I've been a passionate software developer for a very long time ... now I'm a tech-savvy IT manager and tinker with things like this blog in my free time ;)
Developing software never lets you go. It's a creative passion and for me it's the web that has fascinated me for almost 30 years.
My latest stuff is below and here is more about me. Meet me @kiko@indieweb.social.
Recently I read the blog post “Mastodon on your own domain without hosting a server” by Maarten Balliauw, which dealt with how to become more visible in the Fediverse, more precisely in Mastodon, with your own domain, because in contrast to the Indieweb approach, the Fediverse relies on Actors (@USER@INSTANCE) of the respective instance/platform and can only include your own domain, if it becomes a Fediverse endpoint itself.
In my case, the latter is not possible because this blog is a static site, generated via Hexo and hosted on GitHub. It simply lacks a modifiable active server component.
However, Maarten has found a trick to at least make it findable in Mastadon via his own domain. First, he explains how Fediverse platforms work in general:
– Mastodon (and others) use ActivityPub as their protocol to communicate between “actors”.
– Actors are discovered using WebFinger, a way to attach information to an email address, or other online resource.
– WebFinger lives on /.well-known/webfinger on a server.
His idea was to simply copy the WebFinger file to his server and make it available in the same way, to allow the Fediverse server to find the correct actor, so search for @me@mydomain.xxx and find @me@my-fediverse-instance.xxx.
Copy a file and deliver it via Hexo over .wellknown/webfinger? What can be so difficult about that…
August in Germany is usually a safe bet when it comes to the weather, so my wife and I decided to relax for a few days on the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau … on a chartered boat. In general, you need a driving license for everything that moves in this country, but there are a few exceptions, such as in Brandenburg/Mecklenburg where even inexperienced tourists are allowed to steer a 12-metre houseboat/yacht across the many lakes after a short briefing.
The weather was, let’s say, suboptimal this August, because a storm passed over us in the first three days and there was no chance of happy sailing around on the water. On the one hand, the swell and wind forces were extremely worrying for newbies and on the other, it’s simply no fun being on a boat in cold, heavy rain. We were stuck in Rheinsberg. On the one hand, the swell and wind forces were extremely worrying for newbies and on the other, it’s simply no fun being on a boat in cold, heavy rain.
This month's Discoveries are about small, large, new and somewhat older JavaScript tools that can make life and coding easier for developers. Why reinvent the wheel when someone has already done it. Happy Coding :)
In September, my wife and I took a trip to the Museum of Technology in nearby Speyer. I don’t really know why I’ve never been there before, not even as a child, because the collection of cars and aeroplanes is quite unique in Germany. A dream for every boy, even if he’s not as young as he might think :)
Built on the old site of an aircraft manufacturer, the 100-year-old hangars provide the perfect space for exhibiting large vehicles with wheels and wings. And exactly this can be found in Speyer: A large part for cars of all kinds and the outside area for aeroplanes and even ships. Even a spaceship, the Russian Space Shuttle alternative Buran can be seen there.
Here are a few pictures of the car exhibition that I brought back from there and which will be used as post header images hero on kiko.io in the future …
2:1
Travelling by scooter in Germany in the middle of November is no fun. Just like on Sunday. Light rain at just under 9 degrees Celsius and quite a bit of wind. Brrr… but what can I do, there are no car parks at the arena. Not at all today, because it’s against Kaiserslautern, which is only about 100 kilometres away from Wiesbaden and therefore a lot of visitors are expected. It’s a kind of derby.
1. FC Kaiserslautern is one of the great traditional clubs in Germany, which has celebrated a total of 4 German Championships in its history, but has really lost momentum since its relegation to the 2. Bundesliga in 2006. Between 2018 and 2022, the team even only played in the 3rd division pf German football, but after their last year’s promotion, they are hoping to be promoted to the top division again soon. Recent results in the cup have shown that they have a strong team and it was to be feared that they would overrun Wehen Wiesbaden in their run, although their last league game was lost against Fürth.
It was also rather uncomfortably cold in the stadium and I wondered once again how the young lads do it on the pitch in their shorts, especially the goalkeeper.
But the fans created the right atmosphere. As expected, the entire guest stand was full. 12,100 spectators in total; a new season record. The SVWW fan block was also packed this time and the ultras had come up with a nice choreo with complete stand banners and red smoke (see photos).
I have been collecting interesting links in various Trello boards for many years and also process some of them automatically, such as my Tiny Tools.
However, the official Trello Android App has the problem eversince that, when you want to create a URL as a Trello card in the browser, the URL is entered in the Description and not as an Attachment, where it actually belongs.
I have solved this for myself for years using a bookmarklet in the Chrome browser (see Add website to Trello card the better way) and get along quite well with it. However, there is one catch, that has annoyed me ever since:
I find an interesting link in the Mastodon WebApp, for example, and tap on it. What opens, however, is the WebView integrated in Android and not my standard Chrome browser, in which the bookmarklet would be available. So, for links that I want to store, I always have to open the WebView menu and select “Open in Chrome Browser”. I cannot use the general SHARE menu. At least not so far … :)
A few weeks ago, a blog entry (I can’t remember which one) drew my attention to a font called LEXEND. In this article, the author also went into the scientific background of the font, which was developed to simplify reading and thus support those with reading difficulties. The website lexend.com, operated by The Lexend Group, therefore also advertises the font with all kinds of reading statistics, although it is open source and is also freely available via Google Fonts.
I simply liked the font style and wanted to try it out on this blog, which has always used the Open Sans font. It was harder than I thought…
1:0
Football again. After my little excursion into the Europa Conference League, my team from SV Wehen Wiesbaden was called upon again on Sunday and with them the fans in the stadium. On the one hand because it was raining (and that is sometimes no fun in the front row) and on the other hand because the boys had won the last away game in Osnabrück and now had the opportunity to temporarily establish themselves in the midfield of the 2. Bundesliga. Another win was needed against an opponent from Rostock who, after a good start at the beginning of the season, had lost the last 6 games!
Since I have no chance to park my car anywhere at the stadium, I have already planned before the season to always go there with the scooter, which is a pure pleasure in the summer. With 10 degrees and light rain it was diemal but rather suboptimal conditions. But anyway…
I had expected that a lot of police, water cannon and other executive equipment would be on site, as it was already the case at the Schalke game, because the Hansa fans have a pretty bad reputation … But no. Not particularly many Rostockers have taken on the 700 kilometer journey and so the opposing stand was only half full and the police relaxed.
There are many Mastodon instances out there.
Tell me yours and I will redirect you to the share dialog of your server: