Saving time with Color Schemes
IDE, text editor, and dashboard color schemes are often treated as a way to get our personalities into the tools we use every day, but with a little effort it can also go a long way into saving time...
View ArticleThe eleventh design
It’s website refresh day for ArleyM.com! I love the old adage about the mechanic’s car being a clunker. It’s true of every developer and designer I know most of the time. Today I have that new site...
View ArticleMusic as an analogy for complicating things
I loved the post How it feels to learn JavaScript in 2016! There’s no hyper-engineering like in front-end web development. I think we can make an analogy with music. This song is The Ramone’s 1976...
View ArticleKeyboardio!
Last year I invested in my first Kickstarter. A promising keyboard that met all my wildest dreams: mechanical, split, column key layout, and moves popular keys from pinkies to thumbs. It’s beautiful...
View ArticleOne Tab
I love optimizing workflow. I often think about focus, interruptions, and the negative consequences and issues with multitasking. Recently I was challenged by the idea of going through an entire day...
View ArticleMekorama
I don’t usually game on my phone, but last weekend when a battle with a cold kept me stuck on the couch I made an exception. I discovered a game called Mekorama. I tried it with some low expectations;...
View ArticleNew December’s Resolutions
Nothing’s ever perfect; so what could be better than a time for resolving to improve? Bring on the new year. I love a new year’s resolution, and always want to make the most of it. Sure, you can just...
View ArticleLiterary Goldfish: Examining Spam Email 2006 & 2016
In 2006 there was an era when spam seemed to have been written by infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters. It caught my attention since there was apparently nothing I could do – no call to action...
View ArticleFiling Cabinets
Today I spent a lot of time thinking about filing cabinets. It all started when Dustin sent me this safety video. I guess these could be a hazard. It wasn’t too long ago that this is where information...
View ArticleHow To fix a Bluray BDX1100
It’s nice to be able to give back to the community. When I’m not busy leading a team or cranking out codez at work, I fix broken office equipment. Here’s a How-To guide to fixing a stuck drawer on a...
View ArticleNew Tradition: Annual reading of A Christmas Carol
This week I read the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. This book is out of copyright, and you can get a digital copy free here. My favourite excerpts: “The noise in this room was perfectly...
View ArticleAmbient Sounds
Sometimes music is too much for a situation, but silence won’t do either. Well really, studies are showing silence is best, but I’m in an open office where silence just isn’t possible. I recently have...
View ArticleExperiments in Reading
What a gift reading is. Communication and language are at the heart of what it means to be in society, community, relationship, and to express ourselves. These things are fundamental to everything we...
View ArticleKindle Reading Tricks: uncommon e-reader uses
E-ink readers are amazing, if you haven’t had a hands-on moment with an e-ink reader you should check it out. In this post of my Reading Series I’ll share a few ways I’ve been using mine. These ideas...
View ArticleAds vs. Snark
I started using an ad blocker a couple years ago. While I like to experience the web in the most common way that an average user does, I felt had to draw a line on one common offense: YouTube often...
View ArticleKindle Study Tricks
Reading comes in so many flavours, from purely recreational, to on-point dutiful task. When it comes to study I like a pretty loose structure, and use tools as helpful (rather than be led by tools and...
View ArticleBook reports & Only reading it once
The act of reading in itself is naturally enjoyable. The consideration of new ideas, the unleashing of imagination, and that sweet “this is better than the movie” feeling. For better or worse, the...
View ArticleWordPress Lunch ‘n’ Learn – Advanced 101
Every developer likely needs to use WordPress now and then! It’s so ubiquitous that it’s almost a fact of life. I recently did a lunch and learn Advanced WP 101 to cover some aspects that aren’t...
View ArticleUsing the ESV API with Alfred App on macOS
Recently twitter-friend Chris Bowler was explaining some of his journalling and digital bible study process (which mirrors mine quite a bit); and touched on using the ESV bible translations Application...
View ArticleThe Four Day Week
In 2010 I began to dream about working a four day week. “What could be better than long weekends every week!?” I would ask my wife. At the time my motivation was time-squandering laziness. In the fall...
View ArticleWriting for the web industry
I’ve had the opportunity to write for a few notable industry journals, and I’ve been asked a number of times how this came to be by those wanting to get into it. I’ll sum it up. TLDR: Just ask....
View ArticleWWJNTOOHE (What Would Jesus Name This Object Oriented HTML Element)?
I love CSS, and I really love OOCSS. To me being Object Oriented means two things: breaking down patterns, and using a clear easy-to-adopt naming convention. Patterns: If you’ve used a framework like...
View ArticleWorking at Carpages!
For just over a year now I’ve been working as a front-end developer at Carpages.ca. With the new job came several other life upgrades. Bring on the bullet list! I left my previous job as the Lead...
View ArticleFocus & Pomodoro
I thought I’d share a small change I’m trying with work to hopefully improve my focus, speed, and quality of work. I see interruptions as an important part of my job, but occasionally I’m also...
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Using Franchise Guidelines to build online trust
It’s a slight departure from writing for web journals, but being a team lead for dealer sites at Carpages led to me getting published in the dealer magazine Canadian Auto World. canadianautoworld.ca
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Solving a browser Font issue
I’ve had an issue with fonts messing up in my browser. I thought it was just me! This has happened before, like when a client sent me their weird copy of Helvetica to install and it broke Digg like so...
