iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Thomas

@michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy

19 followers 0 following 1.1K posts

Full stack web developer currently working mostly with #PHP / #Laravel, Vanilla #Javascript and #SCSS. Love learning more about (almost) anything, but particularly […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mstdn.thms.uk/@michael, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Posts Replies Media

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 22h

Anyone know what’s happening with glitch-soc? First time there is more than a very short delay between an upstream release and a glitch one. #mastoAdmin

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Okay, Silly mastodon spammers targeting Eugen is just amazing 😂

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Wife is finally getting her Shopify store finished. And when I say she’s getting it finished it does of course mean she’s telling me to finish it up 😁 Time to learn liquid I guess. Here’s to hoping messing with Shopify themes isn’t as soul-destroying as messing with Wordpress themes. I may or […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

Hey @readeck , quick question: have you considered allowing sharing a link to an article without expiry (or with a configurable, longer expiry)? E.g. I would like to share something I read with the OH, but she'll likely not get around to reading it until later this week, which means I'll have […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026

I was reminded today how, when I was approaching the end of my master’s degree, I was fantasising about a future time without exams and thesis writing a time where I’d just work. How much free time I’d have. A wife, three kids, a house, a garden, and a dog later I can hardly remember how stress […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Just realised that #kagi translate is now essentially a paid for product, that’s not even included in the Kagi subscription. That’s a shame! blog.kagi.com/translate-is-back

Kagi Translate is back

Kagi Translate is moving to a freemium model and launching a new standalone Individual subscription for $8/month. Anyone with a Kagi account can continue using Translate for free with a limited monthly allowance. For people...

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Just relesed v8.2.1 of FediFetcher. This is a very small release that only fixes a bug in fetching replies for PeerTube videos, so you should definitely update if you are using FediFetcher: github.com/nanos/FediFetcher/releas… #FediFetcher

Release v8.2.1 · nanos/FediFetcher

What's Changed Recognise PeerTube short /w/... video URLs by @nanos in #243 Update instructions For full instruction, please see the Updating FediFetcher documentation

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026

Can’t fault the maths here 😂

Screenshot of a notification fro Tesco:
**Triple the value on dining out**
Your £0 in Clubcard vouchers becomes £0 with selected dining partners

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

LOL. Looking at the storage on my macbook today, and now I do have to ask: Why on earth would Word, Outlook, and Excel need 2.5 GB each?! That's ridiculous even in 2026 😂

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026

As part of my migration from omg.lol to self hosting, I've written myself a very simple link shortener that uses Cloudflare Workers to redirect short links. I thought it might be helpful to some: blog.thms.uk/2026/09/link-shortener…

A No-Database Link Shortener on Cloudflare Workers - blog.thms.uk

Build a no-database URL shortener on Cloudflare Workers. Redirects live in a single TypeScript file you edit and push, with automatic deploys via Forgejo or GitHub Actions.

Reposted by Michael Thomas

tante @tante.tldr.nettime.org.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

Open Source hot take: A software project is allowed to be *done*. Not everything needs to add features or rewrite things. You can just be happy with functionality and focus on just maintainance. "Maintenance mode" is not always bad but can just show a mature product.

Reposted by Michael Thomas

Luca Sironi @luca.sironi.xyz · 22/09/2026

#mastoadmin #mastohelp Sincethey released the feature, I saved alternate text for my avatar and banner profile. But is there any client/ interface that show those informations to people ? #mastodon #fedivers

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026

My eldest just sleep walked into the living room trying to get ready for school (it’s 10 pm here). Man that’s scary! Especially if I think what might have happened had we not benn there and guided him back into bed. Would he have left the house? 😱

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

RE: martianbase.net/@mackuba/1172929620… I was wondering what that recent security update was about. Guess now I know … #MastoAdmin

martianbase.net

Reposted by Michael Thomas

Jon Henshaw @henshaw.social · 17/09/2026

You can now embed social posts in @recollect notes from: ◾ @Mastodon ◾ @pixelfed ◾ @loops ◾ @peertube ◾ @Flipboard #Fediverse #PWA #IndieDev

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

Well, colour me shocked 🙄 www.theregister.com/security/2026/0…

theregister.com

Ofcom discovers issuing Online Safety Act fines is easier than collecting them

Platforms comply just enough to avoid being blocked, leaving the regulator chasing debt

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Reposted by Michael Thomas

Daniel Supernault @dansup.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

Making real progress on laravel-activitypub, a batteries included ActivityPub package for laravel. This will replace federation logic in @pixelfed and @joinloops and make it really easy to implement AP in your own laravel apps! #laravel #activityPub

Laravel ActivityPub

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

Enjoyed reading this: oussama-mater.tech/laravel-queue-go… #Laravel

oussama-mater.tech

A Series of Unfortunate Jobs

Laravel queues are great out of the box, until they bite. Let me show you few gotchas I learned the hard way.

