (dev)," it requires two packages, sass/sass-spec and thoughtbot/bourbon, both of which appear to be empty packages, containing only a composer.json file, which has no dependencies.

What’s the purpose of these packages? They otherwise appear suspicious, to me, but I can’t see that they're doing anything nefarious right now—they just appear pointless.

https://packagist.org/packages/scssphp/scssphp

vonExplaino,
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

@ramsey Good spot. Looks like a redirect from the real packages https://github.com/thoughtbot/bourbon https://github.com/sass/sass-spec. Both created 5 months ago. Curious.

Em0nM4stodon, (edited ) to privacy

What new word should be
created to describe the specific angst of a privacy professional having their own data harvested left and right by HR third-party software while ironically applying for jobs in the privacy field? :dumpster_fire_gif:​

vonExplaino,
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

@Em0nM4stodon Apply-d knowlege? oHRoboros? Cassecandra?

vonExplaino, to random
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

Petition for further enshortening of fiction genres.

Science Fiction: Sci-Fi
Mystery Fiction: Why-Fi
Near-future fiction: Nigh-Fi
Soap Operas: Cry-Fi
Whodunnits: Lie-Fi
Cartoons for toys: Buy-Fi
Macho-action dudes: Guy-Fi
Sport losers-to-winners: Try-Fi
Vampire Fiction: Die-Fi
Fantasy Fiction (Giant subgenre): Fee fi
Martial-arts: Qi Fi
Fairies/ gnomes: Wee-Fi
Sailing/ voyages: Sea-Fi
Self-inserts: Me-Fi

Em0nM4stodon, to mastodon

Interesting fact about 's engagement:

For my tiny blog website,
I blocked most things that could be blocked to prevent my blog from being indexed and scanned.

I "unoptimized" my site for search. I also did not advertise it anywhere else outside of this Mastodon account. At all.

Despite this,
my hosting service sent me an email this month telling me I had over 4000 visits in less than a year! That is truly amazing! I was not expecting that at all from my humble tiny blog 🎉✨

Who said the
was bad for engagement?

Sincere thanks to all readers who visited it 💚

https://www.controlaltdelete.technology/

vonExplaino,
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

@Em0nM4stodon Splendid work, congratulations!

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Okay, so I'm going to type out a sentence, and I want you all to finish it, but instead of doing deep thinking about it, just type the very first thing that pops into your head. I know this will be hard for many of you, but try it! LOL

If I could do whatever I wanted to right now, I would _________.

vonExplaino,
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

@RickiTarr sleep

Reading up, this seems to be a common thread.

mikemathia, to Matrix
@mikemathia@ioc.exchange avatar

vonExplaino,
@vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

@mikemathia Damn, all I'm seeing is Blonde, Brunette...

rooster, to random
@rooster@chaosfem.tw avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @rooster metric or imperial boobs?

    vonExplaino, to random
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    This is the single worst Brady Bunch reboot I've ever seen screenshotted. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-30/former-prime-ministers-join-to-condemn-hamas-israel-solidarity/103039764

    Em0nM4stodon, to random

    If you are celebrating Halloween today,
    what are you dressing up as? :pumpkind:​ 👀

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @Em0nM4stodon a quick wardrobe raid and shave Gomez Addams to pair with daughter’sWednesday costume. Using a twiggy stick as substitute cigar was effective and delicious

    grmpyprogrammer, to random
    @grmpyprogrammer@phpc.social avatar

    So many years of waking up at 630am when combined with the stress of the last 6 weeks is getting to me. Even going to bed around 10pm is leaving me a zombie :(

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @grmpyprogrammer you’ve had a hell time for over a month. Be kind to yourself as the stress tireds is a natural result. The tired isn’t from nothing

    matthiasott, to random
    @matthiasott@mastodon.social avatar

    Working on updating my Webmention plugin for Craft CMS…
    Any keys missing? 😅

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @matthiasott Are you including the type of Webmention (reply, like, bookmark, etc.?)

    kcarruthers, to random
    @kcarruthers@mastodon.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @kcarruthers Wait what?

    syntaxseed, to php
    @syntaxseed@phpc.social avatar

    Hey... question...

    Say you have a function that has to return 1 of 3 states. Yes, no or N/A.

    What's the recommended way to do this?

    -Return an int flag?
    -True/false/null?
    -Return a value object?

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @syntaxseed I'd be wary of there being a difference between "N/A" and Null or Not Chosen. Nowadays, though, enums seem the go. https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.enumerations.php

    kcarruthers, to random
    @kcarruthers@mastodon.social avatar

    I just feel like the cheery note at the bottom is taunting us

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @kcarruthers Is it a cheery note, or a directive to Human Resources to escort the weather from the premises.

    neurothing, to random Italian
    @neurothing@metalhead.club avatar

    Ok, let's read this Werewolf: The Apocalypse 5ed. I have a good feeling about it.

