Thoughts and stuff.
...in the name of evolution, there seems to be mistaken thinking that the process of building a website needs to get more complex, using Javascript frameworks and modern backend systems; when at the end of the day, browsers still only need static HTML content to interpret.
There’s so much in this piece that echoes my current thinking about building for the web - things have gotten way more complex than they need to be.
At work I will often need to decode a JSON or Base64-encoded string to more-easily examine the data. Using online tools like jsonformatter.org and base64decode.org are certainly convenient, but not exactly great for security.
Boop is a fantastic native desktop tool for doing all of that (and much more). I find myself launching it multiple times a day.
It’s like a consortium of sketchy pawn shops complaining to the authorities after a popular retailer successfully cracked down on an organized shoplifting/pickpocketing ring, and the authorities then fining the retailer for the damage to the pawnbrokers’ business fencing stolen goods — and for exposing the police as ineffective.
This decision by French authorities melts my brain, and another reason for Apple (who are far from perfect in many respects) to ask "why do we even bother?".
Same here.
Joan Westenberg:
Faced with the relentless, myopic, growth-at-all-costs optimism that seems to surround our tech overlords and their toys, all I can think is that I'd rather give up 99% of the consumer-tech "improvements" to go back to a world where things felt a little bit harder, and a lot more human.
This perfectly encapsulates a feeling of uneasiness that has been growing in the back of my head. I need more time to contemplate what this all means to me and how I intend to address it, but this from Scott Boms is a good start:
I miss being excited by technology. I wish I could see a way out of the endless hype cycles that continue to elicit little more than cynicism from me. The version of technology that we’re mostly being sold today has almost nothing to do with improving lives, but instead stuffing the pockets of those who already need for nothing. It’s not making us smarter. It’s not helping heal a damaged planet. It’s not making us happier or more generous towards each other. And it’s entrenched in everything — meaning a momentous challenge to re-wire or meticulously disconnect. I’m slowly finding my own ways of breaking free to regain a sense of self and purpose.
Will Tavlin for n+1:
In 2021 Netflix announced that it would start releasing a new original movie every week. A certain style soon began to take shape, a mind-numbing anticinema that anyone who has subscribed to Netflix in recent years knows by sight. I’ll call it the Typical Netflix Movie (TNM).
I’m not a huge Netflix viewer - I mainly use it to watch ‘mainstream’ movies that make it onto the platform, plus the occasional comedy special or documentary.
I was recently recommended Black Doves, the Keira Knightley thriller that is undoubtedly Netflix’s answer to the excellent Slow Horses on Apple TV+. Whilst it is a series as oppose to a movie, it still has all the hallmarks of the Typical Netflix Movie.
The characters’ dialogue is stilted, filled with overexplanation, clichés, and lingo no human would ever use, like two bots stuck in a loop.
Despite the implausible and unmemorable plot, the real deal-breaker for me was a particular piece of dialogue. At numerous points throughout the series, English characters wish each other “Happy Christmas”. Here’s the thing, no one from the UK wishes people “Happy Christmas” - it’s “Merry Christmas” (and a happy New Year)1 - and it’s jarring every time a character says it.
1-star - would not recommend.
If you disagree, well, you’re wrong. This is a hill I will happily die on 😂. ↩
Meishi embodies Rams’s principle of “less but better” by enforcing limits. Each card represents a commitment to do fewer things, but do them well. Most satisfying of all is that by solving this particular problem, I’ve found that small solutions can lead to big impact.
Aside from the fact that this requires the carrying of a pen / pencil, I do like the idea of this minimal (literally) productivity system. I’m considering a more analogue method of managing my to-do list, and the Ugmonk Analog system that inspired this is definitely up for consideration.
Writing is the superpower of humankind. It is our truest form of magic.
Writing allows you to conjure up something of value where nothing previously existed. It costs little for you to write down the lessons of your life and yet those few minutes spent writing can be life-altering for the right reader. As I once saw it put: “there is someone out there with a wound in the exact shape of your words.”
Furthermore, writing is the foundation of nearly every technology and innovation because we have to record what we know before we can build upon it. And these innovations are passed down from generation to generation, allowing our children to inherit a richer intellectual fortune than what we were born into. The world is richer because we write and nobody is made poorer in the process.
This sums up perfectly why I am intent on building my writing habit 2025.
Prior to the Gregorian calendar, farmers in China and Japan broke each year down into 24 sekki or “small seasons”. These seasons didn't use dates to mark seasons, but instead, they divided up the year by natural phenomena
As someone who has moved from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere and had their seasons shifted against the calendar year1 (and those seasons are so much more extreme and unrecognisable to what we experienced in the UK) I love the idea of taking a completely different view on the passage of time throughout the year.
