mthwl

https://www.matthewhowell.net/

A very small bit of writing, a reading log, some photos, and link to other work.

Maybe of note that Philadelphia also has a small, independent, wireless ISP: https://phillywisper.net/

Thanks! I’m of two minds about this.

The previous commenter is probably correct in one sense. Whatever version of React I was working with in 2017 is surely unsupported now and lol-nobody-uses-that-anymore-grandpa. And maybe everyone works with NextJS or Vue or Svelte or NewerJS.

But, at the same time, I’ve been programming long enough to understand that experience with a particular framework isn’t specifically valuable. The ability to learn and understand how software works and then help build/improve it is valuable and transferable.

Also, perhaps my least favorite part of web development is the ”everything is an app now” shift that happened however many years ago.

I kind of just maybe want a job writing high quality, accessible, rigorous html and css? Is that a thing? Jobs for companies that leverage static site generators maybe?

Hi! Launched Reasonable Colors today. It’s an open-source color system for building accessible, nice-looking color palettes.

The reason this might be interesting is that it’s built programmatically within the LCH color space. All of the color shades are pinned within certain relative luminance ranges, which means all of their contrast ratios end up being rather uniform.

You can do simple “shade number math” to find high-contrast combinations.

Examples: - Pick a color, move 2 shades apart, contrast ratio guaranteed to be at least 3:1 - Pick a color, move 3 shades apart, contrast ratio guaranteed to be at least 4.5:1 - Pick a color, move 4 shades apart, contrast ratio guaranteed to be at least 7:1

Check it out, feedback welcome!

We’ll be firmly upper middle class, but I am aware that the housing market is pretty brutal at the moment.

If we moved, it wouldn’t be for financial benefit, looking for a quality of life improvement. Our bet would be that the social safety net (healthcare, public school quality, etc) would help blunt the higher cost of living.

I wrote a bit recently about why I still collect music on CDs. Here are my 3 reasons, which echo a lot of the comments:

1. To Support the Artist, 2. To Own the Music, 3. To Collect Artifacts (which is fun)

I also found a few recent attempts at creating new physical music formats, but most of them require Internet connectivity and are essentially cloud services that have physical access tokens :( I ended up just lamenting that we never got the Sony MiniDisc revolution that we all deserved.

The post is here: https://www.matthewhowell.net/notes/2022/on-collecting-music...

Thanks, but this isn’t helpful.

This one has been around for a few years now, without much active development.

Is there a reason it’s popping up again now, seems like they’ve shipped a new version? Anyone using it have an opinion?

These are composites, not the actual photos, if I recall correctly. The perspective is shifted and I guess the horizon is just inferred from the corners?

I haven’t found great, high-res sources, but the real photos are on the Venera Smithsonian page here: https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/web12184-20116...

This has been posted to HN a handful of times, mostly either ignored or criticized.

I’m posting it again in the hopes of fostering a discussion around the idea. Could something like this actually work?

What would it look like? Is the idea of defining harm so difficult and transient that it would always be a failure?

It's been a while, but if I recall, wasn't Bioshock's plot a rather on the nose critique of these ideas? Particularly objectivism?

Since the city was eventually destroyed by research/monsters created by these scientists "not bound by petty morality" and their exploitation by the wealthy class?

Just a quick alternative viewpoint: as a parent, I’ve been turned off by Aldi in the past.

Often with a toddler and/or car seat in hand, unlocking a cart (for example) is not just an inconvenience, it’s a dealbreaker.

I’m into the pursuit of efficiency and low prices, but there are some real world benefits of “full service” grocery stores.

One being an nicer experience for the disabled (in my case, due to being a parent).

I’m guessing they don’t have those motorized carts either?

Anyway, I’m happy that there are alternatives. We’ll probably give Aldi another chance when our kids are older.

Author here. Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't intend this to be a comprehensive argument, just wanted to draw some connection between the environment that iOS launched into and (what feels like) a lot of recent criticism of its design and behavior. Not specifically skuemorphism (which I realize isn't really worth debating in a vacuum, maybe I shouldn't even have used that word), but just instructive design in general (single-screen apps, limits on configurability, etc). Anything that can be seen as prioritizing teaching the user through interface decisions.

And, I completely agree that the market for new smartphone users is still huge. Point being that iOS now has to manage that market alongside the market for existing smartphones users (which it help create/grow).

That said, probably should have included some specific examples of what I was talking about.

Thanks again.

These are called WinerLinks, as in Dave Winer from over at scripting.com. The Times started doing this in 2010, here are his thoughts: http://scripting.com/stories/2010/11/29/theNyTimesLeadsAgain...

More info here: http://scripting.com/stories/2010/11/30/winerlinksAndOutline...

Note, that on his blog, he uses a simple, tiny # character after each paragraph to allow direct linking. No shift key required.