My Garmin watch did not sync activities with the Garmin Connect iOS app upon returning home from a week of travels. It did sync my steps from the day I landed, my sleep that night, and steps the following day. It just failed to pick up my running, hiking, and other activities...
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
What we see in our websites (and why I am so excited about the...
Accounts of one’s personal website – from the story of why one started a website to the decisions made and lessons learned while making and using the site – are plentiful. Rightfully so. I love reading others’ perspectives on websites, too. I love writing about my website. It...
What we see in our websites (and why I am so excited about the...
What if YouTube had slug-based URLs?
Here is an example of a link that, when clicked, sends you to a YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsEZmictANA
The URL structure could be so much better. Without clicking on the link, the only context you have is that the site being linked to is YouTube.com. Man...
The joy of
The joy of: Walking and cherry blossom petals falling around you. Noticing how charming a building you have walked past dozens of times is. I noticed a clock at the top of a building that I have never seen before. Seeing someone with their hands up their sleeves on a spring day. Like me! Noticing the first red tulips emerge this season. Seeing people rest under trees in the park on a warm spring morning. Hearing talented musicians play acoustic songs in a public square. Seeing people smile. Seeing flowers in pots growing at doorsteps. The warmth of the sun on your cheek on a sunny day. Looking out over hills. Sharing stories. Conversations where you notice someone’s eyes light up. Hearing someone talk about something they enjoy. Warm hugs.
Ordering posts by published date and time
My static site generator orders posts by file name. Post file names follow this structure:
yyyy-mm-dd-slug.md
For example, the title of this page is 2025-04-13-ordering-posts.md.
While this works to ensure posts are ordered depending on their publication day, there is one s...
Morning CSS
Before leaving the house this morning, I decided to work on my website. I have 15 minutes before I leave, maybe I can fit in some web weaving. I worked on the mobile navigation bar. For a while, I have thought that the reading experience could be improved. There were lots of links; all the links were text. Last night, I reduced the number of links and this morning I added icons. I was writing CSS down to the wire. If I didn’t finish on time, I would miss my train. I had done some experimentation in the evening so I was as ready as I could be. But I didn’t have time to set the spacing between elements. By the time you are reading this, the mobile navigation bar will have a new, more focused design, with icons to differentiate links! Why are there no movies where a character has to write CSS in a hurry? To whom do I write to propose such a plot feature?
Back in Austin, down at St. Edward’s for Staple! Amazing that the first show was 20 years ago. Got to meet Kazu Kibuishi and pick up the final Amulet book.
I keep beating the drum about Bluesky. Their story says they know they need to be replaceable. But until they deliver on replaceability, it's a 5-alarm fire because of what happened with Twitter. It should not have been possible to acquire Twitter's user base. In hindsight we know it could have been avoided. And it can be avoided by Bluesky, but my guess is the last thing they want is to be replaced. If they really meant it, we could make it happen in a few weeks, and then we could build some really incredible systems, starting in late May, early June. I really believe that. Next journalist that interviews them should ask about this. Thanks for listening.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Notes from Perugia: journalism, values, and building the web we need
We can own the platforms that support us
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Notes from Perugia: journalism, values, and building the web we need
As I write this, I’m flying home from the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy. Now in its 19th year, it’s an annual meeting of newsrooms, journalists, and news professionals from all over the world.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was blown away by ...
Developers: This is the WordPress API. Compare it to AT Proto and ActivityPub. It's got a lot of advantages. It does the basics of social media. It scales, is mature, stable, and well-managed. A stronger, stable, more broad and better foundation imho to build on than the others.
Paying it forward
For the past couple of years, myself and Jessica have been going to the Belfast Tradfest in the Summer. It’s an excellent event with great workshops, sessions, and concerts. And it helps that Belfast is such a lovely city to spend a week in.
What struck me the first time we...
GeoCities Time Machine!
My phone's battery has been blogging for 7 years
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
The Social Security Administration Is Gutting Regional Staff and Shifting All Public Communications to X
[Zoë Schiffer at WIRED]
The Social Security Administration is changing its communications strategy in a surprising way:
““We are no longer planning to issue press releases or those dear colleague letters to inform the media and public about programmatic and ...
Twitterlike is a Bad Shape
ArtLung
• Joe Crawford
It’s been foggy at the coast. Some interesting swell happening too.
Updated my NBA arenas web page for the game last night in Phoenix. A few good moments in the game but Spurs lost badly, missing too many players even beyond Wemby.
Coffee shop details
When I visit coffee shops, I like to take notes of things that I appreciate about their design, as well as wishes for what would improve my experience in the coffee shop. Most of these notes are scattered throughout the forest that is my digital notebook, so I thought I would...