Robert James Gabriel
Founder and CTO at Coffee & Fun LLC
Robert founded Coffee & Fun LLC and builds its apps, browser extensions and free web tools. He writes most of what appears on this blog, usually about accessibility, the awkward parts of shipping software, and whatever broke that week.
Articles by Robert James
51 articles
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I Built an Offline Movie Player for My Wife's Grandparents
How I built an offline media player for two 85 year olds with no home internet. Kodi, Projectivy Launcher and a USB stick. One button, 48 films, no data used.
15 min read
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Snoopification: When a Mascot or Brand Goes on Everything
Snoopification is putting a mascot or brand on every surface with no shame. Why Snoopy and Supreme get away with it, and why Garfield and Harley did not.
11 min read
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Why the Same Emoji Looks Different on Every Phone
Emoji are characters, not images, so every platform draws its own. How Unicode works, why Google's burger caused a scandal, and what empty boxes mean.
5 min read
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Your Photos Are Talking Behind Your Back
EXIF data hides GPS coordinates, timestamps and your phone model inside every photo. What it contains, when it leaks, and how to strip it in seconds.
5 min read
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What Every Meta Tag Actually Does in 2026
A plain English tour of the meta tags Google, Facebook and X actually read in 2026, the sizes that matter, and the zombie tags you can delete today.
6 min read
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Netflix's Hidden Genre Codes, Explained
Netflix has over 1,900 hidden category codes you can type straight into the browse URL. Here is where the micro genre codes come from and how to use them.
5 min read
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How Image Steganography Actually Works
Image steganography hides text in a photo by flipping the last bit of each color value. How the trick works, how much a photo holds, and why PNG survives.
6 min read
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What Belongs in an Email Signature in 2026
Four lines beat fourteen. What belongs in a professional email signature, why image only ones fail, the dark mode trap, and how to survive Outlook rendering.
5 min read
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Every Icon Size Your Chrome Extension Actually Needs
What 16, 32, 48 and 128 are each for, plus the toolbar sizes, the store's 128 icon, the legacy 19 and 38, and a one master file workflow that makes them all.
5 min read
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Google Flagged Our 181-Character Description. Their Own Docs Allow 200.
Our Helperbird add-on failed a Google Workspace Marketplace re-review over a 181 character description, when the linked docs allow 200. Here is what happened.
4 min read
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We Took Waymo Around San Francisco
We rode Waymo across San Francisco at night and in rush hour. Honest notes on the sensors, the safety data, and the one accessibility flaw to fix.
12 min read
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How to Reset Your Gmail Password
Change a Gmail password you still know, recover one you have forgotten, and sign out of every device or browser session still logged into your account.
3 min read
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How to Rollback Your Chrome Extension Version
Roll a published Chrome extension back to its previous version from the developer dashboard. It skips the review queue, but only goes one version back.
2 min read
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How to Cancel a Chrome Web Store Submission
Google now lets you cancel a pending Chrome Web Store review from the developer dashboard or the API. The submission returns to draft, six cancels a day.
2 min read
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We Put a Pet Cat in Our Markdown Editor
The Markdown Editor's new Chaos Zone adds a pixel cat with 38 animations, matrix rain, vaporwave mode and a combo counter. Still free, still no tracking.
4 min read
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Browser Extension Stores Need Higher Standards
Chrome, Firefox and Edge are drowning in low effort submissions and security breaches, while Safari holds a higher bar. The case for fees and verified identity.
10 min read
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Reverse Engineering LEGO Smart Play: Discovery & First NFC Reads (Part 1)
We scanned the LEGO Smart Play tags from the Star Wars 75423 X-Wing with a Flipper Zero. Here are the UIDs, the encrypted payloads and the raw dumps.
15 min read
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How to Deep Clean and Optimize Your Mac Using Mole
Mole is a free, open source terminal tool for macOS. Install it with Homebrew, preview with a dry run, then clear caches, uninstall apps and check disk use.
6 min read
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The Enshittification of Technology
Enshittification is Cory Doctorow's word for the slow decay of tech products. Nest, the Litter-Robot 3, and streaming show the pattern, and who it hurts most.
10 min read
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Coffee & Fun LLC 2025/2026 Year in Review
Our year in review: Helperbird work and a planned $25 individual plan, honest Apple Vision Pro doubts, Roomba teardowns, Pi-hole kit plans and 22 plus guides.
6 min read
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I Fought a Data Aggregator That Created a Fake Profile About My Company
A business intelligence platform published a profile of my company with every detail wrong, refused to delete it, then quietly removed it without a word.
8 min read
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Watch Us Put a Real Game Boy Inside the Lego Game Boy
LEGO's 421 piece brick Game Boy lands on October 1, 2025. We are going live on Instagram and YouTube to try fitting a real Game Boy's insides into it.
4 min read
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Fitting a Real Game boy Into the LEGO Game Boy (World’s First Attempt)
I got the LEGO Game Boy set early and I am attempting a world first: fitting an original Nintendo Game Boy inside it. A live build log of the mods and progress.
7 min read
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Building Just the Headlines - A Clean News Experience
Just the Headlines pulled Hacker News and Reddit into a static Eleventy site for a year before I retired it. Here is the Node scraper and the build pattern.
8 min read
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We Cracked McDonald’s Survey Code System (For Fun)
Two McDonald's receipts bought minutes apart showed how a McDVOICE code encodes store, register, date, time and item. It was fun, but not free food.
