How Portals Will Restructure the Internet
The Chrome team has a new proposal for the web, and the very preliminary implementations are already beginning to ship in Chrome Canary. It's called "portals", and it's a little bit like iframes on steroids.
Why is JSX Okay?
Before components were cool, we often split our code up into separate HTML, CSS, and JS files. This division kept tangles of related code pulled apart into separate chunks with only the necessary strings between them.
Blind in a Blindfold
A few years ago I discovered something strange: "Mental image" is a far more literal phrase than I had ever believed. It turns out that the majority of people really can "see" things that aren't in front of them. I cannot.
Be Mindful What you Measure
When you measure something, you change it. "In physics, the observer effect is the theory that the mere observation of a situation or phenomenon inevitably changes that phenomenon." Quantum physics are pretty weird, but it turns out that humans are weird in much the same way. Who knew?
Skill as a Function of Interest
I've long grappled with the idea that some people are inherently better or worse at certain skills than others. Some people believe it, but it feels wrong. I want to believe that everyone is equal, but that doesn't seem to be true.
I Undervalue Books
I am not a big spender. I want the basics — heat, a bed, and a roof, maybe some shoes — but beyond a decent computer (which is essentially a work expense), I don't want much else.
The Centralized Web
Back in the olden days of the web — for which I have am too young to have experienced, but have formed a fondly fabricated nostalgia — everybody created their own little space on the Internet. There were blogs, haphazardly strewn together in a giant… ahem… web of information, and one was not too terribly reliant on the other. It was the golden age. Information was shared more quickly and easily than ever, with very little baggage along the way. Sure, it was a little rough around the edges at times, but that’s the price you pay.
Rocket Spelling
I recently released a new educational website for elementary school students: Rocket Spelling. It was a huge project, and I thought it might be fun to write a blog post to help me decompress.
A Change of Direction
I've been blogging off-and-on for a good portion of my life, but I recently hit a bit of a hiatus. I haven't written a post in over five months, but I'd like to get back into it. The primary reason for my pause is that I haven't felt the need or desire to share pieces of my life which I would normally have turned into posts.
Designing the Perfect Computer
Today, I'm proud to present my latest project: a custom-built, totally unique computer from yours truly. I've been working hard for many months to bring together some of the most revolutionary new features into one great laptop. With hand-picked hardware and a custom-designed operating system, this computer packs in five huge revolutionary features into one simple package.
The Duct Tape Solution
As a programmer, it is my job to fix problems. That's really what programmers do: We fix problems. Sometimes those problems are small (the lights in my house don't automagically turn on when I wake up), and sometimes they are large (the private information of millions of people is being leaked). But at the end of the day, code is nothing more than a tool for solving problems.
Chrome VS Firefox
I've always been a rather stubborn person. There have been times in my life where it has gotten the better of me, but there have also been times where being stubborn has been beneficial. Today I'd like to examine an opinion I've stubbornly held on to for a few years and decide whether I was right.
So You Want To Be Creative
So you want to make the next "big thing". You yearn for the next big idea: the breakthrough. You spend hours upon hours in brainstorming sessions, looking for that one gem. You are doing it wrong.
State of Design
When it comes to design, it's been a couple of really awful years. Everything was kicked off with the launch of Windows 8. There are a number of ways to descibe its horrors, but let me just remind you that the power button was originaly in the "settings" panel of the charms bar. The CHARMS BAR. I'm a pretty advanced computer user, and I had to Google it to figure out how to turn the thing off.