Hi! I'm Erik.

Removing jQuery

Because everyone likes vanilla

October 02nd, 2021

In 2006, jQuery was released. It was quite a game changer, providing a terse syntax that allowed for quick front-end development, resulting in scripts that behaved consistently across browsers - in a time when Internet Explorer 6 was still king.

Fast forward 15 years, and jQuery is used by millions of web sites - paradoxally, in a time when web developers since long have considered jQuery a legacy library of the past. The browsers have definitely come a long way since 2006, and many of the problems that jQuery set out to solve may not actually be problems anymore. Modern JavaScript natively provides much of the functionality jQuery offers, and IE6 and the likes are long gone. So as an exercise, why not try to replace jQuery with plain JavaScript (AKA Vanilla JS) and see if that promise has come true? I did so on this very website and had some interesting findings. Read on for more.

Embed SVG Icons in HTML with PHP

Just a way to use SVG on the web

June 26th, 2021

I have been using the font awesome web font for the last few years to add small inline icons here and there on this site, such as the arrow next to "Read the full article" text. It has been working quite well but I found that the style of the icons looked a bit dated and started looking for an easy way to use individual SVG icons instead. Turns out that even in 2021, the question how to best add SVG icons to a website is still answered with "it depends". I found that using some server-side help from PHP gave me good results. Read on for details.

Using Canon 600D as a Webcam

It works, but got quirks

March 29th, 2021

Video conferencing seems more popular than ever, and is probably not going anywhere soon. An important component of video conferencing is obviously video, but the recent surge in popularity has lead to a shortage of webcams, and many have to settle with a poor camera or no camera at all. But fear not - if you happen to have a Canon DSLR collecting dust, you can pretty easily up your game with a heavy-hitting webcam. Read on for more.

Create Unity3D Skybox with Space Engine

Aim for the stars

July 29th, 2020

Unity3D allows you to combine 6 images to create a skybox to use in your game. Sounds good at first - but how can you create such images to begin with? Turns out the excellent Space Engine is able to export the current scene as a skybox, letting us capture stunning views of galaxies, planets, and everything else out there to use in our game. While some post processing effects are missing, it's easy and still looks great! Continue reading if your game needs a little splash of the final frontier.

Rocket League Split Screen on PC with Keyboard and Controller

You'll never game alone

November 18th, 2019

Rocket League is a great game for split screen! At least for console gamers - the PC crowd was apparently partially forgotten in this area. While split screen pretty much works out of the box if you have two Xbox 360 for PC controllers, you are left hanging if you have only one such controller, or are using generic USB gaming controllers. Luckily, the TocaEdit Xbox 360 Controller Emulator comes to the rescue, enabling you to play split screen using the keyboard and one controller, and also adding more controllers as you see fit. Read on for a detailed guide.

Google Play: Violation of Usage of Android Advertising ID policy

Google Play not playing around

August 13th, 2019

I recently received a friendly e-mail from Google explaining that my game Ten Tiny Levels had been removed from Google Play. Excerpt:

After review, Ten Tiny Levels, com.regalraccoongames.tentinylevels, has been removed from Google Play due to a policy violation. This app won’t be available to users until you submit a compliant update.

Luckily, I did get the app back in the store after a few attempts. Read on for the solution.

Ten Tiny Levels for Android Released

Yes, this was my New Year's resolution

February 21st, 2019

After way too much ado, I finally finished up my game and published it on the Google Play store. It's called Ten Tiny Levels and is a simple and fun arcade platformer for one or two players. Free and without ads or in-app purchases! For more info, check out the microsite.

Swedish Armed Forces Air Show

Up, up and away

August 29th, 2018

Visited the air show in Uppsala organized by the Swedish Armed Forces. It was great! Make sure to check out the image gallery.

Icon Maker Revamped

Now even more flat

August 12th, 2018

I haven't touched the Shiny Icon Maker in a while, and it was slowly starting to show its age, both by what icons it could handle and the technology stack behind it. And as soon as something starts to feel old, simply change the stack! The new version uses React instead instead of Knockout JS and also adds a bunch of new icons, while also removing a lot of clutter. Try it out!

Wall Mounting a D-Link COVR AC1200 Mesh Node

Or rather, how not to

July 11th, 2018

To get better wi-fi coverage at home, I recently started looking at getting a mesh system. With mesh, two or more units are placed around your house and then they will magically work together to produce perfect coverage everywhere. Each node typically also has a couple of RJ45 ports for connecting wired network equipment. I ended up betting on the affordable AC1202 kit by D-Link (same as AC1203 except with two nodes instead of three). I had originally planned to wall mount one node, and the guy in the shop told be this would be easy because they come with mounting holes - which turned out to be inaccurate. Read on for a simple method endorsed by no one.