added some drafts and post on making websites boring

10 files changed, 268 insertions, 15 deletions

diff --git a/cv.html b/cv.html
index ab4318f..fbb5561 100644
--- a/cv.html
+++ b/cv.html
@@ -15,24 +15,19 @@
     <label for="git">Git</label>
     <a id="git" href="https://git.53hor.net">git.53hor.net</a>
 
-    <p>
-      This document is available in
-      <a href="https://www.53hor.net/cv.html">HTML</a> or as a
-      <a href="https://www.53hor.net/cv.pdf">PDF</a>.
-    </p>
-
     <hr />
     <h2>Summary</h2>
 
     <p>
-      I am a computer programmer who has been developing and maintaining web
-      applications and services since 2018. I have also been providing systems
-      administration services and technical learning assistance since 2016.
+      I am a computer programmer who has been developing and maintaining native
+      and web applications since 2018. I have also been providing system
+      administration services and technical mentoring since 2016. I aim to
+      create simple, performant, and well-documented software with no surprises.
     </p>
 
     <p>
-      I am fluent in Rust, C#, Python, JavaScript, Bourne Shell, and HTML. I am
-      also familiar with Java, PHP, C, C++, TypeScript, and PowerShell.
+      I am fluent in Rust, C#, Python, JavaScript, Bourne Shell, and HTML+CSS. I
+      am also familiar with Java, PHP, C, C++, TypeScript, and PowerShell.
     </p>
 
     <hr />
@@ -40,7 +35,7 @@
 
     <h3>Software Development</h3>
     <h3>Systems Administration</h3>
-    <h3>Technical Leadership</h3>
+    <h3>Technical Mentoring and Leadership</h3>
 
     <hr />
     <h2>Experience</h2>
@@ -48,13 +43,32 @@
     <ul>
       <li>
         Automatic Data Processing | Application Developer | June 2018 to present
+        <ul>
+          <li>
+            Angelshark saved money (dial plan tool, password rotator, termed
+            user cleanup, monitoring), got it open-sourced
+          </li>
+          <li>Narwhal reverse proxy for authentication, security</li>
+          <li>Technical mentoring and knowledge sharing</li>
+        </ul>
       </li>
       <li>
         Freelance | Web Application Designer & Developer | July 2019 to present
+        <ul>
+          <li>Delivered results ahead of schedule</li>
+          <li>Quickly adjusted course for shifting requirements</li>
+        </ul>
       </li>
       <li>
         The College of William and Mary | Technology Support Specialist |
         February 2015 to May 2018
+        <ul>
+          <li>
+            Worked directly with customers to diagnose issues and install and
+            configure software
+          </li>
+          <li>Accepted requests in person and remotely</li>
+        </ul>
       </li>
     </ul>
 
