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Icon overload and undoing changes

When I am using Notion – a notes tool – on my phone, sometimes I accidentally press a button and my text ends up formatted in a way I did not expect. Notion offers an undo button, except I didn’t know it was there until recently. There is an icon tray of several buttons, b...

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Experimenting with Ghost

For the last year or so, I have used my static create page to prepare posts for publishing on my blog. The tool generates a file that I can then add to the Git repository from which my site is generated. This workflow works well for posts that are mainly words, but falls sho...

Matthias Ott Valid
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If you’re thinking about buying #audio #plugins to improve the sound of your voice recordings or music, don’t make the same mistake I made – don’t buy Waves. Buy Toneboosters, Kiive, Klanghelm, Tokyo Dawn Labs, Fuse Audio Labs, Kazrog, Noiseash, et al.
And, of course, try out all the fantastic free plugins out there first! You might not need to spend any (or at least very little) money on plugins at all… 😉

Matthias Ott Valid
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Maybe I should write a few blog posts about the best free and paid plugins 🤔

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Coming soon

This is James' Coffee Blog, a brand new site by James that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content is published!

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Text James' Coffee Blog

Pattern: Search aliases

When I search for the word “:laugh” in Discord, I see the :rofl: emoji. When I search for “:pumpkin” in Slack, I see a result for the :jack_o_lantern: emoji. The : key triggers an emoji autocomplete interface in these tools. Here is an example of the :laugh phrase in Discord...

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Three quick CSS tips

Setting a 1px solid coloured border makes it easy to see how much space an element is taking up on the page, or what the CSS selector you have written selects. This is helpful in debugging where rules apply on the page. The :target selector lets you select an element whose ID has been targeted. For instance, if you are viewing example.com/index.html#coffee, the element with the ID coffee would be targeted. This is useful for adding a highlight (i.e. a background colour or a border) to the element that the page the user is visiting has linked directly to. Add line-height: 1.5 to text on the page to create more space between lines of text on the page. Learn more about line height.

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Delightful technology experiences

My previous blog post on the need for link best practices for Stories, wherein I note some deficiencies with existing Stories implementations on the open web, has me thinking about the opposite end of user experience: what technology experiences or features have been delight...

with words, wonder Supports Webmention
Text James' Coffee Blog

Three quick CSS tips

Setting a 1px solid coloured border makes it easy to see how much space an element is taking up on the page, or what the CSS selector you have written selects. This is helpful in debugging where rules apply on the page. The :target selector lets you select an element whose ID has been targeted. For instance, if you are viewing example.com/index.html#coffee, the element with the ID coffee would be targeted. This is useful for adding a highlight (i.e. a background colour or a border) to the element that the page the user is visiting has linked directly to. Add line-height: 1.5 to text on the page to create more space between lines of text on the page. Learn more about line height.

with words, wonder Supports Webmention
Text James' Coffee Blog

Pattern: Search aliases

When I search for the word “:laugh” in Discord, I see the :rofl: emoji. When I search for “:pumpkin” in Slack, I see a result for the :jack_o_lantern: emoji. The : key triggers an emoji autocomplete interface in these tools. Here is an example of the :laugh phrase in Discord...

with words, wonder Supports Webmention
Text James' Coffee Blog

Delightful technology experiences

My previous blog post on the need for link best practices for Stories, wherein I note some deficiencies with existing Stories implementations on the open web, has me thinking about the opposite end of user experience: what technology experiences or features have been delight...

with words, wonder Supports Webmention
Text James' Coffee Blog

We need to define best practices for Stories and links

Both the BBC and Wired are experimenting with Stories-like interfaces. The BBC has been shows short videos for sports highlights and news stories. Here is an example of a sports Story section on the homepage today: https://jamesg.blog/assets/images/2025/08/bbc_story.png AL...

with words, wonder Supports Webmention
Text James' Coffee Blog

We need to define best practices for Stories and links

Both the BBC and Wired are experimenting with Stories-like interfaces. The BBC has been shows short videos for sports highlights and news stories. Here is an example of a sports Story section on the homepage today: https://jamesg.blog/assets/images/2025/08/bbc_story.png AL...

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Molly White writes about a thing I’ve been doing for decades: Curate your own newspaper with RSS.

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Decorating

Every space has its own feeling. My bedroom feels like a place to rest. With that feeling of rest, I often find the comfort to write. I am writing this blog post while the fairy lights on the wall illuminate my room. I’m warm under the blankets. I feel comfortable. The off...

with words, wonder Supports Webmention
Text James' Coffee Blog

Decorating

Every space has its own feeling. My bedroom feels like a place to rest. With that feeling of rest, I often find the comfort to write. I am writing this blog post while the fairy lights on the wall illuminate my room. I’m warm under the blankets. I feel comfortable. The off...

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Text James' Coffee Blog

Communication and understanding

I was speaking with someone this week for whom English is their second language. We started talking about mathematics. I mentioned the word “logarithms”. The person with whom I was talking then said they didn’t understand the word. This instantly reminded me of an almost ide...

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Change

A little thing I wrote in my notes recently:

To push for things to stay the same means you miss out on all the richness that can come from novelty — to miss out on all the stories one could have lived.

This very post is pushing to try something new; to share a note as yet undeveloped, with only the knowledge that I feel I will be reflecting on it for many years.

As the years pass I appreciate the beauty of the changing seasons more, and all of the new-to-me things I see within each.

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Full bloom

“From fear the plant was a weed to three beautiful pink blossoms. With each development – seeing the starting signs of a bud, the bud opening, blooming – I have felt joy.” I wrote in September 2023. My blog has become a de facto log for the pink flowers that grow outside. Wh...