{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Pat Dryburgh", "home_page_url": "https://patdryburgh.com", "feed_url": "https://patdryburgh.com/feed/index.json", "description": "Pat Dryburgh is a designer, developer, and musician based in London, Ontario, Canada.", "icon": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/favicon/favicon-228.png", "favicon": "https://patdryburgh.com/favicon.ico", "expired": false, "items": [ { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/my-musical-side-hustle/", "title": "My musical side hustle\n", "content_text": "I’ve been playing a lot of music lately. It started a couple weeks after my father died when a friend from high school invited me to an open mic. Following six years of not performing music in public, what started as a monthly night out quietly grew into a side hustle performing at local bars and restaurants several times a month.When I started booking paid gigs, I decided to promote my music using just my first and middle name. As proud as I am of my family name, Dryburgh is difficult to pronounce and impossible to know how to spell based solely on hearing it spoken over a microphone or in a conversation at a noisy venue. So, I’ve been performing as Patrick Douglas.It also gave me an opportunity to make myself another website! PatrickDouglas.ca is a simple one-page site powered by Jekyll and hosted on Github pages. Right now, it includes links to my email and Instagram and lists my upcoming and past shows. Eventually, my hope is it will become a repository of the music I’ve recorded and will record in the future.I’ve reused the basic template for a couple of other projects now, including my nascent cover band, The Pop Rockets and for my friend and fellow musician Jamie Shrier. My hope is to encourage local musicians in London, Ontario to start owning their own domain names in addition to their social channels in the hopes it will prepare them for another inevitable upheaval across the social media landscape.", "content_html": "
I’ve been playing a lot of music lately. It started a couple weeks after my father died when a friend from high school invited me to an open mic. Following six years of not performing music in public, what started as a monthly night out quietly grew into a side hustle performing at local bars and restaurants several times a month.
\n\nWhen I started booking paid gigs, I decided to promote my music using just my first and middle name. As proud as I am of my family name, Dryburgh is difficult to pronounce and impossible to know how to spell based solely on hearing it spoken over a microphone or in a conversation at a noisy venue. So, I’ve been performing as Patrick Douglas.
\n\nIt also gave me an opportunity to make myself another website! PatrickDouglas.ca is a simple one-page site powered by Jekyll and hosted on Github pages. Right now, it includes links to my email and Instagram and lists my upcoming and past shows. Eventually, my hope is it will become a repository of the music I’ve recorded and will record in the future.
\n\nI’ve reused the basic template for a couple of other projects now, including my nascent cover band, The Pop Rockets and for my friend and fellow musician Jamie Shrier. My hope is to encourage local musicians in London, Ontario to start owning their own domain names in addition to their social channels in the hopes it will prepare them for another inevitable upheaval across the social media landscape.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/my-musical-side-hustle/", "date_published": "2024-03-04T05:25:00-08:00", "date_modified": "2024-03-04T05:25:00-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/creator-cups/", "title": "Creator Cups\n", "content_text": "My brother Rob has started a video podcast! It’s called Creator Cups and is an interview series with creators.The first three episodes are out and feature creative and branding photographer, Rob Anzit, motocross photographer, Kailey Moffat, and my childhood friend and guitarist from my first band back in high school, Mike Aitken.I’m really proud of my brother for stepping out and trying to create something for the world. As both a military veteran and stay-at-home father, my brother has poured his heart and soul into serving his country and his family. A couple of years ago, Rob embarked on a two-year program at Fanshawe College studying photography and has been steadily growing his audience on Instagram, as well.1 As someone who has been a creator most of my life, I have been inspired by following the beginning of my brother’s own creative journey these last few years and witnessing him share his awesome talent and personality.If you have a moment, please check out my brother’s work on Instagram and on YouTube. And let him know I sent ya! As of this writing, he is 4 Instagram followers away from 800. Why not be the ones to put him over the top? ↩ ", "content_html": "My brother Rob has started a video podcast! It’s called Creator Cups and is an interview series with creators.
\n\nThe first three episodes are out and feature creative and branding photographer, Rob Anzit, motocross photographer, Kailey Moffat, and my childhood friend and guitarist from my first band back in high school, Mike Aitken.
\n\nI’m really proud of my brother for stepping out and trying to create something for the world. As both a military veteran and stay-at-home father, my brother has poured his heart and soul into serving his country and his family. A couple of years ago, Rob embarked on a two-year program at Fanshawe College studying photography and has been steadily growing his audience on Instagram, as well.1 As someone who has been a creator most of my life, I have been inspired by following the beginning of my brother’s own creative journey these last few years and witnessing him share his awesome talent and personality.
\n\nIf you have a moment, please check out my brother’s work on Instagram and on YouTube. And let him know I sent ya!
\n\nAs of this writing, he is 4 Instagram followers away from 800. Why not be the ones to put him over the top? ↩
\nYesterday, I received an email from Vincent W. He discovered a song I co-wrote back “in the days of Audio Galaxy and Napster” but lost the MP3 when an old computer died. After years of searching in vain, he finally found a reference to the song’s title on my personal blog and emailed me to determine whether he’d finally found what he was looking for.
\n\nIn an effort to make Vincent’s day, I present the world premier of the music video no one but Vincent was waiting for:
\n\nPolitics is only one of many methods by which we interact with our fellow humans.
\n\nMay it never be the most important.
\n\n—
\n\nCorrection: An earlier version of this post estimated attendance of Saturday’s rally to be around 300 people. Admittedly, this was intended to be a conservative estimate. Upon reviewing video taken during the event and learning the max capacity of the Canadian Convention Centre is 1,600, the author now believes attendance of the rally to be closer to 1,000 as claimed by Ontario NDP. The author realizes now that winning a teddy bear by guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar was a case of good luck and not a skill transferable to estimating crowd sizes. The author regrets the error.
\n\nIn fact, now I feel incredibly stupid and owe a sincere apology to the Ontario NDP. What I had intended to be a conservative estimate of 300–400 was in fact less than half of what I now believe the attendance to have been.
\n\nI apologize to the Ontario NDP, the volunteers who organized and produced the event, and to anyone who read my initial estimate and believed it to be true. I realize lies travel faster than the truth and I am sorry I contributed a falsehood to the story of this event.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/thoughts-on-my-first-political-rally/", "date_published": "2022-05-14T18:46:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2022-05-14T18:46:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/hitchens-theme-for-microblog/", "title": "Hitchens theme for Micro.blog\n", "content_text": "Several days ago I logged into Micro.blog for the first time in a few months. After a bit of scrolling to catch up, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had been mentioned in a conversation between @sod and @pimoore where @sod mentioned he and his girlfriend had been using my Hitchens theme for Jekyll for their book blog, Läslöss. Check it out! It’s a very cool modification of Hitchens. Since releasing the theme, I’ve slowly been compiling a list of cool Hitchens mods that I intend to publish here, but that’s for a future post.This post is about how @sod’s post led to my discovery that developer Pete Moore (@pimoore on Micro.blog) had recently developed and released a version of the Hitchens theme for Micro.blog! Along with a few tweaks to the theme’s form and function, Pete was able to port my Jekyll theme to Hugo, the software that powers every blog hosted on Micro.blog. And from what I’ve seen over the last few days, people are really digging it!Back in 2019 when I was first developing Hitchens, I got a really nice mention from Micro.blog founder Manton Reese indicating his interest in having Hitchens ported for use on Micro.blog. I tried a year later to start the work of porting it to Hugo and Micro.blog, but unfortunately other things came up.By initially releasing the Hitchens theme under an MIT open source license, I created the opportunity for any other developer to build off of my work. On Github, the project has been forked almost two hundred times and, as mentioned above, I’ve seen some really great modifications of the theme over the last two years. (Follow my blog by email, Micro.blog, or RSS to be notified when I post that mods post 😃)This is the first time software I’ve released has been taken and ported to an entirely different platform and I am honoured that Pete did such a great job of maintaining the spirit of the original theme. If my blog was hosted on Micro.blog, there’s a very strong chance I’d be giving his version of Hitchens a spin.If your blog is hosted on Micro.blog, check out the Hitchens theme for Micro.blog. And if you’re interested in blogging and aren’t sure where to start, I highly recommend checking out the tools and supportive community Micro.blog has to offer.", "content_html": "Several days ago I logged into Micro.blog for the first time in a few months. After a bit of scrolling to catch up, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had been mentioned in a conversation between @sod and @pimoore where @sod mentioned he and his girlfriend had been using my Hitchens theme for Jekyll for their book blog, Läslöss. Check it out! It’s a very cool modification of Hitchens. Since releasing the theme, I’ve slowly been compiling a list of cool Hitchens mods that I intend to publish here, but that’s for a future post.
\n\nThis post is about how @sod’s post led to my discovery that developer Pete Moore (@pimoore on Micro.blog) had recently developed and released a version of the Hitchens theme for Micro.blog! Along with a few tweaks to the theme’s form and function, Pete was able to port my Jekyll theme to Hugo, the software that powers every blog hosted on Micro.blog. And from what I’ve seen over the last few days, people are really digging it!
\n\nBack in 2019 when I was first developing Hitchens, I got a really nice mention from Micro.blog founder Manton Reese indicating his interest in having Hitchens ported for use on Micro.blog. I tried a year later to start the work of porting it to Hugo and Micro.blog, but unfortunately other things came up.
\n\nBy initially releasing the Hitchens theme under an MIT open source license, I created the opportunity for any other developer to build off of my work. On Github, the project has been forked almost two hundred times and, as mentioned above, I’ve seen some really great modifications of the theme over the last two years. (Follow my blog by email, Micro.blog, or RSS to be notified when I post that mods post 😃)
\n\nThis is the first time software I’ve released has been taken and ported to an entirely different platform and I am honoured that Pete did such a great job of maintaining the spirit of the original theme. If my blog was hosted on Micro.blog, there’s a very strong chance I’d be giving his version of Hitchens a spin.
\n\nIf your blog is hosted on Micro.blog, check out the Hitchens theme for Micro.blog. And if you’re interested in blogging and aren’t sure where to start, I highly recommend checking out the tools and supportive community Micro.blog has to offer.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/hitchens-theme-for-microblog/", "date_published": "2022-01-18T16:19:56-08:00", "date_modified": "2022-01-18T16:19:56-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/relay-fm-st-jude-2021/", "title": "September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month\n", "content_text": "For the last several years, Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley, and the team at Relay FM have organized annual fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a nonprofit operating in Memphis, Tennessee that is a leader in childhood cancer research and provides treatment, care, and support to young cancer patients and their families at no cost to them, made possible through donations from people like you and me.Through the support of individual contributors, St. Jude has been able to quadruple the childhood cancer survivor rate from 20% to over 80%.Three years ago during the inaugural fundraiser, the Relay FM community was able to raise $69,000 for the kids of St. Jude. A year later, the team set their goal for $75,000, hoping they might push it to $125,000. They raised $315,000 in one month.Last year, the team set an initial goal of raising $315,000. The goal was reached during last year’s Podcastathon and by the end of the month, Relay FM and its listeners had raised $456,000.When this year’s fundraiser was announced, the goal was set to $333,333.33 with the added acknowledgment that once they had raised a little over $196,000, they would hit the incredible milestone of having raised $1,000,000 in three years. That milestone was reached last week.As of this writing, they have already surpassed this year’s initial goal and sit at $336,000 raised. They’ve since added another milestone of raising $400,000 by the end of the month.But my question is: while it took three years for Relay FM and its listeners to raise their first $1MM, how long would it take to raise the second?We don’t have enough yearly data to come up with a reasonable estimate for the rate of year-over-year growth, but as an exercise let’s assume this year will see a similar rate of year-over-year growth as last year (~44.76%). At that rate, we could estimate that by the end of this month Relay FM will have raised a total of ~$660,105 this year. Subtracting the $196k needed to reach the first $1MM milestone leaves ~$464,105 that would contribute to the second $1MM, leaving $535,895 to be raised for next year. Assuming the same growth rate for next year, we could expect to see the total amount raised reach $955,568, pushing Relay FM well beyond their second $1MM by the end of next year’s fundraiser.Now, maybe using last year’s growth rate isn’t fair. The good news is that Relay FM could still reach their second $1MM in two years if their growth rate dropped to 25%, which seems very reasonable to me.All of this made-up math—and the very real work happening at St. Jude—requires that people continue to donate. If you have even a little bit of cash to spare, please consider donating to St. Jude’s. Every little bit helps!The Relay FM team will be hosting their annual Podcastathon from 12-8 PM on Friday, September 17. They will be sharing stories from families who have been helped by St. Jude as well as hearing from some of the great people who make up the Relay FM network.", "content_html": "For the last several years, Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley, and the team at Relay FM have organized annual fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a nonprofit operating in Memphis, Tennessee that is a leader in childhood cancer research and provides treatment, care, and support to young cancer patients and their families at no cost to them, made possible through donations from people like you and me.
\n\nThrough the support of individual contributors, St. Jude has been able to quadruple the childhood cancer survivor rate from 20% to over 80%.
\n\nThree years ago during the inaugural fundraiser, the Relay FM community was able to raise $69,000 for the kids of St. Jude. A year later, the team set their goal for $75,000, hoping they might push it to $125,000. They raised $315,000 in one month.
\n\nLast year, the team set an initial goal of raising $315,000. The goal was reached during last year’s Podcastathon and by the end of the month, Relay FM and its listeners had raised $456,000.
\n\nWhen this year’s fundraiser was announced, the goal was set to $333,333.33 with the added acknowledgment that once they had raised a little over $196,000, they would hit the incredible milestone of having raised $1,000,000 in three years. That milestone was reached last week.
\n\nAs of this writing, they have already surpassed this year’s initial goal and sit at $336,000 raised. They’ve since added another milestone of raising $400,000 by the end of the month.
\n\nBut my question is: while it took three years for Relay FM and its listeners to raise their first $1MM, how long would it take to raise the second?
\n\nWe don’t have enough yearly data to come up with a reasonable estimate for the rate of year-over-year growth, but as an exercise let’s assume this year will see a similar rate of year-over-year growth as last year (~44.76%). At that rate, we could estimate that by the end of this month Relay FM will have raised a total of ~$660,105 this year. Subtracting the $196k needed to reach the first $1MM milestone leaves ~$464,105 that would contribute to the second $1MM, leaving $535,895 to be raised for next year. Assuming the same growth rate for next year, we could expect to see the total amount raised reach $955,568, pushing Relay FM well beyond their second $1MM by the end of next year’s fundraiser.
\n\nNow, maybe using last year’s growth rate isn’t fair. The good news is that Relay FM could still reach their second $1MM in two years if their growth rate dropped to 25%, which seems very reasonable to me.
\n\nAll of this made-up math—and the very real work happening at St. Jude—requires that people continue to donate. If you have even a little bit of cash to spare, please consider donating to St. Jude’s. Every little bit helps!
\n\nThe Relay FM team will be hosting their annual Podcastathon from 12-8 PM on Friday, September 17. They will be sharing stories from families who have been helped by St. Jude as well as hearing from some of the great people who make up the Relay FM network.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/relay-fm-st-jude-2021/", "external_url": "https://stjude.org/relay", "date_published": "2021-09-14T14:55:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2021-09-14T14:55:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/team-hawk-spill-it/", "title": "Rob Dryburgh talks skydiving with the SkyHawks, parachute rigging, injury and the road to recovery\n", "content_text": "My younger brother, Rob, recently founded Team Hawk Canada with the aim to motivate, educate, and empower people through storytelling. His experience becoming a Master Parachute Rigger and a member of the Skyhawks military parachute demonstration team taught Rob important lessons about discipline and determination that have been an inspiration to me and many others.After 508 jumps and suffering a career-ending injury, Rob medically released from the military and began the long, difficult process of rehabilitation. Recently, Rob was a guest on the Spill It! podcast to share his story.", "content_html": "My younger brother, Rob, recently founded Team Hawk Canada with the aim to motivate, educate, and empower people through storytelling. His experience becoming a Master Parachute Rigger and a member of the Skyhawks military parachute demonstration team taught Rob important lessons about discipline and determination that have been an inspiration to me and many others.
\n\nAfter 508 jumps and suffering a career-ending injury, Rob medically released from the military and began the long, difficult process of rehabilitation. Recently, Rob was a guest on the Spill It! podcast to share his story.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/team-hawk-spill-it/", "external_url": "https://eccaia.com/rob-dryburgh-talks-skydiving-with-the-skyhawks-parachute-rigging-injury-and-the-road-to-recovery/", "date_published": "2021-07-13T09:24:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2021-07-13T09:24:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/88-keys-of-light-an-interactive-art-installation/", "title": "88 Keys of Light\n", "content_text": "What happens when you blend together a piano, 5 acoustic guitars, 120m of wiring, a massive array of LEDs controlled by a computer, 6 buttons to trigger renditions of popular songs, and an Augmented Reality experience?My friend Edward Platero and his partner in art (artner?), Kristyn Watterworth answered that extremely specific question with their wonderful 88 Keys of Light interactive art installation. The installation has been set up in Toronto for the last month or so, but will be heading to other cities over the summer months.During a time of darkness, it’s nice to experience a bit of light. ", "content_html": "What happens when you blend together a piano, 5 acoustic guitars, 120m of wiring, a massive array of LEDs controlled by a computer, 6 buttons to trigger renditions of popular songs, and an Augmented Reality experience?
\n\nMy friend Edward Platero and his partner in art (artner?), Kristyn Watterworth answered that extremely specific question with their wonderful 88 Keys of Light interactive art installation. The installation has been set up in Toronto for the last month or so, but will be heading to other cities over the summer months.
\n\nDuring a time of darkness, it’s nice to experience a bit of light.
\n\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/88-keys-of-light-an-interactive-art-installation/", "date_published": "2021-04-23T18:52:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2021-04-23T18:52:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/billy-dryburgh/", "title": "Billy Dryburgh\n", "content_text": "I grew up with dogs. Samantha, a beautiful and gentle sheep dog, was around when I was first born. When she passed, our family got Mandy, a bearded collie who sadly had to be re-homed because she was too rambunctious for my then-just-a-toddler sibling. When we were all a bit older we got Samantha II, another bearded collie we all loved until the day she passed of old age.I always dreamed of having my own dog one day. I once made getting a dog a reward back when I was trying to lose weight. I reached the goal I had set, but never got the dog. My life was still heavily oriented around travel, a hectic work schedule, and a lack of desire to settle down.This past autumn, I made the move from Vancouver and shortly after bought my first house, a bungalow with a fenced-in backyard in a neighbourhood by the Thames River and its beautiful trails.Once I had unpacked my belongings and felt settled in, I began the search for my first puppy. My initial plan was to adopt, however there weren’t any available in London and very few within a reasonable distance who were either not my preferred breed or too high-needs for my level of experience.I had decided I was willing to wait for the right dog to come up for adoption, however in early January I found an opportunity to purchase a puppy who otherwise would have ended up at the pound. After meeting with the owner and their 8 week old puppy and feeling its friendliness and energy, I knew I’d found my puppy.On January 3, Billy Dryburgh came home. A Great Pyrenees mix, Billy is full of energy and lots of love to share with everyone he meets. He loves to chew, play fetch and tug-of-war, and cuddle. His favourite treats are dehydrated pig ears and large beef knuckles. His favourite toy is anything that makes noise.Oh, and nap. Boy, does he love to nap.\t\t\t\t\t\tIt’s been amazing to see him grow and learn over the last few months. Billy and I begin dog training on Monday and I can’t wait for all of the adventures we’ll have in the years to come.", "content_html": "I grew up with dogs. Samantha, a beautiful and gentle sheep dog, was around when I was first born. When she passed, our family got Mandy, a bearded collie who sadly had to be re-homed because she was too rambunctious for my then-just-a-toddler sibling. When we were all a bit older we got Samantha II, another bearded collie we all loved until the day she passed of old age.
\n\nI always dreamed of having my own dog one day. I once made getting a dog a reward back when I was trying to lose weight. I reached the goal I had set, but never got the dog. My life was still heavily oriented around travel, a hectic work schedule, and a lack of desire to settle down.
\n\nThis past autumn, I made the move from Vancouver and shortly after bought my first house, a bungalow with a fenced-in backyard in a neighbourhood by the Thames River and its beautiful trails.
\n\nOnce I had unpacked my belongings and felt settled in, I began the search for my first puppy. My initial plan was to adopt, however there weren’t any available in London and very few within a reasonable distance who were either not my preferred breed or too high-needs for my level of experience.
\n\nI had decided I was willing to wait for the right dog to come up for adoption, however in early January I found an opportunity to purchase a puppy who otherwise would have ended up at the pound. After meeting with the owner and their 8 week old puppy and feeling its friendliness and energy, I knew I’d found my puppy.
\n\nOn January 3, Billy Dryburgh came home. A Great Pyrenees mix, Billy is full of energy and lots of love to share with everyone he meets. He loves to chew, play fetch and tug-of-war, and cuddle. His favourite treats are dehydrated pig ears and large beef knuckles. His favourite toy is anything that makes noise.
\n\nOh, and nap. Boy, does he love to nap.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt’s been amazing to see him grow and learn over the last few months. Billy and I begin dog training on Monday and I can’t wait for all of the adventures we’ll have in the years to come.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/billy-dryburgh/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/billy-napping.jpeg", "date_published": "2021-04-13T12:25:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2021-04-13T12:25:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/relay-fm-st-jude-2020/", "title": "September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month\n", "content_text": "For the last several years, Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley, and the team at Relay FM have run annual fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a nonprofit operating in Memphis, Tennessee that provides treatment, care, and support to young cancer patients and their families at no cost to them, made possible through donations from people like you and me.In an ideal world, our friends in the U.S.A. wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of healthcare. But until that time comes, it’s heartening to know that someone is alleviating this burden for families whose children are fighting for their lives. Through the support of individual contributors, St. Jude has been able to quadruple the childhood cancer survivor rate from 20% to over 80%.Two years ago, the Relay FM community was able to raise $69,000 for the kids of St. Jude. Last year, the team set their goal for $75,000, hoping they might push it to $125,000.They raised $315,000 in one month.They are at it again this month and have set an initial goal of $315,000 with fun milestones along the way. There are countless causes worthy of our support, but if you have more to give, St. Jude’s is definitely amongst those who deserve your support.There will be a live Podcastathon on Friday, September 18, from 2-8 PM Eastern on their Twitch channel. If you can’t wait until then, have a listen or watch last year’s Podcastathon full of laughs, hijinks, and touching stories about the good work of St. Jude.", "content_html": "For the last several years, Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley, and the team at Relay FM have run annual fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a nonprofit operating in Memphis, Tennessee that provides treatment, care, and support to young cancer patients and their families at no cost to them, made possible through donations from people like you and me.
\n\nIn an ideal world, our friends in the U.S.A. wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of healthcare. But until that time comes, it’s heartening to know that someone is alleviating this burden for families whose children are fighting for their lives. Through the support of individual contributors, St. Jude has been able to quadruple the childhood cancer survivor rate from 20% to over 80%.
\n\nTwo years ago, the Relay FM community was able to raise $69,000 for the kids of St. Jude. Last year, the team set their goal for $75,000, hoping they might push it to $125,000.
\n\nThey raised $315,000 in one month.
\n\nThey are at it again this month and have set an initial goal of $315,000 with fun milestones along the way. There are countless causes worthy of our support, but if you have more to give, St. Jude’s is definitely amongst those who deserve your support.
