Was just at the supermarket using an automated checkout machine with the sound turned off. Must say, it’s so much better than the otherwise chatty machines I usually have to use.
Ready for some bocce. Back at Creswick St. Reserve, the OG bocce site.
Giving Insomnia a try for testing a REST API. Took a while to find the downloadable artefact, but first impressions are pretty good. Have yet to explore the more advanced features like chaining requests, but good to see that this is supported.
Found this DynamoDB item calculator which would estimate the size of DynamoDB records. Useful for those times when you’re wondering if you can get away with using BatchGetItem without worrying about unprocessed keys and the 16 MB limit.
Ah, the vanguards of Autumn have returned.
Need to find an alternative to Postman for API testing. It’s quite capable, but something just repels me from using it. Might be its insistence that I should make an account, or maybe because the UI feels inefficient and clunky to use. I’d like to like it, but it’s just not doing it for me.
Random fact I found on Wikipedia today: apparently marsupials are less likely to contract rabies because they have a slightly lower body temperature than placental mammals (35°C vs. 37°C or so).
Only reason why I searched for this is that we’ve got a possum trap setup at work and someone asked if one could get rabies from a possum bite. I’m pretty sure rabies is not really a major problem here in Australia, but it’s interesting to know that marsupials are naturally more resistant to it for this reason (not that I’d be interested in testing this out myself).
If I were ever to make an RSS service like Feedbin, I’d probably add a feature which would delay some items until a specific day of the week. Some posts I get feel more suitable for weekend reading.
📺 Nintendo’s Luckiest Accident
So apparently the “watch” in Game & Watch actually references the time piece. Until I watched this video, I actually thought it meant watching the demo that played while in Time mode.
Just discovered that Stripe has a changelog, which is great. But they don’t offer it as an RSS feed, which is crazy. Seems like this would naturally translate into an RSS feed. They have one for their engineering blog so it’s not like they unfamiliar with the concept.
Getting a little tired of listening to podcasters talk about the Apple Vision Pro (I guess you have to be there). I’m more excited to hear about Manton talk about Micro.blog’s new notes feature on Core Intuition.
One Cup of Cappuccino Then I Go, by Paola Pivi
Saw this print while I was in Europe and liked it enough to buy a copy. Finally got it framed after several months, and now it’s on my wall. Turned out great.
🔗 The internet used to be ✨fun✨
Lot of interesting posts here about the personal web, both current and old school. I’ve been ducking in and out of this for a week now. Via the HV Discord.
Users of Go: don’t fear the zero value. Resist the urge to use string pointers for things that can be left unset. We need not live like Java developers (let’s not even mention null and undefined that our poor JavaScript brethren have to deal with). Learn to embrace the one nothing we have.
Complexity Stays At the Office
It’s interesting to hear what others like to look at during their spare time, like setting up Temporal clusters or looking at frontend frameworks built atop five other frameworks built on React. I guess the thinking is that since we use it for our jobs, it’s helpful to keep abreast of these technologies.
Not me. Not any more. Back in the day I may have though similar. I may even have had a passing fancy at stuff like this, revelling in its complexity with the misguided assumption that it’ll equal power (well, to be fair, it would equal leverage). But I’ve been burned by this complexity one to many times. Why just now, I’ve spent the last 30 minutes running into problem after problem trying to find a single root cause of something. It’s a single user interaction but because it involves 10 different systems, it means looking at 10 different places, each one having their own issues blocking me from forward progress.
So I am glad to say that those days are behind me. Sure, I’ll learn new tech like Temporal if I need to, but I don’t go out looking for these anymore. If I want to build something, it would be radically simple: Go, Sqlite or PostgreSQL, server-side rendered HTML with a hint of JavaScript. I may not achieve the leverage these technologies may offer, but by gosh I’m not going to put up with the complexity baggage that comes with it.
Bought some “genuine” EarPods as emergency headphones I can keep in my bag. Wired earbuds are not my preferred listening device. Well, at least they’ll act as a deterrent from forgetting my headphones again.
Well, it’s finally happened. I’ve left for work without my headphones. 🙁
Worse Is Better
Gabz latest post about ChatGPT’s ability to write “good” reviews gave me pause:
Here is the thing, every now and then I write about things that I like, among them, video games. I am also aware that although I am not a professional reviewer, I’d like my posts to come across with a certain level of, I don’t know, some quality/standards/mission/quest. […] Whenever I write a post about something I liked it is in a very unprofessional manner, or informal manner, rather, as if I was just talking to you. I just capture my thoughts as I type and perhaps that is the reason I am always digressing and all over the place.
Not to be someone who should tell Gabz how he should write on his own site, I will give you my opinion as a reader. And it’s this: I’d rather hear a review in your voice than some GPT. I read it because it sounds like another fellow human wrote it.
Anyone can put together a review for a piece of media with the “professional” (read monotonous) air of a GPT. I’m sure there are bunch of sites using ChatGPT for this right now (that is if you can get through the barrage of ads they throw in your face). But that’s not why I come to your site. I read what you write because you wrote it. It’s your opinion, written in your own style.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t post things from a GPT, or use it to make your writing better. Anyone who’s seen what I’ve posted knows of the various DALL-E images I’ve made over the past several months. Use it as the tool that it is, but be cautious about using it to write for you.
P.S. That’s generally why I prefer podcasts with a more casual tone over the more “produced” shows.
Photo Bucket Galleries and Using the HTML Popover API
Spent a bit more on Photo Bucket this evening. Tonight I started working on galleries, which’ll work more or less like albums.
At the moment you can create a gallery and add a photo to it. Most of the work so far has been backend so the UI is pretty rough. Eventually you’ll be able to do things like rearrange photos within galleries, but for the moment they’ll just be added to the end.
I did need to add some modals to the UI, such as the New Gallery model that’s shown for the gallery name. This gave me the opportunity to try out the new popover API. And yeah, it does exactly what it says on the tin: add the popover attribute to an element and it becomes a working popover (at least in the latest version of Vivaldi). Must say it’s impressive that this is now possible with HTML alone.
The initial version of the modals used a <div> for the popover target. And while that worked, there were some small annoyances. First was that the form within the popover didn’t get focus when the popover was displayed. It would be nice to click “New” and start typing out the gallery name. But this is a small thing that’s easily solvable with JavaScript, so it’s no big deal.
The second, slightly larger one, was that dismissing the popover by clicking outside of it will not eat the input. If you were to click a sidebar link while the New Gallery model is opened, you’ll end up on that newly selected page. I’m not a fan of this. Dismissing the popover feels like its own user gesture, and I fear the user accidentally activating things when all they’re trying to do is dismiss the popover (it’s not in place now, but I am planning to dim the background when the Create Gallery modal is visible).
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to this. It turns out that replacing the <div> element with a <dialog> element would solves both problems. It works seamlessly with the new popover attributes, yet showing the dialog will give focus to the form, and will eat the click when the user dismisses it.
Perfect. Looks like I’ve delayed the need for JavaScript a little longer (it will come eventually; it always will).
Yep, I think 22 minutes at 150°C works for toasting frozen hot cross buns in a cold oven. Toasty and warm without being burnt or too hot to eat. Might even be able to push it to 23 minutes but I probably wouldn’t go higher than 25.