markjgsmith

2018/06/30 #

  • How I use my linkblog - finding a git tutorial I watched last year

    Situation:

    I need to commit some changes to my dotfiles, when I do a git diff I see that there are two distinct changes that have been made because I must have forgotten to check the previous change in, no doubt I was distracted by something much more impotant at the time. The world is like that sometimes. Other people are just so me me me sometimes. :)

    I could check these commits in one commit, it's no big deal, they are my dotfiles in any case, it won't matter really. On the other hand I know there is a git command just for this called patch, but I don't use it very often and I don't remember the flow. However I do remember that I watched a tutorial on youtube but it was a long time ago, at least a year. I did post a link to it on my linkblog because it was quite a good video. Might as well learn it now, plus I can write a how to blog post.

    Solution:

    So I open up my linkblog on the search page. I search for: git patch "youtube.com"

    Linkblog search

    Adding the url in quotes returns exact matches for the url. I hit the search button and receive a load of results. I use the browser in page search by doing ctr-f and type 'patch' in the browser search box window that opens in the top right of the browser. I hit enter and all occurrances of patch are highlighted in yellow. Hitting enter a few more times and the focus jumps down the page and BAM there is the tutorial: "Intro to git patch mode tutorial". As an added bonus I notice that there is another video I posted about git patch right above it. Cool!

    Linkblog search results

    I click the cmd-click the domain at the end of the line and a new browser window tab opens up loading the youtube video. Oh so THAT's how to git patch!

    Here is a link to that day in my linkblog timeline. The video was by a chap named John Karey. Thanks for the video John.

  • How I use my linkblog - posting a link to my latest blog post

    Situation:

    Earlier I wrote a how to blog post. It would be nice to add it to my linkblog timeline in case anyone stumbles across my linkblog. Then they might get a better idea of how a linkblog might be useful. It might also be interesting to others that are building software and writing documentation to see my flow.

    Solution:

    I open the post in my web browser, load the blog post I just wrote and click the bookmarklet in my browser bookmarks bar. I added the popup bookmarklet to my browser bookmarks bar when I setup my linkblog account.

    Linkblog popup bookmarklet

    The popup window appears and I add the text "New Post:" to the start of the message text. When I am linking to a blog post I wrote, I always add this prefix so that I can easily search for them later, and it also draws a bit of attention to the link for people that might read my linkblog.

    Linkblog popup bookmarklet edit message text

    I click on the 'Meta' tab and add some tags. While typing the tags, a drop down appears under the tag box to suggest tags that I have previously used in posts. I click the tag in the drop down and it autocompletes the tag in the tag boz or just continue typing and hit enter when I am done typing the tag. Tags can have spaces in them but no underscores.

    I jump back to the main tab and click the "Post Message" button. The window disappears as if it was never there. I open my linkblog and find that a new item has been posted linking to the blog post.

    Linkblog popup bookmarklet add tags

Today’s links:

  • Open Current Folder in Finder from Terminal of Mac OS Xosxdaily.com #

  • Google is retiring the AdWords & DoubleClick brands in a major rebranding aimed at simplificationsearchengineland.com #

2018/06/29 #

Today’s links:

2018/06/28 #

Today’s links:

  • Mark Smith - Founder, freelance web developer and solo developer & small team consultantwww.linkedin.com #

  • Subscriptions are officially cool - Apple reportedly mulling single subscription offering, ala Amazon Primewww.cnet.com #

  • Amazon starts program for entrepreneurs to setup their own company doing last mile delivery - creating an alternative to USPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Servicewww.geekwire.com #

  • 20 Ways to Find Freelance Writing Jobs (As a Beginner)elnacain.com #

  • I've published a gig on Fiverr: Build and Deploy Consultancy for Cloud Applicationswww.fiverr.com #

  • Mastering modular javascript - Module thinking, principles, design patterns and best practices (Nicolás Bevacqua)github.com #

2018/06/27 #

  • Things I learnt as a solo developer building Linkblog.io

    Building a web application as a solo developer ain't easy. There are an insane amount of things that need to be done and an almost unimaginable amount of decisions that need to be made...but it's possible.

    I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect on some of the things that I've learnt along the way:

    • selecting the right technologies
    • setting up consistent development environment
    • using unix/linux tools effectively
    • building a deployment pipeline
    • architecting the app
    • building a scaleable infrastructure
    • testing, linting, logging, debugging
    • securing components
    • scripting and automation
    • setting up server side and client side analytics

    If you are a solo developer / small team just starting out on your building journey, feel free to get in touch tell me a bit about yourself. All these things are very fresh in my mind right now, and I am available for consulting gigs! Investing a bit of time and money now might save you weeks if not months of headaches later down the line.

