# tracy (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 6 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover tracy. Page: Feed: --- ## [A Model That Asks Does Not Invent](https://blog.nette.org/en/php-tool-calling-structured-output) _2026-08-17 · phpFashion_ Wiring a language model into an application takes a few lines of code these days. You send text, you get text back. As long as you want a translation or a summary, it works beautifully. The trouble starts the moment it has to answer something only your application knows. Say you are building customer support for an e-shop. You want the model to handle questions like “where is my parcel” or “when… ## [AI-Access: One PHP API for Five Language Models](https://phpfashion.com/en/ai-access-php-library-for-openai-claude-gemini) _2026-08-16 · phpFashion_ OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek and Grok agree on almost nothing: a different endpoint, different authentication, a different shape of request and response. The AI Access library unifies them into a single PHP interface with no dependencies at all, in which moving from one provider to another is a one-line change. How It Started I have been an enthusiast of language models for a long time and I… ## [The Bungles Are Us](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/08/13/the-bungles-are-us/) _2026-08-13 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Misanthropic and petty, scheming and nagging, reviled by their neighbors and barely tolerable to themselves, The Bungle Family was the quintessential domestic comic strip of the 1920s. Critical historians like Bill Blackbeard, Rick Marshall and Art Spiegelman have singled out Harry J. Tuthill s masterpiece as an especially dark and pointed critique of the modern petit \[ \] ## [Roy Crane, Wash Tubbs and the Art of Cartoony Realism](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/08/11/roy-crane-wash-tubbs-and-the-art-of-cartoony-realism/) _2026-08-11 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Roy Crane always seemed to me underappreciated in the pantheon of comic artists. True aficionados of the medium recognize his talent, of course. But in that larger gallery of cartoon notables, we tend to mention him more than study him. Too often, Crane is recognized off-handedly for originating the continuous story adventure strip with Wash \[ \] ## [A replacement for PHP ext-imap that has no dependencies](https://phpfashion.com/en/a-replacement-for-php-ext-imap-that-has-no-dependencies) _2026-08-11 · phpFashion_ As of version 8.4, the imap extension is no longer part of PHP. Anyone who read a mailbox with it needs a replacement. Except that the two most popular libraries are mere wrappers around that same extension, and the third one drags in twenty-four packages including a chunk of Laravel and Symfony. The dg/imap library speaks IMAP on its own: under nine hundred lines of solid object-oriented code and… ## [Paging Dr. Perfect: Rex Morgan Wants a Word](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/08/10/paging-dr-perfect-rex-morgan-wants-a-word/) _2026-08-10 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ This just in from 1948 . Let s give it up for doctors, expertise, institutional authority and the principles of science they represent. Nothing speaks to the post-WWII shift in American culture and comics as starkly as this Christmas 1948 message from Rex Morgan, M.D. The rise of the institutional hero was clear. The Rex Morgan \[ \] ## [How to use systemd-nspawn](https://wolf.nereid.pl/posts/systemd-nspawn/) _2026-08-08 · wolf@nereid.pl_ Sometimes you may want to do something in isolation from your usual user account. For example, you might want to run an LLM harness