The Chronicle

of a ColdFusion Expatriate

The Rise of the Indie Web

November 20, 2022

Elon taking over Twitter and the rise in subscription everything, paired with a renewed fear of surveillance capitalism has caused a ton of folks, myself included, to think a little harder about what services we use, or, maybe more accurately, depend on.

My buddy Chris and I even talked about subscription art programs on our podcast (with some surprising results).

But there is something else going on here, something beyond just “paid vs. free” or “monolithic vs. distributed.”

Could this be the rise of the indie web?

Google's Broken Fix for Broken Phones

May 25, 2022

I’ve been a fairly enthusiastic Google Pixel owner since the beginning, in spite of the Pixel line’s drunkenly stumbling feature roadmap that makes every Pixel release feel like an episode of “Deal or No Deal.” Since the Nexus 5, I haven’t owned a non-Google phone.

I’ve been really lucky not to have broken any of those phones… Until now. If you are a Pixel owner with an intact, unbroken phone, take my advice: try not to break it.

Bright Cellars, the Latest Wine Education Scam

March 27, 2022

Have you seen ads for Bright Cellars yet? If you haven’t, you must be one of the lucky ones, because I can’t seem to escape their ads. They’re in my Twitter feed, they’re in newsletters I subscribe to, they’re on LinkedIn for heaven’s sake.

The thing is… Bright Cellars is a grift at best. I’m not a lawyer, so I won’t use any legal terms for fear of committing accidental slander, but once you see what I’m about to show you, I think you’ll reconsider whether Bright Cellars deserves your money.

Managers, Stop Attending Sprint Meetings

December 23, 2021

What does a successful sprint look like? I hope that everyone on your team can answer that question; if they can’t, that is something to talk about right now. Assuming that the team understands what success looks like, why are you, a manager, attending their sprint meetings?

Don't Run Out of Spoons

December 21, 2021

Spoon theory describes a visual metaphor for your daily energy capacity. It was coined by Christine Miserandino in 2003 to help others understand what it is like for her to have lupus. In this representation, you start your day with some number of spoons of energy, and you plan your activities so that by the end of the day you haven’t run out of spoons.

The important part of the message is that folks who are suffering from chronic illnesses have fewer spoons each day, or the consequences of running out of spoons are more dire for them, so they must be cautious and deliberate about their daily commitments.

But we all have spoons, and we can all manage them better.