Today’s links:

  • Some interesting new features in macOS Mojave 10 - Dark mode, stacks, screenshots tool9to5mac.com #

  • Rsync Copy Hidden Dot Files and Directories Only (Why is this so awkward/complex in bash?)www.cyberciti.biz #

  • New AirPods, Apple noise-cancelling headphones pegged for 2019arstechnica.com #

  • Interesting GDPR info: (1) applies to EU citizens at home and abroad, (2) 80 percent of people aren't opting back into email newsletterswww.cnbc.com #

  • Network operator AT&T is acquiring digital advertising company AppNexus to help it compete with companies like Google, Facebook, and Verizonwww.theverge.com #

  • Charter’s gigabit internet service now available in 27 million US homes along the US East Coastwww.theverge.com #

2018/06/26 #

  • Launch on Indie Hackers

    I unnoficially launched Linkblog.io yesterday on Indie Hackers. It's been a long road with a seemingly endless onslaught of showstoppers, but the site is up and running and it's built with a strong architecture, and running on a stable infrastructure with the possibility to scale if necessary.

    Linkblog on Indie Hackers

    There was modest amount of hits from around the globe and I even got a comment, which was at least partially positive. After a few hours I realised that I had no way to differentiate between server-side side and client-side analytics. Oh noes!

    Linkblog seen from around the world

    So today I setup some new views and filters using custom dimensions to show each type of data. Things are looking much better now. :)

    If you're intersted in signing up, there is a promo code on the indie hackers post, your entire first year for the price of a few cups of coffee.

Today’s links:

  • Trump Plans New Curbs on Chinese Investment, Tech Exports to Chinawww.wsj.com #

  • A month after GDPR takes effect, programmatic ad spend has started to recover (consent forms now only block 25% of customers)digiday.com #

2018/06/25 #

Today’s links:

  • Thermostats, Locks and Lights - Digital Tools of Domestic Abusewww.nytimes.com #

  • Homebiogas - easy, clean, climate-friendly way to heat and power your home with garbageboingboing.net #

  • In pictures - Summer and winter solstice celebrationswww.bbc.com #

  • Watch this beautiful tour of Manhattan's Classic Car Clubboingboing.net #

  • DevTube - Like YouTube but with developer videos (site made by Latvian software developers)dev.tube #

  • World Cup 2018 - England put six past Panama to reach last 16www.bbc.com #

2018/06/22 #

Today’s links:

  • Supreme Court lets states force online retailers to collect sales taxwww.reuters.com #

  • Using upstream module: nginx reload not working, restart creates orphan yet active workergithub.com #

  • How to make a modification take affect without restarting nginx?serverfault.com #

  • I conclude following tests that Nginx doesn't do zero downtime config reloads (for load balancers)en.wikipedia.org #

  • Why Lyft is trying to become the next subscription businesswww.wired.com #

  • How YouTube creators are using the platform’s new Patreon-like subscriptionswww.theverge.com #

  • Material Dashboard - free Material Bootstrap Admin with a fresh, new design inspired by Google's Material Designgithub.com #

  • This Wednesday, an EU committee voted to break the Internet: this Sunday, Berliners take to the streets to say NO!boingboing.net #

  • Formspark - A reliable backend for your HTML formsformspark.io #

2018/06/21 #

Today’s links:

  • The White House looks to coordinate online privacy planwww.axios.com #

  • The GDPR and Browser Fingerprinting - How It Changes the Game for the Sneakiest Web Trackerswww.eff.org #

2018/06/20 #

Today’s links:

  • How To Make An Endless Wooden Calendardigg.com #

  • Emotional labor - or feigning feelings at work - taxes some of the deepest parts of the psycheundark.org #

  • Github Stars !== Usage: React is still blowing Vue and Angular Awayzendev.com #

2018/06/19 #

Today’s links:

  • Vue now has more star count than React on Githubtwitter.com #

  • Parcel v1.9.0  -  Tree Shaking, 2x faster watcher, and more! 🚀medium.com #

  • Convenient and dependency free wrapper for working with arrays and objectsgithub.com #

  • Google Podcasts - Google launches a podcast app for Android with personalized recommendationswww.theverge.com #

2018/06/16 #

Today’s links:

2018/06/14 #

Today’s links:

  • A Chip in the Windshield - China’s Surveillance State Will Soon Track Carswww.wsj.com #

  • Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, and Dozens of Other Computing Experts Oppose Article 13www.eff.org #

  • Warning: Pm2 doesn't do log files properly - Log file name is change when reload my appgithub.com #

  • Pm2 - Is there a way to force the log_file to a consistent name?github.com #

  • Even the specialised logrotate module doesn't work - Pm2 logs with huge size using pm2-logrotatestackoverflow.com #

  • Tom Cruise’s healing touch, Nazi Roseanne, and Vanna White’s hooker scandal, in this week’s dubious tabloidsboingboing.net #

  • Stan Lee - Marvel Comics magnate 'subject to elder abuse'www.bbc.com #

  • Surveillance cameras have become a ubiquitous presence in many cities - In Newark, anyone with internet access is allowed to watchwww.nytimes.com #

2018/06/12 #

Today’s links:

2018/06/11 #

Today’s links:

  • ChromeREPL - A SublimeText 3 Plugin to use Chrome as your REPLgithub.com #

  • PlainLogo - free and open source logo maker - put texts, colors and fonts together to craft your appealing logoplainlogo.joytocode.com #

  • 10words - Discover new apps and startups in 10 words or less10words.io #

2018/06/10 #

  • How to get an old jekyll blog active again

    It was actually pretty straight forward. Check that the git remote is still configured, install the jekyll software, follow the instructions in the error messages. I had the dev version of the site back up within a few minutes.

