I did a little writeup of the new stuff in Minimal Character Sheet.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/dice-rolling-and-more-on-minimal-character-sheet/
]]>Does anyone else wish there was a setting in macOS that would give you a plain white or light gray menu bar (without reducing transparency everywhere)?
I always thought the menu bar was part of the iconic Mac look. Not really a fan of the current iteration that tries to blend itself away.
]]>If you are skilled with Python and Go and want to work on projects for NASA, we've got some openings at MRI.
https://mricompany.applicantpro.com/jobs/4055316
Check the full list of openings for security and cloud operations.
]]>Minimal Character Sheet experienced an unfortunate security event yesterday. About a week or two ago, I inadvertently exposed my Postmark API key. Someone got a hold of it and sent a bunch of spam emails.
Fortunately, Postmark caught it really early and shut it down. I was able to cycle and secure the key. And we're back up and running again.
I feel really dumb for letting that happen.
]]>NEW FEATURE for Minimal Character Sheet 🎉
You can now roll dice directly from your character sheet! And this isn't just Math.random—you're getting true random numbers based on atmospheric noise, thanks to random.org.
https://minimalcharactersheet.com
Somehow, I've never heard of this and I can tell I'm about to go down a deep rabbit hole. I'm sure all you cool people on the Fedi already know all about demoscene but if not, check out this post by @runawaydevil.
https://pablo.space/articles/2026/04/13/demoscene-the-hidden-art-of/
]]>I have *got* to let go of some domain names. I will sit there and fret about whether to subscribe to an app or service, but then grab a pointless domain name like SIGN ME UP, TAKE MY MONEY.
]]>I'm a multi-browser user, but for my personal daily driver I use Firefox. I've been using vertical tabs ever since they came to Firefox and... I might be permanently converted.
I hear Chrome is getting them/got them so I may be using them there soon too.
]]>RE: https://nileane.fr/@nileane/116319373644067043
I recently shared Tuna for Mac, which is an app launcher inspired by Quicksilver. Well here is another, even simpler, launcher (and emoji picker!) that looks great and also has an affordable pay-once license.
]]>The excitement—and, frankly, sheer giddiness—with which this developer introduces his new app is the most wholesome thing I’ve seen this week.
From the minute when I started watching it, I was thinking that the last thing I needed was an app launcher, having had a Powerpack license for Alfred for… checks notes… nearly 14 years!
But the more I watched, the more I was intrigued. Before I could even get done with the video, I had the app and the Pro license.
Yes, I am aware I have a problem.
(Yes, I know Raycast can do everything. If you like it, cool.) #linkblog
]]>Wondering if Artemis 2 is going to launch this time...
]]>Watch this if you need a pick-me-up and want to see a bunch of people fail their charisma saving throws.
]]>I first saw this long questionnaire on @shellsharks's (very cool) website. I started answering them in *checks notes* February! I made myself finish them today. Full frontal nerdity incoming.
]]>You face an undead wizard? I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a lich ain't one.
]]>This is a great essay full of nostalgia and I can’t help but think about my own adventures in computing when I read it.
https://samhenri.gold/blog/20260312-this-is-not-the-computer-for-you/
]]>Scroll My Mac has a website now!
]]>@11ty Is there a world where Web Awesome components could be rendered by Eleventy and then "hydrated" after page load?
]]>I vibe coded for the first time. This is what happened.
I think the landscape of assistive technology software is about to be completely transformed.
]]>"php devs always survive tech disruptions"
]]>Dear Mac app developers, please ask your users before making your app the default for a given file type. It's incredibly jarring and annoying to open a file only to have it open in some app I just installed rather than the one I expected.
]]>Need a browser extension for email that replaces:
"We are updating our subscriber agreement"
with:
"We are altering the deal; pray we don’t alter it further"
]]>One of my goals this year is getting better at CSS. I joke that my CSS skills peaked in 2015. But CSS has gained a ton of new, really cool things and browser support has been moving quickly compared the days of old.
This talk by Dylan Beattie from NDC London 2026 is a great introduction to what CSS is capable of these days.
I’m also slowly working through a course called CSS for JavaScript Developers by Josh Comeau, which is fantastically done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhbYveaV0pk
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-02-10-video-do-it-with-style-rethinking-css/
]]>The CSS Working Group publishes a page with all of the things that they'd like to fix in CSS but can't because the "mistakes" are already in the wild and changing them would break the web—an unforgivable sin. Here are a few of my favorites:
- z-index should be called z-order or depth and should Just Work on all elements (like it does on flex items).
- The alignment properties in Flexbox should have been writing-mode relative, not flex-flow relative, and thus could have reasonably understandable names like align-inline-* and align-block-*.
- It shouldn't be !important — that reads to engineers as “not important”. We should have picked another way to write this.
- Not quite a mistake, because it was a reasonable default for the 90s, but it would be more helpful since then if `background-repeat` defaulted to `no-repeat`.
- Box-sizing should be border-box by default.
And finally, the funniest one:
- Table layout should be sane.
https://wiki.csswg.org/ideas/mistakes
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-02-10-incomplete-list-of-mistakes-in-the-design-of-css/
]]>I brought my music library over into Doppler. Most of it is stuff that I either ripped or bought back before I started using streaming services. I miss buying and owning music and I think I might start doing that again instead of streaming everything.
]]>She should be allowed to speak to that AI to request reconsideration. I bet she could get that sycophantic clanker to give her 24/7 care in one prompt.
]]>I met a disabled woman who was having her allotted in-home caregiver hours slashed because her state used an AI tool that redetermined her care needs. She is taking them to court, as she should (but shouldn't have to). That is absolutely ridiculous. A horrible use of AI.
]]>When I first learned about D&D, I spent a long time not having anyone to play with. Next week I have not one, but three D&D sessions with three different groups!
This post brought to you by my web app: https://minimalcharactersheet.com/
]]>See also https://simplebits.com/ and https://shop.loudroom.com/
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@jonikorpi/115978680464281028
To anyone that marked the third option, you can totally make a personal website without learning to code. But if you are interested in learning to code, check out my free web book HTML for People. https://htmlforpeople.com/
]]>Do you have a personal website? If so, are you paid to develop software? I know this won't be academically robust, but I'm curious about the number of people who have a personal website and are not themselves professional or semi-professional software developers, compared to the number of those who are.
For purposes of this poll, "professional developer" means have been paid to make software. Boost if this is interesting to you too!
]]>New year, new blog, new RSS feed!
]]>Over my holiday break I played a solo TTRPG for the first time. This is how it went.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/i-tried-solo-rpg-with-ironsworn-starforged/
]]>Sometimes you need graph paper, whether it’s for a digital background or to print out and draw on. Rather than scouring the internet and settling for something subpar, this neat little home-cooked app from @davatron5000 lets you generate a variety of different types of graph paper.
https://grid-paper.daverupert.com
]]>Superwhisper has been my speech-to-text daily driver for over a year now. But I'm constantly seeing other neat ones. This one in particular is cool because it is open source and free to download. https://handy.computer/
]]>Anybody have a go-to (heh) resource for learning Go? I'm mostly considering it for web backend projects.
]]>Every Risk player knows if you want to protect North America you don't stop at Greenland. You grab Iceland too so that whoever has Europe doesn't get their continental bonus. /s
]]>Health care in America is obviously very screwed up. That said, there are resources out there available for people, but it's hard getting the word out about them.
For instance, people with a disability have access to a special savings account called an ABLE account. If you or someone you know is losing benefits because they have too much money in savings, this account is their way out of that problem.
https://www.ablenrc.org/what-is-able/what-are-able-accounts/
]]>I say this as someone who really enjoys writing JavaScript.
https://social.lol/@bw/115901138426144070
No problem exists in this world that can’t be exacerbated by JavaScript.
]]>I've been getting into a solo TTRPG called Ironsworn: Starforged. I have a goal of doing more creative writing this year. I wanted it to be at a slower pace than the normal, tight-deadline, NaNoWriMo-style writing that I often attempt.
I don't usually publish my creative writing, but I decided to publish my playthrough of this game as a website, partly for funsies but also to keep me motivated. This isn't great fiction, mind you. It's a game, so the pacing is a bit different than a normal story.
]]>If anyone would know, it would be Fedi peeps!
https://howse.social/@tj/115867891583374473
I’m a happy Obsidian user but Trilium Notes looks pretty cool, especially if you want a personal wiki or prefer a rich text experience over Markdown. https://triliumnotes.org/
]]>Bought vitamin D
Received human hair instead
Close, but no cigar
Happy Insurrection Day to all who celebrate.
]]>Sometimes I find interesting things on the internet and I DM them to friends or coworkers. I decided that I needed to put them on my website instead, so I added link post functionality to my blog (and feed)!
]]>Wishing all my Fediverse peeps a happy new year. https://blakewatson.com/journal/2025-my-year-in-review/
]]>I've been using this icon for over a year and honestly I need Momo icons for all my apps now.
https://socel.net/@heyheymomo/115690508085071064
When it comes to website backends for personal projects, I try to use just enough to get the job done. That's historically been PHP and Fat-Free Framework. But now I'm giving Flight PHP a spin.
I've also used Express/ Node and Cloudflare Workers/Hono.
I'm lazy and I don't want a maintenance burden. So I find that PHP is nice most of the time, as it can run pretty much anywhere super easily.
]]>My D&D character's current XP is 23,456. 😌
]]>If you are like me and tired of radio Christmas music and want something more chill, let me throw out my go-to recommendation.
]]>Trying to decide on a project for my holiday time off. Maybe a web-based game?
]]>Here is a more easily copyable version https://bw.paste.lol/omg.lol-snowfall
https://social.lol/@bw/115707707248739139
Add snowfall to any webpage with this code:
```
<script defer type="module" src="https://unpkg.com/@zachleat/snow-fall@1.0.1/snow-fall.js"></script>
<script type="module" defer>
const snow = document.createElement('snow-fall');
document.body.prepend(snow)
</script>
```
The liquid glass design in Preview on macOS is kind of annoying. At certain widths the sidebar overlays the content seemingly arbitrarily just for an effect. If there's any app where you don't want UI arbitrarily covering up your content it's in an app called Preview.
]]>In Vue 2, what's the best pattern for letting a child component know that some action in the parent component has occurred? Methods I've used are: 1) a child prop that gets changed by the parent, 2) the consumer gets a ref on the child component and manually calls a function, 3) an event bus for pub/sub.
]]>I need to brush up on my CSS skills. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book, tutorial series, or video course?
]]>Better late than never! I put a few notes on my blog about my tech talk from October. https://blakewatson.com/journal/i-ranted-about-frontend-build-steps-at-magnoliaconf-2025/
]]>I don't mind the notch so much on iPhones, but I really can't stand it on MacBooks. Whenever the menu bar is too long and some of the menus appear on the other side of the notch, it just looks so ridiculous. No way Steve Jobs would have approved of this.
]]>Sometimes I think about how a startup might look at a number of MRR and think it's nothing. Whereas an indie developer could potentially make a living off of that same amount. I think about the 1,000 fans idea. Make something cool. Sell it at a price such that, if your 1,000 true fans purchased it, you can make a living from it.
]]>It's common to hear about people using ChatGPT, Gemini, etc for personal therapy. I'm not here to judge anyone for doing that. However, do yourself a favor, download Ollama and use a *local* AI model. That way you aren't giving your deep, personal secrets to big tech companies.
]]>That moment you realize you need to test something in Edge, but you haven't yet downloaded it on your new, unspoiled machine. 😩
]]>I met someone who was really into cheap ballpoint pens. They had that "dig Bic" energy.
]]>I feel like I’m being gaslighted here. I keep looking at it thinking, I’m not dumb, right? *Says "Where am I?" over and over until it loses all meaning.*
https://social.lol/@bw/115562302021367827
Has anyone noticed macOS suggesting incorrect grammar?
*Bernie voice* I am once again asking if anyone has a recommendation for a quality **light** VS Code theme.
]]>Time flies when you're harvesting XP. #dnd
]]>I spoke at MagnoliaConf 2025 in Jackson, Mississippi about how I'm sick of front-end build tools. My talk is now available on YouTube!
]]>Hi my name is Blake and I often change my coding font when I get bored and want to procrastinate.
*Hi Blake*
I’m using Gintronic atm and I’m kind of into it. It’s a bit spaced out more than most monospaced fonts (which was weird at first), and I love how the capitals feel like small caps. It also has a distinctive curly bracket style which I like in fonts meant for coding.
]]>ATTN omglolers: If you’re writing this November and want a web-based editor, check out my app, https://write.omg.lol
]]>But also, I believe everything I read if it's in a serif font. They can't put it on the internet in a serif font if it isn't true.
https://social.lol/@bw/115464318258817542
Whenever I see any social media post that's an image of a quote or a screenshot of tweet or an excerpt from an article, if I'm too lazy to verify it, I just assume it's not real.
]]>I miss being able to handwrite. My muscle weakness has progressed such that I no longer can. But I miss scribbling in notebooks with the timeless Parker Jotter.
You've probably seen this pen before whether you know it or not because it's been in many, many TV shows and movies throughout the decades.
]]>For anyone who read my post about NaNoWriMo, I just wanted to update that the event officially unofficially lives on.
This new version of the event doesn't involve signups and doesn't try to be the sole provider of community and project tracking. You're encouraged to connect with your local and virtual groups wherever you find them and to use whatever apps or services you'd like to track your work.
They will be offering pep talks and blog posts and probably running some virtual sprints which is nice.
I haven't decided if I'm participating (desperately in need of an idea) but if so I will be using https://writingmonth.org/ by @amin and hanging out with a local writing group on Discord.
If you have any plot ideas you aren't using, send them my way. I really miss the Adoption Society forum.
]]>I just gave a conference talk about this. The path of least resistance is to follow instructions to `npm install` things, and to do otherwise is a very intentional choice you have to make these days.
https://blakewatson.com/magnolia2025
https://hachyderm.io/@cssbasics/115447200760851124
How is chefskiss not an emoji yet? And where do I sign up for the riot?
]]>I’m going to miss NaNoWriMo. What a tragic ending to such a whimsical event. https://blakewatson.com/journal/nanowrimo-is-dead-long-live-nanowrimo/
]]>Has anyone compiled a list of all the services that allow you to host a free static website?
]]>I gave a talk at MagnoliaConf in Jackson, MS today about how I am sick of frontend build steps (and what to do instead). I'm probably going to turn it into a three-part blog series. But for now I do have my talk in text form. https://blakewatson.com/magnolia2025
You’ve tried Inbox Zero, but have you tried Inbox 404?
I make this mistake in some of my own side projects, but...
When you are building user registration for a for an online service, take care that you aren't leaking membership information. Like if I try to sign up with an email (or do a password reset) and that email is already taken, don't tell me the email was already taken. Say "If this email address is available, you will get an email with a confirmation link."
That sort of thing.
It's not necessarily a huge security vulnerability, but it protects your users' privacy by not revealing that they've signed up for your service.
]]>So I've been using macOS Tahoe for couple of weeks and my hot take is that I'm kind of into the UI redesign. I'm looking at the Finder window and I'm seeing scroll bars that look nice, that are easily draggable. I'm seeing buttons that look like buttons. Things seem well defined and shaped and I'm kind of into it.
I was kind of sick of completely flat shapes that may or may not be clickable.
]]>Because of my upbringing, I have a deep-seated, reflexive hesitation when using swear words. I’m not offended when others use them. I just can’t use some of them myself without effort.
But sometimes the only part of speech that will do is a strong, fucking expletive.
]]>When I wrote the pitch for my MagnoliaConf talk about skipping out on frontend build tools, I was worried I wouldn't have enough content. Now that I'm in the middle of writing it, I'm realizing I have far, far too much content. I'm gonna have to put some stuff on the chopping block.
]]>Me: What time is it?
Clock: 4:04pm - not found
My People & Blogs interview is out today!
]]>fr tho probably should write my talk now
https://social.lol/@bw/115294568699593711
MagnoliaConf 2025 is going down October 21-23. This is Mississippi's coolest tech conference. The food will be excellent. The talks will be streaming FOR FREE.
Yours truly is giving a talk about doing frontend without a build step. Use my code SPEAKER10 for 10% off tickets!
Alright here’s my hot take on AI. *hides under desk*
https://blakewatson.com/journal/understanding-not-slop-is-whats-interesting-about-llms/
]]>When you click unsubscribe at the bottom of an email and the resulting page hangs. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
]]>Met up with someone from the internet for coffee and she turned out to be a real person (or an android that has achieved AGI)!
Sometimes I think about how we place mental models on top of reality. And after a while, we think the models *are* the reality. But they aren’t. They're not real.
]]>I find myself disgusted with all the glorification of killing as a means of progress over the last few weeks.
]]>I’ll be speaking at MagnoliaConf in Jackson, MS in October. My talk, "No build tool? No problem!" is all about skipping frontend build steps and instead using the cool features supported by modern browsers.
You can get 10% off tickets with my code: SPEAKER10
]]>Sometimes I will come across some pretty wild screenshots that people share of stuff posted on X or Truth Social (obv). But, I have a rule never to believe screenshots. So, I take it with a grain of salt unless I go directly to the source and see it myself. Social posts, among other things, can be easily faked. Just remember that.
]]>Remember when Domino's marketing strategy was, sorry our pizza got terrible, we fixed it? I'm gonna need them to do that again.
]]>OH: The difference between dogs and cats is that dogs don't know about evil.
]]>JavaScribble — Summon swarms of spaghetti code from thin air and hurl them at the target of your choice. You take 1d8 psychic damage per npm module used. The target exceeds the maximum call stack and is destroyed.
Cascading Soul Siphon — Hex your target with a pseudo-class, shifting them -9999px into an alternate dimension.
Purify — Recite the incantations of the Old Ones. You and your target lose all scripts and styles laying bare your unmitigated hypertext.
]]>This melody lives in my head rent-free (alongside a bunch of Super Mario tunes) and I whistle it absentmindedly almost daily.
But when I actually hear it, I have to hold back tears. It’s not like a sad association or anything. It’s just so beautiful I have to cry, man. idk
]]>This has to be a scam, right?
]]>Am I looking at a legit thing? Are you telling me I can send an actual telegram to my elected officials? In 2025?
]]>I tried to go to Bluesky a minute ago and saw an announcement that it's blocked for Mississippi users. https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-22-2025-mississippi-hb1126
]]>New font! https://blakewatson.com/journal/i-changed-my-fonts-after-six-years-of-using-cloud.typography/
]]>Pizza guy: *does job*
Dog: OMG WTAF!?!?
]]>I can’t stop thinking about this. Why? WHY DOES IT EXIST??
https://follow.coryd.dev/@cory/115057681228095205
This incredibly written (and narrated) piece about the colors of emotion hit me like a breath of fresh air.
https://weirdwritings.pinecast.co/episode/301b46f4/on-hearing-in-color
]]>Without turning my head (which I can’t do anyway) I see four different time displays.
- Wall clock (<3)
- Primary monitor menu bar
- Secondary monitor menu bar
- Home-cooked statusboard app on secondary monitor
- Bonus: phone lockscreen if display wakes
I still lose track of time.
]]>I haven’t played this game in 20+ years but this song lives rent-free in my head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lhbYWbPmkE
]]>Just discovered this really cool color palette by @netopwibby. Now I just need to think of something to build so I can use it.
]]>My website turned 20 today! https://blakewatson.com/journal/blakewatson-com-turns-twenty/
]]>Hypothetical. Someone who doesn't code and doesn't want to learn asks you what is a good service for making a personal website and/or blog. Where would you point them?
]]>Quick, I need some blog posts! I'm looking for blog posts/articles about why people should have a personal website.
