2020-10-19 // 6 min read // #site
For the last week or so, I’ve been working on a few improvements to this site!
I don’t usually write about this stuff, but I thought it might be interesting to briefly mention a few of the things I’ve done.
I could do it, I didn't stop to think whether it should be done
2020-10-16 // 7 min read // #automation #buildkite #ios-shortcuts
For a while now, I’ve been automatically sending out my newsletter as a part of the deployment process for my website. It’s a great convenience that means I can focus on writing and publishing new content, instead of worrying about generating and delivering actual emails.
In my current setup, I’m able to preview newsletters from my inbox before they’re delivered to my readers. If I think one is good to go, I can hit the big red button to send it out!
While pressing this “big red button” only takes a half-dozen clicks in a web UI, I’d love if it was just that little bit easier on my end. So that’s what I set about improving today!
Leaking sensitive data from the comfort of your phone
2020-10-02 // 3 min read // #privacy
Metadata, or “data about data”, is a useful thing to have.
On the web, it’s great to have access to extra information about a webpage that browsers don’t show through <meta> tags and response headers. When we’re working with filesystems, we might care about when files were created and their access permissions just as much as we might care about their contents.
But at the same time, metadata can also be a cause for concern.
2020-09-25 // 4 min read // #hugo
Update:
I’ve brought this disappearing post back from the abyss, enjoy!
That’s right, there’s self-destructing blog posts now
I’ve been toying with the idea of writing expiring blog posts for a while now, ever since discovering the expiryDate variable in Hugo.
Being able to have temporary posts that get cleaned up after a period of time seems like an interesting challenge and a nice convenience. For example, if I want to blog a short-term update that gets taken down once it’s no longer relevant.
While this is easy in a dynamic site (currentDate > expiryDate), it’s something that static sites struggle with. If a site’s content changes over time, a static site must be updated with each change. I know I’m certainly not going to remember to redeploy my site weeks after publishing a temporary post!
With scheduled builds and a little extra configuration though, I’ve managed to automate my troubles away!
Trying a few final approaches to get one last speed boost
2020-09-12 // 11 min read // #rust
“Well here we are again, it’s always such a pleasure”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been building a solver for the puzzle game Golf Peaks and improving its performance over the course of a few blog posts. Given I’ve still got a few final ideas I’d like to try, how about one last writeup?
Now that it's working, make it work fast!
2020-09-05 // 23 min read // #python #rust
Previously, I wrote about a solver I’d built for the puzzle game Golf Peaks. In closing, I had a few ideas on how it could be sped up and improved. Over the last few days, I’ve been trying some of these ideas out, and measuring the results!
A retrospective on a recent weekend project
2020-08-28 // 14 min read // #applescript #python #rust
Recently I played Golf Peaks, a golf-based puzzler from Afterburn Games. I really enjoyed completing all of its levels, so last week I decided to try my hand at building a solver for it.
Investigations into solutions and workarounds I've seen in the wild
2020-07-27 // 9 min read // #css #react #webdev
A while back, I wrote about the inner workings of a neat CSS trick I spotted in use on a website. The world of software development is rife with these kinds of tricks, so why not look at more of them in another blog post?
I’ve gathered a few interesting fixes here to problems I’ve either encountered myself in web development, or seen others grapple with. So without further ado, let’s jump into it!
Appreciating albums in the age of the playlist
2020-07-04 // 6 min read // #music
There’s a lot of ways to listen to music in this day and age. You might see it live, streamed over the internet or played from a vinyl record. Today though, I want to advocate for a particular approach to listening to recordings.
Take an album and let it run from its first track until conclusion. Don’t put it on shuffle. Don’t only play the most popular tracks. Listen to everything the album has to offer, in the order in the order that it’s listed.
Decay might be inescapable, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy the present
2020-06-21 // 3 min read
The web. The internet. Call it what you want, it’s a funny thing. A feat of engineering that’s managed to create and connect the modern world as we know it.
It’s funny to think though about its fragility as well. Even in just loading this page, there’s so much that could go wrong. It’s almost certain that something will eventually break, and there won’t be someone around to make the necessary fix.
