Home For Fiction – Blog

for thinking people

programming

…and the New Beginning

June 27, 2025

Home For Fiction

capitalism, home for fiction, programming, society

Yes, Home for Fiction is back with new blog posts. The phrase of the title (… new beginning) refers to the last post published some eight months ago. Other than new blog posts, things haven’t changed. The site has been online, and I’ve been publishing Punning Walrus cartoons daily.

There are two components involved in this new beginning:

  • an ideological one; what made me stop last year and why I have decided to resume.
  • a methodological one; how I decided to resume, under what conditions.

Most readers discovering this post by accident will probably not care enough about the details. However, that’s part of the ideological foundation too, as you will discover…

grumpy cat image for new beginning post
The beginning is new, the grumpiness is the good ol’ traditional one…
(more…)

5 Tools to Be Safe on the Internet

November 4, 2024

Programming, Society

computer, ignorance, programming, society, technology

It’s not just that technology is changing at a fast pace; it’s changing at an accelerating pace. Heck, even the pace of acceleration is accelerating, too. Put simply, it’s really hard to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to computers, the internet, and IT security. Sadly, IT security is not considered a crucial skill, though it is. Just imagine how much of our daily life revolves around computers. So here are 5 tools to help you be safe on the internet.

These are all things I use myself on a daily basis. I can’t imagine using a computer (especially online) without them. I’m paranoid when it comes to IT security – read my post on Home for Fiction changes to see why – so I want to absolutely minimize the risk.

To be 100% clear, in case it’s not immediately apparent: This post isn’t sponsored; none of these tools’ authors paid me to do this. I’m only doing this because I genuinely think these tools are useful to the average user. Nay, these tools are critical for a safe internet and computing experience.

tools for safe internet. Image of a screen showing computer code
The internet and computers come across as so complicated to most people that a stock image such as this (depicting some simple code) connotes ideas of a hacker penetrating a secret database or something…
(more…)

YouTube Facade: a WordPress Plugin

September 30, 2024

Programming

internet, programming

YouTube Facade is the name of this plugin I’m sharing with you, but it started – like most things I make – as something entirely for my own use, on Home for Fiction. A facade is an interface that “masks” another kind of content — in this case, an embedded YouTube video.

Why, you might ask.

Facades serve a dual role:

  • They help with privacy requirements. Because the third party (in our case, YouTube) doesn’t load automatically on page load, Google/YouTube can’t place cookies unless the user explicitly allows it.
  • They help with site speed, as the page only needs to load a small image, rather than an embedded video.

If you’d like to see how it works, check it out e.g. on this page. Everywhere on the blog (and the main Home for Fiction site) there’s a YouTube video, facades are displayed.

YouTube facade: screenshot
YouTube Facade can speed up page load while safeguarding privacy
(more…)