Microblog

Adobe is discontinuing Flash after 2020. No more updates and it won’t even play Flash content after that date. I hate Flash as much as the next person but there are so many great old Flash games that will be made unplayable; which is kind of sad.

Pro tip: if you feel like your DuckDuckGo search isn’t getting the results you’re after and you are thinking of checking Google, add “!sp” to your DDG search. That will search Startpage, which is privacy-friendly Google results.

Made this with #chromemusiclab https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/song/5600990213439488

The crazy thing about the speed of light is that it’s not even that fast. https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html

“I wanted to walk through the empty streets. And feel something constant under my feet. But all the news reports recommended that I stay indoors.”

Just getting rid of some malware with CleanMyMac X.

TIL VS Code can enable/disable extensions on a per-workspace basis.

Here are @zeldman‘s tools for slow design in an anxious world. 🐢

• Big type
• Hierarchy
• Minimalism
• Art direction
• Whitespace
• Branded
• Authoritative

If your app is gonna support Markdown syntax, then at least support the basic typographical elements. I can’t stand this behavior I see in some apps where bold and italics work but links, lists, and blockquotes don’t.

Lately, I’m really into synthwave mixes on YouTube. I’m compiling them into a playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs2mlyRcw6kQThkOPNYcKVXlUoYlGyqPN

When I see a well-written error message that not only tells me what’s wrong, but also how to fix it, I’m like… FIX IT YOURSELF if you’re so smart then… sheesh.

No one:

shannpersand: Now you can code in Comic Sans: https://github.com/shannpersand/comic-shanns

Annoying (to me) UI patterns:

• Hidden scrollbars
• Menus requiring sustained mouseover
• Text on top of busy images
• Newsletter signup modals
• DIY form controls
• Infinite scroll
• Autoplaying media
• Cookie disclaimers
• Alerts when leaving a site

No one:

Me: a browser-based Yahtzee clone with personal high score tracking and RANDOM.ORG integration. https://blakewatson.com/rdo3/

I’m still rocking macOS Mojave. At this point I wonder if I can make it to the next major release.

I really love the Rainier – Retro theme for VS Code. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=joytrekker.rainier

I have this fear that governments will ruin the web and in the future we’ll have to tell stories to our grandchildren about how awesome it was.

I just realized that in Firefox and Chrome you can select multiple tabs by holding shift or cmd/ctrl and perform actions on multiple tabs at once. #TheMoreYouKnow

One way definitely not to get me to signup for your [WHATEVER] is to pop up a large, garishly animated sign-up box right in the middle of the page while I’m trying to use your website.

I don’t always write webpack configuration files, but when I do, I… wait, actually I never do. I just use @laravelphp Mix. – https://laravel-mix.com/

I see a lot of “jQuery sucks” or “don’t use jQuery in 2020” to which I say: use whatever works for you. If jQuery helps you make a better website or app, use it. It’s hardly a terrible choice. If anything, it’s battle-tested and reliable.

Web dev is so complex these days. Feels wrong to say all the complexity is bad. But it feels wrong to say it’s good. I use it but it never feels right to me. I feel this essay by @bastianallgeier 💯 https://bastianallgeier.com/notes/simplicity-part-2

I can’t stop watching this video by @cassidoo. Cracks me up every time. https://twitter.com/cassidoo/status/1216871876192088065

I’m scared to upgrade to Catalina. I’ve heard a lot of people complain about bugs. Anyone have anything good to say about it?

I just created an IFTTT service to automatically tweet microblog posts from my WordPress site. Let’s see if it works! #testing

I really love this simple CSS stylesheet. I would love to see a curated collection of these kinds of minimal, typography-focused CSS “frameworks.” – https://uglyduck.ca/typesafe-css

A lot of people think that the Y2K bug was all hype. While it wasn’t world-ending, it was a problem that could have significant consequences. Fortunately, we saw it coming and had time to fix it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrKKrsIpQw

I can’t stand reading Twitter threads. Such a disruptive, distracting reading experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed this look at JavaScript history and how the language progresses in a way so as to preserve backward compatibility. This is the tale of “Smooshgate.” https://css-tricks.com/yet-another-javascript-framework/

I loved this idea ever since I heard it, and it’s one of the things I love about the web—the idea that you can have your little lemonade stand on the Internet, as it were. https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

Figures out a couple of complicated components; gets stuck naming them. #hardproblems

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Following up on my search for typographically minimal WordPress themes, I found two fantastic ones by Anders Norén: Davis and McLuhan

I really like the (past) work of http://plaintxt.org/. I would really love to see a modern version of it. If anyone is working on quality typographic minimalism in WordPress themes, I would love to know about it.

I’m so sick of ad-block shaming. “We noticed you are using an ad-blocker…” Here’s my response: “I noticed you have been tracking me all over the Internet and exploiting my personal data for commercial gain.” I get that not every website has the same level of tracking. But I don’t see how a user has any choice but to just block everything. I can’t vet everyone’s advertising practices. Instead of shaming me into turning off my ad-blocker, I think websites should pitch why they deserve an exception. You want me to turn off my ad-blocker? Tell me what you are doing to protect my privacy. A great example of this is Daring Fireball:

For readers, these are ads that, again, are visually unobjectionable, and which offer the most privacy you could hope for. Not only is there no tracking involved, there is no JavaScript involved. They’re just images, text, and HTML links.

— New on Daring Fireball: Display Ads