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blakewatson

1,446 karma · joined December 4, 2016

Web developer (or whatever you want to call it). I have a disability called spinal muscular atrophy. I write about things sometimes: https://blakewatson.com/
submissionscomments
blakewatson··on Rediscovering Sublime Text
After a Visual Studio Code update started causing issues with my onscreen keyboard, I rage-quit for the weekend and hopped over to my old friend, Sublime Text. I'd forgotten how nice it is.
blakewatson··on GPT-5.5
Seems like people don't like this comment, but I chuckled. Nice one.
blakewatson··on I Love the Em Dash–Too Bad If AI Does Too
The en-dash is for ranges. https://practicaltypography.com/hyphens-and-dashes.html
blakewatson··on I used Claude Code and GSD to build the accessibility tool I've always wanted
OP here, yeah I get that! I think the only technical input I had was my prompts for fixing bugs. I'm a web developer, so I have some familiarity with the life cycle of mouse events. Depending on what behaviors I was trying to fix, I could infer what was most likely going on in English, not that I knew how to translate it into Swift code.

But yeah, I'm yelling at clouds right next to you.

blakewatson··on jQuery 4
Related: This is a nice write-up of how to write reactive jQuery. It's presented as an alternative to jQuery spaghetti code, in the context of being in a legacy codebase where you might not have access to newer frameworks.

https://css-tricks.com/reactive-jquery-for-spaghetti-fied-le...

blakewatson··on The Olivetti Company
See also this lovely typeface revival. https://lineto.com/typefaces/valentine
blakewatson··on Ask HN: Share your personal website
https://blakewatson.com/
blakewatson··on How to make a damn website (2024)
Probably not too useful for many in this audience, but I wrote a web book for *absolute beginners* learning HTML. It's very much in the same spirit as the OP's post.

https://htmlforpeople.com/

blakewatson··on Show HN: Minimalist editor that lives in browser, stores everything in the URL
Yes, this was the one I was thinking of!
blakewatson··on Understanding, not slop, is what's interesting about LLMs
TL;DR - The ability of computers to "understand" natural language and intent has staggering implications for accessibility.
blakewatson··on A Decade of Employment
I recently hit a 10-year milestone of being employed after many years of trying and failing to get a job.
blakewatson··on Show HN: The Atlas of Space
I can’t get enough of anything that helps me wrap my mind around the scale of objects and distances in the universe.

I recently discovered Epic Spaceman on YouTube, who makes incredible visual comparisons to help understand these scales. https://www.youtube.com/@EpicSpaceman

There’s also Universe Sandbox 2. But tbh this Atlas of Space is more accessible to me due to my various input limitations.

Space Engine let’s you explore the entire observable universe.

blakewatson··on Show HN: Atlas of Space
I think https://spaceengine.org/ fills part of your request. I haven't played it but I've watched videos about it and it looks like you can jump anywhere around the observable universe and look at any object you want.
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
I went with "Get started already" :)
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
Yeah the implication that I guess I didn't make well enough is that it's for anybody who wants to learn it. It’s attainable without needing highly specialized or intensive training.
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
No I think I will probably keep it focused on HTML. I think my "CSS basics" chapter is as far as I want to go with styling. But I would love to see other folks publish easy-to-understand CSS tutorials.
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
Yeah, I think you're right about that. I'm not sure whether I want to write something of an appendix myself and link to it, or find something else on the web and link to that.
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
OP here. Yeah, I was a bit worried about this, and even though I kind of mentioned it in the introduction, I think it deserves more attention. I'm not sure if I want to write something and host it myself, or maybe just point people to some kind of primer on creating files and folders.
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
Yes! I would love that. I need to update the readme, but I think my strategy would be to place translated chapters in a subfolder, (eg, "/es"). I can configure Eleventy to generate a different nav menu based on the subpath.
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
OP here. Oooh that’s a good suggestion. Yeah it’s hard to shed the webdev persona and see it through fresh eyes—even though I specifically tried to do just that!
blakewatson··on Show HN: HTML for People
OP here. I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, I hope it finds its way into the hands of non-professionals.
blakewatson··on Omg.lol: An Oasis on the Internet
Yeah unfortunately that’s Mastodon pulling from other instances. Here’s the local timeline: https://social.lol/public/local
blakewatson··on Omg.lol: An Oasis on the Internet
OP here. I love that little site and I link to it often!
blakewatson··on Omg.lol: An Oasis on the Internet
OP here, just wanted to say your tabletop links page is chef's kiss.
blakewatson··on Omg.lol: An Oasis on the Internet
Oh wow, you’re right. I wonder what’s up with that.
blakewatson··on NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month
I’m I love this little challenge. I've participated almost every year since 2010. At the peak of my involvement l was a local organizer (Municipal Liaison). I met a lot of cool people and had a great time at write-ins and such.

It was a good social outlet for me because I have a pretty severe mobility impairment and, long story short, small groups and laid back activities are easier for me to participate in than other things.

I haven't really gotten back into in-person stuff post-COVID, but I still enjoy making November a time to write and hanging out in the local NaNo Discord server. I enjoy perusing the NaNo forums, particularly the Adoption Society, where people offer up plots, characters, running gags, opening lines, chapter-naming schemes, and more for anyone to use.

There's also a bit of fun lore that has developed. For example, if you're stuck, kill a character with the traveling shovel of death ("traveling" because us Wrimos are passing it around). Or find a way to include Mr. Ian Woon (anagram of NaNoWriMo).

NaNoWriMo is different things to different people and I love that about it.

This year and last, I lowered my goal to writing a 20k-word novella. I have difficulty typing and a lower word count makes it a bit easier for me (that makes me a "NaNo rebel" lol I love all the little jokes and stuff).

blakewatson··on The fragile nature of my life's work
Good point! I suppose no one is truly independent.
blakewatson··on Finish your projects
I knew I recognized your name. You created Neat!
blakewatson··on Finish your projects
I think Ponder is cool! I made something similar for myself, but never got around to supporting more than one text. https://blakewatson.com/scratchpad/
blakewatson··on Ed Sheeran demonstrates how copyright is destroying musicians
I may be misunderstanding, but I was thinking the commenter meant "ripping" as in ripping a DVD, as opposed to "ripping off of." So "immediately ripped and given away for free" meaning someone shouldn't be able to immediately distribute the recording outside of Netflix.
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