without giving it access to basically everything on your system. At the same time, the setup needs to be practical enough that you can actually get some work done. One way to achieve this is to use systemd-nspawn . Preparing the environment Link to heading The… ## [“Demented Woman Drops Thirty Feet…And Lands on Policeman’s Head”](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/08/07/demented-woman-drops-thirty-feet-and-lands-on-policemans-head/) _2026-08-07 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ In the first decade of newspaper comics, the line between familiar illustrated journalism and the emerging styles of cartooning sometimes blurred. My favorite example of those two worlds commingling is this news drawing from The San Francisco Call (Jan. 30, 1901), “Demented Woman Drops Thirty Feet From Hotel Fire Escape and Lands on Policeman’s Head.” \[ \] ## [“Stop Biting!”: Cairo Jones’ Hard-Boiled Cheesecake](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/08/05/stop-biting-cairo-jones-hard-boiled-cheesecake/) _2026-08-05 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ The home front during World War II was a wonderful arena for gender reassignment. As we explored via E. Simms Campbell’s quick-witted and curvaceous “Cuties,” women adopted new roles with so many American men overseas, and this helped shake up, if for a while, a number of longstanding stereotypes across popular culture. Just as women \[ \] ## [身體比語言誠實 —— 小手術後還是「有點事」](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/theater/2026/08/1-177/) _2026-08-02 · Tracy · 評地 Reviews_ 常言道：「身體更誠實」，《沒事了》的整個演出，同樣讓筆者覺得「身體所說出的，往往比語言更誠實」，遺憾的是，演出最後沒有讓身體說話，倒是尋求了語言的協助。在沒有足夠鋪排下，以一把外部聲音打斷的「語言與身體斷裂」式表達，可能是一種美學策略，然而就演出的一致性看來，筆者期待的是演員同樣用身體來敘述覺醒（或沒有覺醒）的轉化過程，比如透過道具與身體產生互動之類。 ## [CLI-first decentralized compute (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/QzutiwNxvOuj) _2026-08-02 · **Sponsored**_ Run and pay spare GPUs from the CLI — transcode, coinpay (DID+escrow), infernet (AI). ## [Campbell’s Cuties: Wartime Women Had Their Moment](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/08/01/campbells-cuties-wartime-women-had-their-moment/) _2026-08-01 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ The role of WWII in the history of women, equality and feminism in America is widely known and usually mythologized in Rosie the Riveter tales. With many men abroad, women filled roles in industry and management that they traditionally had been denied. According to the thumbnail version, newly empowered women then suffered a kind of \[ \] ## [MySQL: Ten Rules for a Schema That Won't Betray You](https://phpfashion.com/en/ten-rules-for-a-mysql-schema-that-wont-betray-you) _2026-07-28 · phpFashion_ I sat down and wrote up binding conventions for MySQL schema design, forcing myself to answer the question why for every single rule. That answer is half the value: a rule that can't defend itself is dogma, and the first unhappy colleague will rightly sweep it off the table. One idea runs through everything below: the database is integrity's last line of defence. The application validates for the… ## [Nette Mail 4.2.0: So Your Emails Actually Arrive](https://blog.nette.org/en/nette-mail-email-deliverability) _2026-07-27 · phpFashion_ Sending an email is one line of code. Getting it delivered is a discipline where Gmail and Microsoft tighten the rules every year. Nette Mail 4.2.0 brings what providers demand today: OAuth sign-in, one-click unsubscribe and more modern DKIM. Plus one security patch that makes updating right away worth it. And it's a backward compatible release: you rewrite nothing, just update and pick up the new… ## [Badly MAD: Snafu and Misreading