Blog
-
My appearance on This Week in WordPress #285
My thanks to Nathan Wrigley for having me as a guest on This Week in WordPress #285. (YouTube/Apple Podcasts) Show notes There are a few links on the WP Builds website for this episode but I thought I’d share some of the links I mentioned in the episode as well. It was a lot of […]
-
If you’re seeing this post that means that my website is once again powered by WordPress. Yay! The site doesn’t look so nice on mobile devices, the feed is broken in a few ways, and I need to get the database load under control… you know, a typical website launch.
-
The greatest productivity hack of all time
The greatest productivity hack of all time is working less. Slack recently published new research into desk worker productivity. It is a worthy read – however, it sheds light on something that most desk workers already inherently know: longer hours do not mean greater productivity. I have put a lot of personal focus on trying […]
-
When my blog goes quiet you know I’m very busy. I’m looking forward to announcing some personal news in early December. This morning I’ve made what is likely to be my final update to my personal website until 2024 (I added my projects to my homepage).
-
I discovered a small bug with GUID in my RSS feed that likely existed for an entire year. Of course I fixed it. But that also means if you’re subscribed you very likely received all of my posts in your feed reader again. My appologies. I really do try to avoid such things.
-
Yesterday, by pure chance, I met local photographer Rolfe Ross – whose work I’ve followed on Flickr for many years. It turns out his photos were being exhibited in the same venue as Eugene Lucas, whose photos I was there to see. I took some very hasty photographs of the exhibit – which I shared […]
-
If you’re reading this that means that Tuff, my now 1-year old static site generator that I’ve been rewriting from scratch for about a month, works. I’m going to write a detailed post about this rewrite but for now – if you see anything amiss on my site please do let me know.
-
This evening I fixed a few longstanding CSS issues on my website. Many more to go. Back in April I built my own light box thingy for my portfolio images. Example. I’d like something more comprehensive, but I want to keep it light weight. Would it be terribly difficult to build something like the JPL […]
-
Photos from Chisholm Vineyards in Feburary 2020
For many years now Eliza and I have preferred to slow down and take our time on road trips rather than feeling rushed to get to our destination. We like to visit tucked away places. Do a little shopping. Or enjoy a drink. This usually adds about a day of traveltime to any of our […]
-
Colin Walker on what he gets from blogging
Colin Walker, on his personal blog (which is looking sharp as ever) about what he gets from blogging in public: “I feel compelled to write, to share, and there is an intense satisfaction in doing so. The sharing is a secondary but essential aspect; while journalling is a rewarding process it doesn’t fill the same […]
-
My less than typical day
In January 2021 I posted my typical day which resulted in some fun people following suit on their own blogs. Lately, my typical day is less than typical. I’ve been on a tear for about 12 months with side projects. This means that my day is jammed. But here is a glimpse… I accomplish an […]
-
I haven’t shared new photographic work in a while. I’ve been struggling to find the time – even though it is easily my favorite hobby. To help unclog my creative pipes, I’m slowly releasing unfinished work. Here is a new photo series, Where I – a collection of images of specific locations based on vivid […]
-
Talkers and writers
Mandy Brown, on two modes of thinking and how we should all try to practice both to be useful to our colleagues: “Talkers need to recognize that not everyone loves to think out loud, and that giving space for writing is part of what it means to make use of the best brains around you. […]
-
How to fix the web
Robin Rendle published Why are websites embarrasing? wherein he laments the state of design and accessibility on the web. But, he’s hopeful. “I do truly believe that a website can be as well designed as any book, just as thoughtful, just as brilliant.” I sympathize with Robin. The web, especially the news web, is a […]
-
Dear Arc
As an avid Safari fanatic, I’m reluctant to dive into a new browser backed by any company with a business model I find… elusive. I’ve been giving Arc a spin every few releases since signing up for the beta and each time it has improved a lot. Just yesterday I was chatting with our creative […]
-
Reducing my personal hosting complexity
Have you ever put off a task because you felt like it would take you far too long so you just procrastinate and simply never get it done? I do this all the time. And, for the most part, when I do finally get around to getting the task completed I find out that my […]
-
Static first
In the early days of the modern web – say, the mid-1990s through the mid-00s – my personal website was served statically. It was built with plain HTML (CSS didn’t exist at the time) that I copied and pasted when I needed to create a new entry (the word blog didn’t exist then either). But […]
-
Stripe Transfer continues to grow slowly. The latter half of this year I hope to grow it a bit more. As a start I’ve turned on Google Adwords and also wrote a post about migrations subscriptions from Chargebee to Stripe over on Medium.