@@ -71,5 +85,10 @@
         2014)
       </li>
     </ul>
+
+    <hr />
+    <h2>About Me</h2>
+
+    <p>...</p>
   </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/drafts/2021-reading-list.html b/drafts/2021-reading-list.html
index 529bb84..46d4707 100644
--- a/drafts/2021-reading-list.html
+++ b/drafts/2021-reading-list.html
@@ -5,4 +5,5 @@
   <li>Sachar, Louis. <em>Holes</em></li>
   <li>Steinbeck, John. <em>The Pearl</em></li>
   <li>Fitzgerald, F. Scott. <em>The Great Gatsby</em></li>
+  <li>Wells, H.G. <em>War of the Worlds</em></li>
 </ul>
diff --git a/drafts/altrustic-angelshark.html b/drafts/altrustic-angelshark.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f90bb86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/altrustic-angelshark.html
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+I finally got the chance to open source a long-term project from work and
+release it into the outside world.
diff --git a/drafts/make-your-web-site-look-boring.html b/drafts/make-your-web-site-look-boring.html
deleted file mode 100644
index c8cd03a..0000000
--- a/drafts/make-your-web-site-look-boring.html
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-<h1>Make Your Web Site Boring!</h1>
-
-- functional - not disctracting - tasteful - readable no javascript? no runtime!
diff --git a/drafts/stack-end-devs.html b/drafts/stack-end-devs.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7520133
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/stack-end-devs.html
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+slightly peeved we are not full stack developers, we are not front- or back-end
+developers. we are computer programmers trying to solve a problem. that problem,
+specifically is to automate, or reduce manual touch-time for a variety of tasks.
+we are not mature enough as a team to be discussing our team's brand. we don't
+even have one product as a team. we don't focus on one vs the other, we're focus
+on making problems go away. we need general-purpose programmers who can
+efficiently make those things go faster. we're not on a department-level
+strategy. we're barely on a team-level strategy. we still have "developers" who
+are staying up late doing manual deployments. we have developers with years of
+experience rewriting functionality between "ends" because they're constantly
+cloning huge amounts of data from one location to another instead of working on
+a single subset. I don't have the answers to fix these problems but I almost
+don't think it's specialization or rebranding that will make them go away.
diff --git a/drafts/what is programming.html b/drafts/what is programming.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b4e26d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/drafts/what is programming.html
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+programming isn't coding programming is computational problem solving (see
+CSCI101) programming is getting data from point A to point B see what
+programming isn't about informal lecture being a good programmer isn't about
+following best practices or paradigms. it's still possible to write bad programs
+using test-driven development and "Clean Architecture"
diff --git a/drafts/why make your web site worse in 2020 b/drafts/why make your web site worse in 2020
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29..0000000
--- a/drafts/why make your web site worse in 2020
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index ffbdf28..2cd4e88 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
       </h1>
 
