An LCD screen through a microscope.
A sheet of sandpaper through a microscope.
Given the recent hubbub regarding Firefox, I know a lot of people are looking for another browser.
I want to take this opportunity to remind you that almost everything out there is based on Chromium and that this gives Google a dangerous power over our web. Google has a near-complete monopoly – don’t play into it.
https://vale.rocks/posts/everything-is-chrome
Further on this topic, I see a lot of people switching to Vivaldi, which, as well as being built on Chromium, isn’t fully open source.
https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser-open-source
I’m currently on an 8mbps connection and it is times like these I am glad I spend hours optimising and refining my websites.
Who is working on porting all the PowerPoint transitions to the browser for use with the View Transition API?
When children express objectionable views, we’re quick to ask, ‘Where did they pick that up from?’, ‘What have they been watching?’, or ‘Who told them this?’.
Perhaps we need to ask the same regarding adults.
I is never me, for me is always us.
Every facet of thought builds on the inspiration and input of others – never forget it.
New post published:
Strong Opinions on URL Design
i-have-some-thoughts
A collection of strong opinions on URL design and structure covering topics including use of capitalisation, use of IDs, spaces, hyphens instead of underscores, trailing slashes, hierarchy, and other gripes and particulars I hold.
https://vale.rocks/posts/strong-opinions-on-url-design
Let’s put this masonry debate to rest. I propose we replace grid with masonry altogether. Think about how much trendier everything will be.
Something about this makes me uncomfortable in a way I struggle to articulate in words.
If you make a CSS centring joke in the modern era, you deserve to be put in a metal flexbox and centred in the middle of the ocean.
My magnet implant is super sensitive at the moment. I can feel the magnets in my laptop chassis as I type this.
Wonder what is causing it and if it is permanent.
This is really wack. It is so much more sensitive. I can easily sense a field from double the distance I could yesterday.
I’ve palpated the area and can’t feel any physical difference. Really odd.
Speakers of English (traditional) rejoice, for I have fixed CSS. You can sleep easy knowing that there exists an easy way to permit writing ‘colour’ as ‘colour’.
BritCSS is a simple bit of client-side JS that permits using English spellings.
Always fun to put together small things like this because I inevitably learn something I didn’t know.
A weathered, pitted statue of a person carrying something.
A porcelain rooster bathed in candle light.
I’ve got YouTubers reacting to my writing and AI podcasts discussing it.
I’ve really made it now…
I was working with Three.js today, and I noticed they’ve got a navigation item called ‘GPT’ in the sidebar of their site.
Clicking it takes you to a ChatGPT GPT called ‘Three.js Mentor’. First time I’ve seen something like this. Feels odd.
I had a vision.
The CSS Masonry angel came down from the heavens and addressed me. I made to speak, but it reached out a single slender finger and touched it to my lips to hush me. “Soon,” it said with the voice of a choir. “Soon.”
I build on the web but, more importantly, I build for the web.
Tonight, on Hacker News.
Vale posts a comment on a thread about Kindle hacking and writes the word gaol as ‘gaol’ rather than ‘jail’.
Everyone loses their minds. Insults are hurled. Riots in the streets.
More at 9.
My links page has ballooned to some 300+ items – not including the YouTube playlist – so I’ve split it up and added descriptions to some things. Enjoy!
AI is Stifling Tech Adoption has seen response beyond anything I’ve ever written before and has prompted some really interesting discussion.
In particular, I’ve enjoyed Jared White’s take in his article on That HTML Blog.
https://thathtml.blog/2025/02/we-need-to-talk-about-anti-web-coding-assistants
Just redesigned my website’s landing page as it was starting to feel a tad stale. I blame Shellsharks for prompting this with their recent redesign.
That feeling when you setup a custom GitHub Action workflow and it works first time.
Salma Alam-Nayor’s recent writing and discussion of ‘copy codeblock’ buttons and their accessibility benefits has prompted me to finally get around to adding them to Vale.Rocks.