-
For the first year we’ll be in a phase with visionOS where designers will be updating their interfaces to be translucent, dynamic rounded rects. Personally, I am looking forward to when they break out of the windowed world we’ve all been living in for the last few decades and find all new ways to communicate […]
-
Apple Vision Pro is exactly what I hoped for
I am very happy. For many years I’ve wanted a computing experience that resembles precisely what Apple announced at WWDC just a few short weeks ago. In 2019 I wrote “I want any size screen, any time, any where.” As poorly written as that sentence may be, I think Apple is attempting to deliver just […]
-
Making Tuff improvements
My approach to building Tuff, my static site generator that I began working on last November, was to jump in as quickly as possible by publishing my personal website publicly very early in the development process. Doing so forced me to make rapid improvements and to focus on the most important features. By spending 5am […]
-
Humane Leap of faith
John Gruber on Humane’s recent demo at TED: “So far, it feels like Humane’s entire premise is founded on that same mistake: building a new device intended to replace our phones, without that new device being able to do any of the dozens of things we love to do on our phones that require a […]
-
How I’m using ChatGPT as an accelerator
Over the last few weeks I’ve begun using the recent crop of AI-powered services in my daily work and I’ve found them to be an enormous boost to my productivity and fun to play with. I do not know if these human-like chat services will end up causing great harm to the earth’s population or […]
-
Over the weekend I finished Looking At Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art by John Szarkowski. Szarkowski is, as of this moment, my favorite photographic writer and curator.
-
Using Wavelength to chat with darkroom printers
Update July 1, 2024: Wavelength is shutting down July 31, 2024. For the past few days I’ve been testing out Wavelength – a group messaging app that is currently only available on Apple’s platforms. It reminds me a lot of Quill, the former messaging app that was swallowed whole by Twitter just prior to … […]
-
Yesterday I finished reading Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford and Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang. I’d recommend both. Chiang is great. I think I need to read more by him.
-
What I saw somewhat recently #100: March 23, 2023
This is it. The final WIS link list post. This series of posts has spanned 10 years. I’m happy that I published 99 lists of links and that thousands of people have clicked on them to enjoy the interesting, creative, useful, and fun webpages I stumbled upon over the last decade. I’m saddened, however, that […]
-
I deleted my Twitter account today.
-
Testing Tuff on macOS Ventura.
-
Tuff, my static site builder, can build a simple directory for me to view my entire photo library. It creates views for each year and month and also checks various backups – both local and cloud – to make sure the files are properly backed up. It warns me if a file isn’t backed up. […]
-
Will my next Mac be my last Mac?
Perhaps you’ve had this experience… you walk into a place of business and see the computer and software they use to do their scheduling, billing, and ordering and you notice they are decades old. But, have you seen how productive they are? More often than not they are so fast that the computer has a […]
-
Simon Reynolds on blogging
Simon Reynolds, in December, marking the 20th anniversary of Blissblog: I honestly can’t see that anyone has invented a better format than the blog, at least for what I want to do. Simon’s entire post is dripping with flattering remarks about how enjoyable and rewarding blogging is. Those of us in the 20+ year blogging […]
-
I’m refactoring Tuff – my static site builder – to support multiple websites so I’ve been posting more on Mastodon than here the last week or so. That should change now as Tuff is able build 3 very different websites. Lots more to do but I see the light.
-
Recently finished reading Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Copious detail. Fast read if not for the length. Author a bit gushy.
-
I’ve published a new YouTube video. It is a review of my portrait of The Engineer.
-
I’m continuing to whittle away at my to do list for Tuff – my static site builder. Every few days I’m able to check off a task. Lots of small improvements add up over time.
-
I’m putting the finishing touches on a presentation of my portrait The Engineer that I’ll be recording for my YouTube channel. I’m hoping to record better audio without spending too much money. Each presentation I make I want to improve.
-
How to help Mastodon
There have been several waves of activity on Mastodon since I signed up in 2017. Those waves have increased in frequency and intensity. Admittedly, while I did put in some effort early on, I wasn’t really part of that first wave. I rode in on a much later wave in mid-2022 and haven’t looked back […]
-
We had a possible fireball explosion tens of thousands of feet above us in Pennsylvania. Shook our house pretty good at 10:49am Eastern. Now I’m looking for how to properly document it with NASA. I figured this worthy of jotting down on the weblog.
-
What I saw somewhat recently #99: January 19, 2023
This is the penultimate WIS link list. The final list, number 100, shall reprise all previous link lists and come sometime in February. I’m looking forward to crafting a new link list reborn in a new style and with other themes. Doing anything 100 times isn’t easy so I’m proud of this little series of […]
-
Zero inside knowledge here; but my guess is an Apple Event in February announcing Apple VR dev kits that cost $3,000 that come with a headset + Mac mini. With the device shipping at least 6-9 months later for less than that.
-
Revisiting Simon Collison’s Farewell to Twitter
Last night I revisited Simon Collison’s post from early December 2022 Farewell, Twitter. I had read it shortly after he published it and while I agreed with what he wrote, it didn’t hit me as hard as it did last night. Simon claims that “others have articulated the situation better”, however, last night I realized […]
-
After a 3 week break from blogging and social media (more like 2 weeks completely, 1 week just reading and replying), I’m ready to jump back in. I have lots of plans for 2023 for my website and personal projects.
-
I spent January 1 in the darkroom making prints from a 35mm roll of Tri-X that I finished over the last few months.
Writing helps me think more clearly and to form or transform my opinions. I write about what interests me such as blogging, photography, technology, social media, and my personal creative projects.
Series archives: Diversions, WIS, typicalday
