WebIdiot.Online

Tweestorm: Jeff Willis on Query Letters

Back when Twitter was fun, screenwriters would sometimes string together a series of tweets - what came to be known as "tweetstorms." Advice, personal anecdotes, reflections on the craft. It was pretty awesome.The only problem: Once the tweetstorm came ... it went.So, I took to contacting the writers and asking if I could reprint their tweetstorm at Go Into The Story. That way, they'd at least be stored where folks could access them in the future.Here's an example: In May 201

You don't need Arch for cutting-edge Linux: These 5 distros do it without the frustration

<p>The appeal of Arch is obvious: you get the latest and greatest within days of their release. However, Arch also has a reputation for being difficult to install and requiring constant upkeep.</p><img src='https://static0.howtogeekimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/wm/2026/08/faraway-view-of-a-microsoft-surface-go-tablet-running-cachyos-linux.jpg' />

5 ingenious services you can self-host on the Raspberry Pi that&#039;s been sitting in your drawer since 2020

The community often recommends self-hosted apps like Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Audiobookshelf, and more. These aren't the only options; plenty of other self-hosted tools can do truly ingenious things. Many of them are lightweight enough to run on that old Raspberry Pi you should still have in your drawer.

UniFi vs. eero: There&#039;s only one good option for homelabbers like me

There are two big players in the home networking space—eero and UniFi. They both target different audiences, and I have extensive experience with both. I've chosen UniFi to run my homelab because, at this point, it's the only good option out there for my needs. Here's why I use UniFi and why I left eero in the dust.

3 fresh new Netflix documentaries to watch this weekend (October 9-11)

Netflix's prestige scripted hits like Florence Pugh's chart-topping East of Eden might get the lion's share of the hype, but documentaries and docuseries reliably rank as some of the streamer's most-watched programming. It turns out that even the greatest writers can't script some of the head-shaking storylines that only real life can conjure.

The Excel table feature I rely on every day is buried in plain sight. Here&#039;s how I uncovered it

Excel has a funny habit of giving you useful little tools and then making you work to find them. That can be frustrating, but you can fix a lot of Excel annoyances with a few small tweaks until it works the way you want. That's where I landed with table names. I wanted them to be easier to see, and it turns out Excel gives you a couple of ways to make that happen. T

I built a “no phone after 6 PM” system around a Pixel Watch, and it changed more than my screen time

Let me be clear about something — I've been looking for a way to desperately cut down on my screen time. Not just for an article, but like, actually. I think it's a problem. Turns out, actively integrating your smartwatch into attempts to curb that is actually a great idea.

Show HN: Privatrak – no-code, privacy-first product analytics

Hi HN!Quick story how it started: I was a freelance web developer in the past and also worked for several companies on web applications. For some projects we didn’t have analytics at all and we had to ask ourselves too many times what our users actually use in the product. Finding a good solution was painful, since we couldn’t use a consent banner (a lot of customers from the government) and existing tools were hard to set up so nobody took the time. I started with this idea already many years a

Declarative vs Imperative Animation in React: Where Each Model Wins

Declarative vs Imperative Animation in React: Where Each Model WinsA menu opens because isOpen became true. A notification leaves because React removed it from the tree. A card changes visual state when it receives focus.Then there is the hero where the heading splits into lines, the image unmasks 180 milliseconds later, the background drifts while the section is pinned, and the sequence changes direction when the user scrolls back.Both are animation. They are not the same programming prob

How to Build a Video Calling App with React Native and WebRTC

A FaceTime-quality call looks like one feature. Underneath, it is five systems that have to work in perfect sequence — camera capture, codec negotiation, NAT traversal, a signaling channel, and connection repair. This guide walks through building a React Native WebRTC video calling app end to end: real code, honest architectural tradeoffs, and the parts most tutorials skip. By the end you will have a working 1-to-1 call, a signaling server, and a clear path to scale beyond two participants. For

Who Owns Your Modal State? Designing Without a Global Singleton

An imperative API makes modals easy to open from anywhere. The architectural cost appears one level deeper: somewhere, something has to own the lifecycle.Once a modal can be opened like this:await modal.open(someModal, input);the next requirement usually arrives quickly: the same operation should be startable from somewhere that is not the component rendering the modal.A keyboard shortcut should open a modal.A command palette should open one.A test should mount an isolated application subtree.St

