August 21, 2024

 

Recent things


TV/Movies

Fisk - a hilarious Australian comedy. I've finished the first season. Can't stop watching. Kneecap - very entertaining recent history of an Irish hip-hop band that kind of amazingly features the actual band playing themselves. My favorite part was the main character's mom using the super-power of gosip to get the word out for the band.

Perfect Days - the first Wim Wenders film I've ever watched. It's beautiful in every way.

The Boy and the Heron - this was the first Miyazaki newly-released film I had seen actually in a theater, which is really the best way to see of Miyazaki's films. This one was really special. 

Scavenger's Reign - one of the the most interesting thing I've seen in a very long time. It blends together elements of the work of Ray Bradbury, Aliens, even Studio Ghibli, and deals with complex emotions: selfishness, greed. 

Comics

Lonely City - middle-aged Catwoman returns to Gotham to solve unfinished business 10 years after Batman died in her arms.

The Last Ronin - only one of the ninja turtles still lives and is haunted and encouraged by the memories of his brothers to go on one last mission to save NYC.

Other Notes

The Olympics were awesome this year. I think Peacock did a good job streaming them. I usually miss most of them, but I saw more Olympics than ever because it was easy to find stuff or just stream the highlights.

I've been appreciating a bird feeder and the gift birds are outside my window all year long.


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October 24, 2023

 

2022 and 2023 (so far)

2022 was a year filled with a lot of change in my life.  Some was truly wonderful, and some was truly horrible.  

The year started with the death of my brother.  He got sick with covid, and then while he was in the hospital I learned he didn't have a vaccine.  I texted and talked briefly and often with him on the phone for 2 weeks until his lungs were so damaged he had to go on a ventilator.  Then as we prayed for a miracle we slowly faced the harsh reality that he would not recover, and we had to let him go.  The last time we spoke I said I was looking forward to when were together again, and I still am. 

My brother was so excited, possibly the most in my family, when I first told him about meeting my future wife.  So his presence was very much felt a few months after he passed on what turned out to be one of the most beautiful days of my life.  It was this day that I married the love of my life, and together we started building a new life together.  

Things were starting to settle down...And then a few months later we had an unexpected opportunity to buy a fixer-upper home. It was a lot of work! Some of it we did ourselves. Some of it was done by professionals.  It was several months of hard work: drywall repairs, painting walls and the ceiling, refinishing the floors.  We remodeled/expanded the bathroom (demoed a closet and unused fireplace/new tile floor and shower walls, new toilet and vanity).  None of this would have been possible without the generous help of some amazing friends!  

2022 really felt like a roller coaster!  

As 2023 started we kept working hard to get our new house ready to live in.  Within a few weeks we were (mostly) ready to move.  Ever since the move it's been a seemingly endless punch list of finishing touches, unpacking, and surprise things to fix.  Not to mention a lot of effort battling out of control azaleas and poison ivy.  Ah, the joys of home ownership.  

2023 has also been the year my brother's youngest daughter got married, and I got to stand before her and her fine young husband to celebrate that wonderful new beginning.


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January 24, 2020

 

Podcasts I like

General entertainment

Blockbuster - even if you’re only a modest Star Wars fan, or just a movie enthusiast, you’ll want to listen to Blockbuster. In six episodes the series covers the years leading up to the release of the first Star Wars movie and the challenges and adventures that George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, John Williams and many others played in the creation of that history making franchise. Another aspect that sets this podcast apart is it’s distinction as “the world’s first bio pod” with impressive sound production and voice acting that rivals the film namesake. The team that made this did an amazing job and it’s well worth checking out. Listen to Blockbuster here.

City of the Future, by Sidewalk Labs (an Alphabet company) - I stumbled on City of the Future on a recent car trip and quickly got addicted. In each episode the hosts examine a potential fascinating technology in building that could make a huge difference in large urban areas. The hosts have an amazing chemistry that make listening a delight. In the somewhat stressful world in which we live I find the optimism for the future very refreshing. In a lot of ways this show, and the company behind it, reminds me of that positive futurism that Walt Disney envisioned when he was dreaming up the Experimental Prototype City of the Tomorrow.

