Notes

Based on @tobefrankj’s glowing recommendation, went to see Us this evening. Proper good horror fodder, aspects of which brought to mind episodes of Inside No. 9 and The Shining, which can be no bad thing. Great soundtrack, too.

“The older you get, the more you realise how ridiculous you are.” – Mark Kermode

With his rare combination of design, development and leadership skills, if your team needs help building a digital product, grab hold of Jon before somebody else does!

Wasn’t able to cancel my gym membership, so spent an hour working out instead. The system works.

Okay, this little conundrum has pushed me beyond the limits of my programming ability. Anyone care to help me merge some objects and arrays?

Woke up this morning excited by the prospect of writing some unit tests. Send help!

Always difficult to compare new stuff with the old and familiar, but having watched the first episode of This Time twice now and laughed throughout both viewings, I think it’s safe to say Alan’s back! Incompetent and insecure, out classed and out of touch. Ah-ha!

Made a thing. With JavaScript. That works. 🤯

Still looking! Seeking an interaction design and/or front-end development role. Permanent or contract. Brighton, London or remote. Please share far and wide!

With regulators circling and others advocating a break up of the company, its understandable why Zuckerberg would want to tightly integrate Facebook’s three platforms. However, more promises broken, while the deep-rooted problems operating at scale remain. Shut this racket down.

Still digesting the content from yesterday’s @naconf, but in the meantime, I wish to thank @colly and @hellogeri for creating a space in which important and worthwhile topics could be addressed. Was a pleasure to be just a little part of it all.

Made a little modification to my @naconf name badge so as to remove the logo of @shopify, a company that still maintains its support for far-right organisations like Breitbart. A Sharpie has its uses!

Good evening Nottingham! It’s the night before @naconf. What ya doing? Who’s with ya?

Writing a blog post. Could somebody adjust the meter?

Every interview with a politician about Brexit:
Presenter: “So, what happens next?”
Politician: “Well, what happened was…”

Following @bradshawsguide and headed to Winchester.

Stan & Ollie is a love letter to two comedy maestros and their enduring friendship. With hilarious support from their wives (“two double acts for the price of one”), this funny and heartwarming film is not to be missed.

Remembering that one time in 2005 when I accidentally deleted a construction company’s website while moving some files around over FTP. Simpler times maybe, but not necessarily better times.

My gift to @manton, @jean and the wonderful Micro.blog community has just been unwrapped: a redesigned help site, featuring an automated topic index and quick search tool on the home page.

“Alexa, show me an example of moral bankruptcy.”

Finally quit my dilly-dallying and got my tickets sorted for this year’s New Adventures conference. See you there?

I have my uses.

Seeking a hybrid design/front-end role with an organisation instigating meaningful change where I can make a worthwhile contribution. Not interested in disrupting the world, just improving it a little. Where should I be looking? Who should I be talking to?

Quite pleased with the accessibility improvements I’ve made to my site’s search form – aided enormously by the examples in WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices, which provide a real sense of the various interactions you need to account for when creating such complex components.

On this 11th day of advent, I return to 24 ways to extoll the virtues of Eleventy, my favourite software discovery of 2018.

I really want to recommend services like @netlify, but the lesson from history is to avoid pushing one particular company or product. I recommended people use Google once, and look how that turned out.

It’s CharityConnect 2.0 launch day! I worked with the team over the summer on the design of their new themed discussion hubs, direct messaging features and post page improvements. Illustrations by @thebundadtwitter.com. Onwards and upwards!

This self-aggrandising video for the new set of Microsoft Office icons seems so overblown and unnecessary, verging on parody almost. I mean, they look lovely… but maybe tone it down a little!?

Did I see the Northern Lights? Yes… just about. Do I want to share the blurry, doubly exposed and incredibly noisy photos I took? Not so much.

Of to see the Northern Lights… hopefully. 🤞🏻

Feeling uplifted and inspired after a day exploring adjacent possibilities around the web and technology at Material 2018. Just what the doctor ordered.

🚨 I’ve redesigned my website! Highlights include use of CSS Grid and Custom Properties, support for dark colour schemes and a service worker for offline reading. @eleven_ty powered and @netlify hosted. And so much more. Phew!

I’m a huge fan of Inside No. 9, but just watched the live episode on iPlayer and feeling underwhelmed. It all seemed a bit obvious, with the story spoon fed to the audience and relying too heavily on pre-recorded material. Maybe it worked better on the night?

Last week: food poisoning/flu/virus.
This week: toothache and a root canal.

Eating a jacket potato, which given the last few bedridden days, is quite an achievement.

The Good Place is a quirky comedy that continually reinvents itself while keeping ethics and moral philosophy at its heart. It’s worth your time… although perhaps not an entire Sunday.