I'm putting a list of them in a blog post. Both classic must-reads as well as little known posts from new web authors are fine.
]]>It took two hours of debugging, one of which included 3 developers on a screenshare... to find a misspelled attribute.
]]>Can confirm these are rad!
https://iconfactory.world/@Iconfactory/114916100504750898
You'll never have to chase down small breaking changes in your dependency chain you download the CDN versions and commit them directly to your repo.
]]>Any weirdos out there have a favorite light theme for VS Code? There aren't nearly as many quality light themes as dark themes I've noticed.
]]>I just said "bro, cope" out loud to webpack running in my terminal because it was showing me an error I already fixed.
]]>At certain levels, your D&D character has the option to take an ability score improvement or a feat.
Ability score improvements are great but sound boring, while Feats have cool names like "War Caster" or "Crusher" (and tbf feats are great too).
I just leveled up my Ranger and despite my FOMO on all the cool feats, I increased Dexterity by 2. But to make myself feel better, I gave it some copy. This is not a boring ability score improvement. It’s...
**Dex Lord**
Increase your dexterity by 2 to a maximum of 20. Your quick wit and reflexes in battle give you +1 to all attack rolls that rely on dexterity. Your reaction time is improved, giving you +1 to initiative and all skill checks that rely on dexterity. Your enhanced ability to avoid danger increases your AC by 1 point if your armor allows it.
Made a bunch of updates to Minimal Character Sheet.
- Print mode
- Collapsible spells
- UI tweaks
- Bug fixes
Like synthwave? I just added a bunch of mixes to https://synthwave.live.
]]>Found this website which is similar to the HTML for People vibe. Love it! https://www.htmlhobbyist.com/
]]>If you are reading this, you can do it. I believe in you! https://htmlforpeople.com/
https://mastodon.social/@ethanschoonover/114939346322019002
Spent nearly all day yesterday refactoring the autosave function on my digital character sheet app. It handles edge cases more betterly and shows a save-status indicator so that you can have the warm fuzzies of knowing everything is saved (and know when something goes wrong).
I fixed what I’m 99% certain is the culprit behind a data loss bug I was seeing. It should be pretty robust now.
]]>Tomorrow I’m gonna start procrastinating for real.
]]>I made a thing for D&D peeps! It's been a thing for a while, but I'm just now writing about it after making a bunch of updates.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/your-freeform-digital-character-sheet-for-dd-5e/
]]>I've submitted two talks to MagnoliaConf 2025. One about building a static websites with @11ty and one about webdev without a frontend build step. Anxious to see if I will be selected and if so which talk I'll be doing.
]]>Remember, folks, if you change a URL on your website and you don't create redirect, Sir Tim Berners-Lee will break into your house at night and kill you with a ceremonial dagger fashioned in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
]]>My DM pointed out that Shillelagh lasts for a minute which is a pretty long time in combat and also it doesn't require concentration.
]]>Player’s Handbook: As a druid, we recommend putting your lowest ability score on Strength.
Also Player’s Handbook: Weapons? You get a quarterstaff and a sickle. Yes they both rely on Strength.
Yeah I know Shillelagh is a thing but I think it's weird that a druid has to burn a bonus action every minute to have a usable weapon attack (out of the box, anyway).
]]>I will be resolving all merge conflicts with *take mine* because that’s the vibe 2025 is giving me.
]]>I love when you unsubscribe from an email list and they have a thing that says if you accidentally unsubscribed, click here.
Like, yes, I accidentally scrolled to the end of your email, found the buried unsubscribe link, clicked it, clicked a check box that says yes I want to unsubscribe from all emails, submitted the form, and then realized it was all an accident.
]]>Does anyone have a favorite command line program for quickly navigating to specific directories? I'm on a Mac so I'm looking for something I could install with Homebrew.
]]>If you’re using an AI for coding that uses cloud models (eg, Cursor, Claude Code), what’s to stop it from reading your .env file and sending it to the LLM provider?
]]>I really am gonna stop fiddling with Obsidian. It’s perfect now and there’s nothing left to cha—OOOH SHINYYY
]]>There’s never been a better time to learn HTML… because I made a few minor updates to HTML for People.
Rolling your own website is hugely rewarding. It’s hard to explain but there’s a real sense of agency and control. If you feel trapped by corporate platforms, here’s your way out.
]]>Ok I’m gonna do D&D prep and I’m not going to be nerd sniped by the first neat thing that comes across my—OMG WUUUT...
]]>There are people in my circles who, if they change their avatar, will completely ruin my life.
I have massive respect for people who use the same avatar everywhere for eons. I'm just not one of those people. I tend to get bored with mine after a while.
]]>I recently discovered the Cupertino theme for @obsidian and it really is *chef's kiss*. I would especially recommend it to people new to Obsidian who don't really care about loading it up with all the power features and whatnot, as it is a low effort way to make Obsidian appear much nicer (IMO)
I try not to fiddle with settings too much because if I don't watch myself, I'll fiddle for days instead of actually using the app for what it was made for.
That being said, I couldn't help but install the Style Settings plugin and tweak some of Cupertino's settings. I also set up some custom CSS and typography. I'm using Helvetica Now Text with a few stylistic sets activated. And because I am a heavy click-and-drag-the-scrollbar user (for accessibility reasons), I've given the scrollbars my go-to big chonker treatment.
https://github.com/aaaaalexis/obsidian-cupertino
Take the red pill, they said.
]]>Lmao @mhilltopple on (American) football:
> A lot of people will defend challenges tooth-and-nail, because the instant-replay reveals so many bad calls. I say stop whining about a few bad calls. Often the challenge is over something ridiculous, like whether one molecule of the football went over the endzone. I’m sorry, but maybe you just don’t deserve that touchdown if it takes state-of-the-art, slow-motion cameras at three different angles to verify it.
https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20250630-why-i-dont-watch-football-anymore/
]]>My brother @mhilltopple and I made our mom a super simple grocery list app that has one and only one list. I just found out she’s also been using it as a generic to-do list.
- Bread
- Milk
- Sandwich meat
- Call the insurance company
- Cheese
I don’t know how to feel about it.
]]>If AI summarizes website content without needing to send the user to the website, what will incentivize creating web content (other than self-satisfaction I mean)?
]]>If your clicks look like dicks, you have a kerning problem.
]]>I looked at my Mac’s clock and it read Jun 11 1:11:11 PM.
]]>Remix to Ignition is stuck in my head. Send help.
]]>I need an “Is DOGE gonna take my benefits away *this* month?” support group.
]]>The age old question.
]]>How to solve a problem you've been banging your head against.
1. Type out a long question to a coworker.
2. The answer becomes apparent while researching the question.
3. Erase the message.
What in the factual yuck
]]>I'm not super familiar with Glitch, but I thought project hosting was its whole point. If it's not going to be doing that, then what is it doing? I was reading that it's not a full shutdown but if your core offering is being shut down, isn’t that the same thing?
I recommend Glitch in HTML for People as a hosting option for building your site entirely in the browser. What other options exist for that?
]]>I’ve got 69 unread emails, which is nice.
]]>We can elect an American pope but we can’t _____ is gonna be my new we can put a man on the moon but we can’t _____.
]]>I just learned the term GEO (generative engine optimization) and now I want to die.
]]>Been playing a lot of Baldur’s Gate 3.
]]>That one fuzzy blanket, +2
Rare item
AC +2 because the wearer can’t be bothered to care rn.
**Comfy:** the wearer is warm and cozy and is immune to whatever bullshit is happening around them for 10 turns. Movement speed is halved for the duration.
The item and its effects are stackable.
]]>Star Wars day marks one decade since I got my first full time job. There was a time when I thought I would never be hired because of my disability. I decided to celebrate the ten year milestone with a writeup about how I got here.
]]>I’ve had Crazy by Gnarls Barkley stuck in my head for two weeks. And I keep thinking about this dramatic monologue:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DA2qD00Mh7R/
Before you watch it, think twice. That’s my only advice.
]]>Websites are a miraculous hodgepodge of design, programming, IT, marketing, writing, art, and diplomacy.
]]>I love videos that demonstrate the scale of things in the universe. I could watch these types of videos for hours. I decided to share a few of my favorite ones.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/im-fascinated-by-the-scale-of-things-in-space
]]>Seeing as I'm in a wheelchair, I would just like to announce that I will be missing all future standups.
…
I will see myself out.
]]>Takes antibiotics and chases it with probiotics.
*Mortal Kombat voice* FIGHT!
]]>Don't let AI take our sparkle emoji. Make them pry it from our cold, dead fingers.
]]>This is very much part of the inspiration for HTML for People. https://htmlforpeople.com/
https://mstdn.social/@aworkinglibrary/114382848355812422
I've been using Superwhisper for Mac, especially when chatting in Slack or Discord to prevent me from doing so much typing. The problem is it likes to capitalize things like LOL, which makes me look like a serial killer or something.
]]>My PCA told me that God debuffed me because he knew I would be too powerful.
]]>I have mixed feelings about what I’m calling “AI guilt.” On one hand I see incredible accessibility applications, but also the corrosive side of the technology.
I’m not sure if I’m down with blaming end users. I can see where people are coming from, but anyone driving a car or using a smartphone or a computer or literal sausage is “pretending not to know how the sausage is made” so I don’t think it’s as simple as “use AI === bad.” That’s not a consistent, compelling argument to me.
*ducks*
]]>Whisper transcribed “monospaced” as “mono-based” and I’m not even mad.
]]>Trump: hello yes, there seems to be something wrong with my economy
IT support: try turning it off and turning back on
Trump: ok done
]]>You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
]]>Is there a menu bar app for mac that will yell at me if I’m suddenly burning through my battery life?
]]>Do more. Write less.
]]>I’m coming up on ten years of being employed full-time (May 4, Star Wars day). I'll do a blog post on that day, but it’s been quite a ride. I’m lucky to have been born at a time when (and a place where) there was enough technology available to make working with spinal muscular atrophy possible. And I'm fortunate enough to have had help and support from so many people.
I'll have a lot more to say about it come Justin Timberlake's favorite month, but I wanted to put something out there now. (3/3)
]]>Toward the end I wrote:
> I make websites. And not having a job right now isn’t going to take that away from me. I still have my dreams. One day, something big is going to happen. I’ll land my dream job. Or I’ll become a successful freelancer. And even if neither of those things happen, I’ll at least keep volunteering for charity, working on personal projects, and contributing some of my creations to the world.
I think I wrote it to *will* myself to believe it—not because I already did. (2/3)
]]>In 2011 I was on year 2 of being unemployed out of college (it would go on to be 6 years). When a company ghosted me after a promising interview, I was pretty down. Some things happened which jolted me out of the gloom. I took to my (now archived) blog to write about it. I'm a little bleary-eyed reading it now. I'm glad 2011 me didn't give up. He definitely wanted to many times. (1/3)
https://blakewatson.com/ihs/we-still-have-our-dreams/index.html
]]>My brother tried his hand at blogging in Spanish (with an English translation).
https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20250330-palabras-y-personas/
]]>I hate it when I check the blame on some questionable code and git is like “You, 4 days ago.”
]]>The lights flicker whenever I turn my desktop space heater on. That's fine, right?
]]>Losing You is an existential narrative short film storytelling slideshow kind of a thing. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I hit play (okay I had some idea because I’ve watched exurb1a’s videos before). But the story just kind of started, and I sploshed along for the ride.
]]>BREAKING: New executive order instructs federal agencies to "make good deals"
]]>I’m getting worried about my ability to physically use a mouse. I use some cool voice control tools but they make me speak like a computer. I’m increasingly tired of computers not “getting me.”
https://blakewatson.com/journal/my-computer-treats-me-like-a-computer/
]]>Whenever I'm using a reactive JavaScript library and my code doesn't react like I think it should, I get irrationally angry and I'm all like, USE A REACTIVE LIBRARY THEY SAID. IT REACTS TO YOUR CHANGES THEY SAID.
]]>Me: Can you sync this folder between my computers?
Dropbox: Here’s your free AI calendar
I add a channel called STUDY DREAM to synthwave.live. I’m loving the emotional, cinematic feel of these.
]]>I'm trying to pick back up on my goal from last fall to learn C# and (after that) .NET Core. I also want to see what it's like to build interactive frontend UI with HTMX.
As an experimental project I'm thinking of doing a multiplayer Yahtzee clone where all of the game state is tracked on the server. Fairly boring, but I've programmed this stupid game about four times now in my life so it would be a nice, comfy project for learning other stuff.
]]>BREAKING: Executive order instructs all federal employees to refer to the president as “Real Donald Trump” with optional initial, "J"
A anonymous White House staffer said the “J” is not optional but merely a test of loyalty.
]]>BREAKING: New executive order clarifies that previous executive orders are subject to change
“Just check the president’s Truth Social account for the latest,” a spokesperson said. “We can’t keep up.”
]]>To be fair, they said we could still disco dance at the Grand Opening.*
* I don't know what they're opening, and they didn't say.
]]>I got a legitimate-looking email from someone I’ve never heard of from an org I’ve never heard of that informed me that the disco party has been cancelled.
So that sucks.
]]>I was helping @mhilltopple debug some JavaScript and had a complete brain fart where I thought you could check for the existence of a variable with an if statement.
But no. You can *assign* to a nonexistent variable (JavaScript just creates a global variable for you, as long as you’re not in strict mode). But you can't just reference any old made-up variable.
]]>BREAKING: South America renamed South Mexico by latest executive order
Sources say a broad redefinition of other continents is being discussed.
]]>BREAKING: All federal employees to be paid with dogecoin instructs latest executive order
When asked if the employees could pay their taxes with dogecoin, the White House spokesperson snickered and left the podium.
]]>Is there some fancy CSS that can automatically invert text to black or white depending on the contrast with the background color?
]]>BREAKING: New executive order renames every tower "Trump Tower"
]]>BREAKING: Eggs considered harmful says latest executive order
A White House spokesperson credited the Trump administration with the high price of eggs as a strategy to protect Americans.
"No one likes eggs, eggs are lame. People are saying it. I'm not saying it, but people are saying it. Eggs are bad. They're very bad,” the president added.
]]>It’s a naming things and invalidating cache kind of day.
]]>BREAKING: Alaska and Hawaii must relocate to the contiguous United States after executive order outlines broad return to office policy
A spokesperson admitted the plan was ambitious, but cited plate tectonics as precedent for moving chunks of earth around.
]]>BREAKING: The Great Lakes to be renamed the Greatest Lakes to comply with new executive order
“We love the lakes; they’re the greatest lakes. People are saying it; they’re all saying it, and by the way it’s so true. [sharp inhale]” the president said.
]]>Is there a name for the UI pattern used by Arc, Edge, and other apps where the viewable area is inset into the main window by about 10ish pixels?
]]>tbf Safari does give your MacBook that sweet, sweet battery life.
]]>I love Safari as much as the next person, which is to say not much. 😝
I’m being facetious, but I have two complaints:
1) It’s the oddball when it comes to developing extensions for it because it requires a corresponding app. Pretty annoying.
2) It deletes a site’s data storage after 7 days without visiting. I get why I think (anti-ad/privacy) but there’s a privacy hit—otherwise private local web apps will lose data unless they provide a mechanism for storing it remotely.
]]>Actually, there is a point. Don’t forget that there was a time you were a beginner. When people earnestly ask for your help, remember the people who helped you and pay it forward.
]]>When I was working at Mad Genius, a local ad agency, I was a decent “interactive designer” but something I struggled with was asynchronous JavaScript. I just didn't understand it at all.
One of the senior devs helped me one day, stood at my desk for like 15 minutes and explained jQuery’s deferred objects to me in a way that finally made it click (of course that translated to Promises easily enough).
There’s not a point to this story. I just feel appreciative.
]]>BREAKING: Executive orders have momentarily ceased as White House "ran out of that fancy paper"
A spokesperson said an intern failed to fill up on supplies after being tasked to retrieve “nice-but-cheap” card stock from Office Depot.
]]>Version 3 of my minimal new tab page, A Fine Start, is out now! I did a little writeup of what's new, what's coming, some development notes.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/introducing-a-fine-start-version-3/
]]>BREAKING: Latest executive order bans use of word "United" in names of other countries
]]>First open this in a tab:
Press play, then open this in another tab:
Press play.
Now you are free…
]]>I’m on a Milk Carton Kids kick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp0xjVzmKxY
]]>BREAKING: Microsoft to become Macrohard to comply with executive order
]]>BREAKING: Latest COVID strain given 90 days to "stop mutating" by recent executive order
]]>BREAKING: Executive order renames Mexico "the basement." With Canada fearing they’re next, a government spokesperson revealed back-channel meetings have taken place to "get out in front of this thing." "We're more than a dusty attic and we’re looking for a naming compromise that isn’t harmful to Canadians."
]]>BREAKING: Trump's hands considered large "but in a normal way" says latest executive order
]]>BREAKING: Executive order creates new agency to prevent Andromeda’s stars from migrating to Milky Way
“They’re literally hurtling straight for us,” a White House spokesperson said.
]]>There’s a blog post simmering here.
]]>Things like Apple’s Voice Control and hands-free input tools like Talon are cool…
But I’m increasingly frustrated that I have to act like a computer to get my wishes across. I don’t enjoy speaking in cryptic, pre-defined utterances. I want to talk like a person. The computer needs to accommodate me not the other way around.
I don’t know if this is something AI/LLMs can help with or not, but idk. It’s like one day I just woke up and thought, I’m tried of *being* a computer to use one.
]]>BREAKING: Earth instructed to stop warming in latest executive order. "It’s up to Mother Nature to do her part," the president said. "It’s out of our hands."
]]>I was just trying to dictate the words "personal care assistant" but the output was "personal terror assistant,” which now I am super curious about.
]]>I had a little bit of a bumpy start rolling out A Fine Start v3 to Firefox peeps (my first submission still had development URLs 😬). But after frantically squashing bugs and submitting several versions back-to-back, I think it’s in good shape.
Firefox was my testing group. So now I’ve submitted Chrome and Edge. Should be rolling out sometime soon!
And there’s also a hosted version here: https://afinestart.me/bookmarks
]]>BREAKING: Executive order instructs Treasury Department to make bills “crispier”
]]>BREAKING: New executive order calls for training LLM to produce executive orders autonomously
]]>12:34
]]>BREAKING: Scientists tasked by executive order to place MAGA decal on Voyager probes "before they get too far away"
]]>Well, someone boosted my HTML for People post from October and it got another round of boosting. I’m glad people like it and I hope more homemade websites get built.
]]>BREAKING: Executive order forbids Sun from becoming red giant in 5 billion years
]]>I don't know who needs this but https://blakewatson.com/blank/
]]>And as my statistics instructor back in college used to say, the gap between practice and theory is greater in practice than it is in theory.
]]>I'm continually relearning that the gap between testing data and production data is greater in practice than in theory.
]]>BREAKING: Uranus has 90 days to get itself upright according to executive order
]]>Amphibians scolded by latest executive order; told "make up your damn minds"
]]>Version 3 of my new-tab-page browser extension, A Fine Start, is nearly ready. Should be launching this week.
New features include supporting up to 7 columns, 5 new themes, bulk opening groups, and alphabetizing bookmarks.
There are also improvements like better keyboard navigation and soother drag-and-drop.
]]>BREAKING: Executive order says Europe no longer considered “country”
]]>Executive orders now called chief executive orders to comply with recent chief executive order.
]]>Pacific and Atlantic to be named American Ocean Left and Right, respectively, after new executive order
]]>I'm so disgusted about the “Gulf of America” that I'm going to make jokes like this every day until it's gone.
]]>BREAKING: Vehicle brand Dodge to drop second D in name to comply with executive order
]]>My brother, who uses a wheelchair as I do, mind you, just called me a “walking MDN.”
