Matthew Lang

A change of seasons means a change of colour for my blog. I’ve been doing this since I started using the Hyde theme on Micro.blog. Just a small way in which I can refresh the look of my blog without too much fuss.

Chrome’s continued dominance of the web now puts it in the same position as Internet Explorer all those years ago. “It works on Chrome” is the new “It work on IE”. I’d like to think though that most web developers out there don’t just build for the one browser.

Reda Lemeden’s post, “We Need Chrome No More”, sums up this change.

The dominance of Chrome has a major detrimental effect on the Web as an open platform: developers are increasingly shunning other browsers in their testing and bug-fixing routines. If it works as intended on Chrome, it’s ready to ship. This in turn results in more users flocking to the browser as their favorite Web sites and apps no longer work elsewhere, making developers less likely to spend time testing on other browsers. A vicious cycle that, if not broken, will result in most other browsers disappearing in the oblivion of irrelevance. And that’s exactly how you suffocate the open Web.

— We need Chrome no more

While I can see Reda’s point, I don’t think that the developer’s building for the one browser is as big a problem. I’ll be honest, it’s been a while since I visited a website that only worked in Chrome.

For me, the problem isn’t so much that Chrome is the most popular browser, it’s the organisation behind the browser and how they integrate features into that browser that support how they use data and ads to make profits.

Switching to another browser is one answer to this problem, but perhaps there’s also another answer.

For Google to change as an organisation.

That sounds like a pipedream, and even looking back at that sentence, it just seems ridiculous. I’ll leave it though because even the most ridiculous of ideas can still happen.

I’ve followed Smashing Magazine’s monthly wallpaper posts since they started. I might use one on a rare occasion, but they are always worth watching out for. Check out the wallpapers for March.

It would be “one permanent, comprehensive home where anyone in Britain can get all of our library content - both the ITV and BBC library - in one place and they can watch it anytime, anywhere,” Dame Carolyn told Today.

— BBC and ITV set to launch Netflix rival

An attempt by the two big broadcasters in the UK to build a streaming service to rival Netflix seems like a lost cause to me. Streaming services are global, so any attempt to compete with the likes of Netflix and even YouTube is a going to be a massive task for the new streaming service.

In our home, we’re not big watchers of either of these channels. For us, other streaming services and cable channels replaced the BBC and ITV a long time ago. This isn’t representative of the UK as a whole, but I’m sure that there are plenty of other households like this.

I think the BritBox might just be too little, too late.

What’s better than one Star Wars trailer for one movie? How about a Star Wars trailer for all ten movies!

Hat-tip to Jason Kottke for this one.

It’s disappointing to see a number of poor quality and outdated websites when it comes to local golf organisations and communities. Especially when you consider hosting can be really cheap now and the number of CMS tools available.

Brilliant at the basics. The essential everyday list by Nicholas Bate.

Whether you believe the fable about boiling frogs or not, it looks like we’re becoming a world of slowly boiled frogs.

Researchers, led by Frances Moore, professor of environmental science and policy at University of California-Davis, analyzed 2 billion tweets published between March 2014 and November 2016, to determine when people turn to Twitter to talk about the weather. Unsurprisingly, they found that there are far more weather-related tweets during unusual conditions, such as an exceptionally hot day in March or one in September that’s far colder than normal. But, they found that there was significantly less Twitter chatter when historically unusual weather conditions repeated within a few years. If a country experiences exceptionally cold weather for more than five years in a row, these conditions were no longer considered remarkable. And, overall, people’s perceptions of normal weather are based on by experiences from the past two to eight years.

— Humans are “boiling frogs,” slowly getting used to climate-change temperatures

Will we recognise the danger and do something about it, or will we accept our changing environment while we being slowly cooked?

A massive milestone for the team shooter. 30 characters to choose from and still going strong.

Blizzard’s team shooter Overwatch is hitting a major milestone today with the official unveiling of Baptiste, the game’s 30th hero. Baptiste is a support character described as a “combat medic” who uses an array of gadgets to aid his team in battle. That includes a device called an immortality field that prevents nearby allies from dying, healing grenades, and Baptiste’s ultimate ability, described as “a matrix that doubles the damage and healing effects of friendly projectiles that pass through it.” The reveal follows a few days of teasing, including a short trailer yesterday.

— Overwatch’s 30th hero Baptiste is here to shake things up

Fortnite might be stealing the spotlight across the globe, but for me, Overwatch is a better and more enjoyable game to play. At first, I was sceptical about the game. As I watched my son playing it, I couldn’t make out what was going on. I succumbed though, and now I’m a long-term fan of the game.

Games are facing an exciting time. With continual updates, games can now have a longer shelf life. Sounds excellent and while Blizzard is executing this plan nicely, there are others that I think aren’t doing so well.

Fornite might be a worldwide sensation, but I think it’s already under-attack from copycat clones. How long can they fend them off?

EA started launched Star Wars Battlefront 2 late in 2017 and quickly found out that their loot box monetisation was very unpopular with gamers as well as the progression system. I don’t think the game has recovered since then. Sure it’s an okay game, and yes I did buy it, but I definitely think it has had its day. It seems that every other week there’s some kind of points promotion to get people to play. And don’t get me started on the unlimited heroes in a game.

Blizzard though has slowly improved the Overwatch game since it’s release and remains as enjoyable as it was on the day that I first played it.