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Being playing around with #ecosia for a bit, and it’s weird: I either leave safe search on, in which case it filters aggressively. Or I turn it off, in which case almost every image search for a person (especially female) is full of nude images. No middle ground. 🤷‍♂️

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

The amount of spam in my timeline recently is absurd. so much of this “buy verified paypal/revolut/whatever accounts” nonsense. And almost all from mstdn.plus or masto.nu. FWIW, their admins tend to respond really really quickly to reports, but I'm still really tempted to suspend those two […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

My little kid is about to grow up 😢

Email about my child's Google account update in 30 days, with details on changes and parental controls.

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026

The irony … github.com/laravel/vapor-cli/pull/2… #Laravel #PHP mstdn.thms.uk/@michael/117207970827…

Issue comment by Taylor complaining that AI PRs are often rubbish…

Reposted by Michael Thomas

Ed @edbo.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

@michael I have to pay a corporation to report an issue in 'free' software now?

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

Yikes! This wouldn't be half as bad if Taylor wasn't absolutely famous for closing PRs without any feedback. #Laravel #PHP

Taylor Otwell's tweet:

Last week I disabled GitHub Issues on most Laravel open-source packages.

If you hit a bug, describe it to a coding agent and open a PR. Even if the code isn't great, that's fine - code can be iterated on. The PR still documents the problem, and a proper fix can follow.

I suspect this will soon be how most open-source libraries operate.

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026

I have just released version 8.2.0 of FediFetcher. This version provides support for some minor Fediverse services that were not previously supported, and ignores `robots.txt` for authenticated requests to your home instance (this does not affect requests to 3rd party instances), as well as […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Reposted by Michael Thomas

Out of Control :laravel: 🇨🇦 @outofcontrol.phpc.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

In my weekly email newsletters I subscribe to, a popular PHP personality wrote for their weekly tip "Don't make mistakes.” For everyone out there that looks up to these PHP “experts”, don’t listen to this. Go forth and make mistakes, make lots of mistakes. Not only is it human to make mistakes […]

Original post on phpc.social

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026

RE: mstdn.thms.uk/@michael/117197499651… Just bumping this, to see if any FediFetcher users running GitHub Action can test the latest version to test that everything is working. If you have tried, can you let me know, ideally with a link to the first GitHub Action run post update? […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026

I have just tagged 8.2.0-rc1 of #FediFetcher. This release: ⁃ adds support for fetching content from some Mastodon-compatible servers ⁃ Ingores robots.txt for authenticated calls to the home instance ⁃ bumps dependencies I would welcome some feedback from users, especially if you are running […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026

Question for users of #fedifetcher on #gotosocial (if there are any): How do you get around the built in robots.txt disallowing access to the `/api/` endpoints? Or don’t you? Background: github.com/nanos/FediFetcher/issues…

Should the robots.txt check apply to the configured home server? (GoToSocial disallows /api/) · Issue #239 · nanos/FediFetcher

Hi — a question rather than a bug report, because I think this is a deliberate design decision and I would like to understand the intent before working around it. Setup FediFetcher 8.1.1 (Docker, g...

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026

Just come back from a week in Norfolk which was amazing! Less amazing that a fuse tripped while we were away, so my mastodon instance - and everything else I self host - has been down for ~ 2.5 days. I guess that’s just the risk of self hosting… On the plus […] [Original post on mstdn.thms.uk]

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 21/08/2026

How did only learn about #Renovate last week?! I’m blown away. It’s so much better than dependabot in every way. Not to mention it’s super simple to set up on my self-hosted #Forgejo instance too! Amazing tool! docs.renovatebot.com

docs.renovatebot.com

Renovate documentation.