]]>BREAKING: Cancer considered cured by recent executive order
]]>BREAKING: Pluto considered planet again after recent executive order
]]>This course is Very Good™.
https://mstdn.social/@scottjehl/113986150518701375
“Lately, I’ve had the song ‘A Long December’ by Counting Crows stuck in my head. I used to hear it on the radio all the time back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, when I still listened to radio. I love it. The song makes me nostalgic for California, even though I’ve never even visited there.”
]]>No one:
Me: Starts humming Dire, Dire Docks
While working on a side project, I scope-creeped myself into building a JavaScript package for better localStorage.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/indexeddb-made-easy-like-localstorage/
]]>Great blog post from my brother, @mhilltopple, about working from home.
https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20250131-the-new-normal-of-working-from-home/
]]>Despite everything going on…
https://beep.town/@initech/113920496496153735
I almost just nerd sniped myself. Barely avoided it.
]]>I have the Carmen Sandiego theme song stuck in my head.
]]>I'm trying to reconcile these two articles. One is calling the virtual DOM pure overhead. The other shows that some of the fastest frameworks use the virtual DOM.
- https://svelte.dev/blog/virtual-dom-is-pure-overhead
- https://javascript.plainenglish.io/javascript-frameworks-performance-comparison-2020-cd881ac21fce
Me right now
https://beep.town/@initech/113913418540821398
If you're looking to learn some CSS, my HTML web book has a gentle introduction to it.
]]>My favorite YouTube feature has to be when you search for something and it litters your search results with a bunch of stuff you didn't search for.
]]>JS peeps: I need your help!
I’m looking for a tiny library/framework that will render DOM in a performant way (patching rather than blowing away existing DOM) **and** doesn’t use unsafe eval (no eval function and no `new Function`).
I feel like there should be plenty of choices but I’m having trouble finding much.
]]>You know you have problems when you get back-to-back emails from MyChart and they're unrelated from different providers.
]]>My dictation software typed “speed weed” instead of “speed read” and I'm not even mad.
]]>My new tab page browser extension is getting the following new features (coming soon!):
- Any number of columns from 1 to 7
- 2 new themes
- Sorting bookmarks alphabetically
- Open a whole group of bookmarks with one click
Yes! In my ideal world everyone would have a personal website and infinite time and resources for tinkering with it.
]]>@nora Your generators are hilarious. Bad Kickstarters was cracking me up.
]]>Apple Human Interface Guidelines, 1987, pg. 16
“Computers hold tremendous promise for people with many kinds of disabilities. In terms of increasing productivity and mobility, computers can have a far greater impact on disabled people than on other users. … Many of the modifications that make programs easier for disabled people to use are simple and inexpensive to make, and they often have a welcome and unexpected side effect—the programs are easier for everyone to use.”
]]>Cope with the horrors of life by buying fonts.
https://mastodon.social/@simplebits/113868176975589057
I’m really loving Commit Mono for coding. It’s a neutral typeface with a feature called “smart kerning” that makes characters appear more evenly spaced while preserving monospacing.
]]>Does anyone know what the current best practice is for using ES modules in the browser? How many is too many in terms of HTTP requests?
]]>I've been on a quest to eliminate build steps from web projects wherever possible. The side effect of that is that I've been using vanilla JS a lot more, and in turn have been learning a lot.
I used to *only* work with vanilla JS, and I was actually intimidated by jQuery at first when I started seeing it everywhere.
Learning a framework is always a little risky because you don't know how long it will be relevant. But learning vanilla JS always seems like a good investment for a web dev.
]]>I'm just noticing that a few days ago, my post about making a variant of Solitaire got a swell of traffic.
These are the funnest solitaire rules I've ever played, I think.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/i-made-a-web-based-version-of-sawayama-solitaire/
]]>I started thinking about the things that I really enjoy today and how I got them from people years ago. So many things that I think of as essential are things I might never have discovered had I not run into the right people.
I decided to do a few shoutouts.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/things-i-got-from-specific-people/
]]>One thing I love about social.lol is that the citizens of this instance are just the nicest people.
]]>I love @bell.bz’s Just post. https://bell.bz/just-post/
https://social.lol/@bw/113840221014327225
What is the most compelling article or blog post you’ve read about why people should blog?
]]>I’m working on my new tab page browser extension (A Fine Start) and I have some exciting features coming that people have been asking about for years.
]]>You know what they need to teach in school? How to email good.
]]>Scope Creeps would be a great band name.
]]>Does anyone else sometimes get the feeling that a person in a TV show or movie is somehow AI generated even though you know they aren’t?
What I mean is, ever since seeing a few Sora clips, sometimes I can be watching a person talking in a show or movie where they are clearly using actors and just start getting the feeling that they are AI generated. Almost like I'm catching fake micro expressions, uncanny facial movements, or something. It's hard to explain.
]]>Does anyone remember the third-party Twitter client, DestroyTwitter?
I used to love that little thing. It was super themeable, and I remember getting all kinds of wild ones like Dr. Pepper, where the entire UI was different shades of maroon.
]]>I’m straight up obsessed with The Chilling Alpine Adventure. I don’t know what to call it but for now I’m going to say it’s cinematic sci-fi art rock.
]]>I grade myself on 2024 goals and give some project updates.
]]>You’ll never hear anyone say they regretted blogging more. It’s always a good thing.
]]>Just wanted to shoutout @things for being such a beautiful, elegant, and helpful app. My projects wouldn’t get done without it.
]]>Anytime I start using a new text-based app, I like to give it the shrug test. Can it render the following properly:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
]]>The All-American Regex
]]>Me: Hey can you keep this folder synced on all of my computers?
Dropbox: Your free AI calendar is ready for you
😞
]]>OH: “I’m a dollar sign guy. I like my jQuery and my PHP.”
]]>I'm not proud of it, but I just won an argument with a dog.
]]>BIG NEWS… A version of HTML for People is now available in Spanish! @victorhck has translated and reworked the content into Spanish (including screenshots!).
Read all about it and get the links here. 🚀
https://victorhckinthefreeworld.com/2024/12/11/aprende-html-desde-cero-y-crea-tu-propio-sitio-web/
]]>Two orgs worth donating to in this season of giving are Wikimedia and Internet Archive.
They aren’t without their controversies, but both Wikipedia and the Wayback Machine are IMO priceless resources and they’re available for free. I’d like to see them continue to be things!
]]>I feel therefore I am.
]]>What’s a good Mac app for listening to music files on your computer? I dislike the Apple Music app for reasons. Currently trying https://swinsian.com/.
]]>An album I discovered on @kampf’s Nerd Show ended up sweeping my Spotify Wrapped top songs.
]]>Incidentally, I wonder is AOC is doing AoC. :)
]]>Decided to try Advent of Code for the first time. Doing it in JavaScript. We'll see how long I can hang in there. If things get too math-y, I'm screwed.
]]>Guess what! It’s time to add @zachleat’s snowfall script to your website!
- Docs: https://www.zachleat.com/web/snow-fall
- Demo: https://bw.omg.lol
- Quick start: https://paste.lol/bw/omg.lol-snowfall
I started an anonymous blog.
]]>I’m trying to decide what to do with my dice rolling app, d20. It’s based on Electron, which I don’t love. And currently the thing is built targeting Intel Macs. But I don’t want to ship a universal version because that would create an app size equivalent to two whole Electron apps, which is clearly ridiculous.
So I think my options are to ship a build targeting Apple Silicon only, or abandon the Mac app entirely and transition to a PWA.
]]>This is the coolest blog post I’ve ever seen. https://mgx.me/kirby-vs-this-blog-post
]]>I wrote about how I love Alpine.js for side projects and home-cooked apps.
(Reposting because my other one is a quote post and didn’t render my open graph preview. And yes, this parenthetical is longer than my text above. But you know what, I love a good parenthetical. Why do you think the “behind the scenes” genre exists? It’s because parentheticals are great stories in their own right.)
https://blakewatson.com/journal/alpinejs-for-home-cooked-apps/
]]>I finally did it. Here’s a little intro to Alpine.js for building UI in a hurry. https://blakewatson.com/journal/alpinejs-for-home-cooked-apps/
https://social.lol/@bw/113352385602337955
…is a website that needs clearfix.
https://botsin.space/@awebsite/113527908453528117
Still haven’t seen a better use of obsure TLDs than https://butt.holdings.
]]>The 90s: I have been summoned
https://botsin.space/@awebsite/113522245818385049
@amerpie Hey I just discovered AppAddict (love it) by way of @hbowie and realized we’re on the same Mastodon instance!
]]>I’m interested in joining the Continue Watching Should Always Be At the Top of the Page Party.
]]>I am deeply ashamed that my life choices have led to this moment at lunchtime today.
I made one! https://www.watsonbrosgames.com/tiny-terror-tower/
https://botsin.space/@awebsite/113436606628301325
For any disabled peeps out there who require assistance when voting (as in actually casting your vote), I'd like to know your thoughts about not being able to vote privately. It really irks me. I've had a few bad and or weird voting experiences, and I didn’t vote this year because of it.
]]>Nope we got way too many of those.
https://botsin.space/@awebsite/113422450888314104
I couldn’t come up with a story idea this November, and my morale was killed by the continued lockdown of the NaNoWriMo forums.
So I don’t know what I’m going to be doing this month. Still considering GitHub Gameoff 2024. Also interested in all the blogging stuff people seem to be doing (not sure what all events are active right now).
Also I’ve decided to learn a new programming language so I might start that (soon as I pick a language).
]]>@anniegreens So how does the WeblogPoMo AMA thing work? I read the explanation post, but still kind of confused.
Can I ask a question of people who are participating, or are they answering their own questions?
]]>Has anyone used Back Market to sell a MBP?
]]>I'm administrating my own server for the first time, so that makes me a sysadmin! No one said you had to be good at it to get the title.
Matter of fact, if you follow only the first chapter of HTML for People, that makes you a web designer!
]]>Just found this silly animation I forgot I made. https://blakewatson.com/vhs/
]]>Bloom by Beach House #NowPlaying #Album
]]>What’s a good option for selling a used Mac?
]]>The making of HTML for People. This is a behind-the-scenes look at the idea, motivation, and process. Something of a director’s commentary.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/the-making-of-html-for-people/
]]>I need a cheaper alternative to DeployHQ because I’m at my 10 project limit and I don’t want to pay 2x more (I have lots of tiny side projects).
An obvious choice is GitHub Actions, but it looks kind of hard and also I hate YAML. Typically all I need to do is an npm or composer build, then transfer the contents of the output folder to my server.
Anyone know a good, easy alternative or do I just need to suck it up and figure out GitHub Actions?
]]>I need to turn this thought into a blog post, but I’ve come to appreciate AlpineJS as a valuable tool when making home-cooked apps. No build step and you can immediately string together interactivity.
You’d want to be more careful if making a thing for other people—making sure you server-render what you can, don’t rely on too much client-side rendering, and don’t get too sloppy with the js-in-html code.
But for an app just for me? Weee… I can go so fast.
]]>Leaving Through the Window by Something Corporate #NowPlaying
]]>When I want to make a bulleted list using markdown, I use…
]]>Everyone is a snob about something and I think I’m a line-height snob.
Don't use 1.5 as a blanket default. Use your eyes.
]]>I updated HTML for People with some small but important improvements. I added a bit more explanation and resources around folder creation and relative URLs.
A lot of people inquired about a downloadable version. At some point I’d love to make a nice PDF. But for now I’ve added a printable version (see link in footer) that’s got everything on one page. You can save that to PDF.
Many thanks to everyone who has given feedback, suggested corrections, or filed issues!
]]>Enjoyed this post by @helenchong. omg.lol is such a pleasant little internet community. So glad I stumbled upon it.
https://social.lol/@helenchong/113329337092092406
This HTML for People announcement has 1,999 boosts. 👀
]]>Plans by Death Cab for Cutie #NowPlaying
]]>I remember it being a breath of fresh air to learn HTML and write it myself compared to wrestling with the free web authoring tools I had at the time.
]]>I found this page on a freeware gaming site I used to run. This post in 2005 was an update where I had moved from no-code web software to writing HTML directly.
Text: I have redesigned the site. This time using straight HTML! Why? I was tired of using the authoring software I had because it made updating a hassle. I'm eliminating the "middle-man," so to speak. It's helping me learn HTML by doing it this way. Plus, the site probably loads a lot faster. So it works out for all of us in the end!
This track is so beautiful to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dIUFC6o0eo
]]>You know I love me some home-cooked apps!
https://follow.coryd.dev/@cory/113302892096749102
Let me take a sec to promote a friend’s stuff. We share the same disability and she makes the cutest shirts and stickers! https://cutelootarts.com
]]>If it wasn’t for blogs, I wouldn’t know anything.
]]>I’m primarily a Firefox user so I’m only now noticing that my code samples in HTML for People weren’t being syntax highlighted properly in Chrome. That’s now fixed.
Oopsie.
]]>Has anyone compiled a list of HTML web components?
]]>Released HTML for People https://htmlforpeople.com
]]>I’m absolutely blown away by the response HTML for People has received so far. Wow. I really appreciate the kind words, feedback, and bug reports!
]]>I’m getting tons of boosts and replies right now and am having trouble keeping up. Just wanted to say two things real quick:
1. THANK YOU! People are being so nice and supportive and I really appreciate it.
2. I had some DNS issues going on there for a minute but I now have a temporary fix in place.
]]>The wait is over. HTML for People is OUT NOW!
I feel strongly that anyone should be able to make a website with HTML if they want. This web book will teach you how to do just that. It doesn’t require any previous experience making websites or coding. I will cover everything you need to know to get started in an approachable and friendly way.
And it’s free for all. 🚀
]]>I’ve been eschewing frontend build steps on side projects lately and wonder if anyone is doing that “at scale,” to use a buzzword. But I guess what I mean is are there people running vanilla on any medium-to-large web applications? I feel like maybe there are, but they just don't blog.
Anyway, if you’re reading this and that sounds like you, I'd love to know how it's going and whether there’s anything from “modern toolchains” that you miss.
https://mastodon.social/@cferdinandi/113278531430447760
CSS framework question.
When it comes to CSS frameworks and UI libraries, there are a ton of options if you use React and or have a modern build pipeline.
But what about frameworks that are usable as a single css file (no build) and customizable with CSS variables? I know about Bulma, Bootstrap, Open Props, and Pico. The rest I could name are fairly dated.
Anyone know of others?
As much as I love classless “frameworks,” I’m more thinking about ones that have a few pre-designed UI components.
]]>My selfish motivation behind HTML for People is that I deleted my Facebook account in 2017 and now I need everyone to make a personal homepage.
]]>HTML for People will be licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). The GitHub repo will be public. I’ll use the issue tracker to field any issues with the website or corrections to the content.
]]>Whenever the singularity happens and human jobs are replaced with robots, it means we get to spend our days tinkering on our personal websites full-time, right?
Right??
]]>I made a ton of progress over the weekend. It’s looking like HTML for People will go out this weekend or sooner!
]]>I'm absolutely not defending Matt Mullenweg, but I just want to point out that many people could have quit just because the offer of $$$ was available.
https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/113248219515539566
I’m pretty bummed about the state of NaNoWriMo this year. I usually sift through the Adopt a Plot forum thread this time of year, but it seems the forums aren’t opening this year. Looks like the org imploded over some slimy people in the community and now the community aspect of it is dead.
]]>I’m gonna lose followers over this but a bagel is just a sad donut.
]]>It’s amazing how many well-timed Office Space GIFs I get in my timeline.
The Number of NPM Dependencies Is Too Damn High Party
https://infosec.exchange/@malwaretech/113227428486013240
I constantly switch notetaking apps. I decided to write about my current setup even though I told myself to stop doing that and maybe just write good notes instead.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/where-im-at-with-notetaking-apps/
]]>Anyone miss the design of iOS 4?
]]>I burped. I said, “Excuse me,” aloud. I’m alone.
]]>A Zero bar is what AI would create if I asked it for a Snickers.
]]>The robots won't see it coming.
I hate it when I think someone texted me and it turns out to be spam. It's happened so many times now that I'm not sure why my brain keeps giving me the dopamine hit from seeing the notification badge.
]]>What is the simplest solution for persisting user data?
I frequently run into a situation where I’ve built a neat little frontend app but need to persist some user data. My first instinct is to stick it in local storage, which is cool and totally works. But it’s at risk of being deleted by the browser and it’s not portable to other browsers or devices.
Things I’ve used:
- PHP/MySQL
- PHP/SQLite
- NodeJS/SQLite
- JSON files
- Userbase (third-party service)
- I’ve even used paste.lol as a BE
It didn’t occur to me until @mhilltopple mentioned it that September is 9. 🤯
https://social.lol/@bw/113116972383991530
@cferdinandi Hey Chris did the toolkit move? Getting a 404 on https://gomakethings.com/toolkit/
]]>I looked at the time in the corner of my Mac and it read:
Sep 10 11:12:13
]]>Whenever I see “So-and-so is on X” it takes me a non-zero amount of milliseconds to realize they are talking about a website, not a drug.
]]>It’s a go to YouTube and type “kevin powell grid” kind of day.
]]>How much of a sin would it be to build a table out of divs with CSS (and is it possible to do it accessibly)?
]]>My confidence boost from being nearly carded at 39 was short-lived. I just found out Kagi is giving a t-shirt to its first 20k members. Unfortunately, no 2X size. Rip, me.
]]>Woke up to a ton of Mastodon notifications. Who knew there were so many HTML fans? <3
]]>HTML for People update:
- Finished a round of proofreading
- Added alt text to 70+ images
- Linked up a ton of resources (used Perma.cc on some of them to prevent link rot)
- Tweaked typography and color scheme
- Repressed symptoms of imposter syndrome enough to get the above done
Still a ton more to do but it’s coming along. I’m looking at a release date around November or December probably.
]]>Got carded today (well, almost… she changed her mind). I’m 39.
Still got it, yall.
]]>I wonder if the use of credits is a good compromise for fighting subscription fatigue. It allows a service to make ongoing income in a way that aligns its interests with customers.
You’re paying if you’re using it, but not if you’re not. Of course, credits need to be straightforward—as in how much money they represent, or what clear benefit you get from spending one.
The last thing I want is every web app selling me a bag of gems and gamifying everything for optimal revenue.
]]>Grammarly is straight up trolling me.
I've just recently been getting into ambience videos on YouTube as background noise. I'm starting to keep a few favorites on my new tab page for quick access.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp7Mqp-X2wk
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRbRIXMmHtY
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNBWBSDUl8c
(shameless plug for https://afinestart.me)
And if you're tired of cool gray apps but you enjoy light mode, then might I recommend this theme that was part of Firefox Colorways.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/elemental-soft/
]]>I don't know who needs this but I made a warm dark Firefox theme using the Firefox color add-on. Sometimes I just get tired of every app being a cool gray color.
]]>Is there a YouTube setting that will show me only the results of what I searched for? So annoying having to scroll past unrelated algorithm suggestions.
]]>Has anyone used tiiny.host and have opinions about it? I’m looking for static web hosts that support drag-and-drop deployments as opposed to Git-based deployments.
]]>A few months ago, I started collecting email addresses of people who wanted to be notified when HTML for People is released.
I should have done something smart, like use a newsletter service or something. But instead I collected the email addresses to a plain text file and decided to let the rest be a future me problem.
Well, the future is rapidly approaching. What is the best way to send an email to about 100 people given only a list of email addresses?
]]>I've completed the rough draft of HTML for People! I still have a lot of work to do to get it ready, but I'm excited to share it with everyone soon.
In the meantime, here is the table of contents.