Kurtzman](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/07/20/badly-mad-snafu-and-misreading-kurtzman/) _2026-07-20 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Harvey Kurtzman and Hugh Hefner were the two towering figures of 1950s culture who showed how idiosyncratic personal vision innovate even in an era of corporatized modern mass media. The best evidence of this is the abject failure of other publishers to imitate their success, at least in their first decade. Kurtzman’s MAD and Hef’s \[ \] ## [Exploring Pre-Code Comfort Comics: Atlas’ Weird Worlds and Bill Everett](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/07/18/exploring-pre-code-comfort-comics-atlas-weird-worlds-and-bill-everett/) _2026-07-18 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Reviewing Atlas Comics Library No. 9: Adventures Into Weird Worlds and Atlas Creator Collection, No. 3: Bill Everett The Fantagraphics project of reprinting extended runs and top creators from 1950s Atlas comics continues at a breakneck pace. I won’t bother arguing whether such a completist approach to non-EC pre-code comics is worthwhile. Clearly the effort \[ \] ## [A form inside a form? HTML says no, Nette 3.3 says yes](https://blog.nette.org/en/nested-forms) _2026-06-29 · phpFashion_ Anyone who has built a non-trivial page knows a can't sit inside another . And if you have ever needed to nest one form in another, you know there was no clean way to do it for a long time. Nette Forms 3.3 finally changes that: {form detached} works around the longstanding HTML restriction with a single word in your template. Why you can't put a form inside a form Picture an e-shop checkout: a big… ## [表演藝術在澳門文化旅遊活動中的應用研究：以夢劇社《澳門造船業歷史劇場系列》及《故事小販》流動劇場系列作案例分析](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/other/2026/06/1-176/) _2026-06-27 · 陳 嘉宜 · 評地 Reviews_ 表演藝術在近年，更呈現出作為一種工具被應用其中的趨勢，從而對包括旅遊、表演藝術乃至文化發展，都產生了較大的影響，其中演出從傳統劇場中，被搬離至文化旅遊所及的公共空間中進行，是這些演出的典型特徵之一。本文計劃從政策導向入手，回顧有關趨勢的發展過程；繼而透過《澳門造船業歷史劇場系列》及《故事小販》流動劇場系列兩個類型不同的代表性案例的分析，描繪在官方與表演團體互動下，表演藝術被應用於文化旅遊中的圖景。 ## [《蘭桂樓》：計算精準的舞台呈現](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/theater/2026/06/1-175/) _2026-06-26 · Tracy · 評地 Reviews_ 創作團隊在編演導、舞台佈景、音效及投影設計等高度流暢的協作下，精準地計算視覺與聽覺對觀眾的感官衝擊。故事敘事節奏明快，不拖泥帶水，每當觀眾快要失去專注時，藉由一聲鑼響、投射影像轉換，又或一次舞台調度，就能牢牢抓住觀眾注意力。筆者認為，這種「精準」或許與鄰埠劇場競爭激烈及有限的資源有關。 ## [Your AI Agent Is Only as Good as Your Types](https://blog.nette.org/en/ai-agent-only-as-good-as-your-types) _2026-06-26 · phpFashion_ The moment you start coding with an AI agent, you notice something odd: the value of a top-tier IDE like PhpStorm suddenly drops, while the value of solid type checking, say with PHPStan, shoots up. Two years ago that would've sounded like heresy. Today it's closer to practical advice on how to write better code. The IDE was for humans, analysis is for machines We loved the IDE for its… ## [Component Model 4.0: top-down and no more magic](https://blog.nette.org/en/nette-component-model-4-0) _2026-06-25 · phpFashion_ Component Model is the quietest library in all of Nette. Nobody talks about it, almost nobody uses it directly, and yet it sits underneath every form and every Control in your application. Version 4.0 is largely a cleanup of deprecated API, but it also hides one genuine change in behavior. So what is Component Model actually for? If you write presenters and forms, you use Component Model every day… ## [Make any domain metal (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/85A81Pz1wE6C) _2026-06-25 · **Sponsored**_ Turn any domain into a blacked-out metal landing page with an email waitlist ## [評地有聲 VOL 037：土生土語話劇何去何從](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/feature/2026/06/1-174/) _2026-06-25 · 澳門劇場文化學會 · 評地 Reviews_ 每年的澳門藝術節都會有一部全新的土生土語話劇，今年亦上演了新作《何去何從》，作為國家級非遺項目，土生土語話劇的表演有什麼獨特之處，在題材上有什麼改變？