Overdue - Andrew and Craig take turns reading books you’ve always meant to read and give in-depth reviews. Learn more about Overdue. The episode about Dune made me realize I would love the show.

Let’s Talk About Myths, Baby - Since I was a kid I was always really interested in Greek Mythology, and in my teen years I watched a fair amount of the Hercules and Zena Warrior Princess shows. That said I really don’t know/remember much about Greek Mythology. This podcast features an interesting topic or character each episode and gives in-depth explanations. The show’s host, Liv, is also a true fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and so there are quite a lot of references to Buffy that I appreciate.

The /Filmcast - part of the /Film film blog, the /Filmcast is a weekly update on new films. I really enjoy David Devindra and Jeff’s takes on films. They dive into all sorts of cinema, from blockbusters to art house, and give honest reviews. Listen to the /Filmcast here.

WTF with Marc Maron - Netflix’s Glow got me interested in checking out comedian Marc Maron, so I tuned into his podcast and couldn’t stop listening - I appreciate his honesty and humility in how he approaches topics, people and life. He’s seems very much a curmudgeon, but a curmudgeon with a decent heart buried inside. Listen to his show.

On Being - a podcast by Krista Tippett that explores philosophy, spirituality, and community. I discovered the show while listening to an interview with Irish theologian John O’Donohue where he describes his fascination with the beauty of this world. Listen to On Being here.

Staying informed

NPR Podcasts - I’ve been an NPR stan for decades. It’s my go-to source for in-depth analysis of what’s going on in the world. I listen to a lot of their live shows and they also have a some podcast exclusives that I really like. Up First is a great way to get a heads up when you start your day. I really liked listening to Kelly McEvers on my commute home from work listening to All Things Considered, so I was sad to hear she was leaving last year. However, hew new project, Embedded is a really amazing podcast that delves deep into one particular issue each episode.

Pod Save America - keeping up with all of the politics takes more brain energy than I usually have left, but this show helps keep me informed and is very entertaining, if for nothing else just the way they read ads is hilarious - the hosts of this show (Jon, Jon, Dan and Tommy) and have amazing chemistry which makes discussing the circumstances of our current politics a lot more bearable. Listen here.

Web design/development

Shop Talk Show - Chris and Dave do a nearly weekly podcast on all things web design-related. When you work in design/development it takes a lot of work to stay on top of all the latest technology. It’s frankly exhausting, but I find shows like this very helpful it keeping in the know. It’s also fun to hear from some of the top brains in the industry about what’s going on.

Toolsday - another great bi-weekly podcast on new and emerging podcasts. I heard Una give an amazing talk at a conference a couple years ago and then discovered the podcast she co-hosts and have been addicted ever since.

Podcasts I want to check out

Office Ladies - two of the actresses from The Office recount stories from each episode. Listen to it here.

Serial - everyone raves about this one, but I’ve never had time even though I’m a huge TAL fan :( Listen to it here. Revisionist History

Revisionist History - My friends have raved about Malcolm Gladwell’s re-examined events from the past. Listen here.

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link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 1:11 AM -

January 23, 2020

 

Engage! 2020 in Science Fiction

2020 is shaping up to be a great year for science fiction!

New Trek

Today the much anticipated Star Trek Picard is released on streaming services. I spent my younger years watching episodes of The Next Generation, the Star Trek series which will always be my Trek! Picard explores Jean Luc’s future decades after The Next Generation and the subsequent films that followed the TNG cast. There is also more Discovery and another new animated show, Lower Decks, releasing this year.

New Half Life

A surprise announcement came last November with the news that there is a new Half Life game set to be released soon - not Half Life 3 (or Half Life 2: Episode 3) - but a prequel to Half Life 2 titled Half Life Alyx. It was announced that the biggest team ever to work on Half Life game has been working on Alyx, and that it will be a VR-only game. I really hope this means in the next couple years there will be a new VR sequel to Portal!

