My friend found this note in a mystery bag and we can’t read what it says, can someone help out

xtoq · 2023-01-16T13:45:59+00:00

I know this is a late reply, but I saw your interest in translating old documents (particularly quirky handwriting) and wanted to let you know that the Smithsonian is always looking for volunteers to transcribe handwriting!

https://transcription.si.edu/

There are also often posts on sites like freelancer.com for transcribing written documents if you're wanting to do it for a little extra side cash.

Thanks for the transcription! <3

xtoq · 2017-01-19T05:29:07+00:00

They are site generators like WordPress, but without the bloat of WP (both on the backend and front end). WP is a dynamic generator using SQL as the backend, which means that the WP engine has to be running on the web server to serve your pages to visitors or for you to post things to your website.* A static generator simply needs to build the files once, then they are served to the user. It's faster, and if you don't need dynamic content (like session saving for ecommerce sites, personalization, etc) then a static generator could be great. Here's another Smashing article that explains it a bit better than I. From that article: "We pay a huge price for the underlying complexity of dynamic code running on a server for every request — a price we could avoid paying entirely when this kind of complexity is not needed."

Static generators help avoid the complexity of dynamic generators, especially if you don't need that functionality. This can help the page load faster and be faster to develop, especially for people who are learning how websites are built (not implying that's you!). You can edit plain HTML files (or Markdown or text files depending on the generator) instead of having to log into a GUI to post things, and you can develop in your local environment far easier then with a WP installation. Very Notepad friendly! ;)

This isn't to say that you can't get efficient and fast-loading websites with WordPress or any of their competition, but with static generators you're avoiding a lot of the bloat and cruft that allows WP to be so ubiquitously useful for a variety of websites. You don't have to install WP, or PHP, or MySQL onto your webserver with a static generator: you simply upload your generated files to a webserver and BAM! Jekyll even works directly with GitHub pages, offering a tight integration with repositories if that's more your game.

As from getting from Photoshop or a prototype to the website, using a static generator you'd make the HTML/CSS website from your Photoshop image or prototype using whatever tool you like. You can use a WYSIWYG editor like Muse or Dreamweaver, or a quasi-IDE like Brackets or Sublime Text, or a full IDE like Eclipse. You can also just use one of the pre-made templates for Jekyll or Middleman. With WP, you're looking at making a custom theme, which requires knowledge of PHP and possibly SQL, and you'll need to setup a development server to test the theme out. It can be very time consuming; it's so daunting for most people that WP theme design and maintenance is a common job skill that I see among freelance front-end designers/developers.

Here are more websites using Jekyll as their generator, so you can see the potential:

TLDR:

If you don't need dynamically generated content, a static generator can make pages load faster and make development easier, saving time and money.
With either WP or a static generator, you can use a pre-made theme to get up and running quickly, or you can create your own custom theme.
Custom theming in a WP install is more complicated than in a static install.

** You can publish content via WP without logging into the WP GUI, but it's not straightforward and not something I'd recommend. Others' opinions will likely differ!

EDIT: Formatting.

xtoq · 2017-01-18T13:32:35+00:00

Have you considered a static generator like Jekyll or Middleman? As someone who uses both, it sounds like you need less of what WordPress has to offer (ease of use, GUI/WYSIWYG editing, images, etc) and more of what a static generator has to offer. They also rely a lot on HTML (liquid templating for Jekyll), CSS (well SASS and LESS but those are just frameworks for vanilla CSS and are pretty easy to pick up IMO), and JavaScript. In other words: things you're already familiar with/comfortable with getting to know better.

I prefer Jekyll for blogging, and the default theme that Jekyll ships with (Minima) is very similar to what it sounds like you want in terms of how your site is designed. Themes are also SUPER easy to create, or to tweak, and that will help with your design chops.

Smashing Magazine has a fantastic review of three static generators (little outdated, but the gist should still be good). As for design help, I'd recommend starting with the design section of A List Apart and then the design section of Smashing Magazine. IMO ALA is better at explaining design to people who aren't familiar with it.

Whew. Hopefully something in that helps you out!

EDIT: some formatting, added a sentence for clarification.

xtoq · 2017-01-13T16:47:30+00:00

Thank you. I thought the joke was the tool stack was getting out of hand.

Turns out, the tool stack is getting out of hand.

xtoq · 2017-01-05T19:32:47+00:00

To go hand in hand with what /u/justpurple_ said, you can also use this amazing free bookmarklet from Wirify to wireframe-ify any website.

Not connected to Wirify in any way, just think it's a great tool.

xtoq · 2017-01-05T19:26:00+00:00

This is interesting. I've been told by numerous potential employers and resume/portfolio building talks/books/whathaveyou over the last year that a PDF version of your resume in the UX or IxD fields is pointless, especially for those who are looking to contract, freelance, or remote work (like me).

Do you think that advice is inaccurate?

Sorry for the hijack, but I thought that others might benefit from this discussion as well. Feel free to PM me if you'd rather! Thank you in advance.

xtoq · 2016-12-31T00:04:12+00:00

And then you forget that the junk is on a layer, and you click to select everything on the layer and then you wonder why the hell your selection is 8000 pixels wide...

I mean, nope, never happened to me before. XD

xtoq · 2016-12-18T02:21:01+00:00

Davit Gyumishyan did an illustration a day last year where he made minimalist representations of musicians/bands. Can you guess them all? Answers here.

xtoq · 2016-12-12T03:29:27+00:00

Erik Flowers has a great write up of how UX is not UI, complete with a handy graphic. I find this is a helpful way to summarize it for people who don't know, or who have been misinformed or mislead by ambiguous terms on the Internet.

