Designer Developer
Note to self. I've had the joy of bringing a few sites live the last days, and in one case it was a multi-site with 7 different domains. During the process I needed a simple overview of the DNS propagation status. Before I've used online sites for this kind of stuff, but this time i reached for a CLI way instead, which I ended up liking. I used the watch command in the CLI for this (installed via…
I wonder if the price hikes across the board on tech (memory, storage etc.) result in an increased focus on longevity and using devices for longer. Both on consumer level, but also on corporate level with updated policies to save costs. If so, I'm here for it. Of course the reason behind it is not great, but the reaction would be healthy. A lot of people have been buying new tech too regularly for…
Bastian Allgeier talked about "brain lock-in" on his podcast interview with Working Draft and it stuck a bit with me. It came out from the discussions about "vendor lock-ins" when building software (Kirby CMS in this case) and the need to be cautious about building in dependencies, but Bastian interestingly extended the dependency idea to also cover oneself. Why did this podcast episode speak to…
Rafael Nadal at his best was incredible. The elegance of Roger Federer too. The dominance of Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic in their prime was equally impressive. Still, someone amazing in his own right, and far less known, is Mansour Bahrami . A successful doubles player hailed as "the Trick Shot King", he isn't hard to find on YouTube, where compilation after compilation captures the sheer…
Payment terminals, ATMs, Amazon, international transfers, currency exchange apps. Whenever you get the choice, never agree to an automatic currency conversion . It's called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), and it works like an airport exchange booth bolted onto the payment. The terminal or ATM operator sets the rate, adds a markup, and keeps the difference. A Norwegian Consumer Council survey…
For a really long time I was using the same setup for development. Basically a macbook and Sublime text. Then using DDEV for Craft CMS sites, and Laravel Herd for Kirby or general PHP/static sites. But things started to change when I dove into Omarchy late summer 2025. I really started to play with the idea of having more Linux in my life, and be a bit less locked to MacOS. Omarchy was a great…
One of the main issues I've had so far, is that I sometimes want to add a file from my mac to the remarkable, and still be able to interact with the graphical elements of it on the reMarkable. Simple example: Adding a pdf page with a circle as a pdf to the reMarkable only makes it a passive background layer by default. To the rescue is Drawj2d: https://sourceforge.net/p/drawj2d/ What I needed to…
It took me a long time to make the jump, but I finally did, and my god is the reMarkable tablet a joyful product. My long time colleague and friend have used the devices since they first came out, and have always been raving about them, but I always felt I have enough devices and my needs were met on the note-taking front with pen and paper. However over the last months I've been having issues…
"In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi centers on the acceptance of transience and imperfection." – Wikipedia It feels especially relevant now in AI-slop days, but I guess that knife could cut both ways. What I take out of it is that the imperfections of being human, on having opinions and a unique taste, are immeasurably valuable even though machines arguably can deliver more "perfect"…
Openclaw is still dominating the tech-news, and the recent acquisition from OpenAI raises a lot of opinions and reactions. It's not that I don't have my own issues with that change, but I find it more fascinating to follow the whole situation happening in front of our eyes, where Peter fairly obviously feels alienated from Europeans and more attracted to the optimism in America. Watching his…
Lately I've been getting into generative coding. Stuff like p5.js and just svg's in general. Super inspired by people like George Francis and Daniel Shiffman . But on completely different arenas I'm also really digging Suno for musical exploration. I've started to play with the endless amounts of half baked voicenotes full of ideas I've had through the years. It's really amazing to be able to give…
I built a simple color palette tool inspired by Flexoki by Steph Ango It's available at coloki.vasser.no I kept reaching for the Flexoki playground but wanted something simpler. In it you basically just define a primary color, and it will generate a few darker, and some lighter colors for it. It started with a very simple, almost fade-like solution, but with that you lose a lot of the saturation.…