Our longest practice run is 30 minutes in one page view, and two seconds in a hidden tab ends it

Most practice on CogniPrep is short. A test is a few minutes, sometimes with a clock, sometimes without, and the browser never has to do anything unusual.The newest provider broke that. One test in the UK train driver battery is a vigilance test: 30 minutes of watching for something that rarely happens. At the assessment centre it runs without a break and cannot be paused, so ours does not pause either, and it says so on the public page and again on the brief before you start: leave the page for

527 Free shadcn/ui Component Variants for React (Radix UI and Base UI)

shadcn/ui ships one version of each component. One Button, one Input, one Select. That is on purpose: it is a starting point, not a design system.But real products need more. A button with a loading spinner. An input with a prefix and a clear button. A select with avatars. A file upload with progress bars. A badge with a status dot. Every time you need one of those, you open the shadcn docs, copy the base component and spend 20 minutes adjusting it.The Shadcn UI Kit components library collects t

Building a Responsive React Grid: CSS Grid vs React Grid Layout vs Data Grids

When building a React application, it's easy to search for a “react data grid” and assume that every grid library solves the same problem.In practice, the right choice depends on whether you're arranging page elements, creating an interactive dashboard, or displaying structured data.Let's break down the differences.CSS Grid for page structureCSS Grid is a solid starting point for responsive page layouts.It's useful for:Card collectionsDashboard sectionsContent columnsResponsive page structuresWi

ASK: HN Help and Forward Advice, Ideas: New Lossless cmpr MRT/CT, Astro

Hey HN,at first, i&#x27;m not from that subject field so I dont know what to do. I&#x27;m an ordinary engeneer with basics and unorthodox thinking. I used Claude to help me implement. Its a process of several months and bazills of millions of tokens of work. I can&#x27;t show or disclose, begging for your understanding.I can&#x27;t beat WEBP lossless on kodak test suite, YET; But I&#x27;m like 5% worser on RGBa. CMYK&#x27;s similar. Here, the advantage is me being 5-15x faster as WEBP &#x2F; oth

7 Home Assistant features I wish I’d started using sooner

I've been using Home Assistant for more than a decade, but I still come across things I've never seen before. Several great features make Home Assistant more powerful and easier to use, and I wish I'd started using them sooner.

I Passed An AI Job Interview. Here Are 5 Things That Worked

Worried about how to interview for your role with an AI interview agent? Here are five tips to ace your next AI job interview ...<img src='https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1714976694229-20285bd38000?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wyMzg1fDB8MXxzZWFyY2h8Mjd8fEludGVydmlld3xlbnwwfHwyfHwxNzE2MzQyOTE0fDA&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=1080' />

Mini PC vs. NAS: I&#039;ve used both in my homelab for 8 years, but there&#039;s only one I&#039;d recommend to beginners

I’ve been running a homelab for about eight years now, and during that time I’ve used both mini PCs and NAS systems for all kinds of workloads. I’ve also gone through several generations of Mini PCs and NAS. After all that experimentation, there is one I would recommend to most people starting their first homelab.

8 super-popular VS Code extensions you don&#039;t actually need anymore

Every extension you install adds startup time, uses memory, and gives you one more thing that can break after an update. Over the years, VS Code has absorbed many once-essential extensions by replacing them with built-in features. That means you might be running an extension for something VS Code can already do natively, making your setup more cluttered than it need

Spec Script Deal: &quot;This Land Is Our Land&quot;

Sony Pictures acquires thriller spec script &quot;This Land Is Our Land&quot; written by Casey Giltner. Via Deadline:Screenwriter Casey Giltner has sold elevated thriller spec This Land Is Our Land to Sony Pictures, Deadline has learned. Plot details are being kept under wraps.You may wonder what &quot;elevated thriller&quot; means as opposed to just &quot;thriller.&quot; My take? The &quot;elevated&quot; part means the script has quality characters (i.e., complex).Sony Pictures has been active