Home on Soupbowl

In Memoriam: Mushu the Bearded Dragon 2022-2025

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It’s with a heavy heart to announce that Mushu, our pet beardie and often the muse of various imagery I’ve used on social media, has passed away after a battle with illness.

When we chose to adopt a beardie, we were presented with two identical baby clutchlings. Mushu had apparently been bitten badly by another dragon and had a toe missing, which tugged my heart strings from day 1. We’ve been fortunate to watch our little buddy grow into a vibrant, and somehow very personifiable beardie for a typically isolated species. He’d been with us through a particularly rough period, becoming known humerously as our “emotional support dragon”.

How I Test my Firefox Theme on all Variants at Once

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After a chat I had a little while back, I was asked how I am testing Modoki Firefox on all the variants at once, without installing Firefox locally.

Firefox has 4 variants - Regular, extended support (ESR), developer (used to be Aurora) and Nightly. At the core, all of these variants are still just plain ol’ Firefox. The difference being that they are different pointers in the timeline of Firefox releases - ESR representing an older, supported version, and Nightly being the bleeding-edge version.

State of my Open Source Contrbutions

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

To start off, this is not a “I’m quitting” post - don’t worry. But this should clear up why I’m ‘ignoring’ some actions.

As of 2024, this is not necessarily the case anymore. Thankfully our collective luck has improved. Still, the warning remains in place while I pick up some pieces.

But with some recent family events that have transpired, and also inspired by Jeff Geerlng’s Just Say No, I’ve ended up dedicating way more time to my coding than I actually have.

A Year of Cloud Coding in Review

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Over the past year, roughly 90% of my non-professional coding time was done using a Cloud IDE.

My work extends a crazy, disjointed range of different purposes. I maintain a WordPress plugin, run several ReactJS experiments, made my personal website 100x more confusing, and as a DevOps Engineer - lots and lots of configuring and pipelines.

All of this, I did in cloud editors. At this point, if it wasn’t for getting into Plex, my workstation laptop would have spent the whole year not getting anywhere past 50% utilisation. They have really changed my world in ways I have always been hoping for.

I built: PlayStation 1, Pi Powered!

Sun, 19 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

And this completes my PlayStation console collection… If we ignore the PS5.

A lot of things happened at once to trigger this project. I had not bought a Pi 4 at this point, and I had the PlayStations 2-4…

Next minute I’ve bought a dead PSOne off eBay, a Pi from the Pi Hut, and waved goodbye to my bank account… In December.

The idea was incredibly simple – Whack a Pi 4 inside a PSOne shell, with the toggle button and LED still functioning. With such a simple project, the idea can expand in phases (powered USB ports, hard drive storage, etc).

I Wanted a Pi to Tell me Useless Stuff About my Computer!

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Yep, here we go again – another semi-useless but way over-complicated Raspberry Pi thing…

I had a fantastic idea to make an Android Auto screen for my classic tech car. Did it work? Yes. Did it obscure my windshield? Kinda. Did it over-complicate my audio setup? *sigh*… Yeah.

I’m not a fan of e-waste, so naturally instead of going into the bin, my Raspberry Pi screen got reused… As a paperweight.

I made: Cardboard Macintosh with a Raspberry Pi

Sun, 25 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

And it also runs DOS too. Yes, it feels really weird.

If you’re a maker of any level of expertise, signing up to the Instructables Newsletter is a bad idea for your bank account. A week in and you’re looking at buying a laser cutter, a 3D printer, and an assortment of different power tools.

I’m in the camp of “Oh that’s looks cool… Oh I can’t afford any of this!”. But one thing I do end up with a lot of, is cardboard.

MacOS in VMware. Yep, This Also Works

Sat, 10 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

macOS Mojave worked great(ish) in Virtualbox. Does it work in VMware? Turns out, yes – works great, and has guest additions.