New Dune

Dune, the ultimate science fiction book is getting a new film adaptation from Denis Villeneuve, who previously directed Sicario, Arrival, and the outstanding sequel to Blade Runner.

I read Dune in high school and it really stuck with me. It was a captivating story that I read through a few times to really get all the different elements of the story. The allegory to dependence on fossil fuels, the class warfare, the environmentalism, the fear of technology … all seem like story elements that are incredibly relevant today.

Dune has previously been put to film twice - first in 1884 as a film by David Lynch (who turned down an opportunity to direct the second Star Wars to instead direct Dune) - and in the early 2000s the SyFy channel (or SciFi channelel as it was then named) produced a mini-series of Dune and it’s sequel Dune Messiah. The David Lynch Dune has received some criticism for being

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January 6, 2020

 

The tools I use

I’ve always thought that building a website is a lot like building a home. There are similar layers to the process. The bones of the house, the framed walls, are like the bones of a website, the semantic HTML elements. The design choices and decorations such as paint and trim and cabinet textures are like the CSS presentation layer of the web. The functionality of the home, the plumbing, the solar panels, the thermostat and heating system are like the JavaScript functionality of a website.

When you’re building a house, you need the right tools. And after my years of construction I have a set of tools that are my reliable go-tos. My framing hammer with a waffle sticking surface and magnetic divot to hold a 16-penny framing nail makes it easy to start a nail in the top of a wall without needing to find a step ladder, and it’s weighted just right so that it drives a nail in with ease. My speed square is invaluable as so many 90-degree angles appear in construction - it helps me mark boards for cuts on a compound mitre saw, provides an edge to score a vinyl tile with a utility blade (be careful doing that, I lost the tip of a finger once - it grew back), and many other useful functions. Likewise, when building a website I have a reliable set of tools that I refer to as well.

Here are my web-building tools:

Firefox Developer Edition - the developer edition of Firefox is really enhanced with the developer in mind. I usually have all versions of Firefox installed (standard, developer, and nightly) but Developer Edition is where I do most of my dev work. I’ve been a Firefox fan/advocate for well over a decade. The popular Firebug extension is the tool that first really helped me dig into code. Developer Tools, the evolution of Firebug, contains so many helpful tools for digging into code. The CSS Grid and Flexbox panels are great for visualizing these newer layout tools.

VS Code - for the kind of work I do, any text editor will do, and I have tried a lot of text editors. I can’t really say that one truly is the best -and you can’t go wrong with any of them. But VS Code just happens to be so incredibly reliable and fast, and I really like that it comes with Emmet and a lot of other useful extensions built-in. I have a soft spot for the Atom text editor, and often switch back and forth between the two. I used Notepad++ quite a bit and if I was working primarily in Windows that tool would be in my bucket for sure.

iA Writer - there is something to be said for a simple clean writing interface. I like that it allows me to focus on one sentence at a time. But I really like how iA Write offers grammar-syntax-highlighting (not to be confused with code-syntax highlighting found in text editors) which is incredibly useful is visualizing how you’re constructing sentences.

Sketch - I’ve been using Sketch for a few years for mocking up web design. The UI is so simple and intuitive for web design. I love the grid features for doing layout. I’ve also really liked using Adobe’s copy of Sketch, Adobe Xd, but as I mention later, I just can’t get my mind around the monthly subscription cost.

Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher - sure at work I use Adobe products all day long. They are the industry standard. But I just can’t get my mind around the idea of paying an infinite recurring subscription to Adobe for my personal work. Affinity’s products faithfully recreate the features of Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign and only cost a one time payment of $50 each! I know you get a lot with a Creative Cloud subscription but I just don’t need most of it, and I can’t stomach that monthly price tag. I really wish Adobe would offer a discounted Creative Cloud option for independent freelancers/enthusiasts that was priced similar to a Netflix subscription. That would be a no-brainer for me, but until that day comes, and it probably never will, I’ll be using Affinity’s versions that do nearly the exact same thing. I’ve also tried a lot of open-source design alternatives (here is a blog post I wrote about an open-source alternative to Creative Cloud a couple years ago) and while I’ll highly suggest giving them a try too, I do recognize that their UI is a challenge, and frankly getting Inkscape to run on a Mac is a chore. Considering the very low cost for Affinity and much better UI, and familiarity with Adobe, I can’t suggest Affinity enough.