大眾對該項澳門獨有劇種的關注度如何？本集評地有聲由莫兆忠擔任主持，邀請了一直關注土生土語話劇的劇評人羅嘉華一起從土生土語話劇的記憶，談到最近澳門藝術節中的新劇《何去何從》。 [Listen](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/reviews.macautheatre.org.mo-vol-037-ep-37-patua2.mp3) ## [The Little Bears: Paws and Personality Germinate a New Medium](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/24/the-little-bears-paws-and-personality-germinate-a-new-medium/) _2026-06-24 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Jimmy Swinnerton s adorable cartoon bears are generally considered the first recurring daily newspaper comic character. More than that, however, he may have been smarter than the average bear. He may also be an important bridge across traditional newspaper illustrated reporting and editorial cartooning that spawned the very different conventions of comic strips as we came \[ \] ## [Mad Science: The Original Tech Bros of 1933](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/21/mad-science-the-original-tech-bros-of-the-1933/) _2026-06-21 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Getting nervous about the prospect of an AI oligarchy, a kind of anti-democratic sensibility that the Tech Bros finally say out loud? That they see in their own machines the prospects of a post-human future where rational engineers like themselves finally get the respect, authority and control they think they deserve? That compassion, democracy, maybe \[ \] ## [A Hero For His Time: The Rise of Dauntless Durham of the USA](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/19/great-moments-the-rise-of-dauntless-durham-of-the-usa/) _2026-06-19 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ It is hard to convey the weirdness of the situations and solutions Hershfield concocts. ## [在工具說明書之外，尋找故事的起源 —— 評《故事之前的故事》](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/theater/2026/06/1-173/) _2026-06-16 · 老班 · 評地 Reviews_ 觀眾彷彿與林詩婷一同進入考場，面對題目「34平方公里的夢想」—— 也就是在澳門這片土地上想像自己的未來。然而，最耐人尋味的是，學生桌上擺放的並不是作文紙或文學文本，而是一份份類似宜家傢俬的工具說明書。這個設計相當尖銳：所謂「夢想」在教育體制中被格式化、步驟化，學生被要求按照說明書組裝自己的人生。寫作不再是表達自我的方式，而成為一種符合標準答案的訓練；教育也不再打開人的可能性，反而將人慢慢塑造成可被使用、可被配置的「工具人」。 ## [A Quarter Century of CSRF. Now the Browser Finally Handles It](https://blog.nette.org/en/quarter-century-of-csrf) _2026-06-13 · phpFashion_ Cross-Site Request Forgery has been with us since at least the turn of the millennium. The principle is primitive: a foreign website sends a request to your server from the browser of an unsuspecting victim. The browser happily attaches cookies to it, so the request looks like a legitimate action by a logged-in user: a password change, a form submission, an account deletion. And for a whole… ## [Nette Http 3.4.0 Brings Protection Against SSRF Attacks](https://blog.nette.org/en/nette-http-ssrf-protection) _2026-06-13 · phpFashion_ A user avatar. An image generated by an MCP server. An OG preview in a comment. A webhook callback. An OAuth redirect. An RSS feed import. Whenever your application fetches a URL submitted by a user (or an AI assistant), it becomes a target for Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF), one of the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities. Nette/Http 3.4.0 introduces two new classes, UrlValidator and IPAddress, that… ## [當敘事與情感失衡：《亡目》的視覺實驗與戲劇挑戰](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/theater/2026/06/1-172/) _2026-06-12 · 夜書 · 評地 Reviews_ 改編《盲目》這部豐富的哲學寓言，對任何劇團而言都是極高難度的挑戰。在澳門目前較多原創、較少人挑戰經典改編的環境下，戲劇學校展現了令人欽佩的野心與形式探索的勇氣。正如漢斯．蒂斯．雷曼的「後戲劇理論」所指出的，現代戲劇應追求形式與內容的深度融合。雖然視覺符號的衝擊力令人印象深刻，但要成為真正能反思人性命運的代表作，仍需在形式與內涵的整合上實現突破。我們期待創作團隊能將視覺語彙與深層哲學進一步結合，為澳門戲劇開創更多深刻的可能性。 ## [Scoundrels, Cons and Dupes: 20 Favorite Comic Strip Villains – Part 4](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/10/scoundrels-cons-and-dupes-20-favorite-comic-strip-villains-part-4/) _2026-06-10 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ We round out our survey of comic strip baddies steeped in post-WWII American culture. As are our choices for standout villains. The funny papers followed popular culture into new Cold War mythologies around both heroism and its counterparts. Main currents of a rapidly changing social, economic, and political environment are imprinted unmistakably on all of \[ \] ## [《亡目》—— 在盲與見之間，演員的真實試煉](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/theater/2026/06/1-171/) _2026-06-09 · 孓孑 · 評地 Reviews_ 若選擇排演經多番打磨的經典劇目，精挑細選合資格「好」學生，以華麗的服裝佈景及燈光亮相，固然容易交出「安全」的成果，也算是向上級交了功課，但這種以結果導向的成效反而容易令人「盲目」。作為本澳戲劇培訓學校，若致力培育長遠的本地戲劇人才，便應在體制夾縫中生存，不耽於安逸，適時「扮盲」但心不瞎。唯有保持開放與多元，讓學生透過實踐成長，直面自身不足，才能真正打下穩固基礎。 ## [CLI-first decentralized GPU compute (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/7Tv9fguy9u4r) _2026-06-09 · **Sponsored**_ Pay workers or run your GPU for FFmpeg transcode and AI inference. ## [Cool and Calculating: 20 Favorite Comic Strip Villains – Part 3](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/09/cool-and-calculating-20-favorite-comic-strip-villains-part-3/) _2026-06-09 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ As the 1930s progressed, comic strip adventuring matured its visions of villainy. And the times were changing, as world war was becoming a reality rather than a distant rumble. As we saw in Part 1 and Part 2 of our favorite comic strip badasses, the thuggish, petty, and naturally mean antangonists of the 20s and \[ \] ## [迷失在這場編舞遊戲之中 —— 談《硬玩｜軟身》](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/dancing/2026/06/2-2/) _2026-06-05 · 黃 詠思 · 評地 Reviews_ 作品關心的是「共同作者（co-authorship）」和「共同創作（co-creation）」，問題是這個「共同」是把誰牽進去了？弔詭的是，舞者想衝破限制，到頭來仍在遊戲規則中翻滾；觀眾抱著投進其中的幻覺進入表演空間，實際只是被排除在外的旁觀者，或者說是遊戲中的 NPC（Non-player Character，非玩家角色）也不自知，甚麼透明空間、非線性空間，對 NPC 來說從不是關鍵所在。觀眾愈有「角色」的意識，反而愈迷失在這個遊戲之中。而對於探討「權力」來說，微訊群組更是諷刺，在這個由管理員發號施令的偽民主幌子下，觀眾可以理想地透過群組自由提出意見，但事實是，群眾並沒有機會在群內介入演出流程。 ## [World-Class Malice: 20 Favorite Comic Strip Villains – Part 2](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/04/world-class-malice-20-favorite-comic-strip-villains-part-2/) _2026-06-04 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ As we move more deeply into the 1930s and the peak years of comic strip adventure, some of the most recognizable and enduring cartoon fiends emerge. The villainy enlarges to suggest global criminal conspiracies and political power as it also becomes more sadistic. Newspaper comics are edging towards the outsized heroes and super-villains that formed \[ \] ## [Evil Is As Evil Does: 20 Favorite Comic Strip Villains – Part 1](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/06/03/evil-is-as-evil-does-20-favorite-comic-strip-villains-part-1/) _2026-06-03 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Villainy is, well, a necessary evil. At least so far as popular adventure is concerned. What is a hero without an antagonist, morality plays without sin? Whether it is the Satan of Genesis or of Milton, the slave-driving Simon Legree of Uncle Tom s Cabin or Holmes s worthy nemesis Moriarty, villainy is always a statement about \[ \] ## [紅顏未老劇已老？](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/theater/2026/06/1-170/) _2026-05-31 · 孓孑 · 評地 Reviews_ 全劇以年份為序，輔以倒敘手法，但場次切換過於零碎。每場角色相遇時，多以對話推進劇情，例如訴說尋親不果、角色身世揭秘及交代歷史事件發生等，皆是「說」出來的資訊，而非通過行動或情境展現。投射年份的文字或語句僅起間場作用，未能有效推進劇情。相比之下，少數具「戲」的部分（如玉蘭母女嬉戲、棄女找食物）反而更具感染力，導演能有效調度演員的走位，能利用舞台斜坡突顯找食物過程之艱辛。此外，文字投射效果與屏風後穿旗袍演員的肢體舞動，詩意非常，亦成為全劇少數令人印象深刻的視覺語言。 ## [Design, Development, and Disarmament](https://stephenokey.substack.com/p/design-development-and-disarmament) _2026-05-30 · Stephen Okey · Okeydoxy_ First thoughts on Magnifica Humanitas ## [Tracy Learned to Speak with AI Agents](https://blog.nette.org/en/tracy-debugger-ai-agents) _2026-05-25 · phpFashion_ Tracy learned a new dialect. When an AI agent sits on the other side, it gets structured markdown straight into the JS console alongside the usual red screen. And next to every .html exception in the log/ folder there's now a .md sibling. A human developer still sees BlueScreen, Tracy Bar and dumps in their familiar form. But when there's an AI agent in front of the monitor instead of a human, one… ## [Li’l Abner’s Epic Gender Bender (1953)](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/05/23/lil-abners-epic-gender-bender-1953/) _2026-05-23 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Alert the gender police! Recruit the culture warriors. Al Capp’s Li’l Abner strip was bending gender norms more than 70 years ago. In fact, this 1953 story arc weirdly foreshadowed current skirmishes over cross-dressing, drag performance, legal gender reassignment and even “men” playing in women s sports. Sure, cross-dressing had been a fixture of film, stage and \[ \] ## [我原本來自⋯⋯](https://reviews.macautheatre.org.mo/other/2026/05/1-169/) _2026-05-21 · 梁倩瑜 · 評地 Reviews_ 對於我離開不久的原生地，那個在外交上常談着中葡文化交雜的地方，究竟我最想保留的是甚麼？我是否有着和他們群體那樣的堅持？又或者，在我成長階段因種種原因而缺乏的本土歷史和文化介紹，讓我下意識地模糊了明明根深的文化符號，這又回到最初我如何介紹自己原生地的話題上。 ## [Book Review: Hal Foster’s Tarzan Years – Building A Great White Father](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/05/19/building-a-great-white-father-hal-fosters-tarzan-years/) _2026-05-19 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ We could easily frame Hal Foster s 1931-1937 run of Tarzan Sunday comics merely as a pleasant preamble to his magnum opus, Prince Valiant. By his own admission, Foster was a reluctant cartoonist. The successful magazine and commercial artist carried that world s condescension towards the comic strip. Famously, he quipped in 1984 that being invited to \[ \] ## [Popeye is “Amphibious”](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/05/19/popeye-is-amphibious/) _2026-05-19 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Weekly Weird. Cross-dress Tuesday with Popeye. In a lengthy 1930s story arc by Segar, the “amphibious” sailor infiltrates a criminal hideout by passing as Mollie. ## [Fantagraphics at 50: Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds on Keeping Classic Comics Alive](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/05/13/fantagraphics-at-50-associate-publisher-eric-reynolds-on-keeping-classic-comics-alive/) _2026-05-13 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Fantagraphics celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and continues its mission to preserve and promote the comic arts. We spoke at length to the company s longtime editorial fixture, From Popeye to Pogo, Krazy Kat to Charlie Brown, few companies have been such prolific archivists of the comic strip tradition. Anniversaries are a good time to \[ \] ## [Process: running external programs from PHP without the pain](https://blog.nette.org/en/running-external-programs-in-php) _2026-05-11 · phpFashion_ Running an external program from PHP and reading what it printed? shell\_exec('git pull') and you're done. But that only covers the simplest case. The moment you need more — the exit code, errors kept separate from the regular output, a user-supplied argument passed safely, a timeout — shell\_exec() runs out of road. And proc\_open(), which can do all of it, has an API so unwelcoming that most people… ## [Making Charles Dana Gibson Sexy Again](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/05/08/making-charles-dana-gibson-sexy-again/) _2026-05-08 