What I Install First on a New MacBook

May 6, 2026 | Comment

I’d decided that I was going to setup my MacBook Neo as a new machine, rather than burden it with all the bloat from my MacBook Pro backup. This gave me both the opportunity to start with a clean machine but also to make a list of my essential software to install.

The List

Here are all the apps I consider to be essential enough to install as soon as I get a new machine. Other apps come and go, but these I use daily. Presented here in no particular order.

App	Paid/Free	Description
1Password	Paid (~£65, family plan)	An,

… Read the rest

What’s Wrong with Vibe Coding?

April 29, 2026 | Comment

TL;DR Nothing*

You are the last of your kind

When I started work as a very junior developer in 1988, one of the first languages I used was ICL’s Application Master. This was what was known as a fourth-generation language (4GL). I was confidently told I would be one of the last developers before the next generation of language allowed anyone to create their own programs. Somewhat later than I think that commentator had envisioned, 40 years later in fact, I think we might be getting close to that democratisation of development.

For those interested, this is what Application … Read the rest

Restricting who can reply to a Bluesky post with php2Bluesky

April 23, 2026 | Comment

I had an email from a php2Bluesky user who wanted to know how you could set the restrictions on who could reply to a post. This was something that php2Bluesky didn’t support, but I thought it would be good to, so I have updated the code. Here’s how to use that feature.

Thread Gates

Looking at the Bluesky web app there were six different options you could select to set who could respond to a post:

Everyone (the default)
Nobody
Your followers
People you follow
People you mention
Anyone in a list you provide.

I did a bit of research … Read the rest

How to add files to WordPress larger than the allowed maximum size

April 22, 2026 | Comment

Occasionally, I need to add files to one of my WordPress sites that are larger than the maximum upload size that is set on the server. I could, of course, go and raise this, but I don’t want to do that for the odd occasion it is needed.

Just uploading a file to the wp-content folder via sFTP isn’t enough as you also need to tell WordPress that the file is there. Enter WP-CLI.

Setting up WP-CLI

WP-CLI allows you to carry out WordPress admin instructions, but from the command line rather than the usual browser interface. We’re only … Read the rest

Free2 Page Turner

April 15, 2026 | Comment

When looking at the third-party options that are available for the Xteink X4 eReader one that frequently came up that peope wanted were page turners and, in particular, the Free2.

What’s a Page Turner?

Page turners are a two-key physical keyboard that is linked to your device via Bluetooth and maps onto the previous and next page buttons on your eReader. If you have your device in a stand or anywhere that’s not in your hand, you can use these keys to turn the pages. Actually, you can use them when the device is in your hand too, but that … Read the rest

Xteink Tong Card in Use

April 9, 2026 | Comment

Following on from my previous post taking a look at the Xteink Tong Card, in this post I am looking at how you can flash the card without using the official Xteink app.

What’s the Issue?

In order to put an image on the card you need an app to select the image and then flash it onto the card using NFC. This you can do with the official Xteink app, but only if you are using the Mainland China version, which requires a Chinese phone number to register. As I don’t have one of these, I went … Read the rest

Xteink Tong Card

April 8, 2026 | 2 comments

Xteink has a new device and it’s not an eBook reader! This is the Tong Card, which is still an e-ink display, but is a battery-less NFC device.

What’s a Tong Card?

I have to admit I had no idea why it was called a “Tong Card” and wasn’t 100% sure that it was so I turned to AI to explain it to me. I uploaded the image above and this is what it had to say:

Based on the image and the Chinese text, this is actually a Tóng Card (瞳卡). The confusion likely comes from the

… Read the rest

Posting to WordPress Microposts with php2Micropost

April 1, 2026 | Comment

I have accounts on plenty of microblogging sites (Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky and even Threads) but they are all owned and controlled by someone else. I decided that I wanted something that I could use and manage, and a quick search came up with Michael Gbadebo‘s WordPress plugin called Microposts.

I installed this and after playing around for a while, I decided that it was just what I was looking for. However, it was quite cumbersome to make a post from a mobile device when I was out and about. What I wanted was a simple … Read the rest

How to turn PHP code into a package that will work with Composer

March 25, 2026 | Comment

I’ve learned a lot while developing my php2Bluesky package spurred on by my own desire to make a decent product and by suggestions from users. One such itch I needed to scratch was to take my static code and turn it into something that I could use with Composer, the de facto way of handling dependancies in PHP.

I have to admit that not everyone was thrilled about my proposed move to Composer, as many seemed to prefer not to use it and to manage updates and load the code manually. This meant that I also needed to make … Read the rest

Xteink X4 – 3rd Party Support

March 18, 2026 | 1 comment

The Xteink X4 was launched only a few months ago in December 2025 but already there is a rich third-party ecosystem building up around it. In this post I take a look at all the things that are cropping up from cases to companion apps. Read on to learn more…

Table of Contents

Getting Started
Alternative Firmware
Companion Apps
External Light
Cases
Utilities
Page Turners
Conclusions

Getting Started

The first thing that you will want to … Read the rest