My Thoughts

The Importance of Image CDNs

Images are one of the biggest performance impacts on the modern web. Image CDNs can be the answer. With Frameworks recently adopting first party support for many CDNs, it is only making it more essential we consider them.

Tooling should Disappear

Developer tooling is expensive. I hate setting it up. Maybe in the future I won’t need too.

Trade-offs with Early Development

There are a lot of trade off with early development. JavaScript tooling has reached a peek of large amount of focus on tooling. The future will be different, but for now I focus on making smart trade offs to stay productive and happy.

Thoughts about Online Conferences

Online conferences are not new. But the pandemic has seemed to increase the number. I don’t know if the trend will continue, but I love it.

Rehire and Retrain vs New Hire Search

Is it worth retraining a returning employee that does not have the skills, or hire new for the role? I think retraining is better when you can get the support needed. Here is why.

Is this a React Anti-pattern?

I am working on a permissions component that uses nested children, non reactive state, and global space. It feels like a anti-pattern. But it is so simple and clean and seems to work.

Fauna is Secure by Default

One of the shocking good things I have learned about Fauna DB is how it approaches security. It’s amazing how roles work to grant access and automatically filter user data.

Why I use FQL In Fauna DB

I chose FQL over the better known GraphQL format. It is more powerful and a better fit for Fauna DB if you want to do more advanced things.

Closing a menu when a user clicks outside of it with React Hooks

How do you improve the user experience of closing a menu? Don’t require the user to click a X just to get back to the content.

Creating Active Links with Next.js

How do you make a link display that it is the current page with Next.js? Make a custom component that handles the logic for you!

Absolute Imports for Next.js

Want to avoid really long import paths with your Next.js project? Setup a jsconfig.json. Here is how to tell babel to use imports from your root.

Complexity and Concerns Grow for Web Development

We make it both easier and harder to build or the web every year. It is a moving target. But at-least we are starting to focus on the right things.

Making queries ACID in FaunaDB

FaunaDB allows for complex transactions to reduce multiple network calls. FQL has a learning curve, but mastering it offers advantages.

How to do a UPSERT in FaunaDB FQL

FQL is different but just as powerful as SQL. An UPSERT is a great example to show the flexibility of FQL and how you can compose it easily.

FaunaDB seems so ergonomic with React Hooks

A presentation of FaunaDB really impressed me recently, showing me how easy it is to use the composable FQL on the client with React Hooks. It really is built for the JAM Stack.

Easy Sitemaps for Next.js

Next.js does not create a sitemap.xml file automatically. Here is a fast way to add support.

Web Development is Hard

Web development is hard. I have had to change my beliefs just to handle it.

The Rise of Privacy Focused Analytics

Privacy is becoming a larger focus on the web. New players in the Analytics space promise to bring better security around users data.

An Unexpected Benefit of Tailwind CSS

Utility CSS frameworks can make it easier to refactor a codebase, or even change to a new framework.

Creating Compelling and Useful 404 Pages

404 Pages are normally an after-thought. But they are a critical part of any website, and they are a good place to show off creative ideas. Here are some examples and tips.

Custom Decorators with Storybook & Vue

Using Storybook and Vue to build multiple components that are section aware. An easy way to support multiple themes.

HTML Elements with Flex-box Quirks

Flex-box is almost 10 years old, but some quirks still exist. Here are several elements to avoid using with flex-box.

Custom 404 Pages on Zeit Now v2 Platform

Zeit has finally updated the Now v2 platform to allow custom 404 pages. Find out what makes a good 404 page and how to set it up.

Supporting HEIC and HEIF

For US users, it is really import to handle HEIC and HEIF image formats, otherwise you are making it more difficult for iPhone owners.