Blake Watson :prami:

Frontend Engineer at MRI Technologies / NASA. Web tinkerer, wheelchair user, font hoarder, INTJ, Christian.

Public Key

npub16f0eea87flx0hp3l3ram2s6p09z6dg9jpxd25j6tev2kjr57nmrqvuctfn

NIP-05 Address

bw_at_social.lol@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdyhuu7nlyln8msclc37a4gdqhj3dx5zeqnx42fd9uk9tfp60fa3spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsvj6fq8

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub16f0eea87flx0hp3l3ram2s6p09z6dg9jpxd25j6tev2kjr57nmrqvuctfn

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Last Notes

2024-07-07 22:28:35

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@npub168e…nms6 Cool cool. The NFSN forums are pretty good too for NFSN-specific questions. Jeff (jdw) who runs NFSN is good about answering questions. I know some of the quirks but I sometimes have to get help.

2024-07-07 22:14:03

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@npub168e…nms6 Awesome! I do love NFSN even it’s a bit quirky. Feel free to reach out if you need help. https://blakewatson.com/about/#contact-me

2024-06-24 20:18:30

I just turned 39 and ordered some Polo trouser socks. I feel so old.

2024-06-17 20:17:01

I lost the ability handwrite for years now. It’s chief among the things I miss (https://blakewatson.com/journal/things-i-miss/).
I was thinking of collecting scans of old writing samples (I think I have enough) and creating a font as a way to restore my lost handwriting, in a way.
I really don’t know where to start or how difficult it would be to accomplish given that I can’t produce new samples.
If anyone has resources or direction to giv me, I’d appreciate it!

2024-06-11 20:40:33

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 no way. looking…
*searches*
wuuuuuut lmao that’s awesome

2024-05-29 17:35:47

I looked at the clock at exactly 12:34:56

2024-05-29 16:04:18

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@npub1gpq…fnxc Yeah that’s kinda what sparked this post. I can’t use a tablet unfortunately but it looks dope!

2024-05-29 15:59:48

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Update: these “e-ink settings” worked much better on my MBP than on my Studio Display. Seems like it can’t combine the grayscale filter with Night Shift very well.

2024-05-29 14:35:46

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@npub1mdx…45y4 Unfortunately the screenshot ignores some of the display features so it’s not possible. I might try to get a photo at some point.

2024-05-29 04:56:02

I wanted the feeling of an e-ink monitor, and I realized that with the right settings in macOS I could get something close.
https://blakewatson.com/journal/e-ink-mode/

2024-05-27 15:30:15

In HTML, how would you go about marking up something like this?
August 2019–Present

2024-05-24 23:48:25

I’m not saying the term “user” is always bad, but the old joke goes that only industries that call their patrons “users” are drug dealers and tech.
I’ve found myself searching for other words when it makes sense. Are they reading my article? They’re readers. Or if I need to be generic—they’re visitors. Are they paying me? They’re customers or patrons.

2024-05-24 21:34:14

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 As soon as I have a draft ready I’m gonna post it in the omg.lol Discord for feedback. I’ll ping you!

2024-05-24 19:21:13

🙈 I may have purchased another font.

2024-05-24 16:22:31

😅 Furiously writing HTML for People.

2024-05-21 16:20:47

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@npub1y9z…3ykm https://posthaven.com/

2024-05-21 16:17:30

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@npub1qtf…sj5a I’m using Tabnine and I like it. I have difficulty typing (I use an onscreen keyboard) and AI-powered inline completion has really helped me out on the whole.

2024-05-20 22:44:54

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@npub16kf…f4dm Right now it’s all same-y: “Embracing AI!”

2024-05-20 00:46:59

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@npub1qkd…rgyg You probably get like a twelve hour lead time over the people waiting on emails.

2024-05-20 00:43:59

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@npub1qkd…rgyg NERD

2024-05-19 02:59:51

I've made it far enough into my HTML for People tutorial series that I felt comfortable enough to buy the domain name and throw up a landing page.
https://htmlforpeople.com/

2024-05-18 20:25:30

What’s the simplest service to use for a “notify me when this project launches” landing page?

2024-05-18 19:46:32

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@npub1z68…dgr5 No this is great, thanks! The live-updating table of contents is a nice touch.

2024-05-18 18:59:02

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@npub1flv…vy4u This is great. Nice and minimal.

