Dave Parfrey

A good friend of mine bought a Kobo Clara just about 2 years ago. It died last week, it wouldn’t respond to any input and wouldn’t reboot. She called Kobo and they told her she’d have to buy a new one. Needless to say, she was a bit pissed. (She has since ordered a Paperwhite.)

This brought out a lot of mixed feelings I was having about my Kobo Libre 2, which I purchased a couple of months after my friend. Mine still works, but the software seems to be getting less reliable over time. The cover has never worked properly, if I accidentally move the cover when it’s folded behind the Kobo, the screen goes to sleep. I finally ditched the cover, it wasn’t worth the hassle.

My Libre 2 freezes at least once a week and I have to reboot it. When I finish a library book and try to return it, it doesn’t remember which wifi I’m on unless I sync it first. And that often results in duplicate books in my library, which are a pain to clean up.

After hearing about my friend bricking her Clara, I pulled out my 5-year old Kindle Oasis. I stopped using it (except for Kindle Unlimited books) because the battery was getting weaker, but the software reliability is much better. So… my Libre 2 is now gathering dust and I’ll probably buy the next gen Oasis when it’s available.

Sorry, Kobo, I tried.

Differences between the old and updated website:

Old (versions have been updated semi-regularly):

• Ruby 2.7.2
• Rails 6.0.3
• PostgreSQL
• jQuery
• Bootstrap
• CoffeeScript
• TurboLinks
• Asset Pipeline

Updated (will keep versions currently until I go live):

• ruby 3.1.3
• Rails 7.0.4
• PostgreSQL
• [Chota] (https://jenil.github.io/chota/) - instead of Bootstrap/SCSS.
• Hotwire/Turbo/Stimulus - no jQuery, CoffeeScript
• Import Maps, minimal or no asset pipeline, Webpack, NodeJS

In addition to adding features, the changes to CSS and Javascript means that all of the views need to be redone. Chota is a very light-weight CSS framework. It contains just enough CSS to keep me happy. I can add other helper CSS classes myself. Stimulus is also working well so far.

There are probably other differences. I’ll mention them later, as they occur to me.

I’m updating an existing website. The design is outdated (almost 8 years old), and it doesn’t work very well on phones, which is how a lot of our users access it. Also, to make my task a bit more complicated, in addition to the design refresh, I’m taking the opportunity to add a bunch of new features.

In a future post, I’ll go into details about how my new project is set up. But first… a word about authentication!

I read an interesting post about [Authentication Zero] (https://codewithrails.com/rails-authentication). It made me want to ditch [Devise] (https://github.com/heartcombo/devise), which I’ve never truly understood, and use Authentication Zero.

I spent several days looking into it, but, in the end, I’m going to stay with Devise. If this was a new project, I’d switch, but this project is almost 8 years old, and I’ve got enough to do without revamping the entire authentication system.

If you’re starting a new project, take a look at Authentication Zero!

Everyone needs a first post, right? I haven’t blogged (or posted) anywhere regularly for a long time. Hopefully, that will change.

I’m currently updating a website that hasn’t been updated in about 8 years. It’s written in Rails. I’m going to write about my progress and technical decisions as I progress. I’m also trying to break my sugar and carb addiction, so expect many posts about those failures (and hopefully, successes).