This web site is now available as a Kirby template / starter kit. Files can be downloaded either here or directly at Github . Why release it as a template? Learn to ship Finishing something that isn't a client project has always been a hurdle for me. Since it's not paid work, it tends to end up last in the priority queue. Learn to make fundamental decisions and stick to them. Interestingly when…
Now that AI is getting so good, why are you even trying to do the work yourself? Everywhere I look, tools promise to replace effort: Fire your photographer Create apps and websites by chatting with AI Never start from scratch And honestly, the results are impressive. Sarcasm aside, it feels slightly surreal to watch the design and tech landscape lately. There’s absolutely no shortage of impressive…
This article is not about Fizzy as a product, but rather about the decisions 37Signals make regarding how to launch their product. First off, they have been working very openly on this project for a long time now. The founder, Jason Fried , have made multiple videos along the way showing WIP stages. I've found them very interesting to follow. Jason Fried has done this for many years also on other…
I've been treading water the last months, spending too much time on Linux computer setups and other things that clearly does not speak to my core wishes of simplicity. Lately I've been reading books on Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, and one thing that I deeply respect from them both is their ability to be reflective and self-critical without it being a negative thing. They realize their…
I continue to use both Omarchy and MacOS as my daily computers. Some days I feel like MacOS, and some days I feel like Omarchy. I really started to enjoy the tiling window manager in Omarchy (Hyprland), and naturally started to put in work trying to make my MacOS take the best bits from it and still keep all the good things I enjoy with MacOS. But it didn't work. I've really tried, and given it…
Decisions decisions.. I have been using both my Omarchy machine and my MacOS (now Tahoe) the last weeks. In the beginning I really enjoyed Omarchy, and I only reluctantly used my Mac when nescessary. However after the honeymoon phase where Omarchy was such a fresh breath I hit a few obstacles that made me switch over to the mac again as a daily driver this week. The reason for these obstacles were…
I'm about a week into using Omarchy (on a 2017 Macbook), and I've been thinking a lot about how much customization or not I want to be doing on it, seeing that it's more of an exploration than a long-term plan to use this almost decade-old machine. One thought that has stuck with me, came from hearing DHH talk with Adam Wathan a few weeks ago : DHH: "I don't have anything on an individual computer…
I finally managed to get my 2017 Macbook up and running on Omarchy. (Yippie!) One of the first things I wanted to get sorted was syncing files quickly between my main Macbook (M1 2020 Macbook) and my Omarchy (the 2017 Macbook) This article goes through how I did it. First I needed to allow for external login on my Mac, and figure out the hostname. See my previous article on this . After you have…
Things I really like about Omarchy The tiling via Hyprland (at least in theory) Keyboard driven usage of the Operating System Straight sharp corners/edges No animation, or adjustable animation between workspaces Frameless web apps Snappiness My current mac setup inspired by Omarchy Homebrew Homebrew is ground zero. This is where we start. Install it by opening a terminal and pasting the install…
I’m fascinated by photographers using film cameras, guitarists on plain old tube amps, authors writing books with pencil on paper, and the list goes on. The same goes for Vim (and Neovim) for programmers. It's very pure and inspiring to watch. However, I have found that I am more of a "convenience-over-purism"-type of person. Modern guitar modellers are close enough to tube amps for my needs. A…
I'm really inspired by DHH and the push for Linux and Omarchy . I even installed Omakub last year on an old mac to get a taste of Linux. Omarchy takes everythin a tad further in customization in a way I really enjoy the looks of. I'll probably wipe the Omakub and try out Omarchy soon, but that is not ment as a work computer. Just as an exploration. Because, even as inspired by it as I am, I try to…
(But no one cares… except you.) Exciting? Maybe for you. Your client? Not so much. They probably won’t notice. They definitely won’t ask for it. And they almost certainly won’t want to pay for it. After all, the site still works, right? But you as a developer know what happens if you don’t keep up • Bugs creep in • Plugins break • Security holes widen • And soon you’re knee-deep in technical debt…
Over the last days I have found it interesting to follow the thread on Reddit regarding the direction Laravel is heading . I am not using Laravel a lot myself, so I follow it rather from the perspective of general software – or even company – development. Simply seeing the fact that a lot of long-term users slowly long back to simpler times. Some even ask straight up for suggestions on Laravel…