Give Up by The Postal Service #NowPlaying
]]>It was a very minor thing, but I am excited that a PR of mine got merged into Simple.css today.
If you haven't checked out Simple.css, it's a really nice classless framework for making plain HTML look nice. Building a site with Simple.css is the basis of my upcoming web book, HTML for People.
]]>These $10 Panasonic earbuds punch WAY above their weight. I've heard $100+ that sounded worse.
https://shop.panasonic.com/products/ergofit-in-ear-earbud-headphones
]]>I wish more people with SMA knew about our Discord server and other communities. So I wrote about them in a blog post. Hopefully people searching the web will find it.
]]>American startup idea: crowdfunded health insurance for developers. “Keep the developers of your favorite apps healthy!”
]]>Sometimes I think to myself, “Man, I hope the developer of this cool app doesn't get hit by a bus.”
]]>“It looks like your browser or ad blocker is preventing Javascript from successfully loading this unsubscribe page.”
You have got to be kidding me.
]]>Me and some friends are going to be playing the tabletop RPG, Monster of the Week. If you like RPGs and you like shows such as Buffy, Supernatural, Stranger Things, X-Files, Fringe, etc, then you’ll probably like this game.
Here’s the intro and rules summary I wrote for my players.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/monster-of-the-week-game-introduction-and-rules-summary/
]]>I’m looking for a shared host recommendation for someone just getting started with PHP—like mostly for includes. Something that’s simple, affordable, and beginner-friendly. Anyone have recommendations?
]]>For some reason I decided that my HTML for People book (I'm experimenting with calling it a book because it's starting to feel like one) needed an appendix chapter on “CSS basics.”
This is by far the most difficult part of the entire thing why do I do this to myself whyy
]]>I set out to style the quaint, white page with its long runs of Times New Roman and I thought to myself, “first, do no harm.”
]]>One of my favorite things is putting on my AirPods Pro, turning on noise cancellation, and then not listening to anything.
]]>I just turned 39 and ordered some Polo trouser socks. I feel so old.
]]>I did some work refreshing my home-cooked bookmarks app. I figured it was finally time to write about this app since I never really did back when I created it two years ago.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/my-home-cooked-app-for-online-bookmarks/
]]>Sometimes I pronounce it “gif” instead of the true correct way, “gif.”
]]>@capjamesg@indieweb.social Cool thanks!
]]>@capjamesg@indieweb.social I made it like two paragraphs in then bought Typora and played around with it for thirty minutes then remembered I never finished reading the article.
]]>I lost the ability to handwrite for years now. It’s chief among the things I miss (https://blakewatson.com/journal/things-i-miss/).
I was thinking of collecting scans of old writing samples (I think I have enough) and creating a font as a way to restore my lost handwriting, in a way.
I really don’t know where to start or how difficult it would be to accomplish given that I can’t produce new samples.
If anyone has resources or direction to give me, I’d appreciate it!
]]>@capjamesg@indieweb.social I know it’s almost a cliche to say VS Code is my favorite programming tool, but there’s a reason so many people use it, and it’s not only because it’s free.
It’s fast, reliable, and infinitely customizable. Because of that it’s extremely accessible. It’s one of the few apps I know of that will let you do something as obtuse as change the width of scrollbars—a welcomed feature for this disabled programmer!
And, yes, it’s free. It means anyone has access to a rich development tool.
]]>Watching MKBHD’s interview with Tim Cook at WWDC24. In it, Tim says “Our model is one where we want to empower you to be able to do things you couldn’t do otherwise.”
I feel this really hard. Apple’s accessibility features are S-tier and I can’t overstate how much they impact my life for the better.
]]>I looked at the clock at exactly 12:34:56
]]>Update: these “e-ink settings” worked much better on my MBP than on my Studio Display. Seems like it can’t combine the grayscale filter with Night Shift very well.
]]>I wanted the feeling of an e-ink monitor, and I realized that with the right settings in macOS I could get something close.
]]>In HTML, how would you go about marking up something like this?
August 2019–Present
]]>I’m not saying the term “user” is always bad, but the old joke goes that only industries that call their patrons “users” are drug dealers and tech.
I’ve found myself searching for other words when it makes sense. Are they reading my article? They’re readers. Or if I need to be generic—they’re visitors. Are they paying me? They’re customers or patrons.
]]>I may have purchased another font.
]]>Furiously writing HTML for People.
]]>I've made it far enough into my HTML for People tutorial series that I felt comfortable enough to buy the domain name and throw up a landing page.
]]>What’s the simplest service to use for a “notify me when this project launches” landing page?
]]>If you have a version of your resume in HTML, I’d love to see it! For learning/curiosity/inspiration.
]]>I wish I knew how the hell emails containing the word “airdrop” multiple times are getting through all THREE of my spam filters.
]]>I’m working on a beginner HTML tutorial series and I’m just finding out that YouTube embeds won’t work in a non-ssl context like a local web server.
Do I have any good option for getting around this? I’m not gonna make a beginner deal with self-signed certs.
]]>I found this VS Code extension via MDN. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=yuichinukiyama.vscode-preview-server
]]>What's the easiest way for a non-developer to run a local webserver **on Windows** for serving an HTML website?
I'm looking for something that is as easy as WorldWideWeb for macOS. https://iconfactory.com/worldwideweb/
]]>Last night I dreamed I was back in high school and the teacher opened the first day of class with “We’re going to be learning web design… and COBOL.”
blinking-guy.gif
]]>I’m so happy about a longstanding bug that was fixed in macOS Accessibility Keyboard, the built-in onscreen keyboard.
The accessibility keyboard has word prediction similar to how an iPhone does. Problem is, it usually crapped out in browser-based editors (probably because of how weird `contenteditable` regions are).
But in the latest version of Sonoma it’s working beautifully! That means I can now easily write in apps like Obsidian and my own https://write.omg.lol.
]]>I keep running into an Eleventy circular reference error but I don’t know why. If anyone is in the Discord, here’s my problem: https://discord.com/channels/741017160297611315/1239618935591141446
]]>The latest version of macOS fixed a longstanding bug in the Accessibility Keyboard that prevented word prediction from working properly in browser-based text-editing environments (I’m assuming it’s something to do with contenteditable regions). Because of that behavior, I was never able to give Obsidian a a proper try—word prediction is a must for me if I’m writing anything more than a sentence or two.
So I’ve installed Obsidian, exported all my Bear notes into a folder in Dropbox, and I’m giving it a shot. A nice benefit of Obsidian operating on a “folder of files” is that I can draft blog posts (like this one) directly in my site’s src folder. Kinda neat.
I’m always looking for good CSS named-colors cheatsheets or references. This one is fun. Please send me ones you know of!
]]>Does anyone know of a good HTML cheatsheet or reference for beginners?
]]>New blog post about rebuilding my site in Eleventy https://blakewatson.com/journal/rebuilding-my-website-with-eleventy/
]]>NOBODY MOVE
Abilities https://blakewatson.com/about/
JavaScribble. Summon swarms of spaghetti code from thin air and hurl them at the target of your choice. You take 1d8 psychic damage per npm module used. The target exceeds the maximum call stack and is destroyed.
Cascading Soul Siphon. Hex your target with a pseudo-class, shifting them -9999px into an alternate dimension.
Purify. Recite the incantations of the Old Ones—you and your target lose all scripts and styles laying bare your unmitigated hypertext.
]]>After 5 years of WordPress, I have rebuilt my website using @eleventy! I've been using Eleventy for years now on other projects (including one for NASA) and I'm super stoked to be using it for my personal website.
I did a little writeup about it.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/rebuilding-my-website-with-eleventy/
]]>Safari devtools is not letting me uncheck or modify styles. Anyone run into this before?
]]>I have a chicken and egg problem.
When I publish a blog article I want to include a link to a corresponding Mastodon post. To write the Mastodon post, the article needs to be live. But to publish the blog article, I need the URL to the Mastodon post. But I don’t know the Mastodon post URL until I publish it. Ahhhhh!!
Am I really going to have to deploy my site, post a toot, then turn around and add the link to my site and deploy again? Ugh, there’s got to be a better way.
]]>This is the kind of CSS change I enjoy making. Tiny tweaks no one else will notice.
I’m writing a blog post. Do I call it 11ty or Eleventy?
]]>Working on a post about my new website rebuild that I launched and didn’t say anything about...
]]>The answer ended up being to use eleventyConfig.addCollection, which is counterintuitive because in my mind I’ve already “added” it.
But anyway, you can pass a callback, get all the posts in the target collection, then sort how you like.
https://www.11ty.dev/docs/collections/#getfilteredbytag(-tagname-)
]]>11ty peeps, what’s the simplest way to sort a particular collection by the file slug? #11ty
]]>It looks like my Rube Goldberg machine for updating my microblog is working. I'm going to write about it at some point.
]]>Pardon my test post. Testing my EchoFeed webhook.
]]>Pardon my test status. I'm checking my EchoFeed webhook.
]]>I’m playing with EchoFeed.
]]>I’m playing around with EchoFeed 👀
]]>RSS peeps: if I were to use htaccess to 301 redirect my old RSS feed to my new one, would people following the old feed still get my new posts?
]]>Tired: initial commit
Wired: FIRST
The Verge: “People immediately grasp the potential for AI to simplify and streamline their daily lives but still prefer humans for more personal tasks like dating.”
Joaquin Phoenix: False.
]]>My brother and I did a song swap and wrote reaction posts.
- https://blakewatson.com/journal/song-swap-kayama/
- https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20240425-song-swap-lilac-wine/
“The old pencil has a point of view on being a pencil. The new one is like a simulacrum of a pencil.”
]]>A thing happens to me on Mastodon that never did on Facebook or Twitter. When I’m not around for a few days I feel kinda bad that I’m not liking/boosting all the cool things yall are writing and making.
]]>I’ve been listening to this ODESZA album as an afternoon pick-me-up.
]]>I may have purchased a new domain name.
]]>OH: “I should have run for president this year, since I turned 35 last year, but it just seemed like too much of a commitment.”
]]>I need ideas for my About page on my personal site. What are some interesting ones yall have seen? (Feel free to say your own lol)
]]>This Last Week Tonight segment about Medicaid is spot on. I’m not too dissimilar from one of the disabled women featured in this segment.
I rely on caregivers to get out of bed every day. I’m able to work only because I have access to this care.
But I’m always worried that one day I’ll find out I’m losing everything. It nearly happened one time on a technicality. Fortunately I was able to course correct. But many aren’t so lucky.
]]>No one: …
Logitech: Here’s a mouse with AI
]]>Which I think is awesome, just to clarify.
]]>I mean suddenly every open graph image I see is dynamic. But yall all do it differently. Wild.
]]>How are yall doing these dynamic open graph images? I’m porting/re-aligning my website to @eleventy and I’d like to upgrade my default boring open graph image.
]]>Wow turns out I don’t even need a counter. You can straight up style list numbers with ::marker. What a time to be alive!
]]>One day I’ll be able to implement a CSS counter without looking everything up, but today is not that day.
]]>Oh snap EchoFeed is out! https://echofeed.app
]]>Getting back into Slay the Spire.
]]>What do people use for supplying user styles to webpages?
I know about the browser extensions, Stylus (ie, Stylish without spyware) and Stylebot.
And I know Arc has Boosts.
]]>I modified the big chonker scrollbar to be semi-transparent. It blends into a website’s existing colors a bit better now.
https://social.lol/@bw/112237794332180966
I'm about to implement a universal filter that strips out the numbering. If that's not the right approach somebody stop me.
]]>11ty peeps, say I have the following:
pages/
- 10-my-first-page.md
- 20-my-second-page.md
- 30-my-third-page.md
I'm setting the permalink thusly:
permalink: "{{ page.filePathStem }}/"
What is the easiest way to get 11ty to ignore the number in the slug that I am using just for sorting purposes? I would like the permalink to be, for example:
/pages/my-first-page/index.html
But currently I get:
/pages/10-my-first-page/index.html
]]>I’m about to go down a rabbit-hole reading about Preact signals. This readme is good but I would also like to see the explain-it-like-I’m-five version.
]]>I recently decided every website I visit should have a giant scrollbar I can easily click and drag. Here’s the medium gray one I came up with that I’m applying as a user style.
It’s mostly for webkit-compatible scrollbars but I did add one rule for FF/standards-compatible scrollbars to prevent scrollbar-width: thin.
]]>Well it’s April 9th but my script starts early to catch all timezones. It’s April 9 in some places already.
]]>It’s CSS Naked Day! https://blakewatson.com/
]]>Remember when 960.gs was the GOAT?
]]>It’s that time of year in the US where you don your ceremonial robes, prepare your incantations, and bring all your wit and wisdom to bear…
…in accurately guessing how much money you owe the government.
]]>What do people use for deploying/building code these days?
I use DeployHQ and I like it but I’m limited to 10 projects on the lowest tier. Next plan is double the cost so I’m shopping for alternatives because I have a lot of tiny projects.
I’d prefer not to have to write YAML.
]]>An optimistic take on the deluge of AI-generated text: your own human writing becomes rarer and thus more valuable than ever.
]]>Someone got a photo of @robb’s @eleventy setup
https://mstdn.social/@ElleGray/112202493657027204
OH: “They’re nice on the phone but they’ll eff you on paper.”
]]>@davatron5000 @chriscoyier @shoptalkshow I think I failed to mention this in the episode but my go-to tower defense game series is:
]]>Had a great time talking home-cooked apps and generally shooting the webdev breeze with @davatron5000 and @chriscoyier.
https://front-end.social/@shoptalkshow/112196289295136552
Who do I need to lobby in order to get and more granular scrollbar styling abilities in Firefox? Or is this a web standards thing?
Asking because my favorite user CSS to apply to websites is to make the scrollbar about twice as big.
]]>A little bit of a ShopTalk spoiler but at one point I mentioned regretting that I used polling instead of web sockets on a home-cooked chat app/site.
Well, over the weekend I integrated Pusher which is a web-sockets-as-a-service product. It worked great. Their free plan is more than enough for a home-cooked app.
Backstory: https://blakewatson.com/journal/building-our-own-private-discord-knockoff/
]]>I’m not sure what deity I crossed, but for no reason whatsoever I have It’s Gonna Be Me by NSYNC on repeat in my head.
Also, you’re a month early, boys. It’s gonna be April.
]]>I've been messing around with some CSS for styling blog posts for like three days now and keep changing my mind. Is there a word for this? It's like CSS decision paralysis.
]]>One topic that came up was the Discord knockoff me and @mhilltopple made just for us. One of its features is that we brought back the og Discord font, Whitney. I was kinda hating on the new Discord font and I feel a little bad about that now that I think about it.
But Whitney is nice, is what I’m trying to say.
]]>I just got done recording an episode of @shoptalkshow with Dave Rupert and Chris Coyier!
It was fun. Hope yall like trig because there were some tangents. Should be out in a couple weeks.
]]>Back in 2006, I was a happy Windows XP user. It was time for me to upgrade my machine. Instinctively I was going for a Dell.
But then I thought about iTunes. It was my favorite program on my Windows machine. I thought, “Let me just see what kind of machines Apple sells.” I got my first Mac a few months later and never looked back.
But I do miss the eminently usable UI of older Mac OS X versions.
]]>I miss aqua-style scrollbars so much. I actually need and use scrollbars.
https://mastodon.online/@octothorpe/112117134117397539
> Then someone in the discussion said something I always find a bit deflating. They said they had no problem writing, but they’re not so keen on publishing.
>
> “After all”, they said, “the world doesn’t need yet another opinion.”
Imagine your favorite app. Now imagine that you could change the way it looks or how it behaves without having to submit a feature request to the developer.
Such is the power of the web.
You can add your own CSS or JavaScript to any webpage. How wild is that?
]]>Use your Mac the way I do: a thought experiment
https://blakewatson.com/journal/use-your-mac-the-way-i-do-a-thought-experiment/
]]>Have you ever come across some code on a project and thought, “that is kind of weird but irrelevant to me right now,” and then discovered hours later that it’s the source of the bug you have been trying to fix the entire time?
Edit: it turns out there is a comment above the exact line of problematic code that says “Yes this is stupid…”
Edit again: git blame is erroneously saying that *I* did this three days ago.
]]>@rrwo@floss.social Yeah that’s a good point.
]]>I’m really sick of taking reverse Turing tests.
]]>It is mind boggling how much JavaScript exists just to help people avoid writing CSS.
]]>
Troy and Abed is the greatest bromance in the history of television. Chang my mind.
]]>My very first use of #11ty was this synthwave music mix site that I made during the early days of the pandemic. It is constructed entirely out of data from the YouTube API.
]]>I just used https://rss-is-dead.lol to add like 40 feeds to my Feedbin.
]]>I just used https://rss-is-dead.lol to add like 40 feeds to my Feedbin. 🥴
]]>Build that blog already https://sia.codes/posts/build-that-blog-already/
]]>Got my ticket to the #11ty conference! Nice touch that it gleaned my website from my email address. https://conf.11ty.dev/tickets/cdadcfe7b79341faa67513a0ac6ab543
]]>What’s the easiest way to get started making a theme for VS Code these days? I know I’ve seen some web-based tools out there.
]]>Ok @eleventy peeps, what’s the secret to getting nice highlighting and prettier formatting on njk files? Feel like I saw a toot about this recently and can’t remember who it was.
]]>I’m gonna keep saying World War Z-index until someone thinks it’s funny.
]]>World War Z-index
]]>This is great advice in general. https://toneofvoice.clearleft.com/
]]>Love this “manifesto for small, static, web apps” - https://rosswintle.uk/2024/02/a-manifesto-for-small-static-web-apps/
]]>I need a recommendation for a budgeting tool that makes it easy to get your transactions into it.
I currently have a Numbers spreadsheet with recurring income and expenses. But there are some estimations here and it’s not giving me a clear enough picture.
]]>I looked at the time at exactly 12:12:12 AM.
]]>I’m totally fine with paying for services. I do it all the time. I probably overdo it. BUT…
I’m a little miffed at IFTTT. I was using a free integration for the past year. Then it suddenly quit working. Turns out they decided to charge for it now.
Look I can sympathize with trying to price a SaaS. But saying something is free then charging me after I’m relying on it isn’t cool.
Luckily it’s easily replaceable by a cron job.
]]>Things I miss https://blakewatson.com/journal/things-i-miss/
]]>It looks like IFTTT quietly made webhooks a pro feature.
]]>Someone found my old wheelchair.
If you think this is cool, come join our team! Hiring a backend engineer working on management systems for the spacesuit! See my previous message for details. US-only, remote. #FediHire
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/12/24071144/nasa-collins-aerospace-iss-eva-spacesuit-gravity
]]>Want to build web apps for NASA? My team is hiring a backend engineer. Mostly PostgreSQL. US-only, remote. #FediHire
]]>@morganm@subdued.social I get this sentiment, but also publishing was always a big part of the magic for me. So if it’s a personal/fun site (as in not for a business) I think publishing soon and often is a good way to keep up the motivation to learn.
]]>Elon Musk doesn’t know it, but he created the perfect slogan for HTML when he said TELL IT TO EARTH.
]]>Ok I’m thinking of trying https://shadow.tech/
]]>Anyone know how I could get a Windows VM on a cloud somewhere that I can use as a virtual desktop?
I see Azure Virtual Desktop but it’s so heavily targeted at businesses that I can’t figure out what I need as just an individual.
]]>I used to hate rewatching TV series, but then I lived a long time.
]]>Team “…or log in with email”
]]>🤯 puter.com just blew my mind.
It also strikes me as a good tool for an HTML beginner since you only need a web browser, but it is still conceptually a file system like one’s local machine. The stuff you learn carries over to a “real” system.
