It has been 15 weeks since my last week notes and in that time I...
went to London with Dave Guarino, then Bucharest and Amsterdam with Alex.
went to a bunch of conferences (Fronteers, JSCampRO, JAMStack San Francisco, Chrome Dev Summit) and generally hung out with more nerds than I have for a while. Probably don’t need to go to anymore for a year or two, tbh.
hired some very wonderful new folks at work that start in the new year for the front-end team.
created a “life hack” that consists of using android’s “focus mode” as a way to turn off all work related apps on my phone after 5pm. The mode is supposed to be used to turn off all the fun things you do on your phone, but actually it’s not the fun things that are the problem - it’s mostly Slack chipping slowly away at the last of my sanity that I need to do away with.
got a library card! I think that means I’m a local now. I don’t know if this exists back home in the UK, but here you can rent e-books from your local library and read them on your kindle for free without ever having to actually go to an actual library. It’s brilliant, but I’m curious about how Amazon is taking advantage of this otherwise very friendly social feature.
got Switch Ring Adventure, which looks completely stupid, but it’s REALLY hard and I’ve been using muscles that I’ve definitely never used before. It’s much harder than the Switch Fit Boxing that I’ve been doing so far (and this month I’m challenging myself to do one or the other every single day in December).
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and although Alex’s recent slide is a bit full on, it’s not entirely wrong.
I think what he should have said was that Responsive Web Design alone has failed so far in keeping the web at the forefront of users experiences where most users are most of the time -- on mobile. Of course, that’s much more nuanced than he had time for in his talk, but if that is a goal of RWD then it has failed. If the goal of RWD is just to be a practice to making things visually work on different screen sizes, then gold stars all around.
Responsive web design in and of itself is a really smart way to think about developing sites, assuming that you’re taking it from the mobile-first strategy. It’s been a while since I’ve come across a major digital service that hasn’t had a mobile-optimised layout of some nature, so I think on the whole that’s worked. Although, I have to ask where the "so focused on mobile they didn’t bother with a desktop optimisation" crew are - I sort of expected that to happen, but I’ve not yet hit a serious site that has a mobile-only view and presents that to it’s end users on desktop as a fallback. I have, however, seen buckets of splash screens that block me entirely and point me at the native app as the exclusive and only way to access their content and services. That’s scary.
What’s lacking about the responsive web design story is it has always focussed so heavily on the visual, dimensional, aspects of digital design. What are the snap points? How do we scale the images, the text? Can we trim content for some or enhance for others?
As a movement, it’s failed to capture the true otherness of being on a small screen. The fact that CPU, memory, network speed, storage and so many other aspects need to be first-level concerns. I’d argue that for most sites, the compromise for small screen devices has gone about as far as the ever-maligned hamburger menu and largely stopped there.
What I think I, and folks like Alex and Jeremy, who are fearful of the future of the Open Web really want to see is the sort of design work that Jad spoke about at Fronteers. That deep, close, observation of what our users _really_ expect on their devices - given that a majority of their experiences are with native apps and we’re trying very much to slip in our non-native experiences and pass them off as as reliable, integrated and valuable as those. RWD also isn’t taking us into where people find their online experiences (app stores). It could, but it needs to be tightly coupled with a strong PWA game with Trusted Web Activities, for example.
So, in short, RWD didn’t fail so much as it stopped short. Let’s not bicker about the specifics and just focus on getting out of our doom loop, eh?
I really, really, want a furry pet, but Alex is very allergic to almost everything (including most of the trees and grasses in California) so we're not able to have pets, unless they're behind glass.
Aibo ERS-1000
The aibo is part 2 of the very nicest thing that Alex has ever done for me.
Part 1 is that he's doing sublingual immunotherapy to hopefully relieve him of his symptoms (I mean, I say it's for me, but honestly his life would be drastically improved dog-or-not), but because the process can take years to be effective, the robo-dog is a placeholder until the day we can maybe a adopt a warm-blooded version.
I'll probably write more about the dog on Sensors and Sensibility in a few weeks once we're more familiar with how it works. He's pretty adorable, though.
I've become one of those people who gets angry about plastic straws and I know that it's not going to save the planet and governments have to set policies that stop companies using so much trash, yadda yadda, but it at least gives one a new high-horse on which to ride since I already don't eat animals and I have a reusable mug.
Monica suggested I start a blog, but that sounds like work so here's a bunch of plastic/trash reducing replacements I have tried.
