A microblog of notes, musings, WIPs, and TILs

That's minimalistic and practical

A way to start the day.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. How often are new posts published?
2. Is the content interesting enough?
3. Does the host look after their blog?
4. What do you know about the host(s)?

A rule of thumb: "If, after reading 3–5 posts, you’d be disappointed not to see the next post, it’s probably worth subscribing."

Always plaintext.

The app is deployed with a shortcut.

So the workflow is simple:

• Read a post in the browser
• Click “Edit” hyperlink to open plain-text file in native app
• Make changes
• Fire Shortcut to trigger a build

A script add the link "Edit" when the URL contains ?edit=true

The post structure evolves from blogging to structured content.

The idea to use topics is that "users with specific challenges have goals, not categories. They're trying to solve problems, not just browse topics."

Each topic pacck page includes: a brief introduction of 2 or 3 sentences explaining the challenge; "What you'll learn" bullets with clear outcomes, post list with short descriptions and links to other packs.

This pattern makes sense when there is 15+ posts covering related themes, readers ask "Where shoud I start", posts cluster around common challenges or you value helping readers find relevant content quickly.

Other approaches:

• chronological: you publish primarily news or updates
• no grouping when posts are completely independent
• there is less than 15 posts

1. Writing is good for you
2. You control the filter
3. Your blog is an asset

A contact page that avoid contact, exactly.

The problem was, they were thinking about their inspiration sites from an aesthetic point of view, not from a user experience perspective

I see this example so much! https://res.cloudinary.com/nicchan/image/upload/w_752,h_718,c_lfill,f_auto/v1765177043/contact

The discounting rates led the client to undervalue the team and treat them as executors rather than experts. They argue that clients (and sometimes designers) often dismiss early design phases like discovery, and wireframing as boring hurdles to reach visual branding, but it's so much important! The takeaway is that service providers should educate clients on why these foundational steps matter, because understanding the “why” and getting structure right is essential for good design—even if it’s less exciting than prototyping or visual identity.

#blogging

By blogging, I’m putting a body of work out there that communicates my values and ethos. While much of the details of my client work has to remain private, these posts can be public, and hopefully they can help me find people who resonate with what I have to offer. Or you know, just be bold enough to communicate ‘Fuck off’ to those who don’t!

Going from a small blog to a heavy blog, to minimalistic again

So if you wanted people to read your blog, you had to make it compelling enough that they would visit it, directly, because they wanted to. And if they wanted to respond to you, they had to do it on their own blog, and link back.

There are bright spots [for blogging], though. I fear we’re in a newsletter bubble (how many subscriptions can one person pay for?)

Some of the best blogs have evolved and expanded. Independent media is more important than ever, and Donald Trump’s recent attempts to censor mainstream outlets, comedians he doesn’t like, and “leftist” professors underscore the fact that speech is critical.

it’s actually a lot harder to intimidate a million different outlets, each run by a single determined person.

If someone wants to be read, it has to be compelling enough that visitors would come.

Sad.

Arguments clés:

• les blogs sont plus sains que les réseaux sociaux
• les technologies permettent actuellement de créer un blog très facilement, il y en a pour tous les goûts
• l'écriture peut être une thérapie; le blog en est alors l'outil
• chacun maîtrise son temps d'écriture
• suivre d'autres blogs est aisé avec les flux RSS

But hear me out, peeps. By making these changes, I wouldn't have 95% of my online life wrapped up in a website that I built. I'm not a dev, people. There's a good chance this house of cards could all come tumbling down at some point—and that worries me.

IndieWeb carnival is a blog carnival on topics related to the IndieWeb specifically. An IndieWeb carnival will help motivate people to post more on their personal websites and provide inspiration for writing.

Existing systems:

• SemVer
• Calendar Versioning
• Sequential Versioning
• Hash Versioning
• Build Number Versioning

For a blog, the most complete system found by the author is:

• YY: The year of the most recent update.
• Push: A sequential counter tracking the total updates made during the year.
• Type: Categorizes the nature of the update:
  • N: New post.
  • U: Content update (e.g., clarifications or expansions).
  • F: Fix (e.g., typos or formatting corrections).
  • X: Feature update (e.g., design or functionality changes).
  • M: Mixed updates involving multiple types of changes.
• DDMM The date (day and month) of the latest update.

For example the version number v24.628.M.2111 tells me that:

• The blog was last updated in 2024.
• There have been 628 updates so far this year.
• The most recent update involved multiple changes on November 21st.

Eventually, I got sick of manually converting my equations, so I wrote a Python script to automatically convert LaTeX expressions to MathML in my blog posts. I started considering writing an automated tool for inserting my navbars into the HTML files, and then I realized that I was completely wasting my time. After some shopping around, I decided Zola was the least deranged of the existing site generators, so I tried rolling with it.

I’m using a fork of Zola with Typst support written by cstef.

For thousands of years, man has invented technology to ameliorate the petty pains and discomforts of his life. It would be an insult not to use it.