I hate sounding like a cranky old fella but there is definitely a generational divide now on letter-writing. I imagine something had to give if people are using apps to message each other (not great from a business point-of-view if maintaining an official record becomes this much harder). From a thread on Reddit: You […]
Tag: 2020s
How to end social media censorship
Kristina Flour/Unsplash This Twitter thread by Yishan Wong is one of the most interesting I’ve come across. Not because it’s about Elon Musk (who he begins with), but because it’s about the history of the web, censorship, and the reality of running a social platform. Here are some highlights (emphases in the original): There […]
Browser history
In 2011, I was definitely on Firefox. I believe I started browsing as many did, with Netscape. But not 1.0 (though I had seen copies at university). I was lucky enough to have 1.1 installed first. I stuck with Netscape till 4.7. Its successor, v. 6, was bloated, and never worked well on my […]
Hopefully this week: farewell, Amazon Web Services
Wow, we’re nearly there: the long journey to migrate our sites off AWS and on to a new box. We began hosting there in 2012 but the server—which appears to have had a single major update in 2016—was getting very old. In 2018 we began searching for someone who knew about migrations. A second […]
Read More… from Hopefully this week: farewell, Amazon Web Services
Where democratizing technology got the better of us
From the start, I’ve been a supporter of the democratization of design. Everyone has the right to access it, because fundamentally good design is something that makes the world a better place. A lot of websites are founded on this, such as Shopify, which has enough flexibility to give most of the stores we visit […]
Read More… from Where democratizing technology got the better of us
The erosion of standards
For homeowners and buyers, there’s a great guide from Moisture Detection Co. Ltd. called What You Absolutely Must Know About Owning a Plaster-Clad Home, subtitled The Origin of New Zealand’s Leaky Building Crisis and Must-Know Information for Owners to Make Their Homes Weathertight, and Regain Lost Value. My intent isn’t to repeat someone’s copyrighted […]
Big Tech: you’ve already lost against mainland China
Big Tech often says that if they’re broken up, they won’t be able to compete with mainland China. Folks, you’ve already lost. Why? Because you’re playing their game. You believe that through dominance and surveillance you can beat a country with four times more people. The level playing field under which you […]
Read More… from Big Tech: you’ve already lost against mainland China
Can a no-name mouse take the place of a Microsoft Intellimouse?
I’ve occasionally had good luck with ultra-cheap Chinese mice. Years ago, I bought one, with very simple left and right buttons and a scroll wheel, and it proved to be one of the most comfortable I owned. The wheel didn’t run smoothly at first but a quick trim of the plastic, and it’s been fine […]
Read More… from Can a no-name mouse take the place of a Microsoft Intellimouse?
Admiral doesn’t understand that I’m not blocking ads, only trackers
It’s pretty bad that Admiral, which detects whether you are using an ad blocker or not, now advises this with Privacy Badger. Let me make this very clear: I am not against advertising on websites. I have advertising on our websites. I am against tracking by people such as Google. And that is […]
Read More… from Admiral doesn’t understand that I’m not blocking ads, only trackers
Facelifting the Lucire licensing site after 13 years
After 13 years, it was time to facelift the Lucire licensing website. It’s a very familiar template, similar to what we used for JY&A Consulting a few months back. The home page copy we already had from a flier that we created late last year that Susan Ninan and I worked on; and the […]
Read More… from Facelifting the Lucire licensing site after 13 years