Scout-App is a great open-source tool for compiling your CSS.

Hyper - An open source alternative to your terminal window. Having a highly customizable terminal window is a really nice way to make working in a terminal a lot cooler!

Spotify - music makes me more productive. Spotify is just easier to access across devices/platforms.

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link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 12:26 AM -

January 1, 2020

 

2019 in review

The ending of a year, and with it one decade comes to an end, and another begins. The Twenty-tens are finished and now we greet the Twenty-twentys.

2019 was a really amazing year in my life, there is a lot I am truly grateful for but before I can get into it a note about 2018. 2018 was also an amazing year as well, but more because it was one marked with unfathomable change.

My dad passed away suddenly in 2018. Still just thinking those words feels unreal to me. I may have come to terms with this reality but I cannot really believe in it, if that makes sense. The truth still feels foreign to me, like a dream, a dream I want to wake up from and forget. I just really want to be able to say ‘hello’ to my dad again.

I was kind of lost for most of 2018, which may be why I had a lot less to blog about. I’ve been kind of picking up the pieces of myself ever sense. The year after you lose someone close is really tough. Losing my dad was a crushing life-altering event.

In an odd way, going through this kind of trauma can provide even more clarity of how important someone was, and is, in your life. So much of who my dad was has shaped who I am, and so much of that carries forth in my life. I am ever more aware and appreciative of the gifts contained in this experience we call existence thanks to my amazing father. His physical life may be over, but I am not alone, thanks to the kindness and wisdom he left behind in my memories of him. It’s almost as if having lost my father I actually feel never more closer to him.

It’s hard to think of 2019 in any way other than a reflection of 2018. 2019 was a year focused on discovery, survival, and appreciation. I discovered renewed desire to learn and grow in my career. I survived the devastation of great personal loss. I appreciate the enormous gift that is life and it’s infinite treasures.

Here are some highlights from this year.

  • I celebrated my father on the one year anniversary of his loss. (There was one request he made to me years ago, which was to play taps at his funeral. In the chaos of the funeral after his death I was not able to make that happen, so on the anniversary our family met and I fulfilled that request.)
  • I learned a lot about web and interface design.
  • I saw some pretty great movies.
  • I went to my second web design conference in Denver, where I learned a ton more. I also turned that trip into a vacation spending time with my oldest niece Hannah, speaking of…
  • I saw my oldest niece Hannah four separate times (in Virginia twice, the beach once, and Colorado once - that was a record).
  • I started walking a lot! I will no longer underestimate the benefits of walking every day!
  • 2019 was all about games! I started playing a slew of new board games with friends, and some I deemed worthy I shared with my family. This has been transformative really. Playing a variety of board-games has added a lot of enjoyment to my life, and allowed me to share that joy with others.

Do I have resolutions for 2020/the Twenty-twenties? Yes indeed. Don’t stop dreaming. Don’t stop learning. Don’t stop playing! Don’t stop appreciating the gift of life!


link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 10:00 PM -

December 24, 2019

 

Cutting the cord – cable alternatives

A couple years ago I got tired of the rising cost of cable, and the lack of control as a consumer I felt over that cost, so I decided to ditch the service. A couple things made this an easy choice: 1) HBO Now came out so I no longer needed a cable subscription to access streaming premium Sunday night entertainment and 2) some new cable streaming alternatives (particularly SlingTV) had entered the market. I did a test of Sling and found that the little app on my Roku as actually a much better and faster experience than the old cable box I was previously relying on. I can also add it to my phone or computer so it was available anywhere I had internet access, making it a lot more accessible. In addition to being a better experience, Sling was a service I could cancel and reactivate at will, so no contracts involved, and it was a good deal cheaper than cable.