]]>What is the dead simplest way for a beginner HTML hobbyist to get their website on the internet?
]]>Hot Fuss by The Killers turns 20 this year. #NowPlaying
]]>Open graph really messed up my comedic timing on this one.
]]>An important event happened in 2016 that changed the trajectory of the world forever and no one saw it coming. I think we all know what I’m referring to.
That’s right, the album, Atlas, by FM-84 was released.
]]>scientists: the universe is 14 billion years old
young earth creationists: the universe is 6000 years old
computers: the universe is 54 years old
I also have one that simply says:
> The frontend is the fun end
And I am now realizing that I cannot run with that title lmao
]]>I have a note with a bunch of ideas for articles on my website. One of them is:
> Make something with CodePen projects and talk about it
Jotted this down a while ago but haven't had any ideas yet.
]]>Monday already being Monday
]]>This is a story all about how @mhilltopple and I built our own private Discord knockoff.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/building-our-own-private-discord-knockoff/
]]>What do you call an in-joke that’s more of a reference than a joke? For example, this sentence:
No one outside the group understood why the cat was named Foobar because his name was a [word that means inside reference].
Or maybe “inside reference” is right. I don’t know.
]]>Vivaldi keeps crashing on me so I’m back to my Chrome/Firefox setup via Choosy as discussed here.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/multi-browser-workflow-on-macos-with-choosy/
]]>When I die, my family is going to have a tough time sorting through my digital empire. What can I do to make it easier? What should I reasonably wish to be done?
Just wondering if anyone has tips for documenting stuff.
]]>In honor of the Mac’s 40th birthday, here’s my 2016 post about my first decade of using a Mac. https://blakewatson.com/journal/a-decade-of-mac/
]]>If you’re using Arc browser mainly for the vertical tabs, try Vivaldi with vertical tabs. Similar experience plus doesn’t break “normal browser things.”
]]>Everyone says they're a good driver, so someone is clearly lying (not you though, of course).
]]>What is your go-to focus music?
]]>App idea: canishrug.com. A site where you can find out if any given text-handling app can accurately display the following:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
]]>I ended up going with highlight.js because it had more theme choices.
]]>What’s the easiest to implement JS syntax highlighting plugin these days?
]]>I really started to enjoy Workspaces and the vertical tabs in Arc (and the browser UI design) but Arc’s aggressive tab sleeping and unreliable tab syncing finally became too annoying.
I was losing page state because of tab sleeping and the tab sync process usually wiped away about half of my tabs.
Now I’m trying Vivaldi, which has Workspaces, vertical tabs, and isn’t as aggressive about sleeping tabs. It also doesn’t force me to sync tabs.
]]>Everyone’s an edge case.
]]>I read a bunch of “HTML web components” posts when they were buzzing around a few months ago. But I think this one I just read is the aha moment for me.
This guy should start a CSS blog or something.
]]>Got my year in review published. TL;DR:
- Got a new wheelchair
- Spoke at a conference
- Made a handful of new web apps
- Joined Mastodon
- Blogged every month
- Read 5 books
- Made a game
Happy year-end Last.fm report to those who celebrate.
2023 was my first year to use Last.fm since like 2008 or something. It’s been fun to see all the different stats. And it gives my brain warm fuzzies that they wait until the actual end of the year to generate the report.
]]>Reminder that I’m offering 50% off new annual subs to A Fine Start Premium through January 12.
A Fine Start is my new tab page browser extension. It transforms your new tab page into a minimalist list of links.
It’s free! You only pay if you want the link syncing service.
Rather than use any number of available chat apps, @mhilltopple and I have been building our own private Discord knock-off during our holiday time off.
One of the first things we did was reinstate the original Discord typeface, Whitney.
JavaScript console: missing ) after argument list
Me: so you are telling me you know what I did wrong and you know how to fix it but you decided to stop execution and yell at me instead
]]>I have this fantasy where I live in this small village town where everyone is friendly and takes care of each other and my day job is the village web designer and one of my responsibilities is the local news website but it’s just stuff like Bob’s Donuts is experimenting with a new flavor this week.
]]>Lilac Wine by Jeff Buckley #NowPlaying
]]>Remember when Discord’s in-app typeface was Whitney? ❤️ https://www.typography.com/fonts/whitney/overview
]]>I have a file I’m working on named chat.php and I can’t stop calling it chatgpt by accident.
]]>@lasermatts Your RPG Discord bot looks pretty neat!
]]>Arc users:
Do you get annoyed with tabs “falling asleep” then reloading when you click on them? A reload has potential ramifications. I don’t want a page to reload without my say so.
]]>Holiday + New Year Sale **50% off** annual subs of A Fine Start Premium. Now through January 12.
A Fine Start is my new tab page browser extension. It transforms your new tab page into a minimalist list of links.
It’s free! You only pay if you want the link syncing service.
I’m just gonna say it. The ask-our-AI features of some support documentation sites are really handy. Stripe and Cloudflare both have these and they can save a ton of time wading through docs.
]]>Just added some more improvements. Thanks, everyone, for the feedback and kind words!
- Better mobile support
- iPhone homescreen app-capable (with icon!)
- Mark paste as listed (shows up on your public pastebin)
- Sort notes alphabetically or by last updated
- Get the note/paste URL in the sidebar
- Restore previous scroll position when deactivating preview
I just added a bit better mobile support to https://write.omg.lol/
]]>Attention omglolers…
You know what the world needs? Yet another note-taking app!
Why? Because I had the address “write.omg.lol” and I wanted to make something fun with it! (This is the way.)
Write is a notepad that saves your notes as unlisted pastes in your omg.lol pastebin. It can preview markdown. It has a distraction free mode. It has color themes. It has bugs (probably). It’s desktop size only right now but mobile is my next priority.
Check it out: https://write.omg.lol/
]]>Working on launching something special for my fellow omgalolers...
]]>A Mississippi man sustained multiple mental and emotional injuries after a run in with CORS.
He was heard moments ago yelling, “ACCESS CONTROL ALLOW YOUR MOM,” after which he was seen flipping his computer desk.
Said the man after a calm exhale, “I am now ready for the sweet peace of death.”
This story is developing.
]]>Christmas time off commencing in 3... 2... 1...
]]>I added @zachleat’s snowfall component to my omg.lol profile page and so can you!
Demo: https://bw.omg.lol/
]]>For example, I tried Raycast. It ended up not working for me for a few reasons. But one of them was that I couldn’t scroll any of its views because there aren’t visible scrollbars for me to grab.
(Yes that’s how I have to scroll and I know that’s weird.)
]]>I don’t know how so many macOS apps are able to hide scrollbars even though I have “Show scrollbars” set to “Always” in macOS settings.
I see it more as time goes on and it makes me wonder if there’s just some SwiftUI scroll view or something that does that by default.
“Pipeline has been fixed…”
*tears of joy*
]]>When writing on a computer, I prefer to use:
]]>Sup new followers! If you joined omg.lol because of my Hacker News post, do me favor and add me as a referral here (no pressure tho):
https://home.omg.lol/account/referrals
This is a very generous referral program so if you share omg.lol with anyone, do use your referral link at the bottom of that page!
]]>@zachleat @robb @bobmonsour Presentation went great; thanks for the help, yall!
]]>11ty HELP!
What’s the easiest way to tell every template to use my _includes/base.ejs layout?
]]>I'm listening to @adam talk about passkeys on the @hemisphericviews podcast.
I’ve been scared of passkeys because I can’t easily use a phone (physical disability). But I just went to passkeys.io and discovered that 1Password will totally handle it for me. ❤️
]]>Love seeing the statuses from all the new peeps in here. Welcome!
]]>The Hacker News ride was (is) wild. My site usually gets around 700 views per month. In the last couple of days it got almost 30K!
Is there a non-breaking em dash? I always have unfortunate breaks like this. Or is that fine? I guess it just looks weird to me.
Wow, I’m at the top of Hacker News!
]]>omg.lol: an oasis on the internet - https://blakewatson.com/journal/omg-lol-an-oasis-on-the-internet/
]]>Related to this post (https://social.lol/@bw/111557385734131387), what is the easiest and or best way that you know of to get started with a personal website?
I’m looking for services or even tutorials focused on getting a basic website running (like this one https://css-tricks.com/get-started-web-design/).
]]>I think about this quote from @andy a lot:
‘P.S if you think “no one will want to read my posts”, you’re wrong, because I do.’
It’s just a sweet sentiment. It’s important to remember—someone will read your website. A tweet is dead on the vine. No one is gonna read your old Facebook note from years ago. But your website is timeless and someone will eventually read it.
Making your own website is rewarding in a way that a corporate social media profile never will be.
]]>I’m writing something that’s been a year in the making—my nerd crush on everything omg.lol. I’m coming up on my first anniversary!
]]>I miss the ability to write by hand (no longer have enough hand strength). These notebooks from iA would have been an instant buy for me. https://mastodon.online/@ia/111545259388785973
]]>Can’t decide if I want to enact a house style rule to capitalize the “i” in internet on my blog. Lowercase probably adheres more to modern style but I like the way capitalizing it makes me feel like I’m in the 90s.
]]>SHUT THE FRONT DOOR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rGroEFNEpI
]]>Two people who are obsessed with yellow. @ploink @jabronus
]]>{
tired: tired
wired
}
I was going to make a pithy post that I wanted a programming language that, rather than reporting errors, would just do its best to run the code.
I forgot about HTML and CSS.
]]>Technology we have: Hallucinating artificial intelligence that can plagiarize art.
Technology I wish we had: A version of PHP that would tell me I forgot a semi-colon rather than sending me on a wild goose chase.
]]>Another album that turned 20 this year is Jack Johnson’s On and On.
]]>Spotify Wrapped, or as Last.fm calls it, just another day.
]]>I’m *web design* years old.
]]>I live in Mississippi, USA but apparently I’m really into the Portland scene. 😆
I’m so old that the tag I use in my bookmarks app for web dev stuff is #WebDesign.
]]>Officially have fiber internet! Now for the break up.
*hey comcast, we need to talk.*
]]>Anyone know of a good DOM diffing util I can use in a TypeScript project? Preferably zero dependencies.
This is for rendering web components.
]]>I'm getting a fiber internet connection tomorrow!
]]>The Kirby 4 launch made me reminisce about how I first found it a decade-ish ago. I was looking to replace a similar file-based CMS called Stacey (I seem to remember a little drama between Kirby and Stacey but I might be wrong).
Another old CMS I was considering at the time was Indexhibit, which apparently is still kicking. https://indexhibit.org/
]]>Arc users: do you see random pages go blank when scrolling to a certain point?
For example this page goes blank on me about a third of the way down. https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MX532AM-A-AirTag/dp/B0933BVK6T/
]]>Ever since the iOS 17 update that dropped the “Hey Siri” requirement, my HomePod only activates about a fourth of the time. I don’t know what happened but it’s almost unusable now.
]]>A program that turns a Bear note into a webpage styled with Water.css. Call it Water Bear and its logo is a tardigrade. #AppIdea
]]>I’m investigating the pros/cons of using web components directly vs. using Lit, but struggling to find comparisons. If you know of any, please send them my way!
]]>Here’s a little treat for those doing November writing activities:
I put a bunch of strong action verbs in a compact cheatsheet. It’s a @codepen so you can fork it and make it yours.
https://codepen.io/blakewatson/full/qBgxXMm
Note: this was my first attempt at fluid typography. I wanted to make everything fit without scrolling and be spaced for easy eye-scanning. If you know how to improve it, please fork it and let me know!
]]>“Redesigning your personal website is one of life’s great pleasures.” — @chriscoyier on People & Blogs.
]]>I’ve never listened to Wilco. Where should I start?
]]>I started putting together my default apps post almost two weeks ago when I saw @robb mention the relevant Hemispheric Views episode. I've been a bit busy with work and NaNoWriMo but I finally got it over the finish line.
]]>You know how some dogs bark at people when they come over?
My dog barks at people when they leave.
COME BACK FRIEND WHY ARE YOU LEAVING I DIDN’T SAY YOU COULD LEAVE HOW DARE YOU WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE
]]>I don’t know who needs this but Gunship has a new album out and it’s awesome. https://open.spotify.com/album/4uAOIj4Sxh4sL6G0v5kykv?si=SHSb0OW7QDSQDxUz8rTKuQ
]]>Listening to the album Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard and realizing it is 20 years old this year.
]]>Sometimes I miss CSS-Tricks. I really thought DO was gonna do a better job.
]]>I've issued exactly one Cursorless command and I already feel the power coursing through my veins. https://www.cursorless.org/
]]>How it started: eats onion
How it’s going: tastes onions
]]>Behind on my NaNoWriMo 2023 writing goal, as is the natural order of things.
]]>This has to be the most poignant description of a font I’ve ever read. Also it’s a great font for anyone out there attempting #NaNoWriMo. https://indestructibletype.com/Drafting/
]]>@tomfinley@wptoots.social Yeah WordPress itself is impressively backward compatible. Unfortunately PHP isn’t so much. I’ve been bit by breaking changes in PHP a number of times. Luckily, WordPress is actively developed and on top of things!
]]>I often find myself humming the SMB 1 overworld theme. That has to be one of the most iconic pieces in the history of digital music.
]]>How does Slack not have syntax highlighting on code blocks? It's supposed to be *the* chat application for work. Discord’s code blocks are way better.
(Someone correct me if Slack does have this feature and I'm just using it wrong. But including a language abbreviation after the opening code fence doesn't seem to do it.)
]]>Listening to the album Infinite Arms by Band of Horses while I work and, man, I forgot how good this was. #NowPlaying
]]>I got an email announcing a State of React survey and SpamSieve flagged it as spam. I ain’t even mad.
]]>“I’m not watching a horror movie tonight but I *am* doing a website migration which is its own kind of horror.”
]]>GitLab don’t know how to act this morning. https://status.gitlab.com/
]]>Continuing in my quest for nice Vue DX without build steps… I’ve learned two things:
- Even tho I’m using a downloaded ESM browser version, I can still install the Vue npm package and refer to its types from JSDoc.
- The composition API is much easier to type than the options API.
]]>Turns out you can place this over a function to explicitly type the `this` keyword.
/** @this MyType */
]]>Vue devs, help!
Trying to get type support in regular JS using Vue’s ESM browser build.
Inside of the hasName computed value, VSCode thinks `this` refers to the `computed` object rather than the Vue app. What can I do here?
Another piece of nice-vue-but-no-build-step is using ES modules. That let’s me separate out components into their own files.
Still exploring type support, but adding a jsconfig.json with checkJs turned on is the first step. It kinda misinterprets things when using Vue’s options API, so it might be that the composition API is better for this use case.
]]>I have a personal side quest going to see how far I can push using Vue without a build step, but with similar DX to using a toolchain (except for the sucky parts).
Making template literals nicer to work in was one piece of it.
]]>If you often embed other languages into JS template literals (and you use VSCode) then I have the extension for you.
This baby lets you hit a shortcut, pops open a tab with just the contents of your template literal, and sets the syntax mode accordingly. Now you have full editor support for the given language!
It syncs everything you type back to the original file and saving the tab just saves the original file. It’s a lil weird, sure, but kinda neat.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=plievone.vscode-template-literal-editor
]]>Frontend people are scared of YAML and backend people are scared of CSS.
]]>People seem to enjoy my shakes-fist-at-cloud npm rant.
]]>What’s a space walk without a little bit of whimsy? #Catstonaut
I hate npm so much. I had a situation where I couldn’t work on a project because I couldn’t get the dev environment running locally.
I’ve gotten to the point where I hate even having a build step at all. The benefits are not worth it in the long run.
I feel like I should be able to create a moderately complex website (or even a web app) and it should be able to run for a minimum of five years without needing compatibility updates.
The worst part of this is that the web platform is probably one of the most backward compatible runtimes in the history of computing. You can take some HTML/CSS/JS from 20 years ago and it will probably run just fine in a modern browser now. Build steps ruin this.
If you build a web application with no build steps, you could pick up working on that project a decade from now and not have to worry about not being able to work because of compatibility issues.
There has really never been a better time to ditch build steps. CSS is awesome now. It has variables. It has nesting (maybe not everywhere yet but still).
Code organization? Modern browsers support ES modules, so it’s not like you need one gigantic bundle.
As @jimniels@mastodon.social said, if you are writing JavaScript in VSCode, you are using TypeScript. You get a lot of editor support without actually needing to build anything.
I can’t speak to other frameworks, but Vue works great in the browser without a build step. No, you don’t get to use the official single file component feature, but with ES modules, you can get something kind of close.
There is also Alpine.js which works really great with existing HTML.
]]>I can’t speak to other frameworks, but Vue works great in the browser without a build step. No, you don’t get to use the official single file component feature, but with ES modules, you can get something kind of close.
There is also Alpine.js which works really great with existing HTML.
https://vuejs.org/guide/extras/ways-of-using-vue.html#standalone-script
]]>There has really never been a better time to ditch build steps. CSS is awesome now. It has variables. It has nesting (maybe not everywhere yet but still).
Code organization? Modern browsers support ES modules, so it's not like you need one gigantic bundle.
As @jimniels said, if you are writing JavaScript in VSCode, you are using TypeScript. You get a lot of editor support without actually needing to build anything.
https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/the-flavors-of-typescript/
]]>The worst part of this is that the web platform is probably one of the most backward compatible runtimes in the history of computing. You can take some HTML/CSS/JS from 20 years ago and it will probably run just fine in a modern browser now. Build steps ruin this.
If you build a web application with no build steps, you could pick up working on that project a decade from now and not have to worry about not being able to work because of compatibility issues.
]]>I hate npm so much. I had a situation where I couldn't work on a project because I couldn't get the dev environment running locally.
I’ve gotten to the point where I hate even having a build step at all. The benefits are not worth it in the long run.
I feel like I should be able to create a moderately complex website (or even a web app) and it should be able to run for a minimum of five years without needing compatibility updates.
]]>We’re looking for a backend engineer for NASA projects (US remote). .NET (C#, Web API), Postgres, CI/CD.
]]>I made a lil Simon-style memory game (warning: flashing colors). https://codepen.io/blakewatson/pen/NWBrzrj
]]>For the lazy vanilla JS peeps out there, I submit to you the following:
```
const qs = (selector) => document.querySelector(selector);
const qsa = (selector) => Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(selector));
```
Regarding the Cloudflare app, I used 11ty to generate the frontend site. It uses Alpine.js for interactivity and Pico CSS for styling. Deployed to Cloudflare Pages.
The backend API is Hono running in a Cloudflare Worker. I used Cloudflare’s embedded SQLite database (D1) for data storage.
It was a little bumpy figuring things out, but the docs are pretty helpful. I find Cloudflare’s UI and docs less intimidating than AWS.
]]>I used 11ty to generate the frontend site. It uses Alpine.js for interactivity and Pico CSS for styling. Deployed to Cloudflare Pages.
The backend API is Hono running in a Cloudflare Worker. I used Cloudflare’s embedded SQLite database (D1) for data storage.
It was a little bumpy figuring things out, but the docs are pretty helpful. I find Cloudflare’s UI and docs less intimidating than AWS.
]]>TIL how to use Cloudflare Workers and Cloudflare Pages. Hilariously I deployed a home-cooked app that is only used by me and @mhilltopple.
But hey, at least it’ll be lightning fast if we happen to find ourselves on the other side of the world.
]]>My spicy take is that spicy food is overrated.
]]>I don’t know who needs this but I have a bunch of examples of a filterable list using various JavaScript frameworks. https://codepen.io/blakewatson/pen/bGOdBLR
No React tho ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
]]>Let's say you are a frontend developer and you have made an app than has some data stored in localStorage. What is the dead simplest way to persist this data beyond the browser (eg, in a database, in a file on a server, in the cloud, etc)?