2024-05-18 18:56:11

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@npub16kf…f4dm lol that detail slider is cool

2024-05-18 18:55:06

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@npub1xer…7v6d Whoa that’s neat

2024-05-17 23:50:11

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@npub13wf…lw7h - Invented wheel
- Negotiated peace with rival tribes using spoken language
- Promoted to fire handler

2024-05-17 23:45:29

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@npub13wf…lw7h AOL!

2024-05-17 23:33:52

If you have a version of your resume in HTML, I’d love to see it! For learning/curiosity/inspiration.

2024-05-17 20:02:28

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 Oooh I need to try this

2024-05-17 19:07:46

I wish I knew how the hell emails containing the word “airdrop” multiple times are getting through all THREE of my spam filters.

2024-05-17 04:22:24

What's the easiest way for a non-developer to run a local webserver **on Windows** for serving an HTML website?
I'm looking for something that is as easy as WorldWideWeb for macOS. https://iconfactory.com/worldwideweb/

2024-05-16 17:42:43

Last night I dreamed I was back in high school and the teacher opened the first day of class with “We’re going to be learning web design… and COBOL.”
blinking-guy.gif

2024-05-16 00:36:25

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@npub1y9z…3ykm I was debating adding this style of og images to my site but yeah so far I haven’t seen a process of doing it that seemed worth the effort or the extra dependencies.

2024-05-15 18:26:54

I’m so happy about a longstanding bug that was fixed in macOS Accessibility Keyboard, the built-in onscreen keyboard.
The accessibility keyboard has word prediction similar to how an iPhone does. Problem is, it usually crapped out in browser-based editors (probably because of how weird `contenteditable` regions are).
But in the latest version of Sonoma it’s working beautifully! That means I can now easily write in apps like Obsidian and my own https://write.omg.lol.

2024-05-13 19:14:28

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@npub127m…9daj I don’t think so because I’m inside a module. And even if there was a `post` variable in global scope, it would be overridden by the post in my map callback.

2024-05-13 17:39:16

I keep running into an Eleventy circular reference error but I don’t know why. If anyone is in the Discord, here’s my problem: https://discord.com/channels/741017160297611315/1239618935591141446

2024-05-11 19:42:40

I’m always looking for good CSS named-colors cheatsheets or references. This one is fun. Please send me ones you know of!
https://austingil.com/css-named-colors/

2024-05-10 20:54:16

Does anyone know of a good HTML cheatsheet or reference for beginners?

2024-05-10 02:53:26

NOBODY MOVE
https://media.social.lol/media_attachments/files/112/414/530/121/211/492/original/50940887e19e2b3e.png

2024-05-10 02:19:26

Abilities https://blakewatson.com/about/
JavaScribble. Summon swarms of spaghetti code from thin air and hurl them at the target of your choice. You take 1d8 psychic damage per npm module used. The target exceeds the maximum call stack and is destroyed.
Cascading Soul Siphon. Hex your target with a pseudo-class, shifting them -9999px into an alternate dimension.
Purify. Recite the incantations of the Old Ones—you and your target lose all scripts and styles laying bare your unmitigated hypertext.

2024-05-09 21:45:42

Safari devtools is not letting me uncheck or modify styles. Anyone run into this before?

2024-05-09 01:05:55

I have a chicken and egg problem.
When I publish a blog article I want to include a link to a corresponding Mastodon post. To write the Mastodon post, the article needs to be live. But to publish the blog article, I need the URL to the Mastodon post. But I don’t know the Mastodon post URL until I publish it. Ahhhhh!!
Am I really going to have to deploy my site, post a toot, then turn around and add the link to my site and deploy again? Ugh, there’s got to be a better way.
#SSGproblems

2024-05-09 00:02:51

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@npub18y0…dsym Funny story. I went to share it with my frontend team on Slack and it just so happened my boss was already watching it by chance.

2024-05-08 21:40:03

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@npub18y0…dsym This was great!

2024-05-08 19:02:34

This is the kind of CSS change I enjoy making. Tiny tweaks no one else will notice.
https://media.social.lol/media_attachments/files/112/407/016/306/174/053/original/adcafc4359c0b82f.png

2024-05-07 20:10:36

📝 Working on a post about my new website rebuild that I launched and didn’t say anything about...

