Our work had an online Zoom-based quiz game today using Kahoot.it. It was fun and I got bragging rights - came second in the first game, and won the second game. In your face, team! 😂

I got out and shot some basketball hoops today; first time in months. I loved it. Playing basketball is the physical activity that feels perfectly natural to me. My body knows exactly what to do. There’s nothing else like it. 🏀

I watched Episode 1 of The Last Dance and was reminded of why I fell in love with basketball. 90s-era NBA offered genuine competition in what was a small commercial enterprise. Also fashion!

I have no idea as to what represents a ‘good’ number of downloads for a podcast, but I’m excited to have seen 767 for my latest effort. Thanks to everyone who did listen!

Keep Practising: S01, E03

Keep Practising: S01, E03. A potted history of computer gaming.

I’m falling deep into the audio production rabbit hole. I’ve bought Loopback and Audio Hijack Pro from @rogueamoeba. Anybody want to do a podcast with me?

Writing for the Web

Why Word documents are not great for the web, and why plain text files written in ‘Markdown’ syntax are the way to go when writing anything destined for online delivery.

Microsoft Word was designed for writing in an era when the finished result would be a printed page. There is still a place for that - and often the printed page is now a generated PDF.

The web, however, is of different origins. By its nature, web content needs to be:

  1. Flexible
  2. Semantic

Let’s consider each in turn. ‘Flexible’ means that it needs to adjust to the capabilities of the renderer. In the early days, this was a text-based browser versus a graphical one. Nowadays, it’s about viewports - how big is the window and screen, or what device is it being displayed upon? The text needs to sensibly fit and flow to whatever display is being used. Word documents only need to look good on the pseudo-page it has been designed for.

Semantic means that there is meaning within the content. Word has the concept of styles, which few people use. The web uses line definitions, so you can nominate a line to be of ‘Heading 1’ type, or ‘unordered list’ type (i.e. bullets). When you do these in Word, you are changing an appearance that is specific to that document. On the web, you can’t trust that everybody has the same fonts, resolution, or display capabilities. So instead, you semantically describe the text, and let the end device decide how that will look.

That Sounds Complicated, I Don’t Want to Write Html

I agree, that is complicated, and that is why Markdown was invented - to make writing for the web easier than writing in Word!

To write for the web, use a plain text editor. Forget Word - that’s not the right tool for the job. There are some brilliant editors available that are optimised for writing Markdown, but you can use the most basic editor, such as NotePad on Windows.

My favourite Markdown-focused text editor which is available for all platforms is iA Writer. It’s awesome.

Writing in Markdown

The best way to explain Markdown is to show it.

Each Heading is preceded by a #. So my major headings are written as # My Title. Next level headings are written ## Next Level Heading. Your text stays text. Later, it gets converted and rendered as HTML.

Want a bullet? Use an asterisk.

* First point.
* Second point.
* Third point.

becomes

Let’s get fancy and add a link. Just type a link to [my website](https://andrewcanion.com) which renders as a link to my website. See, all you did was add brackets and braces. Everything is readable, there’s no fancy technology. It’s all plain text.

The image below is a screenshot of me writing this article in iA Writer. I edit in the left frame, and get a live preview of the rendered article on the right side.

iA Writer in UseiA Writer in Use

Google Markdown

This is not esoteric stuff. This is base-level knowledge for the modern worker. Google ‘markdown’ and you’ll see what I mean.

This is your chance to level-up - it’s not hard; it’s your chance to move with the times.

I Love It, Tell Me More!

There’s more to the Markdown syntax than what I’ve shown here. This is a nice cheatsheet showing the broader range of syntax available.

Coffee shop visit with my baby boy.

I’m happy I bought a license for Black Ink. It’s been great using it in combination with my subscription to the NYTimes crossword. Thanks for making great software, @danielpunkass

With all the Zoom meetings in our house now, I’ve created a Siri Shortcut, “On Air" that turns one of our smart lamps red. No more accidental interruptions!

Will Coronavirus Change Society Forever?

Will our giant monuments to mass transportation soon appear as white elephants dedicated to the god of hubris? Gigantic airports, ocean ports for cruise liners, and all the planes, trains, ships and automobiles that use them - will they all become stranded assets slowly losing the war against entropy?

Will our stadiums and shopping centres, designed to pack people into shared experiences, point to an irrelevant way of life?

Will our next generation of people wonder what it was like to have global experiences be the norm, and consider the way we would gather en masse to watch sport and entertainment a strange and incomprehensible way of life?

Are we moving back to a local lifestyle? Is this the beginning of the end for the global village? Was this era of multi nationalism and free global movement a blip in the history of mankind, rather than part of the continual upward trajectory we had assumed it to be?

Are we about to enter a modern version of a dark age?

Today I’m partaking in another great Easter tradition: the giant yard cleanup and other assorted handyman jobs.

Good morning. Third morning of backyard tenting, our Easter holiday experience in a time of COVID-19. I can report the birds in our neighbourhood are loud.

Keep Practising: S01, E02

Keep Practising: S01, E02. In this time of COVID-19 quarantines, I consider the value of social media platforms to my life.

It’s not Easter without camping. Our COVID-19 response has been to set up in the backyard. David cooks the best marshmallows even though he doesn’t like eating them. So sit near him!

We played Cards Against Humanity - Family Edition today. 8 year-old loved it, 4 year-old playing with random selection won the game.

My plan to upgrade my webcam from the iMac camera to a digital camera was foiled by both my cameras being too old to support a clean signal sent via HDMI. Seems I’m stuck with the rubbish webcam.

I had to pay $138 for 454g of ant killer today - and that’s not even COVID-19 pricing! Research indicated that it was the only stuff likely to work for this particular type of critter. Early signs are positive.

I’ve cancelled my web host. Now I’ve got my web page hosted on Fastmail. Nice way to save some money.

It was fun to listen to my friend Emily Dickinson speak on the just Steve podcast. 🎙