       <ul id="index">
+<li> <a href="/posts/computing/2021-04-20-how-to-make-your-website-boring-and-why-.html">How to Make Your Website Boring and Why! <code>Tue, 20 Apr 2021</code> </a> </li>
 <li> <a href="/posts/unix/2021-03-19-how-to-automate-certbot-renewal-with-haproxy.html">How to Automate Certbot Renewal with HAProxy <code>Fri, 19 Mar 2021</code> </a> </li>
 <li> <a href="/posts/life/2021-02-12-louis-vierne-is-a-bamf-and-proof-that-organists-are-metal-.html">Louis Vierne Is a BAMF (and Proof That Organists Are Metal) <code>Fri, 12 Feb 2021</code> </a> </li>
 <li> <a href="/posts/programming/2021-01-28-undefined-javasript-is-undefined-.html">Undefined? JavaSript Is Undefined. <code>Thu, 28 Jan 2021</code> </a> </li>
diff --git a/posts/computing/2021-04-20-how-to-make-your-website-boring-and-why-.html b/posts/computing/2021-04-20-how-to-make-your-website-boring-and-why-.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2f5d03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posts/computing/2021-04-20-how-to-make-your-website-boring-and-why-.html
@@ -0,0 +1,214 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+  <head>
+    <link rel="stylesheet" href="/includes/stylesheet.css" />
+    <meta charset="utf-8" />
+    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
+    <meta
+      property="og:description"
+      content="The World Wide Web pages of Adam Carpenter"
+    />
+    <meta
+      property="og:image"
+      content="https://nextcloud.53hor.net/index.php/s/Nx9e7iHbw4t99wo/preview"
+    />
+    <meta property="og:site_name" content="53hor.net" />
+    <meta
+      property="og:title"
+      content="How to Make Your Website Boring and Why!"
+    />
+    <meta property="og:type" content="website" />
+    <meta property="og:url" content="https://www.53hor.net" />
+    <title>53hornet ➙ How to Make Your Website Boring and Why!</title>
+  </head>
+
+  <body>
+    <nav>
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+          <a href="/">
+            <img src="/includes/icons/home-roof.svg" />
+            Home
+          </a>
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          <a href="/info.html">
+            <img src="/includes/icons/information-variant.svg" />
+            Info
+          </a>
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          <a href="https://git.53hor.net">
+            <img src="/includes/icons/git.svg" />
+            Repos
+          </a>
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          <a href="/hosted.html">
+            <img src="/includes/icons/desktop-tower.svg" />
+            Hosted
+          </a>
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          <a type="application/rss+xml" href="/rss.xml">
+            <img src="/includes/icons/rss.svg" />
+            RSS
+          </a>
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+    </nav>
+
+    <article>
+      <h1>How to Make Your Website Boring and Why!</h1>
+
+      <p class="description">
+        I took the time last year to make my website more boring. Here's how you
+        can do the same and why you'd want to.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        Up until recently I was using a static site generator
+        <a>(cobalt-rs)</a> and a fancy CSS framework/library <a>(Bulma)</a> to
+        build my website. I also had one or two scripts to do various fiddly
+        things in the browser. I took the time to gut it and now I have a much
+        more boring website. I don't use anything but HTML to write all of the
+        posts and pages. This eliminated the need for a static generator or
+        script to turn something like Markdown into HTML for me. I also scrapped
+        all of the customized CSS framework style sheets that I had been using
+        for a very small (145 lines including whitespace and braces) single-file
+        stylesheet. I also dropped all of the fancy links, banners, most of the
+        icons, and any JavaScript that I had originally. Now, my site is much
+        more boring. And it's so much better.
+      </p>
+
+      <h2>How does one make their website boring?</h2>
+
+      <p>
+        Typically, ask yourself whether you need something. If the answer is
+        "no", you can safely remove it and you won't need it again. Your website
+        will become more boring (read: simpler). Here are some of the things I
+        evaluated:
+      </p>
+
+      <ul>
+        <li>
+          How many 3rd-party assets, templates, CSS libraries am I using? How
+          big are they? Are they slowing down rendering or annoying to
+          maintain/upgrade?
+        </li>
+        <li>Do I need a Sass interpreter to "build" my styles?</li>
+        <li>
+          Am I using a static site generator? Does it make my life easier or
+          more difficult?
+        </li>
+        <li>
+          Am I using a bunch of JavaScript? What does it do and does it really
+          need to do it to make my site work better?
+        </li>
+      </ul>
+
+      <p>
+        Do you use a lot of third-party assets, templates, or CSS for your site?
+        Do you have to run a SASS tool to generate your stylesheets? Are your
+        stylesheets really big (> 1000 lines I think anyone would consider on
+        the bigger side)? Consider whether or not you really need them.
+        Oftentimes, with CSS, less is more. Especially if your site is just a
+        collection of pages of text with links to other pages of text. You can
+        make your site attractive and compatible with 100% of browsers by
+        keeping things simple. And then you don't have to worry about rebuilding
+        your output stylesheets or keeping up with libraries and frameworks.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        Do you have a lot of dynamically-generated content on your site? Does
+        the document need to change based on user input? Do you have a large
+        number of script tags importing minified files from third-party CDNs?
+        Odds are you don't need those either and you can completely get rid of
