Don't center align paragraph text

April 10, 2021

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design

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dev

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css

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accessibility

This is -- without exception -- my biggest design-related pet peeve. Centered text is bad for usability, accessibility -- and I really hate the way it looks.

How to reset your Open Graph embed on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook

September 17, 2020

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seo

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tools

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gatsby

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developer

If you're dealing with Open Graph metadata for your site, and you can't figure out how to get your OG content to update after you make changes, this is your guide.

gitignore.io is great

August 05, 2020

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developer

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tools

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productivity

Put simply, gitignore.io is a tool that is so profoundly helpful that I've forgotten what life was like without it.

MDX - I should have done this sooner

July 22, 2020

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productivity

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dev

I added support for mdx to my site, and it's made life much bettter.

Why I switched to Fathom for analytics

May 03, 2020

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webdev

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dev

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gatsby

I fully switched my personal site from Google Analytics to Fathom - something that I had been considering for a while, and finally decided to go all in on.

On normalcy

April 21, 2020

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Tiny Improvements

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productivity

On my walk this morning, I found myself wondering what it's going to be like when things go back to normal.

Help your users when your web app crashes

April 21, 2020

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webdev

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book excerpt

This post came from my work on Surviving Other People's APIs. I've been working on a chapter on Async - the content below came from that writing, but doesn't quite make sense in the context of the book. I didn't want to scrap it entirely, so it's found its way into a blog post. I'd love to know what you think!

Are you suddenly a remote worker? Let's figure it out together.

April 04, 2020

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Tiny Improvements

My guess is that if you’re reading this, you’re a newly remote worker, due to the rapid and terrifying expansion of the COVID19 Pandemic. I’m not here share medical advice; if that’s what you’re after, there’s far better places to look.

Introducing Pistola - Building a passion project with radical transparency

February 21, 2020

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pistola

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startup

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cycling

If you follow me across the various other social networks I use, you'll likely stumble across my passion for cycling. For the past 8 or so years, road cycling has been my primary form of exercise. I love cycling; it keeps me sane, and helps me live a healthier life, while seeing the world. If you haven't been on a bike recently, you should give it a shot - I can't recommend it enough.

Do you have your own Gatsby site? Let's brainstorm a dev.to cross-poster

June 23, 2019

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productivity

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tools

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react

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dev

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gatsby

So, like all good things, the idea for this post comes from a tweet...

I have to tell you about Dependabot 🤖

May 31, 2019

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productivity

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tools

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npm

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javascript

Dependabot is an automation service that will automatically create PRs to keep your projects' dependencies up to date, and it is fucking wonderful.

CSS talk: you should really know about the ch unit

May 17, 2019

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design

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ux

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css

This is an article about CSS and usability. The ch unit in CSS was a revelation for me, and I promise that if you don't know about it already, you're gonna love it.

Promise.allSettled() Pt.2 - it's partly settled!

April 26, 2019

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npm

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javascript

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dev

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react

This is a follow-up to my first post on the upcoming Promise.allSettled() function, coming soon to a node application near you.

Picking apart JavaScript import syntax

April 17, 2019

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javascript

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dev

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npm

Part 2 in a series of posts on destructuring syntax for JavaScript and Node.

Solve* all your problems with Promise.allSettled()

April 12, 2019

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javascript

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dev

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react

Promise.allSettled() is a new API coming to the JavaScript / ES6 standard which can help you more efficiently build node applications that make simultaneous asynchronous API calls

I reclaimed 10GB of disk space from node_modules

April 02, 2019

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javascript

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dev

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tools

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productivity

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npm

If you're not careful, your node projects can start to fill all the spare disk space on your computer. This one weird trick (lol) can help avoid that.

Egg sticker update: We raised $176 NZD!

March 28, 2019

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activism

Last week I posted about some stickers I designed and had put up for sale to benefit victims of the shooting in Christchurch, NZ. They sold out far, far more quickly than I ever would have guessed.

Understanding JavaScript Destructuring Syntax

March 26, 2019

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javascript

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dev

Destructuring syntax in es6 (or es2015, etc) JavaScript is a wonderfully useful bit of the language. It allows you to extract values from an Object and assign them to a new variable in one statement -- but it can be confusing to read.

Quick tip: Here's how to uninstall Postgres from your Mac

March 19, 2019

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dev

Uninstalling Postgres database software from a computer running MacOS isn't super straightforward - this is what I found helpful.

Egg them all.

March 18, 2019

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design

Get yourself some of these eggtastic stickers - 100% of proceeds go to charity!

5 Chrome extensions I use for productivity

March 13, 2019

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productivity

An efficient workday is helped tremendously by having a handful of productivity boosters in your quiver. I use these extensions for Chrome to make my day a little nicer.

My favorite design problem

February 28, 2019

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design

Fancy microphones marketed to podcasters are beautiful devices - but their most important function isn't intuitive at all.

Embracing Prettier

February 25, 2019

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javascript

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react

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dev

Prettier.js is a fantastic way to systemize and automate your project's code style.

It was time.

February 24, 2019

I've got some strong opinions on things - I hope that's okay.