]]>I have a fast approaching talk about home-cooked apps—the ones we make just for ourselves and family and friends. Tell me about yours so I can give examples! https://blakewatson.com/notes/13827e9b/
]]>I just now discovered CHVRCHES. This song was released in 2021 but it sounds like it came straight out of the eighties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kRYTaT0PB8
]]>I was just forced to do an image verification captcha to unsubscribe from a marketing email list. 😖
]]>When I was in high school complaining about math and asking when I would ever need this, I wish my teachers would have said “In 20 years when you finally try to make a video game.”
]]>@chriscoyier Just noticed your site redesign. Looks great! Love the faint border on top of the cards. And I'm especially happy to see that the big chonker of a scrollbar is continuing its reign. 🧡
]]>I wrote a JavaScript tutorial for improving procedural code with more declarative, functional code.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/fancy-foreach-with-functional-programming-in-javascript
]]>@allenstenhaus@toot.site Yeah exactly. I'm in a bit of a similar situation in that I'm only able to earn the income I do because of some very specific rules and money juggling.
But it really shouldn't be this way.
]]>Follow-up on yesterday’s SSI post:
Ideally I’d like to see means-testing completely removed from disability programs that provide equipment and in-home care.
Free us up to chase the highest wages we can and that will mean more taxes paid back into the system.
]]>Some people just want to watch the world burn and type their smileys backward (:
]]>For example, I have a severe mobility impairment. But thanks to federal and state programs, I’ve been able to get an education, learn computer programming, and join the workforce as a software engineer working for a NASA contractor—despite being so weak I can barely move my fingers.
But I rely on my daily caregiver hours in order to continue working. I can’t afford to pay all of their wages. And without them, I couldn’t work.
We need programs that let people with disabilities work and thrive.
]]>And it’s not just about receiving cash payments. In many cases, SSI participants aren’t receiving payments at all.
Rather, their SSI status is giving them access to other services they need, such as paying for medical equipment and providing in-home care.
]]>In the US, our disability support programs impose stringent financial limits. In the case of SSI, participants cannot have more than $2k in assets (cash, checking, savings, etc *combined*).
That limit was set in the 80s and hasn’t been updated since.
It’s time to fix that.
https://thearc.org/blog/new-bipartisan-bill-would-advance-economic-security-for-disabled-americans/
]]>Software dev projects would be so much more fun if you could finish them.
]]>Ayyy. Ivory for macOS will now respect custom icons. I’m using this delightful one by @andycarolan!
https://ko-fi.com/s/9359968cf7
See also: https://css-tricks.com/php-templating-in-just-php/
]]>Cool PHP things I recently discovered:
Plates - native PHP templates
https://platesphp.com/
Tapestry - static site generator made with Plates
https://www.tapestry.cloud/
More nice little packages
https://thephpleague.com/
No I don’t want to update my scanner’s software right now. Yes I’m sure. It’s just like I said yesterday and the day before that and the day before that.
]]>- Arc browser
- The new Edge design
- The new Slack design
- Craft
What do you call this UI design style?
It’s sort of modular, delineating between the window container and inner containers. Rounded corners everywhere.
]]>Things Are Great by Band Of Horses #NowPlaying
]]>I'm one of those people who enjoys making fun of Tailwind even though I've never used it.
But I keep hearing the same thing from different people who like it. They don't put it in these terms, but what I hear is:
Tailwind lets you style things without naming a bunch of things.
Not saying this is an insurmountable problem of other CSS methodologies, but just that Tailwind involves less coming up with names.
And naming things, as we know, is one of the two hard things in computer science.
]]>Makin’ forms
]]>Want to know how to filter an HTML list based on a user’s selection? I accidentally started a series of CodePens demonstrating just that!
]]>After sending a message (email, text, chat), I:
]]>idk what Mailbox > Synchronize does in macOS Apple Mail but synchronizing literally anything isn’t one of them.
]]>And here is a bit of a love letter I wrote a few years ago. https://blakewatson.com/journal/why-i-host-my-websites-with-nearlyfreespeech-net/
]]>In which my weird web host gets an upgrade (and also continues to be weird). https://blog.nearlyfreespeech.net/2023/08/22/bigger-better-faster-more/
]]>My weekend project. I recently backed a Kickstarter for Writer Emergency Pack XL, a deck of cards, each one with a creative prompt for getting a story unstuck. https://writeremergency.com
Problem is I can’t really handle a physical cards. And it seems they discontinued their accessible, web-based version.
So I got someone to help me scan in all the cards. Then I built a little card viewer thingy in HTML.
I don’t think I have the right to share it, so I’ll have to drop a few screenshots instead.
100 ways to generate a story idea https://blakewatson.com/journal/100-ways-to-generate-a-story-idea/
]]>Alan Turing: I wonder if the machine can convince us it’s human. 🤔
Every web app: I wonder if the human can convince us it’s not a machine 🤖
]]>Want to do frontend dev work on NASA apps? We’re hiring a senior frontend developer (US remote). https://mricompany.applicantpro.com/jobs/2991684
]]>I just realized that soda names sound like street names for drugs (aside from the one that actually is).
]]>Here is my lazy, 3-rule, CSS snippet for adding dark mode to any webpage. https://blakewatson.com/notes/c325ca71/
(Intended for user styles. If you are designing dark mode on a website you control, you should probably do it better than this.)
]]>@eleventy This page appears to be empty. https://www.11ty.dev/docs/images/
]]>I’ve been using Microsoft Edge for a few days and I gotta say, I think they made a better Chrome than Google.
- Less creepy ad stuff
- Cool features like vertical tabs, split view, and more stuff I haven’t explored yet
- I think the UI looks better but that’s subjective
(Obligatory FYI: Firefox is my main browser. I’m a multi-browser user)
]]>What is your go-to browser extension for adding your own CSS styles to a page?
I know about Stylus (which is basically Stylish without all of the analytics garbage).
What else?
]]>Much as I hate to admit it that stupid Bing sidebar in Edge with the ChatGPT tool kinda helped me out of a jam.
]]>Wow did it again.
]]>Whenever you’re viewing a file diff in Visual Studio Code is there a secret to highlighting/copying deleted lines?
]]>I just learned that Txti shut down. RIP https://txti.es/
]]>Choosy is a browser that opens other browsers and makes working with multiple browsers (on macOS) much easier. I wrote a bit about it.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/multi-browser-workflow-on-macos-with-choosy/
]]>I updated my Assistive Tech Gear page. It’s basically a /uses page with an emphasis on assistive tech.
]]>12:34
]]>This might be the best mouseover effect I’ve ever seen. https://bysusanlin.com/
]]>I’m a year-round enjoyer of @somafm’s DEF CON Radio, but it’s been especially fun listening while they’re on location at DEF CON 31 in Vegas.
]]>Hey friends, I’m giving a talk in October and I need your help!
My talk is about home-cooked apps—the ones you make for yourself or friends. I’m looking for examples I can share. If you’re interested in sharing, here’s more info and a short form:
https://blakewatson.com/notes/13827e9b/
Please boost for reach. Thanks!
]]>I didn’t want to choose between my @andycarolan avatar and my @heyheymomo avatar, so I didn’t.
Ok I’m giving Edge a try. Hilariously, Firefox’s own marketing shows that Edge has as many privacy features as Firefox does (not by default tho).
(Firefox is my primary browser, just need a Chromium-flavored browser too).
]]>With that in mind, here are the extensions I can’t live without:
- ScrollAnwhere: let’s me click and drag anywhere on the page to scroll. Which is good because I can’t physically use a scroll wheel and scrollbars are going out of fashion 😖
- uBlock Origin: death to trackers and ads
- Stylus: add CSS to any webpage
- 1Password: totally lost without it
- A Fine Start: ok I made this one and I’m biased but it’s the best new tab page out there.
What are yours?
]]>People love their native apps, and I totally get that. But browsers do some special things that most of us probably take for granted.
The robust extensions system lets you add or change just about anything in the browser itself and **any webpage or app you are viewing**.
Imagine you could adjust the UI of your favorite native apps by just providing a little CSS.
Imagine changing core behaviors of a native app to suit your fancy.
No support from the developer needed.
Just incredible.
]]>I just got hit with that Chrome ad popup that's been going around. I guess it's time to install something else.
(Firefox is my main browser, but I need a Chromium-based browser around for certain things).
]]>Her songs get weird in a way in which I really enjoy.
]]>What We Saw from the Cheap Seats by Regina Spektor #NowPlaying
]]>Oooh weeee, we got this sweet new custom emoji picker in @ivory! :prami_contented: :blob_thank_you:
]]>The caregivers I rely on every day—and without which I wouldn’t be able to work my well-paying tech job—don’t make enough to “meet minimum standards of living in their community” and this calculator illustrates that: https://livingwage.mit.edu/
]]>Wow. CleanShot X is amazing. That is all. https://cleanshot.com/
]]>Not sure the word “gardens” in the phrase “walled gardens” is really holding up.
]]>This mix is so comforting. https://synthwave.live/video/Iu80vyCIesI/
]]>My personal site runs on WordPress, and I think I have an only-recently-expired GravityForms license. Or could potentially use some other plugin.
Not super excited about doing that, but it is an option.
]]>I need to put up a fairly simple survey that will need to collect a few text fields, but also possibly a file upload.
I am assuming less than 100 responses (probably much less).
It doesn't have to be free, but as it's kind of a one-off, I'd like to avoid a subscription.
What is a good service I can use for this that won't be too much of a hassle?
]]>Monday enters the chat.
]]>New Now page using omg.lol! https://now.blakewatson.com
]]>Read “Just normal web things” by @hbuchel (https://heather-buchel.com/blog/2023/07/just-normal-web-things/) and I second all of these, especially the scrollbar bit.
There seems to be a terrible trend where the scrollbar gets neglected and forgotten. That’s a shame because it is a useful tried-and-true UI control. More about that:
https://blakewatson.com/journal/neglecting-the-scrollbar-a-costly-trend-in-ui-design/
]]>Is there a site somewhere that gives you color palettes that exclusively consist of named CSS colors?
Asking because I recently discovered that lightblue on black looks amazing. https://codepen.io/blakewatson/pen/QWJoaER
]]>I released A Fine Start v2.4.0 this week. Added two ways to search your new tab bookmarks.
]]>Want to work on NASA projects? My company is looking for a Senior Frontend Developer (US remote). I’ve been here for four years now and love it.
]]>I looked at the clock right at 11:11:11.
]]>Of course everybody knows the best Death Cab album is Give Up by The Postal Service. 😊
]]>I was trying to get to get some work done when suddenly my brain decided that it needed to see a list of all Death Cab for Cutie albums ranked RIGHT NOW.
]]>My wheelchair's joystick stopped working when I got back home from a doc appointment. So I swapped out the joystick for the one on my previous chair. It worked, but turns out the orientation of that one is off by like 45 degrees. So I had to rewire my brain on the fly in the heat just to get out of the van and into the house. Took about 30 minutes.
Related: this is the best Coke Zero I’ve ever had.
]]>Wearing my SomaFM tee today so that means jamming to some DEF CON.
]]>I was looking at Firefox’s comparison page and noticed that even though they conclude that Firefox is the winner (obviously), Microsoft Edge actually ticks every checkbox they present.
I was… surprised, to say the least.
(Edit: I shared the wrong URL)
]]>“You don’t hear about TextMate because TextMate is old. What would I tweet? Still using TextMate. Still good.”
]]>Re-reading a post I wrote about going back to WordPress. I’m proud of this excerpt:
“With 30% of the web, we might as well say that it is ubiquitous. And it’s good. Much like Helvetica, WordPress is very seldom the worst choice that you could have made (even if it isn’t always the best).”
That number is in the 40s now.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/switching-to-wordpress-in-2019
]]>I bet if you went back 100 years and described Spotify/Apple Music/Bandcamp to them, they would assume that in the future no one is working and everyone is listening to music all day every day in some kind of utopian paradise.
]]>Prettier just formatted its own configuration file when I hit save. Is this the singularity?
]]>To be clear, though, as much as I can understand the frustrations, my Mastodon experience has been the opposite. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in tech (sup NERDS) or I just lucked out with my instance (https://social.lol).
Everyone is nice. There are lots of creative, interesting people posting art, code, statuses, silly things, serious things—just a good variety of stuff.
When I log into Bluesky, I don’t know who to follow and it looks like mostly just screaming.
]]>This article by @kissane was great but I kept being distracted by the beautiful typography and design (because I’m a nerd, not because it’s distracting).
I also correctly identified the fonts as Matthew Butterick’s Valkyrie and Heliotrope. *chef’s kiss*
https://erinkissane.com/mastodon-is-easy-and-fun-except-when-it-isnt
]]>Who remembers Firebug? ❤️
]]>PHP 8 cost me a new customer. I can see in the logs where they tried to subscribe. But they hit PHP 8’s insidious error, `Warning: Undefined array key…`.
For better or worse, checking an array value using a possibly-non-existent key was a common pattern in PHP code. You could do it in an if statement and count on the result being truthy or falsey. Yeah I know, I know. But still.
This change makes ton of existing code problematic.
Here’s the best fix that I know of: https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20230716-let-me-live-dangerously-php/
]]>I wish there was a CSS media query for the user’s scrollbar preference. macOS has three options for when to show scrollbars:
- Automatically based on mouse or trackpad
- When scrolling
- Always
I set mine to “Always” (even though many native apps including Setapp and Apple Music ignore it and disappear them anyway).
But it would be nice for web apps to know the user’s preference.
Me: Hey Matt, do you want a Bluesky invite?
Matt: idk maybe later … isn’t that the meth in Breaking Bad?
Me: umm, yes I believe it is
]]>I have had Nothing Compares 2 U stuck in my head all afternoon.
]]>I'm working on an update to my side project, A Fine Start. https://afinestart.me
]]>Brain is fried from designing favicons. They’re hard and I’m out of design practice.
]]>Working on favicons for some NASA apps. Nice little break from coding.
]]>Aaaannnnddd I found a case where the maximum call stack is exceeded. Not a 10x dev after all.
]]>I just wrote a recursive function that worked on the first try. I'm sitting here stunned. Is this what it feels like to be a 10x dev?
]]>My mom’s ancient miniature poodle is the only dog I’ve ever seen that, when given a treat, will just stare at it like “idk what you want me to do with that.”
But then bark if one of the other dogs get close to it.
Just to recap, the three times I glanced at the clock this afternoon went like:
- 12:34
- 2:34:56
- 4:20
If I don’t show up tomorrow, I’ve either won the lottery or the universe took me.
]]>wow I looked at the clock at 2:34:56
]]>ayyyy I looked at the clock at 12:34
]]>Haha my economics teacher in high school had it all wrong. This Free Lunch brought to you by @simplebits. https://simplebits.shop/products/free-lunch
I have no recollection of this whatsoever but I found a note I made in 2018 titled “D&D Yoda.” The contents are just the following:
Race: Forest Gnome
Class: Warlock, Monk
If you use AirPods with your Mac but you **don’t** want to use them as your microphone, I have a little solution for you. https://blakewatson.com/journal/homebrew-package-for-setting-specified-audio-input-device/
]]>“It is my inalienable right as a PHP/JavaScript developer to refer to variables that don't exist. I realize this is an incorrect opinion and that in the long haul, such changes might make PHP more stable, but I really just don’t care. I use PHP to get stuff done, not to have some kind of pure programming experience.”
https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20230716-let-me-live-dangerously-php/
]]>[Updated] Almost monospaced: the perfect fonts for writing
I added Triplicate Poly from MB Type as another example. I think it might have been the font that introduced me to “almost monospaced” fonts in the first place so I’m embarrassed to have forgotten it when I first published this article.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/almost-monospaced-the-perfect-fonts-for-writing/
]]>Does anyone know of a good primer on community moderation? Specifically Discord, if that matters. Not technical stuff but just like some guidance on determining how to handle various situations.
]]>I just wrote a little Node/11ty thing that will let me publish notes from Bear on my website. Code is too, uh, homecooked to share, though.
]]>I’ve been using the Chubon keyboard layout for a decade now. I wrote up a how-it-started, how-it’s-going piece about it.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/my-journey-with-the-chubon-keyboard-layout/
]]>I have a bad habit of switching notes apps frequently, but that's because the app I’m using is always lacking THAT ONE THING that would make it perfect. App junkies know what I'm talking about.
But I'm telling you. I think I finally found it. The perfect balance. The robustness of plaintext. The niceness of rich text.
All of the essential PKM features: tags, internal links, backlinks, search.
Easy syncing. Great typography.
A native desktop app.
A beautiful icon.
Bear @bear
]]>I opened up Apple Music on Mac for the first time in months to see if the situation has improved.
It’s worse. Even though I have “Always show scrollbars” on in System Settings, the scrollbar in Apple Music disappears after a few seconds. Up and down arrows wouldn’t scroll the view.
I can’t use a scrollwheel. I could add Page Up/Down buttons to my onscreen keyboard I guess, but…
Meh. Back to Spotify! RIP iTunes.
]]>Noise cancellation on but not listening to anything.
]]>Day 2 of trying to code sign my Mac app. Why is this so difficult? 😩
]]>@jason I hit your random blog post button and got an incredible one. Question is, do you still agree with yourself 16 years later? https://grepjason.sh/2007/igot-iphone
]]>The repo of my favorite VS Code theme was archived and I’m trying to decide if I want to fork it and keep it alive.
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=joytrekker.rainier
]]>And…. another caregiver didn’t show up for an interview.
]]>Does anyone know if Bluesky is fully accessible on desktop (and does anyone have an invite)?
]]>If a social network isn't accessible via desktop, I won’t be on it. I don't have the hand strength for touchscreens (although Voice Control on iPhone has gotten pretty good lately).
]]>My wheelchair’s joystick is glitching out. Kinda worried it’s gonna die at any time.
]]>In the Forbidden Arts section of the library there is a book about packaging and signing apps for the Mac App Store.
]]>This one has been driving me mad for years. Clicking on modifier keys on the macOS Accessibility Keyboard would make this awful typewriter clunking sound.
How to make it stop:
You might be thinking, “But sticky keys isn’t even on!” To which I respond, yes that’s why it took me so long to find that setting and why I’m writing it down on the interwebs.
]]>Another caregiver interviewee ghosted me. Really hurts my faith in people. Ugh.
]]>Cease To Begin by Band of Horses #NowPlaying
]]>I’m interviewing caregivers and they keep ghosting me. Why go through the trouble to apply and schedule an interview?
]]>Give Up by The Postal Service turned 20 this year! #NowPlaying
]]>How it started/how it’s going, 2023 goals:
- Read 5 books (3/5)
- Write 5 blog articles (6/5!)
- Make one game (1/1)
- Keep a journal (C+)
- Make (or start) a new app for money (0/1)
- Be more social (C+)
Blake Watson 3.8 released today. Once again it’s hacky, untested code with a lot of bugs that was YOLO’d into production.
]]>Finally getting around to adding print styles to my personal site. break-after: avoid is not avoiding tho. hmmmm
Finished reading (well, listening to) We Are Legion (We Are Bob). Very cool book for space lovers. It’s a series, so I’ll probably be continuing on with it.
]]>The Photo Album by Death Cab for Cutie #NowPlaying
]]>For years I’ve written a handful of blog articles a year. But a few months into 2023, I realized that I had written one blog article per month. I’ve been trying to keep that streak alive and it’s been fun!
]]>During a four-day power outage I was confronted with how meaningless my work and hobbies are if there is no electricity to support them.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/the-fragile-nature-of-my-lifes-work/
]]>Our dev team was recently tasked with standing up user docs sites for our suite of NASA apps. We used @eleventy and a classless CSS theme (https://holidaycss.js.org/) and it worked out great!
