In which I explain why I decide to leave a stack of bills on the table every month.
A while back I had the perfect job. I was the lead developer at a budding NYC-based startup, a conference. I was hired to build the company website and I had full freedom to choose the technology it was built in. My team was cool and fun. I got to routinely go to NYC, and to Vegas for the show. The pay was good. I had flexible schedules, and I could work uninterrupted in the mornings while NYC was still asleep. I was living the Developer Life™.
The first time I saw Mariana, she crashed a brunch that was winding down, joined us for a petit café. We were at the TNB, the best brunch in Rennes, France. Our connection was immediate, our energy similar. We were both into music, and our values aligned. But it wasn’t until much later, when we weren’t living in the same country anymore, that we were to collaborate.
After a vice-filled vacation period, I decided to start a path to a more wholesome lifestyle, meaning dropping the things that hurt my health and day-to-day energy, while taking up those that boost it.
Follow Kimya Dawson’s advice, “be all that you can be.”(more…)
I have a personal project I want to put into practice, at the intersection of art and development. This post will be a living repository of this journey. I was inspired by a passage from Austin Kleon’s book “Share Your Work!”, in which he encourages you to be less of a hoarder, less of a spammer, and more of a contributor:
“Make stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff.”
and
“If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. […] Don’t turn into human spam.”
This is a living list, so keep coming back for more. If you played any of these games and loved it, let me know. Also, suggestions of timeless gems are more than welcome, leave a comment below.
Este artigo foi publicado originalmente na newsletter semanal do Fumaça, e pode ser econtrado no site do podcast de jornalismo independente.No contexto deste site expandio-o com mais algumas ideias.
Olá.
Abstrai-te por momentos das interrupções quotidianas e imagina que abres o teu computador ou pegas no teu telemóvel para ler. Para o fazer tens uma aplicação dedicada. Os artigos todos que te interessam — provenientes de diferentes fontes online correspondentes aos teus interesses — estão nessa interface. De cada artigo, vês apenas o título, uma imagem, e um resumo. Não há anúncios, nem pop-ups, nem aviso de “bolachas” 🍪. Consegues facilmente perceber o que já leste e o que há de novo. A qualquer altura podes acrescentar novas fontes de conteúdo, eliminar aquelas que afinal já não te interessam, e reorganizar tudo, não tanto por tema, mas de acordo com o que te chega mais ao coração. Podes concentrar-te nas palavras, nas ideias, e ver tudo ao teu ritmo.
Confortável, não é?
A tecnologia que te permite ter esta experiência focada de leitura existe há 25 anos, está bem de saúde — faz parte da ideia abrangente da open web — e pode ser usada de forma livre e gratuita. Apresento-te o RSS.
An eclectic voice coming out of Brazil, extending the already diverse nature of the country’s music to other latitudes. Besides Brazilian Portuguese, Tiganá shares his musical magic also in French, Spanish and Kikongo.
He does so showing gratitude and reverence for all the artistic tradition that precedes him. “We are nothing without the ones that preceded us.”
You can hear other underrated artists on my collection “You Heard It Ear First“ (here’s a handy RSS feed). If Spotify playlists are your thing, you can also listen to these highly underrated tracks here.
We need to talk about this gambling epidemic that is happening with sports today, especially football, in which an advanced betting machine is pulsating in your pocket, while ads for getting you back on the drug abound all around you. As an example the European Cup of 2024 has as a main sponsor Betw*n.
This is seen as a cool, fun thing today. But it won’t be in 2-5 years time.
Folks that were supposed to be enjoying a match with their friends, the beautiful game, are instead cheering goals from teams they don’t even know. Cheering players they can’t pronounce the names of. Lost in their mobile apps.
Everyone thinks they are a great coach. And that of course they know who will win the game. Here, have 10€ for free. Soon, you’re handing your meager savings to these predatory companies. Too bad your life is now fucked forever.
Even though the Belgian act Dans Dans produces only instrumental music, there’s something so idiosyncratic about their sound that makes recognizing them really easy.
“Feline” is the soundtrack of a movie that is still to be shot.
You can hear other underrated artists on my collection “You Heard It Ear First“ (here’s a handy RSS feed). If Spotify playlists are your thing, you can also listen to these highly underrated tracks here.
You can hear other underrated artists on my collection “You Heard It Ear First“ (here’s a handy RSS feed). If Spotify playlists are your thing, you can also listen to these highly underrated tracks here.
Very few records make me travel so far without moving. This is a star in Greece, very much ignored elsewhere.
(via Isidora, a good friend from Greece.)
You can hear other underrated artists on my collection “You Heard It Ear First“ (here’s a handy RSS feed). If Spotify playlists are your thing, you can also listen to these highly underrated tracks here.
This is a living compilation of guiding principles for my web development process. Check back for updates and feel free to suggest your own.
Playfulness
Keep your attitude towards development fun and exploratory. The best ideas and the boldest implementations will exude from that attitude, since you’ll be extra motivated and sunk into the work you’re doing. Also, you’ll live longer.
(idea via the Changelog podcast)
Promises are like cooking
When making a risotto, you start the refugado de alho and start cleaning the mushrooms while the caldo is seeping.
(via codecademy.com)
Curiosity is important
You need to have an inquisitive mind, and find joy in doing detective work. Where is this bug coming from, what’s its root cause? Intriguing…
Life, otherwise, is very fatiguing.
