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Thoughts about web and web-related things

AI is just marketingIt’s not “so dumb it’s brilliant.” No, it’s just dumb.devHey now, you’re an AI StarMy world’s on fire, how ’bout yours?devExpanding hex colors to 48 bitDumb solutions can be smart, sometimesdesigndevReact is… fineThe year of React’s demise should be coming the same year as the Linux Desktop. devThere’s no such thing as multi-axis modesModes, themes, collections, whatever you call it, doesn’t solve your busted design token setup.designBazel is incompatible with JavaScriptIf you don’t know what Bazel is, you not only can skip this blog post; I envy you greatly.devOn StartupsHow to burn out your employees AND bridges all at the same time!dev3 Layers of UI InteractionEvery interactive UI element should consider all 3 layers; do yours?designdev10 Years of FrontendPlus another 6 of whatever you called it before that.devPlanet of the Apps: where are they now?Looking back on everyone’s favorite cursed Shark Tank ripoff.tvtechWhy aren’t you using Vitest for testing yet?Throw away whatever you’re using already and use this for testing.devPlaywright for visual regression testing in Storybook is stupid easyIt will exceed your wildest expectations, or your money back.devA handbook to animation easingsIf you use default easings for your animations you might as well not even bother animating it.devDon’t use HSLHSL is great in theory, but worse than you realize in practicedesigndevDid we fuck up the internet? part 2As the philosopher Thom Yorke once said, “where do we go from here?” devDid we fuck up the internet? part 1The principal designs of the internet were made a long time ago, for different uses than what we use it for today. Are keeping those old designs hurting the internet long-term? devHow to handle responsive font sizes in cssGet perfect, easy-to-use font scaling with < 1kB of CSS. Sound too good to be true? It’s not! designIs it time to retire HTML?HTML was designed for basic text editing. How is it still holding up in a world where we’re building rich interactive experiences? devNot enough people are talking about ES ModulesJavaScript changed forever in 2019. Did you miss it? devThe great(er) divide in front-endA year of reflecting on Chris Coyier’s “The Great Divide” post. I think it holds up, but requires a little more nuance. devMedia queries are (still) a hackMedia queries are janky. No, it’s not just you. dev4 tips for setting a playfulness budgetAt what point does whimsy and “delight” turn into user frustration? designCSS puzzles: a mentorship program for better stylingHow a 12-week program resulted in open-source educationdevSecure runtime variables in IronWorker with ManifoldDocker secrets with minimal code & configurationdevWe migrated to Next.js to serve our home page 7.5× fasterserver-side rendering by the numbersdevCloud-jumping: swap hosted services easily with Manifoldhow to take back full control of your cloud services in one afternoondevStylable: the good, the bad, the weirdtaking the new CSS preprocessor from Wix for a spindevEnvy Labs’ 2017 rebrandrediscovering meaning, returning to formdesignAnger can be a force for goodif expressed right—a huge, ginormous “if”otherAll the answers to “should designers code?”the eternal war rages ondesignDribbble is a painkiller, not a vitaminhow instant gratification can curb growthdesignResponsive modular typography scales in cssa time-saving type system with little config and lots of flexibilitydesignLearning javascript? try Vuegreat for beginners, great for expertsdevWeb design isn’t becoming more boring, and isn’t losing its souldon’t listen to the hatersdesignwebpack + postcss + cssnextwriting future CSS in a modern JS setupdevgetting started with webpackharnessing the web’s most powerful build tooldevVIM setup for a designer/front-end dev on macOSwhen you want to use vim but don’t want your eyes to bleeddevError handling like a three-prong outletthe hidden part of programmingdevHow to optimize images for webnot all optimization techniques are equaldevcheck out these foundries for new fontsdesigns looking a little stale? it’s probably your weak fontsdesignBuild your own touch slider with hammer.jshigh-performance touch events for demanding jobsdevThe distributed web part 2: …or do you?when is it time to pony up for custom development?strategyThe distributed web part 1: you don’t need a websitewhen to not get sold by marketing speakstrategyAre images your slow-down?the secret to optimizing imagesdev