10 Photos V

The next part of the x-monthly series.

Published on August 26, 2017, filed under Art and Design.

On Being a Philosopher

I call myself a philosopher even though some people would disagree with me being one. Why would I be a philosopher? What makes a philosopher?

Published on August 21, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Living Websites, Living Books

To me, websites are living objects. They require regular care and maintenance. Such care starts with monitoring, from uptime control to visual site tests, demands technical quality control, and ends with content checks…

Published on August 17, 2017, filed under Web Development and Everything Else.

Website Optimization Measures, Part VIII

Eight years. Eight years has it been since the last episode of this series, “Website Optimization Measures.” In October of 2009, I last talked about more or less random things I did on my own websites…

Published on August 8, 2017, filed under Web Development.

On Adventure

While I’m not nearly as adventurous these days as in past years, the idea that adventure is about being open and curious and easily ready to try activities and localities seems sound to me. On what adventure can mean to us.

Published on August 5, 2017, filed under Adventure.

Web Development: How Making Our Own Lives Difficult Is More Important Than We Think

Many moons ago I wrote that web developers wouldn’t need debugging tools. I was half joking and half serious. We were just coming out of the dark ages of web development, so to speak, undernourished of useful tools, frameworks, libraries…

Published on August 1, 2017, filed under Web Development.

Frameworks, Libraries, and the Modern Web Developer: Web Development, Overdone

We are raising tool-dependent rather than self-reliant developers. Aren’t we.

Published on July 28, 2017, filed under Web Development.

What I Learned Building Google’s Web Frameworks

On building Google’s Go and Maia HTML/CSS frameworks, and succeeding and failing as a tech lead.

Published on July 25, 2017, filed under Web Development.

Boyscout Code

Of course, always leave code better than you found it.

Published on July 20, 2017, filed under Web Development.

Stop Using Resets: Visual Examples of the Practical Nonsense of Resets and Normalizers

Or, when Jens found out that he could just collect websites that use reset style sheets and the like, disable those style sheets, document the results and write a post with the diffs for visual evidence. All because “we ran after this mirage for more than a decade.”

Published on July 13, 2017, filed under Web Development.

Highlights From Martin’s “The Behavior of Crowds”

“When most of our neighbors are motivated by certain ideas, those ideas become part of the social environment to which we must adjust ourselves. In this sense they are ‘real,’ however ‘crazy.’”

Published on June 28, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

Highlights From Dewey’s “How We Think”

“The very importance of thought for life makes necessary its control by education because of its natural tendency to go astray, and because social influences exist that tend to form habits of thought leading to inadequate and erroneous beliefs.”

Published on June 24, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

Two Paradigms of Web Development

On a sunny Tuesday in Düsseldorf a few weeks back, at Beyond Tellerrand, I had a pleasant recorded conversation with the team of Working Draft. In our discussion we briefly touched on the idea of web development paradigms…

Published on June 19, 2017, filed under Web Development.

The Great Web Maintainability Survey Results

Four weeks ago I started a survey about good and bad practices when it comes to the maintenance and maintainability of websites. Participation was amazing, and here are the first results.

Published on June 16, 2017, filed under Web Development.

Why I’m Suspending Interviews With U.S. Companies

Over the last few quarters I was in conversations to move back to the United States. Over the last few weeks I noticed that that would feel like endorsing U.S. policy, and contradict my principles and values.

Published on June 13, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

The Simple Answer to Our Terrorism Problems

How about we stop invading countries and murdering people. How about we allow those who are too afraid to live in freedom to live in supermax prisons (for free). And how about we finally remove from office who ever proposes to violate a human right.

Published on June 9, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

Regarding the Fermi Paradox

When not finding signs of extraterrestrial intelligence says more about us than them.

Published on June 7, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

70% Repetition in Style Sheets: Data on How We Fail at CSS Optimization

Looking at data for some of the most popular websites, we repeat ourselves too much in CSS; using declarations just once is often one solid avenue to avoid repetition; together, we need to put more focus on style sheet optimization.

Published on May 31, 2017, filed under Web Development.

The Great Web Maintainability Survey

The maintenance and economics of websites is a much-neglected topic in the web development community. Here are three questions for developers, to gather practices as well as resources.

Published on May 14, 2017, filed under Web Development.

On Work

On work, retirement, definitions, and mixing things up.

Published on April 26, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

Highlights From Lippmann’s “Public Opinion”

“Who actually saw, heard, felt, counted, named the thing, about which you have an opinion? Was it the man who told you, or the man who told him, or someone still further removed? And how much was he permitted to see?”

Published on April 5, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

Highlights From Wattles’s “The Science of Getting Rich”

“Man is a thinking center, and can originate thought. All the forms that man fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought; he cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing.”

Published on April 4, 2017, filed under Philosophy.

My Top 10 Android Apps

Years ago, in 2009, I wrote an enthusiastic post about my then-favorite apps for Android. More for fun than anything I decided to write a follow-up.

Published on March 29, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

Foreigners Are Heroes

Foreigners to our countries—expats, immigrants, refugees—are heroes. Foreigners, people like you and I, add to our lives and our cultures. Foreigners deserve our respect and our support.

Published on March 21, 2017, filed under Everything Else.

On Socialization

Several months back, to myself, I noted how we may have all already been what we’ve later wished to be: for example, authentically curious, open, unbiased, worry-free, joyful, happy, confident, loving. Then, I thought, came socialization.

Published on March 8, 2017, filed under Philosophy.