@nicoverbruggen.be
🇪🇺🇧🇪 I build software, like 🚛 https://phpmon.app and ⚡️ https://calodin.app. 💻 Hardware & 👨🏻💻 software tinkerer, 🏃🏻 daily runner, 🧠 mental health advocate, 📖 typography nerd. Read my blog on https://nicoverbruggen.be.
A comparison of Newsreader 9pt and Readerly
I turned the OFL licensed font Newsreader into my own customized alternative to Amazon's Bookerly, and here's how I did it: nicoverbruggen.be/blog/creatin...
🚀 PHP Monitor 26.02 is now available with various improvements and additions, including a command history feature, and various automatic startup fixes.
📝 You can find the release notes here: github.com/nicoverbrugg...
🔗 phpmon.app
❤️ phpmon.app/sponsor
"PHP is not correctly linked" modal with an "I Fixed It" and "Fix Automatically" button. The modal also displays what will be executed.
a Command History window, displaying various commands with checkboxes next to them and their execution time.
PHP Monitor 26.02 releases later this week!
Here's what's new:
- Automatic Fixes, which helps you fix issues at startup
- Command History, which lets you audit what PHP Monitor runs in the background
There's also some UX improvements and bugfixes included.
A screenshot of the desktop version of the ebook-fonts showcase by Nico Verbruggen, displaying the v3.x branch in a convenient viewer.
This was so much fun to build! It really nicely showcases potential open source font options for e-readers.
ebook-fonts.nicoverbruggen.be
I plan on expanding the mini-site so people can just download the fonts via here, and include more information about the fonts, licensing etc. here as well.
Here’s a new preview website I cobbled together, still very much WIP: ebook-fonts.nicoverbruggen.be
I'm currently working on v3 of my ebook-fonts collection, and as part of that, I've been tinkering on tweaked OFL fonts in particular that I'm looking to get some feedback on: github.com/nicoverbrugg...
If you use an e-reader, please check 'em out!
Give the first 30 minutes of this Vergecast a listen.
It is about photo generation, Samsung and some important concerns: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ber...
On the left: a simple alert displaying a message that PHP is not correctly installed. On the right: a more expanded alert with an automatic fix and the "Fix Automatically" button highlighted by default.
Here's one of the things that's coming to PHP Monitor in a couple of days...
On the left: PHP Monitor today. On the right: what I'm shipping soon, an improved onboarding / troubleshooting flow with automatic fixes.
Good vid on what’s been happening with Twitter.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ZG...
A startup message from PHP Monitor, with instructions on how to manually fix an issue but also with a new button "Fix For Me" which now fixes the problem automatically.
And here's another thing I'm working on to make resolving PHP issues easier: automatic fixes for crucial issues at startup...
If PHP Monitor won't start, I hope to include automatic fixes for most issues.
(Depending on what needs to run, macOS will put up a password prompt. UX not final!)
A screenshot of PHP Monitor, with the preferences window open and the "Hide menu icons" checkbox marked. As such, the menu, which is also displayed, does not display any icons next to the menu items.
Not a fan of the new icon dense menus in Tahoe? Perhaps still on macOS Sequoia?
In the upcoming update for PHP Monitor I've added a little setting that lets you disable icons in the menu altogether. It's a tiny addition, but yet another option to further tweak the app to your own taste!
The second blog post about moving away from Windows to Bazzite is now live.
nicoverbruggen.be/blog/hello-b...
We Are The Art | Brandon Sanderson’s Keynote Speech youtu.be/mb3uK-_QkOo via YouTube
OpenClaw (which was Moltbot, which was ClawdBot, all in the course of a week) is the new `sudo curl | bash`
I wrote down my thoughts on LLMs. It's less about how useful they are (they are!) but more about the implications and consequences of the usage of this technology, in a broad sense.
It's a nuanced topic, so I will likely share more thoughts later this year.
nicoverbruggen.be/blog/thought...
"Today more than ever [...] I still think programming is a beautiful craft that has the potential to do a lot of good, if only people are willing to put in the time and effort to truly understand what they are doing."
I've really enjoyed these blog posts. I fully agree.
🚀 The bug fix update for this month, v26.01, is out now!
You need a certain amount of breathing room in terms of thought (i.e. cognitive downtime) and I get the distinct impression that the speed that AI enables will likely prove unfeasible some time down the line.
Also explains why some people really thrive now. I think it's a neurological thing, too.
This month's release of PHP Monitor will be mostly bug fixes for the very few crash reports I received over the last month.
My goal for February is to build a GUI that helps you set up your development environment, so you can have PHP Monitor install brew, composer, php, valet. Great for new users.
I feel like the sweet spot is to simply have Claude Code generate what I'm looking to accomplish, tweak it and then do a final pass myself.
I don't know if it works equally fast, but the final pass ensures I know what's being built, how things work, and allows for Excellent Taste to be added.
I am definitely more productive when I use Claude Code or an equivalent agent.
However, in general I have less fun building things this way. Not sure why this is the case, but it makes me a little sad. Anyone else feel the same way?
Since it's now needed more than ever, pledge some financial support to OSS projects you use!
Want to help keep phpmon alive? Pledge here: nicoverbruggen.be/sponsor
Use it at your company? Consider a more substantial sponsorship. It really, really matters!
What I should do about this... is a question I keep asking myself as the freelance market is also turning out to be more capricious than expected.
Maintain phpmon, no problem!
Grow? Not sure how at this time.
I need proper sponsorship to make that possible, I think.
I want to keep maintaining and improving PHP Monitor, and I have big plans for the app that I would love to execute.
Unfortunately, I do not have the funding since the app is entirely free and sponsorships are very limited.
I've just pushed a small update for PHP Monitor (v25.12.1) that should have fixed a few rare crashes.
I will continue to monitor crash reports, but overall I'm very happy with the overall stability of the app now.
As such, this is likely the last update of this year.
Happy holidays!
I got rid of Windows. (First part of a new series of posts.)
nicoverbruggen.be/blog/goodbye...
📝 You can find the release notes here: github.com/nicoverbrugg...
🔗 You can find more details about the app on the official website, phpmon.app.
❤️ If you would like to support the app, that would be amazing: phpmon.app/sponsor
The main Domains window of PHP Monitor, displaying a right-click context menu, now with icons for third-party apps.
🚀 PHP Monitor 25.12 is now OUT and comes with better app integrations, improvements to how alerts are displayed, and various bug fixes.
Many subtle crash bugs have been addressed, so upgrading is highly recommended. Plus, there's now icons in the context menu! ⬇️
An image displaying PHP Monitor, its main menu, manage PHP versions window, manage PHP extensions window and the domains list, all updated for macOS Tahoe.
🚀 PHP Monitor 25.11 is OUT with official support for PHP 8.5, pre-release builds of PHP 8.6, Homebrew 5.0, and comes with various bug fixes!
🔗 github.com/nicoverbrugg...
(This one fixes a crash bug that you may be seeing today as Homebrew rolls out PHP 8.5. A temporary issue, but my apologies!)