+        them. Now you don't have to worry about making sure all browsers can run
+        those scripts, or whether or not the CDNs are online, or you're
+        requesting the latest version.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        Do you use a static site generator to build your site? Is your content
+        complicated enough to write that you can't write it in plain HTML? Is
+        Markdown really easier or more powerful? Odds are, it's easier to write
+        directly in HTML without having to tell your generator what to do with
+        your tags. And for the oddball tag that Markdown doesn't directly
+        support, you might often end up writing HTML into your Markdown files
+        anyways. And, you can better control what the output formatting looks
+        like, making your site's code more readable. Furthermore, you won't have
+        two acting copies of your site, a pre- and post-generator one. For me,
+        it was annoying having "source code" for my web site that was different
+        from what I was actually hosting. It's so much nicer to have a 1:1
+        mapping between what I write, test, and deploy.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        Still not convinced? Still need to automate some part of building your
+        site, like generating an RSS feed? Is there any chance you can write a
+        quick Makefile to do that for you? I was able to do just that, and it
+        was way nicer not having to install and learn how a generator worked to
+        automate assembling my site.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        If you answered "no" to any of the above "do you need"-s, you just found
+        a way to make your site more boring. Boring equates with simplicity.
+        Simplicity is a good thing.
+      </p>
+
+      <h2>Why should you make your website <s>boring</s> simple?</h2>
+
+      <p>
+        Not relying on a bunch of libraries and assets is a good thing. It
+        seemed like every time I wanted to add a quick post, I would notice
+        there was an update for some library I was using and I was spending time
+        upgrading and learning about it. You know, that thing that computer
+        programmers enjoy doing and are good at but often doesn't actually help
+        them accomplish anything: fiddling with shiny new stuff that doesn't
+        solve a problem. Now I get to just focus on adding things to my site and
+        I'm never worried about whether it looks broken.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        I also didn't like having a pre- and post-build site. If I wanted to fix
+        one typo I couldn't remote into my live site, fix it, and then leave it
+        there. I had to do something like fix the typo in my Markdown, commit
+        and push it, and then re-run the generator and upload the new "live"
+        files. The generator step wasn't making things easier, it was making
+        them more annoying.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        You'd also be surprised at how easy it is to make your site fast and
+        reliable on all modern and old browsers when it's boring (read: simple,
+        again). Internet Explorer doesn't care about my site, it's a breeze to
+        render and there's nothing in it that hasn't been in existence for at
+        least a decade. (Alright, I do have a few SVG icons which it probably
+        wouldn't know what to do with. You can't tell the difference between
+        Firefox's and Chrome's renders of my site. And Google's PageSpeed
+        Insights score is a hilarious 99.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        My site is also more functional now. It's less distracting. It's really
+        easy to navigate and read. There's no runtime, no JavaScript that has to
+        execute before the reader sees the page they're looking for. And there's
+        practically nothing to maintain except my posts. It's also really easy
+        for crawlers to quickly ingest all of my posts and turn them into search
+        results. Hopefully, it's also easier for the visually impaired to zoom
+        in and not mess up the document, or use a screen reader that extracts
+        the article tags.
+      </p>
+
+      <p>
+        The benefits are through the roof. My site used to be about tinkering
+        with tools and libraries and frameworks. Now it's just a boring website.
+        That leaves me with time to focus on tinkering with other stuff that's
+        more interesting, and only focus on writing when I'm working on this
+        site. So make your life easier and go make your website boring today.
+      </p>
+    </article>
+  </body>
+</html>
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index 6efc861..976bdfa 100644
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+++ b/rss.xml
@@ -141,5 +141,6 @@
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 <item> <title>Louis Vierne Is a BAMF (and Proof That Organists Are Metal)</title> <pubDate>Fri, 12 Feb 2021</pubDate> <link>https://www.53hor.net/posts/life/2021-02-12-louis-vierne-is-a-bamf-and-proof-that-organists-are-metal-.html</link> <guid>https://www.53hor.net/posts/life/2021-02-12-louis-vierne-is-a-bamf-and-proof-that-organists-are-metal-.html</guid> </item>
 <item> <title>How to Automate Certbot Renewal with HAProxy</title> <pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2021</pubDate> <link>https://www.53hor.net/posts/unix/2021-03-19-how-to-automate-certbot-renewal-with-haproxy.html</link> <guid>https://www.53hor.net/posts/unix/2021-03-19-how-to-automate-certbot-renewal-with-haproxy.html</guid> </item>
+<item> <title>How to Make Your Website Boring and Why!</title> <pubDate>Tue, 20 Apr 2021</pubDate> <link>https://www.53hor.net/posts/computing/2021-04-20-how-to-make-your-website-boring-and-why-.html</link> <guid>https://www.53hor.net/posts/computing/2021-04-20-how-to-make-your-website-boring-and-why-.html</guid> </item>
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