Virtualbox is fantastic for Open Source software, but VMware is one of the primary players in the virtualisation scene. As soon as I got macOS working in Virtualbox, I almost immediately turned my attention to doing the same thing in VMware… Because I’m mad.

Not only does it work just as well as it does in Virtualbox, you can also install guest additions thanks to some super smart cookies in the scene. While this doesn’t exactly perform miracles, you get a much more smoother experience once it’s installed.

Raspberry Pi Gameboy and Mega Drive – My Retro Setup

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In my quest for all things retro, I discovered that the company I bought a Mega Drive Pi case from makes a really convincing Game Boy case. I promise this isn’t sponsored.

It’s no secret that I have a love for retro, and I also have a love for Raspberry Pi. For ages I’ve always recommended setting up a Raspberry Pi as the ideal retro machine.

But recently I came across Retroflag, and their extremely faithful reconstructions of retro game console cases for the Raspberry Pi. They do (S)NES, Mega Drive and even a fully kitted out Gameboy.

MacOS in Virtualbox. It just works.

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

You can run MacOS in Virtualbox. Because? Because.

In the pursuit of Hackintosh, you need a Mac. That’s well and great, but I didn’t want to screw around with my partner’s Macbook. So what if you want to sandbox something? Virtualbox!

I had no expectations that this was going to work. OS X has always been runnable in Virtualbox for a while, but the performance has normally been lacklustre. While it’s not exactly daily-driver level, the performance in Virtualbox wasn’t too bad!

Toshiba Satellite Pro L850, Hackintosh Revisited

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2018 I turned my laptop into a Hackintosh device, running High Sierra. I had a donor MacBook mid-2010 that I used to run TonyMac tools to get Hackintosh working. It was a fun if complicated process of trial and error, but the result was always impressive – a craptop unexpectedly booting macOS.

I eventually wiped macOS and re-installed Windows for a WordCamp coding session. The laptop proved to be quite a letdown, and now sits on a shelf collecting dust.

Replace LAMP with Docker, the Easy way

Sun, 15 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Just about to install LAMP, XAMPP, or MAMP? Stop. Right. Now. Docker’s gotchu, fam.

LAMP stacks are great. They are an absolute fundamental to development, unless you enjoy the thrill of writing your code on your production environments.

Seriously, LAMP is the absolute fundamental in the toolbox for website development.

But do not install it.

Cancel that download, uninstall that software. Because there’s a better solution.

😭 Problems with LAMP

LAMP (XAMPP, MAMP, etc included) kits you out with all the essentials needed for running a website. Web server, language runtime and database. It can come with all the additionals you may need such as email and request logging.

Colour Firefox like Netscape and Pretend it still exists

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I love Netscape. I still haven’t forgiven AOL for the event that occurred February 2008.

Firefox has decided that the colouring of your browser should be left to you. While it may not be the elaborate and fancy themes of old, at least you can still have a level of customisation to your boring browser window.

Firefox Color

Here are some colour themes I have created to re-live the glory days of Netscape Navigator.

The Complete Guide to Running WordPress on Windows/IIS

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

So you’ve discovered to your absolute horror that the WordPress site your company has inherited is running on Windows… on IIS?

Before you stand up, throw your computer chair out the Window, maliciously eat your co-workers salad and enjoy it, or drop all the production databases, relax. We’ve got you covered.

😕 What’s the problem?

Good point. IIS (Information Internet Services) is the home-grown proprietary (for now) web server provided by Microsoft for Windows customers. IIS is fantastic at what it does, and can serve as an efficient web host as well as an absolutely golden reverse proxy server.

Linux it up like 2008 with Wubi, which still exists

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Wubi was Marmite back in the day. With Linux being pitched as an alternative to Windows, people weren’t particularly impressed with using Microsoft technology to boot up a virtual Linux installation. Alongside the genuine concern that a power outage would obliterate your Linux setup, Wubi faced a lot of criticism.