\n\nThere will be a live Podcastathon on Friday, September 18, from 2-8 PM Eastern on their Twitch channel. If you can’t wait until then, have a listen or watch last year’s Podcastathon full of laughs, hijinks, and touching stories about the good work of St. Jude.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/relay-fm-st-jude-2020/", "external_url": "https://stjude.org/relay", "date_published": "2020-09-03T08:00:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-09-03T08:00:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/goodbye-again-vancouver/", "title": "Goodbye again, Vancouver\n", "content_text": "In a little less than a month, I will be packing my belongings into the back of my Toyota 4Runner and making my way east from my current home in Vancouver, British Columbia back to my hometown near London, Ontario.I first moved to Vancouver in 2012 for a job and moved back to Ontario in 2013 to be with Mom. When she passed in 2014, it was only a matter of time (246 days, to be exact) before I would move back to Vancouver. I’m not sure my reasons for moving back to Vancouver were entirely logical. I just knew I loved BC and wanted to get away from the grief I was feeling in Ontario.(As it turns out, grief isn’t limited by geography 😄)These last 5 years in BC have had their ups and downs. I fell in love for the first time in a long time, got engaged, then wound up single again. I worked on a number of amazing projects and a couple less-than-amazing ones. I made a few new friends and lost a few others. I got to live in Uganda for 6 months, an opportunity that only presented itself because I was living and working in Vancouver.I was lucky to be able to return home often for holidays and summer workations, and once to attend a dear friend’s funeral. Being able to fly home at a moment’s notice made being so far away from the people I love somewhat tolerable.As soon as the country went into lockdown in March, I knew flying home was not going to be possible for a very, very long time. It was clear that I needed to move home to be closer to my family.I wasn’t sure when or how I would move and uncertainty around SARS-COV-2 meant I had to wait until I knew I could travel safely. I’ve been planning my strategy through the summer and think that by preparing meals ahead of my departure, camping in my tent along the way, and limiting my exposure to other people to only when I am buying gas and can’t pay at the pump, I should be able to avoid unnecessary contact with people.I’m excited to be closer to family again, to be able to help my father with chores and errands, to spend time with my brother and his wife and their daughter, and to only be a day’s drive instead of a day’s flight away from my sister and her fiancé.With the way things are now, I’m not sure when I’ll be back to visit BC. I know I will miss the mountains and the ocean, Lynn Canyon and Sloquet Hot Springs, I will really miss the few friends I still have here, and—of course—I’ll miss the sushi.I am hopeful there is still time to see people before I go (I’ve only seen two friends in person since March and am open to socially-distanced outdoor hangouts) and that one day soon I will be able to visit this beautiful province—my second home—again.", "content_html": "In a little less than a month, I will be packing my belongings into the back of my Toyota 4Runner and making my way east from my current home in Vancouver, British Columbia back to my hometown near London, Ontario.
\n\nI first moved to Vancouver in 2012 for a job and moved back to Ontario in 2013 to be with Mom. When she passed in 2014, it was only a matter of time (246 days, to be exact) before I would move back to Vancouver. I’m not sure my reasons for moving back to Vancouver were entirely logical. I just knew I loved BC and wanted to get away from the grief I was feeling in Ontario.
\n\n(As it turns out, grief isn’t limited by geography 😄)
\n\nThese last 5 years in BC have had their ups and downs. I fell in love for the first time in a long time, got engaged, then wound up single again. I worked on a number of amazing projects and a couple less-than-amazing ones. I made a few new friends and lost a few others. I got to live in Uganda for 6 months, an opportunity that only presented itself because I was living and working in Vancouver.
\n\nI was lucky to be able to return home often for holidays and summer workations, and once to attend a dear friend’s funeral. Being able to fly home at a moment’s notice made being so far away from the people I love somewhat tolerable.
\n\nAs soon as the country went into lockdown in March, I knew flying home was not going to be possible for a very, very long time. It was clear that I needed to move home to be closer to my family.
\n\nI wasn’t sure when or how I would move and uncertainty around SARS-COV-2 meant I had to wait until I knew I could travel safely. I’ve been planning my strategy through the summer and think that by preparing meals ahead of my departure, camping in my tent along the way, and limiting my exposure to other people to only when I am buying gas and can’t pay at the pump, I should be able to avoid unnecessary contact with people.
\n\nI’m excited to be closer to family again, to be able to help my father with chores and errands, to spend time with my brother and his wife and their daughter, and to only be a day’s drive instead of a day’s flight away from my sister and her fiancé.
\n\nWith the way things are now, I’m not sure when I’ll be back to visit BC. I know I will miss the mountains and the ocean, Lynn Canyon and Sloquet Hot Springs, I will really miss the few friends I still have here, and—of course—I’ll miss the sushi.
\n\nI am hopeful there is still time to see people before I go (I’ve only seen two friends in person since March and am open to socially-distanced outdoor hangouts) and that one day soon I will be able to visit this beautiful province—my second home—again.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/goodbye-again-vancouver/", "date_published": "2020-09-02T11:00:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-09-02T11:00:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/my-little-red-spam-filter/", "title": "My Little Red Spam Filter\n", "content_text": "On the latest episode of The Talk Show, John Gruber made a comment during a conversation about the prevelance of email spam that made me chuckle: There’s no possibility in the real-world [for] a spam filter.I had to chuckle because here in Canada, we’ve had real-world spam filtering for over two decades 😆Starting in 1998, Canada Post has allowed residents to request that unaddressed advertising mail no longer be delivered. When the policy was first introduced, residents had to send a letter to Canada Post and then a red dot sticker would be placed in your mailbox, letting carriers know to stop delivering unaddressed advertising mail to your address.Most Canadians were unaware of this ironically unadvertised policy until 2008, when Vancouver-based marketer Beth Ringdahl created the Red Dot Campaign to encourage Canadians to make this request of Canada Post in an effort to reduce paper waste.Canada Post has since updated their policy to remove the requirement of making the request to stop unaddressed advertisting by sending a letter. Now, all that is required is a note inside your mailbox. Or, at least here in Vancouver, a little red dot.\tMy Little Red Spam Filter", "content_html": "On the latest episode of The Talk Show, John Gruber made a comment during a conversation about the prevelance of email spam that made me chuckle:
\n\n\n\n\nThere’s no possibility in the real-world [for] a spam filter.
\n
I had to chuckle because here in Canada, we’ve had real-world spam filtering for over two decades 😆
\n\nStarting in 1998, Canada Post has allowed residents to request that unaddressed advertising mail no longer be delivered. When the policy was first introduced, residents had to send a letter to Canada Post and then a red dot sticker would be placed in your mailbox, letting carriers know to stop delivering unaddressed advertising mail to your address.
\n\nMost Canadians were unaware of this ironically unadvertised policy until 2008, when Vancouver-based marketer Beth Ringdahl created the Red Dot Campaign to encourage Canadians to make this request of Canada Post in an effort to reduce paper waste.
\n\nCanada Post has since updated their policy to remove the requirement of making the request to stop unaddressed advertisting by sending a letter. Now, all that is required is a note inside your mailbox. Or, at least here in Vancouver, a little red dot.
\n\n\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/my-little-red-spam-filter/", "date_published": "2020-08-27T23:29:34-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-08-27T23:29:34-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/freedom-mobile-wants-customers-to-risk-getting-covid-19-for-their-sweet-sweet-deals/", "title": "Freedom Mobile wants customers to risk getting COVID-19 for their sweet, sweet deals\n", "content_text": "Canadian wireless telecommunications provider Freedom Mobile is offering a very enticing deal right now: 20GB of data for $55/mo. The catch? The only way to get the deal is to risk exposing yourself to a lethal virus by entering one of their physical stores.When I told the Freedom Mobile customer service representative I spoke to that demanding customers go into public during a global pandemic is insane, they responded “I understand where you’re coming from. I really do.”", "content_html": "Canadian wireless telecommunications provider Freedom Mobile is offering a very enticing deal right now: 20GB of data for $55/mo. The catch? The only way to get the deal is to risk exposing yourself to a lethal virus by entering one of their physical stores.
\n\nWhen I told the Freedom Mobile customer service representative I spoke to that demanding customers go into public during a global pandemic is insane, they responded “I understand where you’re coming from. I really do.”
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/freedom-mobile-wants-customers-to-risk-getting-covid-19-for-their-sweet-sweet-deals/", "date_published": "2020-08-12T10:19:53-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-08-12T10:19:53-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/why-wont-siri-wait-for-me/", "title": "Why won’t Siri wait for me?\n", "content_text": "Whenever I try to use Siri, I run into two frustrating issues: Siri often misses the first few words I speak, despite waiting for the ding before I begin. Siri often stops listening when I’m in the middle of my sentence or question.The first problem is likely a bug, but the second is because I speak slowly to Siri and often need a few seconds to think of even very basic words.Back when I could initiate Siri with the Home button, I could hold the button until I was finished my sentence and Siri would listen until I let go. Without the home button, I don’t know what to do.Addendum: I’ve just discovered that if I invoke Siri by pressing and holding the power button and don’t let go, Siri continues to listen even when I need a few seconds for my words to come out. Not sure why that had not dawned on me other than that I had been invoking Siri with “Hey Siri” and by tapping my AirPods. I guess those aren’t options for me.", "content_html": "Whenever I try to use Siri, I run into two frustrating issues:
\n\nThe first problem is likely a bug, but the second is because I speak slowly to Siri and often need a few seconds to think of even very basic words.
\n\nBack when I could initiate Siri with the Home button, I could hold the button until I was finished my sentence and Siri would listen until I let go. Without the home button, I don’t know what to do.
\n\nAddendum: I’ve just discovered that if I invoke Siri by pressing and holding the power button and don’t let go, Siri continues to listen even when I need a few seconds for my words to come out. Not sure why that had not dawned on me other than that I had been invoking Siri with “Hey Siri” and by tapping my AirPods. I guess those aren’t options for me.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/why-wont-siri-wait-for-me/", "date_published": "2020-06-26T14:23:30-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-06-26T14:23:30-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/goodbye-time-sucking-social-media/", "title": "Goodbye, time-sucking social media\n", "content_text": "It’s been nearly three months since I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts and a week since I disabled my Instagram account.Apple News+ has kept me abreast of what’s going on in the world in a way I’ve found far more insightful and far less frantic than Twitter. I still have my Micro.blog account and follow a dozen or so people there, but only check it once every few days. I’ve continued reading RSS feeds and listening to podcasts as I have since 2007.I miss seeing updates from the majority of my friends who are locked into the big social networks. As a transplant from Ontario, social media was a window into the lives of people I care about but can’t be close to. Having now deleted my Instagram account, that window is now mostly shut.I’m calling friends and family more, which you may be surprised as I was to learn is far more enriching than faving a tweet or liking a photo. iMessage, WhatsApp, email, and Slack are my primary methods of text communication. I’ve found that if I don’t initiate contact, I have only a small handful of friends who will reach out to me first. I am grateful for those people.There are big changes coming to my life in the coming months and I want to be as present as possible to both savour and safely navigate the experience. Removing the most addictive social media apps feels like a good step toward that goal.", "content_html": "It’s been nearly three months since I deleted my Twitter and Facebook accounts and a week since I disabled my Instagram account.
\n\nApple News+ has kept me abreast of what’s going on in the world in a way I’ve found far more insightful and far less frantic than Twitter. I still have my Micro.blog account and follow a dozen or so people there, but only check it once every few days. I’ve continued reading RSS feeds and listening to podcasts as I have since 2007.
\n\nI miss seeing updates from the majority of my friends who are locked into the big social networks. As a transplant from Ontario, social media was a window into the lives of people I care about but can’t be close to. Having now deleted my Instagram account, that window is now mostly shut.
\n\nI’m calling friends and family more, which you may be surprised as I was to learn is far more enriching than faving a tweet or liking a photo. iMessage, WhatsApp, email, and Slack are my primary methods of text communication. I’ve found that if I don’t initiate contact, I have only a small handful of friends who will reach out to me first. I am grateful for those people.
\n\nThere are big changes coming to my life in the coming months and I want to be as present as possible to both savour and safely navigate the experience. Removing the most addictive social media apps feels like a good step toward that goal.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/goodbye-time-sucking-social-media/", "date_published": "2020-06-10T14:58:32-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-06-10T14:58:32-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/responsive-web-design-turns-10/", "title": "Responsive Web Design turns 10!\n", "content_text": "Responsive design turns 10 years old today! The originator of the concept, Ethan Marcotte, has written the story of how the concept of Responsive Design came to be and how it eventually led to one of the greatest sea changes in web design since the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets.The original article on Responsive Design by Ethan came out the same month I quit my first design job in order to freelance full time. It was an exciting time in the industry with so much to learn and so many interesting challenges to tackle.I took to Responsive Design immediately. Unlike designers who came from the world of print design, I considered myself a “native web designer”, which basically meant I could code anything I designed. Just a few months prior, Meagan Fisher had reintroduced the world to the idea of designing in the browser rather than starting in Photoshop, which was tailor-made for designing responsive websites.I can’t at the moment count the number of responsive websites I’ve designed since Ethan first published that article, but I am forever grateful to him, Meagan, and everyone else in this community who have taught me everything I know.", "content_html": "Responsive design turns 10 years old today! The originator of the concept, Ethan Marcotte, has written the story of how the concept of Responsive Design came to be and how it eventually led to one of the greatest sea changes in web design since the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets.
\n\nThe original article on Responsive Design by Ethan came out the same month I quit my first design job in order to freelance full time. It was an exciting time in the industry with so much to learn and so many interesting challenges to tackle.
\n\nI took to Responsive Design immediately. Unlike designers who came from the world of print design, I considered myself a “native web designer”, which basically meant I could code anything I designed. Just a few months prior, Meagan Fisher had reintroduced the world to the idea of designing in the browser rather than starting in Photoshop, which was tailor-made for designing responsive websites.
\n\nI can’t at the moment count the number of responsive websites I’ve designed since Ethan first published that article, but I am forever grateful to him, Meagan, and everyone else in this community who have taught me everything I know.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/responsive-web-design-turns-10/", "date_published": "2020-05-25T10:18:58-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-25T10:18:58-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/better-face-mask-emojis/", "title": "We need more expressive face-mask Emojis\n", "content_text": "In times of despair, it is important for people to have the ability to communicate in order to avoid adding isolation to the mix. One of our primary methods of digitally communicating emotion is through the use of Emojis.I wasn’t surprised to find that there is currently only one Emoji that includes a visible face mask. However, I was sad to see that its expression looks rather gloomy.No doubt when the original face-mask Emoji was first introduced, face masks in Western society were primarily worn by professionals or those under medical care. However, we have since joined our global neighbours in places where face masks are worn by everyone and as some people have pointed out, this makes communicating emotions through facial expressions really tough.Given this, I think we need more expressive face-mask Emojis. I think a suite of Emojis expressing alternate emotions through a face mask would allow us a small opportunity to show solidarity with one another as we brave this new world.Below is my attempt at melding Apple’s current Face With Medical Mask Emoji (top left) with a few of their other Emojis to create my proposal for new face-mask Emojis. I’m sure a better artist could come up with more effective examples; I simply hope to illustrate the idea.\tI’m probably breaking some sort of copyright by doing this, but who cares? Come at me, Tim Apple.", "content_html": "In times of despair, it is important for people to have the ability to communicate in order to avoid adding isolation to the mix. One of our primary methods of digitally communicating emotion is through the use of Emojis.
\n\nI wasn’t surprised to find that there is currently only one Emoji that includes a visible face mask. However, I was sad to see that its expression looks rather gloomy.
\n\nNo doubt when the original face-mask Emoji was first introduced, face masks in Western society were primarily worn by professionals or those under medical care. However, we have since joined our global neighbours in places where face masks are worn by everyone and as some people have pointed out, this makes communicating emotions through facial expressions really tough.
\n\nGiven this, I think we need more expressive face-mask Emojis. I think a suite of Emojis expressing alternate emotions through a face mask would allow us a small opportunity to show solidarity with one another as we brave this new world.
\n\nBelow is my attempt at melding Apple’s current Face With Medical Mask
Emoji (top left) with a few of their other Emojis to create my proposal for new face-mask Emojis. I’m sure a better artist could come up with more effective examples; I simply hope to illustrate the idea.
I’m probably breaking some sort of copyright by doing this, but who cares? Come at me, Tim Apple.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/better-face-mask-emojis/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/face-mask-emojis.png", "date_published": "2020-05-20T08:00:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-20T08:00:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/say-it-aint-so-joe/", "title": "Say it ain’t so, Joe!\n", "content_text": "I guess by the end of the year I won’t be listening to The Joe Rogan Experience. As John Gruber reports, Joe Rogan has announced his decision to remove his podcast from the open web and baracade it behind a walled garden through an exclusive license with Spotify.Of course we do not know the specifics of the deal, however I would assume that Spotify remain the exclusive licensee of any episode of The Joe Rogan Experience recorded under the deal in perpetuity, meaning it will now be impossible to share any content generated under this deal with people outside of Spotify’s distribution.And for those of us who don’t want to install Spotify? Too bad. Even though Spotify will force targeted ads at me? Too bad. Even though, according to their privacy policy, they can hold my data indefinitely? Look, someone’s gotta fund the move to Texas.It’s a strange decision because of the discrepency between Joe’s concerns about contact tracing (00:29:40) when you consider Spotify’s privacy practices. As Joe might put it: Give up a little bit of your privacy, give up a little bit of your freedom, and I’ll give you a show.I’ve been a fan of The Joe Rogan Experience for several years and I have learned a lot. I don’t agree with everything said on the show, but if I only listened to things I completely agreed with, my podcast feed would be empty. However, his unfiltered conversations with scientists, anthropologists, historians, astro physicists, athletes, coaches, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and even politicians have expanded the worldview of myself and countless others. Listening to the show has been educational, inspirational, and more often than not, fuckin’ hilarious.And soon, it will be missed.", "content_html": "I guess by the end of the year I won’t be listening to The Joe Rogan Experience. As John Gruber reports, Joe Rogan has announced his decision to remove his podcast from the open web and baracade it behind a walled garden through an exclusive license with Spotify.
\n\nOf course we do not know the specifics of the deal, however I would assume that Spotify remain the exclusive licensee of any episode of The Joe Rogan Experience recorded under the deal in perpetuity, meaning it will now be impossible to share any content generated under this deal with people outside of Spotify’s distribution.
\n\nAnd for those of us who don’t want to install Spotify? Too bad. Even though Spotify will force targeted ads at me? Too bad. Even though, according to their privacy policy, they can hold my data indefinitely? Look, someone’s gotta fund the move to Texas.
\n\nIt’s a strange decision because of the discrepency between Joe’s concerns about contact tracing (00:29:40) when you consider Spotify’s privacy practices. As Joe might put it:
\n\n\n\n\nGive up a little bit of your privacy, give up a little bit of your freedom, and I’ll give you a show.
\n
I’ve been a fan of The Joe Rogan Experience for several years and I have learned a lot. I don’t agree with everything said on the show, but if I only listened to things I completely agreed with, my podcast feed would be empty. However, his unfiltered conversations with scientists, anthropologists, historians, astro physicists, athletes, coaches, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and even politicians have expanded the worldview of myself and countless others. Listening to the show has been educational, inspirational, and more often than not, fuckin’ hilarious.
\n\nAnd soon, it will be missed.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/say-it-aint-so-joe/", "date_published": "2020-05-19T18:40:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-19T18:40:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/slack-first-run-experience/", "title": "Slack’s new first-run experience is not great\n", "content_text": "Disclaimer: I purchased shares in Slack days after their IPO, when the price was at its highest. Currently, the stock is worth ~78% of what I paid. I feel like this blog post isn’t likely to cause any real change in the value of the 9 shares I own, but I am probably obligated to let you know this before I continue.Slack recently updated their iPhone app and it looks really nice. Where before the menu for viewing your channels was always set to white text on a dark background regardless of your device’s Appearance settings, now every screen in the app matches the Appearance setting of Light or Dark. It’s a nice refinement that I think makes Slack feel more at home on the iPhone.The update also introduces a new tab bar along the bottom of the screen that improves how you access your conversations. The tab bar includes: Home, which lists all of your channels; DMs, which shows just your direct messages with one or more people; Mentions, which shows you all of the messages in which you were mentioned; You, where you can update your Status and update other aspects of your Slack profile.All of this feels really great, however I have one complaint that reveals the designers at Slack are not reading my blog:Slack’s new first-run experience sucks.I wish I had taken screenshots, but I couldn’t. Why? Because I opened the new version of Slack in an attempt to join a meeting with my client that was just about to begin. However instead of having the freedom to use the application, I was forced to quickly skim my way through a first-use tutorial instructing me to swipe from one screen to the next in order to appease their desire to show me their new-fangled navigation design.Maybe there was a “Skip” button I missed. Regardless, just like Brent Simmons predicted, I don’t remember a goddamn thing Slack was trying to teach me.As it turns out, I was unknowingly 5 minutes early to my meeting, which ultimately got rescheduled, so all my rushing about was for naught. But, do you see where the issue is? Instead of helping me, Slack impeded my ability to do what I needed to do in the moment I needed to do it.As I look at the app now, there’s only one thing I see that I feel isn’t quite as discoverable as the rest: the menu for navigating between Slack organizations (it’s your organization’s icon in the top left of the screen). I don’t know the numbers on this, but my assumption would be that the majority of Slack users belong to a single organization, so making this less prominent than the other areas of the app is A-ok by me.Other than that, I don’t quite get why Slack felt the need to include this first-run tutorial.It’s easy to criticize from a distance, though I imagine it’s pretty clear that despite this complaint, I still love Slack. I think the people that work there are among the brightest and most compassionate in the industry.My only intention for bringing this to light is because I think it is a perfect example of how easy it is to slap a first-run tutorial into an app without fully thinking through how it will impact its users. Far worse things have come out of tech companies in the last decade and this is no where near that level. But, as my friend Shawn once wrote, “delight is in the details.”My work is decidedly not “essential” (a realization I had well before this pandemic, though its truth has certainly been deepened and reenforced), but I do believe it is important. I strive to design and develop systems that are respectful of the user and accessible to everyone. I don’t always meet my ideals and I’ve made my share of mistakes. We all do. The beauty of the Internet and in particular of independent personal blogs is that we can all learn from one another’s mistakes and together find a better path forward.", "content_html": "Disclaimer: I purchased shares in Slack days after their IPO, when the price was at its highest. Currently, the stock is worth ~78% of what I paid. I feel like this blog post isn’t likely to cause any real change in the value of the 9 shares I own, but I am probably obligated to let you know this before I continue.
\n\nSlack recently updated their iPhone app and it looks really nice. Where before the menu for viewing your channels was always set to white text on a dark background regardless of your device’s Appearance settings, now every screen in the app matches the Appearance setting of Light or Dark. It’s a nice refinement that I think makes Slack feel more at home on the iPhone.
\n\nThe update also introduces a new tab bar along the bottom of the screen that improves how you access your conversations. The tab bar includes:
\n\nAll of this feels really great, however I have one complaint that reveals the designers at Slack are not reading my blog:
\n\nSlack’s new first-run experience sucks.
\n\nI wish I had taken screenshots, but I couldn’t. Why? Because I opened the new version of Slack in an attempt to join a meeting with my client that was just about to begin. However instead of having the freedom to use the application, I was forced to quickly skim my way through a first-use tutorial instructing me to swipe from one screen to the next in order to appease their desire to show me their new-fangled navigation design.