I'm more than ever doubting this public blogging thing. I tell myself it's mainly for my own benefit, and I feel the arguments are there for it . But despite this focus, I can't help but having the (non-existent) audience in my head when I write. And it makes me hesitate and hold back. Maybe people look at me as a developer, and they find these other things I write very weird. Maybe people kind of…
Remember that you can hold multiple, even conflicting opinions about the same person. You can admire or be inspired by certain qualities or accomplishments without necessarily agreeing with all of their views. Yes, even someone as polarizing as Elon Musk. It’s called nuance. You can pick and choose which ideas to embrace and which ones to ignore. Stop shutting down conversations by judging the…
I just can't seem to find the right method. I've tried physical notecards, as per Ryan Holiday and Billy Oppenheimer . I found that to be too cumbersome and frustrating, and also had problems with the messiness of it. I tried the digital version of it through Zettelkasten . Can't fully say why it didn't stick, but somehow basic Apple Notes was easier and more flexible to maintain for me. I've also…
Sometimes I want to display all sub-pages of a certain page together with the parent page in the panel. An example of this is a basic multi-language setup like 3-5 pages in a native language, plus a couple of english pages also. Some might prefer enabling multilanguage etc. for this, but to me a basic content structure is an easier solution on small pages. Anyways, this is how I do it with…
Following up on my post from last week , I decided to install Linux on an old 2016 MacBook that was just gathering dust. I installed Ubuntu 24.04 and went through the Omakub installer. This post will just be a short note-to-self on how to rsync stuff from MacOS to Linux and the other way around locally on my two machines. Linux to Mac: Currently on macOS Sonoma (14.6.1) I needed to go to System…
I've been diving into Vim lately. It all started out with DHH and his push for Linux and Lazyvim through his Omakub project . At first I started to really consider Linux. Partly because small things annoy me in macOS. Things like not being able to remove animations when switching spaces. But also because I feel stuck in my ways. I've been using Macs for so long that I've become blind to other…
In todays note to self, its just a basic reminder of how to check if a user is logged in or not. Mainly because I've looked for this at least twice, and got stuck with old forum answers with pre-Kirby v.3 syntax that didn't work. As with most stuff in Kirby it's very easy once you know how. But sometimes you (me) still get stuck in docs and google searching for small things like this. if…
There's a term in running called a "kick", which refers to the ability to sprint at the end of an endurance-oriented race. Often it leads to anger amongst other competitors, who felt it unfair that they had to lead in front the whole race only to be overtaken the last meters. Yesterday I was watching the final of 1500m running in the Paris Olympic, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen led the race about 1400m…
I have an issue with the Sanity Content Lake . The Sanity Content Lake is where your content is stored and accessed. It runs in the cloud and is fully managed by us. What I read: your data is ours, and we control it. You want to keep the data in your own server you say? Not possible . Do people want it? Yes they do . Why isn't it possible? Would only be guessing from my side, but data is quite…
Sometimes the database keeps growing and you want to figure out which table(s) are causing the issue. It happens sometimes for me on Craft CMS projects. I then find it useful to be able to isolate the largest table(s) within the database to see where the issue is at. I've found the simplest solution being to run the following query: SELECT tablename AS "Tables", round(((datalength + indexlength) /…
Good question. I guess a natural follow up question is: Why did you start in the first place? My thoughts on it: "Writing to learn": I believe that writing is a great way to learn. It sorts floating thoughts somewhere. Sure, could be private notes. Could be a physical notepads. Could be voicenotes. But since I make web pages for a living, a simple blog seems like a decent fit. Practice. Writing is…
My previous post is really not that old. I wrote it 13th of September 2023 so less than half a year ago. A fair bit has changed since then. Kirby launched Kirby 4 in December 2023, and Craft CMS just launched Craft CMS 5 march 2024. Sizes from original post September 2023 Kirby CMS (v3.9): 6.1 mb Wordpress (v6.3.1): 54.9 mb Craft CMS (v4.5.4): 70.8 mb Statamic (v4.21.0): 86.3 mb Numbers February…