There are now several choices for cable streaming alternatives: SlingTV, YouTubeTV, ATT TV Now. (However, sadly the Playstation Vue service is going away.)

I have since completely cut off cable alltoghter but I like that I can reactivate Sling or Hulu+LiveTV anytime I want for a month at a time to watch something like the World Series, the Olympics, World Cup, etc.

If you’re looking for a free cable alternative you might consider PlutoTV. Being that it’s free, you’re not exactly going to find a lot of premium content on PlutoTV but the ad-supported service does have a lot of content and it is presented in a traditional live tv format. But their is a surprising amount of content, and a surprising amount of good on-demand movies - and all for free. Among the channels available are a channel streaming all the classic James Bond films, a channel with endless reruns of American Gladiators, channels dedicated to all sorts of genre’s from westerns to holiday films. And there is lots of Comedy Central content (Pluto is owned by Viacom). You’ll also find a lot of live news sources (such as live CBS News) that could make individual news apps unnecessary.

Outside of live sports and tv news, there isn’t a lot of reason to want a streaming cable alternative.

As for live news, I have found the CBS News live service is on par with their cable alternative. But there are a bunch of other free news services that anyone cutting cable should consider. First and foremost, if you want to be informed, I always rely on NPR and PBS. You can get your local NPR station on your Roku using the TuneIn app, or if you have an Apple TV you can use the NPR One app. You can get PBS with their own app, or stream their daily broadcast of NewsHour right off YouTube. If you’re looking for local news, chances are the NewsON app offers a lot of your local news stations. My favorite news app to recommend is the ReutersTV news app - it’s available on Roku, or just steaming in your web browser. The interface design of the Reuters app is excellent.

I use a Roku but all of these suggestions would be available on an Apple TV or Amazon Fire device as well.


link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 1:37 AM -
 

My favorite iOS apps

There are an infinite number of “best apps” lists, so I thought, “why not make another one?” So here is a list of my favorite apps…maybe some of these will be lesser known gems!

  • Dark Skies - there are so many weather apps, but they either seem to have too much or too little info. This app is the perfect balance of just what you need, and it’s extremely precise!
  • Transit - there are lots of popular navigation apps (WAZE, Google Maps, etc) - what makes this one awesome is that it’s focus is on helping you navigate public transit. The UI is awesome. I’ve always thought that public transit can be a little frustrating to figure out, but this app makes the experience easy to understand.
  • iA Writer - I really love the iA Writer app’s minimal distraction-free writing interface.
  • Brave - all browsers that run on iOS are required to use the WebKit rendering engine. This is a requirement of Apple for a browser to be allowed on the App Store, but Brave comes with built in add blocking and the HTTPS everywhere extension built in.
  • Spotify - music, podcasts, a great UI make this the best music app on iOS
  • Pixel People - I was really sad because my favorite iOS game was gone for a long time but now it’s surprisingly been resurrected! It’s kind of a city-building game like the original Sim City with the added job or repopulating humanity. The graphics are in the style of retro games from the 8 and 16-bit era. It’s amazingly fun and addictive.
  • Downwell - a very fun game with simple mechanics, a retro 8-bit style macabre art style. The user falls down a well (hence the title) and uses gun-boots to blast enemies as they plummet further down.
  • Flipboard - I’ve always liked the way that Flipboard presents interesting articles.

You’ll notice I didn’t include any social media apps in this list. Well that’s because it’s become clear to me that social media is a form of digital poison that should be minimized in our lives.


link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 1:32 AM -

December 23, 2019

 

Web Privacy Tips

Recently I’ve had some conversations with family and friends and realized that I probably take for granted some privacy tips that I should share. In this day and age where our every increasingly tracked behavior is a product sold by marketing agencies, and in a world were we can’t assume our governing bodies will have consumers best interests at heart, it seems all too critical to be vigilant in protecting your digital privacy. So here goes: my tips at basic privacy protection.