\n\nMaybe there was a “Skip” button I missed. Regardless, just like Brent Simmons predicted, I don’t remember a goddamn thing Slack was trying to teach me.
\n\nAs it turns out, I was unknowingly 5 minutes early to my meeting, which ultimately got rescheduled, so all my rushing about was for naught. But, do you see where the issue is? Instead of helping me, Slack impeded my ability to do what I needed to do in the moment I needed to do it.
\n\nAs I look at the app now, there’s only one thing I see that I feel isn’t quite as discoverable as the rest: the menu for navigating between Slack organizations (it’s your organization’s icon in the top left of the screen). I don’t know the numbers on this, but my assumption would be that the majority of Slack users belong to a single organization, so making this less prominent than the other areas of the app is A-ok by me.
\n\nOther than that, I don’t quite get why Slack felt the need to include this first-run tutorial.
\n\nIt’s easy to criticize from a distance, though I imagine it’s pretty clear that despite this complaint, I still love Slack. I think the people that work there are among the brightest and most compassionate in the industry.
\n\nMy only intention for bringing this to light is because I think it is a perfect example of how easy it is to slap a first-run tutorial into an app without fully thinking through how it will impact its users. Far worse things have come out of tech companies in the last decade and this is no where near that level. But, as my friend Shawn once wrote, “delight is in the details.”
\n\nMy work is decidedly not “essential” (a realization I had well before this pandemic, though its truth has certainly been deepened and reenforced), but I do believe it is important. I strive to design and develop systems that are respectful of the user and accessible to everyone. I don’t always meet my ideals and I’ve made my share of mistakes. We all do. The beauty of the Internet and in particular of independent personal blogs is that we can all learn from one another’s mistakes and together find a better path forward.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/slack-first-run-experience/", "date_published": "2020-05-19T12:51:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-05-19T12:51:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-few-small-updates/", "title": "A few small updates\n", "content_text": "I’ve pushed a few minor updates to my site this week. I played around with the inertia of the scrolling animation on the homepage to behave better on larger screens. I’ve worked out how to group posts by day and to sort posts within a day from oldest-to-newest (while days continue to be presented newest-to-oldest). The intention with this change is to make reading through a day’s posts feel more natural, as often on days when I do publish more than one post, they are often connected in some way. If there’s interest, I might write up a post about how I accomplished this. I’ve refined how I’m handling dark mode on the site. Instead of creating separate style sheets for each theme and swapping out the link rel=\"stylesheet\" tag for each theme, I’m now using CSS Variables and setting a data-theme attribute on the HTML element. Switching between themes now feels instantaneous. I’ve removed the lazy loading for images. While lazy loading makes for faster loading speeds, it also means that people who don’t have JavaScript enabled can’t see any images. I decided the minor cost of speed is worth the improvement to accessibility. Less important to you than me, I cut the time it takes for this site to build by more than 50%. I did this by removing some unused code and reducing the number of include tags in the default.html template that is used to generate every single page of this site. What once took anywhere from 20–30 seconds to build is now taking 8–9 seconds which makes iterating and publishing new changes so much more enjoyable.On an unrelated note, this post and the post from earlier today were both scheduled using Alex Johnson’s excellent Heroku Scheduler job for scheduling Jekyll posts. Unfortunately, I’m still using my multi-app setup for publishing posts from my phone though I do intend to dig into IndieKit by Paul Robert Loyd which I was introduced to by Boris as a way of setting up a Micropub endpoint on Heroku. Still have to work my way through some configuration before that’s ready to go.", "content_html": "I’ve pushed a few minor updates to my site this week.
\n\nlink rel=\"stylesheet\"
tag for each theme, I’m now using CSS Variables and setting a data-theme
attribute on the HTML
element. Switching between themes now feels instantaneous.include
tags in the default.html
template that is used to generate every single page of this site. What once took anywhere from 20–30 seconds to build is now taking 8–9 seconds which makes iterating and publishing new changes so much more enjoyable.On an unrelated note, this post and the post from earlier today were both scheduled using Alex Johnson’s excellent Heroku Scheduler job for scheduling Jekyll posts. Unfortunately, I’m still using my multi-app setup for publishing posts from my phone though I do intend to dig into IndieKit by Paul Robert Loyd which I was introduced to by Boris as a way of setting up a Micropub endpoint on Heroku. Still have to work my way through some configuration before that’s ready to go.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-few-small-updates/", "date_published": "2020-04-10T14:56:42-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-04-10T14:56:42-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/micro-blog-homepage-redesign/", "title": "Unsolicited redesign of the Micro.blog homepage\n", "content_text": "When I read Manton Reece’s announcement that the Micro.blog apps would be swapping out Avenir for default system fonts, I wanted to see what a redesigned landing page designed with Apple’s San Francisco font would look like. This design was not solicited by nor has it been shown to anyone on the Micro.blog team.The idea for the photo in the header would be to solicit photos of Micro.blog community members holding a device displaying their blog. The photo would change on each page refresh to promote the diversity that makes up the Micro.blog community.The rest of the content has been left as-is or with minimal editing for clarity and effect.Would love to hear what you think 😊\tUnsolicited Homepage Design Exploration for Micro.blog", "content_html": "When I read Manton Reece’s announcement that the Micro.blog apps would be swapping out Avenir for default system fonts, I wanted to see what a redesigned landing page designed with Apple’s San Francisco font would look like. This design was not solicited by nor has it been shown to anyone on the Micro.blog team.
\n\nThe idea for the photo in the header would be to solicit photos of Micro.blog community members holding a device displaying their blog. The photo would change on each page refresh to promote the diversity that makes up the Micro.blog community.
\n\nThe rest of the content has been left as-is or with minimal editing for clarity and effect.
\n\nWould love to hear what you think 😊
\n\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/micro-blog-homepage-redesign/", "date_published": "2020-03-29T14:56:29-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-03-29T14:56:29-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/the-isle-of-ailynn/", "title": "The Isle of Ailynn\n", "content_text": "Mappe Of is an avant-folk artist who last year released a concept album called The Isle of Ailynn. To explore the world that had been created, visual artist Kristyn Watterworth and filmmaker Edward Platero spent months painting and filming Ailynn in Virtual Reality. Every blade of grass, every leaf, and every creature on and around the island was drawn in VR using Google Tilt Brush.The result of this undertaking is this album-long, forty-four minute music video that is the most breathtaking thing you will see today.", "content_html": "Mappe Of is an avant-folk artist who last year released a concept album called The Isle of Ailynn. To explore the world that had been created, visual artist Kristyn Watterworth and filmmaker Edward Platero spent months painting and filming Ailynn in Virtual Reality. Every blade of grass, every leaf, and every creature on and around the island was drawn in VR using Google Tilt Brush.
\n\nThe result of this undertaking is this album-long, forty-four minute music video that is the most breathtaking thing you will see today.
\n\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/the-isle-of-ailynn/", "date_published": "2020-03-28T19:15:36-07:00", "date_modified": "2020-03-28T19:15:36-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/digitally-preserving-the-joshua-tree/", "title": "Digitally preserving The Joshua Tree\n", "content_text": "My friend Edward Platero has started working on a project that seeks to preserve the remains of The Joshua Tree. The namesake of U2’s 1987 album and the location for the album’s cover photo is estimated to have fallen in the year 2000. Fans from all around the world have visited the tree and left mementos of their pilgrimage, but the tree itself is slowly rotting into the earth.The goal of thejoshuatree.earth project is to preserve this piece of musical history through 3D recreation. Last month, Edward visited the tree and took over 4,000 photographs which he will use to construct a 3D model and eventually an immersive Virtual Reality experience using Photogrammetry.Details about the project and suggestions for helping out can be found at thejoshuatree.earth.", "content_html": "My friend Edward Platero has started working on a project that seeks to preserve the remains of The Joshua Tree. The namesake of U2’s 1987 album and the location for the album’s cover photo is estimated to have fallen in the year 2000. Fans from all around the world have visited the tree and left mementos of their pilgrimage, but the tree itself is slowly rotting into the earth.
\n\nThe goal of thejoshuatree.earth project is to preserve this piece of musical history through 3D recreation. Last month, Edward visited the tree and took over 4,000 photographs which he will use to construct a 3D model and eventually an immersive Virtual Reality experience using Photogrammetry.
\n\nDetails about the project and suggestions for helping out can be found at thejoshuatree.earth.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/digitally-preserving-the-joshua-tree/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/the-joshua-tree-photogrammetry.png", "date_published": "2020-02-11T21:31:10-08:00", "date_modified": "2020-02-11T21:31:10-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/2019-year-in-review/", "title": "2019 Year in Review\n", "content_text": "This year, like most, had its share of ups and downs. Here are some highlights from the last 12 months.JanuaryWrapped up my work on the new version of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board Registry. I began working on this project in August of 2018 with my client, Make IT. It was a massive project with a lot of complexity that made it all the more rewarding when it launched. The new registry is significantly faster and more intuitive than the off-the-shelf-and-customized software it replaces and the project offered me a couple great opportunities to visit my colleagues living in one of the most northern communities in the country.I also played my first open mic in several years. I’ve struggled to find my way into the music community in Vancouver, but the open mic at Café Deux Soleil was one place where I felt welcome.FebruaryGot to spend a couple weeks in Calgary for the first time as we planned the next project. Unfortunately I can’t share what that project was and ultimately it was cancelled several months in, but nonetheless it was an awesome experience.I also discovered the wonders of bath bombs!MarchI bought some new kitchen supplies to replace those I lost during the breakup at the end of 2018. I climbed Mount Seymour in the snow without snowshoes or spikes.Later in the month, I flew from Vancouver to Montréal to spend the following 6 weeks with my sister and her fiancé. This was my third time visiting Montréal but my first getting to spend my time there with family. We had a lot of fun exploring the city together and eating lots (and lots) of poutine!AprilSpent the month of April in Montréal eating more poutine and immersing myself in the culture. A friend and I attended a performance of Blind Date, a live improvised play where one lucky member of the audience gets to act as a blind date alongside the professional performers in the production.And wouldn’t you know it, I got to be that lucky blind date!That Tuesday evening turned out to be one of my favourites of the year. The report from my date was pretty positive, as well: Centaur Theatre, Montreal, Blind Date #16: PATRICK. When I first saw Patrick in the lobby, the first thing I noticed was his amazing red beard! Then, when I started to talk to him, I quickly realized there was a pretty amazing man behind it.In very close second place for best evening of the year was the Monday I attended WWE’s Monday Night Raw event at the Bell Centre. If you watch this video or have access to the WWE Network and watch the broadcast from April 15, you’ll spot me throughout the show sitting in the 4th row on the left side of your screen. You’ll see me booing the heels and cheering the babyfaces like a good mark should.And last but not least, April saw the release of my very first open source Jekyll Theme, Hitchens. The project has since been forked over 50 times and has also received over 50 stars. If you’re a writer who has an interest in using Jekyll to publish long-form content, give Hitchens a look.MayI flew from Montréal to St. John’s, Newfoundland to join my brother on a 3-day drive from Newfoundland to Ontario. When we first landed at the airport, I spotted a young bull moose up close and a massive iceberg off in the distance. On the drive through Newfoundland to the ferry terminal, we saw several caribou and a red fox. The last time I had driven from the terminal to St. John’s was at night, so driving through this incredible province during the day was spellbinding.My brother and I arrived in Ontario and I got to spend the following 6 weeks visiting my father, my brother and his family, and later my sister and her fiancé again. I also got to visit Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto for the first time.JuneSwam a lot.JulyThe project I started in February was cancelled, so I spent a lot of time swimming and hiking in Lynn Creek. Was surprised to discover that a massive Douglas Fir that had a rope used to climb down into the canyon had collapsed.My friends Boris, Brooklyn, and I flew from Vancouver to Nanaimo on a float plane (I got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat!) to spend the day at Input Cowork where we hosted a tech meetup focused on open source software and the InterPlanetary File System.I also launched a landing page for a new still-to-be-released project, Just a Box.AugustI built and released a new open source project that’s a DuckDuckGo Search Box Generator. Based on my blog’s most popular post (from 2012!), I wanted to create a tool that makes it easy for people to add a DuckDuckGo search box to their website and have the search results be customized to their preferred colour scheme. I haven’t heard from a single person whether this has been helpful, but it was the perfect opportunity to teach myself the new React Hooks.I also designed a new line of shirts, shoes, and accessories called Make Happy for A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders. The shoes are particularly awesome.A visit from a friend rounded out the rest of August, including trips to the Richmond Night Market and a long weekend spent at the Sloquet Hot Springs.SeptemberI had a dentist appointment.OctoberAttended the NXT live event at PNE Agrodome. Voted in the Canadian federal election. Designed some sweet new business cards for my friends at Fission.Went fishing for Coho salmon for my first time ever. I didn’t catch anything, but had an incredible time watching them swim upstream to complete their final journey.NovemberTried my hand again at fishing for Coho. Still no bites, but had an amazing time exploring the Fraser Valley. Had my first jam night with The Rustle Crows. Visited my friend Corrie in Victoria. We drove out to Canada’s Gnarliest Tree in Avatar Grove.I released a new shirt at A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders for a fake East Van restaurant called Trout Lake Chowdery (a Boris Mann idea) and launched an Instagram account for the shop, as well.DecemberAttended my third professional wrestling show of the year, this one promoted by an independent company called ECCW. The show was a lot of fun and I hope to get out to more local events in 2020. Next up is Ballroom Brawl 13 at the Commodore Ballroom on Saturday, January 18!Flew to Ontario to visit with friends and family over the holidays. Lots of Christmas shopping, dinners, desserts, and stories. I bought my niece her first tricycle that she seems to really enjoy :) Rang in the New Year at my brother’s in-laws, playing music and sharing in laughter. Was the perfect way to cap off the year.", "content_html": "This year, like most, had its share of ups and downs. Here are some highlights from the last 12 months.
\n\nWrapped up my work on the new version of the Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Assessment Board Registry. I began working on this project in August of 2018 with my client, Make IT. It was a massive project with a lot of complexity that made it all the more rewarding when it launched. The new registry is significantly faster and more intuitive than the off-the-shelf-and-customized software it replaces and the project offered me a couple great opportunities to visit my colleagues living in one of the most northern communities in the country.
\n\nI also played my first open mic in several years. I’ve struggled to find my way into the music community in Vancouver, but the open mic at Café Deux Soleil was one place where I felt welcome.
\n\nGot to spend a couple weeks in Calgary for the first time as we planned the next project. Unfortunately I can’t share what that project was and ultimately it was cancelled several months in, but nonetheless it was an awesome experience.
\n\nI also discovered the wonders of bath bombs!
\n\nI bought some new kitchen supplies to replace those I lost during the breakup at the end of 2018. I climbed Mount Seymour in the snow without snowshoes or spikes.
\n\nLater in the month, I flew from Vancouver to Montréal to spend the following 6 weeks with my sister and her fiancé. This was my third time visiting Montréal but my first getting to spend my time there with family. We had a lot of fun exploring the city together and eating lots (and lots) of poutine!
\n\nSpent the month of April in Montréal eating more poutine and immersing myself in the culture. A friend and I attended a performance of Blind Date, a live improvised play where one lucky member of the audience gets to act as a blind date alongside the professional performers in the production.
\n\nAnd wouldn’t you know it, I got to be that lucky blind date!
\n\nThat Tuesday evening turned out to be one of my favourites of the year. The report from my date was pretty positive, as well:
\n\n\n\n\nCentaur Theatre, Montreal, Blind Date #16: PATRICK. When I first saw Patrick in the lobby, the first thing I noticed was his amazing red beard! Then, when I started to talk to him, I quickly realized there was a pretty amazing man behind it.
\n
In very close second place for best evening of the year was the Monday I attended WWE’s Monday Night Raw event at the Bell Centre. If you watch this video or have access to the WWE Network and watch the broadcast from April 15, you’ll spot me throughout the show sitting in the 4th row on the left side of your screen. You’ll see me booing the heels and cheering the babyfaces like a good mark should.
\n\nAnd last but not least, April saw the release of my very first open source Jekyll Theme, Hitchens. The project has since been forked over 50 times and has also received over 50 stars. If you’re a writer who has an interest in using Jekyll to publish long-form content, give Hitchens a look.
\n\nI flew from Montréal to St. John’s, Newfoundland to join my brother on a 3-day drive from Newfoundland to Ontario. When we first landed at the airport, I spotted a young bull moose up close and a massive iceberg off in the distance. On the drive through Newfoundland to the ferry terminal, we saw several caribou and a red fox. The last time I had driven from the terminal to St. John’s was at night, so driving through this incredible province during the day was spellbinding.
\n\nMy brother and I arrived in Ontario and I got to spend the following 6 weeks visiting my father, my brother and his family, and later my sister and her fiancé again. I also got to visit Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto for the first time.
\n\nSwam a lot.
\n\nThe project I started in February was cancelled, so I spent a lot of time swimming and hiking in Lynn Creek. Was surprised to discover that a massive Douglas Fir that had a rope used to climb down into the canyon had collapsed.
\n\nMy friends Boris, Brooklyn, and I flew from Vancouver to Nanaimo on a float plane (I got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat!) to spend the day at Input Cowork where we hosted a tech meetup focused on open source software and the InterPlanetary File System.
\n\nI also launched a landing page for a new still-to-be-released project, Just a Box.
\n\nI built and released a new open source project that’s a DuckDuckGo Search Box Generator. Based on my blog’s most popular post (from 2012!), I wanted to create a tool that makes it easy for people to add a DuckDuckGo search box to their website and have the search results be customized to their preferred colour scheme. I haven’t heard from a single person whether this has been helpful, but it was the perfect opportunity to teach myself the new React Hooks.
\n\nI also designed a new line of shirts, shoes, and accessories called Make Happy for A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders. The shoes are particularly awesome.
\n\nA visit from a friend rounded out the rest of August, including trips to the Richmond Night Market and a long weekend spent at the Sloquet Hot Springs.
\n\nI had a dentist appointment.
\n\nAttended the NXT live event at PNE Agrodome. Voted in the Canadian federal election. Designed some sweet new business cards for my friends at Fission.
\n\nWent fishing for Coho salmon for my first time ever. I didn’t catch anything, but had an incredible time watching them swim upstream to complete their final journey.
\n\nTried my hand again at fishing for Coho. Still no bites, but had an amazing time exploring the Fraser Valley. Had my first jam night with The Rustle Crows. Visited my friend Corrie in Victoria. We drove out to Canada’s Gnarliest Tree in Avatar Grove.
\n\nI released a new shirt at A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders for a fake East Van restaurant called Trout Lake Chowdery (a Boris Mann idea) and launched an Instagram account for the shop, as well.
\n\nAttended my third professional wrestling show of the year, this one promoted by an independent company called ECCW. The show was a lot of fun and I hope to get out to more local events in 2020. Next up is Ballroom Brawl 13 at the Commodore Ballroom on Saturday, January 18!
\n\nFlew to Ontario to visit with friends and family over the holidays. Lots of Christmas shopping, dinners, desserts, and stories. I bought my niece her first tricycle that she seems to really enjoy :) Rang in the New Year at my brother’s in-laws, playing music and sharing in laughter. Was the perfect way to cap off the year.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/2019-year-in-review/", "date_published": "2020-01-03T11:59:30-08:00", "date_modified": "2020-01-03T11:59:30-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/duckduckgo-custom-search-box-generator/", "title": "I designed a custom search box generator for DuckDuckGo\n", "content_text": "Several years ago, I wrote about how to add a custom DuckDuckGo search box to your website. When I was still running analytics on my site, that blog post was consistently in the top 3–5 visited articles on my blog.For the last year and a half, I’ve been writing a lot of React. Earlier this year, React 16.8 was released with the ability to use Hooks which allow you to use state and other React features without writing a class. As someone who learns best by doing, I wanted to create a project that would provide an opportunity to learn this new technology.Today, I’m excited to share the fruits of that labour. The DuckDuckGo Search Box Generator is a single-page React app that allows anyone to create a customized DuckDuckGo search form for their website.\tThe app features a live preview of what the search results will look like, allowing quick iteration to create a design that best works for you.There’s also a live DuckDuckGo search form on the site that lets you test your settings on a real DuckDuckGo result page. Your settings are stored in your browser’s localStorage so that they’re saved for when you return to the generator. This makes iterating and testing new designs very quick and easy.The code for the app is available on Github and is released under the MIT License. Issues and support requests can be filed on the Issues page and of course, pull requests are welcome!If you or someone you know runs a website that needs a simple, privacy-focused solution for search, give the DuckDuckGo Search Box Generator a try!", "content_html": "Several years ago, I wrote about how to add a custom DuckDuckGo search box to your website. When I was still running analytics on my site, that blog post was consistently in the top 3–5 visited articles on my blog.
\n\nFor the last year and a half, I’ve been writing a lot of React. Earlier this year, React 16.8 was released with the ability to use Hooks which allow you to use state and other React features without writing a class. As someone who learns best by doing, I wanted to create a project that would provide an opportunity to learn this new technology.
\n\nToday, I’m excited to share the fruits of that labour. The DuckDuckGo Search Box Generator is a single-page React app that allows anyone to create a customized DuckDuckGo search form for their website.
\n\n\n\nThe app features a live preview of what the search results will look like, allowing quick iteration to create a design that best works for you.
\n\nThere’s also a live DuckDuckGo search form on the site that lets you test your settings on a real DuckDuckGo result page. Your settings are stored in your browser’s localStorage
so that they’re saved for when you return to the generator. This makes iterating and testing new designs very quick and easy.
The code for the app is available on Github and is released under the MIT License. Issues and support requests can be filed on the Issues page and of course, pull requests are welcome!
\n\nIf you or someone you know runs a website that needs a simple, privacy-focused solution for search, give the DuckDuckGo Search Box Generator a try!
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/duckduckgo-custom-search-box-generator/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/ddg-searchbox-logo.png", "date_published": "2019-08-22T11:23:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2019-08-22T11:23:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/introducing-the-make-happy-collection/", "title": "Introducing the “Make Happy” Collection from A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders\n", "content_text": "I’m excited to announce the launch of some new products for A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders. The “Make Happy” collection features new shirts, shoes, buttons, stickers, and even beach towels with vibrant colours and a positive message.\tI’m especially excited about the new cut-and-sew shirts and shoes, which feature an all-over print of the Make Happy design. The t-shirts are printed using Dye Sublimation with eco-friendly inks that are designed to last for years without fading in the wash, then individually sewn together by skilled artisans in the USA to ensure a flawless and vibrant graphic and a comfortable fit.The shoes use a high-quality dye sublimation heat transfer print and feature a removable in-sole with cushion and comfort bubbles.I hope you like the new designs! It would mean a lot if you would take a look and even more if you’d share this with friends :)", "content_html": "I’m excited to announce the launch of some new products for A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders. The “Make Happy” collection features new shirts, shoes, buttons, stickers, and even beach towels with vibrant colours and a positive message.
\n\n\n\nI’m especially excited about the new cut-and-sew shirts and shoes, which feature an all-over print of the Make Happy design. The t-shirts are printed using Dye Sublimation with eco-friendly inks that are designed to last for years without fading in the wash, then individually sewn together by skilled artisans in the USA to ensure a flawless and vibrant graphic and a comfortable fit.
\n\nThe shoes use a high-quality dye sublimation heat transfer print and feature a removable in-sole with cushion and comfort bubbles.