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ This is a good time for modern comic strip fans to recall Charles Dana Gibson’s role in late Victorian American culture. The most famous illustrator of his day had a calming, languid line and upscale focus that contrasted sharply with everything the early newspaper comic strip represented. Just as a tsunami of recent comic strip \[ \] ## [Penny Parties: Cartoon Sociology Meets the ‘Bobby-Soxers’](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/05/06/penny-parties-cartoon-sociology-meets-the-bobby-soxers/) _2026-05-06 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Like all American mass media of the last century, demographics and market forces provide the frame within which trends in comic strip content lived. Harry Haenigsen’s Penny launched in 1943 directly out of the intersection of two new social realities – gal power and the “invention of the teenager.” It is not surprising, then, that \[ \] ## [100vw is a trap! It can't measure the viewport width](https://phpfashion.com/en/how-to-fix-100vw-scrollbar) _2026-05-04 · phpFashion_ Do you also love the vw unit in CSS? The Volkswagen of units? And did you know it's complete and utter shit? The expression 100vw means one hundred percent of the viewport width. The entire browser canvas. Want your full-bleed cover to be exactly that wide? Just set width: 100vw on it. And what if the page has a vertical scrollbar? Mac users barely notice it, because macOS auto-hides it when not… ## [Latte as a Ghost in the Machine: a Template Compiler for Tracy](https://blog.nette.org/en/latte-template-compiler-for-tracy) _2026-04-25 · phpFashion_ Tracy's templates have always been hand-written .phtml pages full of htmlspecialchars and nested ifs. I'll admit it bugged me for a long time. And then a heretical thought hit me: what if Latte wrote them? But Latte in Tracy? Overkill! Or rather… it could be done, just not the way you'd expect. Tracy is a debugger. It has to run in every PHP project that pulls it into composer.json. In startups,… ## [Nemo’s Consumer Dystopia: The Man Who Owned Mars (1910)](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/04/14/nemo-in-dystopia-land-the-man-who-owned-mars-1910/) _2026-04-14 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Between April 24 and Aug 23 1910 Winsor McCay sent Little Nemo and his wise-ass sidekick Flip to Mars, making for one of the longest and most politically pointed of the Little Nemo in Slumberland adventures. Mars was a dystopia of cement canyons and urban overgrowth, clots of faceless worker bodies rushing to thankless jobs. \[ \] ## [Our Shelves Runneth Over: POD Spews a Gusher of Reprints](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/04/12/our-shelves-runneth-over-pod-spews-a-gusher-of-reprints/) _2026-04-12 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ The new generation of print-on-demand (POD) platforms, most notably Lulu, has inspired several ambitious strip aficionados to become one-man reprint publishers. And so, our cup runneth over. In just the last six months the zone is flooded with all manner of lost, obscure or woefully overlooked strips of old. I find it hard to keep \[ \] ## [From Oaky Doaks to Bruce Gentry: Behind CSAG’s Reprint Rush](https://panelsandprose.com/2026/04/10/from-oaky-doaks-to-bruce-gentry-behind-csags-reprint-rush/) _2026-04-10 · Steve Smith · Panels & Prose_ Among several self-publishers in the reprint space, Stefan Wood and his Comic Strip Appreciation Group are far and away the most prolific. His Lulu Bookstore boasts about 25 titles as of this writing. And judging from our conversation with him this week, that library will be growing weekly. Recently retired from the exhibit design team \[ \]