Journal

A recent issue of the dConstruct newsletter about choosing more ethical online services really chimed with me at a time when I’ve been reflecting on my online habits.

Clearleft produce an excellent regular technology-based newsletter – dConstruct – to which I heartily recommend subscribing.

A recent issue compared online services in the gig economy – such as Uber, Deliveroo and AirBnB – plus music services Spotify and Bandcamp, and considered the relative ethics of each with respect to the extent they exploit the sellers in their “marketplace”. For example, which services let the seller set the price? AirBnB do, and so do Bandcamp. But not so Uber and Spotify.

The success of services like Bandcamp – which is far more profitable to lesser-known producers than the likes of Spotify – show that we don’t need to follow the crowd and can make better choices about the online services we use.

I’ve used Bandcamp more than usual in 2020 because I like the way they are actively supporting artists during a difficult period. I also like the convention that when you buy a vinyl release, the digital is also bundled free.

I’m currently typing this post in a Firefox tab and have been making an effort to switch (back) to it from Chrome, for a less invasive browsing experience.

I use DuckDuckGo rather than Google search when I remember, and have recently made it the default “address bar search” tool in Firefox which should help break old habits.

As for Facebook, Twitter and other time-draining, sometimes harmful social media platforms, well, I’m weaning myself off those and recently wrote about how I’m using Feedbin to aggregate news and updates.

I don’t know about you, but I find it helpful to do a periodic health check on how I’m using the internet, and see where I can make better choices.

While bookmarking the mastery.games article yesterday, I started getting the feeling that something was awfully familiar. It was! I’ve seen this layout before – from Tyler Sticka back in 2017 to be precise – but failed to bookmark it at the time.

Here, then, is the original and still the best CSS Grid “article with breakout images” layout!

I particularly love the way that, by naming the lines and appending -start and -end as appropriate you can then target the area between those lines using its short name.

.Prose {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 
    [full-start] minmax(1em, 1fr) 
    [main-start] minmax(0, 40em) [main-end]
    minmax(1em, 1fr) [full-end];
}

.Prose > * {
  grid-column: main;
}

.Prose-splash {
  grid-column: full;
}

Beautiful ambient textures and downtempo electronics with that typically quirky Japanese flavour. if you like Ryuichi Sakamoto or Apogee & Perigee, you’ll love this. Favourite track: Correndor. https://bit.ly/2Hpu8ol

Very clever responsive <article> layout (with gutters and breakout images) achieved using CSS Grid, minmax(), the ch unit and a minimum of fuss. It scales automatically from narrow to wide viewports with no auto margins, max-width or media query manual overrides in sight.

For the blog post page (the page you're looking at right now) I wanted a mobile-friendly layout where the text was centered and readable, where the images/code examples are wide.

The gist of it is this:

.post {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns:
    minmax(1.2rem, 1fr)
    minmax(auto, 57ch)
    minmax(1.2rem, 1fr);
}

Simple and deadly.

I can potentially see this as a pattern, or layout primitive, rather than just as something you might use at the top-level of the page for overall layout. I’m looking forward to trying it out!

(via Ahmad Shadeed)

I just watched “Larry’s Garage” – a film by Corrada Rizza about the visionary New York DJ, Larry Levan and the legendary nightclub he called home.

Unfortunately there’s generally precious little footage of the infamous New York club and what they included I’d seen before, but there was some nice previously unseen interview footage with Larry Levan and overall, although I wasn’t blown away, I enjoyed it.

Lovely radio show including an interview with @firecracker_rec and mix from @WeeDjs.

Bookshop was dreamed up by the writer and co-founder of Literary Hub, Andy Hunter. It allows independent bookshops to create their own virtual shopfront on the site, with the stores receiving the full profit margin – 30% of the cover price – from each sale. All customer service and shipping are handled by Bookshop and its distributor partners, with titles offered at a small discount and delivered within two to three days.

(via @RyanSoulbhoy)

Lovely house mix from my friend Jamie.

Lots of good stuff in here, with plenty I don’t know plus a few classics from Crustation (Mood 11 Swing’s mix of Flame) and Chez ’n’ Trent.

Genius!

Just finished my 6K run for FreeAgent’s “Big Strides for Tiny Changes” charity campaign.