I love that it was quick to get started but also that 11ty is super flexible, should we need to add features later.
]]>Does anyone still use the phrase “surf the web” and, if not, can we bring it back? Cool beans.
]]>Also I think this is the first time I’ve ever used the word, “swimmingly.”
]]>Seeing the Vision Pro demos, I’m wondering if the blurred glass look of the big iOS 7 redesign had VR/AR in mind at all or if it just happened to work out swimmingly.
]]>Working to the tunes on Hard Candy by Counting Crows.
]]>One thing that interested me during the 4-day power outage was this book, Top 10 Games You Can Play In Your Head, By Yourself.
I’ve only managed to play the exercise described in the introduction. But this concept and the author is fascinating.
]]>I’m back after a four-day power outage. Being a disabled web developer, a multi-day power outage is existential-crisis-inducing. My whole life's work and all of my skills and abilities suddenly gone and meaningless. When the power came back, it was like waking up from a bad dream. Did those four days actually happen?
]]>Albums I've enjoyed today:
MORE D4TA by Moderat Depression Cherry by Beach House Lost On You by LP
]]>I whistle at my desk a lot. I’m not a great whistler but I really enjoy it. Sometimes it’s a melody. Sometimes it’s a harmony. Sometimes it’s just whatever my brain decides to procedurally generate.
Reason #112 that I won't be working on location any time soon if I can help it.
]]>Time to convert coffee into code.
]]>Did Apple out-Meta Meta with the Vision Pro?
]]>Reddit CEO’s warning to employees not to wear Reddit gear for their own safety seems like a sneaky way to make it sound like people are mad at Reddit when they’re actually mad at just him/management.
]]>Playing around with a new homepage design with my stylish new avatar from @andycarolan!
Adding search to my personal site. Like many folks on social.lol, working on my website is one of my most favorite things to be doing.
]]>Living Through the Window by Something Corporate #NowPlaying
]]>Trying to decide how to redesign the homepage of my personal site.
]]>“Therefore, if the Moon were the diameter of an average grain of sand, the diameter of the Earth would be approximately 3,474,000,000 kilometers.”
— ChatGPT
]]>Removed Twitter from my profile links. RIP
]]>Somewhere Under Wonderland by Counting Crows #NowPlaying
]]>That tagline is such a huge undersell. But I get that you can’t list everything.
]]>Oh cool, I just discovered that 8 people have listed me as having referred them to https://omg.lol.
]]>Screwing around with Docker all afternoon instead of doing the actual work I need to do. Hate Docker. I’m sure it’s great but, man.
]]>I stopped enjoying banking when they stopped giving me free suckers in the drive-thru.
]]>Spoke at a web dev meetup Wednesday night about “home-cooked” apps. It went great! iA Presenter is a nice tool. https://blakewatson.com/home-cooked/
]]>Is FaceID coming to Apple Studio Display at some point?
That would go a long way toward making passkeys accessible to me (biometric ones anyway—I don’t really understand what options I have).
]]>I am become death, destroyer of this codebase.
]]>Trying to decide if it’s time to join some webrings. Yes, right? But which ones?
]]>Had to put together a talk on short notice and I’m using @ia Presenter. It’s freaky how well this tricks you into writing a good talk instead of fiddling with slides for hours.
]]>Procrastinating starting on a talk I'm supposed to give on Wednesday.
]]>I love how social.lol is full of avatars by @heyheymomo and @andycarolan.
]]>Mac apps I’ve been enjoying lately (both old and new):
- Ivory: welcome this fantastic Mastodon client to the Mac App Store!
- Tot: this replaced the built-in Stickies app for me. And it’s free!
- Silicio: luxurious mini-player that works with Apple Music and Spotify
- iA Writer: great for writing and has all the features I need to be my main notes store.
- Things: I’m not a todo junkie but I can’t keep everything in my head all the time. Things helps me remember what needs to be done.
]]>I dislike the UI pattern of “floating action buttons” because they end up blocking some part of the app I want to click or read. I get why they exist, though.
]]>This morning’s soundtrack is Depression Cherry by Beach House.
]]>It kind of pisses me off that I can’t take a screenshot of a Netflix video. I understand DRM to an extent but a single still seems like fair game idk.
(My only attempt was using macOS’ screenshot tool while using Firefox. I’m sure there are other ways.)
]]>Very much enjoying Tycho this week for some reason. I think my favorite album is Epoch.
]]>Yay just installed the Ivory Mac app! I’ve been using the test version and it’s been pretty great.
]]>No one I know agrees with me but I like Apple Numbers. And the reason I like it is the reason most people I’ve asked don’t—Numbers let’s you put multiple tables on a page and move them around.
]]>@BinaryDigit@easymode.im Oh cool! Yeah I mean I can see that tho haha.
]]>@BinaryDigit@easymode.im what kind of work do you do (if you feel like sharing)?
]]>I wrote a little bit about the solitaire game I made with PixiJS. https://blakewatson.com/journal/i-made-a-web-based-version-of-sawayama-solitaire/
]]>This is how I ended up on social.lol. There were so many choices. Then I realized my omg.lol page came with a Mastodon account if I wanted it. Problem solved. https://mastodon.social/@bastianallgeier/110379415772407351
]]>I don’t know who needs this but https://butt.holdings/
]]>Gloomy weather. Time to play some Death Cab and feel sad.
]]>I shut down the blog but I maintain an archive of all the posts—going as far as to set up redirects of all the original URLs.
Unfortunately, that didn’t stop it from losing SEO juice. So he rarely gets credit for his accomplishment.
Because of that I like to give it the occasional shoutout.
]]>Back in 2012 my brother, in a pee-holding-induced moment of inspiration, conjured up the concept of “pee math.” He published the seminal work, Pee Math, on my now-defunct disability blog, I Hate Stairs.
The term took hold in online communities and its usage made it all the way to the New York Times!
Pee Math: https://blakewatson.com/ihs/pee-math/
Usage in NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/health/for-millions-life-without-medicaid-services-is-no-option.html
The thing that scares me about passkeys is that they seem to rely on devices with biometric security, which are difficult for me to use (because I can’t handle a phone).
Related: how long until FaceID on a Mac?
]]>It was a random impulse buy on the then-brand-new iTunes Store. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to it for nearly 20 years now, I don't know. But I've really come to adore the album Mouthfuls by Fruit Bats. https://open.spotify.com/album/1Wx4ud28ypU7HAWuOHkmQ2?si=O5dNLd_1R52GaRFr0zmx2Q
]]>I love it when someone makes a little webpage that does One Thing Well™. Today’s example, this dead simple tool that removes duplicates from a list of lines. https://dedupelist.com/
]]>It looks like I am going to be speaking at MagnoliaJS 2023! I'm going to be talking about making stuff just for yourself (and friends and family). Here is a small taste for now. https://blakewatson.com/journal/the-joys-of-home-cooked-apps/
]]>Just watched @sophie’s talk and it is awesome and you should watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZUqa-lTbnU
Thanks @anniegreens for sharing it!
]]>Hello status.lol. I miss you.
]]>I made a solitaire game using PixiJS and Anime: https://www.watsonbrosgames.com/solitaire/
]]>@chriscoyier Just wanted to say I appreciate the big ol’ scrollbar on your site! What a legend.
Wish Firefox made big ol’ scrollbars possible. Ah well.
]]>One of the problems I have hiring caregivers is that I get a lot of applications with almost no info on them. I wonder if it’s ppl who need to apply in order to keep getting unemployment.
I understand, to an extent, but it sucks because I’m using PPC Indeed ads so I have to pay for their click even tho they don’t really want the job.
I’m just an individual. So I don’t have a big ad budget.
My theory could be wrong but I *am* certain some people apply who don’t want the job. Just not sure why.
]]>Hiring caregivers for me and my brother. It’s tough, but I’m proud of the lil PHP app we made for receiving and processing applications.
]]>Finding it difficult to focus today.
]]>My whole day was tanked with a whack-a-mole-style onslaught of Docker and NPM errors. Finally got my environment running again but, man, my brain was fried afterward.
]]>Love this track. The Girl Who Stole My Tamagotchi by Hot Sugar https://open.spotify.com/track/5aJph9adNgkyW6vFn66ils?si=2953babef0284a24
]]>Testing out iA Writer for my notes. I had been using Craft, which is pretty nice, but a release a few weeks ago broke the interactivity of the scrollbar, which, unfortunately, is an a11y showstopper for me.
I’ve been using iA Writer for years for writing, but never for my notes collection. So far, so good!
I might return to Craft if they fix this issue soon, tho. Great team over there doing cool stuff.
(Yes I know about Obsidian and no I can’t use it either because of a11y reasons.)
]]>For literally no reason The Hollies’ Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress popped in my head and made itself at home.
]]>How do web-based desktop apps (eg, Slack, Discord) perform compared to fully native desktop apps in terms of screen readers?
]]>Did you hear the bard’s new ditty about killing that undead wizard?
“I got 99 problems but a lich ain’t one.”
]]>What’s your favorite NASA logo?
]]>Remember kids, cool URIs don't change! https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html
]]>For the last two days at work, I’ve been able to:
- Write plain CSS
- Write vanilla JavaScript
- Use a library without a build step
Breath of fresh air, let me tell you.
]]>I keep seeing a lot of posts about @eleventy so I just want to throw mine out there. I made this website for listening to synthwave mixes from YouTube.
One cool thing about Eleventy is that it can generate pages from API data, which is exactly what mine does.
]]>I wrote some thoughts down about CSS micro-frameworks and classless CSS themes. https://blakewatson.com/journal/surveying-the-landscape-of-css-micro-frameworks/
]]>My general feeling is that most of these are dated and perhaps not as useful as they once were because of how good CSS is now. But I still think there is a place for frameworks for providing good default styles.
I’d love to see some more modern ones, if they exist.
]]>Anybody have any micro CSS frameworks they like? These are a sort of step up in capability from classless themes, but are smaller than something like Bootstrap.
A few examples I know of:
- Pico: https://picocss.com/
- Spectre: https://picturepan2.github.io/spectre
- Milligram: https://milligram.io
- Skeleton: http://getskeleton.com/
- Picnic: https://picnicss.com/
- Pure: https://purecss.io/
Writing about classless CSS themes.
]]>If the new yellow iPhone color isn't called easy peasy lemon squeezy then Apple is just wasting everyone’s time.
]]>Speaking of classless CSS stylesheets, I should of included a link to the OG collection from the W3C. https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/Core/
]]>Honorable mention: While it isn’t technically classless, and it also requires a web font, Doodle is a fun one that makes all of your form elements look hand drawn. https://chr15m.github.io/DoodleCSS/
]]>I've been trying to figure out what it is I love about these classless (or even low-class) CSS “frameworks,” but I still can't quite put my finger on it. Anyway, here are some of my favorites so far. Please send me yours if you have any.
- Simple.css https://simplecss.org/
- Water.css https://watercss.kognise.dev/
- awsm.css https://igoradamenko.github.io/awsm.css/
- holiday.css https://holidaycss.js.org/usage/
- GDCSS https://gdcss.netlify.app/
- Neat https://neat.joeldare.com/
- Typesafe https://tdarb.org/typesafe-css/
For the time being, I am using Craft which has some flaws but does work pretty well with the Accessibility Keyboard.
(If you don't know what that is, it is a built-in onscreen keyboard in macOS.)
]]>I would love to give Obsidian a real try but there is a very obscure bug that prevents me from using many of the fancy web-based editors.
For some reason, when using certain web based editors (including Slack and Discord), the macOS Accessibility Keyboard completely stops offering word prediction, leaving me to click one letter at a time, with no completion support.
I suspect it has to do something with `contenteditable` because the problem doesn't occur in regular inputs.
]]>I’m becoming obsessed with classless CSS frameworks. Anyone got any to recommend? I’m especially looking for the deep cuts, as I already know about the popular ones (eg, Water, Simple).
]]>If AI ever figures out how to create believable hands in images, that's the beginning of the end for us.
]]>Every now and again I come across a web article written in a beautiful serif font.
“Ooh, who are you?” I mumble under my breath.
I inspect it in devtools only to find out it’s Georgia.
Gets me every time.
]]>You can shame me for unsubscribing from your marketing spam, but you can’t win. With each opt-out I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
]]>Yay!
]]>Testing status.log app’s Mastodon connection.
]]>I am thinking it’s a sign that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and when we kiss they perfectly align.
]]>What site generators do people like for user guides and documentation?
]]>I made an old man rant on social.lol about scrollbars and it became my most popular social media post ever. Gives me warm fuzzies that so many others care about this humble-yet-powerful UI control.
]]>@ranylt@wandering.shop @kagan Yes. So with Discord I can’t really use the “native” app because of the scrollbar situation there. So I use it in the web browser with the ScrollAnywhere extension installed.
This extension lets me scroll, uh, anywhere by clicking and dragging the page as if on a mobile device. It’s really handy and I wish I could install it at the OS level.
]]>Ok so I'm watching Babylon 5 now and it's all @ghoulpus’s fault.
]]>Upgraded all of my internet gear down to the ethernet cables. Hopefully this finally solves the terrible coverage in my house. But why do these fancy routers need to look like alien tech from sci-fi?
]]>I had scrollbars on the brain and I’m trying to write more, so here are some thoughts about the mighty scrollbar as a slowly dying UI control. #WebDev #a11y #ui #design
https://blakewatson.com/journal/neglecting-the-scrollbar-a-costly-trend-in-ui-design/
]]>The opening keyboard synths on Everything In Its Right Place. Bliss I tell you. https://open.spotify.com/track/2kRFrWaLWiKq48YYVdGcm8?si=486878dc56ed43be
]]>Anyone who uses or knows about screen readers… do they support scrollbars decently? Do they announce anything about length of the page or your current location on a page?
Just curious if the visual feedback scrollbars offer is represented by screen readers.
]]>ChatGPT just wrote me a beautiful short post about the merits of the scrollbar as a UI control. Guess I’ll toss it and write a rambly-yet-passionate one instead. 😓
]]>I keep saying this but… UI developers, please remember that the scrollbar isn’t only a visual indicator but a draggable, interactive control.
Don’t hide it with no easy way to reveal it. And please don’t make it so thin that it’s unduly difficult to click (yes some ppl use scrollbars this way).
Don’t assume a scroll wheel/ball/gesture is 100% available or accessible to the user.
]]>How many frontend engineers does it take to make an icon link in Vuetify? Turns out it’s 5.
]]>I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s amazing how much nicer RSS feeds and a Mastodon account is than mindlessly scrolling Twitter.
]]>I see the light at the end of the tunnel…
]]>Got a nice little planet avatar from @heyheymomo! Using for my omg.lol Discord avatar.
Currently lost somewhere deep down in a recursive Vue component hell.
]]>Web-based apps have the powerful ability to be styled by the user (via user CSS styles). I'm wondering if there are any apps out there that purposely style their interface so that it is conducive to user customization.
]]>In order to continue receiving personal care services (which are necessary for me to live and work) I have to make bad financial decisions like turning down my employer’s 401(k) plan. RIP 💀 🇺🇸
It’s exciting to think about what @tapbots / @ivory will be able to do with a, you know, *real* API.
]]>Pulling my hair out over here trying to reliably reproduce Schrodinger’s bug.
]]>Got a meeting but just ran out of coffee.
]]>I always hear, "When they go low, we get high." 🌿
]]>Fangs! is a sci-fi fantasy concept album. It tells a story in bits and pieces. To this day the fans are trying to figure out what it all means. https://open.spotify.com/album/06Ea5K0IZ4EZP7b3j9zl8G?si=qTXpjyDYQkyW6JiucvVECQ
]]>I still haven't gotten around to writing a blog post about scrollbars. But it is definitely a Thing—websites and applications as a general trend are neglecting this extremely useful bit of user interface.
As an aside, shoutout to @chriscoyier for this big chonker of a scrollbar. https://chriscoyier.net/ 🧡
]]>The backstory is that I can't use a mouse wheel or trackpad. Most of the time, I need to grab the scrollbar with the mouse.
Not only is this rather tedious, but because of what I call the War on Scrollbars™, sometimes this isn't possible—they either disappear or they are so thin they are too difficult to grab.
Sometimes I use the keyboard, sometimes I use speech recognition. But the easiest and best way for me is to simply click and drag the entire scrollable area, just like on iOS.
]]>Mac developers: do any of you know if it is possible to make a utility that would allow you to click and drag your mouse pointer to scroll scrollable areas in macOS similar to using a finger on an iOS device? (Not asking you to make it, just wondering if the APIs exist that would make it possible).
I need this as an accessibility utility. Thanks to the extensibility of the web, I have it there. But I've been spoiled. I want it at the OS level now.
Please boost!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/scroll_anywhere
]]>Dates in JavaScript, we meet again.
]]>Just finished up The Rainmaker by John Grisham. Going to try to catch the movie this weekend.
]]>The coolest thing about the new HomePod is the in-built temperature sensor. I will finally prove to everyone else in the house that my room is colder than the thermostat reads.
]]>Me in Discord: how do i not have a tinfoil hat emoji
My brother: because they don’t want you to have one
Me: 😳
re: https://bw.status.lol/63daed94abe90
I ended up going with Night Owl. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=sdras.night-owl
]]>Twitter (Musk I assume) has it backward. Their API isn’t just providing value to apps. The apps provide value to *Twitter*.
They want to charge for API access, but they're only hurting themselves because they risk losing a lot of third-party functionality that Twitter users enjoy.
]]>Picking out a new code editor theme...
]]>This government thing I was waiting on came through! https://bw.status.lol/63d98ee772406
]]>Waiting on something that moves at the speed of government.
]]>Ok, time to work on this thing. Oh, let me start some music. Wait, the Spotify version of this album doesn’t have the bonus track. No problem, I'll use Bandcamp. Wait, then I can’t scrobble to Last.fm. I bet there’s a way—ah, yes a browser extension. I'll install that. Ok, now what as I doing again?
]]>I’m commenting code.
]]>Idioteque by Radiohead (listening to the whole Kid A album) #NowPlaying
]]>I thought my 1Password install was effed somehow. But turns out there is currently a known bug in 1Password that is preventing it from connecting with the browser extension.
]]>Reading Kill It with Fire: Manage Aging Computer Systems (and Future Proof Modern Ones) by Marianne Bellotti.
]]>I _______ CSS.
]]>Randomly started whistling the theme from Dire, Dire Docks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRfHbyCQDCo
]]>Want to come work on projects for NASA? We’re hiring backend devs, full-stack devs, and SREs. https://mricompany.applicantpro.com/jobs/ #xp
]]>Slept in this morning. Now trying to drink some coffee to wake up.
]]>I used status.lol's webhook feature to make a custom integration of statuses on my website. https://blakewatson.com/microblog/
]]>The quick blinks became slower, more deliberate. Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a second, he thought.
Some say he’s still out there at a desk somewhere, sleeping.
]]>It's funny. I was firmly in the mastodon-looks-cool-but-I'm-too-lazy-to-switch camp before joining https://omg.lol. Partially because I didn't know what instance to join. Kind of had decision paralysis.
Then I was like, oh it comes with a Mastodon account if I want one… hmm…
Fast forward to now (a few weeks later) and I'm really enjoying it more than I thought I would.
]]>#introduction I’m a frontend web developer working with a NASA contractor. I have a disability called spinal muscular atrophy. Because of that I’m interested in—and often write about—assistive technology.
I love side projects and run several of them. You can find out about my projects and interests on my website: https://blakewatson.com
Topics I post about:
#AssistiveTech #apple #dnd #design #disability #IndieWeb #nasa #sma #space #synthwave #tech #typography #webdev #writing
]]>I love that one can say "There are robots on Mars," and not be lying. There are ROBOTS ON MARS, yall.