One class, one concern
When defining (Vue JS) components, the Single Responsibility Principle helps, i.e. each component should do only one thing.
(via Paulo Pinto, aka Former Self)
Inspiration = motivation
Or the relevance of choosing the right podcasts.
Copy/paste is a powerful weapon, easy to use. Wield it wisely
Always double-check when pasting. Chances are not all the replicated code matches your exact needs.
Commit your code in batches, and never leave finished code uncommitted
It’s hard when you switch machines or pick up work you’ve left off and notice you forgot to commit that big chunk of code you were working on. Make a habit of whenever you finish a task, however small, committing your code. And don’t leave your console for the day without committing your work.
Conversely, as soon as you pick up a project to further expand its features, fetch the code in the repository. You might even be surprised of what your past self did there!
I have conveniently compiled (and will continue to do so) those sources that do have an RSS feed into a OPML file you can drop into your feed reader (client). You’re welcome!
Don’t these feeds look sweet sitting in my NetNewsWire RSS client?
Also, do drop your personal favourite sources of slow journalism, also from your corner of the world, in the comment section below.
Developing with WordPress equates with developing for the web in general. If one abides by sensible performance best practices, WordPress installs will run smooth and fast. Here are three key points to take into account:
Keep your HTTP requests to a minimum, ie, include as few resources (CSS, JS, images) as possible, or bundle them together. Minify and gzip them while at it;
Compress images, and only have them as big as you need them. Provide different resolutions for each image so the browser can opt for the leanest one for the current viewport (WP supports responsive images out-of-the-box);
Cache your pages. Most WP websites serve static content, so it makes all the sense to render the PHP code once and then serve that cached version. You will then be, in practice, serving a static website. And that is really fast.
When chatting with my girl the other day I mentioned how I thought the only mental process that was exclusive to us humans was the capacity to dream, fantasize, create scenarios in our heads.
There’s no way to know this for sure, but Laurel Braitman has a similar intuition to mine in this lovely podcast episode.
I was about to add a new track to my playlist containing the best songs Mankind ever produced (a humble selection by yours truly) and realized I am at 577 tracks. Five hundred and seventy-seven. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Is that Syd Barrett in the back there?
Do I even know this many songs? Wait, these tunes are only my favorite ones, not even the ones I dig.
I have a feeling my life will be different after this realization. Do you know those moments when someone asks you “so, what music do you listen to?” and you don’t really have any band names or genres you can come up with? “I must be a very banal audiophile.” Yeah, no.
Go ahead and explore the playlist I would send out on an unmanned probe to outer space, shuffle mode on. There are some seriously good tracks in there.
Create your own website, own your data and display the things you’re into under your domain. When online, be a creator, not a consumer.
I’m all in for this mantra, but this realization stops short of a painful, cold truth; your content is probably going to be ignored. It sucks to keep sharing your content and having no one contribute and add their own opinions / takes to yours. I know because I’ve been doing this for a decade now, ah!
A good friend and very talented musician has just started a new project, and we’ve collaborated on his website.
Previously drummer extraordinaire at TrYangle (another web collaboration), his name is now Cloud Collector and it sounds grand. It’s one man and one guitar.
— Hey, I have a domain I use for emailing. It’s for my IT solutions company, we’re doing pretty well. Can you build me a website? — Sure! Do you have a logo I can use? — Hmmm, only this scrappy wordart one. — What about a motto? Any copy at all? — Nothing.
In which I created a website from nothing. Well, I had the help of aThemes and a bunch of talented photographers on Unsplash (see footer at vanguardstripes.pt for credits).
A lot of emphasis was placed on web performance, ensuring the website loads and feels fast. This will help not only with professional credibility and findability (SEO juice), but also with email deliverability at the end of the day. This is because spam filters will look at email addresses’ TLDs (Top Level Domains) to sniff for potential spam sources.
Two girls outside the kyiv metro. Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Em Janeiro deste ano o jornalismo do Meduza foi proibido na Rússia. Não só os jornalistas e freelancers que contribuem para o projecto de jornalismo independente foram perseguidos, como a partilha de links das peças passou a ser crime. A coragem e o empenho da equipa – que teve de sair do país – mantêm o projecto a funcionar. Esta reportagem fotográfica das semanas na Ucrânia que antecederam a invasão Russa carrega um peso de calma antes da tempestade.
A transparência, hombridade e a anti-hipocrisia são a última Fata Morgana.
Múltiplos demónios, encontrados em Lyon por Madalena Marques. Desenhado por um aluno de cenografia da escola de teatro.
Na Turquia descobriu-se que o Governo é corrupto, que a erosão democrática e o neo-liberalismo afinal são um cocktail perigoso, e que assim explodiu por lá a indústria imobiliária. Como por cá (Portugal). Sabe-se que é a forma de fazer dinheiro em quantias grandes, se não tiveres uma mega-corp a rolar na bolsa ou um poço de petróleo no deserto.
Ou uma forma inovadora de gerar conhecimento intemporal de forma instantânea.
Cada Macaco é um novo projeto de exploração linguística que criei, inspirado num belo bestiário tríptico que vi na casa de uns amigos que nos albergaram em Lisboa por alturas do Natal de 2022.
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