honman.dev

Deno 2 site is up!

2024-11-14T00:00:00.000Z

Following from yesterday's post: I have just finished re-building this website for the third time (or fourth if you count the Svelte rewrite than I never ended up deploying) and I had a lot of fun!

This post is the first one I've ever posted on this website that doesn't require a build step, all powered by a crappy "CMS" that I hacked together using Deno KV. 🎉

I'd already commented on Deno and Fresh yesterday, and I can also now say using Deno Deploy is a fantastic user experience. Granted, this website is a small personal site and has no sophisticated build steps, so time will tell as the ecosystem continues to grow and improve. I'm currently on the free tier and here are some Deno Deploy usage stats:

418 / 1000000 requests
~1 MiB / 100 GiB bandwidth
~1700 / 450000 Deno KV read units
~300 / 30000 Deno KV write units

Deno KV writes is at ~300 because I'm storing posts with Deno KV and I had to migrate markdown posts from the previous, Nuxt static site and accidentally did it twice.

I was initially confused by the number of reads but I'd forgotten that the pricing page does specify up to 4KiB per unit, which would make sense since I do have a few call sites that fetch all blog posts (currently ~120 KiB).

For a personal website like this, where I arguably don't need to store things on the edge, those stats on reads feel expansive. Having said that that, Deno does have a Cache API that's currently free and in beta; I'll collect stats for a couple of days and optimise with the Cache API then.

Will likely write more about this later, especially when I try Deno Deploy with larger projects.

As an aside, I feel that this version of the website has been the easiest to optimise Lighthouse scores because of the fantastic tooling.

Also, hi mom, and happy birthday!

Rewrite with Deno/Fresh mostly done!

2024-11-13T00:00:00.000Z

I was hoping to deploy today and point DNS to a Deno Deploy instance. I ended up fussing over small details here and there because I don't plan to rewrite with another framework anytime soon.

The structure that Fresh mandates makes sense to me. I was able to develop a deeper understanding and be comfortably productive compared to other frameworks in a similar amount of time. It also doesn't make me feel like I'm constantly tiptoeing the blurred line between client and server. Take this with a grain of salt, they are just personal preferences.

Also, check out this interview with Ryan Dahl on ThePrimeTime. Lots of great stuff in it for engineers of all levels. I'm also super biased because it's Ryan Dahl.

Questioning \"conventional wisdom"

2024-11-12T00:00:00.000Z

Sometimes experienced, well-meaning people offer "conventional wisdom" in a landscape that's rapidly changing or about to become so.

If you recognise that the landscape is indeed in flux, you should carefully question any "conventional wisdom" you receive lest you miss the opportunity to prepare yourself for important things.

JamCorder is super cool

2024-11-11T00:00:00.000Z

I was feeling suer uninspired and came across the release of a product called JamCorder (website).

If you're musically trained you'll probably appreciate it a lot — I would have instantly purchased it if I had a digital piano. If anything, JamCorder makes me want to buy a digital piano now.

It's also an super awesome how well the idea is executed and marketed (see the introduction video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cjy-zFcUtQ).

Am feeling inspired again.

We can avoid butchering names

2024-11-10T00:00:00.000Z

Some people have the tendency to say "I'm about to butcher this name" before saying a name that they are not familiar with. I came across that three times in podcast interviews in just a week — in one case I know the interviewer had said that in other interviews, too.

It makes perfect sense if you have to do it unrehearsed. However, it makes absolutely no sense to say that when you had plenty of time to prepare.

If you have given getting it right a good go and still can't get it, that's totally fine! In fact, "Is this how you say your name..." is a great way to start a conversation properly while showing that you respect the person you are interviewing and have tried.

It's easier than ever to find out how to say someone's name properly, so when you say "I'm about to butcher a name" again and again, what you really are saying is that you don't care enough to try.

Stop saying that you're butchering names if you do try, and start trying if you don't already.

Strangers playing jazz

2024-11-09T00:00:00.000Z

Walked past a group of strangers playing jazz at a local library near where I live. As far as I can tell most of them are amateurs, but seeing people making something out in the physical world is delightful and magical.

Also, thank you for playing some of my favourite standards! I wonder if they will be there every week...

Your sunny-side up may not be my sunny-side up

2024-11-08T00:00:00.000Z

A few days ago, I made sunny-side up for some friends I've known for a while for the first time.

One of them commented on how good the sunny-side up I made looked. I was confused for the moment because I would usually be slightly upset if my sunny-side ups looked anything less than what I made.

It turns out that her family doesn't eat a lot of eggs for, what she pointed out herself, irrational reasons. The fact that I was a bit surprised that reminded me that I should always consider that what's normal to me may not be normal to someone else.

I also discovered that some people are against cooking with extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). I was also confused because EVOO is quite stable and fried eggs actually taste better with (extra virgin) olive oil in my opinion. Controlling heat well is a must for any cooking: if you have a look at the smoke point for EVOO and those the proteins and egg yolks and egg whites denature at, it should be pretty clear that it's totally fine to use EVOO provided that you are controlling heat well.

I suppose my sunny-side up isn't everyone else's sunny-side up!