\n\nI hope you like the new designs! It would mean a lot if you would take a look and even more if you’d share this with friends :)
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/introducing-the-make-happy-collection/", "date_published": "2019-08-20T08:51:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2019-08-20T08:51:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-day-in-nanaimo/", "title": "A day in Nanaimo\n", "content_text": "Working from home over the last year and a half has been a blessing and a curse. I don’t think I’ve ever been as consistently productive as I have been during this time, as working from home affords me the ability to focus. I’ve worked with awesome teams to ship several awesome projects, I released my first open source Jekyll theme, and launched A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders.The flip side to this is that when I’m working alone in my apartment, it’s very easy to remain in my cave and only come up for food and water. Now that I don’t live in a more central location and don’t have an office to go to every morning, I can go days without speaking to anyone besides the cashiers at my local coffee shop.For the last 3 months, I travelled between Montreal, QC, Mount Pearl, NL, Toronto, ON, and my hometown of Dorchester, ON to visit family and friends. I spent a lot of time in planes, trains, and automobiles, but more importantly around a lot more people than I was for the first few months of the year. Though still able to get away when work needed to happen, it was awesome to be able to sit with my family or go out for dinner with an old friend in the evening.When I got back to B.C., I thought I’d relish some time to be alone. But, it only took a few days of settling in and reorganizing my belongings for the quiet to become uncomfortable.Which is why when Boris Mann suggested a day trip to Nanaimo, BC for a “one day coworking and meetup adventure,” I signed up immediately.The plan was to take a float plane to Nanaimo, hang out at the recently relaunched Input Cowork office, spend some time exploring the neighbourhood, and finally attend a local tech meetup hosted by Input Logic, owners of Input Cowork.I took an Evo into Gastown and was joined at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre by Boris and his Fission co-founder Brooklyn Zelenka. The free coffee provided by Harbour Air and the incredibly comfortable seating at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre was a stark contrast to the experience of most airports and made the eventual rain delay a relaxing time to discuss the future of Web Assembly, the InterPlanetary File System, and the current state of open source software, ideas that would permeate through the entire day.\tPhoto by Boris MannOnce boarded, I sat behind Boris and Brooklyn and prepared for the apology I surely owed whomever was doomed to sit next to me for taking up so much of the narrow bench. But before anyone could sit next to me, the best sentence I’d heard in some time emerged from in front of me: You should ask to sit in the copilot’s chair.Immediately my eyes lit up. I’ve been on countless flights in my lifetime, and a big part of that was the fascination I have with the stories my father would tell me of his time as a pilot. Before he and my mom had kids, he got his pilot’s license and would fly Mom and their friends and family all over the place. That sense of adventure stuck with me, but the feeling of sitting in the last row of coach with no ability to recline the seat for an 8-hour flight is not quite what I had always envisioned my dad’s flight experience was like.When the pilot agreed to let me sit next to him, I was elated. He was quick to instruct me to keep my iPhone out of his field of view so as not to obstruct his vision, but this didn’t feel like a moment I much wanted to capture on camera (aside, of course, from a quick selfie with the killer headset I got to wear and a couple more I knew I’d want for this post). Sitting and watching as the plane flew through the rain clouds was as mesmerizing an experience as I can remember.\t\tAnd don’t worry, there were no controls at the copilot’s seat. I mostly offered moral support.\tComing from a long history of travelling in large commercial airlines at altitudes well above the clouds, I wasn’t expecting the entire flight to be as turbulent as it was. The rain, I’m sure, didn’t help. But as we approached Nanaimo the clouds began to clear and as we crossed over Protection Island the city of Nanaimo was aglow in the midmorning sun.\tLeaving rainy Vancouver\tArriving at sunny NanaimoWe met Input Logic & Cowork co-founder Shawn Adrian at Gabriel’s Gourmet Cafe for breakfast and shop talk, then walked up to the Input Cowork office for even more shop talk.\tBoris led a discussion about lean startup methodology and Pirate Metrics with a group of over a dozen entrepreneurs and creative professionals. Hanging out with Boris reminds me of two fundamental truths: there are people who don’t know what I know and a lot more who know what I don’t.\tThe rest of the afternoon was spent chatting about different startup ideas, ones that we’d heard pitched to us or that we’d been tinkering with in the back of our own minds. I was reminded that I really enjoy discussing new and untested ideas with people who are smarter than me.\tAfter a late lunch at The Vault Cafe, we walked along the sea wall and came upon the statue of Black Frank, who in 1967 started the Loyal Nanaimo Bath Tub Race. A stop at Cold Front Gelato was the perfect way to cap the afternoon as we made our way back to Input Cowork for the meetup.\t\tBoris kicked off the meetup doing what Boris does best: get people excited about an idea (it was Boris who first proposed the idea of flying halfway around the world to live in Kampala, Uganda). This time, his topic was open source software. After sharing his history as a Drupal advocate, Boris led the group through topics like the various open source licenses, the controversy surrounding the initial React license, the recent purchase of Github by Microsoft, and a whole lot more.Next, Brooklyn gave a high-level overview of IPFS, the InterPlanetary File System. IPFS aims to move us away from centralized data storage to a system that is distributed and content-addressable, which opens the door to peer-to-peer sharing of content anywhere in the world — nay, the universe! I don’t know Brooklyn as well as I know Boris, but the few opportunities I’ve had to hear Brooklyn speak lead me to understand exactly why the pair work so well together. Her level of understanding of complex mathematical and technical concepts, in addition to her ability to translate those concepts to n00bs such as myself, make her as excellent an advocate for technology as she is a practitioner.\tIn a nutshell, rather than storing everyone’s data on a centralized server, IPFS lets you store your data on your own device (laptop, phone, IoT device, etc) and lets other people access that data by addressing the content itself rather than the device the data lives on. For example, rather than having a chat conversation be stored on my phone, my friend’s phone, and a server that’s owned by an untrustworthy third-party, the only devices that host the messages are mine and my friend’s.I’m definitely going to be doing a lot more reading about IPFS in the coming weeks. Maybe prototype an idea or two :)The final talk of the night was given by Carson Farmer, Lead Data Scientist at Textile. Textile is building open source tools for developers who wish to build on IPFS. I haven’t had a chance to dig through their projects yet, but am excited to play with one of their initial products. Textile Photos allows you to store photos in IPFS and create private groups to share them with. I’m interested particularly because most of my friends and family don’t use iPhones and therefore don’t have access to Apple’s private photo sharing service. This could be a very cool cross platform tool for sharing private photos without having to store your photos on an untrustworthy private company’s servers.\tThe evening wrapped and Boris, Brooklyn, and I set off on the Coastal Renaissance to return to Vancouver.\tIt was an awesome day that reminded me of the value of getting out of my apartment and into the world. Thanks again to Boris, Brooklyn, and Shawn for letting me join you on yesterday’s adventure!", "content_html": "Working from home over the last year and a half has been a blessing and a curse. I don’t think I’ve ever been as consistently productive as I have been during this time, as working from home affords me the ability to focus. I’ve worked with awesome teams to ship several awesome projects, I released my first open source Jekyll theme, and launched A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders.
\n\nThe flip side to this is that when I’m working alone in my apartment, it’s very easy to remain in my cave and only come up for food and water. Now that I don’t live in a more central location and don’t have an office to go to every morning, I can go days without speaking to anyone besides the cashiers at my local coffee shop.
\n\nFor the last 3 months, I travelled between Montreal, QC, Mount Pearl, NL, Toronto, ON, and my hometown of Dorchester, ON to visit family and friends. I spent a lot of time in planes, trains, and automobiles, but more importantly around a lot more people than I was for the first few months of the year. Though still able to get away when work needed to happen, it was awesome to be able to sit with my family or go out for dinner with an old friend in the evening.
\n\nWhen I got back to B.C., I thought I’d relish some time to be alone. But, it only took a few days of settling in and reorganizing my belongings for the quiet to become uncomfortable.
\n\nWhich is why when Boris Mann suggested a day trip to Nanaimo, BC for a “one day coworking and meetup adventure,” I signed up immediately.
\n\nThe plan was to take a float plane to Nanaimo, hang out at the recently relaunched Input Cowork office, spend some time exploring the neighbourhood, and finally attend a local tech meetup hosted by Input Logic, owners of Input Cowork.
\n\nI took an Evo into Gastown and was joined at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre by Boris and his Fission co-founder Brooklyn Zelenka. The free coffee provided by Harbour Air and the incredibly comfortable seating at the Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre was a stark contrast to the experience of most airports and made the eventual rain delay a relaxing time to discuss the future of Web Assembly, the InterPlanetary File System, and the current state of open source software, ideas that would permeate through the entire day.
\n\n\n\nOnce boarded, I sat behind Boris and Brooklyn and prepared for the apology I surely owed whomever was doomed to sit next to me for taking up so much of the narrow bench. But before anyone could sit next to me, the best sentence I’d heard in some time emerged from in front of me:
\n\n\n\n\nYou should ask to sit in the copilot’s chair.
\n
Immediately my eyes lit up. I’ve been on countless flights in my lifetime, and a big part of that was the fascination I have with the stories my father would tell me of his time as a pilot. Before he and my mom had kids, he got his pilot’s license and would fly Mom and their friends and family all over the place. That sense of adventure stuck with me, but the feeling of sitting in the last row of coach with no ability to recline the seat for an 8-hour flight is not quite what I had always envisioned my dad’s flight experience was like.
\n\nWhen the pilot agreed to let me sit next to him, I was elated. He was quick to instruct me to keep my iPhone out of his field of view so as not to obstruct his vision, but this didn’t feel like a moment I much wanted to capture on camera (aside, of course, from a quick selfie with the killer headset I got to wear and a couple more I knew I’d want for this post). Sitting and watching as the plane flew through the rain clouds was as mesmerizing an experience as I can remember.
\n\n\n\n\n\nAnd don’t worry, there were no controls at the copilot’s seat. I mostly offered moral support.
\n\n\n\nComing from a long history of travelling in large commercial airlines at altitudes well above the clouds, I wasn’t expecting the entire flight to be as turbulent as it was. The rain, I’m sure, didn’t help. But as we approached Nanaimo the clouds began to clear and as we crossed over Protection Island the city of Nanaimo was aglow in the midmorning sun.
\n\n\n\n\n\nWe met Input Logic & Cowork co-founder Shawn Adrian at Gabriel’s Gourmet Cafe for breakfast and shop talk, then walked up to the Input Cowork office for even more shop talk.
\n\n\n\nBoris led a discussion about lean startup methodology and Pirate Metrics with a group of over a dozen entrepreneurs and creative professionals. Hanging out with Boris reminds me of two fundamental truths: there are people who don’t know what I know and a lot more who know what I don’t.
\n\n\n\nThe rest of the afternoon was spent chatting about different startup ideas, ones that we’d heard pitched to us or that we’d been tinkering with in the back of our own minds. I was reminded that I really enjoy discussing new and untested ideas with people who are smarter than me.
\n\n\n\nAfter a late lunch at The Vault Cafe, we walked along the sea wall and came upon the statue of Black Frank, who in 1967 started the Loyal Nanaimo Bath Tub Race. A stop at Cold Front Gelato was the perfect way to cap the afternoon as we made our way back to Input Cowork for the meetup.
\n\n\n\n\n\nBoris kicked off the meetup doing what Boris does best: get people excited about an idea (it was Boris who first proposed the idea of flying halfway around the world to live in Kampala, Uganda). This time, his topic was open source software. After sharing his history as a Drupal advocate, Boris led the group through topics like the various open source licenses, the controversy surrounding the initial React license, the recent purchase of Github by Microsoft, and a whole lot more.
\n\nNext, Brooklyn gave a high-level overview of IPFS, the InterPlanetary File System. IPFS aims to move us away from centralized data storage to a system that is distributed and content-addressable, which opens the door to peer-to-peer sharing of content anywhere in the world — nay, the universe! I don’t know Brooklyn as well as I know Boris, but the few opportunities I’ve had to hear Brooklyn speak lead me to understand exactly why the pair work so well together. Her level of understanding of complex mathematical and technical concepts, in addition to her ability to translate those concepts to n00bs such as myself, make her as excellent an advocate for technology as she is a practitioner.
\n\n\n\nIn a nutshell, rather than storing everyone’s data on a centralized server, IPFS lets you store your data on your own device (laptop, phone, IoT device, etc) and lets other people access that data by addressing the content itself rather than the device the data lives on. For example, rather than having a chat conversation be stored on my phone, my friend’s phone, and a server that’s owned by an untrustworthy third-party, the only devices that host the messages are mine and my friend’s.
\n\nI’m definitely going to be doing a lot more reading about IPFS in the coming weeks. Maybe prototype an idea or two :)
\n\nThe final talk of the night was given by Carson Farmer, Lead Data Scientist at Textile. Textile is building open source tools for developers who wish to build on IPFS. I haven’t had a chance to dig through their projects yet, but am excited to play with one of their initial products. Textile Photos allows you to store photos in IPFS and create private groups to share them with. I’m interested particularly because most of my friends and family don’t use iPhones and therefore don’t have access to Apple’s private photo sharing service. This could be a very cool cross platform tool for sharing private photos without having to store your photos on an untrustworthy private company’s servers.
\n\n\n\nThe evening wrapped and Boris, Brooklyn, and I set off on the Coastal Renaissance to return to Vancouver.
\n\n\n\nIt was an awesome day that reminded me of the value of getting out of my apartment and into the world. Thanks again to Boris, Brooklyn, and Shawn for letting me join you on yesterday’s adventure!
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-day-in-nanaimo/", "date_published": "2019-07-19T09:06:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2019-07-19T09:06:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/introducing-hitchens/", "title": "Introducing Hitchens\n", "content_text": "Over the last few months I’ve been working on an open source Jekyll theme called Hitchens. Inspired by the design of Christopher Hitchens’ book, Arguably, Hitchens was designed to emphasize the power of the written word.There are two key reasons why I wanted to create this theme: I’ve been using Jekyll to publish my personal site for 3 years and have fallen in love with the platform. Learning the Liquid template language helped me design and develop a new Shopify site for Rye 51 in just 4 weeks and I’ve built several other sites for clients with Jekyll since. I’ve been working as a professional designer and developer for over 10 years. Almost everything I know about design was learned from the incredible people who have shared their knowledge and work freely online. Every project I’ve ever worked on has benefited in some way from the open source community. Hitchens is a small but important token of my appreciation to those who have given their time, energy, and knowledge to the open source community. Small because it’s a simple Jekyll theme. Important because it’s my first major contribution to the open source community since 2008. Hitchens is released under an MIT license, the contents of which can be found in the theme’s repository on Github. This is the same license used for Minima, the default theme for Jekyll. Additional licensing information can be found on the project’s Github repository page.Some cool features make Hitchens pretty special: The theme supports title-less posts out of the box. This means you can use this theme for both long-form writing and microblogging. Built-in JSON Feed support. A custom DuckDuckGo-powered search form. A skip-navigation link — even Minima doesn’t have one :DI would be honoured if you would check out the theme and overjoyed if you would consider using it for your own Jekyll-powered blog. And if you notice any issues at all, don’t hesitate to let me know.", "content_html": "Over the last few months I’ve been working on an open source Jekyll theme called Hitchens. Inspired by the design of Christopher Hitchens’ book, Arguably, Hitchens was designed to emphasize the power of the written word.
\n\nThere are two key reasons why I wanted to create this theme:
\n\nI’ve been using Jekyll to publish my personal site for 3 years and have fallen in love with the platform. Learning the Liquid template language helped me design and develop a new Shopify site for Rye 51 in just 4 weeks and I’ve built several other sites for clients with Jekyll since.
\nI’ve been working as a professional designer and developer for over 10 years. Almost everything I know about design was learned from the incredible people who have shared their knowledge and work freely online. Every project I’ve ever worked on has benefited in some way from the open source community.
\n\nHitchens is a small but important token of my appreciation to those who have given their time, energy, and knowledge to the open source community. Small because it’s a simple Jekyll theme. Important because it’s my first major contribution to the open source community since 2008.
\nHitchens is released under an MIT license, the contents of which can be found in the theme’s repository on Github. This is the same license used for Minima, the default theme for Jekyll. Additional licensing information can be found on the project’s Github repository page.
\n\nSome cool features make Hitchens pretty special:
\n\nI would be honoured if you would check out the theme and overjoyed if you would consider using it for your own Jekyll-powered blog. And if you notice any issues at all, don’t hesitate to let me know.
\n\n\n
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/introducing-hitchens/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/hitchens-screenshot.jpg", "date_published": "2019-04-17T10:14:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2019-04-17T10:14:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/goodbye-nicotine/", "title": "Goodbye, Nicotine\n", "content_text": "It was at a pool party in my parents’ backyard in the summer of 2012 when I first became addicted to nicotine. I was back in Ontario to visit friends and family for the first time since moving to British Columbia. The day began in an old floating chair with a bottle of Corona while waiting for my friends to arrive.By this time, I’d lost my religion. It had been several years since my first time getting drunk. I’d finally come to understand why so many people were into the sexual revolution of the ’60s. My language was chock-full of vulgarity that, on more than one occasion, raised the ire of my cool-tongued parents.But at age twenty-seven, I’d never smoked a cigarette.Technically, I had smoked cigarettes twice, both times in sixth grade—the first on the walk home from school, and the second in the same backyard where I would many years later become an addict. But I didn’t inhale either of those times, nor did I smoke a cigarette; I only had a couple puffs.A few hours and a few more Coronas later, my friends and I were standing in a semi-circle in my parents’ backyard telling stories and jokes, and I found myself with one of my friend’s cigarettes between my fingers. The warm fumes enveloped my lungs while the cold liquids filled my stomach.I didn’t smoke again during that two-week trip to Ontario. It wasn’t until I came back to British Columbia and began feeling the pains of homesickness and boredom settle in that I made my way to the International News and Tobacco Store across the street from my apartment. For some reason I don’t recall, the first purchase I made wasn’t a pack of cigarettes but a pack of cigarillos. The difference, which I would experimentally come to discover, was that unlike cigarettes, cigarillos aren’t meant to be inhaled—but damn, what a rush when you did.The discomfort of that rush led me to what would ultimately become a six-year addiction to cigarettes—an addiction I believe I hid from my mother until she passed, and revealed to my father as we stood outside the funeral home following the morning’s service.I tried to quit on a number of occasions, sometimes going cold turkey and other times with the aid of gum or patches. I never got through an entire pack of gum or patches.When e-cigarettes first hit the market, they were small and designed to mimic the feel of a cigarette. I went through a few of these, but ultimately found they only added to my nicotine intake, as the number of cigarettes I smoked remained constant.I was never proud of the fact that I smoked. It made me feel cool, but “cool” is a feeling wholly different from pride. A bully can feel cool after he beats up a nerd, but he’ll never feel proud of it.I wish I could remember how I was first introduced to refillable tank-style vaporizers. It may well have been my girlfriend, to whom I’d initially lied about the depths of my nicotine addiction. It may have been someone on the internet. It’s often difficult to pinpoint these things.What I do remember is the day in 2015 when I first I stepped foot into Vaporologie, where Jay—the store’s owner and operator—provided my first real introduction to the wide world of vaporizers. The gadget geek in me was in heaven poring over the various options in design and function this class of vaporizer provided. The frugal Scot in me found great solace when another patron shared an app he was using to track the thousands of dollars he’d saved since switching from cigarettes to his vaporizer.It’s shameful to admit that, though I was keenly aware of the negative impact smoking had on my health and I knew the risks it posed to my overall life expectancy, it was the immediacy of the financial impact this lifestyle change would bring that ultimately drove my decision. The $100 cost of entry and ~$180/month cost to replenish my vape juice supply was far less expensive than the roughly $400/month I was spending on cigarettes.What I first realized in switching from cigarettes to the vaporizer was that my addiction wasn’t just chemical but also behavioural. Standing up from my desk once an hour to step outside for five minutes was embedded in my daily routine. At some point, I’d rationalized this as not only an opportunity to indulge my addiction, but also an opportunity to stretch my muscles and joints to mitigate the symptoms of sitting all day. Switching from cigarettes to the vaporizer allowed me to continue the routine of taking my hourly hits.What’s fascinating about addiction is that it’s only a problem if you’re not “producing”. If you can produce something valuable while indulging in an addiction, society doesn’t view you as a problem. No one argues that time spent drinking one kind of plant is more valuable than time spent inhaling another one. All that matters is your production—what are you able to do for someone else in a given moment?The battery life on my first vaporizer was rarely enough to get me through an entire workday. Eventually, I upgraded to a two-battery model.I brought the vaporizer and several bottles of juice with me to Uganda. I wish I could say I brought enough juice. By the end of the trip, I had run out and was smoking cigarettes to feed the nicotine addiction. I might’ve smoked a few while out drinking, even before I ran out of juice. It’s tough to admit your addictive behaviour even after you’ve overcome your addiction.Stress was surely a trigger. So was boredom. And mornings. Definitely evenings.As I mentioned, the transition from smoking to vaping wasn’t immediate. There were times when I was partaking in cigarettes of both the analog and electronic variety, which was probably the lowest I felt during my time as a smoker. As my partner explained to me, the amount of nicotine one consumes from both methods at once is astronomical. Even if I justified the behaviour by only smoking half a pack at a time, there was no way I could control the amount of vapour I inhaled. It was chain smoking on steroids.About a year or two ago during my transition from smoking to vaping, my partner asked if I envisioned myself vaping the rest of my life. I was taken aback by that, partly because I tend not to enjoy looking too far into the future, and because I had to admit that when I did, the answer was “no.” Why, then, was I vaping now?I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but at some point I made the decision to slowly ween myself off. I’d started my vaping adventure with juice that had 9mg of nicotine per mL. Over time I slowly dropped that number to 6mg, then 3mg. Eventually, I started mixing 3mg juice with 0mg juice to get ~1.5mg juice before finally getting down to 0mg.It was maybe 2–3 weeks after getting down to 0mg when I realized… I don’t enjoy vaping anymore. So, I stopped.The next day, I invited the guys I’d worked with in Uganda over for dinner. My partner and I prepared a feast of ribs, veggies, salad, and other goodies. My guests enjoyed a few puffs of vape, but I chose not to partake.It’s now been over a month since I last vaped and a bit longer since I had my last hit of nicotine. I don’t feel any withdrawal symptoms, though I often notice the smell of cigarette smoke and feel a twinge of craving when I’m out and about.I don’t intend for this to be taken as a prescription for overcoming a nicotine addiction. For now, the strategy seems to have worked for me. Of course, everybody’s different.But, I do hope my story encourages you to know that it can be done. Whether you take the same road or choose your own, know that there’s a reachable destination at the end of the line.It might just take a few tries to find it.This post was originally written at the end of August. I held off on publishing it because I was about to spend 9 days off the grid and, quite honestly, didn’t want to miss out on the near certain barrage of praise and congratulations due to come my way.I ended up smoking about a dozen cigarettes during those 9 days.Six weeks had passed between my last vape and when I initially intended to publish this post. It’s now been 6 weeks since my last cigarette. Currently, I don’t feel the need to smoke, though I still feel the sensation of craving when I see others smoking around town.I think the takeaway from experience is that while I’m not taking in any nicotine, it still has a hold on me. If you know me and see me starting to fall back to old habits, I ask that you gently remind me to read this post and remember I would much rather be healthy than cool.My thanks to Darren Case at 22shapes for the cigarette animation. Thanks also to Chris Gonzales at Stellar Edits for his help editing this post and my partner, Andrea, for helping me with basic arithmetic.", "content_html": "It was at a pool party in my parents’ backyard in the summer of 2012 when I first became addicted to nicotine. I was back in Ontario to visit friends and family for the first time since moving to British Columbia. The day began in an old floating chair with a bottle of Corona while waiting for my friends to arrive.