It still feels weird that Christmas is in the middle of summer, even after over a decade in Australia. ↩
I’m always on the lookout for new productivity / time-management systems - researching different philosophies and techniques has become something of an unofficial hobby of mine (just check out some of the titles in the non-fiction section of my reading list).
There are three main requirements which have to be kept in balance. These are urgency, importance and psychological readiness. Traditional time management systems have tended to concentrate on the first two of these. The neglect of psychological readiness is probably the reason that most people don’t find time management systems particularly effective or congenial.
The most distinctive feature of FV is the way that its algorithm is primarily based on psychological readiness — this then opens the way to keeping urgency and importance in the best achievable balance.
I love both the simplicity of this system and the fact it addresses procrastination head-on.
I always look forward to a new episode of The Talk Show from John Gruber, and this one with Kagi CEO Vladimir Prelovac was no exception.
One of the most enjoyable episodes of recent times, this was an enlightening listen that highlights aspects of search that I had never considered (but which support my general view). It takes some deep dives down some interesting technical rabbit holes. Prelovac is a very knowledgeable and humble guest, and embodies a company whose values I can get on board with.
Key takeaways (spoiler alerts, maybe?):
It has given me tons of food for thought - exactly what I was hoping for before I listened to it.
For the past three months I have been using Obsidian exclusively for note-taking and it has been a game changer for me.
I don’t use ‘Read It Later’ apps as most of the content I consume comes from RSS feeds. However I’ve found ‘Read It Later’ behaviour to be the perfect use-case for Obsidian Web Clipper, a powerful first-party extension for Safari1 - more so than Safari’s own ‘Reading List’ functionality.
It enables you to save pages (or parts of pages) directly to Markdown-formatted notes in your Obsidian vault, alongside lots of useful metadata. Since it is just another note, it is synced across all my devices and available offline. It also saves a snapshot of the web page, so if it is updated I still have the original content. I’m excited to try this for the next couple of months to see how it improves my content consumption.
Also available for Chrome and Firefox. ↩
The official VS Code extension for Laravel has been released in open beta.
When writing PHP I work in the Laravel framework almost exclusively. As a VS Code user (as opposed to PhpStorm) I don't have the luxury of being able to use the Laravel Idea plugin, which is pretty-much the gold-standard in creating a Laravel-specific development environment.
Instead I rely on a handful of extensions to make VS Code more PHP-aware, but it still leaves a lot of room for improvement1.
The first-party Laravel extension is something that I have been eagerly awaiting, and even though it is still in beta I have already installed it on both my personal and work machines.
Check out the non-exhaustive list of features on the extensions marketplace page - Merry Christmas to me!
Using VS Code is a conscious choice. Up until a few years ago I was an active PhpStorm user, but decided to move to VS Code for a number of reasons. My eyes are open. ↩
Hot on the heels of the American Dialect Society selecting it as the word of the year in 2023, enshittification perfectly sums up the the modern internet:
the gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.
Right up there on the shortlist with brain rot:
content, especially as viewed on a social media platform and for an extended duration, which is considered to be of low quality in terms of intellectual stimulation.
When Caleb first demoed Flux at Laracon US I didn’t really pay much attention - mainly due to lack of bandwidth.
It surfaced again at Keith Damiani’s talk at Laracon AU (which I was lucky enough to attend in person) as a shortcut to rapidly building an app, so I circled back to take a closer look.
Whilst it isn’t something I can see myself using a great deal in my day job (and have little space for side-projects) I have ended up purchasing an unlimited license. Watch the original talk from Laracon US to get an idea of the level of passion that has gone into building this - this is not just another UI kit. The insights into building a truly accessible dropdown menu is worth the purchase price alone!
This isn’t the first time I’ve paid for something from Caleb, and I doubt it will be the last, but I do think it is important to support creators like this.
I use Reeder (Classic) to consume my RSS feeds, which is now pretty much the only way I consume my internet diet. The ‘Mark all as read’ button is my favourite way to regularly clean house.
I recently came across the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast via a post on Denny Henke’s blog.
Looking at the episode list for an interesting entry point I was immediately drawn to this limited four-part series diving into the rise, impact and uses of massive ‘hyperscale’ data centres worldwide.
I guess I was already aware of the resource demands of data centres, but perhaps not overtly aware of the scale of them worldwide, as well as some of the more political reasons for their locations.
This series gave me a lot to think about - especially regarding AI and the longtermist outlook of tech billionaires - but I won’t go over here. Best you go listen for yourself.
This is probably one of the best Apple ads in a long time. Doesn’t take itself too seriously - plus, strong LEGO Movie vibes.
I have no need for a desktop Mac right now, but the new form factor (and not to mention the specs) are very compelling.
Serious workspace envy.
I think I'm going to start looking at static (as opposed to standing) corner desks again for my own office.
I won't spoil this for you by giving any context. Trust me, just go watch this talk by the co-founder of Panic and enjoy watching it unfold. So very, very good.