A couple of web development projects for the winter
Now that the golf season is down to me and the boys only getting out at the weekend, I can start spending more time on a few side projects. There are so many things I would like to learn, but I figure just limiting myself to a couple won’t take up too much of my time.
So, from now to March, I’ll spend a few hours each week on the following.
- Learning more about Rails 8 and Kamal — Dailymuse and Writeabout will each get a bump to Rails 8. Only Writeabout, though, will get the Kamal) treatment to begin with. When I have gained enough knowledge about Kamal, I’ll also look to deploy Dailymuse with Kamal.
- Learn TypeScript and ThreeJS — A work colleague showed me a hobby project he is working on using ThreeJS. It’s the perfect excuse to learn TypeScript and build something for the web that isn’t just another web application.
Played 18 holes with the big yin this morning. Nice to get a round of golf with him instead of just watching him.
Molly White reminds us that we can have a different web.
Though we now face a new challenge as the dominance of the massive walled gardens has become overwhelming, we have tools in our arsenal: the memories of once was, and the creativity of far more people than ever before, who entered the digital expanse but have grown disillusioned with the business moguls controlling life within the walls.
After chatting with a colleague at work about a little development project he’s been working on, I now find myself messing about with ThreeJS and TypeScript. I managed to get the ThreeJS demo code working to show a spinning cube. It’s a start. The next step is to get it working in TypeScript.
My hopes for tomorrow
The following 24 hours or so will be a roller coaster of waiting as Americans head to the polls to decide who will be the next resident of the White House. There’s certainly a lot at stake in this election.
This year’s campaigns have been eye-opening, with both highs and lows. Each candidate’s core message has been clear: one promises unity, while the other reflects division. I don’t remember America being this divided. Sure, social media and 24-hour news play a part in amplifying these divides, but one thing is clear: it’s time to fix them.
We’ll hopefully have an idea of the winner by tomorrow morning. Of course, I have my preference, but more than anything, I hope that the announcement won’t lead to any unrest and will be the start of another stable presidential term.
A peaceful declaration of the winner is my hope for tomorrow.
Installed Tabliss for Firefox this morning. Why have I not done this before?
I got up early this morning, and instead of starting out with some writing of the Ruby code, I opened my notes app and started writing a blog post for today. Nothing major, just an observation for tomorrow. It’s queued up and ready to be published later today. Feels good.
Cal Newport with some advice on dealing with election day anxiety.
Here I have a suggestion that I think could be healing for all points of the political spectrum: use the stress of this election to be the final push needed to step away from the exhausting digital chatter that’s been dominating your brain.
Although I am not voting, I am slightly anxious about what the electoral map will look like by tomorrow. With the timezone difference though, I won’t have any issues following Cal’s advice. By 10pm tonight I will likely be out for the count.
I was hoping the Packers would at least have a close game with the Lions tonight at Lambeau. After a dismal first half and the Packers just giving away penalties, I’ve seen enough.
Settling into Stimulus once again
Over the last few days, I’ve been writing more JavaScript than usual. The reason? I am using Stimulus a lot more in one of my Rails projects.
Enhancing the functionality of my Rails application with some HTML markup and a JavaScript controller is good, as Stimulus has a small learning curve and integrates well with Rails.
As I add more Stimulus to the application, though, I am learning some of its best practices the hard way. One criticism I have of my own controllers is that they are very page-specific. That’s fine for now, as the application is relatively small. Still, I plan to break these controllers into more generic behaviours that can be re-used more easily across the application in the future.
Going to start blogging again
I’m going to start blogging again.
Not the titleless posts I have been posting for the last couple of years, but the longer posts that need a title. The posts need to be split up into sections. The posts that have a call-to-action. The posts might just be rambling for the sake of it. The posts that venture an opinion. The posts that tell you something you already know. The posts that tell you something you don’t know. The posts that I will deem not worthy of publishing, but I do it anyway.
It’s not a ground-breaking start, but it’s a start.
Congrats to the Pixelmator team on joining Apple! I’ve been using Pixelmator for years and have nothing but praise for its simplicity and design.
While this is excellent news for Pixelmator, I wonder how long Apple will allow Pixelmator to exist as it is.
Our Japanese Maple in the garden is looking its best just before all its leaves start to fall. I wish autumn was a bit longer.
I mostly have notifications turned off, with only a few apps enabled. Even then, the scope is narrowed down so that I receive a notification from that app once or twice a day.
I had a great time with Drew out in the course today. With winter golf around the corner, it’s time to encourage Drew to try different shots and learn more about what’s possible with his clubs.
I’m heading out for 13 holes of golf with my youngest shortly. I love that our golf club’s course allows you to play 5 holes, 13 holes, or a full round. We’ll mostly play 13 holes over the winter until the weather improves.
Curtis McHale’s Makoism find also got me thinking about how I phrase my RSS feeds and changes.
RSS rotations. I love the sound of that.
I’ve seen many posts about people cancelling their Washington Post subscriptions, but I wonder if cancelling your Amazon Prime is the way to go?
The best thing those readers can do is cancel their $139 annual Prime subscriptions, if they have them, and invest that money in the journalism they say they want and need.
I like The Atlantic’s point about hitting Bezos where it matters: Amazon Prime subscriptions. Newspaper subscriptions allow for more independent journalism; we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of that.
I can’t decide whether Astropad’s Bookcase is a beneficial device or not. Yes, I’d like to read more, but not necessarily from my phone. That’s why I read from my Kindle. If you limit your device count to just the essentials, e.g., no Kindle, the Bookcase would be a good buy.