\n\nBy this time, I’d lost my religion. It had been several years since my first time getting drunk. I’d finally come to understand why so many people were into the sexual revolution of the ’60s. My language was chock-full of vulgarity that, on more than one occasion, raised the ire of my cool-tongued parents.
\n\nBut at age twenty-seven, I’d never smoked a cigarette.
\n\nTechnically, I had smoked cigarettes twice, both times in sixth grade—the first on the walk home from school, and the second in the same backyard where I would many years later become an addict. But I didn’t inhale either of those times, nor did I smoke a cigarette; I only had a couple puffs.
\n\nA few hours and a few more Coronas later, my friends and I were standing in a semi-circle in my parents’ backyard telling stories and jokes, and I found myself with one of my friend’s cigarettes between my fingers. The warm fumes enveloped my lungs while the cold liquids filled my stomach.
\n\nI didn’t smoke again during that two-week trip to Ontario. It wasn’t until I came back to British Columbia and began feeling the pains of homesickness and boredom settle in that I made my way to the International News and Tobacco Store across the street from my apartment. For some reason I don’t recall, the first purchase I made wasn’t a pack of cigarettes but a pack of cigarillos. The difference, which I would experimentally come to discover, was that unlike cigarettes, cigarillos aren’t meant to be inhaled—but damn, what a rush when you did.
\n\nThe discomfort of that rush led me to what would ultimately become a six-year addiction to cigarettes—an addiction I believe I hid from my mother until she passed, and revealed to my father as we stood outside the funeral home following the morning’s service.
\n\nI tried to quit on a number of occasions, sometimes going cold turkey and other times with the aid of gum or patches. I never got through an entire pack of gum or patches.
\n\nWhen e-cigarettes first hit the market, they were small and designed to mimic the feel of a cigarette. I went through a few of these, but ultimately found they only added to my nicotine intake, as the number of cigarettes I smoked remained constant.
\n\nI was never proud of the fact that I smoked. It made me feel cool, but “cool” is a feeling wholly different from pride. A bully can feel cool after he beats up a nerd, but he’ll never feel proud of it.
\n\nI wish I could remember how I was first introduced to refillable tank-style vaporizers. It may well have been my girlfriend, to whom I’d initially lied about the depths of my nicotine addiction. It may have been someone on the internet. It’s often difficult to pinpoint these things.
\n\nWhat I do remember is the day in 2015 when I first I stepped foot into Vaporologie, where Jay—the store’s owner and operator—provided my first real introduction to the wide world of vaporizers. The gadget geek in me was in heaven poring over the various options in design and function this class of vaporizer provided. The frugal Scot in me found great solace when another patron shared an app he was using to track the thousands of dollars he’d saved since switching from cigarettes to his vaporizer.
\n\nIt’s shameful to admit that, though I was keenly aware of the negative impact smoking had on my health and I knew the risks it posed to my overall life expectancy, it was the immediacy of the financial impact this lifestyle change would bring that ultimately drove my decision. The $100 cost of entry and ~$180/month cost to replenish my vape juice supply was far less expensive than the roughly $400/month I was spending on cigarettes.
\n\nWhat I first realized in switching from cigarettes to the vaporizer was that my addiction wasn’t just chemical but also behavioural. Standing up from my desk once an hour to step outside for five minutes was embedded in my daily routine. At some point, I’d rationalized this as not only an opportunity to indulge my addiction, but also an opportunity to stretch my muscles and joints to mitigate the symptoms of sitting all day. Switching from cigarettes to the vaporizer allowed me to continue the routine of taking my hourly hits.
\n\nWhat’s fascinating about addiction is that it’s only a problem if you’re not “producing”. If you can produce something valuable while indulging in an addiction, society doesn’t view you as a problem. No one argues that time spent drinking one kind of plant is more valuable than time spent inhaling another one. All that matters is your production—what are you able to do for someone else in a given moment?
\n\nThe battery life on my first vaporizer was rarely enough to get me through an entire workday. Eventually, I upgraded to a two-battery model.
\n\nI brought the vaporizer and several bottles of juice with me to Uganda. I wish I could say I brought enough juice. By the end of the trip, I had run out and was smoking cigarettes to feed the nicotine addiction. I might’ve smoked a few while out drinking, even before I ran out of juice. It’s tough to admit your addictive behaviour even after you’ve overcome your addiction.
\n\nStress was surely a trigger. So was boredom. And mornings. Definitely evenings.
\n\nAs I mentioned, the transition from smoking to vaping wasn’t immediate. There were times when I was partaking in cigarettes of both the analog and electronic variety, which was probably the lowest I felt during my time as a smoker. As my partner explained to me, the amount of nicotine one consumes from both methods at once is astronomical. Even if I justified the behaviour by only smoking half a pack at a time, there was no way I could control the amount of vapour I inhaled. It was chain smoking on steroids.
\n\nAbout a year or two ago during my transition from smoking to vaping, my partner asked if I envisioned myself vaping the rest of my life. I was taken aback by that, partly because I tend not to enjoy looking too far into the future, and because I had to admit that when I did, the answer was “no.” Why, then, was I vaping now?
\n\nI’m not sure exactly when it happened, but at some point I made the decision to slowly ween myself off. I’d started my vaping adventure with juice that had 9mg of nicotine per mL. Over time I slowly dropped that number to 6mg, then 3mg. Eventually, I started mixing 3mg juice with 0mg juice to get ~1.5mg juice before finally getting down to 0mg.
\n\nIt was maybe 2–3 weeks after getting down to 0mg when I realized… I don’t enjoy vaping anymore. So, I stopped.
\n\nThe next day, I invited the guys I’d worked with in Uganda over for dinner. My partner and I prepared a feast of ribs, veggies, salad, and other goodies. My guests enjoyed a few puffs of vape, but I chose not to partake.
\n\nIt’s now been over a month since I last vaped and a bit longer since I had my last hit of nicotine. I don’t feel any withdrawal symptoms, though I often notice the smell of cigarette smoke and feel a twinge of craving when I’m out and about.
\n\nI don’t intend for this to be taken as a prescription for overcoming a nicotine addiction. For now, the strategy seems to have worked for me. Of course, everybody’s different.
\n\nBut, I do hope my story encourages you to know that it can be done. Whether you take the same road or choose your own, know that there’s a reachable destination at the end of the line.
\n\nIt might just take a few tries to find it.
\n\nThis post was originally written at the end of August. I held off on publishing it because I was about to spend 9 days off the grid and, quite honestly, didn’t want to miss out on the near certain barrage of praise and congratulations due to come my way.
\n\nI ended up smoking about a dozen cigarettes during those 9 days.
\n\nSix weeks had passed between my last vape and when I initially intended to publish this post. It’s now been 6 weeks since my last cigarette. Currently, I don’t feel the need to smoke, though I still feel the sensation of craving when I see others smoking around town.
\n\nI think the takeaway from experience is that while I’m not taking in any nicotine, it still has a hold on me. If you know me and see me starting to fall back to old habits, I ask that you gently remind me to read this post and remember I would much rather be healthy than cool.
\n\nMy thanks to Darren Case at 22shapes for the cigarette animation. Thanks also to Chris Gonzales at Stellar Edits for his help editing this post and my partner, Andrea, for helping me with basic arithmetic.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/goodbye-nicotine/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/cigarette.gif", "date_published": "2018-10-24T08:36:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-10-24T08:36:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/next-indieweb-meetup/", "title": "The next IndieWeb Meetup Vancouver\n", "content_text": "Shortly after posting my thoughts about last week’s inaugural IndieWeb Meetup, Boris let me know that he will be traveling through November and December and that the responsibility for organizing the next meetup would fall to me.I had such an amazing time at the first meet up that I was more than ok with that. And so without further ado, I’m pleased to announce the second IndieWeb Meetup Vancouver. You're invited to attend the next IndieWeb Meetup Vancouver Wed, October 24 17:30–19:30 Free The Coffee Bar 10 Water St Vancouver, BC V6B 1A4 Hope to see you there!", "content_html": "Shortly after posting my thoughts about last week’s inaugural IndieWeb Meetup, Boris let me know that he will be traveling through November and December and that the responsibility for organizing the next meetup would fall to me.
\n\nI had such an amazing time at the first meet up that I was more than ok with that. And so without further ado, I’m pleased to announce the second IndieWeb Meetup Vancouver.
\n\nHope to see you there!
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/next-indieweb-meetup/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/imv-18-10-24.jpg", "date_published": "2018-10-15T10:20:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-10-15T10:20:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/vancouver-indieweb-meetup/", "title": "Some thoughts following the first ever Vancouver IndieWeb Meetup\n", "content_text": " There are few people as contagiously passionate as Boris. I fear I really let Roland down when Apple Shortcuts failed to properly encode the podcast we recorded together. Will get to that bug report some day, Roland! After fighting with it for what felt like an eternity trying to get my Instagram photos to display on my blog, think I understand why Brooklyn isn’t a huge fan Liquid. Really looking forward to seeing what Greg does with his new Jekyll blog running the Hitchens theme! Blogging is, was, and always will be fun. It really shouldn’t be so difficult to own your own content. It would be really, really sweet if we can find a way to make owning your own content super simple and then take what we learn and apply it to the problem of distributing capital to those who need it most. We should consider changing the name from the “Vancouver Indieweb Meetup” to the “Vancouver Homebrew Website Club” to assimilate ourselves with the broader community and to make it easier for those in the IndieWeb community who are visiting Vancouver to find us. According to Eddie Hinkle, IndieWeb organizers are strongly considering rebranding Homebrew Website Club to IndieWeb Meetups, which means we’re on the forefront of the future! We should also consider committing to meeting every other Wednesday night as prescribed in the IndieWeb wiki to encourage consistency within our community. Also because I thought it was just so friggin’ awesome.Thanks to Boris for organizing and to Milano Gastown for hosting us! Keep an eye open for when the next meetup is announced.", "content_html": "Thanks to Boris for organizing and to Milano Gastown for hosting us! Keep an eye open for when the next meetup is announced.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/vancouver-indieweb-meetup/", "date_published": "2018-10-09T23:04:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-10-09T23:04:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-wonderful-shop/", "title": "Introducing “A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders”\n", "content_text": "Several years ago and inspired by a gaffe during the 2012 presidential campaign, I designed a t-shirt. In less than a day I designed the shirt and built a landing page to collect email addresses from people interested in the shirt. A few days later, I launched a Shopify store to allow people to pre-order the shirt. ~160 people pre-ordered the shirt.\tIn the months following the sale, I struggled to fulfill my orders. The shirts were printed relatively quickly, but at the time I couldn’t figure out how to print out postage-paid shipping labels in order to ship the shirts. After several months of delays, I offered refunds to anyone who pre-ordered a shirt and wanted one while promising to send the shirt regardless of whether the refund was accepted. I think it ended up taking about 6 months to finally get the shirts delivered to my customers.It was an incredibly embarrassing screwup. Ironic, given the shirt was designed to poke fun of someone else’s mistake.Ever since, I’ve been hesitant to try another side project like that. While I love the idea of designing and selling merchandise online (the first product I ever sold was a t-shirt for my band), I couldn’t justify the risk of not being able to fulfill the orders that came in.Services like Cafepress will print and fulfill orders of products featuring designs uploaded by designers, but I’ve never been impressed by the quality of their products. Also, your products are displayed alongside everyone else’s work, which takes away from your ability to build your own brand identity.Last year I discovered Printful, a service that will print and fulfill orders for products you design. The downside was that in order to have your own store, you had to pay for a pro Shopify account, which was ~$300 upfront. To test things out, I set up a store and ran a few ads on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. In total I spent around $600 to test my idea.I sold 0 shirts.Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when Max Tempkin informed me about Threadless Artist Shops, an all-in-one print and fulfillment service that lets you set up a store for free. As Max wrote, “I just make the design and collect the money.”That sounded simple enough to me!I was itching to check it out, but was just days away from spending 9-days off grid in the wilderness of Newfoundland with by brother.Last week, I was reminded by a tweet from Andy Berdan that I wanted to give Threadless’s service a try. I want a shirt that says “Abnormal is normal.”“I can do that,” I thought.A few hours later and the design was available for purchase.A Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders (NSFW) is my new online store. There you’ll find the design requested by Andy, the oft-requested re-release of the Helvetcia design, and a few more fun original designs. All orders are printed and shipped by Threadless. They’ll also take care of any issues you have with the products you receive.I just collect the money. To celebrate the launch of the shop, I’m offering a promotional discount on all products on the store. The promotional period will end when I remember to log into Threadless to turn it off.Visit the shop to find men’s, women’s, gender neutral, and kid’s apparel, home decor, and accessories featuring a variety of original designs. Follow the new Twitter account or sign up for the newsletter to be notified of new products and promotions. And share the shop’s URL — awonderful.shop — with your friends and family.", "content_html": "Several years ago and inspired by a gaffe during the 2012 presidential campaign, I designed a t-shirt. In less than a day I designed the shirt and built a landing page to collect email addresses from people interested in the shirt. A few days later, I launched a Shopify store to allow people to pre-order the shirt. ~160 people pre-ordered the shirt.
\n\n\n\nIn the months following the sale, I struggled to fulfill my orders. The shirts were printed relatively quickly, but at the time I couldn’t figure out how to print out postage-paid shipping labels in order to ship the shirts. After several months of delays, I offered refunds to anyone who pre-ordered a shirt and wanted one while promising to send the shirt regardless of whether the refund was accepted. I think it ended up taking about 6 months to finally get the shirts delivered to my customers.
\n\nIt was an incredibly embarrassing screwup. Ironic, given the shirt was designed to poke fun of someone else’s mistake.
\n\nEver since, I’ve been hesitant to try another side project like that. While I love the idea of designing and selling merchandise online (the first product I ever sold was a t-shirt for my band), I couldn’t justify the risk of not being able to fulfill the orders that came in.
\n\nServices like Cafepress will print and fulfill orders of products featuring designs uploaded by designers, but I’ve never been impressed by the quality of their products. Also, your products are displayed alongside everyone else’s work, which takes away from your ability to build your own brand identity.
\n\nLast year I discovered Printful, a service that will print and fulfill orders for products you design. The downside was that in order to have your own store, you had to pay for a pro Shopify account, which was ~$300 upfront. To test things out, I set up a store and ran a few ads on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. In total I spent around $600 to test my idea.
\n\nI sold 0 shirts.
\n\nFast forward to a few weeks ago, when Max Tempkin informed me about Threadless Artist Shops, an all-in-one print and fulfillment service that lets you set up a store for free. As Max wrote, “I just make the design and collect the money.”
\n\nThat sounded simple enough to me!
\n\nI was itching to check it out, but was just days away from spending 9-days off grid in the wilderness of Newfoundland with by brother.
\n\nLast week, I was reminded by a tweet from Andy Berdan that I wanted to give Threadless’s service a try.
\n\n\n\n\nI want a shirt that says “Abnormal is normal.”
\n
“I can do that,” I thought.
\n\nA few hours later and the design was available for purchase.
\n\nA Wonderful Shop of Wonderful Wonders (NSFW) is my new online store. There you’ll find the design requested by Andy, the oft-requested re-release of the Helvetcia design, and a few more fun original designs. All orders are printed and shipped by Threadless. They’ll also take care of any issues you have with the products you receive.
\n\nI just collect the money.
\n\n\n\nTo celebrate the launch of the shop, I’m offering a promotional discount on all products on the store. The promotional period will end when I remember to log into Threadless to turn it off.
\n\nVisit the shop to find men’s, women’s, gender neutral, and kid’s apparel, home decor, and accessories featuring a variety of original designs. Follow the new Twitter account or sign up for the newsletter to be notified of new products and promotions. And share the shop’s URL — awonderful.shop — with your friends and family.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-wonderful-shop/", "image": "https://patdryburgh.com/images/uploads/wonderful-shop.png", "date_published": "2018-09-24T12:29:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-09-24T12:29:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/design-is-how-it-works/", "title": "Design is how it works\n", "content_text": "It has always baffled me when a company offers a lower salary to designers than to developers. My assumption is this derives from an inaccurate understanding of what design is and the role it plays in creating a product or system.A designer’s role is not to make something “pretty” or to help a product “stand out.” It is to identify a problem, iterate on potential solutions, and bring the resulting product to market. Or, as Steve Jobs famously put it: Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.Even the bots don’t get itRecently, I’ve been seeing ads from a company called B12 who claims to use artificial intelligence to design websites in 60 seconds (in my day, we called these “templates”).The example provided is a website for a preschool. On the left is presented what’s purported to be an old, crusty layout juxtaposed with a sleek, modern layout on the right. Unfortunately, this example also shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the purpose of design.No doubt, the website on the right looks nice. It fits into the latest design trend of having a minimal layout, a massive background image with a text overlay, and a single primary call to action. It’s probably even responsive, likely tucking all of that useful navigation into a hamburger.However, I would argue that the website on the left is a better design. Without scrolling, clicking, or doing anything other than loading the page, the website on the left tells me: where it is. The ad is so compressed that you can’t really read the menus on either design but if you zoom in, you can see that this preschool is located in Summit, Missouri. I couldn’t point to Missouri on a map, so I know this preschool isn’t for my (hypothetical) kids! what ages it serves. Several times since I left preschool, I have heard about kids who are starting preschool younger than when I did. By the time I become a parent, I very likely will not know when I should be sending my kids to preschool (though, I’m sure it’s in a handbook that’s given to every parent who gives birth at a hospital). The website on the left gives me that information up front. its operating hours. I work for myself, so my schedule is pretty flexible. Most people don’t have this level of flexibility, so knowing when a preschool is open has to be one of the key indicators of whether it works for them and their children.In contrast, the website on the right tells me my kid will feel “right at home”. However, I have no idea where or when they’ll feel this. I’m sure I could click that green button under the main headline to find out more. That is, if I’m not colour blind.Of course, I might not even get that far if I’m part of the 23% of the population of Missouri that is underserved by broadband connectivity in the 42nd most connected state in the union because that picture is so fucking big.There are certainly aspects to design that require creativity and even an artistic flair. Understanding typography, colour theory, Gestalt laws of grouping, and many other facets of design are certainly critical to the acceptance of your solution into the marketplace. However, these are not the only aspects to design. You must also understand the constraints and objectives of the audience you are designing for and the context and medium through which you will communicate with them.Design isn’t just how it looks. Design is how it works.", "content_html": "It has always baffled me when a company offers a lower salary to designers than to developers. My assumption is this derives from an inaccurate understanding of what design is and the role it plays in creating a product or system.
\n\nA designer’s role is not to make something “pretty” or to help a product “stand out.” It is to identify a problem, iterate on potential solutions, and bring the resulting product to market. Or, as Steve Jobs famously put it:
\n\n\n\n\nMost people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
\n
Recently, I’ve been seeing ads from a company called B12 who claims to use artificial intelligence to design websites in 60 seconds (in my day, we called these “templates”).
\n\nThe example provided is a website for a preschool. On the left is presented what’s purported to be an old, crusty layout juxtaposed with a sleek, modern layout on the right. Unfortunately, this example also shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the purpose of design.
\n\n\n\nNo doubt, the website on the right looks nice. It fits into the latest design trend of having a minimal layout, a massive background image with a text overlay, and a single primary call to action. It’s probably even responsive, likely tucking all of that useful navigation into a hamburger.
\n\nHowever, I would argue that the website on the left is a better design. Without scrolling, clicking, or doing anything other than loading the page, the website on the left tells me:
\n\nIn contrast, the website on the right tells me my kid will feel “right at home”. However, I have no idea where or when they’ll feel this. I’m sure I could click that green button under the main headline to find out more. That is, if I’m not colour blind.
\n\nOf course, I might not even get that far if I’m part of the 23% of the population of Missouri that is underserved by broadband connectivity in the 42nd most connected state in the union because that picture is so fucking big.
\n\nThere are certainly aspects to design that require creativity and even an artistic flair. Understanding typography, colour theory, Gestalt laws of grouping, and many other facets of design are certainly critical to the acceptance of your solution into the marketplace. However, these are not the only aspects to design. You must also understand the constraints and objectives of the audience you are designing for and the context and medium through which you will communicate with them.
\n\nDesign isn’t just how it looks. Design is how it works.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/design-is-how-it-works/", "date_published": "2018-08-24T11:55:05-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-08-24T11:55:05-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/publishing-a-podcast-from-an-iphone/", "title": "Publishing a podcast from an iPhone using @Workflowhq, @WorkingCopyApp, @jekyllrb, and @github Pages\n", "content_text": "Yesterday, @roland sent me an audio message on Micro.blog. He then shared his process for recording, encoding, and publishing his audio.I spent the next several hours working on my response.I knew in doing so, I needed to make one important improvement to the process: I wanted to do everything – record, encode, and publish – on my mobile device.Before I dove too deep, I needed to prototype my idea. I had to answer 3 questions: Can I record audio on my iOS device in a way that allows me to then encode it as an MP3? Can I encode that MP3 as a base64 string? Can I write the base64 encoded MP3 into the iOS Git client Working Copy using the base64 encoded string?I opened up Workflow (which is being rebranded as Siri Shortcuts later this fall) and was pleased to discover the answers to questions 1 & 2 were a resounding “yes!” Workflow has a wonderful audio recording interface. Once I had the recording, I tested the base64 encoding by encoding, then decoding, then previewing the decoded audio file, proving that I was, in fact, able to record and encode an MP3 using Workflow.Then came my first hurdle: trying to write the MP3 using Working Copy’s x-callback-url scheme.While I could pass the base64 encoded string to the x-callback-url that would open Working Copy, and I could see a properly-named file sitting in the path I had specified, I could not get the resulting MP3 to actually play.However, there was a progress bar that moved and a track length displayed, so I knew something was up.To test my hypothesis that Working Copy was somehow failing to play what appeared to be a properly encoded MP3, I saved the file to Dropbox for iOS and opened the file there.It worked perfectly.(Until writing this post, I assumed the issue was that Working Copy had a bug in its media player. Turns out, it’s one of those apps that doesn’t play audio if the silent switch is engaged. Not sure why some media players on iOS respect that switch and others do not, but it’s a real pain in the ass to have to remember that when testing media on an iOS device.)Once I had determined I would be able record the audio and write it to Working Copy, all that was left was to duplicate a Workflow I had created last year for posting to my Jekyll-powered blog and add the audio capturing, encoding, and writing actions to the top.The result is the first audio post ever published on patdryburgh.com.Of course, once I had done that, I knew I had almost everything I needed to publish a podcast from my phone.So, I spent the next hour or so writing and validating and writing and validating a podcast.xml file that now lives at http://patdryburgh.com/feed/podcast.xml.This morning, I received a confirmation email that my podcast has been added to the iTunes Podcast directory.All of which is to say, I can now record and publish podcasts to my Jekyll-powered and Github Pages hosted blog and have it syndicated to Micro.blog, Twitter, and iTunes all from the comfort of my bed.Now, to find something useful to do with all this magic.", "content_html": "Yesterday, @roland sent me an audio message on Micro.blog. He then shared his process for recording, encoding, and publishing his audio.
