April 9 2024 Giraffe Academy, jsDelivr, Redis, Tasmota

Mike has been getting on with MODX but had problems with cPanel; Brian recommended looking at Giraffe Academy which offers up-to-date information on things you can do in the HTML and CSS rather than Javascript.

Darren shared a query about routines to add words; having written one in D, he wondered whether the query was really from a student who had been set this as a an assignment; it was noted that in many languages this can be done with a + or a join.

Bernie mentioned jsDelivr, a Content Delivery Network (CDN) which can can serve Javascript from GitHub; all the Javascript files on GitHub are cached by the CDN so that people do not have to get them from GitHub. Mike noted that Cloudflare and Google use CDNs for downloads. Steve added that CDNs were often used for video streaming; with the content pushed to a CDN, it reduced lag on startup though this is now less of a problem except for global distribution.

Bernie noted that the licence for Redis has become unfriendly but Valkey has stepped in to plug the gap.

Brian shared some of his experiences of installing Tasmota, the open source firmware for ESP8266 devices, on Sonoff switches controlling a wide variety of devices using the Tasmotizer, demonstrating the configuration interface in Home Assistant

and the control panel for a device:

Steve had done something similar with Gosund devices; Tuya-Convert can flash Tuya, which offers firmware for a lot of devices, to the devices by wi-fi but newer Gosund devices do not accept Tuya; by contrast Sonoff is very friendly to Tasmota. The Tasmota Supported Devices Repository holds a compatibility list.

Brian said that, with Home Assistant, you only need one ESP8266 for whole house; he recommended the YouTube videos on setting up Xiaomi thermometers and connecting them to Home Assistant.

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