Matthew Lang

Split-screen editing on the iPad? Wow. The iPad is fast becoming a serious alternative to a laptop.

In my internet travels today, I have came across two avatars that used Commander Keen images. Clearly the universe is trying to tell me something.

Kurt Harden shares some thoughts on his connection with nature.

Over the past 24 years I have grown attached to everything that has lived on this property. This place is a sanctuary for me. It is home. It is where I regularly refuel for the daily battle.

— A fallen friend

While our home does not benefit having a large garden with decade old trees, across the street, we did have three trees that this area was built around. In the last few years, we’ve lost one tree, and now there’s a second not looking too healthy.

Over the years, the boys have had great times playing around these giants across the street. I hope the last one remains standing long enough for our youngest Drew to enjoy.

Great night for some golf.

Installed Things 3 on my phone this afternoon. I’ve been struggling to make bullet journaling work since I stopped freelancing. I’m already finding it easier to consolidate a few different things under one roof now.

Always disappointing when you find a blog with good content and there’s no RSS feed.

This week we almost missed another school notice about an “own clothes day” for Drew. The reason why? The notice was put on the school’s Facebook page and nowhere else.

The school does have their own website, Twitter account and even an app for your smartphone. They rarely update them all with the same information at the same time, but Facebook is the preferred outlet for the school to communicate with parents.

Schools aren’t alone in this.

Being involved in the junior section at our local golf club, I’m always looking for updates from other clubs for junior events that our junior section can play in. The problem is that clubs have websites, but rarely update their website and instead choose a preferred social media platform (most likely Facebook), and then just share it there.

Community organisations like schools frequently miss the point of having a website and how they should use social media to maximise reach to all parents.

Miraz Jordan sums it up nicely.

Make your website your home. Put all your information on your own website, first and foremost. Put notices on Facebook and include the address to find that information on your own website. Now people have a choice: if they enjoy using Facebook then they’ll see your post (probably / possibly) and can visit your website if they choose. Those who aren’t on Facebook can freely access the information from your website.

If you wish, use other services, such as Twitter, the same way.

— Why not move a community group’s website to FB?

21st century problems. The traffic jam getting to the top of Everest.

Nicholas Bate with the definitive marketing strategy.

I try remind myself daily that I need to reduce my phone usage but it hasn’t really happened.

This post on how your smartphone should be like your toothbrush might help though.

Feedbin was down again this morning, but thankfully it’s back up and running now. This is the first time that I remember Feedbin having a prolonged service outage ever since I started using it when it was first launched.

The thing about service outages though, is that despite their interruption to your day, they can be an indicator of how effective the service provider is at dealing with it. For a service like Feedbin, it shouldn’t cause too much of an impact on a person’s day. It’s a consumer product, but what if you are a service provider for other businesses and organisations?

I remember Gitlab’s database outage a couple of years ago. They had a severe disruption to their service, but they dealt with it in the best way possible. By being transparent with the world and letting everyone know what went wrong, what they’re doing to fix it and finally a retrospective of what they have learnt from it.

Basecamp also had a severe outage not that long ago. Again, they handled it in the same way Gitlab did. By being transparent and learning from the disruption so that it doesn’t happen again. If you really want a deep dive in Basecamp’s service interruption they did a whole podcast episode on it.

Platform interruptions are mostly just a nuisance. As a consumer of both free and paid for platforms, I know that these outages are not that important and eventually, the platform in question will be up and running again. But for the service provider, they’re a great indicator of how good they are at getting back on their feet, and more importantly, how informed they’ll keep everyone during the process.

So even if a service provider does have a significant outage, it’s how they handle it that will be a factor on whether I sign up for it or not.

Played 18 holes with Ethan last night.

I started well, but as always when playing 18 holes, I fell apart on the back 9. I had a few good holes through the round though, and it’s these that keep me thinking that I can get better over time.

Just need to keep plugging away at it.

Just watched the last episode of The Big Bang Theory. That’s how you end a TV series.

Although I understand what technical debt is, I often find it difficult to explain it to others in simple terms. From now on though, I’ll just reference Martin Fowler’s brilliant explaination.

What most appeals to me about the debt metaphor is how it frames how I think about how to deal with this cruft. I could take five days to clean up the modular structure, removing that cruft, metaphorically paying off the principal. If I only do it for this one feature, that’s no gain, as I’d take nine days instead of six. But if I have two more similar features coming up, then I’ll end up faster by removing the cruft first.