\n\nI spent the next several hours working on my response.
\n\nI knew in doing so, I needed to make one important improvement to the process: I wanted to do everything – record, encode, and publish – on my mobile device.
\n\nBefore I dove too deep, I needed to prototype my idea. I had to answer 3 questions:
\n\nI opened up Workflow (which is being rebranded as Siri Shortcuts later this fall) and was pleased to discover the answers to questions 1 & 2 were a resounding “yes!” Workflow has a wonderful audio recording interface. Once I had the recording, I tested the base64 encoding by encoding, then decoding, then previewing the decoded audio file, proving that I was, in fact, able to record and encode an MP3 using Workflow.
\n\nThen came my first hurdle: trying to write the MP3 using Working Copy’s x-callback-url scheme.
\n\nWhile I could pass the base64 encoded string to the x-callback-url that would open Working Copy, and I could see a properly-named file sitting in the path I had specified, I could not get the resulting MP3 to actually play.
\n\nHowever, there was a progress bar that moved and a track length displayed, so I knew something was up.
\n\nTo test my hypothesis that Working Copy was somehow failing to play what appeared to be a properly encoded MP3, I saved the file to Dropbox for iOS and opened the file there.
\n\nIt worked perfectly.
\n\n(Until writing this post, I assumed the issue was that Working Copy had a bug in its media player. Turns out, it’s one of those apps that doesn’t play audio if the silent switch is engaged. Not sure why some media players on iOS respect that switch and others do not, but it’s a real pain in the ass to have to remember that when testing media on an iOS device.)
\n\nOnce I had determined I would be able record the audio and write it to Working Copy, all that was left was to duplicate a Workflow I had created last year for posting to my Jekyll-powered blog and add the audio capturing, encoding, and writing actions to the top.
\n\nThe result is the first audio post ever published on patdryburgh.com.
\n\nOf course, once I had done that, I knew I had almost everything I needed to publish a podcast from my phone.
\n\nSo, I spent the next hour or so writing and validating and writing and validating a podcast.xml file that now lives at http://patdryburgh.com/feed/podcast.xml.
\n\nThis morning, I received a confirmation email that my podcast has been added to the iTunes Podcast directory.
\n\nAll of which is to say, I can now record and publish podcasts to my Jekyll-powered and Github Pages hosted blog and have it syndicated to Micro.blog, Twitter, and iTunes all from the comfort of my bed.
\n\nNow, to find something useful to do with all this magic.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/publishing-a-podcast-from-an-iphone/", "date_published": "2018-08-16T09:21:05-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-08-16T09:21:05-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-lesson-about-canadian-residency-determination-laws/", "title": "A lesson about Canadian residency determination laws\n", "content_text": "If you’re a Canadian citizen and plan to leave Canada for more than 183 days of the calendar year, make sure you first file an NR73 form to establish your residency status. I wasn’t aware of this law until a month ago when the Canada Revenue Agency demanded an additional $4,100 in taxes because I was out of the country for two weeks longer than permitted.I have submitted an NR73 for the 2017 tax year and hope that I can prove I had maintained close ties to the country — all of my personal belongings, my family, and my common law partner were all here while I was away — but there’s no guarantee that they’ll change their determination.Had I known about this law at the time, I probably would have used a tool like this one from Nomad List, which tracks the number of days you are out of your home country. (via Boris Mann)Now all I have to worry about is what could happen when I plan to return to Uganda.If you’re planning to live a nomadic lifestyle, please learn from my mistake.", "content_html": "If you’re a Canadian citizen and plan to leave Canada for more than 183 days of the calendar year, make sure you first file an NR73 form to establish your residency status. I wasn’t aware of this law until a month ago when the Canada Revenue Agency demanded an additional $4,100 in taxes because I was out of the country for two weeks longer than permitted.
\n\nI have submitted an NR73 for the 2017 tax year and hope that I can prove I had maintained close ties to the country — all of my personal belongings, my family, and my common law partner were all here while I was away — but there’s no guarantee that they’ll change their determination.
\n\nHad I known about this law at the time, I probably would have used a tool like this one from Nomad List, which tracks the number of days you are out of your home country. (via Boris Mann)
\n\nNow all I have to worry about is what could happen when I plan to return to Uganda.
\n\nIf you’re planning to live a nomadic lifestyle, please learn from my mistake.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/a-lesson-about-canadian-residency-determination-laws/", "date_published": "2018-08-14T17:14:42-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-08-14T17:14:42-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/work-at-steamclock/", "title": "Ten good reasons you should apply to work as a designer at Steamclock\n", "content_text": "I’ve known Allen Pike, co-founder of Vancouver’s Steamclock Software, for several years now and have had the privilege of working side-by-side with him on a number of projects, including an iOS app for Canadian outdoor clothing and sporting goods brand, Arc’teryx.When it comes to product design and development, interacting with and managing clients, growing and nurturing a team, and giving back to the community, I hold Allen in the highest regard.Allen and his team just announced they are looking to hire a lead mobile designer and I thought I’d give you a few damn good reasons why you should strongly consider applying: They’re really nice. They have a solid reputation built on quality and integrity. The work they do is interesting, challenging, and (almost) always fun! They host cool events like their annual Open House (happening tonight!) Allen is an excellent writer, which is a very good indicator of how clearly a leader thinks and communicates. They’re really, really nice. Their super cool looking office is in the heart of Gastown which is the best neighbourhood in Vancouver. Allen is likely to blush as soon as he reads this post, proving that he hasn’t let his success get to his head. Other amazing designers have and continue to work with Steamclock. If you don’t, I will.", "content_html": "I’ve known Allen Pike, co-founder of Vancouver’s Steamclock Software, for several years now and have had the privilege of working side-by-side with him on a number of projects, including an iOS app for Canadian outdoor clothing and sporting goods brand, Arc’teryx.
\n\nWhen it comes to product design and development, interacting with and managing clients, growing and nurturing a team, and giving back to the community, I hold Allen in the highest regard.
\n\nAllen and his team just announced they are looking to hire a lead mobile designer and I thought I’d give you a few damn good reasons why you should strongly consider applying:
\n\nI was in the rec room in my aunt and uncle’s basement when I first saw Hulk Hogan bodyslam André the Giant. It’s been 30 years since I saw my first WrestleMania on a VHS tape. While like most people my interest in the world of professional wrestling has ebbed and flowed. But tonight, my interest in the product is at an all time high.
\n\nI thought I’d share my picks for the matches on the main card.
\n\nBrock Lesnar legitimately is the Universal Champion. No one, not even Roman, is bigger. They’ll give it to Roman, but only because they still have plans for Brock and don’t want to feed him to Braun Strowman just yet.
\n\nThat said, I could see Roman benefitting from having Paul Heyman turn on Brock. It won’t hurt Brock, but could give Roman a far bigger platform.
\n\nRoman defeats Brock
\n\nThe least exciting buildup for what will likely be the most exciting match. Yes, WWE, it’s a dream match. But not because you said so over and over and over again.
\n\nNakamura defeats AJ
\n\nI predict Rhonda breaks HHH’s arm.
\n\nRhonda breaks HHH’s arms
\n\nCharlotte losing to Asuka tonight all but guarantees a Charlotte vs Rhonda rivalry for this year, giving Rhonda a legitimate challenge before climbing the ladder to meet the Empress at next year’s Wrestlemania.
\n\nAsuka defeats Charlotte
\n\nI am so intrigued by this match. These guys are clearly the most over talent on SmackDown, but I don’t yet see how this leads to what ultimately matters: Daniel Bryan getting his chance to win the WWE championship at next year’s Wrestlemania.
\n\nKevin Owens and Sami Zayn defeat Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon
\n\nThe Miz is awesome.
\n\nFinn Bálor defeats The Miz and Seth Rollins
\n\nI want Jinder to win this title and rub it in America’s face.
\n\nJinder defeats Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, and Rusev
\n\nBraun brings out a cardboard cutout of himself to stand in his corner. Wins in under a minute.
\n\nBraun and a cardboard cutout defeats The Bar
\n\nI am actually very emotionally invested in this match. Growing up, I too was ridiculed for being fat. Nia Jax is the Braun Strowman of the women’s division and deserves to demolish everyone who stands in her way.
\n\nNia devours Alexa Bliss
\n\nThe Usos need to win this match, but I’m scared it will be given to the Bludgeon Brothers, the worst gimmick given to two of the most badass looking wrestlers ever.
\n\nThe New Day throws pancakes
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/wrestlemania-predictions-2018/", "date_published": "2018-04-08T01:49:01-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-04-08T01:49:01-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/rip-amy/", "title": "RIP Amy\n", "content_text": "I still remember the first time I met Amy. Her family had just moved to Dorchester and was visiting our family’s home for the first time. She was my first female (half-second) cousin who was the same age as me.While we attended the same elementary school, we did not share the same group of friends. However, we would smile and nod in acknowledgement of our familial connection when we would pass one another in the hallway or on the playground.Eventually we wound up working at the same local grocery store where we were able to develop a closer friendship. Around this time, we discovered a shared interest in web design. Like me, Amy was frustrated by designers too lazy to understand the medium for which they were designing. In our minds, a web designer who didn’t know CSS was no web designer at all.It was so cool to see someone I knew personally achieve so much in our industry. Her work was fun and playful and stood out in a very tough industry. She was even featured in the design publications I read which only made her even cooler in my eyes.Her eventual move to England to be with her partner, Chris, whom she met through conversations about the UI he was developing for his online fitness community, truly opened my eyes to the power of the Internet to connect people in real life all across the world.Amy and I fell out of touch in recent years. However, she did ping me a few months ago to laugh about a song I recorded back in high school called “Jesse Spano is a Speed Freak.” She may have been the one and only fan of that song.My condolences to Brian, Sharon, Justin, Nick, and Chris. As evidenced by the wonderful joy she brought to the world both before and after her disgnosis, she will be dearly missed.", "content_html": "I still remember the first time I met Amy. Her family had just moved to Dorchester and was visiting our family’s home for the first time. She was my first female (half-second) cousin who was the same age as me.
\n\nWhile we attended the same elementary school, we did not share the same group of friends. However, we would smile and nod in acknowledgement of our familial connection when we would pass one another in the hallway or on the playground.
\n\nEventually we wound up working at the same local grocery store where we were able to develop a closer friendship. Around this time, we discovered a shared interest in web design. Like me, Amy was frustrated by designers too lazy to understand the medium for which they were designing. In our minds, a web designer who didn’t know CSS was no web designer at all.
\n\nIt was so cool to see someone I knew personally achieve so much in our industry. Her work was fun and playful and stood out in a very tough industry. She was even featured in the design publications I read which only made her even cooler in my eyes.
\n\nHer eventual move to England to be with her partner, Chris, whom she met through conversations about the UI he was developing for his online fitness community, truly opened my eyes to the power of the Internet to connect people in real life all across the world.
\n\nAmy and I fell out of touch in recent years. However, she did ping me a few months ago to laugh about a song I recorded back in high school called “Jesse Spano is a Speed Freak.” She may have been the one and only fan of that song.
\n\nMy condolences to Brian, Sharon, Justin, Nick, and Chris. As evidenced by the wonderful joy she brought to the world both before and after her disgnosis, she will be dearly missed.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/rip-amy/", "date_published": "2018-04-05T01:30:10-07:00", "date_modified": "2018-04-05T01:30:10-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/on-dribbble/", "title": "On Dribbble\n", "content_text": "I was invited to join Dribbble on January 19, 2010 by Phil Coffman. The pitch was simple: show and tell for designers and developers. Initially closed to the public, this nascent community of creative professionals allowed access to view and publish content via invitation only.In an interview in the inaugural issue of Offscreen Magazine, designer and Dribbble co-founder Dan Cederholm discussed how this strategy not only helped to keep support and scaling costs to a minimum, but also ensured the quality of the content. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, Dribbble was a closed community of creative professionals who shared, critiqued, and learned from one another.Around the same time I became a full-time freelancer, Dribbble opened its doors to the public. Though the ability to post “shots” was still limited to those who had been invited to do so, anyone could come and view the work that was being posted. While this change in paradigm upset those who enjoyed Dribbble’s private nature, it also gave designers, illustrators, and other creative professionals a simple way to promote their work to a larger audience.Later that year, I received my first recruitment call from Aol. Having seen the work I was posting on Dribbble, their recruiter reached out and invited me to Palo Alto for a 3-day job interview. Though that job didn’t pan out, a year later it led to my introduction to Danny Robinson, CEO of Perch, who would end up hiring me for my first startup job. It was this opportunity that allowed me to move cross-country from small-town Ontario to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.In 2011, I attended my first Dribbble meetup in Brooklyn, New York. Held during that year’s Brooklyn Beta conference, the meetup was my opportunity to meet people like Drew Wilson and Jonathan Christopher, as well as Mr. Cederholm himself. It was one of my first opportunities to finally meet people I’d looked up to from afar. Dan especially was incredibly kind and generous, a quality he’s continued to show in his interactions with people who participate in the Dribbble community.When I was hired as the Design Director at Brewhouse, I encouraged the team to sign up for Dribbble. It was during this time that I got to meet the world-famous Meg Robichaud, whom I would later contract to design the iconography for the Mountain Conditions Report app for Arc’teryx.Last night, I attended my second Dribbble meetup, this one hosted by the folks at Metalab, a Victoria, BC-based design agency who in the last year or so have opened a beautiful new office in downtown Vancouver.After writing my name on my name tag, I set off to find someone to chat with. Rory and I first crossed paths with an awkward smile and nod as I made my way back to the name tag table to return the Sharpie I had stolen, but on our second pass made eye contact and struck up a proper conversation. Rory is a Scottish product designer who just recently came to Vancouver following a two-year stint in Australia. He currently works for a remote product team building email marketing software. Rory and I were joined by my friend and occasional collaborator Allen Pike, co-founder of Steamclock Software and creator of Party Monster, a DJ app that refuses to play Nickleback.As the night progressed, I got to chat with Jonas Caruana, an athlete and entrepreneur, Mearl Morton, an illustrator and print designer, Eliza Sarobhasa, a developer, project management student, and photographer, and friend and colleague Kenny Grant, whose company just launched a helpful tool for previewing how links will look when shared across multiple social media and mobile chat platforms called Lookout.After 8 years, I still find myself in awe of the people who make up the Dribbble community. Dribbble, much like Twitter before it and blogging before Twitter, has had a direct and profound impact on my life. I’m so grateful for the community that Dan and Rich started and Andrew and his team continue to steward.", "content_html": "I was invited to join Dribbble on January 19, 2010 by Phil Coffman. The pitch was simple: show and tell for designers and developers. Initially closed to the public, this nascent community of creative professionals allowed access to view and publish content via invitation only.
\n\nIn an interview in the inaugural issue of Offscreen Magazine, designer and Dribbble co-founder Dan Cederholm discussed how this strategy not only helped to keep support and scaling costs to a minimum, but also ensured the quality of the content. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, Dribbble was a closed community of creative professionals who shared, critiqued, and learned from one another.
\n\nAround the same time I became a full-time freelancer, Dribbble opened its doors to the public. Though the ability to post “shots” was still limited to those who had been invited to do so, anyone could come and view the work that was being posted. While this change in paradigm upset those who enjoyed Dribbble’s private nature, it also gave designers, illustrators, and other creative professionals a simple way to promote their work to a larger audience.
\n\nLater that year, I received my first recruitment call from Aol. Having seen the work I was posting on Dribbble, their recruiter reached out and invited me to Palo Alto for a 3-day job interview. Though that job didn’t pan out, a year later it led to my introduction to Danny Robinson, CEO of Perch, who would end up hiring me for my first startup job. It was this opportunity that allowed me to move cross-country from small-town Ontario to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia.
\n\nIn 2011, I attended my first Dribbble meetup in Brooklyn, New York. Held during that year’s Brooklyn Beta conference, the meetup was my opportunity to meet people like Drew Wilson and Jonathan Christopher, as well as Mr. Cederholm himself. It was one of my first opportunities to finally meet people I’d looked up to from afar. Dan especially was incredibly kind and generous, a quality he’s continued to show in his interactions with people who participate in the Dribbble community.
\n\nWhen I was hired as the Design Director at Brewhouse, I encouraged the team to sign up for Dribbble. It was during this time that I got to meet the world-famous Meg Robichaud, whom I would later contract to design the iconography for the Mountain Conditions Report app for Arc’teryx.
\n\nLast night, I attended my second Dribbble meetup, this one hosted by the folks at Metalab, a Victoria, BC-based design agency who in the last year or so have opened a beautiful new office in downtown Vancouver.
\n\nAfter writing my name on my name tag, I set off to find someone to chat with. Rory and I first crossed paths with an awkward smile and nod as I made my way back to the name tag table to return the Sharpie I had stolen, but on our second pass made eye contact and struck up a proper conversation. Rory is a Scottish product designer who just recently came to Vancouver following a two-year stint in Australia. He currently works for a remote product team building email marketing software. Rory and I were joined by my friend and occasional collaborator Allen Pike, co-founder of Steamclock Software and creator of Party Monster, a DJ app that refuses to play Nickleback.
\n\nAs the night progressed, I got to chat with Jonas Caruana, an athlete and entrepreneur, Mearl Morton, an illustrator and print designer, Eliza Sarobhasa, a developer, project management student, and photographer, and friend and colleague Kenny Grant, whose company just launched a helpful tool for previewing how links will look when shared across multiple social media and mobile chat platforms called Lookout.
\n\nAfter 8 years, I still find myself in awe of the people who make up the Dribbble community. Dribbble, much like Twitter before it and blogging before Twitter, has had a direct and profound impact on my life. I’m so grateful for the community that Dan and Rich started and Andrew and his team continue to steward.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/on-dribbble/", "date_published": "2018-02-23T11:52:20-08:00", "date_modified": "2018-02-23T11:52:20-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/afterlife-for-dollars/", "title": "Someone is trying to make money off my mother’s obituary\n", "content_text": "My brother just sent me a link to a page that aims to profit off my mother’s obituary.\tMy mom's unauthorized profile on Afterlife.coFrom this page, you can buy flowers for $269.99 CAD and have them sent to the funeral home that buried her over 3 years ago.\tMy mom preferred carnations.The thing is, our family didn’t ask to have her obituary used in this way. We were not asked permission for her name and likeness to be used to market flowers or for anyone to “light” anything for us.When writing about my mother on this very blog, I have never once asked anyone for donations or to purchase anything (though, I do ask you on every page of this site to sign up for my newsletter — I’m guessing the 7 of you who have done so feel pretty upset about my hypocrisy).As of this writing, Afterlife’s FAQ page leaves much to be desired:\tAfterlife does offer a page to submit a request for removal, which states the following: \t This publication is used to honor the deceased, show respect and support to the families, and allow anyone to contribute to build a beautiful memorial page.*cough* bullshit *cough* We understand that some families do not want loved ones to be shown here.Translation: We know you’re gonna be pissed at us but we don’t care. If you have the approval of the family, you may fill out the removal request form below. Note that up to 3 business days may pass before the removal.But you didn’t have our permission to publish this page in the first place…The CBC is reporting that at least one funeral home in Calgary has received over a dozen phone calls asking why the personal information of a loved one was being used in a commercial manner without consent. The funeral home was not only unaware of the initial infringement, they had already asked for the information be removed only for their request to be left unfulfilled.I just got off the phone with the funeral home who handled my mother’s funeral. While they weren’t familiar with this specific site, the person I spoke to did indicate that this wasn’t the first he’d heard of such a site. Requests they’ve made to similar sites have also gone unanswered.I also spoke briefly with a support agent (or maybe it was a bot?) from dmca.com. They can look into having the content removed, but their services aren’t free and there’s no guarantee that the site owners won’t simply move the content to another server.Afterlife spokesperson Jordon Le Brun claims in the CBC article that the company is selling 1000 flower arrangements per month. Based on their lowest and highest priced flower arrangements, a rough estimation would put their sales somewhere between $59,990 and $229,990 per month.Or between $700K–$2.76MM in sales per year.I’m a capitalist who believes in ideas and in companies taking risky ideas to market. I even recognize and empathize with the fact that sometimes, people with the best of intentions can produce unintended consequences when delivering a project.This, however, was not a simple oversight. Someone had to write the code to scrape the obituaries from countless funeral home sites and other databases in order to present them in this way with the only goal of generating profit.Perhaps I’m a bit biased because I’m personally offended in this case, but that’s fucked up.Companies like this are why people don’t trust the Internet and those of us who make a living working in and on it. This type of news reflects poorly on everyone who participates in the online economy, making the work we do even more difficult in the future.Not to mention the pain and suffering of having to unwillingly and unexpectedly relive the loss of a loved one.", "content_html": "My brother just sent me a link to a page that aims to profit off my mother’s obituary.
\n\n\n\nFrom this page, you can buy flowers for $269.99 CAD and have them sent to the funeral home that buried her over 3 years ago.
\n\n\n\nThe thing is, our family didn’t ask to have her obituary used in this way. We were not asked permission for her name and likeness to be used to market flowers or for anyone to “light” anything for us.
\n\nWhen writing about my mother on this very blog, I have never once asked anyone for donations or to purchase anything (though, I do ask you on every page of this site to sign up for my newsletter — I’m guessing the 7 of you who have done so feel pretty upset about my hypocrisy).
\n\nAs of this writing, Afterlife’s FAQ page leaves much to be desired:
\n\n\n\nAfterlife does offer a page to submit a request for removal, which states the following:
\n\n\n\n\nThis publication is used to honor the deceased, show respect and support to the families, and allow anyone to contribute to build a beautiful memorial page.
\n
*cough* bullshit *cough*
\n\n\n\n\nWe understand that some families do not want loved ones to be shown here.
\n
Translation: We know you’re gonna be pissed at us but we don’t care.
\n\n\n\n\nIf you have the approval of the family, you may fill out the removal request form below. Note that up to 3 business days may pass before the removal.
\n
But you didn’t have our permission to publish this page in the first place…
\n\nThe CBC is reporting that at least one funeral home in Calgary has received over a dozen phone calls asking why the personal information of a loved one was being used in a commercial manner without consent. The funeral home was not only unaware of the initial infringement, they had already asked for the information be removed only for their request to be left unfulfilled.
\n\nI just got off the phone with the funeral home who handled my mother’s funeral. While they weren’t familiar with this specific site, the person I spoke to did indicate that this wasn’t the first he’d heard of such a site. Requests they’ve made to similar sites have also gone unanswered.
\n\nI also spoke briefly with a support agent (or maybe it was a bot?) from dmca.com. They can look into having the content removed, but their services aren’t free and there’s no guarantee that the site owners won’t simply move the content to another server.
\n\nAfterlife spokesperson Jordon Le Brun claims in the CBC article that the company is selling 1000 flower arrangements per month. Based on their lowest and highest priced flower arrangements, a rough estimation would put their sales somewhere between $59,990 and $229,990 per month.
\n\nOr between $700K–$2.76MM in sales per year.
\n\nI’m a capitalist who believes in ideas and in companies taking risky ideas to market. I even recognize and empathize with the fact that sometimes, people with the best of intentions can produce unintended consequences when delivering a project.
\n\nThis, however, was not a simple oversight. Someone had to write the code to scrape the obituaries from countless funeral home sites and other databases in order to present them in this way with the only goal of generating profit.
\n\nPerhaps I’m a bit biased because I’m personally offended in this case, but that’s fucked up.
