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.
Micros
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
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.
- Instantly dry after bathing.
- So much cooler temperature-wise.
- Hair stays out of one’s face/eyes without the need to tie it up.
- Doesn’t get tangled nor require as much care.
- Especially when freshly shaven, extra sensations can be felt. I had an old maths teacher who swore he could forecast the weather, but more realistically, being able to feel air vortexes when walking through doors can be expected.
- In the same vein as the previous, a shower stream on a freshly shaved head feels orgasmic.
Of course, there are also downsides.
- There is social stigma surrounding being bald, especially for men who might be made fun of for male pattern baldness, though I’ve copped a fair few undesired comments as a teenager.
- It is horrifically easy to be sunburnt.
- Takes effort to maintain.
- Head stubble is surprisingly grippy and can catch on things.
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!
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.
I think the main reason I prefer e-readers to paper books (beyond my love for e-ink as a technology) is the fact that I can bring up the definition and etymology of a word.
Of course, not having to prop open the book I’m reading while lying semi-comatose is another benefit.
I kinda miss the days when sites would get complete redesigns pretty much annually. It kept the web feeling fresh and cutting edge.
I suppose it was simpler to do everything over when all it took was a bit of hacking away with HTML and CSS.
Google has a secret ‘Forums’ tab that exclusively returns results from forums and discussion boards. You just need to append the query “udm=18” to the URL.
e.g https://www.google.com/search?q=JPEG+XL&udm=18
Further, and as you’re likely aware, you can use “utm=14” for a simpler set of results devoid of cruft such as knowledge panels and AI slop. It is reminiscent of the Google of old.
Usually it’s infuriating, but sometimes it can be fun to write CSS within the constraints of existing, untouchable HTML.
Does Flexbox still feel really new to anyone else?
It is like my concept of “new CSS things” just broke at some point.
Ever met someone who hates melted cheese? No? Exactly!
Somehow I reckon’ we could harness this power to achieve world peace.
I thought selling body parts was illegal, but apparently ARM stock is at an all-time high…
Cleaned up and sorted out my RSS and JSON Feeds again to reflect recent site updates.
No wonder my battery life has been terrible lately. I’ve had the full Revolt Chat stack running Dockerised in the background for the past half week….
Sometimes I’m just too lazy to use the shortcuts and automation that’d make things quicker and less labour intensive.
Friendly reminder you can chuck document.designMode = "on"; in your browser console, and it’ll let you directly edit the text of the current page.
I was thinking about the other future today. The one where Microsoft didn’t get done for having a monopoly, and we all searched the web using Bing via Internet Explorer.
Just spent 5 minutes on CodePen wondering why my CSS wasn’t working.
postion: absolute
Hurrr
It’s fortunate my 3D printer is so slow. I can’t fathom the amount of crap my house would be filled with if it was any faster.
I misinput a value in one of my recent articles, so it stated the post was revised in February rather than January.
Out of the thousands of viewers, only one person caught it and pointed this out to me.
It is so important to get fresh eyes on things and to seek feedback.
Remember: For every person who reports an issue, there are likely dozens or hundreds (or even thousands) who noticed but stayed quiet.
https://pointersgonewild.com/2019/11/02/they-might-never-tell-you-its-broken/
My photos just hit 50K views on Unsplash! Gotta be happy with that!
I wish there was a way to git diff life so I could see what has happened between yesterday and today.
Bad AI-generated images are a guaranteed way to cheapen your content and drive away users. Creating high-quality visual content is essential for engaging your audience. Take the time to make something good, or don’t bother at all. Quality matters.
I put together a photography page on my site. It contains photos I have taken. You will now click the below link and view these photos. You will enjoy the experience.
Just posting this here for no specific reason at all.
My writing once again made the front page of Y Combinator’s Hacker News yesterday!
I shared my journey exploring human-technology integration through a fascinating procedure: getting one of Dangerous Things’s bio-magnets implanted in my hand.
Check out my full article here: https://vale.rocks/posts/my-experience-biohacking
For those that missed it, I got a magnet implanted in my hand. It’s pretty rad.
My write-up is currently on the front page of Hacker News, but you can read it here:
https://vale.rocks/posts/my-experience-biohacking
In the same vein as “Is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all?” I propose:
Is it better to make something and have it scraped for an AI or to have never made anything at all?
My links page has been going really well!
- My analytics show consistent visits, which indicates to me that people are coming back to check out more cool sites.
- I’ve been enjoying exploring all my bookmarks and archives to add to it.
- People are checking out cool, unique websites.
😀 🤪 🤩
I had a great time building the website for Revolt’s Mutant Remix emoji pack! The project was all about blending creativity with functionality to showcase these fun and quirky emojis. It’s great fun capturing that energy in a site!
I designed and developed the site using my static site generator, Adduce, creating a simple, accessible layout that captures the playful spirit of the pack. It was a fun challenge to bring the emojis to life online!
Check out the website here: https://mutant.revolt.chat
Just started compiling some of my favourite blogs on my site. (I may or may not have lost my previous collection of RSS feeds…)
I’m certain I’m missing tons, so please let me know of your favourites!
Were you all just gonna let me keep on living without telling me about the rch unit?
This is so insanely useful for one specific thing I ended up fixing with JS the other day.