I also finally got around to adding syntax highlighting, which was long overdue.
Have a look on my Lorem Ipsum page:
https://vale.rocks/posts/lorem-ipsum#codeblocks
Contributed to DOGE's Website Is Just One Big X Ad on WIRED.
Provided reference regarding technical details of the Department of Government Efficiency website.
New post published:
AI is Stifling Tech Adoption
AI coding assistants are React evangelists.
AI language models are shaping technology adoption in software development through training data limitations and system prompt biases. This analysis examines how AI assistants' preferences for established frameworks like React and Tailwind CSS may be creating barriers for newer technologies, supported by testing across major AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek. A look at the growing AI knowledge gap and its impact on technological innovation in modern software development.
https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-is-stifling-tech-adoption
position: sticky is one of those CSS things I can never get first time. Try as I might, I always end up flubbing around with it.
CSS crimes are the best crimes.
I just shaved my head down to bald again. This marks my fourth time doing so, the past three being in aid of the Leukaemia Foundation, for whom I raised a few thousand dollars.
I figured I’d note some of the benefits, especially those I’ve noticed after some two years since my last haircut.
Of course, there are also downsides.
If you ever feel useless, just remember that some chocolate has resealable packaging.
Sure, sex is great and all, but have you ever felt a shower stream on a freshly shaved head?
To the tune of Devo’s Beautiful World.
It’s a beautiful web we log on to,
A realm of quiet art–
Handcrafted pages and thoughtful words
Where each voice leaves its mark.
Makes me want to say…
It’s a beautiful web,
It’s a beautiful web,
It’s a beautiful web
For you, for you, for you.
It’s a great time for creation,
A moment to truly share;
Mindful code and written dreams
All built with honest care.
Makes me want to say…
It’s an uplifting space,
It’s an uplifting space,
It’s an uplifting space
For you, for you, for you.
Hey!
Tell me, what do you see?
Introverts bathed in LCD light,
Finding meaning in the night.
Hey, hey!
It’s a beautiful web we log on to,
A realm of quiet art–
Handcrafted pages and thoughtful words
Where each voice leaves its mark.
Makes me want to say…
It’s a beautiful web,
It’s a beautiful web,
It’s a beautiful web
For you, for you, for you.
It’s not for me.
(It’s a beautiful web) For you
(It’s a beautiful web) For you
(It’s a beautiful web) For you
(It’s a beautiful web) Not me–
(It’s a beautiful web)…
Put together a fresh website and new branding for my Revolt moderation bot AutoMod.
Dipped my toes a little into experimenting with Material 3 styling.
I dunno why tens of people have been accessing my website with legacy Microsoft Edge, but, if you’re one of them, I hope you know I’m going to have to kill you.
I’m sorry, that’s just the way it goes. You brought this upon yourself.
It came to my attention that my search wrapper was broken on Windows.
I have now fixed this (and added more providers).
Happy searching!
A Blue Periwinkle on a pitted rock.
A panorama of Boranup Forest's trees and scrub.
Looking through the trees at Boranup Forest.
A set of rocks forming a pool and window of the ocean.
A grasshopper sitting on a grey tub.
A tiny waterfall going over a rock.
A New Holland Honeyeater sitting on a chair.
A rearview mirror reflecting the roadside.
Waves smashing around a rock at a beach.
My mate Clarrie started a YouTube channel and has been putting out some awesome videos about making and using various weapons.
Go give him a watch and follow!
I do rather enjoy the funny run business people do when they’re late for their bus.
Linus knew exactly what he was doing when he called the command “git blame”.
Was eating dinner and various cables and USBs kept getting stuck to the magnet in my hand.
Such a first-world cyborg problem.
(I’ve just realised this honestly sounds like some sort of satire and not an actual experience I had.)
Nothing makes me want to commit genocide quite like an editor auto-closing my HTML tags.