Notices by Nolan (nolan@toot.cafe)

Every time I mess around with sysadmin stuff, I'm always flummoxed by dumb things like "what is the difference between /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin, what the heck is an LD_LIBRARY_PATH, should I use sudo for this build tool or not," etc.). I guess this is how backend devs feel when they have to tweak a Webpack config.

@smallcircles This sounds like an accurate writeup. And yes I do have feelings of loss, but I also feel like I can 1) embrace impermanence, and 2) focus on other enduring outcomes: blog posts, learnings, influence, etc.

And yes, maybe I could have nurtured a community instead of mostly going solo, sure.

@smallcircles I'm not sure though that it's so easy to pass on projects to new maintainers. As @baldur says in "Out of the Software Crisis":

"Software is a temporary garden whose fate is inextricably intertwined with its gardeners. […] What keeps the software alive are the programmers who have an accurate mental model (theory) of how it is built and works."

https://softwarecrisis.baldurbjarnason.com/

New blog post: "Retiring Pinafore" https://nolanlawson.com/2023/01/09/retiring-pinafore/

Probably not going to surprise anyone, but I'm stepping back from Pinafore. Thanks to everyone who followed along with this project over the years!

"The Safari bug that never was" by Oliver Byford https://obyford.com/posts/the-safari-bug-that-never-was/

Reporting bugs on browsers is worth it. I've done it many times, and I've found browser vendors are very grateful for a concise, well-written bug with a minimal repro.

"The state of HTTP in 2022" by @mnot https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-state-of-http-in-2022/

Great overview of what's new and upcoming with HTTP. It's nice to see such a core standard still able to grow and evolve.

I shipped an update to emoji-picker-element adding support for custom emoji fonts. A long-requested feature that I wish wasn't necessary: https://github.com/nolanlawson/emoji-picker-element/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#1150-2022-12-29