Every couple of years or so for the last twenty years, I’ve remembered that this website is here and how much I miss writing something; sharing something. Every time I come back to to it with a great intention to start writing again, to share my art on a platform that I control and to take back some ownership of my own online identity, I face the quandary of whether I should address the fact that…
It’s that time of year when we roll out the resolutions. A list of ways to improve ourselves - to turn over a new leaf as we start another lap of the sun. It’s something that I’ve done for most of my life; sometimes formally with a pen and paper, sometimes out loud and sometimes just in my head, marking a list of reminders of what I should be doing throughout my year. My own resolutions have…
It’s been a while. The last post on this site was literally two years ago and was a rundown of my 2020. It’s been a bit weird since, hasn’t it? I mean, the world got weirder. Stuff keeps happening. Such is time. Work # At the end of 2020 I moved out of the engineering team at Logikcull and took my first management role, running the small but effective design team. Through my whole career I’ve…
This year started with some darkness for me. Then I had the snip, which brought with it it’s own darkness and a couple of pretty uncomfortable months leading up to March. March. We all know what happened in March but for me it was the start of something good. An idea led to a website knocked up in a couple of hours and a bit of social media marketing. In the first week of the national restrictions…
This week I’m visiting Edinburgh for Finch Conf , a wonderful-looking web development conference. This means a couple of nights in a strange city and at least for this first night, I’m dining alone. I set out from my New Town hotel in the rain in search of food and with no plans. I’d seen a few places on Foursquare but was feeling indecisive. I started on a drizzly wander towards the old town to…
a11y-css-reset - A small set of global rules to make things accessible and reset default styling. The accessibility of placeholder links | scottohara.me Accessible CSS Generated Content | Eric Eggert - This is an interesting look at the accessibility implications of using ::before and ::after pseudo elements with readable content. An Intro To Screen Reader Testing for Sighted Developers - A great…
Me and my friends rocked the Vicar’s garden # On Saturday afternoon me, Dave and Jon, played our first gig together in over twelve years. Through Becki, one of the organisers of the open mic night we’ve been frequenting since the start of the year, we’d been invited to perform at the St Andrew’s Church Bishopthorpe Summer Garden Party. We got together the night before and somehow put together a…
I do like buying headphones and it’s something I don’t mind spending a bit of money on. I listen to a lot of music and a lot of podcasts and I value the isolation and immersiveness that a good set of headphones or earbuds can give. I also value the freedom that being wire-free offers. I use wireless headphones far more than wired because they're neater, tidier and often more comfortable. Last year…
Don’t disable buttons while submitting forms with ajax - A handy accessibility tip when building forms that submit asynchronously. The Anatomy of Accessible Forms: Best Practices | Deque - This is simple and vital Accessibility information. I love building forms and I know that the best way to build them is not to be too clever. Use these best practices to ensure everyone can interact with your…
A week in the sun # I’m just back from a week away with my Wife. We’ve both been working really hard recently and were a little bit strung out. I’d got myself into a decent amount of sleep debt and needed a recharge. We booked a fairly last-minute trip to Majorca in a nice hotel and just had a really relaxing week. I’d planned on renting a bike whilst we were and had taken my pedals, shoes and…
Where Do You Learn HTML & CSS in 2019? | CSS-Tricks - A question that’s been asked of me a few times over the last couple of weeks. Bruce Lawson's personal site : A short note on HTML5 article, section and hgroup - This is a little golden nugget of sectioning info. The Lean Web | Go Make Things - Chris Ferdinandi talks about fixing the web by pushing for simple. Short note on what CSS display…
Remote Family # We spent last weekend in London, visiting my brother and his family one last time before they up sticks and move to Singapore. My nephew, had an early birthday party - a sports party on a leisure centre playing field - which also acted as a leaving party for them and their school friends (kids and parents alike). Kids are amazing. Boundless energy. Thirty kids running round an open…
Progressive Tooling - A list of community-built, third-party tools that can be used to improve page performance. A11Y Style Guide - A super useful resource featuring easy ways to make your websites more accessible. Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications – Smashing Shop - I’m going on holiday next week and I think this book by Heydon Pickering will be going with me. Practical ARIA…
The Hacker News Effect # As I mentioned in last week’s notes, the immediate reaction to my HTML is the Web article was fantastic. My phone hasn’t stopped buzzing with Twitter notifications and emails from well-wishers and those asking advice. It’s been a lovely experience. Earlier this week though, that steady stream of incoming chatter exploded as my article hit the front page of Hacker News .…
Relearn CSS layout: Every Layout Bruce Lawson : The practical value of semantic HTML Write HTML Like It’s 1999 · Bradley Taunt How to Section Your HTML | CSS-Tricks - This is a fascinating piece on Document Sectioning and the Outline Algorithm. An Introduction to Accessible Labeling | a11y with Lindsey Practical CSS Scroll Snapping | CSS-Tricks - I played a little with scroll-snapping back in its…