\n\nCompanies like this are why people don’t trust the Internet and those of us who make a living working in and on it. This type of news reflects poorly on everyone who participates in the online economy, making the work we do even more difficult in the future.
\n\nNot to mention the pain and suffering of having to unwillingly and unexpectedly relive the loss of a loved one.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/afterlife-for-dollars/", "date_published": "2018-01-09T23:45:00-08:00", "date_modified": "2018-01-09T23:45:00-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/do-I-really-want-to-hunt/", "title": "Do I really want to hunt?\n", "content_text": "My post from the other day definitely came out of left field. I had just finished reading Steven Rinella’s book, Meateater, and was all amped up to figure this hunting thing out.What I didn’t do a very good job explaining was that this idea is still very new, and like all good ideas it has not yet been fully tested.Do I actually want to kill an animal? I have no idea. I can probably count on one hand the number of fish I’ve killed, pets included. I once went to a firing range on my way to a Mutemath concert in Detroit, but other than that, the vast majority of my firearms experience is with BB guns and Duck Hunt.So, I’m definitely in the romantic stage of this endeavour where it’s an exotic idea that has not yet had to face the harshness of reality.Right now, I love climbing mountains and I am falling in love with cooking. With these things comes the question “am I being responsible with how I’m sourcing the food that I eat?” At the moment, I believe the answer is “no, not really” and that hunting may be a solution to this problem.Or maybe sitting under fluorescent lights and eating lunch in a food court for the last two weeks is making me stir crazy and I just really want to get outside.", "content_html": "My post from the other day definitely came out of left field. I had just finished reading Steven Rinella’s book, Meateater, and was all amped up to figure this hunting thing out.
\n\nWhat I didn’t do a very good job explaining was that this idea is still very new, and like all good ideas it has not yet been fully tested.
\n\nDo I actually want to kill an animal? I have no idea. I can probably count on one hand the number of fish I’ve killed, pets included. I once went to a firing range on my way to a Mutemath concert in Detroit, but other than that, the vast majority of my firearms experience is with BB guns and Duck Hunt.
\n\nSo, I’m definitely in the romantic stage of this endeavour where it’s an exotic idea that has not yet had to face the harshness of reality.
\n\nRight now, I love climbing mountains and I am falling in love with cooking. With these things comes the question “am I being responsible with how I’m sourcing the food that I eat?” At the moment, I believe the answer is “no, not really” and that hunting may be a solution to this problem.
\n\nOr maybe sitting under fluorescent lights and eating lunch in a food court for the last two weeks is making me stir crazy and I just really want to get outside.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/do-I-really-want-to-hunt/", "date_published": "2017-12-06T02:00:00-08:00", "date_modified": "2017-12-06T02:00:00-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/becoming-a-meateater/", "title": "Becoming a meateater\n", "content_text": "I’ve never hunted before. My father took me fishing when I was young, but it was never a big part of my childhood. My focus was on organized sports and music. We did have a forest near our place where we would ride our little dirt bikes, but I didn’t fully realize how fun hiking in the outdoors could be until I came back to BC in 2015.Since returning to Vancouver, I’ve been spending more and more time outdoors which has made me contemplate getting into some fishing and hunting.I recently came across hunter, writer, podcaster, and TV personality, Steven Rinella. Watching his show inspired me to learn more about hunting and his podcast inspired me to set some goals and put a plan in place to achieve them.His book, on the other hand, reminded me that I am lacking a lifetime of experience and knowledge. As excited as I am by the thought of one day finding and harvesting my own meat, I realize that it’s a pursuit that may take many years to achieve.Thankfully, I’m not in a rush. While I continue to develop my endurance in the mountains, my familiarity with the landscape, and the skills one requires to be qualified to hunt, I relish the fact that I am a complete beginner who doesn’t really know what he doesn’t know. For someone who loves to learn, it’s a feeling worth recognizing and celebrating.", "content_html": "I’ve never hunted before. My father took me fishing when I was young, but it was never a big part of my childhood. My focus was on organized sports and music. We did have a forest near our place where we would ride our little dirt bikes, but I didn’t fully realize how fun hiking in the outdoors could be until I came back to BC in 2015.
\n\nSince returning to Vancouver, I’ve been spending more and more time outdoors which has made me contemplate getting into some fishing and hunting.
\n\nI recently came across hunter, writer, podcaster, and TV personality, Steven Rinella. Watching his show inspired me to learn more about hunting and his podcast inspired me to set some goals and put a plan in place to achieve them.
\n\nHis book, on the other hand, reminded me that I am lacking a lifetime of experience and knowledge. As excited as I am by the thought of one day finding and harvesting my own meat, I realize that it’s a pursuit that may take many years to achieve.
\n\nThankfully, I’m not in a rush. While I continue to develop my endurance in the mountains, my familiarity with the landscape, and the skills one requires to be qualified to hunt, I relish the fact that I am a complete beginner who doesn’t really know what he doesn’t know. For someone who loves to learn, it’s a feeling worth recognizing and celebrating.
\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/becoming-a-meateater/", "date_published": "2017-12-03T05:19:16-08:00", "date_modified": "2017-12-03T05:19:16-08:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/three-years/", "title": "Three years\n", "content_text": "It’s an easy date to remember, July 7, 2014.7 / 7 / 147 + 7 = 14We discovered the mnemonic that night.Each of us said our goodbyes a few days prior. The morphine drip had been increased consistently for a couple of weeks and had gotten to the point where it had sedated her completely.The family had spent the evening going up to our parents’ bedroom to check on her, but by 10pm the nurse was the only one there. I don’t remember whether Dad had gone to bed, but my sister was in the family room while my brother and I smoked outside.Around 11:30pm, my sister came bursting through the garage door. Her tears were a dead giveaway. After a four-year battle with mesothelioma, Mom finally let go.The funeral home was notified and indicated they’d arrive in a couple of hours to collect the body. My family and I huddled around her bed, crying the first of many tears to be shed that week. We left her head uncovered until the funeral people arrived. It was shocking how quickly her body turned cold.We wrapped her body in bed sheets and I kissed her head as we carried her out of the bedroom. She felt so light on the stretcher. The funeral people hopped in their white hearse and drove away into the night.", "content_html": "It’s an easy date to remember, July 7, 2014.
\n\n7 / 7 / 14
\n\n7 + 7 = 14
\n\nWe discovered the mnemonic that night.
\n\nEach of us said our goodbyes a few days prior. The morphine drip had been increased consistently for a couple of weeks and had gotten to the point where it had sedated her completely.
\n\nThe family had spent the evening going up to our parents’ bedroom to check on her, but by 10pm the nurse was the only one there. I don’t remember whether Dad had gone to bed, but my sister was in the family room while my brother and I smoked outside.
\n\nAround 11:30pm, my sister came bursting through the garage door. Her tears were a dead giveaway. After a four-year battle with mesothelioma, Mom finally let go.
\n\nThe funeral home was notified and indicated they’d arrive in a couple of hours to collect the body. My family and I huddled around her bed, crying the first of many tears to be shed that week. We left her head uncovered until the funeral people arrived. It was shocking how quickly her body turned cold.
\n\nWe wrapped her body in bed sheets and I kissed her head as we carried her out of the bedroom. She felt so light on the stretcher. The funeral people hopped in their white hearse and drove away into the night.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/three-years/", "date_published": "2017-07-07T05:45:14-07:00", "date_modified": "2017-07-07T05:45:14-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/on-systems-and-leverage-points/", "title": "On systems and leverage points\n", "content_text": "My friend Mark recently passed along some advice I’ve been taking to heart of late. Looking at the wide breadth of problems we’re trying to solve at Ensibuuko, I was finding it difficult to determine where to focus my time and attention. The product we’re working on is a complex system that has to integrate into an even more complex financial system and be distributed using a network infrastructure that often fails to reach the customers of the product. None of the issues facing us are insurmountable, but each day we uncover more problems to be solved.Mark heard the challenges we’re facing and shared an insight he had learned reading the work of Andy Grove: when you are looking at an ever-growing list of things requiring your attention and deciding what to focus on right now, pick the thing where your input will have the greatest impact. Or, as Grove puts it, An activity with high leverage will generate a high level of output; an activity with low leverage, a low level of output.How to determine high-leverage activitiesAt this point, it becomes a matter of deciding what thing I can do now that will generate the highest level of output. In a talk given to the Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Poverty in London, Ontario, James Shelley presented an overview of Donella Meadows’ thesis on ‘leverage points’ and illustrated how to apply the framework to systems that impact the level of poverty in a given region. The framework Meadows provides is designed to help determine where to intervene in a system, in increasing order of effectiveness and impact: Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards). The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures). The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against. The gain around driving positive feedback loops. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information). The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints). The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure. The goals of the system. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises. The power to transcend paradigms. Friend and designer, Adam Saint illustrated Meadows’ framework beautifully when describing how to apply her framework to the field of design:\tThe last item in Adam’s condensed framework — principles and values of a greater context — feels like it deserves the bulk of my time and attention.Spending time making a decision about fonts and colours will have a nearly imperceivable impact on the success of the product; scouting and recruiting a local product designer who can make those and similar decisions while building a design language for our developers to use in the product: that’s high impact.Trying to get a handful of network boosters shipped from China to be manually installed individually at each SACCO branch is going to have a linear impact based on the number of boosters we can order and install; building a tool that can influence where telecoms deploy network towers with location and population data: that’s high impact.As someone who enjoys tinkering and making things look and work exactly how I envision them to, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. I’ve long resonated with the parable once relayed by Steve Jobs about the carpenter who puts the same amount of care into the hidden parts of a drawer chest that will never been seen as the rest of her creation. That’s taking pride in your craft. The challenge I face now is not how to craft a drawer chest but rather a process for building and distributing drawer chests, all while involving a number of outside parties and systems outside of my control. Where do you intervene? Where in this array of interrelated, interdependent, codependent variables do you choose to try and make a difference? — James Shelley Writer & Friend This framework is helping me prioritize the problems our company needs to solve while recognizing my time and attention can have drastically varying levels of impact depending on which lever I’m pulling.", "content_html": "\n\nMy friend Mark recently passed along some advice I’ve been taking to heart of late. Looking at the wide breadth of problems we’re trying to solve at Ensibuuko, I was finding it difficult to determine where to focus my time and attention. The product we’re working on is a complex system that has to integrate into an even more complex financial system and be distributed using a network infrastructure that often fails to reach the customers of the product. None of the issues facing us are insurmountable, but each day we uncover more problems to be solved.
\n\nMark heard the challenges we’re facing and shared an insight he had learned reading the work of Andy Grove: when you are looking at an ever-growing list of things requiring your attention and deciding what to focus on right now, pick the thing where your input will have the greatest impact. Or, as Grove puts it,
\n\n\n\n\nAn activity with high leverage will generate a high level of output; an activity with low leverage, a low level of output.
\n
At this point, it becomes a matter of deciding what thing I can do now that will generate the highest level of output. In a talk given to the Mayor’s Advisory Panel on Poverty in London, Ontario, James Shelley presented an overview of Donella Meadows’ thesis on ‘leverage points’ and illustrated how to apply the framework to systems that impact the level of poverty in a given region. The framework Meadows provides is designed to help determine where to intervene in a system, in increasing order of effectiveness and impact:
\n\nFriend and designer, Adam Saint illustrated Meadows’ framework beautifully when describing how to apply her framework to the field of design:
\n\n\n\nThe last item in Adam’s condensed framework — principles and values of a greater context — feels like it deserves the bulk of my time and attention.
\n\nSpending time making a decision about fonts and colours will have a nearly imperceivable impact on the success of the product; scouting and recruiting a local product designer who can make those and similar decisions while building a design language for our developers to use in the product: that’s high impact.
\n\nTrying to get a handful of network boosters shipped from China to be manually installed individually at each SACCO branch is going to have a linear impact based on the number of boosters we can order and install; building a tool that can influence where telecoms deploy network towers with location and population data: that’s high impact.
\n\nAs someone who enjoys tinkering and making things look and work exactly how I envision them to, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. I’ve long resonated with the parable once relayed by Steve Jobs about the carpenter who puts the same amount of care into the hidden parts of a drawer chest that will never been seen as the rest of her creation. That’s taking pride in your craft. The challenge I face now is not how to craft a drawer chest but rather a process for building and distributing drawer chests, all while involving a number of outside parties and systems outside of my control.
\n\n\n\nWhere do you intervene? Where in this array of interrelated, interdependent, codependent variables do you choose to try and make a difference?
\n \n — James Shelley\n Writer & Friend\n \n
This framework is helping me prioritize the problems our company needs to solve while recognizing my time and attention can have drastically varying levels of impact depending on which lever I’m pulling.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/on-systems-and-leverage-points/", "date_published": "2017-06-22T07:43:06-07:00", "date_modified": "2017-06-22T07:43:06-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/Housekeeping/", "title": "Housekeeping\n", "content_text": "This humble site has seen a number of changes over the last few weeks. As more of my work of late has been focused on research, process, workflows, and strategy, I’ve been itching for ways to stretch my design and development muscles. Below is a summary of the work I’ve been doing to improve your reading experience and my publishing experience.NightModeEver since I lost my Kindle Paperwhite on the flight from Brussels to Entebbe, I’ve been doing the majority of my reading on my iPhone. This has served to emphasize one of my favourite design features of modern reading apps: night mode.Leaning on the work of Chris Coyier, I first added a simple function which changes between light and dark themes depending on your computer’s local time. Thanks to SASS, I can produce as many colour themes as I’d like just by changing a few variables.Of course, as someone who cares deeply about his own reading environment, I wouldn’t want to prevent you from viewing the site how you’d prefer. Using some more JavaScript and HTML5’s localStorage and sessionStorage, I’ve added the ability for you to override the time-based theme to suit your own preference. I’m storing your preference in sessionStorage so it will reset the next time you visit this site.You can have a look at how I’m doing this thanks to…Public Github RepoI’ve learned everything I know about design and development through experience and the generosity of others. Just last night I was having a conversation about viewing the source code of my favourite sites to see how they’re made. I did this back when I first started in design and still do to this day.On a few occasions I’ve published some tips and tricks here on the site, but recently I’ve been thinking about how I could share even more. Of course one option is to continue writing and publishing what I know and I certainly intend to do so. However, I realized recently that by opening up the entire codebase for my site to the public, anyone can have a look under the hood and learn from both my successes and my mistakes.Since its inception, this site has been my playground for learning and experimentation. By opening up the code for you to see, my hope is you will be inspired to follow a similar path.MicroblogThe dozen or so of you who subscribe to my feed may have noticed an increase in posts from me this past week. This is due to the recent addition of micro posts, small title-less musings that fall between longer-form posts like this one.Back when I used ExpressionEngine to publish this site, I used to have a section called “asides”. These were always links to other sites with a bit of personal commentary. At times these links were interspersed with the long-form posts, other times they lived on their own page. Currently, the new micro posts only live on the homepage of this site.The way I’ve designed the new micro posts makes linking to other pages optional. While some may link out, others will feel more like a tweet. Until Manton Reece’s new service, Micro.blog opens to the general public, I’m using IFTTT to post these to my Twitter feed.Probably the best part of adding these short-form posts to the site has been the inspiration to finally find a solution to a problem I’ve faced for almost 5 years now, which was…Publishing from my iPhoneWhen I had finally had enough of ExpressionEngine, I started publishing to Tumblr for one very simple reason: it was the only way (outside of using WordPress) I could see to publish from my iPhone.While the Tumblr app is a great app, I’ve always struggled philosophically with the fact that Tumblr is a hosted service. This means someone else could shut it down or repurpose its content for nefarious purposes at any time without my consent. If the recent del.icio.us announcement is any indication, it’s not unreasonable to foresee Yahoo-owned Tumblr suffering a similar fate.Eventually, this philosophical divide felt more important than the need to publish from my phone. At the same time, I had become far more comfortable working in terminal and decided to publish my site through Jekyll.The transition from Tumblr to Jekyll happened over a year ago. While I’ve enjoyed publishing via the command line on my computer, the nagging desire to publish directly from my phone never waivered.My first attempt at solving this problem was to use Siteleaf, a cloud-based platform for publishing static websites. Siteleaf provides users an online dashboard — similar to the WordPress dashboard — that allows you to publish posts and pages to a Jekyll site using a beautifully designed GUI.As great as this experience is on a desktop, the only option for publishing through Siteleaf on mobile is though the mobile web app. Having to wait for the web app to load and not having the ability to draft posts offline made this solution untenable on the phone.My optimal solution is to use a native app (or apps) to publish to my site. After a bit of research, I found Kirby Turner’s method of posting to Jekyll from his iPhone to be a good place to start. Kirby uses Editorial to write his posts and Editorial Workflows to publish to his site through Working Copy, a git client for iOS.I downloaded Editorial to see what it was like and have really enjoyed writing this post in it. However, Editorial is a bit too cumbersome when I want to post a micro post. To me, those are more like tweets and should take far less time to compose than is required by Editorial.Drafts is an app that gives you a blank sheet each time you open it. It’s the quickest way I’ve found to go from having an idea to jotting it down so as not to forget and I’ve used the app for this purpose for several years.Posting micro posts felt exactly up Drafts’ alley, so I adapted Kirby’s approach by using Drafts to write, Workflow to run the post through a series of actions, and Working Copy to commit the post to my git repo. While publishing the post isn’t quite as quick as tweeting, it feels really good to know my content is going to a place I own and control.FeedsMuch like the last time I added short-form posts to my site, this time has necessitated the need for new RSS feeds. This was also the perfect opportunity to familiarize myself with the new JSON feed format by Manton Reece and Brent Simmons.Head to the new Subscribe page to see all of the feed options available as well as an option to receive a weekly digest via email.Back to bloggingAround this time last year, I was beating myself up for not writing as often as I would have liked. I said I was going to start publishing once a week which was a foolish thing to say. I was and am still a ways away from being able to maintain that kind of pace.But, I’m feeling more motivated than ever to write and publish thanks to the effort I’ve put into making this site a better place for you and for me.", "content_html": "This humble site has seen a number of changes over the last few weeks. As more of my work of late has been focused on research, process, workflows, and strategy, I’ve been itching for ways to stretch my design and development muscles. Below is a summary of the work I’ve been doing to improve your reading experience and my publishing experience.
\n\nEver since I lost my Kindle Paperwhite on the flight from Brussels to Entebbe, I’ve been doing the majority of my reading on my iPhone. This has served to emphasize one of my favourite design features of modern reading apps: night mode.
\n\nLeaning on the work of Chris Coyier, I first added a simple function which changes between light and dark themes depending on your computer’s local time. Thanks to SASS, I can produce as many colour themes as I’d like just by changing a few variables.
\n\nOf course, as someone who cares deeply about his own reading environment, I wouldn’t want to prevent you from viewing the site how you’d prefer. Using some more JavaScript and HTML5’s localStorage
and sessionStorage
, I’ve added the ability for you to override the time-based theme to suit your own preference. I’m storing your preference in sessionStorage
so it will reset the next time you visit this site.
You can have a look at how I’m doing this thanks to…
\n\nI’ve learned everything I know about design and development through experience and the generosity of others. Just last night I was having a conversation about viewing the source code of my favourite sites to see how they’re made. I did this back when I first started in design and still do to this day.
\n\nOn a few occasions I’ve published some tips and tricks here on the site, but recently I’ve been thinking about how I could share even more. Of course one option is to continue writing and publishing what I know and I certainly intend to do so. However, I realized recently that by opening up the entire codebase for my site to the public, anyone can have a look under the hood and learn from both my successes and my mistakes.
\n\nSince its inception, this site has been my playground for learning and experimentation. By opening up the code for you to see, my hope is you will be inspired to follow a similar path.
\n\nThe dozen or so of you who subscribe to my feed may have noticed an increase in posts from me this past week. This is due to the recent addition of micro posts, small title-less musings that fall between longer-form posts like this one.
\n\nBack when I used ExpressionEngine to publish this site, I used to have a section called “asides”. These were always links to other sites with a bit of personal commentary. At times these links were interspersed with the long-form posts, other times they lived on their own page. Currently, the new micro posts only live on the homepage of this site.
\n\nThe way I’ve designed the new micro posts makes linking to other pages optional. While some may link out, others will feel more like a tweet. Until Manton Reece’s new service, Micro.blog opens to the general public, I’m using IFTTT to post these to my Twitter feed.
\n\nProbably the best part of adding these short-form posts to the site has been the inspiration to finally find a solution to a problem I’ve faced for almost 5 years now, which was…
\n\nWhen I had finally had enough of ExpressionEngine, I started publishing to Tumblr for one very simple reason: it was the only way (outside of using WordPress) I could see to publish from my iPhone.
\n\nWhile the Tumblr app is a great app, I’ve always struggled philosophically with the fact that Tumblr is a hosted service. This means someone else could shut it down or repurpose its content for nefarious purposes at any time without my consent. If the recent del.icio.us announcement is any indication, it’s not unreasonable to foresee Yahoo-owned Tumblr suffering a similar fate.
\n\nEventually, this philosophical divide felt more important than the need to publish from my phone. At the same time, I had become far more comfortable working in terminal and decided to publish my site through Jekyll.
\n\nThe transition from Tumblr to Jekyll happened over a year ago. While I’ve enjoyed publishing via the command line on my computer, the nagging desire to publish directly from my phone never waivered.
\n\nMy first attempt at solving this problem was to use Siteleaf, a cloud-based platform for publishing static websites. Siteleaf provides users an online dashboard — similar to the WordPress dashboard — that allows you to publish posts and pages to a Jekyll site using a beautifully designed GUI.
\n\nAs great as this experience is on a desktop, the only option for publishing through Siteleaf on mobile is though the mobile web app. Having to wait for the web app to load and not having the ability to draft posts offline made this solution untenable on the phone.
\n\nMy optimal solution is to use a native app (or apps) to publish to my site. After a bit of research, I found Kirby Turner’s method of posting to Jekyll from his iPhone to be a good place to start. Kirby uses Editorial to write his posts and Editorial Workflows to publish to his site through Working Copy, a git client for iOS.
\n\nI downloaded Editorial to see what it was like and have really enjoyed writing this post in it. However, Editorial is a bit too cumbersome when I want to post a micro post. To me, those are more like tweets and should take far less time to compose than is required by Editorial.
\n\nDrafts is an app that gives you a blank sheet each time you open it. It’s the quickest way I’ve found to go from having an idea to jotting it down so as not to forget and I’ve used the app for this purpose for several years.
\n\nPosting micro posts felt exactly up Drafts’ alley, so I adapted Kirby’s approach by using Drafts to write, Workflow to run the post through a series of actions, and Working Copy to commit the post to my git repo. While publishing the post isn’t quite as quick as tweeting, it feels really good to know my content is going to a place I own and control.
\n\nMuch like the last time I added short-form posts to my site, this time has necessitated the need for new RSS feeds. This was also the perfect opportunity to familiarize myself with the new JSON feed format by Manton Reece and Brent Simmons.
\n\nHead to the new Subscribe page to see all of the feed options available as well as an option to receive a weekly digest via email.
\n\nAround this time last year, I was beating myself up for not writing as often as I would have liked. I said I was going to start publishing once a week which was a foolish thing to say. I was and am still a ways away from being able to maintain that kind of pace.
