Jeremy Keith

Making websites. Writing books. Hosting a podcast. Speaking at events. Living in Brighton. Working at Clearleft. Playing music. Taking photos. Answering email.

Journal 2999 Links 9997 Articles 83 Notes 7138

Friday, September 22nd, 2023

Jessica in full flow on the fiddle playing at a session outdoors. — Playing tunes with Jessica.

Three men playing fiddle, box, and flute together under a gazebo in a town square. — Session in the sun. 🎶 ☀️

A white cat snoozing on the sunny window ledge of a medieval building while a guitarist plays around the corner. — Flamenco y gato.

Thursday, September 21st, 2023

A group of musicians—fiddles, flute, bodhrán, concertina, and more—sitting in a circle round a table outdoors playing and smiling. — Getting stuck in!

Statement on Generative AI | Ben Myers

I endorse this statement.

Inclusive Design 24 (#id24) 21 September 2023 - YouTube

This free day-long online event all about accessibility and inclusive design is happening right now. You can join live, or catch up on the talks that have already happened, like the excellent talks from Russ Weakly and Manuel Matuzović.

Checked in at Asador Carlos V. Lunch on the square — with Jessica

map — Checked in at Asador Carlos V. Lunch on the square — with Jessica

Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

Musicians gathered outside on the steps of a tapas bar. — The Cáceres sessions begin.

Checked in at Taberna El Rincón. Croquetas y vino — with Jessica

map — Checked in at Taberna El Rincón. Croquetas y vino — with Jessica

Jessica at the entrance of the restaurant Atrio. — Jessica around town.

Jessica in the main square where letters spell out: C A C E R E S. — Jessica around town.

Trabaja remoto

August was a month of travels. You can press play on that month’s map to follow the journey.

But check out the map for September too because the travels continue. This time my adventures are confined to Europe.

I’m in Spain. Jessica and I flew into Madrid on Saturday. The next day we took a train ride across the Extremaduran landscape to Cáceres, our home for the week.

This is like the sequel to our Sicilian trip. We’re both working remotely. We just happen to do be doing it from a beautiful old town with amazing cuisine.

We’re in a nice apartment that—crucially—has good WiFi. It’s right on the main square, but it’s remarkably quiet.

There’s a time difference of one hour with Brighton. Fortunately everything in Spain happens at least an hour later than it does at home. Waking up. Lunch. Dinner. Everything is time-shifted so that I’m on the same schedule as my colleagues.

I swear I’m more productive working this way. Maybe it’s the knowledge that tapas of Iberican ham await me after work, but I’m getting a lot done this week.

And when the working week is done, the fun begins. Cáceres is hosting its annual Irish fleadh this weekend.

I’ve always wanted to go to it, but it’s quite a hassle to get here just for a weekend. Combining it with a week of remote work makes it more doable.

I’m already having a really nice time here and the tunes haven’t even started yet.

Checked in at La Minerva. Pulpo! — with Jessica

map — Checked in at La Minerva. Pulpo! — with Jessica

Get it shipped — building better relationships with Devs

This advice works both ways:

Collaboration

Communication

Respect

Tuesday, September 19th, 2023

A (more) Modern CSS Reset - Andy Bell

A solid update to Andy’s four-years old CSS reset. Best of all, every single line comes with an explanation. So if you don’t like the reasoning, don’t use that line.

I don’t want your data – Manu

I don’t run analytics on this website. I don’t care which articles you read, I don’t care if you read them. I don’t care about which post is the most read or the most clicked. I don’t A/B test, I don’t try to overthink my content.

Same!

Looking up at the corners of old rooftops under a blue sky with clouds. — Look to the skies!

Looking up at blue sky and clouds in the gap between two medieval buildings. — Look to the skies!

Checked in at almagesto. Lunch on the square—mogote de cerdo Ibérico — with Jessica

map — Checked in at almagesto. Lunch on the square—mogote de cerdo Ibérico — with Jessica

Tailwind, and the death of web craftsmanship

CSS is better now. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than its ever been, and it’s better than tailwind. Give it another try. Don’t reach for big globs of libraries to paper over the issues you think it has.

This is why it’s so important to re-evaluate technology decisions.

I’ve seen people, lead and principal engineers, who refuse to learn modern JS, insisting that since it was bad in 2006 its bad today. Worse still is some of these people have used their leadership positions to prevent the use of modern JS.

The Unreal Writer - by Joanne McNeil - All My Stars

Joanne McNeil on the retroactive pigeonholing of downright weird sci-fi writers like Philip K. Dick, JG Ballard and Octavia Butler:

The snobbery against science fiction in the past and today’s cartoon icons of some of its weirdest authors comes from the same root: an establishment that doesn’t know how to read or appreciate it.

And she absolutely nails the straitjacketed feeling I get from a lot of new sci-fi that’s laudable in its politics but lacking in other ways:

I suspect those authors are drawn to the genre for the thing that increasingly frustrates me about it: the way science fiction is mined for road maps and potential solutions in real situations of uncertainty and disaster. The way it’s “smart person” literature about systems with hyper-competent protagonists. I’m here for the losers. The losers are my people.

Simon’s rule

I got a nice email from someone regarding my recent posts about performance on The Session. They said:

I hope this message finds you well. First and foremost, I want to express how impressed I am with the overall performance of https://thesession.org/. It’s a fantastic resource for music enthusiasts like me.

How nice! I responded, thanking them for the kind words.

They sent a follow-up clarification:

Awesome, anyway there was an issue in my message.

The line ‘It’s a fantastic resource for music enthusiasts like me.’ added by chatGPT and I didn’t notice.

I imagine this is what it feels like when you’re on a phone call with someone and towards the end of the call you hear a distinct flushing sound.

I wrote back and told them about Simon’s rule:

I will not publish anything that takes someone else longer to read than it took me to write.

That just feels so rude!

I think that’s a good rule.

Older »