Links
Every problem at every company I’ve ever worked at eventually boils down to “please dear god can we just hire people who know how to write HTML and CSS.”
I know bugger all about the world of front-end web development. But seeing how quickly it takes me to get changes made and deployed using just these technologies, verses dealing with the mountain of JavaScript for an SPA, leaves me convinced that those that embrace HTML and CSS have a significant advantage over those that don’t.
🔗 Private blogs on Scribbles
This excites me. One of the features that drew me to look at Scribbles was the possibility of private blogs. It’s great that this has been added now. I will definitely make use of it. Thanks, Vincent.
Real opinions from real people about a project management system which unfortunately is also real.
Love the tag line of this site. Also, spoilers, but Confluence makes a warranted appearance here as well.
I agree with Craig Hockenberry here. The trust of any one site essentially depends on what is published there. And as more big-tech platforms embrace AI slop, the less you can trust those platforms to surface reliable information. It’s like that proverb of someone being only as good as their word. If one was to replace the concept of a person with a domain name, then I reckon you could say the same thing about websites.
🔗 Collective Nouns for Groups of Various Birds
Many of the ones I expected, but there are some interesting ones I’ve never heard of: a dole of doves, a kit of pigeons, a pandemonium of parrots.
🔗 Own Your Web – Issue 15: Home Sweet Home
It’s good to see Own Your Web is still going. I really enjoy reading this newsletter and I was disappointed for a time when issues stopped being published reguarily some months ago. Good thing I kept the RSS feed around.
🔗 AI ‘Friend’ Company Spent $1.8 Million and Most of Its Funds on Domain Name
“It’s real! Premium domains are expensive, but it’s worth it,” Schiffman told me in an email after I reached out to ask if it was true. […] “People just don’t get consumer, I view this as saving money. Much less money needs to be spent on marketing, it’s a one time thing,” Schiffmann said.
Is the marketing in the domain name, or in the word of mouth about how much they spent on the domain name? Well, I guess they got me to talk about it. 😀
I wonder if M.G. Siegler had anyone in mind when he wrote this.
🔗 Major Windows BSOD issue hits banks, airlines, and TV broadcasters
Oof! I feel bad for all those Window sys-admins who’s weekend has just been ruined.
Test your browsers compatability of the Marquee element. No spoilers about whether it worked in mine. 😀
Via Scripting Notes.
An interesting tale on how .DS_Store — a regular in Git ignore files everywhere — got its name.
Via @Burk within the Hemispheric Views Discord.
🔗 txt.fyi
Thank you to the anonymous person who runs this. Something happened which left me ropeable, and I needed a place to scream into the void. I did it there. It’s now lost to the either, along with (most) of my anger. Hopefully time will fix what’s left.
🔗 Adding Github-Style Markdown Alerts to Eleventy
GitHub has alerts (aka callouts) Markdown support where the syntax looks like [Obsidian’s.]
So apparently, if we were using Github instead of Gitlab, I could’ve had it all. 😏
🔗 How the “Nutbush” became Australia’s unofficial national dance
It’s amusing to grow up thinking everyone did this up until a few years ago, when someone from overseas told me they never learnt this dance. Anyway, this is totally a thing. Last wedding I attended, we absolutely did the Nutbush. 😄
If there’s ever an article I should print out and staple to my forehead, it’s this one.
🔗 Slack users horrified to discover messages used for AI training
I’d like to avoid jumping on the “I have everything AI” bandwagon, but I agree that Slacks use of private message data to train their LLM is a pretty significant breach of trust. A lot of sensative data runs through their system, and although they may be hosting it, it’s not theirs to do as they please. Maybe they think it’s within their right, what with their EULAs and everything, but if I were a paying customer — of enterprise software, if you remember — I’d make bloody sure that data is the customer and the customer’s own.
It’ll be interesting to see how this will affect me personally. We use Slack at work and I know management is very sensative about IP (and given the domain, I can understand). Maybe I’ll finally get to try Teams out.
🔗 Goodbye to Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio, the best iPad Pro accessory
I’ve never considered hoarding accessories before, but I might start. The Smart Keyboard Folio is perfect for how I use the iPad: a great stand and decent enough keyboard that doesn’t get in the way when I just want to read.
Igore the click-batey headline: this is quite a good post. Really enjoyed it. And, on the whole, I agree with the author. Via Jim Nielsen’s notes
🔗 Hiss!
Seeing @Miraz’s post about the Morepork reminded me of this poem by C. J. Dennis that was read to us as a kid. It was in this beautifully illustrated picture book, with thick borders full of, I guess, the illustrations of the subject’s imagination.
On it, their producer was lamenting not having somewhere to post a link to something being spoken about. No mention of show notes because I’m not convinced “big podcast” even knows they exist.
I’ve complained about this before and I haven’t seen any improvements. It’s as if the concept of making show-notes or even a website containing the links you mention on your podcast never cross these producers minds. That it’s perfectly okay to read URLs aloud and expect people to remember. It’s such an odd phenomenon.