\n\nBut, I’m feeling more motivated than ever to write and publish thanks to the effort I’ve put into making this site a better place for you and for me.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/Housekeeping/", "date_published": "2017-06-11T07:11:26-07:00", "date_modified": "2017-06-11T07:11:26-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/tweeting-micro-posts/", "title": "Tweeting micro posts with Jekyll and IFTTT\n", "content_text": "With the recent addition of the micro posts I’m now posting on this site, I wanted to see if it was possible to syndicate the microblog to Twitter.As I was not a Kickstarter supporter of Manton Reece’s Micro.blog service, I won’t be granted access until its public launch. Micro.blog does exactly what I’m describing in this post, but since I’m impatient I figured this would be a fun thing to figure out on my own.My first experiment involved using FeedPress to publish feed updates directly to Twitter. I connected my microblog RSS feed in FeedPress with my Twitter account and used the following format:${text} ${link}Though my first post failed to get syndicated, FeedPress successfully tweeted the micro post I published earlier today. Instantly I realized the format I was using wasn’t going to be optimal. Because FeedPress added the link to the tweet, it appeared as though there was more to read when in fact everything I had to say fit in the tweet.Of course, there may be times when the micro post is longer than 140 characters. In this case, it would make sense for the tweet to include a link to read the rest of the post. Unfortunately, FeedPress has no way to include conditional statements to only show the link when it’s necessary.The solution I came up with was to create and connect another RSS feed to FeedPress that was tailored specifically for posting micro posts to Twitter. Thanks to Jekyll, adding new feeds is as simple as creating a new XML file.Determining when to add a linkIn order to determine whether or not to include the link, first I need to determine how many characters are in each micro post. This can be done by running a size filter on a liquid variable, like so:{% assign size = post.content | size %}This will get you the number of characters in the post.content variable. While this is a good start, it fails to account for characters which are used in the post’s HTML tags and special character entities. As such, you will want to strip the HTML from the post.content variable and then escape any special characters for XML. I decided to store the cleaned up content in its own variable.{% assign content = post.content | strip_html | xml_escape %}{% assign size = content | size %}Next, I need to set a condition that determines when a link should be included. Twitter allows 140 characters in a tweet, so if my micro post is ≤140 characters, no link is required.{% if size > 140 %} link needed{% else %} // no link needed{% endif %}Truncating longer postsNow that I know which micro posts require a link, I need to know how many characters I can include before I truncate the post and tack on the link. Links posted to Twitter are shortened using their t.co service which means all links are shortened to exactly 23 characters. This leaves me with 117 characters for my post content. I’ll want to include an ellipses and a space between my content and the link, so I’m left with 115 characters.Truncating Jekyll posts is as easy as adding truncate: 115 to the post.content variable. Unfortunately, someone at Jekyll thinks three periods is the same as an ellipsis so I had to manually add my own ellipsis.In the end, the variable I’m passing when size > 140 looks like this:{{ content | truncate: 115, '…' }}The resulting code looks like this:{% if size > 140 %} <description> {{ content | truncate: 115, '…' }} {{ post.url | absolute_url }} </description>{% else %} <description> {{ content }} </description>{% endif %}Connecting the pipesEasily the most frustrating part of this process has been figuring out the best way to actually syndicate the feed to my Twitter account. I had hoped to continue using FeedPress, but for some reason links were being converted into an ellipsis.After testing a couple of services, I eventually landed on using IFTTT to pull the latest RSS items and publish them to Twitter. It seemed during my testing that it was taking its time to poll the feed and push the update. However, when I tried Zapier I found the fact that it promised to check the feed every 15 min and then failed to do so was even more frustrating.So for now, I think my best option is to continue using IFTTT which has been reliable if not particularly punctual.What about JSON?When I first started thinking about this problem, I was immediately excited about getting to play more with my new JSON feeds. Unfortunately, none of the existing services I could find would accept JSON feed as a source. Admittedly, it’s still very early days for JSON feed so it’s to be expected. It does, however, cause me to wonder just how long it might take to build a simple service around the idea…But we’ll save that for another time.See it in actionIf you’d like to see this in action, you should follow me on Twitter. If you’re interested in seeing the final code for conditionally including a link in the item description, check out the code on Github.Edit: I made an error when I posted the original version of this article. I had failed to realize I was calculating the size of the post.content variable before stripping out the HTML tags and special character entities. The article has been updated to reflect this change.", "content_html": "With the recent addition of the micro posts I’m now posting on this site, I wanted to see if it was possible to syndicate the microblog to Twitter.
\n\nAs I was not a Kickstarter supporter of Manton Reece’s Micro.blog service, I won’t be granted access until its public launch. Micro.blog does exactly what I’m describing in this post, but since I’m impatient I figured this would be a fun thing to figure out on my own.
\n\nMy first experiment involved using FeedPress to publish feed updates directly to Twitter. I connected my microblog RSS feed in FeedPress with my Twitter account and used the following format:
\n\n${text} \n${link}\n
Though my first post failed to get syndicated, FeedPress successfully tweeted the micro post I published earlier today. Instantly I realized the format I was using wasn’t going to be optimal. Because FeedPress added the link to the tweet, it appeared as though there was more to read when in fact everything I had to say fit in the tweet.
\n\nOf course, there may be times when the micro post is longer than 140 characters. In this case, it would make sense for the tweet to include a link to read the rest of the post. Unfortunately, FeedPress has no way to include conditional statements to only show the link when it’s necessary.
\n\nThe solution I came up with was to create and connect another RSS feed to FeedPress that was tailored specifically for posting micro posts to Twitter. Thanks to Jekyll, adding new feeds is as simple as creating a new XML file.
\n\nIn order to determine whether or not to include the link, first I need to determine how many characters are in each micro post. This can be done by running a size
filter on a liquid variable, like so:
{% assign size = post.content | size %}\n
This will get you the number of characters in the post.content
variable. While this is a good start, it fails to account for characters which are used in the post’s HTML tags and special character entities. As such, you will want to strip the HTML from the post.content
variable and then escape any special characters for XML. I decided to store the cleaned up content in its own variable.
{% assign content = post.content | strip_html | xml_escape %}\n{% assign size = content | size %}\n
Next, I need to set a condition that determines when a link should be included. Twitter allows 140 characters in a tweet, so if my micro post is ≤140 characters, no link is required.
\n\n{% if size > 140 %}\n link needed\n{% else %}\n // no link needed\n{% endif %}\n
Now that I know which micro posts require a link, I need to know how many characters I can include before I truncate the post and tack on the link. Links posted to Twitter are shortened using their t.co service which means all links are shortened to exactly 23 characters. This leaves me with 117 characters for my post content. I’ll want to include an ellipses and a space between my content and the link, so I’m left with 115 characters.
\n\nTruncating Jekyll posts is as easy as adding truncate: 115
to the post.content
variable. Unfortunately, someone at Jekyll thinks three periods is the same as an ellipsis so I had to manually add my own ellipsis.
In the end, the variable I’m passing when size > 140
looks like this:
{{ content | truncate: 115, '…' }}\n
The resulting code looks like this:
\n\n{% if size > 140 %}\n <description>\n {{ content | truncate: 115, '…' }}\n {{ post.url | absolute_url }}\n </description>\n{% else %}\n <description>\n {{ content }}\n </description>\n{% endif %}\n
Easily the most frustrating part of this process has been figuring out the best way to actually syndicate the feed to my Twitter account. I had hoped to continue using FeedPress, but for some reason links were being converted into an ellipsis.
\n\nAfter testing a couple of services, I eventually landed on using IFTTT to pull the latest RSS items and publish them to Twitter. It seemed during my testing that it was taking its time to poll the feed and push the update. However, when I tried Zapier I found the fact that it promised to check the feed every 15 min and then failed to do so was even more frustrating.
\n\nSo for now, I think my best option is to continue using IFTTT which has been reliable if not particularly punctual.
\n\nWhen I first started thinking about this problem, I was immediately excited about getting to play more with my new JSON feeds. Unfortunately, none of the existing services I could find would accept JSON feed as a source. Admittedly, it’s still very early days for JSON feed so it’s to be expected. It does, however, cause me to wonder just how long it might take to build a simple service around the idea…
\n\nBut we’ll save that for another time.
\n\nIf you’d like to see this in action, you should follow me on Twitter. If you’re interested in seeing the final code for conditionally including a link in the item description, check out the code on Github.
\n\nEdit: I made an error when I posted the original version of this article. I had failed to realize I was calculating the size of the post.content
variable before stripping out the HTML tags and special character entities. The article has been updated to reflect this change.
Thank you to everyone who attended the first ever Indonesian product design livestream hosted by Viral Foundry. It was an honour to share with you the lessons I’ve learned about improving products through user testing. I hope each of you took something away that you’ll be able to apply to your own craft.
\n\nI do apologize for my lack of visual slides. In the past, I’ve found slides to be a hindrance to my style of presentation. However, some of the feedback I received from Kenny following the presentation indicated that I wasn’t fully considerate of the language barriers between us. Seeing the beautiful slide deck put together by Dany drove home just how foolish I was to not have my own. Won’t be making that mistake again.
\n\nAs promised during the presentation, I want to share with you some notes and links from my talk. If you were an attendee and see that I’ve missed something, please hit me up on Twitter and let me know.
\n\nI hope I was able to convey just how great of an impact employing user testing can have on both the usability and viability of your product. My thanks to Kenny and the whole Viral Foundry team for hosting the event.
\n\nNot really a “book”, but this site is so jam-packed with useful information about running a design sprint, I had to include it. In fact, this guide helped me understand what improvements needed to be made following my first design sprint. ↩
\nA few months ago, my friend Kenny and I started chatting about how we can take the lessons we’ve learned building products over the years and share them with people in developing countries. Kenny had recently made the move to Indonesia where his company, Viral Foundry, has built a small team of designers and developers to work with startup founders, existing businesses, private equity funds, VCs and local government agencies to build new companies. I — of course — have been working with the team at Ensibuuko building a platform for micro-financing institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
\n\nOne of Kenny’s ideas was to host a livestream event for people interested in learning how to design products. After emailing ideas back and forth for a few weeks, we finally settled on the topic of how user testing can improve a product. It’s a process I’ve found to be absolutely critical to the product design and development cycle and I’ve been eager to share what I’ve been learning about it with designers who may yet to include it in their own toolkits.
\n\nOn Wednesday, May 24 at 4pm EAT (UTC +3)/8pm WIB (UTC +7) I will be giving a presentation on how user testing can help you design better products. I’ll go over various options for performing user tests, how user tests can help you pitch your work to stakeholders, and how user tests can help your team move from shipping anything to shipping the right things.
\n\nI’ll be joined by Indonesian UX designer and illustrator Dany Rizky who will share how to bring your product to life through the use of illustration.
\n\n\n\nThe livestream will be free for anyone to join and will (hopefully) include a Q&A session. Check out the Facebook event page for further details and to find the link to the livestream on the day of the event.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/improve-your-product/", "date_published": "2017-05-11T06:15:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2017-05-11T06:15:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/design-hub-kampala/", "title": "Design Hub Kampala\n", "content_text": "Since arriving in Kampala, I’ve been looking to connect with others in the region who are using design to solve complex problems. For a while, the only evidence I’d found of such a community existing was a Facebook page for a group whose last post was announcing an event back in January. Not very promising.I started looking up resources and suggestions for running user tests in Uganda and found an article by Jacqui Watson of Praekelt.org sharing the lessons she learned performing user tests in Kabale, Uganda. Praekelt.org doesn’t have an office in Uganda so there’s no opportunity to meet with them, but it was encouraging to see other teams practicing human-centred design in Uganda.After a bit more searching, I came across an organization called Design Without Borders which appeared to operate exclusively in Uganda. Reading through their case studies, I was floored by the work they were doing. I sent an email in the hopes of connecting with someone there and when I received a response, was pleasantly surprised to be invited to the grand opening of their new office in a new co-working space called Design Hub Kampala.The following Saturday, my partner, a colleague, and I found ourselves wandering through a beautifully renovated warehouse which now houses eight design-focused companies. The space was filled with glass walls, modern wooden desks, and presentations of work from each tenant.\tI have to admit, I'm jealous of this spaceI spoke briefly with one of Design Without Borders’ design trainees who shared her story of joining the organization with a background in interior design and being trained in human-centred design. To learn of an organization in Kampala so focused on training a new generation of local designers was inspiring.\tDesign Hub Kampala appears to be an amazing addition to the community of Kampala. My hope is that in the short time I have left in Uganda I can make some connections with people in the space and begin the process of growing Ensibuuko’s design team.", "content_html": "Since arriving in Kampala, I’ve been looking to connect with others in the region who are using design to solve complex problems. For a while, the only evidence I’d found of such a community existing was a Facebook page for a group whose last post was announcing an event back in January. Not very promising.
\n\nI started looking up resources and suggestions for running user tests in Uganda and found an article by Jacqui Watson of Praekelt.org sharing the lessons she learned performing user tests in Kabale, Uganda. Praekelt.org doesn’t have an office in Uganda so there’s no opportunity to meet with them, but it was encouraging to see other teams practicing human-centred design in Uganda.
\n\nAfter a bit more searching, I came across an organization called Design Without Borders which appeared to operate exclusively in Uganda. Reading through their case studies, I was floored by the work they were doing. I sent an email in the hopes of connecting with someone there and when I received a response, was pleasantly surprised to be invited to the grand opening of their new office in a new co-working space called Design Hub Kampala.
\n\nThe following Saturday, my partner, a colleague, and I found ourselves wandering through a beautifully renovated warehouse which now houses eight design-focused companies. The space was filled with glass walls, modern wooden desks, and presentations of work from each tenant.
\n\n\n\nI spoke briefly with one of Design Without Borders’ design trainees who shared her story of joining the organization with a background in interior design and being trained in human-centred design. To learn of an organization in Kampala so focused on training a new generation of local designers was inspiring.
\n\n\n\nDesign Hub Kampala appears to be an amazing addition to the community of Kampala. My hope is that in the short time I have left in Uganda I can make some connections with people in the space and begin the process of growing Ensibuuko’s design team.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/design-hub-kampala/", "date_published": "2017-05-04T05:35:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2017-05-04T05:35:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } }, { "id": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/user-testing-in-uganda/", "title": "Considerations for user testing in Uganda\n", "content_text": "While designing and developing a new product, your team is making a number of assumptions about the people who will use the product, their skill level and understanding of how technology works, and how they conceptualize the task they need to accomplish. The number of assumptions made is multiplied by the cultural differences between yourself, your team, and the end user.Over the past couple of months, the development team at Ensibuuko has been working on a complete rewrite of the platform they’ve created to help microfinancing organizations in Africa bring a higher level of accountability and security to their record keeping. The goals of this project are to improve the stability, performance, and usability of the product.To address the performance and usability of the product, our team has embarked on implementing user testing as a means of validating our assumptions and ensuring that the feedback loop between making a decision and validating it is as short as possible.As we begin to implement this process in our organization, it’s important to consider some of the differences between my experience in North America and the realities of designing and testing products in Africa.If you build it, they might not be able to comeWhen I first proposed the idea of testing our nascent product with users, the first assumption I made was thinking we could invite 5–6 participants to visit our office. This is how we ran user tests at Brewhouse and is the method recommended by most practitioners of design sprints.A benefit of performing the tests in your office is setting up an observation room for your team members. This allows the test facilitator to focus on providing clear instruction and guidance to the participant, while observers can take notes and keep track of how long each task takes using a tool like The Rainbow Spreadsheet.One of my colleagues wisely suggested offering the people we hoped to invite some money to help with the cost of transportation. With our new allowance in hand, we started calling customers we hoped could help us test the new product.What we found was that while the cost of transportation was certainly an issue, the crux of the matter was people simply couldn’t afford the time it would take to travel to our office and back.Our solution: if they can’t come to us, we’ll go to them.Use the technology the user is most familiar withInherent in a user’s ability to use your product is their familiarity with the device with which they interact. Most people who have a computer in Uganda have Windows PCs because that’s what they can afford. I knew tossing a Macbook in front of our users would not only be intimidating, it could also have been offensive.Another key difference between these two platforms is the keyboard. The average typing speed of the people I’ve observed is approximately ¼ the speed of my Canadian compatriots. Putting an unfamiliar keyboard layout in front of someone can dramatically reduce their typing speed even further. It was important that we try to maximize the familiarity with the input device as much as possible.Even then, having a similar keyboard might not be enough. Our first test participant, who normally uses a USB keyboard and mouse hooked up to a tower PC, struggled to avoid touching the Windows laptop’s trackpad while typing. Since we were testing product in his office, we were able to circumvent this by connecting his own keyboard and mouse.It’s also important to note here that most people I’ve observed using computers in Uganda use the pointer to click from field to field. This isn’t always the case, but is definitely a consideration to keep in mind when designing form fields. Fields should be obvious and large enough to make it easy to click from one to the next.Record locally ‘cause you can’t trust the cloudThere are many options for recording each test session. While working in North America, I’ve found Lookback to be extremely simple to use and generally very reliable.One of the downsides to not testing with my Mac is the lack of a native Windows app for recording and uploading videos to Lookback. The Lookback app for Mac records the videos locally and then uploads them in the background. On countless occasions the upload has been disrupted due to an interruption in the network connection. Each time, the upload continued as soon as the connection was reestablished.Lookback suggests using their Chrome extension and self-test links to record tests on a PC. While this is a reasonable approach, the videos must be uploaded immediately. Otherwise, you’ll lose them. I learned this the hard way.In Uganda, Internet connections are generally unreliable. So much so that Ensibuuko has established a relationship with Airtel allowing them to provide customers with a dedicated APN (Access Point Name). The APN connects the customer’s computer directly to the Ensibuuko server at Airtel. While this provides a more reliable connection, it also limits the connection to the single server. This means the client device can’t connect to other servers such as Lookback’s.Our solution to this was to tether our client’s device to my iPhone which has a 4G connection through MTN. While this allowed us to perform the test, the connection was still far too slow for the upload to finish in a reasonable time. The instructions provided by Lookback state that uploads will resume if a connection is lost. Evidently, this does not include lost connections caused by putting the device to sleep.Unfortunately, we lost one of the two user tests we performed yesterday. Next time, we will record the test locally using the Windows 10 screen recording tool. While we will certainly miss many of Lookback’s features such as syncing the screen recording with a video of the user captured through the webcam, it will ensure we never lose another recording again.Be PreparedAll of this has caused me to remember the motto I learned as a young Boy Scout: Be Prepared. From having fake profiles prepared ahead of time to ensuring Webpack was running to having a backup recording solution saving our test sessions on the local machine, there are so many ways in which our user tests could have been performed better. Thankfully, we’ll have plenty of time to further improve our process over the next few months of the project.", "content_html": "While designing and developing a new product, your team is making a number of assumptions about the people who will use the product, their skill level and understanding of how technology works, and how they conceptualize the task they need to accomplish. The number of assumptions made is multiplied by the cultural differences between yourself, your team, and the end user.
\n\nOver the past couple of months, the development team at Ensibuuko has been working on a complete rewrite of the platform they’ve created to help microfinancing organizations in Africa bring a higher level of accountability and security to their record keeping. The goals of this project are to improve the stability, performance, and usability of the product.
\n\nTo address the performance and usability of the product, our team has embarked on implementing user testing as a means of validating our assumptions and ensuring that the feedback loop between making a decision and validating it is as short as possible.
\n\nAs we begin to implement this process in our organization, it’s important to consider some of the differences between my experience in North America and the realities of designing and testing products in Africa.
\n\nWhen I first proposed the idea of testing our nascent product with users, the first assumption I made was thinking we could invite 5–6 participants to visit our office. This is how we ran user tests at Brewhouse and is the method recommended by most practitioners of design sprints.
\n\nA benefit of performing the tests in your office is setting up an observation room for your team members. This allows the test facilitator to focus on providing clear instruction and guidance to the participant, while observers can take notes and keep track of how long each task takes using a tool like The Rainbow Spreadsheet.
\n\nOne of my colleagues wisely suggested offering the people we hoped to invite some money to help with the cost of transportation. With our new allowance in hand, we started calling customers we hoped could help us test the new product.
\n\nWhat we found was that while the cost of transportation was certainly an issue, the crux of the matter was people simply couldn’t afford the time it would take to travel to our office and back.
\n\nOur solution: if they can’t come to us, we’ll go to them.
\n\nInherent in a user’s ability to use your product is their familiarity with the device with which they interact. Most people who have a computer in Uganda have Windows PCs because that’s what they can afford. I knew tossing a Macbook in front of our users would not only be intimidating, it could also have been offensive.
\n\nAnother key difference between these two platforms is the keyboard. The average typing speed of the people I’ve observed is approximately ¼ the speed of my Canadian compatriots. Putting an unfamiliar keyboard layout in front of someone can dramatically reduce their typing speed even further. It was important that we try to maximize the familiarity with the input device as much as possible.
\n\nEven then, having a similar keyboard might not be enough. Our first test participant, who normally uses a USB keyboard and mouse hooked up to a tower PC, struggled to avoid touching the Windows laptop’s trackpad while typing. Since we were testing product in his office, we were able to circumvent this by connecting his own keyboard and mouse.
\n\nIt’s also important to note here that most people I’ve observed using computers in Uganda use the pointer to click from field to field. This isn’t always the case, but is definitely a consideration to keep in mind when designing form fields. Fields should be obvious and large enough to make it easy to click from one to the next.
\n\nThere are many options for recording each test session. While working in North America, I’ve found Lookback to be extremely simple to use and generally very reliable.
\n\nOne of the downsides to not testing with my Mac is the lack of a native Windows app for recording and uploading videos to Lookback. The Lookback app for Mac records the videos locally and then uploads them in the background. On countless occasions the upload has been disrupted due to an interruption in the network connection. Each time, the upload continued as soon as the connection was reestablished.
\n\nLookback suggests using their Chrome extension and self-test links to record tests on a PC. While this is a reasonable approach, the videos must be uploaded immediately. Otherwise, you’ll lose them. I learned this the hard way.
\n\nIn Uganda, Internet connections are generally unreliable. So much so that Ensibuuko has established a relationship with Airtel allowing them to provide customers with a dedicated APN (Access Point Name). The APN connects the customer’s computer directly to the Ensibuuko server at Airtel. While this provides a more reliable connection, it also limits the connection to the single server. This means the client device can’t connect to other servers such as Lookback’s.
\n\nOur solution to this was to tether our client’s device to my iPhone which has a 4G connection through MTN. While this allowed us to perform the test, the connection was still far too slow for the upload to finish in a reasonable time. The instructions provided by Lookback state that uploads will resume if a connection is lost. Evidently, this does not include lost connections caused by putting the device to sleep.
\n\nUnfortunately, we lost one of the two user tests we performed yesterday. Next time, we will record the test locally using the Windows 10 screen recording tool. While we will certainly miss many of Lookback’s features such as syncing the screen recording with a video of the user captured through the webcam, it will ensure we never lose another recording again.
\n\nAll of this has caused me to remember the motto I learned as a young Boy Scout: Be Prepared. From having fake profiles prepared ahead of time to ensuring Webpack was running to having a backup recording solution saving our test sessions on the local machine, there are so many ways in which our user tests could have been performed better. Thankfully, we’ll have plenty of time to further improve our process over the next few months of the project.
\n\n", "url": "https://patdryburgh.com/blog/user-testing-in-uganda/", "date_published": "2017-04-12T17:00:00-07:00", "date_modified": "2017-04-12T17:00:00-07:00", "author": { "name": "Pat Dryburgh" } } ] }