Matthew Lang

It’s always good to use good tools for the job. In my case, I’m back to using a Macbook Pro and macOS as my development machine and operating system. It’s also great that I am working with Ruby and Rails once again.

The downside to using the tools is that they are the same tools I use to write web applications in my spare time. I enjoy hacking on ideas for web applications and using them for my own use, but I’ve noticed that the lines have started to blur when I use other tools.

Take for instance, source code management. I’m now using the same source code management tool for both work and my own projects. With source code management being a big part of my workday, I don’t enjoy using it the same way now for my own projects.

If I’m to continue enjoying hacking on my code after then, I want it to be an enjoyable experience. While I have no complaints about my job, it’s not a part of the day I want reminded of when it’s the evening or the weekend. I’ve been exploring different options for source code management over the last couple of weeks. I have decided to try out Gitlab for this over the next few months. It’s free, has similar processes to my current source code management tool, and integrates well with the hosting company I use for my web apps.

I’m also looking into other ways of using different tools or using the same tools differently. iTerm and Visual Studio Code are two tools that I use both at work and at home but finding alternatives to these is tricky when I use these tools really well. So instead of changing these tools to something else, I’m just changing how these tools look.

For iTerm, I have different looking terminals for work and home. It’s not much of a change, but the look definitely changes the dynamic of being at work and being at home.

I’ve also done the same with Visual Studio Code. I’m not going to look for a new text editor when I already use this quite proficiently. Instead, I am using the toggle extension in Visual Studio Code to change the theme and font settings for when I am at work and when I am home. A simple keyboard shortcut is now all it takes for me to change my interface from work to home.

Setting these boundaries between these contexts is essential as it creates a space for both. While I use many of the same tools, I do like to feel that I am in the correct mindset at the right time. That means using the appropriate tools for each and being able to distinguish between each. If the same tool has to be used for both, then a simple change of how that tool looks is all it takes for me to determine which context I am in.

Now that we can all go back to the office, people are now realising that perhaps they would rather continue to work from home. This is due largely to the rising cost of living.

But there’s a problem. Employees who haven’t had to budget for train tickets, takeaway coffees or new office outfits for the past two years are now acutely aware of how much it costs to spend a day at your desk. And, worse, these costs are growing. Petrol prices are at an all-time high; transport fares have increased, and food and other essentials are on an upwards trajectory. That means an office day can hit the wallet hard.

— The sky-high cost of returning to the office by Sophia Epstein (BBC)

I’m a long-term work from homer. I’ve been doing it for the best part of the last 15 years. It’s simply what I prefer. As a slightly introverted person, I enjoy being able to get my head down and get on with the work. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy face-to-face meetings with people and I get that you need that time to meet and chat with co-workers. I would just prefer that there were other genuine benefits to going to the office.

One thing I have wanted to do for a long-time is to have a single checklist for the day that I can check items off for and then reset it for the next day. It doesn’t sound too difficult to do, but it never works entirely the way I would like it to in the various task manager apps I have used.

Many task manager apps re-create the tasks as they are crossed off the list. Now, that sounds fine for a single task, but when you have a bunch of tasks that you want to do daily, it can start to look slightly chaotic depending on the app. You may end up with tasks not completed from the day before, tasks completed for today, and some already completed for tomorrow.

I would like my list of tasks to stay completed for the day but not re-create the tasks for the following day. When the next day does come around, I would simply like to reset the checklist to start over again. I suppose the behaviour here is not to re-create the tasks but reset the list into a state so that it can be used again.

I created a page on my website that I can visit that contains a list of tasks with checkbox input elements that, when checked, are saved in the browser’s localStorage. There’s also a button there that, when clicked, resets all checkbox input elements back to unchecked. This allows me to start the list all over again.

After a couple of passes, I finally have it working now.

Anil Dash writes about the recent resurgence of the web. There are definitely many reasons why this is happening. Still, a key one for me is the growth of tools that make building websites easier for everyone.

While the core technology of the web is decades old, the tools that help make it and run have been quietly evolving into something extraordinary in the last few years, too. There’s a flourishing of powerful new frameworks that make it simpler than ever to build flexible, responsive, useful sites. New hosting platforms let those sites be deployed and delivered faster and more reliably than ever. And you can build one of these sites in literally under a minute, then collaborate with people anywhere in the world to iterate on making the site better.

— A Web Renaissance by Anil Dash

I might be pre-empting the return of the glory days of the web when blogs and RSS feeds were everywhere. As good as that would be, I don’t think we’ll ever return to those days. I do hope though, that we are seeing a return to the web as an open platform for people to build and share content.

I have followed several high-volume technology RSS feeds for so long that I can’t even remember when it started. Maybe in the Google Reader era? I don’t know.

It feels that catching up with these feeds through Feedbin is becoming more of a chore than I would like lately. It’s now come to the point where I barely read these feeds anymore and simply mark them all as read. I don’t want to still read, but perhaps just not as an RSS subscription.

I have re-located these feeds this week in my daily newsletter on Mailbrew. The latest newsletter just dropped into my inbox. I have to say it’s a much better reading experience just having a limit on the posts from these feeds. Although I’m only getting the last few posts for each feed, I find it easier to scan through my newsletter and pick out the links I want to read later. This may be a permanent change.

Cracking night for 9 holes with Ethan.

That’s minilog 4 complete. Quite the stack I’m building.