Software History

Over the last month, I have been working with James Van Dyne on IndieWeb Utils, the Python library I published toward the end of last year. IndieWeb Utils aims to provide helper functions that are useful when building applications related to the IndieWeb. For instance, the library contains features like a function to send a webmention and a function to generate a reply context from a web page.

Indexes has been on my mind of late. Yousef's introducing me of

A quick note: this post does contain quite a bit of IndieWeb jargon and may be confusing if you are only just getting started. Don't let my jargon deter you from the IndieWeb. This is an architectural discussion so I am asssuming readers have a good understanding of the standards incubated in the community.

A yawn. A hand lightly pressed against the cheek. Repositions as she goes to turn the page. Immersed in the book while we all wait. Looks up when someone comments on their flight time.

IndieWeb Search, a search engine that indexes sites owned by IndieWeb community members and other related sites, has saved over 421,000 web documents. I maintain IndieWeb Search as a passion project. I wanted a place to search content from IndieWeb sites so that I could find articles and guides that were applicable to the community. Using the search engine, I'm able to get direct answers to niche, community-relevant queries such as how to set up webmentions with a static site or understanding what IRC is.

The results to my poll asking

The rose outside my house has been growing for the last week. Two new buds started to bloom, with colours of pink sneaking through their green exterior. On Thursday morning, I looked at the plant and thought a particular bud was about to bloom. Hours later, the bud and its leaves had started to open. A plant that months ago I thought was a weed has continued to grow beyond my wildest expectations. From fear the plant was a weed to three beautiful pink blossoms. With each development -- seeing the starting signs of a bud, the bud opening, blooming -- I have felt joy. Next summer, I think I am going to grow more roses.

At a bonus edition of Homebrew Website Club this weekend, we discussed how to delete a Webmention. We talked about both how to and how not to delete a Webmention, and the ins-and-outs of implementations between different servers. I thought I should write about this on my blog just in case anyone else would find the information helpful.

At a Homebrew Website Club meeting a few weeks ago, we discussed the tea culture in the UK. Mark and I, the co-hosts, live in the UK, so we spent some time talking about tea. A pattern emerged. We collectively named some times at which drinking tea was common after the hour of the day the tea was consumed. For instance, I noted that I was familiar with the ten o'clock and the three o'clock. Mark noted the elevenses, where you drink a cup of tea around 11am.

At Homebrew Website Club this evening ^1, I shared that I do not regularly add links to my content, except in the cases where I am referencing a resource by name or quoting someone else. I forget to add links to interesting resources that I have published before, or other content on the web that may be relevant. After stating that I don't add many links to my content out loud, I realised why: adding links has always been a separate part of my editorial process.

Over the last year or so, the amount of handwriting I do in a given day is limited. I spend most of my time writing on computers. The ease with which I can type is a boon. I can note down more thoughts in a given period of time when I am typing. I have had few causes to write with pen and paper. With that said, I have a great appreciation for analog writing. I have a whiteboard on which I sometimes jot ideas. While I was working on the search engine crawler for IndieWeb Search, my whiteboard became invaluable. I had an urge -- verging on a need -- to write and draw out my ideas, away from computers.

Inspired by my recent readings of the Before the coffee gets cold series, I decided to look for other Japanese works of fiction to read. I found The Nakano Thrift Shop on Amazon...

At the end of the Hobonichi original journal, there is a section entitled

I have said something of the ilk “awesome, in the traditional sense of the word” several times over the last year. I need to be explicit about the nature of my using the word to ensure my meaning is conveyed correctly.

Strange Weather in Tokyo, written by Hiromi Kawakami, is a tale of a woman in her thirties who develops an affection for an old school teacher of hers. This affection, as the book progresses, turns into a full

For at least the last year, I have opted to wear Hawaiian and otherwise colourful shirts. My wardrobe spans from plain light green shirts to floral shirts in a 70s style to Hawaiian shirts in a wide variety of colours. At Homebrew Website Club this evening, someone asked me to write about why I like to wear the shirts I wear. Around 20 minutes after the call, I am sitting here writing said post with a bit of excitement in the back of my mind; motivation has indeed struck. Thank you for the idea!

I have a static website. This means that whenever I make a change to the site I need to

I return to the diner; warmly welcomed by staff and a regular I had met the previous day. I sat down with a smile. The regular has been going to this cafe for longer than I have been alive. Coming in from the rain, I feel warm.

This post is about two or so months old but I think this post is worth sharing nonetheless.

This is the second post in a three-part series on my adventures learning how to use the Hario V60.

I used to think that you needed at least one piece of equipment—like a Hario cold brew bottle—to make cold brew at home. I recently tried to brew cold brew in a

I have spent a lot of my free time participating in the IndieWeb community over the last year or so. I love the IndieWeb community. The community opened my eyes to how I can take control over my own data and publish content that matters to me on my own site. As I have worked on this website, the community has been there for support, pointing out bugs and helping me think through ideas and features. The community has an excellent body of resources for building a website, from a well-maintained wiki to an active chat where you can meet other people interested in personal websites.

I was trying to implement the Fisher-Yates algorithm earlier this evening. This algorithm lets you randomly shuffle the contents of a list. I wanted to provide a list of songs and return a shuffled list. I decided to use Lisp for this since I don't know much Lisp and I want to build my skills.

This is a blog post in which I had to double check the spelling of a word in the title before starting to write. For some reason I needed assurance that I had spelled

I've gone through about three topic ideas. This is the last time I am changing my mind. When I get tired, I lose the energy to think of great topics. This is my blog. Sometimes I'll write posts on a whim because I want to keep writing. I just thought that buying a Raspberry Pi may be one of the best investments I've made this year. I feel good about this because I was initially hesitant to purchase a Pi. If I had not have went through with the decision, I'd have not been able to build some of the projects I have worked on over the last few weeks.

I wrote a post a few days ago on how I IndieWeb. I feel like I should go further and talk for a moment about why I am an active participant on the IndieWeb. This topic came to mind in response to an email I received earlier today. This email made me think about my motivations behind contributing to the IndieWeb. What is it that excites me about contributing to the wiki? Why do I spend so much time building IndieWeb principles into my website.

I came across the Homebrew Website Club meetups earlier this year. I decided not to attend because I had a lot on my plate. This year, I've not attended any online social events. I quickly get fatigued with Zoom. I think the reason is that I usually use Zoom for work and so I have a subconscious mental association with the software being used for work. What happened last night in the Homebrew Website Club meeting was nothing like work.

I get excited when I find new personal websites. I remember early on when I joined the IndieWeb community I thought the IndieWeb webring was one of the best sites on the web. Until I had seen most of the sites on the webring, every time I clicked I found something new. Interesting blogs to follow, browse, and explore. With every site I saw, I got more excited. There are many people out there maintaining personal websites, from written blogs to photo blogs to single-page profiles.

The goal of my blog search engine is to make content as easy to find on my website as possible. Before the latest update, you could use my search engine to find a page based on a term that appeared either in the URL, meta description, or title of a page. However, I kept thinking about how I could enhance the search engine to make content even easier to find. Since I started thinking about this, I have looked at my search engine and made a number of improvements. Most improvements are related to either code efficiency or content discovery. In this article, I'll share a bit about how I implemented TextRank on my site.