Blog, but filtered for Notes

Welcome to my writing place. You will find articles, notes and annotated links here and can subscribe to their feed once or individually.

  1. as note

    I have two jobs, and all the social algorithms fail

    The fun part of being someone with two jobs in completely different areas. Nearly all of the algorithms of these fancy platforms backed with billions of money don’t work. LinkedIn for example is smart enough to realize both of my work categories (web development, agriculture/gardening) but fails to provide a proper feed, a mixture of network recommendations, etc. The world cannot be put in one …
  2. as note

    [TIL] CSS :empty isn’t applicable on form fields

    Today I learned that the CSS :empty selector is implemented to look for child content (think of innerText/ innerHTML). This means it reports empty for filled form elements which are self-closing elements. Findings :empty reports empty for all form input elements because they have their values as attributes, not as inner content :empty works for <textarea> elements depending on how they’re …
  3. as note

    [TIL] CSS :readonly is not for select fields

    Today I learned that the CSS readonly attribute for form fields does only work with input modes that allow variable user input that’s not “type-safe”: The attribute is not supported or relevant to <select> or <input> types that are already not mutable, such as checkbox and radio or cannot, by definition, start with a value, such as the file input type. range and color, as both have default …
  4. as note

    Cyber is still there

    When I started web development I was 12 years old. It was back in 2001, and we used HTML4 and basic CSS. The term cyber was a thing, but I never found it to be the proper term for what we are talking about: The internet, a virtual network platform for human beings. After all these years the term »cyber« is still a thing. It still sounds wrong to me personally. Whenever I read this word it …
  5. as note

    Notes on self-hosting newsletters

    Since my subscriber list grew over two thousand people for WDRL I’m self-hosting my newsletter service instead of using a SaaS solution. But that also means a lot of work, too. Things you need to take care of when self-hosting: Choose the best newsletter software for the project Choose a service provider for actually sending the emails (e.g. AWS SES or SendGrid) Keep it up to date Choose a good …
  6. as note

    Thanks for CSS-Tricks

    Today I read that CSS-Tricks is now part of Digital Ocean. So far, this great website was managed and built up by Chris Coyier, a nice fellow who just started this blog as a private project years ago and spent probably thousands of hours into community building and education. It’s probably the most complete learning resource for web developers out there, built up originally by just one nice …
  7. as note

    Mercy

    I may not understand, but I am with you. And while the original article I found this sentence may be a bit too religious for some, I think the content itself is very powerful for anyone of us. A heart of Mercy describes how we can transform other people’s lives and our own by being open-minded and trying to understand other people even if we disagree, by showing and telling mercy and empathy.
  8. as note

    Free slots for a project during Winter

    I have some free slots left over Winter season to work on a small / mid-size website project. If you need advice or a whole website to be built, write me a mail and we’ll discuss it.
  9. as note

    If it’s good for you and for other others—it stays.

    Nature can tell us a lot. It knows more than we ever can learn, it has more experience than we can have and it has strategies that we’ve lost in our imagination: Diversify as much as possible to ensure it works out long-term. Everyone gets their performance, everyone gets their chance. No one is asking what they did an hour or even a year ago. It doesn’t matter what they might do tomorrow or the …
  10. as note

    Your »do better« website project

    Chances are high we don’t know each other yet if you’re reading this and it fits your needs. But that’s exactly what networking is thought for. I’m looking for small website projects to take on over the next few months. No long-term, no fulltime. I’d love to work with you if you have a project that tries to do make the world a little better. Your project might be about improving social lives …
  11. as note

    On Work-Work Balance

    The last WDRL edition is already two months old now, and while I do have content in place for another edition the reason why I don’t send out another one currently is that I don’t have the time to fix my partially upgraded WDRL project. In January when PHP8 came out I decided to upgrade the WDRL project from Kirby 2 to Kirby 3. I knew it won’t be straight forward since I used a lot of custom code …
  12. as note

    Another try for no Whatsapp

    So Whatsapp is updating its terms and privacy policy again. Interestingly enough, so far you can’t read that announcement outside of the app, e.g. in their official blog. And as they already tried a year ago or earlier, they now will share the data of Whatsapp with their mothership company Facebook Inc. So here I go in a try to delete Whatsapp. So far I have done it once successfully until I …
  13. as note

    What about no Facebook?

    In my note on the try to delete Whatsapp you may wonder why not delete Facebook or Instagram? Simple, it’s necessary for my business. So yes, I have a Facebook account in order to create a Facebook page. I have an Instagram account (three in reality) to post and do marketing for my businesses. I grow and sell vegetables via my CSA and share photos of the story via Instagram. Yes, you can view …
  14. as note

    Don’t bend your own rules

    There’s a lot of discussion around Apple’s AppStore practices and rules right now. Not only is there a running European Union antitrust probe but also a discussion around the HEY Email app that was rejected recently due to the fact they didn’t integrate payment via Apple but only via their website. As per AppStore rules, this is forbidden. Apple states that apps need to fully work inside their …
  15. as note

    Open Source can be a career path

    Here’s Max Stoiber telling the world how open source led his career and opened him all the job offers so far. What I didn’t knew as well is that it’s my and Dirk’s fault that Max is into coffee 😂. Watch the video, it’s pretty inspiring. Open source defined my early career as well and we all rely so much on open source that it’s worth spreading more insights about it, so thanks Honeypot for doing …
  16. as note

    Two worlds

    These days something interesting happens: We can see what’s happening if the world faces a real crisis. A virus outbreak shuffles the world around—people can’t leave their homes anymore, people buy out stores, people live in fear, stock markets close as they fall apart within hours. History is being written right now: Trading in US shares has been suspended as sharp falls led to an automatic halt …
  17. as note

    Keep your business not neutral

    You know who else has an audience? Every. Single. Business. Nothing (but greed) prevents companies from telling us where they stand on ethical issues that affect us all. Yet, the common attitude is to ‘keep the politics out of it’. I always found that odd. I mean corporations are perhaps the single biggest influencer of politics, and yet we treat them like a holy sanctuary of neutrality. — Kai …
  18. as note

    Syncthing as Dropbox alternative

    I just read an article sharing alternatives to Dropbox and mentioning also Syncthing. Syncthing basically is an open source continuous file synchronization software. There’s one thing mentioned that I want to shortly elaborate on: … there is no server in between and this option is great for sharing and exchanging files, but not really suited for the heavy-weight job of storing stuff on a server. …
  19. as note

    Using Open Source from Giants

    Today I read a thread on Twitter about using open source software from companies that we think do not have an ethically correct business model. […] Have you ever decided NOT to use an open source package for a library/framework/tool, etc. because you did not agree ethically with the practices of the parent company developing it? […] — Monica Lent Let’s think of Palantir, author and maintainer of …
  20. as note

    <s>Side Hustle</s> → Hobby

    Today I read an article about “making more time for your side hustle”. The subhead is “A few simple changes can help you put in more quality time on a regular basis.” The two expressions “Side hustle” and “quality time” don’t do well together. Quality time can’t be spent hustling. If it’s fun, call and treat it a Hobby. Take time for it, don’t pressure yourself.