markjgsmith

2023/08/22 #

• I ran out of build minutes, so that's the end of new content on the website until next month. It's the same thing that happened last month. Last month I ended up going on a bit of a coding frenzy. Of course I couldn't test any of the code so I ended up with around 25 feature branches that I then had to merge in once the new billing cycle started and I had a fresh set of build minutes. That merge extravaganza was in a way what led to me running out of build minutes this month.

  This note birthed the blog post: I ran out of build minutes. #

• cat << EOF > I ran out of build minutes

  I ran out of build minutes, so that's the end of new content on the website until next month. It's the same thing that happened last month. Last month I ended up going on a bit of a coding frenzy. Of course I couldn't test any of the code so I ended up with around 25 feature branches that I then had to merge in once the new billing cycle started and I had a fresh set of build minutes. That merge extravaganza was in a way what led to me running out of build minutes this month.

  The silver lining in all this is that I have the new notes feature, which I'm finding really useful. It's also raising lots of questions in my head about frictionless publishing workflows. This month I'm going to try not to write any code while build minuteless. That's harder than you might imagine. The impulse to code is quite strong.

  I'm going to keep publishing links, notes and blog posts though. They will be quite easy to merge back in because you don't tend to get bugs or merge conflicts with prose. There will probably be an increase in spelling mistakes though, as I won't have the opportunity to read back what I've written after publishing.

  These two incidents have highlighted a downside to the current website architecture. Namely that if the build system is blocked for whatever reason, then that not only affects coding new features, but it directly affects adding new content. I spent a while thinking of ways to mitigate that but I haven't managed to come up with a full solution.

  The limited build minutes was the reason why I batch all content updates to once per day. That way the number of build minutes needed is predictable. I'm also looking to optimize the deploy workflow. The npm cache I added hasn't worked for some reason, but I'm confident I'll find a way to speed things up.

  Having said that, the build system could go down for other reasons too. Ideally there would still be a way to publish even if the build system was down, even if it was a slower method. I'm not sure how I could achieve that short of rendering the markdown on the client, and I'd rather not do that. Something to think about I suppose.

  EOF

• I've been meaning to write a blog post about the Vision Pro for several weeks now. It keeps getting relegated on my various todo lists in favour of other more pressing items. I was reminded of this by a Dave Rupert piece that explores why his initial Vision Pro entusiasm is now wanning.

  I'm still kind of excited about the device, but I was always somewhat puzzled by the expectation that this is going to be a mainstream device. A device that folks not on a plane are going to be using to to watch movies and have video conferences. This just seems plain ridiculus to me, especially given the price.

  This note birthed the blog post: The real Vision Pro opportunity. #

• cat << EOF > The real Vision Pro opportunity

  I've been meaning to write a blog post about the Vision Pro for several weeks now. It keeps getting relegated on my various todo lists in favour of other more pressing items. I was reminded of this by a Dave Rupert piece that explores why his initial Vision Pro entusiasm is now wanning.

  I'm still kind of excited about the device, but I was always somewhat puzzled by the expectation that this is going to be a mainstream device. A device that folks not on a plane are going to be using to to watch movies and have video conferences. This just seems plain ridiculus to me, especially given the price.

  I think we are on the cusp of many industries being revolutionized by AI, LLMs, cloud computing, cheap sensors and there is going to be a need for powerful visualisation tools. For these types of industries the price isn't an issue. Traditionally these areas of the econony have not been 'cool'.

  Perhaps the opportunity with the Vision Pro isn't with consumer apps, but with industrial apps. Sectors like construction, interior design, synthetic biology, materials science, big pharma, supply chain management and many others, have money to spend and a need to process large amounts of data in new ways. I see the Vision Pro less as a way to watch movies and more like a welding mask, a speciality device that you use in specific parts of your workflow to accomplish previously impossible data analysis and manipulation tasks.

  Remember there's this other product called the Mac Pro that was introduced quite recently. Top of the line, very powerful. Also very expensive. I bet it would look quite nice as a package with the Vision Pro. They are going to have to figure out some way to make it more attractive given that even high end visual effects artists are happy just using their Mac Books.

  EOF

• Multi-paragraph posts - It occurs to me, having spent much of the week thinking about post length, and whether posts should have titles, that a big change in social media was allowing posts to be multi-paragraph. I'm not sure when it happened exactly. My recollection was that Twitter didn't initially allow multi-paragraph. I'm fairly sure in the first few years I was always posting single paragraphs.

  I'm finding I really like the ability to post multi-paragraphs. It's like that on Mastodon, and Threads too. It makes a big difference in the shape of the thought you can express. It's a small detail, but I think it makes a big difference. #

Today’s links:

• Tailwind, and the death of web craftsmanship - Tailwind is the strangest thing, I keep reading articles saying how bad it is, yet it just seems to be getting more popular. What does that say about CSS? pdx.su #

• Meta may launch a Threads web version early this week - Much needed though I wonder if the ActivityPub features would be more of a draw. My threads usage is way down. I'm mostly posting on Twitter but just because I have more reach there. I find that I quite like posting to Mastodon even though I don't have many followers there yet. It feels safer to invest time in open platforms. www.theverge.com #

• Bringing Sharp to WebAssembly and WebContainers - Honestly I didn't understand much of this, my knowkedge of C / C++ isn't sufficient. However the notion that you can run Nodejs in the browser using WASM is very cool. I'd like to learn more about web containers, but I think I need to read something written for a Nodejs dev. Would I for instance be able to run my static site generator in the browser using web containers? blog.stackblitz.com #

• 🚀 New Post: I ran out of build minutes - Writeup of the latest github build minutes situation, and some thoughts and observations about static sites being reliant on build systems being operational markjgsmith.com #

• If I’m already using React, why should I rewrite my app with Web Components? - Dave Rupert piece about when you should use web components and when you probably shouldn't. daverupert.com #

• 🚀 New Post: The real Vision Pro opportunity - What if the Vision Pro isn't destined for mainstream user adoption? Would that be so bad? Could there be even cooler use cases? markjgsmith.com #

• Enshitternet: The old, good internet deserves a new, good internet - "The disenshittification of the internet isn’t a nostalgic bid to restore the old, good internet. It’s a plan to build a new, good internet, and to make the enshitternet a bad memory, a mere transitional stage between the old, good internet we had and the new, good internet we deserve." doctorow.medium.com #