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @neurothing

    horuskol, to php
    @horuskol@phpc.social avatar

    Been trying to get a HTML to PDF and DOCX thing going for a client...

    Quite happy with HTML to PDF (using Puppeteer and Chrome).

    The wheel falls off with the DOCX requirement - every solution we've tried so far (Aspose Words, Monolith CLI, Adobe) all have different issues with the output when converting from the PDF.

    Anyone had any luck getting this right?

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @horuskol I've found Pandoc to be excellent converting formats. Assign your own templates etc. https://pandoc.org/ Easy enough to call as an executable.

    jake4480, (edited ) to wordpress
    @jake4480@c.im avatar

    This one's gonna be a little long.

    Before I talk about my odd little niche WordPress projects, what are some of your blogs or personal projects, WordPress or otherwise? If you comment and link to them here, I'll definitely check them out! I like to see people's projects, what they've made and what they continue to work on. The fediverse has been really cool for seeing a lot of that. I'm also interested in how long we're able to keep passion projects going amidst the crazy chaos of life. It can be tough! But writing and making things is always super rewarding, as well-- at least it has been for me.

    I think I've always liked writing, I like music and that's basically mostly or all writing. At least it is for the lyrics of the vaguely rock type stuff I usually end up making. I write a lot of lyrics, short little bits, phrases. But for longer pieces, I've always liked the ease of writing and reading blogs and digital journals. I'm not one for writing in physical journals. I do like reading physical books, but for writing, but I prefer to type.

    Over the years, I've had the chance to experiment with different forms and styles of blogs, just as I've liked to do when designing websites. That was the initial appeal of microblogs like Twitter, things like Livejournal before it, and the huge appeal of WordPress, which of course you can use for short OR long form writing.

    I first started playing around with WordPress back around 2008. It was different back then! If you had a free plan, you could change the name of your blog to whatever you wanted as much as you wanted (something they don't allow anymore but was super useful if you needed to rebrand) etc, and all kinds of other differences (no block editor back then, either, obviously!)

    I do still have a blog running from back then. It's called space. time. tech. (https://spacetimetech.wordpress.com). The topics I wrote about on the blog are probably obvious from its title. I've been (pretty infrequently) updating that one for 15 years this year. Wow.

    The second oldest blog I still run I've mentioned here before. It's called Animated TV Blog (https://animatedtvblog.wordpress.com), and again, as its name fairly obviously suggests, I write about my favorite cartoons. I started Animated TV Blog in 2010 and it's been a blast, even just doing the infrequent updates. And I've been doing it for 13 years this year- another really long-running blog I've been able to maintain somehow (you gotta love the content!) I had a pretty active linked Twitter account too that I ran alongside ATB (back when Twitter was just microblogging, and not a fascist wasteland) for many years. Again, I believe the key to good blog writing is picking a topic or topics that you really love-- something you're really passionate about (not just a fad or a passing interest). That way, you'll be more likely to continue to want to write on the blog. At least it worked for me, in the case of ATB!

    My most recently created WordPress blog isn't updated anymore, but the posts are all still up and viewable. It was called Tech User Today (https://techusertoday.wordpress.com) and it was an experiment to try and make something a little more professional, to try and monetize with affiliate links (there's a lot of competition out there). I ended up taking on a bunch of outside reviews, and it was pretty cool, but it also quickly became overwhelming and not enjoyable. I started that one in 2018 and I stopped writing posts for it around two years later, in 2020.

    One last thing I've learned from writing WordPress blogs, always make sure to update and maintain your themes! Older default themes tend to start to look outdated or crappy. Just like any good website, it's best to just make sure you like the look of what you're making, and to remember you can always switch up the look of it- I've definitely done this several times over the last 15 years.

    If you read all this, you're awesome. And make sure to comment with your own projects!

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @jake4480 Ah the good(tm) old days of Geocities and plain HTML. Nowadays I've done the traditional old-nerd thing of build-your-own-blogging software. It seems I like tinkering over writing, but you can see randoms at https://vonexplaino.com/

    You don't have any custom MySpace HTML in your musical past?

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @jake4480 I had not heard of SpaceHey! Oh man, right in the nostalgia.

    leigh, to random
    @leigh@ottawa.place avatar

    I think we can all agree that if Reddit’s recent bullshit ends up meaning people go back to running old school forums it’ll be the absolute funniest possible outcome

    vonExplaino,
    @vonExplaino@mstdn.social avatar

    @leigh I don’t know, if it goes back to a combination of specifically Wordpress and PHPBB2, I don’t think I’ll ever stop laughing

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