The TL;DR version

Choose a good browser

First, rather than the default web browser that came on your machine (Microsoft Edge, or Safari if you on a Mac) I highly suggest using Firefox as your web browser. Firefox is the best browser when privacy is your concern**. Be sure to configure it to clear your browser cache when you close the exit. Here is how to do that. Use the Do Not Track feature that Firefox pioneered – this is now a default setting. Firefox is also available on the iOS app store, and they have an ad blocking tool, Firefox Focus, that allows you to protect against ads on the default browser Safari. Other browsers seem to eventually catch up with Firefox when it comes to privacy, but Mozilla Org being a privacy-focused non-profit has a vested interest in your privacy unlike competitors Microsoft and Google which have a vested interested in knowing as much as they can about you for marketing purposes, as a result Firefox is often giving you the best access to control your privacy. Also, side note, as a web designer I find the dev tools in Firefox to be outstanding! I actually suggest having a few different browsers for surfing the web, and configure all of them with browser focused extensions (see below). Besides Chrome and Firefox, there are lots of other good ones: Opera, Vivaldi. **Another excellent browser you should consider is Brave, from the co-creator of Firefox – It comes with Ad Blockers built in, as well as HTTPS Everywhere (see below).

Second: Whatever browser you use – always make sure it’s updated. Most browsers will update automatically by default.

Third: Do not enable Flash on any browser. Most browsers are configured to block flash be default now. But if a site wants you to enable Flash, always say “no”.

Use privacy-focused browser extensions

I am usually hesitant to install a browser extension unless I am certain it’s from a reliable source. Here are some that are known to be very reliable and helpful:

Use DuckDuckGo as your default search engine instead of Google, Bing or Yahoo. DDG is a search engine that doesn’t track you. I find the results are just as good (or darn close) to using Google. Here’s how to set it as default on Firefox.

Use an Ad blocker to prevent that item you were thinking about buying from following you around from website to website. Ad blockers prevent unseen advertising companies from tracking your every step on the net. There are lots of Ad Blockers and they are not all created equal. uBlock Origin is the best. Get it for Chrome. Get it for Firefox. Ad Blockers also have the benefit of making your internet faster because all those ads aren’t loading, as well as making your browsing safer when visiting a site that may unintentionally be serving up a malicious ad via an unreliable ad network. To see the difference: Install uBlock Origin and then go to any YouTube video and you’ll see dozens of ads blocked in the extension’s indicator.

Use HTTPS Everywhere – from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization founded on users’ digital rights and civil liberties - this extension helps ensure you’re visiting the secure version of a web site for every visited web page. The Wirecutter does AN AMAZING JOB of explaining the differences of viewing a non-secure (HTTP) verses a secure (HTTPS) web page - highlighting the granular data an ISP can collect about you in a non-secure page. Obviously HTTPS provides a great deal more privacy than HTTP - my ISP may know I went to Amazon, but at least on a secure version of the URL they can’t determine based on the query string which items I am interested in buying. Extrapolate that to other searches like health concerns, etc and you can get a scary idea of the kinds of profiles your ISP can generate about you.

Use Facebook Container - Mozilla, makers of Firefox, have provided an extension that traps Facebook’s tracking abilities from cross-site tracking. A lot of people don’t realize this but Facebook injects tracking codes on lots of sites you might visit in a given day, and if they know you’re the same user they are storing data about (even if you don’t actually even have a Facebook account) they can map your behavior. This extension traps each tab in a separate session and prevents cross-site tracking from Facebook.

