I saw the name and thought it might be some kind of retro throwback to the 1996 version of Netscape Communicator. I was sort of looking forward to the integrated but awkward built-in mail client and newsreader.
Readit Newsajlburke commented on Firefox 96 mozilla.org/en-US/firefox... · Posted by u/NiekvdMaas
ajlburke commented on There's never been a better time to build websites simeongriggs.dev/there-ha... · Posted by u/adrian_mrd
It's definitely a great time to build websites, but saying they _NEVER_ have been easier to make... I'm not 100% sure about that.
Yes, tailwind might make css a lot easier, and github copilot might make coding a lot faster... but is this really easier than in the early 90ies, when you could just type <html> into notepad and make a website that didn't require any CSS or images or JS or even more than just the most basic html tags?
When it comes to reading a blog or article or consuming any other form of textual information on the internet - I find myself increasingly enamored with "Reader View" in Firefox, which basically ditches all the crap, and displays the web-page in a default-style, as if it was just the most basic html - just like that we did write in 90ies.
Of course this doesn't hold true for any webApps that do more than just present textual information (and the occasional image) - but why do project like ViewPure exist? There seems to be at least some demand for getting rid of all the clutter.
Is tailwind really easier to work with something like - let's say - pico.css? Of course if you want to do super-elaborate layouts, then probably yes - but if you embraced a more minimalist approach?
Isn't Hacker News itself a really great example of a website that successfully uses only very basic html with very, very little styling and fancy extra features?
Hacker News still uses tables - for layout!
But it always loads super fast, and it just works.
We figured out how to display text on a web page decades ago. It's a shame more people aren't just doing it the direct way anymore.
(Applications are a different matter obviously)
ajlburke commented on 10 years of whatever this has been apenwarr.ca/log/20211117... · Posted by u/zdw
I liked his point near the end of the article comparing blockchains to XML - overcomplicated and oversold and added to too many things due to marketing and consultant hype.
The obvious next question he didn't ask is, what is the JSON of blockchain? The one that's more flexible and efficient and ends up actually becoming ubiquitous?
Maybe it hasn't appeared yet? Maybe it shouldn't? I don't know, but the comparison is just waiting for that followup.
ajlburke commented on Nobody ever ported Doom to run on a Cray 1 twitter.com/id_aa_carmack... · Posted by u/tosh
interesting. that huge transparent block is here for aesthetics only?
I gather it was used to regulate the temperature of the liquid coolant - but instead of just some pipes or whatever, the designers turned it into a nice "waterfall" feature. I think it even lit up.
ajlburke commented on Canada to bar entry to non-residents (except US) cbc.ca/news/politics/cbsa... · Posted by u/munk-a
It should be noted that anybody coming into Canada now from a foreign country, no matter their citizenship, is being told to self-quarantine for 14 days.
This isn't mandatory or enforced (yet) but it's not exactly a red carpet for folks to come visit for tourism or business meetings.
This is very close to what I do, with a few modifications. Biggest difference is that I use Emacs Org-mode (https://orgmode.org/) which automates things like date strings, building a daily agenda, adding due dates, and the monotony of getting your itemized lists properly indented. (and a whole lot more)
Everything lives in my TODO.org file that's mirrored via dropbox between all my devices and on my phone where I use the Beorg app on the iphone (https://beorgapp.com/).
I archive my finished TODO items at the end of the year. Taking the opportunity to delete (mark CANCELED) things that no longer need doing and carrying over any TODO items that still need getting done.
Thanks for the beorg link - I've been trying to find a way to make my org-mode files mobile-accessible.
Flex has indeed figured it out, I use it for everything now and rarely touch margin: auto unless I'm being lazy or there's a very simple usecase.
But that said Flex still very much classic CSS: the awkward naming schemes, the excessive options for each parameter, the mixing of different options available, etc... it's still very much CSS in all it's quirky dirtiness.
CSS Grids kind of shocked me that they weren't entirely convoluted.
Maybe it's the design-by-committee stuff but even as CSS has gotten better: it still took way too long and it's still very weird. Maybe like JS this will slowly no longer become true, but I'm kind of happy I grew up without Flex/modern CSS because I'm unafraid of that quirkiness.
JustifyContents and AlignItems are like inserting an old USB key: I always get it backwards the first time and have to switch it over.
ajlburke commented on LifeLabs pays ransom after data breach affecting up to 15M Canadians theglobeandmail.com/busin... · Posted by u/eswat
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” —Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
I like to think of Sisyphus a bit like someone waiting in line for a rollercoaster or a ski lift. The pushing is a slog, but then you reach the top and WOW BOOOM the rock cascades down the hill and it's AWESOME! Time to start pushing it back up again.
Yes yes I know Sisyphus is a metaphor for the pointlessness of life - but that doesn't mean you have to take it at face value.
ajlburke commented on Nearly everyone who is new to Emacs hates it passionately (2014) reddit.com/r/emacs/commen... · Posted by u/pcr910303
I loved EMACS when I first tried it. Granted, that was in around 2001 and my day job had required using a terrible bloated version of IBM WebSphere Application Developer which would leak 16 megs of RAM every time I tried to open an HTML page, forcing me to completely restart my 640meg Dell several times a day. EMACS, in Terminal.app on the then-new OSX, was so refreshingly fast and light (and comparitively good looking) that I finally felt like I could do some real work for a change.
I know that sounds kind of ridiculous, considering EMACS' history - but you never had to use that vintage IBM JSP suite!