Wubi installed a full desktop Ubuntu installation inside a virtual hard drive on your Windows machine. Yep, you could literally install Ubuntu like a regular application, and boot into a full Ubuntu OS instead of Windows. Dual booting went from being a nightmarish partition juggle of your main drive, to a literal one-click install.

Use Visual Studio Code in your browser, thanks to Azure

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, the Electron-based Visual Studio Code – an app built in HTML and JavaScript – is not usable in a web browser. What a weird world we live in.

You may sitting there in your coffee shop, staring with contempt at your weakling tablet and thinking “boy, I wish I could run Visual Studio Code on this powerful lemon”. Well Microsoft apparently listened to you and your gaping wallet. You can now use Visual Studio Code, online!

Cheap Tat Review – TWS i12 (blue stripe)

Sun, 17 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I was happy enough with my red label i12‘s, but when I saw you could get them in matte black (not an option for Apple ones), I decided to give it a pop.

Design

Pods & their case

Exactly the same as shape as the Apple ones, but a tiny bit smaller. Obviously a completely different colour. The exterior of the case is entirely matte black, except for the charger connector and hinge. While not metal, the hinge is coated in a reflective material to make it look metallic.

Cheap Tat Review – TWS i12 (red stripe)

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

find the concept of wireless apple earbuds really funny. Endless memes of how the cheapo version was to just cut the cord, and a little jump was enough to lose an expensive piece of equipment. My Anker Soundbuds were enough for me, but after seeing the buzz on Reddit over TWS clones, I had to give them a try.

For knock-offs, these tend to retail quite high at prices around £50-60. However, after browsing AliExpress for a bit I discovered a highly reputed listing for much lower (£25 when I ordered). For that price, I just couldn’t overlook it.

Hackintoshing a Toshiba Satellite Pro L850-1UJ

Wed, 08 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

⚠️ This project has been resumed. Please see the latest version of this.

While I am a technical person, the Hackintosh community is scores ahead of what I know. The work put in by the awesome community supporting the movement for macOS/OS X on other machines is incredible. I’ve watched the progress since I was 11, but never branched into it. Recently, it all changed.

Chromeboard, an Experiment Killed by Security

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

You wouldn’t be wrong if you’ve come to the assumption that I’ve stopped supporting Chromeboard. You can see from the commit log that I haven’t made a significant change since March of last year. This was largely unintentional, but there was a main reason as to why I chose to unofficially abandon the extension – I call it ‘Issue 9 of Death‘.

This is the reason why a rough 5% of the internet websites actually work with this extension. I’ve stopped working on the plugin because simply, in the current approach it will soon become completely unsustainable.

Using PHP 7 on Ubuntu 14.04 with Codeanywhere

Sun, 15 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I am a big fan of online IDEs. For me this enables me to do web development pretty much anywhere, on any device. My particular favourites are Codeanywhere and Codenvy. While both have their pros and cons, I pretty much use Codeanywhere free for my day-to-day development. It gives you a temporary VPS for your code, easily accessible, great no-nonsense IDE and easy to use SSH access. Perfect, I simply fire up the container and get to work.

Smarting up my Car with a Raspberry Pi, Crankshaft & OpenAuto

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I drive a 2014 Kia Rio. I have no legitimate complaints about it, as it works brilliantly as a daily driver. Sure, I would love an MX5 mk1 (Miata NA) but at my age (23) it serves a purpose of getting me around with no issue. However, it does come with a rather boring radio setup.

Kia did do an upgrade run to their 2014 and newer cars, however I wasn’t eligable as the run was for US cars only. I could get an aftermarket radio, but I currently don’t own the car, as it’s leased. I don’t feel like upsetting the existing working aesthetic.

Error 404

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The requested content could not be found - sorry about that!

Sure this content was here once? Try this URL in the Wayback Machine!

Home

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello 👋 My name’s Casey, and I’m a programmer