2024-05-06 15:12:25

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The answer ended up being to use eleventyConfig.addCollection, which is counterintuitive because in my mind I’ve already “added” it.
But anyway, you can pass a callback, get all the posts in the target collection, then sort how you like.
https://www.11ty.dev/docs/collections/#getfilteredbytag(-tagname-)

2024-05-06 14:27:44

11ty peeps, what’s the simplest way to sort a particular collection by the file slug? #11ty

2024-05-06 01:06:45

It looks like my Rube Goldberg machine for updating my microblog is working. I'm going to write about it at some point.

2024-05-05 16:42:58

I’m playing around with EchoFeed 👀

2024-05-03 19:58:28

RSS peeps: if I were to use htaccess to 301 redirect my old RSS feed to my new one, would people following the old feed still get my new posts?

2024-05-02 17:00:58

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@npub1agr…aayr I think Tot for Mac is pretty juicy https://tot.rocks/

2024-05-02 15:47:55

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@npub18y0…dsym Are these valid in the context of a web component?

2024-05-02 15:29:01

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@npub18y0…dsym Is there a good standalone dom-diffing package to use when rendering a component’s markup? And/or what are some strategies for rendering a template, be it shadow root or not?

2024-04-25 23:42:30

My brother and I did a song swap and wrote reaction posts.
- https://blakewatson.com/journal/song-swap-kayama/
- https://www.mattwatson.org/blog/20240425-song-swap-lilac-wine/

2024-04-25 21:26:37

“The old pencil has a point of view on being a pencil. The new one is like a simulacrum of a pencil.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLwo1kOcwxs

2024-04-25 14:14:09

A thing happens to me on Mastodon that never did on Facebook or Twitter. When I’m not around for a few days I feel kinda bad that I’m not liking/boosting all the cool things yall are writing and making.

2024-04-24 20:48:03

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@npub10yx…8zym Ooh I haven’t heard the live one.

2024-04-24 20:31:19

I’ve been listening to this ODESZA album as an afternoon pick-me-up.
https://album.link/s/0xVucRYJf5luWLekMGYh3i

2024-04-22 16:58:15

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@npub1rjz…lhky well dang I think that was my tenth one that I’m not using (yet). 💀

2024-04-22 16:37:05

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@npub1gg3…u87n Yeah the “simple” static site generator has some real power if you need it.

2024-04-22 15:28:48

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@npub1yd5…4rd8 This is the way

2024-04-22 15:21:20

I may have purchased a new domain name.

2024-04-20 15:48:05

OH: “I should have run for president this year, since I turned 35 last year, but it just seemed like too much of a commitment.”

2024-04-19 20:01:18

I need ideas for my About page on my personal site. What are some interesting ones yall have seen? (Feel free to say your own lol)

2024-04-19 17:44:27

This Last Week Tonight segment about Medicaid is spot on. I’m not too dissimilar from one of the disabled women featured in this segment.
I rely on caregivers to get out of bed every day. I’m able to work only because I have access to this care.
But I’m always worried that one day I’ll find out I’m losing everything. It nearly happened one time on a technicality. Fortunately I was able to course correct. But many aren’t so lucky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVIsnOfNfCo

2024-04-17 17:27:40

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@npub1cad…80uc Only had time to skim atm but saving for later because this looks like a well thought out article and these issues have affected both me and my non-tech-savvy caregivers.

2024-04-17 17:25:19

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@npub1cad…80uc THIS

2024-04-16 22:45:18

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@npub10e4…3sxl Feels like if you add a web app to your homescreen (or dock or whatever) that should count for validation that you as a user would like native capabilities (ie, ok for apps to ask for access).

2024-04-16 22:38:24

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@npub1vmw…2ew0 Yes! I guess I really just mean individualized with a title, presumably in an automated way. But even manual counts for my definition I guess.

2024-04-16 22:02:08

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Which I think is awesome, just to clarify.

2024-04-16 18:01:16

I mean suddenly every open graph image I see is dynamic. But yall all do it differently. Wild.

2024-04-15 18:11:41

How are yall doing these dynamic open graph images? I’m porting/re-aligning my website to @npub1z9m…rz2z and I’d like to upgrade my default boring open graph image.

