For autoplay to work on Mobile Safari with a native HTML video element you need to also set the “playsinline” attribute. Otherwise the video wouldn’t start to play automatically:
<video muted loop autoplay playsinline preload="auto">
<source src="video.mp4" type="video/mp4">
Your browser does not support playing this video.
</video>
The playsinline attribute is actually a standard HTML attribute, I learned today. I did not encounter any problems with autoplay in other browsers besides within Mobile Safari though.
Maybe you have already noticed it (at least if you are an English speaking person 😉): this blog now has English articles and there is a language switcher on top.
I realized that I would like to write more in English but still want to keep the existing German content.
Generally I will keep the majority of articles, which are centered around tech and web development, in English and only write German if it’s something that is particularly relevant for Switzerland. Most likely I will not be translating articles from one language into the other, even though I would be technically able to.
If you should find any grammatical or spelling errors I would be happy if you let me know in the comments section below.
Since the awesome Github Actions were launched I had the issue that I couldn’t commit workflow files to my Github repos using Tower, my favourite Git client.
The error I received was:
[remote rejected] master -> master (refusing to allow an OAuth App to create or update workflow `.github/workflows/cypress-tests.yaml` without `workflow` scope)
So it seemed clear to me what the cause of the problem: Tower didn’t have the workflow permission scope and so the request would be rejected. After talking to Tower support they said that it’s on their todo list but they do not have an ETA for it (for a while now).
As a temporary workaround I used Github Desktop to commit the workflow files. But changing Git clients just for this is a bit annoying.
Using Personal Access Tokens (PAT) to commit Github Action Workflow files today
A friendly Tower support engineer pointed out that to there is a solution for the problem if you use PATs instead of Oauth to connect to Github:
You should be able to work around this by switching your authentication method to Personal Access Token. To do that, simply to go Tower’s Services View (via the cloud icon on the top left, or using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Cmd+S). Right-click on your GitHub service account in the left sidebar, and select Edit. Then, select Personal Access Token as your authentication method and enter your PAT.
…and it works perfectly 🎉
How to change your authentication method to PAT
Edit your Github account settings within Tower and change “Authentication” to “Personal Access Token”:
In your Github Developer Settings create a new Personal Access Token that that contains the original scopes which Tower needs. Then make sure to also include the “workflow” scope of course:
Use the displayed Access Token within Tower and everything should work out of the box.
I quickly upgraded to the newly released Mac operating System macOS Big Sur and liked my experience in the first few days. I think it’s great that we get a refreshing look all over.
The plain desktop on macOS Big Sur
Adding / editing widgets
Apple Notes now has a plain white background
Finder has a clean new look
How a typical alert box looks like
Audio controls
Thr new Control Center
Wifi controls
System preferences with new icons. Don’t like all of them (Network for example)
Displays system preferences
Bluetooth controls
Notifications on top with the new widgets
Overall it looks like the updates take some inspiration in mobile UI design with a bit more spacious, rounded elements. Still they feel very good to use with the mouse.
While the installation stalled for around two hours at the 100% progress bar it luckily still finished afterwards. I did not experience any technical or compatbility issues with the OS or third-party apps at all so far otherwise.
Update
The Verge just published their review of macOS Big Sur. It provides more insight into the update and also the changes that landed in Safari 14.