today's howtos

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 06, 2025

• Rui Carmo ☛ Controlling Steam Link Servers via HomeKit

  Wire this up to a UDP node set to use 192.168.1.255:27036, and Steam servers started sending back replies.

  This is where it got hairy–all I needed was the hostname. Since my new ISP’s router does not provide reverse DNS on .lan anymore (nor does it expose any useful local API) and Bonjour might not be installed on all Steam servers, I had to wrestle that out of the response packet.

  After wrangling with it for a couple of hours, I decided I had to do it the “right” way, so I grabbed a few links to the protobuf definitions, fired up VS Code, and got GPT-5.1 to hack out a minimalist parser that would work without protobuf even if it does read somewhat like post-Modernist assembly language: [...]

• Manuel Matuzović ☛ Dealbreaker bugs in native popovers

  Popovers are floating UI elements you can show or hide by pressing a button. They come with many accessibility features built in, so you don’t have to handle most of the work. You can learn more about that in “The accessibility of the popover attribute” (YouTube).

• University of Toronto ☛ Getting out of being people's secondary authoritative DNS server is hard

  Many, many years ago, my department operated one of the university's secondary authoritative DNS servers, which was used by most everyone with a university subdomain and as a result was listed as one of their DNS NS records. This DNs server was also the authoritative DNS server for our own domains, because this was in the era where servers were expensive and it made perfect sense to do this. At the time, departments who wanted a subdomain pretty much needed to have a Unix system administrator and probably run their own primary DNS server and so on. Over time, the university's DNS infrastructure shifted drastically, with central IT offering more and more support, and more than half a decade ago our authoritative DNS server stopped being a university secondary, after a lot of notice to everyone.

• Web Performance Calendar ☛ Non-blocking cross-browser image rendering on the canvas - Web Performance Calendar

  Canvas-based rendering has become a prominent tool for building complex web UI interfaces. When working with large images on canvas, one critical challenge stands out: keeping the main thread responsive during image decoding.

• Manuel Matuzović ☛ Accessible by Design: The Role of the 'lang' Attribute - HTMHell

  I have audited many sites and many frameworks in the past, I have noticed an alarming omission right from the outset when developers are building sites or applications. Especially in the mobile space and let's face it, in web development we focus on making things for ourselves and if it works on our computer, it must work everywhere! Right?

  I see it more prevalent these days. There are surveys out and the issue of accessibility education in university or boot camps still lacks. New developers entering the field who aren't aware, framework authors that just don't know, understand, or they just don'make their work accessible.

  I am here to discuss the importance of the language attribute in your code.

• idroot

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install OpenVPN Server on Fedora 43

    Setting up a secure VPN server gives you complete control over your network privacy and remote access capabilities. OpenVPN remains one of the most trusted and widely-deployed VPN solutions, offering robust encryption, cross-platform compatibility, and flexible configuration options.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install LaTeX on Linux Mint 22

    LaTeX stands as the gold standard for academic writing, scientific documentation, and professional typesetting. Linux Mint 22, with its robust Ubuntu foundation and user-friendly interface, provides an excellent platform for LaTeX enthusiasts and professionals.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install Asterisk on Debian 13

    Asterisk stands as one of the most powerful open-source PBX (Private Branch Exchange) solutions available today, enabling businesses and organizations to build robust VoIP communication systems without expensive proprietary hardware. When combined with Debian 13 (Trixie), known for its stability and security, you create a reliable foundation for enterprise telephony infrastructure.