Reposted by Michael Thomas

Mastodon Engineering @mastodonengineering.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2026

We just released Mastodon 4.7.0! This version contains very few user-facing changes, but significantly reworks the backend code to improve security and support new protocol features. You can read more about it on our blog: blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/08/masto… Note for admins […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2026

Headscale/tailscale and docker are about as close to magic as it gets! #forgejo just released a new version, and here I am on a train with my phone. VPNed into my home network (where my server sits) from my phone. A quick `docker compose pull && docker compose up -d` later and a minute later […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026

Whilst in Kensington Palace today I learnt of the story of the last princess of the Punjab, who amazingly had a mother born in Alexandria, Egypt (my wife’s home town) and spent a significant time of her adult life living in Kassel, Germany (my home town). I was not expecting that …

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2026

lol. That’s a first 😂😂😂

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2026

Well, that was a bit startling! Scared my kids senseless. Little one was crying for fear for a good 10 min 😩

Screenshot of emergency alert:

There is a very high risk of wildfires nationally. Residents, landowners and visitors should not undertake any activity that could start a fire, including disposable barbecues, firepits, garden incinerators or fireworks. Even a small flame can rapidly develop into a major wildfire placing lives, homes, businesses and emergency responders at risk.
Follow official updates and report signs of fire immediately by calling 999. Search gov.uk/alerts for more information.

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Reposted by Michael Thomas

Daniel Supernault @dansup.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2026

Starting a new Loops instance comes with a classic problem: no people means no content, and no content makes it harder to attract people. So I built an official Loops relay, proudly funded by @nlnet. Enable it with one tap and your instance can start […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Loops admin dashboard relay page

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

TIL: #Apple can add a number row to their keyboard if they want to. Why are they refusing to do this on the English keyboard layout??

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026

The latest #FediFetcher release is a simple bug fix: github.com/nanos/FediFetcher/releas… This should be particularly relevant if you are running FediFetcher against Sharkey, or another non-Mastodon instance. (Worth saying that we don't officially support running […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

RE: mastodon.social/@Mastodon/117083691… This is a really really good change! I shall add the disclaimer to my instance later today to be compliant. Thanks @Mastodon for listening to us! #mastoadmin

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 12/08/2026

My kid made himself a pinhole projector rather than a pinhole camera. A fun little impromptu viewing party with the neighbours ensued who all admired his ingenuity. Great fun to watch!

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026

New post: Last night my docker containers did not come back after a scheduled host reboot. I don't know why. I'm hoping this script should prevent this from recurring though: blog.thms.uk/2026/08/docker-compose… If anyone got a good theory on why […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026

Aaaand just like that I’m on v4.7-beta1. I love docker! #mastoAdmin #docker

Reposted by Michael Thomas

Mastodon Engineering @mastodonengineering.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026

We released the first beta for Mastodon 4.7 today. It contains very few user-facing changes, but contains significant reworks of the backend code to improve security and support new protocol features. This update includes substantial database migrations that might take up to a couple of hours […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2026

I just pressed the button for #FediFetcher v8.1: github.com/nanos/FediFetcher/releas… The big new thing is that it’ll support backfilling more than 1 page of posts for new followers/followings, but please note that this does come with some drawbacks. There are also better […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 07/08/2026

New blog post by me: How you can specfic IPs from your Mastodon server's rate limiting: blog.thms.uk/2026/08/exempting-ip-f… Especially useful if you want to exempt FediFetcher from the rate limit. #MastoAdmin #Fedifetcher

Exempting an IP from Mastodon's rate limits - blog.thms.uk

My FediFetcher install kept tripping my own instance's rate limits. A Rack::Attack initialiser let me safelist its IP, once I'd worked out which IP Rails actually sees.

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 06/08/2026

Meta doesn't want to be the only one who hasn't hacked anyone yet, I see ... www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2kgdn… What really grates me is that if people were doing these things they'd go to prison. But with AI models doing it, it's not even a slap on […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026

The news nobody was expecting: I've tagged a new major version of FediFetcher: github.com/nanos/FediFetcher/releas… This is a major rewrite of FediFetcher into a proper package, which should hopefully allow me to address the remaining outstanding issues. There are few […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2026

Is anyone able to reach @staff@treehouse.systems? Their webfinger server is broken: IIf I access treehouse.systems/.well-known/webfi… I get a TLS certificate for gitea.treehouse.systems. This breaks their federation on the fediverse. I've […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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Michael Thomas @michael.mstdn.thms.uk.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2026

My kid has released another tool that he's written for himself: Ovi is a lightweight local model server that delivers an ollama‑style developer experience, built natively on Intel’s OpenVINO runtime for efficient CPU and GPU inference: github.com/nathanael-thms/ovi. Check out the docs […]

Original post on mstdn.thms.uk

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