6 min read
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Meet Daily Bible Verse for iOS 📖
Daily Bible Verse is an iOS app that shows one verse a day. Listen to it aloud, save favorites, pick calm accessible themes, and add a home screen widget.
4 min read
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How to Redeem an App Store Promo Code
The apps.apple.com/redeem link opens the code screen on iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can also tap your profile picture and choose Redeem Gift Card or Code.
4 min read
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How I Scraped 20,000 Poshmark Listings Using Node.js and Puppeteer
Poshmark scraper built with Node.js and Puppeteer to back up 20,000 public listings, images and a CSV. This first version was later replaced by a rewrite.
6 min read
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Scraping 20,000 Poshmark Listings (For Real This Time)
My first Poshmark scraper crashed constantly on 20,000 listings. Batches of ten, a fresh browser each batch, timeouts and resume support fixed it.
6 min read
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🧼 Delete Your Tweets, Retweets & Likes Without Installing Anything
A browser console script that unlikes, un-retweets and deletes your tweets while scrolling your profile. No apps, no account access, it pauses at 50 actions.
6 min read
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Skip the Trailers With This Weird Movie Timing Hack
Pre-order your snacks at a theater like Cinemark and pick the latest pickup time offered. In our tests that time is when the movie itself actually starts.
4 min read
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A Peek Behind the Scenes at Coffee & Fun ☕
A look at our spring quarter: open source Roomba tools in progress, redesigned OpenDyslexic and Elexend, a new Discord, and Markdown Editor past 20,000 users.
5 min read
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Why We Recommend Apple’s Passwords App to Our Friends
Apple's Passwords app is already on your iPhone, iPad and Mac. It holds logins, 2FA codes and passkeys, and there is an iCloud Passwords extension for Chrome.
4 min read
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How I Beat a Lyft Ghost Ride Scam and Got My Money Back
A Lyft driver started my ride without me and charged me 36 dollars. The support bot offered 4 dollars, so here is how I reached a human and a full refund.
5 min read
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How to Price Your App Without Losing Your Shirt (Or Your Users)
Yearly subscriptions at $20 to $30 are my sweet spot. Multiply per user costs by six, triple that price for one time payments, and start below the incumbents.
5 min read
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Sun-Spider in LEGO: Why Disability Representation in Toys Matters
LEGO Collectible Minifigures Marvel Series 2 includes Sun-Spider, a disabled hero who uses forearm crutches. Here is why that representation matters.
4 min read
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Our First Thoughts on the Vision Pro
We brought an Apple Vision Pro in to test. At 22.9 ounces it is heavy, it runs warm, and we have a 14 day return window to decide if it fits our work.
5 min read
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What’s Coming for Coffee & Fun LLC in 2025
Our plans for 2025: supporting Helperbird, VR experiments, Roomba hacks, 3D printing, repair guides, AI Pokemon card grading, and new apps like Step Hero.
5 min read
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How PSA Grades Pokémon Cards - A Research Guide
How PSA grades Pokémon cards on centering, corners, edges and surface, what each grade actually needs, plus 2026 costs and tips for submitting cards.
7 min read
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Welcome AutoPause - Auto pause Your Videos
AutoPause is a browser extension that pauses any audio or video when your timer runs out. It runs locally, tracks nothing, and started as a bedtime fix.
4 min read
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Should You Test in Production? F*** It, Let’s Do It Live! 😂
Testing in production is a bad idea and most developers have done it anyway. Here is why I bought ShouldYouTestInProduction.com and where it sends you.
3 min read
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What Happens When Redbox Shuts Down? Trying the Redbox Free DVD Hack
With Redbox shutting down, I got permission to boot a kiosk and watch it drop into offline mode. Here is what it did without a server connection.
5 min read
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Introducing Hide Spoilers - Browse Without Worrying About Spoilers
Hide Spoilers blurs text, images and whole page sections that match your keywords. Free on the Chrome Web Store, or $2.99 for iOS and Safari.
3 min read
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How I would Improve the Chrome Web Store
Eight changes I would make to the Chrome Web Store after a decade of publishing extensions: clearer badges, version specific reviews and an annual fee.
5 min read
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How to Ethically Hack Woobox Voting with Node.js and Puppeteer
How Node.js and Puppeteer were used to study a Woobox cat photo contest, from URL patterns to clearing cookies, plus the checks Woobox could add to stop bots.
5 min read
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ProcrastiNOT Update - The Maths Challenge is Here! 🎉
The latest ProcrastiNOT update makes you solve a maths question before you can switch the extension off, and it ships some UI polish alongside that.
5 min read
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How to Replace the Battery in Your Nintendo Switch
Swap a worn Nintendo Switch battery yourself. Every screw, the tri-wing driver, the isopropyl trick for the glue, and how to put it all back together.
5 min read
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How to Find Apple Receipts and Request a Refund
Apple's Report a Problem page lists every charge on your Apple ID. Sign in, open a purchase to see the receipt, and request a refund if something is wrong.
4 min read
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How to Delete or Deactivate Your Facebook Account
Facebook buries the exit, so use the direct link. Deactivate pauses your profile, delete wipes it, and you get 30 days to change your mind after deleting.
5 min read
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How to Change the Battery in an Apple AirTag
Swap a dead AirTag battery in a minute or two: twist the metal back counterclockwise, drop in a fresh CR2032 with the plus side up, then twist it shut.
5 min read
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Cracking the Xbox One API
In 2015 I found Xbox's game clip API needed no login, built a downloader, and Major Nelson turned up on Reddit. Four months later Microsoft locked it down.
8 min read