— [bliki: TechnicalDebt](Martin Fowler)

Pete Corey’s Minimum Viable Phoenix is a great starting point for those looking to learn the Phoenix web framework.

Right, made it through this morning’s RSS feeds without seeing any spoilers from last night’s final episode of Game of Thrones. Just need to make it through to tonight when the rest of the UK are watching it.

Interesting programming problem I solved this morning. Rewrite a regex expression so that it doesn’t use any escape characters that would break the Yaml file it is being saved in.

Also, added Regex101 to my list of great online tools for web development.

Scott Hanselman nails it with his advice for a young university student attending the Microsoft BUILD conference.

For the young person I spoke to, yes .NET Core may be a little different from .NET Framework, and they might both be different from Ruby or JavaScript, but strings are strings, loops are loops, memory is memory, disk I/O is what it is, and we all share the same networks. Processes and threads, ports, TCP/IP, and DNS - understanding the basic building blocks are important.

— Systems Thinking as important as ever for new coders

It’s all just building blocks. Whatever the language or framework is, the building blocks are still the same. Great advice for those just starting their careers in software development, but also a reminder for the older or more experienced software developers who are struggling with the ever changing landscape of programming.

Starting to think I might just have enough features in place for a new landing page for Markcase.

The personal website is back.

The importance of doing nothing.

I don’t use GitLab, but the way the company is run and managed is really refreshing. Everyone remote, and the company is transparent with just about everything.

A shame to see that Eastwood golf club is facing closure. A nice course with great views on the outskirts of Glasgow.

Golf clubs are facing challenging times ahead. I can see most clubs making it through these challenges, but there will be a number of clubs who won’t make it.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that my youngest son Drew is spending a crazy amount of time drawing. You can usually find him sprawled out on the floor of his bedroom with sheets of paper everywhere and a circle of Sharpies around him. He loves it, so what harm can come from it?

The thing is, the source for his new love of drawing comes from a Youtube channel that we found one day while he was looking for some drawing inspiration. The channel is the Art for Kids Hub.

After we checked it over, we thought it was okay for him to be left alone with it for an hour. Now though, we’re at the point where he doesn’t draw without it.

I remember being slightly older than Drew when I first started taking an interest in drawing. I did the same thing, except instead of watching Youtube videos, I frequently drew from books and comics that I had in my room. After a while, I realised that I had enough of the basics down that I could pretty much draw anything. And I did.

The concern we have now is that he’s using a screen to do it. Sometimes he can be in his room for hours drawing. When’s he’s done he will come down with about ten drawings from a single session. Is that amount of time spent in front of a screen good for him?

There are so many conflicting reports and findings of kids and the amount of screen time they should have. The saving grace here I suppose is that he’s not just sitting there doing nothing. He’s doing something creative, and the screen is only a guide.

As long as he’s producing drawings, I can’t see any harm in it. I think in time, he’ll realise that he doesn’t need the iPad and he’ll start drawing on his own.

American government officials have finally taken their shot at video game lootboxes. Specifically, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced his intention to introduce the “The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act” to the US Senate.

This is the culmination of slow-burning anti-lootbox sentiment that’s bubbled up from the gaming community over the course of the last year-and-a-half. Ever since games like Battlefront II and Middle Earth: Shadow of War took lootboxes and in-game purchases from just “occasionally-overpriced bling” to “pay-to-win garbage,” those who regulate fair trade have begun to sit up and take notice.

— American senator pleads for children’s protection in anti-lootbox bill

Pay to win games on games consoles received a massive backlash from gamers and I think that games developers have taken notice of this.

Overwatch gets it right, with its loot boxes that can only reward you with cosmetic changes. I hope games like Overwatch can get to keep their lootbox system.

Pay to win games on mobile devices is an entirely different beast though. Games on mobile devices frequently use pay-to-win tactics through in-app purchases as a way of making money on free games. It’s these games that I hope to get targeted through this bill.

There’s one other consideration as well. Games are sold with ratings on them which indicates the age with which the content of the game is aimed at. If you decide that your kids are okay to play games that have a much higher age rating on them, then, in my eyes, you are also responsible for ensuring that your kids know the do’s and don’ts of that games lootbox system.