    {% highlight bash %} $ cd $WEBSITES_DIR/blog.markjgsmith.com $ git status On branch master Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'. nothing to commit, working tree clean $ cat .git/config | grep -A 2 remote\ "origin" [remote "origin"] url = https://github.com/mjgs/mjgs.github.io.git fetch = +refs/heads/:refs/remotes/origin/ $ which jekyl $ gem install jekyll bundler $ bundle exec jekyll serve Could not find RedCloth-4.2.9 in any of the sources Run bundle install to install missing gems. $ bundle install $ bundle exec jekyll serve Configuration file: [WEBSITES_DIR]/blog.markjgsmith.com/_config.yml No post given to analyze. Try with -h Source: [WEBSITES_DIR]/blog.markjgsmith.com Destination: [WEBSITES_DIR]/blog.markjgsmith.com/_site Generating... done. Auto-regeneration: enabled for '[WEBSITES_DIR]/blog.markjgsmith.com' Configuration file: [WEBSITES_DIR]/blog.markjgsmith.com/_config.yml Server address: http://0.0.0.0:4000/ Server running... press ctrl-c to stop. {% endhighlight %}

    I'm still a little fuzy on how to add posts. I tried to login to prose.io but the site wanted full access to all my repos on Github...a little excessive. Oh well editing in vim is good enough.

    Last but not least push the changes to github...

    {% highlight bash %} git add * git commit -m "New post: How to get an old jekyll blog active again" git push {% endhighlight %}

Today’s links:

  • Ghost(Pro) Pricing - Hosting from the creators of Ghostghost.org #

  • Spotify Offers Managers, Artists Advances to License Music Directly to Its Streaming Servicewww.billboard.com #

  • How to Setup and Manage Log Rotation Using Logrotate in Linuxwww.tecmint.com #

2018/06/09 #

Today’s links:

2018/06/08 #

Today’s links:

2018/06/06 #

Today’s links:

  • The Cult of the Complex - Somehow, over the years “don’t use a div when you mean a p” got corrupted into “divs are bad.”alistapart.com #

  • What does the plus sign do in '+new Date' (javascript unary operator)stackoverflow.com #

  • The cursor property in CSS controls what the mouse cursor will look likecss-tricks.com #

  • Git with a cup of tea, painless self-hosted git servicegithub.com #

  • Johnny Knoxville Takes A Walk Down Memory Lane, Recounting The Most Painful Injuries Of His Careerdigg.com #

2018/06/02 #

Today’s links:

  • Apple to debut tools to let two iPhone users share augmented reality while limiting the personal data sent to its serverswww.reuters.com #

  • Microsoft is reportedly talking about buying GitHub last valued at $2 billionwww.cnbc.com #

  • Self-Driving Cars Can Now Pick Up Passengers in California - But Only for Free Ridesgizmodo.com #

  • Instagram’s explains how it's feed algorithm works after user backlashtechcrunch.com #

  • Google 'to end' Pentagon Artificial Intelligence projectwww.bbc.com #

  • Can tree planting stop Uzbekistan's toxic sands?www.bbc.com #

  • Are you scared yet? Meet Norman, the psychopathic AIwww.bbc.com #

  • Piano lessons from Mikael Jorgensen of Wilco - The unstable A flat 7 #11 Chordwww.youtube.com #

  • Tales from the far-flung Faroes - The people who live on remote rocks in the North Atlanticwww.bbc.co.uk #

2018/06/01 #

Today’s links:

  • Google spinoff Waymo orders 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica minivans increasing it's fleet of self-driving minivans by 100 timeswww.theverge.com #

  • Telegram CEO says Apple is blocking Telegram updates worldwide9to5mac.com #

  • Fake reviews now generally necessary to do business onlineboingboing.net #

  • ICANN's Pre-emptive Attack On The GDPR Thrown Out By Court In Germanywww.techdirt.com #

  • California Senate votes to reinstate Net Neutrality, now it goes to the State Assemblyboingboing.net #

  • President Xi on innovation independence - "Self-reliance basis for the struggle of Chinese nation to stand on its own footing in the world"www.theregister.co.uk #

  • Is the European Union a 'protectionist racket'?www.bbc.com #

  • Buddha Park - sculpture park southeast from Vientiane, Laos in a meadow by the Mekong Riveren.wikipedia.org #

For enquiries about my consulting, development, training and writing services, aswell as sponsorship opportunities contact me directly via email. More details about me here.