]]>Although tbf corporations acquire and ruin services all the time. And also Twitter isn’t dead yet. But still... it changed my perspective.
]]>I used to consider the potential longevity of products and services before investing time and money into using them.
I would ask, "Will this be around in a decade?"
When it came to huge corporate names, I felt safer. It never occurred to me to ask, "Will a billionaire purchase this and ruin it?"
I see things differently now. I'll see a small indie project and think, "This'll probably last longer than Twitter did."
]]>It has occurred to me that for the past few weeks I have begun frequently using the term "fancy pants."
]]>I'm suddenly interested in small CSS frameworks that require no build steps and are customizable via CSS custom properties. Things like this. https://jenil.github.io/chota
Anyone know of others?
]]>Working on a little web app when suddenly out of nowhere my brain goes, "What if 1Password goes away and the app no longer works and you can't get any of your passwords and 1Password somehow lost all of their backups and you really need your passwords like right now? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO THEN, PRAY TELL?"
]]>Picked up some more fonts from @simpletypeco!
I previously used Ships Whistle for a word game. https://blakewatson.itch.io/chain
]]>I spent the better part of the day working on https://dice.omg.lol. It's going to be a little dice rolling room. My first time working with websockets. Kinda neat.
]]>I’m getting a crash course in socket.io over here.
]]>Love this instrumental album, Voyager 1, by Adam Young. Only recently did I learn the artist is also Owl City.
]]>Speaking of VS Code themes, I love this underused yet high quality one. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=joytrekker.rainier
]]>What is the deal with #introduction posts? Like what is the benefit of making one of these vs updating your bio?
]]>Changing your VS Code theme is a dangerous move, possibly leading to hours of wasted time. I hate it when I get the urge.
]]>@mhilltopple FIRST
]]>Songs About Jane
]]>My side project picked up 2 new annual subscribers today. 🥰 https://afinestart.me
]]>August and Everything After by Counting Crows
]]>I'm using https://debirdify.pruvisto.org/ to find my Twitter follows on Mastodon.
]]>Attention everyone using Linktree. Imma need yall to switch over to the far superior and much friendlier omg.lol. That is all. Thank you.
]]>Current status: $0.01 below the minimum delivery amount. 😭
]]>In the Tuesday / Thursday meeting. We started abbreviating it to TTH. Then started calling it the “tooth.”
]]>Pay off credit card: score goes down.
Use credit card: score goes down.
🤔
]]>I’ve been obsessed with omg.lol since signing up a week ago. Its fun, people-centered, old-web-meets-new-web vibe is lit and I’m 100% here for it.
]]>I did some custom integrations to get my statuslog and my social.lol posts saved on my microblog. https://blakewatson.com/microblog/
]]>I’ve been on Twitter since 2008. I use Tweetbot for Mac because I hate Twitter's web interface.
But it seems like Twitter is no longer allowing third-party clients. So I’m finally getting around to checking out Mastodon.
]]>It’s silly but I feel like Mastodon instances are like little countries and when visiting them I’m like, "Oh, I wonder who lives here?
]]>Currently listening to RMS Titanic by Adam Young. I'm not sure why but I was obsessed with the Titanic when I was a kid. So I’m sitting here listening to Lifeboats and suddenly it moves into Nearer, My God, to Thee, the last song allegedly played by band on board the ship when it was sinking. Hit me right in the feels man. https://open.spotify.com/album/5Xnt6NbN7a1Ijzx39XOdNG?si=HvaK67iGQS-ZIxpjwlsvhw
]]>@ivory Is there a plan to bring Ivory to macOS?
]]>I'm not gonna lie. I'm posting this so I can test an IFTTT integration. But I don't come empty handed. Here is a joke for you.
Why did the web designer leave the restaurant?
They didn't like the table layout.
]]>I don’t like 1Password’s reveal button on the lock screen because I miss the thrill of correcting a mistyped password without seeing it.
]]>I don’t like 1Password's reveal button on the lock screen because I miss the thrill of correcting a mistyped password without seeing it.
]]>Microsoft's Fluent emoji look pretty great. The lying face is weirdly off-putting. Loving them over here on status.lol tho! I’m interested in whether the novelty will wear off and make them too loud. https://medium.com/microsoft-design/emotionality-at-work-398182387adc #noxp
]]>I’m also having pizza! 🍕 @cassem @kris #noxp
Hey peeps. We're looking for backend, full-stack, and SREs to help us work on NASA projects! Check out our openings. https://mricompany.applicantpro.com/jobs/
]]>Me last night: commits a bad merge and sleeps soundly
Slack this morning:
I just realized that I think of Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas as a "new movie."
]]>What is a really old movie that you still think of as a new movie? For example, one of mine is The Matrix.
]]>Yo web app devs: if your app has a light/dark/theme setting, please store it at the device level, not the account level. Someone might want light mode on one device, but dark mode on another.
]]>
Love the space vibes on this album. https://open.spotify.com/album/6mopwrOq8X9v9xSTZ8ExlH?si=oBjC4fSEQvaUExNH3ckQCw
]]>I got so used to the coffee at my last employer that now I drink it at home. Community Dark brewed with a Mr. Coffee machine. Get your fancy pants stuff out of my face.
]]>Coke Zero is mostly water, right? Right?
]]>Dear RSS reader,
I am removing microblog posts from my main RSS feed. If for some weird reason you would like to continue getting them, please subscribe to the following feed:
/journal/category/microblog/feed
What remains are the 3–5 articles I write per year, usually about web development and personal projects.
]]>I find myself wanting to post emoji reactions to statuses on status.lol. But all you can do is look. Maybe that's how it should be.
]]>After omg.lol was featured on Hacker News it received 1,070 new signups. I was one of them! One of its features is a Mastodon instance, so I'm finally in the Fediverse I guess. @bw
]]>Feeling grateful for all the free and open source software out there that keeps civilization running.
]]>What’s the easiest way to auto-publish Mastodon posts to Twitter?
]]>Every app is just a series of forms trying not to look like forms.
]]>Mr. Brightside by The Killers #NowPlaying
]]>If everything worked correctly, this status should show up at https://blakewatson.com/microblog.
]]>Playing around with the statuslog webhook and API (this is a test lol).
]]>I’m out of coffee. It was nice knowing all of you.
]]>I just bought an omg.lol address so I could see how far off base the haters on Hacker News were. They all over there like: WhY DoN'T YoU JuSt gEt yOuR OwN DoMaIn??
]]>*tap tap* is this thing on?
]]>Cracks knuckles Chrome Manifest V3 here we go…
]]>I started holiday vacation today and I have a plan drawn up to catch up on side projects. I’m calling it Holiday Sprint 2022.
I started with some quick updates to my DIY Pinboard replacement and managed to knock out the whole backlog!
]]>I don’t mind holding and listening to silly music. I get it. Customer service is swamped. But I hate the recurring message telling me how important I am every 10 seconds.
]]>I had to switch over to iA Writer for NaNoWriMo. I love Scrivener and Ulysses but if you give me unbridled font choices, I will never get any writing done.
]]>Yesterday, instead of writing on my NaNoWriMo novel, I wrote an article about the font I was using. Inexplicably, it hit the #1 spot on Hacker News and stayed there for hours. This is the most traffic my dusty little corner of the web has seen in a while.
SMA Simulator you can use with no tech required!
First, find a comfortable place to sit down.
Next, reposition yourself so that you’re almost comfortable, but not.
Don’t move for 4-6 hours.
Repeat until you’re ready to exit the simulation.
(I jest, but like low key for real tho 😅)
]]>If I could drive my wheelchair at an optimistic 7 mph directly toward the moon, I would arrive there in about 3.9 years. 🌕👨🦼
]]>Mac app icons used to be dope before they made everyone use the same shape.
]]>So this is a pretty cool app that can take a cloud folder and turn into a website. Publishing a post by dropping a file into a folder is just about as low-friction as it gets. https://blot.im
]]>World War Z-Index #CSSMovies
]]>This might be the most consistent thing I’ve ever done.
]]>I’m working on a side project where I am trying out some new guiding principles:
In my experience, a good test to gauge someone’s character is whether they’re the kind of person who would “make a scene” in a restaurant. Legitimate complaints? Fine, but those should be rare—and discreet. If it’s a drama for the other patrons to watch… nope.
Just sayin’.
]]>I try not to complain about apps too much because software is hard, etc, but Apple Music, the app, is so bad.
Guess it’s back to Spotify for me. It’s a damn shame because iTunes on Windows XP was my favorite app and the reason I eventually became a Mac user in 2006.
]]>This might not be useful to anyone else but my SSH key on my web host, NearlyFreeSpeech.NET, recently quit working. I first noticed it when my deployments on DeployHQ were failing. Long story short, it seems that OpenSSH recently invalidated certain (weaker) RSA keys. I made a personal note about how to create a custom keypair and upload it to DeployHQ.
I wanted to share the note with someone so I published it. I haven’t shared this yet but I recently created a system for publishing my plain text notes to an 11ty site. I wrote the code in a very this-is-just-for-me manner (home-cooked you might say). Maybe eventually I will cleanup the code and release it. Plenty of apps have this note-publishing functionality but I like the idea of my notes being on my own website that I control.
]]>
I’m thinking of doing GitHub Game Off again this year. Web game idea—an idle game where you control a money printer and the goal is to print more money in order to buy upgrades for your money printer.
Come to think of it, this game probably already exists (I mean other than the IRL “game”).
]]>This UI is a hot mess:
Got hit with an annoying yellow alert screaming at me as well as an obnoxious subscription modal that has a lot of weird shit happening within.
For starters it’s extremely disruptive. The design is chaotic (evil). And what kind of pricing choice is this? I can choose $1.99 a month or, inexplicably, $290 a year. You have to click around and read the gray print to realize it’s a 3-month offer.
No way I’m paying for Bloomberg though because, among other reasons, The Big Hack.
]]>I started using Craft toward the end of last week when a coworker shared it with me. After playing with it over the weekend I am very quickly becoming a superfan.
Two ideas I live by:
I have been writing CSS for 15+ years but I only recently started using user styles via the Stylus browser extension. I don’t know why I haven’t done this sooner. It’s really an amazing perk of the web. Don’t like something about the way a website looks? Change it!
]]>Playing Universe Sandbox inevitably ends with dropping Sagittarius A in the solar system just to see what happens. Spoiler: everything gets eaten.
]]>I constantly have theme music from various Mario games stuck in my head. I blame the Stream Doctors.
]]>I’m fascinated by this book, The Top 10 Games You Can Play in Your Head, By Yourself: Second Edition. Yes, this is a real book that you can actually purchase.
The original was 14 volumes published in the late 1980s and early 1990s by an author writing under the name J. Theophrastus Bartholomew. I don’t know how widely it was distributed originally, but at some point it went out of print. It was discovered at a yard sale in 2014 in Minnesota by Sam Gorski and D.F. Lovett. They were able to contact the original publisher to get a list of Bartholomew’s ten favorite games and the rights to an unpublished volume.
As far as I can tell, we don’t know the identity of the original author. But after reading this1, I’m salivating for more content from him. I heard that another book may be coming out. We’ll see.
The games themselves aren’t really games like you would imagine. They are more like creative prompts for you to imagine your own story. It’s an intriguing concept. I’ve struggled with it in the few attempts that I tried it (I’ve only tried Space), but I’m planning to try again because the concept is so fascinating to me.
If you know anyone who likes role-playing games, storytelling games, or who are just particularly imaginative, you might consider recommending this book to them.
Sometimes I think to myself, “I wish Simplenote had [feature].” Then when I play around with a note app with lots of features I think, “Why can’t it be nice and simple like Simplenote?” Ugh… why am I like this?
]]>I bought a computer that connects one computer to another computer. https://tinypilotkvm.com/
I’m essentially using this as an accessibility tool. It will let me operate other computers without having to install all of the software and hardware I need for accessibility.
]]>There are two types of people:
I created a dummy async function (JS) to use when testing out ideas. I love to pop open CodeRunner and mess around with different patterns and syntax and having a ready-to-go async function available is really handy.
function doingStuff(stuff = 'stuff', ms = 2000) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
setTimeout(() => resolve(stuff), ms);
});
}
I set up my site’s WordPress theme to automatically strip all CSS styles on April 9th in celebration of CSS Naked Day.
The point of the silly exercise is to celebrate semantic HTML and web standards. The idea is that if your website’s HTML is well-written then your website should still be generally usable—even without CSS styling. I’m sure my site isn’t perfect, so let me know if you find anything completely broken.
]]>I really dislike this trend of web services that are only available via mobile app (ie, don’t offer a web version). I’m not really able to access my phone easily so I’m all-in on desktop and web apps. I’m not saying companies shouldn’t go mobile app only. I’m just personally annoyed by it.
]]>Update for Minimal Character Sheet. You can now choose to make your character sheet publicly available as a read-only version. https://minimalcharactersheet.com
]]>Launched d20 v3 today! After about 2 years in the making it’s finally out. Here’s the “official” tweet.
https://twitter.com/blakewatson/status/1361340608384753664
Get it here: https://d20app.me/
]]>Hey Nova users! I made a color scheme for you. Tomorrow Night Eighties, based on the Base16 Tomorrow Scheme “eighties” variant. Here’s a Nova link: nova://extension/?id=blakewatson.TomorrowNightEighties&name=Tomorrow%20Night%20Eighties
]]>I added CoinMarketCap to my A Fine Start page so I can ratchet up my anxiety level in one click.
]]>Whenever I want dark mode on a website that doesn’t have it, I use the Stylus extension to add this CSS, which works surprisingly well:
html {
filter: invert(0.85) hue-rotate(180deg);
}
Nova by Panic is so buttery smooth. Been using it for work (and play) for a few days. Fast as lightning. I hit a rough edge or two but no showstoppers.
]]>I always misspell the word “habit” by putting 2 Bs. But I just thought of a mnemonic device to help me remember: You can put a B in habit, but don’t make it a habbit.
]]>Not too bad for a WordPress site.
]]>d20’s icon evolution…
]]>I didn’t think I was going to like macOS Big Sur but I’m kind of into it.
]]>I’ll be releasing d20 v3 very soon. Here’s a sneak peak. Big new features: 1) you can group your presets, 2) you can roll attacks and damage at the same time. 🗡 🏹 🔥
]]>Oldie from a few years ago… this is article about what football will look like in the future is a mental trip you will not see coming. https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football
]]>If you need a last minute gift for the developer in your life, check out these programming zines by @b0rk. Or you can just buy them all for yourself, which is what I did 😄. https://wizardzines.com/
]]>PSA: If you are trying to capture a website or social media post for proof, don’t screenshot it. Images can be altered so no one can really trust that it’s accurate. If it is public, grab the URL and archive it with @waybackmachine.
]]>BTC 👀
]]>Web app developers: make dark mode in your app a device-specific setting rather than an account-specific one. Your users might use different devices in different contexts (a light or dark room for example).
Adding an option for defaulting to system preferece is one way to do that.
]]>Who knew watching microbes could be so relaxing. Do yourself a favor and take a peek into the soothing odyssey that is Journey to the Microcosmos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBbnbBWJtwsf0jLGUwX5Q3g
]]>A site dedicated to coding fonts: https://coding-fonts.css-tricks.com/fonts/operator-mono
I’ve used Operator Mono for several years now. Previously, I used Anonymous Pro. There’s something industrious and nostalgic about monospaced fonts that I just love.
I also enjoy using monospaced fonts for writing. I fell in love with Nitti when I first discovered it in iA Writer. I now use iA Writer Duo often when writing. The iA Writer fonts and the IBM Plex Mono fonts they are based off of are freely available.
]]>I added a pop-out player on synthwave.live so you can have quick access to playback controls and info about the current track.
]]>Sneak peek of d20’s new icon and website.
]]>I commissioned a favicon for synthwave.live!
]]>I gave Zoom permission to access my Downloads folder. I’m pretty sure that was a bad idea. Fortunately my Downloads folder is 90% boring screenshots.
]]>That moment when you have to search the web because you can’t remember if the person you’re thinking of is still alive.
Spoiler: Steve Wozniak is definitely still alive. Phew. 😅
]]>Sometimes I have an irrational fear of new code concepts or problems.
Example: I put off learning about JS’ requestAnimationFrame for years just because it looked scary. When I took an afternoon to make a little canvas game, I realized it wasn’t scary at all.
Getting over this irrational fear of new things is one of my tips in Finishing side projects.
]]>I hope that one side effect of the pandemic is a lot of new songwriting by all of our favorite artists.
]]>If you want the Simplenote web interface to make the first line of a note a little larger (like it does in the Mac app) I made some user styles that handle that as well as style the note list’s scrollbar in Firefox.
https://gist.github.com/blakewatson/d55e47e34cd777f43271f6bdb803d4bb
If you use these with a custom style extension, make sure you use Stylus and not the official Stylish extension which is filled with tracking BS.
]]>Side projects are awesome, but notorious for dying out before they get completed. I wrote about some of the tips and tricks I use to stay motivated and ship my side projects. - /journal/finishing-side-projects/
]]>I’ve been using Operator Mono as my code editor font for years, but today I grabbed Operator Mono ScreenSmart and it’s great. It especially improves legibility of light themes in my experience.
]]>Week 2 of learning how to make games with the HTML canvas API. I present to you my (simplistic) take on Space Invaders. /space-invaders/
]]>Here’s 100 ideas for coming up with a story idea I thought of during a brainstorming exercise. https://app.simplenote.com/publish/RmcDcD
]]>I wanted to play with HTML canvas a little bit so I made this simplistic pong game. Making it was a lot of fun. /pong/
]]>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.
]]>https://512pixels.net/projects/default-mac-wallpapers-in-5k/
I really love these classic Mac OS X desktop backgrounds (which have been updated to 5k). I’m using the Tiger wallpaper on my MBP as tribute to my first Mac back in 2006.
]]>TIL VS Code can enable/disable extensions on a per-workspace basis.
]]>Here are @zeldman's tools for slow design in an anxious world. 🐢
]]>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:
No one:
Me: a browser-based Yahtzee clone with personal high score tracking and RANDOM.ORG integration. /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.
]]>/scratchpad/
Need a quick place to jot something down? I made a little scratchpad. Stores whatever you write there directly in your browser so you can reference it later. That’s it. That’s all it does.
]]>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
]]>https://css-tricks.com/php-is-a-ok-for-templating/
Love this pattern for templating a WordPress site (or any PHP-powered site). How have I not been doing this?
]]>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?
]]>https://github.com/dg/twitter-php
I wasn’t satisfied with the IFTTT applet that was posting my microblog posts to Twitter for me, so I made my own custom integration using this handy library.
]]>I just created an IFTTT service to automatically tweet microblog posts from my WordPress site. Let’s see if it works! #testing
]]>https://able-dev.com/2020/01/13/styling-your-first-webpage-with-css/
This is part 2 of a beginner series I’m writing over on Able Dev. I had a lot of fun writing it. I just wish my example site wasn’t so ugly. What was I thinking? 🤷♂️
]]>I love this collection of minimal, “classless” CSS stylesheets. I would love to see this list grow.
]]>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
]]>PSA… You can subscribe to all my posts with the following RSS URL: /feed/
If you would like to subscribe to my microblog only, use this RSS URL: /feed/?cat=6
]]>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.]]>
I started a website for people with disabilities interested in learning to code. The field of employment can be somewhat limited for people with disabilities. I have found success in web development and I have made it a sort of personal mission to get more people with disabilities to code. I’m figuring out this new site as I go, so it’s a work in progress.
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