2024-04-14 03:24:32

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 This is great. I'm not sure yet how I am going to be using EchoFeed and these cool web components, but I'm definitely going to be using them for something.

2024-04-13 16:31:48

One day I’ll be able to implement a CSS counter without looking everything up, but today is not that day.

2024-04-12 19:05:43

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 LOL at this placement
https://media.social.lol/media_attachments/files/112/259/808/585/720/785/original/c368e25ea0f3fdaf.png

2024-04-10 04:26:53

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@npub1cad…80uc Just an update to say that worked. Thanks!

2024-04-10 03:59:30

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@npub1edq…yqk7 _chef's kiss_

2024-04-10 03:37:39

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@npub1cad…80uc oh can I override the default permalink by just putting a permalink function in eleventyComputed?

2024-04-10 03:30:17

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I'm about to implement a universal filter that strips out the numbering. If that's not the right approach somebody stop me.

2024-04-10 02:34:30

11ty peeps, say I have the following:
pages/
- 10-my-first-page.md
- 20-my-second-page.md
- 30-my-third-page.md
I'm setting the permalink thusly:
permalink: "{{ page.filePathStem }}/"
What is the easiest way to get 11ty to ignore the number in the slug that I am using just for sorting purposes? I would like the permalink to be, for example:
/pages/my-first-page/index.html
But currently I get:
/pages/10-my-first-page/index.html

2024-04-09 06:39:11

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@npub1cad…80uc thank you! I had a blast.

2024-04-08 22:14:21

I’m about to go down a rabbit-hole reading about Preact signals. This readme is good but I would also like to see the explain-it-like-I’m-five version.
https://github.com/preactjs/signals

2024-04-08 21:47:08

I recently decided every website I visit should have a giant scrollbar I can easily click and drag. Here’s the medium gray one I came up with that I’m applying as a user style.
It’s mostly for webkit-compatible scrollbars but I did add one rule for FF/standards-compatible scrollbars to prevent scrollbar-width: thin.
https://blakewatson.com/notes/4fd87f0a/

2024-04-08 20:13:17

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 I missed it last year I think so I decided to use the script. I actually forgot again but noticed when I went to my site for something lol.

2024-04-08 20:11:58

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 I think I only disabled CSS but I don’t have much JavaScript anyway.

2024-04-08 20:10:35

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Well it’s April 9th but my script starts early to catch all timezones. It’s April 9 in some places already.

2024-04-08 20:08:14

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@npub1zjx…lcj9 Yeah it’s the 9th but I think my script starts early to hit all the timezones https://css-naked-day.github.io/#developers

2024-04-08 20:02:00

It’s CSS Naked Day! https://blakewatson.com/

2024-04-08 00:41:32

Remember when 960.gs was the GOAT?

2024-04-07 15:04:10

It’s that time of year in the US where you don your ceremonial robes, prepare your incantations, and bring all your wit and wisdom to bear…
…in accurately guessing how much money you owe the government.

2024-04-06 22:42:39

What do people use for deploying/building code these days?
I use DeployHQ and I like it but I’m limited to 10 projects on the lowest tier. Next plan is double the cost so I’m shopping for alternatives because I have a lot of tiny projects.
I’d prefer not to have to write YAML.

2024-04-05 22:57:30

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@npub16kf…f4dm I just started Mistborn.

2024-04-05 18:17:10

An optimistic take on the deluge of AI-generated text: your own human writing becomes rarer and thus more valuable than ever.

2024-03-20 17:40:51

I just got done recording an episode of @npub1z3l…at6y with Dave Rupert and Chris Coyier!
It was fun. Hope yall like trig because there were some tangents. Should be out in a couple weeks.

2024-02-20 03:18:35

I need a recommendation for a budgeting tool that makes it easy to get your transactions into it.
I currently have a Numbers spreadsheet with recurring income and expenses. But there are some estimations here and it’s not giving me a clear enough picture.

2024-02-11 17:59:21

Anyone know how I could get a Windows VM on a cloud somewhere that I can use as a virtual desktop?
I see Azure Virtual Desktop but it’s so heavily targeted at businesses that I can’t figure out what I need as just an individual.

2024-02-08 07:39:22

What is the dead simplest way for a beginner HTML hobbyist to get their website on the internet?

2023-12-12 18:42:14

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@npub1y9z…3ykm yeah I just didn’t know what to name it.