Twenty years of my blog

https://simonwillison.net/2022/Jun/12/twenty-years/

by simonw • 4 years ago

231 23 4 years ago

It’s amazing that Simon just casually invented document.querySelector! I’d retire if I had that in my bio, but he just keeps going!

itsmemattchung• 4 years ago

Introducing Django—17th July 2005

Or retire here :)

cubes• 4 years ago

Let's not forget his latest project, https://datasette.io/

Tomte• 4 years ago

Wow. I've read his blog for a long time and never knew he was behind Django.

mountaineer• 4 years ago

Thank you Simon, truly an incredible job creating, learning, and sharing with the world. Definitely one of my biggest inspirations as nearly every day there is a new discovery in the feed or on twitter.

ianbooker• 4 years ago

Truley a gem of the early "modern web" and a source of inspiration ever since. I remember checking the aside daily for new links in the early days...

geoelkh• 4 years ago

This is great!

mgdlbp• 4 years ago

Couple notes related to using the Wayback Machine to recover parts of the old blog:

To list URLs for bulk downloading, you can also directly use the CDX or Memento APIs, which are pretty simple and require no auth. Documentation here,[1][2] though the bulk of the CDX docs in the GitHub repo they link apparently haven't been updated since 2013.

[1] https://archive.org/help/wayback_api.php

[2] https://support.archive-it.org/hc/en-us/articles/11500179002...

Appending if_ to the date part of an archive URL hides the Wayback Machine banner -- the URL format also supports other replay codes and approximate dates. The official docs[3] here are even more outdated; Wikipedia's guide[4] looks like the most complete but still leaves out codes like oe_ and mp_ (which no one seems to know the intended uses of).

[3] http://archive-access.sourceforge.net/projects/wayback/admin...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Using_the_Wayback_Machine...

simonw2• 4 years ago

That if_ trick is fantastic, thanks!

With banner: https://web.archive.org/web/20060316094837/http://scripts.in...

Without banner: https://web.archive.org/web/20060316094837if_/http://scripts...

Added a note about that to the bottom of https://simonwillison.net/2022/Jun/12/twenty-years/#internet...

mshenfield• 4 years ago

I had the luck of getting to interact with Simon a little at my first real programmer job at Eventbrite. You would never know meeting him that he was one of the creators of Django, (and TIL querySelector!). He was infectiously curious and excited about programming in a way that bubbled over to most people he interacted with. He would also enthusiastically engage with what you were working on, even the beginner project I had at the time. I don't know him well, but my impression was not just of a great programmer, but a great colleague and an authentically positive person.

Congrats on twenty years!

arittr• 4 years ago

Working with Simon was one of my fave parts of being at EB - the guy is just one of the smartest, most interesting, nicest people around. Strongest lunchtime banter in the industry too.

simonw2• 4 years ago

I miss our lunchtime banter so much!

jacobr• 4 years ago

It’s strange with people you’ve followed for such a long time but never interacted with. I remember that wedding photo with the falcon, and Lanyrd. Then we had different interests for a while, but the last few years I’ve truly enjoyed your perspectives on Twitter, your blog, and lately the piece on architecturenotes.

hendry• 4 years ago

Congratulations Simon!

Here's to another twenty.

swyx• 4 years ago

congrats Simon! its been a pleasure discovering your work as a more recent follower and to see you still documenting yourself so religiously is a sheer inspiration. heres to the next 20!

thehodge• 4 years ago

Simon (and Nat of course) are one of the most inspirational (smartest and loveliest) couples I've encountered in all the weird tech events..

Their honeymoon, creation of Lanyrd and then eventual sale was a lovely story to follow over the years (and it's certainly part of an inspiration to our latest project)

Here's to 20 more years of blogging!

filmgirlcw• 4 years ago

Congrats Simon!!

larrywright• 4 years ago

I had somehow completely forgotten about lanyrd. It was a really cool site at the time, and I’m pretty sure I had an account. I’ve never been someone who goes to lots of conferences but it was cool to see who was going where.

mcherm• 4 years ago

I guess I've been subscribed for at least 80% of that time (I've got bookmarks since at least 2008, but I think I'd been following it for two or three years before that). Writing that is consistent, and is consistently informative and occasionally emotionally impactful. Keep up the good work; you remain near the top of my RSS feed.

ingenieroariel• 4 years ago

Reading your writings since the times where you had to manually merge newadmin and geodjango svn branches. Lots of love from south america.

anyfactor• 4 years ago

I don’t know how he does it. He even answers beginner level questions in r/sql from time to time. If there is a discussion on SQLite on Reddit or HN, you will find Simon commenting and providing insight.

I want Simon Willson to do one of those 'day in the life' videos. How he manages time to do all that is a mystery.

jzer0cool• 4 years ago

Congratz to 20 years! Any tips for those wanting to start blogging now (or not)? Could you share a bit given what might work well with all the noise today? If you like writing about multiple things, do you recommend having separate domains for each of those, or keeping it all in one place.

Golodhros• 4 years ago

Congrats Simon!

Twenty years of my blog

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