Good
Dropps - they're plastic-free dishwasher tablets and washing machine detergent. I like them. They work well and they come in cardboard boxes instead of plastic tubs and don't have any unnecessary tasty-looking dyes in them. I also got their wool dryer balls and stopped buying dryer sheets because they work just as well.
Dental Lace Floss. It goes in the compost and you can refill the jar forever. Also, I floss now.
Some Lush. They have tons of packaging free products but I only like some of them - the shampoos are good and I really like the scrubee. The conditioner and face wash bars make me feel all waxy though, so still looking for good alternatives.
Composting. I got a little compost bin that I keep in the freezer so it doesn't smell bad and line it with compostable bags. I then either put it in our green bin or in our little home composter. It's great! I throw as much as I can in that.
Who Gives a Crap. Like Alice, I thought it was some dumb gimmick, but it's really good! I didn't know loo roll had to be wrapped in some way for like hygiene and moisture reasons, so know I know that I'd much rather they be wrapped in pretty compostable paper over plastic. Plus, they use bamboo instead of trees. I also get their boxes of tissues (fine) and kitchen paper too (not as good as fancy brands but I'll cope).
Cloth napkins. I have loads of fancy napkins and we just use those instead of being trash people who use disposable kitchen paper when we eat. It feels better.
Beekind wax paper. Brilliant. Great for wrapping up little bits of left over things and the bread one seems to keep my home-made bread fresh for longer than a plastic bag.
Pelacase phone cases. I love my yellow one with bees on it and kinda can't wait to throw it in my composter.
Meh
Bite toothpaste tablets. I want to like these but they just don't make my teeth feel clean. I also want to like their mouthwash, but I'm on a fluoride mouthwash right now (I have a soft bit on a tooth and am under strict dentist instructions) and none of the tablet forms have that.
Cleansely. I was so hopeful for this, but they're clearly just one or two dudes working on it who don't quite have their stuff together yet. They are little shampoo and hand wash tablets that you put into water to make up whole bottles of liquid soap. I ordered some, but they were so badly packaged they exploded in transit and I basically got delivered a box of snot.
Kjaer Weis. They're fancy makeup that is refillable and I wanted to like them and they're on every bloody list of "eco friendly makeup", but it was very underwhelming for the cost. I really just want the mascara to work, which it doesn't. I should probably just get less vain, but I did learn that you can send used mascara wands to an organisation that uses them to clean wildlife!
Bad
Brushette. I think I got the wrong end of the stick with this one. I thought they wanted to use less plastic so you'd make less waste, but actually they just want you to buy more brush heads (like, even so far as buying enough for a new one every day). Their recycling scheme doesn't actually exist yet and the heads are packaged in non-recyclable crisp-packet like foil. Strong pass.
Humankind. I got their shampoo and their deodorant. The shampoo stripped my hair and the deodorant doesn't really work. Like, I could tolerate having to reapply it more often in exchange for plastic-free but the refills (they call them kindfills 🤮) actually do contain plastic in the hygiene cap and inner turn mechanism.
My San Franiversary was this last week, so it must be week 312 or so.
6 years! That flew by. Some summaries and findings:
San Francisco still sucks. I actively dislike the "city". It's really small and badly designed, lacks the proper transit network a real city would have and refuses to build anything new so that people can actually find homes. It literally smells bad (either pot or pee) and the insane disparity between the mega rich and the super poor on the streets is actively depressing, and everyone works in tech. I continue to look forward to the day I can leave.
On the plus side, I am very fortunate - Alex and I found the perfect place for us in Bernal where I can hang out with the wild birds and breathe the fresh foggy air. I have a good job and good friends, curiously made up largely of Canadians with a few Aussies and Japanese folks thrown in there.
I've made almost no close American friends who weren't immigrants in someway before they got here.
I have resisted learning how to drive - or rather, I did try to learn to drive a couple of summers back (I know how to operate a car, but I did not pass a test) but I discovered I hate it and don't understand how people can operate heavy vehicles at speed. It's terrifying. The over-under is I still can't legally drive and it's made me a nervous passenger. I continue to hope that the Bay is the kind of place that'll get autonomous cars early.
I got my US citizenship and I'm looking forward to my first general election voting opportunity next year.
I really miss a proper selection of crisps, biscuits and M&S sandwiches. If you ever visit me, the room & board will cost you a packet of Walker's prawn cocktail and some chocolate bourbons.