Control your DNS

Configure your domain name server (DNS) to NOT USE your internet service provider’s default DNS. Unfortunately thanks to a recent decision from our government to overturn a provision to protect consumers from their internet service providers (ISP) from tracking their customers’ online behavior and building profiles of their users, it is now more important than ever to use secure (HTTPS) sites and. Your ISP can now even send you to one of their own bogus domains if they do not recognize the domain URL you are trying to visit. I noticed this not long ago when I tried to visit a website for a web design conference that had been shut down, but since the URL was no longer valid my ISP redirected my browser to their own bogus link farm which looked like a hacked website, rather than a standard “page cannot be found” message. Fortunately there are some things you can do to prevent this from happening. Typically when you have an ISP they route your URL requests through their own domain name server (DNS) but if you happen to own your own router and modem (which is always good idea), you can configure the DNS manually to go though a responsible DNS server just by logging into your router and (while you’re in there be sure to change the router log-in into something other than the default). Google provides reputable DNS IP addresses, as does OpenDNS. Here is an explanation on configuring your router to use Open DNS as it’s domain name server.

Use a VPN

When you are on a public wireless network your data is not safe from prying eyes, so it is highly recommended to use a VPN. If you must use a public internet connection, using a VPN will keep your data encrypted. The best VPN is debatable but Wirecutter provides some decent suggestions. Most importantly, make sure the VPN is reputable and a paid service (the free ones sell your data).

Avoid social media (Facebook especially)

Avoid (if you can) Facebook. I know it’s hard to get by without Facebook, but just know that whenever you use that service you are handing over your personal data to be sold to anyone. YOU are the product that they sell for massive amounts of marketing dollars, and you have no idea who’s buying that data. You might be amazed at what they know and can determine about you with algorithms. Here is how you can view all the data Facebook stores about you. BTW, if you use Instagramor WhatsApp you’re just another part of Zuckerberg’s empire.

By all means, do not use Facebook as a means to log into other services. I see this a lot lately. This is just a way for Facebook to know more about you, and prevent you from leaving Facebook for fear of loosing access to those services. Whenever possible do create a unique account for every unique service.

Other tips

Put a piece of paper of your computer’s web camera. it’s old school, but even Mark Zuckerberg does this. Firefox will allow you to set when it’s ok for a site to access your web cam or microphone. Pasteabout:preferences#privacy into the URL bar to access your privacy controls. Nefarious website have been known to hijack cams and secretly record users.

Don’t jailbreak your iPhone or Android and always update whenever Apple/Googleprovides system updates. They often patch security vulnerabilities.

Use 2-factor authentication for all of your important services (email/financial/medical/etc). 2-factor authentication requires that when you log in with a password you get a text message to your phone with a random authorization code. This prevents a hacker who may have already acquired your password from accessing your personal info. For an even more secure log in, many services offer a way to use an encrypted app to provide 2-factor authentication.


link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 12:45 AM -

December 22, 2019

 

What I've Learned This Year, and What I Want to Learn Next

This year I feel pretty good about what I’ve learned in web design/development, and as always I am excited about what I can look forward to learning next.

This year I’ve learned a good bit about:

  • SASS and CSS Variables
  • CSS Animations
  • CSS layout with Grid and Flexbox

CSS is my favorite part of web design/development. My CSS skills feel like they are improving a lot in the last year. I like using CSS variables to create art. Here is an example of the American flag created with a base unit defined as a CSS variable. All other measurements are based on that root variable using the calc property. I also spent some time exploring CSS Animations as in this example of a CSS dog I created named Codee (pronounced “Cody”).

Probably the most exciting thing I learned this year was how to layout a page using CSS Grid. Here is an example of a world made with CSS Grid.

Next I want to learn:

  • Development Frameworks: React, Angular, but especially Vue

I like that Vue is independent from a big tech company. In the same way that I prefer Firefox over browsers provided by large corporations (Chrome, Edge, Safari), I also like the idea that Vue is not from a large tech corporation (React is from Facebook, Angular is from Google). Diversity in browsers, frameworks, software is a good thing. The independence of Vue is a big pro. But I know that knowing all of these frameworks is indispensable, so while I will start with Vue, I will progress to trying all of them. From what I’ve read they are often used in conjunction.

I’m also interested in trying out some Static Site Generators, and 11ty is at the top of my list.

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link to this post - posted by Jonathan @ 1:45 AM -