I have many a time added node_modules and the likes to my git repositories. Tired of always googling it, I noted down this solution to cleaning up after. make .gitignore file (or update the one you have) add node_modules/ or what you want to get rid of line to the .gitignore file Run the following lines: git rm -r --cached . git add . git commit -m "remove gitignore files" git push Thanks for…
I've long been fascinated by the notecard systems of people like Ryan Holiday and Billy Oppenheimer , and no less fascinated by the quality of content they consistently share. My current system for collecting nuggets and wisdom I pick up in everyday life is a mess. I kind of use "likes" on twitter as a way to "remember" good bits, and I use Apple Notes for writing up ideas I get. On top I heavily…
“Victory belongs to the most Tenacious” — a phrase that echoes across the clay courts of Paris each spring. Originally attributed to Napoleon and later adopted by aviation hero Roland Garros, this quote now adorns the stadium walls of the French Open. And it couldn’t be more fitting. Alternatively "Victory belongs to the most persevering" . French Open (Also often referred to as Roland Garros), is…
Most years since my late teenage years I had the same simple new year’s resolution: Care less what others think of me . I still work on that same goal a decade (or two) later, but have luckily gotten a bit better along the way. I have also found a different perspective to it: decreasing FOLD (Fear Of Looking Dumb) . If you have a question in mind, just ask. Doesn't matter if others think its…
What I really like about having a personal web page, is that it can be ground zero for testing out ideas. If something feels right, it'll likely carry over to other projects I work on. Time to drop Tailwind? This has been a thought I've been having a lot in mind recently. Its mainly come from a combination of focus on simplifying web development, and having fun again with basic pure CSS. Also, a…
The last month I've been diving into sustainable web design, and although I keep links in apple notes, bookmarks etc. I kind of like the idea of using the blog for long-term storage. As Chris Coyier calls it in his blog post : "the ultimate long-term link storage". Tools, manifesto and directories: Sustainable Web Manifesto – A manifesto pledging your commitment to start applying these principles…
Some people in the Statamic community have commented that my previous tests were unfair (or rather; dumb and crap). Some arguments pointed towards 1: file size doesn’t matter , and 2: Statamic had «no caching and file watcher was on» . I'm not out here to talk any system down, and only try to fairly make comparisons for my own sake. But in any case, lets dive into the arguments: 1: File size…
After my post regarding the size of the codebase of multiple CMS’s, I’ve gotten some comments about the flaws of this approach. As much as I agree that its too simplistic to make substantial conclusions from, I still believe it’s a great indicator. However, I’ve been interested in diving a bit further into the performance aspects. What will be tested? I will use Locust for stress testing the…
I'm a big fan of Laravel Forge for provisioning servers. Generally setting up a Kirby site is very straight forward, especially on Apache, but with default Forge setup (and Nginx) there are two small things that has tripped me up a few times already. That's why I make these notes for myself. Disable Go helper function in Kirby (because of a conflict with Swooles Go function) # index.php <?php //…
Wow, I really didn't expect to have any readers at this point, but after my CMS filesize comparison post I've had a few people asking me for my RSS feed, which is really cool! I've also been digging further into Kirby CMS lately, and felt the personal web page was a perfect starting point. So now this page is up and running on Kirby CMS (Version 4 beta 2 at the moment of writing this). Pretty…
"The average size of our sites doubled in the last 10 years. We honestly need to think about «digital degrowth». We are not building better sites than 10 years ago. The quality does not match the resources we waste." – Bastian Allgeier https://youtu.be/cYvhYX2Nce4?si=rBCWHmr8O-Bc0uSD&t=2132 This really speaks to me. I often think about wether its purely nostalgia, or any reasonable thought behind…
I mainly work with Craft CMS sites currently, and I made the switch from Laravel Valet to DDEV as per their suggestions last year. Generally there is much to like about DDEV, especially the aspect of having different versions of PHP per project is a bit easier to maintain than it was in Laravel Valet, and to have this config directly in the project files. But I sure do miss the simplicity that…
People probably disagree with the usefulness of a blunt size-comparison between CMS'es. But I find it a great indication of complexity vs simplicity, tendencies of bloat, load times ++. I only really care about PHP CMSes, and my testing list goes like this: Craft CMS Their official Starter Kit Wordpress To have a fair comparison I removed the included themes. Statamic "Blank Site" with no starter…