Will we get to 40 characters in the game? That might be a push, but I’ll keep on playing and being a fan in the meantime.

Even though we have bigger screens with more pixels available to use to view, Nick Janetakis makes a strong point for sticking to 80 characters per line when coding. And he even supported his argument up with a few screenshots as well.

1080p is still one of the most popular resolutions for monitors and it just so happens that with most code editors you can comfortably fit 2 code windows at 80 characters side by side, and even have room for a sidebar if you like that sort of thing.

— 80 Characters per Line Is a Standard Worth Sticking to Even Today

Well worth a read if coding is your thing.

I mostly stick to 80 characters per line when programming. I say mostly as it’s more a guideline than a rule for me. I find it easy to adhere to this guideline when working with Ruby and other programming languages, but where it falls apart for me is when I am writing HTML. In some cases, I just can’t get a line under the 80 characters.

There are things I can do get around this. I can extract segments of HTML into partials (I am using Rails anyway), but is this valid reason for doing so?

I’m not sure, but in most cases, separating out this HTML would definitely help project organisation, allowing me to work in a more component-based way with my HTML. I might just have to give this a try tonight.

I’m loving Patrick Rhone’s new podcast, Rhonecast.

A reminder from Michael Wade that not all treasure is silver and gold. Who knows what riches you can find in your own journals?

Nicholas Bate yet again delivers. This time, some pointers to dealing with the new crazy world of work.

Hard to believe the Ruby language is 26 years old now. It’s definitely a programming languge that I never get tired off. My only regret is I didn’t pick up this language sooner in my career.

Code and coffee combo this morning. Working on some changes to my bookmarking app to allow for a multi-account deploy. Almost there with it. Also there’s been another name change. Last one I promise!

When it comes to building ideas for applications, I will always choose the web first. It’s what I can I do best and it is where I can ship those ideas more efficiently. I can go from that first line of code to a shippable idea in hours. After that, I can just iterate on that idea when I want to.

There’s another benefit to building for the web though. You have access to a bigger market.

At a startup, engineering resources are scarce. It’s expensive to spread your engineering expertise across different platforms, so it’s better to focus on one in the beginning. Building for the web means that users on mobile, desktop, Chromebooks (which have become the most popular EDU hardware in the US), and any other internet-connected device can use your service, whereas a native app is specific to iOS or Android.

— Considering App vs. Website? It’s 2019: Build a Website.

I’ve toyed with learning Apple’s programming language, Swift. My goal is to learn how to build iOS apps. It’s not that I have some Candy Crush busting idea that will net me millions, it’s just something I would like to learn.

Even if I had the knowledge to build a native app in the same time that it would take build a web app, I think I would still go with making a web app. Native apps serve their purpose, but I think we’re seeing more viable alternatives through web apps.

Cutscenes looking worse than the game itself? I don’t know about that. In fact, I can’t remember the last game I played that would fall into this category.

I’m not one for paying particular attention to the Academy Awards, but even I had to do a double-take when it was announced that Black Panther earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Not that I think it doesn’t deserve it, it indeed does, and it is a fantastic film. It’s just that these types of movies never seem to make the final list of nominees.

No longer can superhero movies be classed merely as summer blockbusters and be relegated to specific award categories as they have been in the past.

That was the assumption, anyway. Between 2009 and this year, superhero movies still didn’t receive much attention from the academy in its biggest categories. That’s the entire lifespan of Marvel’s current Cinematic Universe — a total of 22 movies passed over. Genre films have largely been relegated to the science categories, including Visual Effects.

— Black Panther is the first superhero movie to earn an Oscars Best Picture nomination by The Verge

It’s taken a long time for these movies to be recognised and hopefully, we will continue to see a broader range of films being nominated for Best Picture in the future.

I had no idea about the “Firefall” that occurs at El Capitan at this time of year.

“Firefall” occurs when the setting sun reflects off of Horsetail Falls at a certain angle, making the waterfall emit a fiery orange glow. It is highly dependent on environmental factors: If the skies are cloudy, that orange light will not hit the east side of El Capitan—the vertical rock formation where the falls are located— and the phenomenon won’t occur.

— Viral photos show Yosemite’s “firefall” phenomenon glowing in California

The pictures of this are just amazing.

Just realised that my bookmarking web app Commonmarks shares the same name as CommonMark, the strongly defined Markdown format. Time for another name change me thinks. I’m open to suggestions. 😉

I dare you to find a better picture of the moon than this one. I also think I have found myself a new wallpaper for my iPhone’s home screen.

Kurt Harden’s hunt for the perfect album continues. I have to say, this is fast turning into a great playlist for Apple Music or Spotify. 🎵

Cup of coffee on my desk. Pen and paper ready. Text editor open.

My three essentials for weekend hacking on code.

After years of using Solarized Dark as my preferred colour theme for coding, I’m starting to find that I’m now preferring a lighter themes for when I’m writing code. Solarized Light for Sublime Text and Bluloco Light for VS Code.

Solarized Dark is still my preferred color theme for the terminal though.

Sent a few suggestions this morning for the perfect album to my buddy Kurt in Ohio. Suggestions included Bloc Party, Oasis, Massive Attack and Eric Clapton.

Anyone else care to chip in with suggestions for the perfect album?