Dec 20, 2019What I read in 2019I finished 24 novels in 2019 (slow reader) and gave up on another two. Here they are in descending buckets of goodness. († = short story collection, ‡ = novella, + = re-read, * = didn’t finish) Unputdownable / Utterly Brilliant Anna Burns: Milkman (2018) Elif Batuman: The Idiot (2017) Mohsin Hamid: Exit West (2017) Amos Oz…Books1 min readBooks1 min read
Dec 7, 2017Hallelujah—In Praise of Babelwith apologies to Leonard Cohen Update 1: Now available in audio courtesy of the brilliant Shawn Wang Update 2: This is now the official song of Babel.js! I heard there was a clever trick That rewrote all your JavaScript But you don’t really care for magic, do you Well it goes like…Java Script3 min readJava Script3 min read
Jun 30, 2017Member-onlyCode and Poetry, a ConversationIn which I explore their similarities (while you remain skeptical) — You: You’re writing about computer code and poetry? At the same time? Me: I want to explore their similarities. You: Seriously? Computer code has nothing in common with poetry. Poetry is grace, and code is function. Poetry connotes. Code commands. Me: But both try to represent complex ideas in concrete…Java Script6 min readJava Script6 min read
Jul 23, 2016Why I wrote Just.The Zen of Dependency-Free Modules. — See also: Just vs Lodash Tradeoffs Just is a library of zero dependency npm modules that do just one thing. What’s so special about zero dependencies? Well, package size for one thing of course. A tiny library footprint is essential when developing mobile web apps for poor network conditions, and…Java Script2 min readJava Script2 min read
Dec 3, 2015If Reindeer Wrote JavaScriptA Visit from St. Nicholas is a poem written by Clement Clarke Moore in 1823. You might know it from the opening line: “Twas the Night before Christmas”. Anyway, it’s pretty bad. The meter is awkward and the sentiment cheesy. As a service, here’s an all-new, saccharin-free version of the…Java Script2 min readJava Script2 min read