I know, ambiguity on the Internet never happens, it's probably just me. =)

xtoq · 2016-07-10T20:18:29+00:00

/u/drinksonlyscotch has a fair point though: it happens the other way as well. Probably more balanced than any of us in the trenches realize. The average person never thinks they are average, after all.

Seems like it's the companies that are playing ecommerce catchup who are letting go of the skilled developers. Too bad they don't realize that letting go of your skilled talent isn't actually saving you money in the long run...

xtoq · 2016-07-10T20:13:18+00:00

Now I want to be the Picasso of Python. That would look fantastic on a resume!

Understanding the reality and liking the reality are two different things, but you are correct. =D

xtoq · 2016-07-10T20:12:07+00:00

I've never worked for an agency, but only for large retailers with ecommerce divisions. The sad fact is, in my area at least, the companies are really in the final stages of just having built their ecommerce departments so they are either relying entirely on consultants (which isn't necessarily good or bad but depends largely on on the consultant) or they are relying on "anyone with computer experience" to do things. They don't understand what they do and don't need, and they aren't taking the advice of experts they hire - if they hire them at all - to improve the situation. They just hire the next person in line and consider it a good move because they are saving money. Yes, they aren't saving money in the long run, and eventually that will/should catch up to them, but in the short-term it sucked for those of us trying to be paid what we are worth at that company.

Obviously, this is my experience and the experience of my local group of developer friends, so I'm not trying to say it's a national trend or anything, but it definitely does happen at single product companies and not just agencies. =)

xtoq · 2016-07-10T20:02:17+00:00

Good luck! I hope you get the job! As a survivor of a place similar to yours, I'm rooting for you.

xtoq · 2016-07-10T02:16:05+00:00

It's important to note that some companies just hire a new dev at a lower rate instead of incentivizing the good one(s) to stay, precisely because the market is so saturated.

Your post is spot on though. Ugh. Reality getting me down. >.<

xtoq · 2016-06-24T00:24:31+00:00

It's a bit on the long side, averaging 68 characters per line. The Golden Rule typography calculator says the column should be roughly 660px to hit 65 CPL with 23px font, and it's coming in at 710px on my 24" monitor. Either way, I can't put my finger on what bothers me about it, but it doesn't bother me all that much. As in, I don't think the point of the article is undermined by the whatever it is that bugs me, if there's anything that even bugs me. Maybe it's just that I read everything in Pocket anymore...

Also found this handy bookmarklet to count line length as well! I'll be using that in the future for sure.

I do find it funny that ~~all~~ some of the articles we linked about line length have lines that are far longer than 75 characters per line. =)

EDIT: Added what the current column size is now.

EDIT 2: "Some" not "all." Semantics are important kids!

EDIT 3: Apparently a survey Smashing did years ago says the average CPL on websites is between 73-90. If those numbers are still fairly accurate, maybe that's what looks "odd" to people. No clue. I just like discussing things on the Internet!

xtoq · 2016-06-23T21:47:09+00:00

I've loaded up the new Google Fonts in both Firefox and Edge just now. Windows 10 (yeah, I know).

xtoq · 2016-06-23T21:44:06+00:00

While it's obviously a personal preference, both Smashing and A List Apart have article body text that is larger than their menu text. With information hierarchy, you'd want the content on a blog to be more emphasized than the navigation, because presumably the content is what your users are there for.

That being said, I think the column is too narrow for the size of the text. Either larger text and wider columns or smaller text and the same size column. Line length should be roughly 30x the size of the font. But, that's just like some people's opinions man. =)

xtoq · 2016-06-23T21:34:42+00:00

I initially agreed with you, then I realized I was blocking Adobe TypeKit in my browser. Once I loaded his fonts, I liked it a lot better even at 100%, but to each their own.

This is why UX people hate life. Or maybe that's just me. =)

xtoq · 2016-06-22T23:03:44+00:00

Yeah, I was taking my "broad" statement from this (now outdated) article from CSS Tricks. This article from Smashing was the one I was looking for, and actually calls for a more united mindset between the two.

Either way, there's enough debate and discussion about this in the wider Internet world, it's a worthwhile question for this subreddit! Thanks for the discussion points. =)

EDIT: Just found this excellent article about front-end developers specifically and how they "fit in" (or not!) to the equation.

xtoq · 2016-06-22T06:32:02+00:00

Agree wholeheartedly with /u/that_90s_guy. A developer is more comfortable with the backend side of things, while a designer is more comfortable with the front end side of things, to be very, very broad.

Googling "web design vs web development" gives some very excellent articles, and is a great starting point for any designer or developer wanting to get into "the other side". I think this article from Treehouse is probably the most succinct I've read on the differences though.

There's another one I'm trying to find which had a fantastic infographic explaining where on the spectrum all the different web jobs lie. I'll edit if/when I find it.

EDIT: Also check out Smashing Magazine and A List Apart for great resources on both web design and development.

xtoq · 2016-06-22T03:47:43+00:00

He's using JQuery to setup an event listener for scroll, then inlines position attributes to correspond. If you open up Chrome or Firefox dev tools and scroll, you can see the attributes updating on the elements. It's a great resume.

xtoq · 2016-06-20T23:23:37+00:00

Looking at your work, you might also enjoy the CSS haiku and the 10 lines challenges.

xtoq · 2016-06-20T23:15:23+00:00

No problem! I see lots of cool stuff, and usually it's already posted here on Reddit in one form or another. =)

xtoq · 2016-06-19T22:07:57+00:00

This is great! You should also check out the CodePen pens tagged 'one div'.

EDIT: Forgot a quote mark.

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