rubenwardy's blog

My services receive AI scraper attacks primarily from data centers such as BytePlusfootnote 1.

Last year, I needed to move my services to a new Linux VPS.

My website was hit by a DDoS from an abusive scraper a few weeks ago.

From the 3rd to the 5th of April, ContentDB was hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, where it received over 5 million requests from 2,200 IP addresses.

I’ve finally polished up and released a smartwatch app I created two years ago.

Transport Tycoon Deluxe (TTD) has re-released on Steam and GOG after being abandonware for 25 years.

I’d like to talk about how cookie consent laws were damaging to consumer understanding of privacy.

I read a lot of articles about programming and technology as a way of keeping up with the industry and expanding my knowledge.

This article shows how you can make an Eleventy (11ty) website translatable on a string-by-string basis, supporting translation platforms such as Weblate.

Previously, I created a plant monitor that tracked soil moisture and sent notifications when the plant needed watering.

OpenTTD is a game where you build a transportation empire with road vehicles, trains, boats, and planes.

I’m writing to express my objections to the Online Safety Act and ask that you support repealing or amending the Act.

One of the reasons why I switched to Eleventy was to make it easier to do custom stuff, like creating a writing statistics page for my needs.

The Fediverse is a decentralised social media network.

I read a lot of articles about programming and technology as a way of keeping up with the industry and expanding my knowledge.

Ruben’s Virtual World Project was a multiplayer top-down shooter with base-building elements that was in development for five years, from 2015 to 2020.

I made an app to rate coffee shops as an exercise to learn React Native.

Firefox has been my browser of choice ever since I was first recommended it twelve years ago.

I’m currently learning React Native and Expo as an alternative to native app development.

I’ve recently gotten into using TypeScript when working with web technology, for creating web apps and servers.

I read a lot of articles about programming and technology as a way of keeping up with the industry and expanding my knowledge.

In 2022, I made a goal of writing at least twelve long-form articles on my blog each year.

I recently switched to using Eleventy to generate my blog.

I recently switched to using Eleventy to generate my blog.

After nine years of using Jekyll, I’ve switched to using Eleventy (11ty) and redesigned my blog whilst I was at it.

The collapse of Twitter last year got me thinking about closed platforms and reducing the hold that privately owned platforms have over the Internet.

I’m making a device to water my basil plants.

Ten years ago today, I uploaded the first version of Capture The Flag.

One of the reasons I learned how to program was to make games.

In 2020, the Minetest Discord community ran a mod-making competition with “combat” as the theme.

I love making apps.

Bing has now unbanned my blog.

My eventual goal with electronics is to create autonomous robots and drones; I’d like to make a quadcopter with my own flight controller that can take off, land, and follow a target.

Articles are a great way to expand your knowledge as a programmer, by learning from the experiences of others.

When implementing controller support in a game, it’s desirable for gamepads to just work without a lot of user configuration.

Last month, ContentDB received a large spike in traffic.

A few months ago, my Steam Deck arrived.

Using a fingerprint to unlock your computer or elevate privileges (sudo) is a nice convenience, saving time during daily use of a computer.

In 2016, I created an app to install mods for Minetest’s Android port.

Steam Deck is a new portable gaming console from Valve.

My Steam Deck arrived two months ago, and I’ve been having a blast ever since.

I created Renewed Tab last year to fulfil my personal needs, and have since expanded on it based on user feedback, focusing on rich widgets, a clean user experience, and customisation.

I’m a huge fan of RimWorld, a base building game where you manage a group of colonists.

This article was written at a time when LLM AIs were brand new.

In 2018, I had the opportunity to create a web app for University coursework, as a solo project.

In April 2021, I participated in my first game jam, Ludum Dare 48.

I have a lot of houseplants, but I often forget to water them.

Markdown is a common choice for rich text formatting due to its readability and ease-of-use.

I worked as an Android developer just over two years ago, creating native apps for clients using Java and Kotlin.

Sandboxing can protect the user’s computer from malicious or buggy scripts.