Blog

My New Free Software Contribution - GitHub Avatars

My latest contribution to the free software community is a web extension for Firefox and Chrome called GitHub Avatars.

How To Translate CodeIgniter 3/4 language files with AI

You want to translate your CodeIgniter project into multiple languages? Well, I have created a PHP library called codeigniter-ai-translation, which uses Anthropic’s Claude AI to translate your language files. You can install it via composer using the link above.

I switched my Docker backend from Hyper-V to WSL2

I’ve been using Docker for nearly three years now, primarily for development purposes. As a Windows user, I’ve consistently utilized Hyper-V as the backend. This choice was mainly due to the poor performance of the WSL2 backend, particularly because I insisted on keeping my application files on the Windows partition. Although the Hyper-V backend worked adequately for me, it was still slower than production, even on my high-end desktop PC. Consequently, I never felt compelled to switch to the WSL2 backend, despite it being considered the future of Docker for some time.

New version of my game Nazdar! (v0.17)

After nine months, I have released a new version of my open-source game, Nazdar! The Game.

Why Microsoft is pushing WinUI when it does everything with the web

• Loop
• Clipchamp
• Outlook

Why should we, poor developers, use native Microsoft desktop technologies (even if they are multiplatform) like MAUI or WinUI3, when even Microsoft itself is not capable of it and uses web technologies for new applications?

How To Restore MariaDB backup

This is a very fine-tuned procedure to restore MariaDB backups. Make sure you restore the DB to the same version of MariaDB.

My First Real Game - Check It Out - Nazdar! The Game

After more than a year of work, in March I “published” my more or less first real game, which I programmed in C# in the Monogame framework.

How I Built My Own Arcade Cabinet

Who could resist building their own gaming console? I decided to build an Arcade Cabinet, in the “tabletop” version, also known as a Bartop. I watched several American videos (they all do it the same way) and adapted it a bit for Czech conditions and my own needs (no nail gun, no joysticks, no rubber around the edges). Finally, I found a reasonable use for my Raspberry Pi 3A, which was “lying around in a drawer”. All I had to do was install Retropie on it. I had already done that in the past, but the whole point is to have your own “hardware”, or better yet, a box.

How I Escaped the Cloud

Half a year ago, I famously migrated my websites and experiments to Azure, specifically to Static Web Apps (which are free), App Service (Flask website, also basically free with limited CPU time), and Cosmos DB (a NoSQL database with a SQL-like API…sounds better than it actually is). And I was basically satisfied, I had resource groups in Azure with individual services, an overview of spending, and even nameservers in Azure DNS (because I couldn’t find a CZ registrar that could handle ALIAS/ANAME).

BitBucket PowerToy - my (another) mini-project

I have a problem with issues at work being spread across several BitBucket repositories. BitBucket cannot limit the visibility of issues to a specific person/team, so we have a separate repository for each major client.

Diesel - my next mini project

I made a mini project just for fun - diesel - it shows the current fuel prices at my two favorite gas stations. How does it work?

How I migrated to the cloud

I decided to move all my small websites from the company server to the cloud and get rid of Wordpress at the same time, because I’m a Wordpress hater. I decided to migrate to Azure, because I’m a Microsoft fanboy and with one condition, it has to be completely free, because I’m stingy.

ExitShop IoT - smart box

I created an Internet of Things smart box for ExitShop to display the current number of orders and, most importantly, play a melody (like Super Mario) when a new order arrives.

Heating Dashboard, Tecomat Scraping in Node.js, WiFi Thermometer on ESP8266, and More

In our house, we have underfloor heating controlled by a Tecomat box, which opens and closes valves based on the temperature in each room and the set target temperature, allowing hot water to flow into each room separately.

How Firefox annoyed me with automatic form caching

I don’t know when or why, but Firefox started caching forms, probably as a protection against accidental deletion, for example by refreshing the page. It may seem like a great feature for users, but I find it very non-standard.

From WAMP to Docker, simply

Motivation

Whenever we onboard a new developer to ExitShop, the biggest challenge is setting up the system locally, typically on some WAMP (Xampp, Neard…). Usually, it involves three steps:

ARCO1500 - support on Startovač and get a retro gaming console

After about a year of development, I would like to introduce our new project - ARCO1500 8-bit gaming console.

How to Monitor Temperature on Raspberry Pi

You don’t want your Raspberry Pi to catch fire, do you?

How to Easily Automate Website Testing - Selenium and Webdriver

After every major change in a project, or even with every release, it is advisable to test the basic functionality of the application. End-to-End testing directly in the browser is one of the options and, in my opinion, it’s fun.

How to Hack Saved Passwords from Browsers

I have recorded a short tutorial on how to retrieve saved passwords from a browser. Maybe most people don’t know this:

Two useful tools for automatic PHP code improvement - ECS and Rector

The first tool is Easy Coding Standard. You can install it via composer (either in your project or globally) and simply run it in the console:

How I Bought a Hamster and Built Him a Shelter Including Electrification

I bought a hamster for an ungodly amount of money at Petshop for my workplace. His name is Pixie IV. and yes, he is already the fourth dwarf hamster with this name… don’t ask what happened to III.

Upgrading CodeIgniter from version 2 to 3 - what to watch out for?

The CodeIgniter documentation describes the upgrade process in quite detail on this page. In addition to incremental upgrades, there is a longer article on upgrading from version 2.2.x to 3.0.x. Here are a few things that I had specific problems with:

Percona Toolkit for analyzing MySQL slow log on Windows

Analyzing MySQL slow log is one of the basic and most powerful ways to speed up a website and prevent overloading the database server. The idea is to look at SQL queries that took too long and were frequently executed, and then optimize them (by adding indexes or rewriting, grouping, splitting, etc.).

5 Useful Developer Extensions for Chrome

Hey, I offer an overview of extensions that I use when developing websites. They are practically the only extensions I use, besides AdBlock. I try to keep them to a minimum.

cmder: upgraded console for Windows

Unfortunately, cmd.exe has been the same for several (dozens of) years and lacks many pleasant features compared to Unix terminals. And if it doesn’t lack them, it’s incompatible with Unix, which can be an obstacle in development - many tutorials are written for Unix and you will encounter it on servers as well. It’s difficult to copy and paste from and to it, scrolling is difficult, standard Unix commands don’t work, etc.

How is the development of Steam Kitty going?

Promisingly, after about a month, I’ve leaned back into it and am slowly finishing up. I still need to create a few more backgrounds and find suitable music and sounds. And of course, fine-tune the game settings and fix some bugs that appear on Androids.

Steam Kitty - development continues

Development of my game project is progressing nicely. The release may be sooner than I expected, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

New version of Diabetic Diary!

Yesterday, on impulse from a user, I decided to expand the functionality of my simple Android application by adding data export, specifically glucose value tables. In the application, you can generate a table, enter an email, and the table will be sent to you in PDF format, which you can then show to your doctor. This eliminates the need to manually transfer values from your mobile device to paper.

SteamKitty - development started

After unsuccessful attempts with thekulis.com in both its versions (text-based game, MMORPG), I decided to do something simpler, something I will actually finish.

Dog Pee - one of the first Czech HTML5 games in Windows 8 Store!

Yes, it’s true! Today, my Windows 8 version of Dog Pee was approved. This makes it the third platform, after Chrome Webstore and Android Market. Of course, it can also be played in a regular browser :)

Dog Pee comeback!

About a year ago, I created an HTML5 game for the Google MámPadla competition and placed 3rd. I published it on the Chrome Webstore.

Looking back at the Mám padla competition

“In the end, the TV Program application was declared the winner, while QR Code Base was disqualified - however, there was still no official statement.”

Dog Pee - my new HTML5 game!

It’s true, I too have succumbed to the HTML5 craze and decided to create an HTML5 game for a competition organized by Google - Mám Padla. So please, the +1 button will help me :)