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Pre Element use-case: brilliant or hacky?
Twice in the past month I have come across issues where the data coming to me from a database contains useful whitespace, but no HTML. I have saved the day by using a <pre> element; this took...
View ArticleTroubleshooting Windows 10 VM
I had an issue where the Virtual Box VM for Windows 10 wouldn’t unzip on my Mac. Advice that worked for me came from Twitter: use “The Unarchiver. Also better to download the PC version (will still...
View ArticleSassTO – A closer look at SMOOCHY!
Tonight at SassTO front-end engineer Matt Rose and I will be talking about the Carpages front-end framework Gemini, and its SMOOCHY methodology (Scalable, Modular, Object Oriented CSS Hybrid, Yo). Here...
View ArticleWordPress.com Desktop Client
Yesterday WordPress announced there is a new WP client. I’m publishing this from it! You can read the announcement here.
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DeGagne Hyundai
Our team recently launched the DeGagne Hyundai website and I wanted to share one of the design features I think looks pretty cool. First, here’s a peek above the fold if you didn’t click the link....
View ArticleWindow Managers
Workflow and simple productivity tools were a couple fascinations of 2015. I still plan to write about it in some detail, but have shared here and there. My Alfred workflow for arranging workspaces is...
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SMOOCHY Methodology Explained
A couple years ago I commented on a post about Using Object Oriented CSS with Sass on The Sass Way, commenting that at Carpages.ca we use a mash-up methodology called SMOOCHY (Scalable, Modular Object...
View ArticleWordCamp Hamilton – Accessibility Talk
This weekend I’m speaking at WordCamp Hamilton on Web Accessibility! Slides are online here: arleym.com/a11y More notes to come!
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Expensive Rendering, or How to make your MacBook fan scream
Recently I made a dangerous wager with a colleague: If he could show up to work on time 10 times in a row I would actually consider getting a motorcycle. 24 hours later my Mac was hot enough to fry...
View ArticleReflections on 4 years at Carpages.ca
“Your main contribution to this company won’t be in code writing.” – this shocking statement came from the VP of Technology very early in my days in the role of a front-end web designer at...
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Funcussion: The defining moment of 2019
Imagine opening your eyes and finding yourself unexpectedly in the foyer of a hospital. You’re alone. It’s suddenly night time, but your internal clock says it should be afternoon. How would you feel...
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Practical Concussion Strategies for the knowledge worker
It’s an exaggeration to say that everything that is fun will exacerbate a concussion’s symptoms, but for me it was only a tiny exaggeration. The amount of waking hours I spend on cognitively-expensive...
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Remote Work as a Tool
For me remote work has been an incredible tool. For over a decade working from home has been a once-a-week necessity. I have called it my “speed bump”. Email and work place messengers allow us to stay...
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Ergonomic writing setup
It’s sobering to think that the daily computer ergonomics I practice now will have massive impact over which decade of my life I’ll no longer be able to use computers without pain. I love the...
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Onyx Boox Max3
Early adopters and the eccentric will know all too well that you can’t always try a new piece of technology before buying it – sometimes you just have to take the plunge! This post is about one of...
View ArticleLearning Process case study: Making eBooks the Hacky Way
I’ve never shared an early, messy workflow with anyone before, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about different learning styles, and this is a good case study of my iterative approach. I do my best...
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Webflow vs. OOCSS
Webflow and the #nocode movement rubbed me the wrong way when I first heard of them. There are few things I enjoy more than writing HTML and CSS, and the idea of exchanging that for a mouse-heavy UI...
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Clipboard Managers
The clipboard is one of the most under-appreciated functions of any computer; when you paste anything it’s the clipboard you have to thank. In my earliest days of computer use that ctrl+v felt like...
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Codepen: Responsive Breadcrumbs
I love Codepen, and don’t doodle around with it nearly as much as I should. I recently discovered that my most viewed Pen was an idea Karl Stahl and I worked on in 2014; Responsive Breadcrumb...
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A quieter, more private web
It’s a noisy world isn’t it? The conflict, confusion, and controversies of 2020 continue (published on March 283rd, 2020). As a result I am all-but off of Twitter, additionally I’ll be shutting down...
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Exploring AI 2021
I spoke in Chapel today at Crossroads, and began with this video, titling my talk “Deep Calls to Deep” (citing a classic Bible verse from the Psalm 42) I wish I could have seen all the reactions… The...
View ArticleDialog: The most anticipated DOM element of 2022?
One of the most exciting upcoming HTML primitives that’s being developed right now is the <dialog> element – this will create a native version of the pattern we know as modals or popups. Modals...
View ArticleTech Predictions for 2022
In my house we rely on technology to the point where much of it is invisible; so common place that we take for granted its function and presence. Air conditioning, electric light, even Internet are so...
View ArticleSolving Infuriating Mac Error Sounds
Look. I’m not the most patient person. When my Mac started making the bonk/boop/beep sound with my Command+Ctrl+Down Arrow line-bubbling keyboard shortcut I started slowly losing my mind. I originally...
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