Chris Coyier 1 weeks ago

Help Me Understand How To Get Jetpack Search to Search a Custom Post Type

I’ve got a Custom Post Type in WordPress. It’s called because it’s for documentation pages. This is for the CodePen 2.0 Docs . The Classic Docs are just “Pages” in WordPress, and that works fine, but I thought I’d do the correct WordPress thing and make a unique kind of content a Custom Post Type. This works quite nicely, except that they don’t turn up at all in Jetpack Search . I like Jetpack Search. It works well. It’s got a nice UI. You basically turn it on and forget about it. I put it on CSS-Tricks, and they still use it there. I put it on the Frontend Masters blog. It’s here on this blog. It’s a paid product, and I pay for it and use it because it’s good. I don’t begrudge core WordPress for not having better search, because raw MySQL search just isn’t very good. Jetpack Search uses Elasticsearch, a product better-suited for full-blown site search. That’s not a server requirement they could reasonably bake into core. But the fact that it just doesn’t index Custom Post Types is baffling to me. I suspect it’s just something I’m doing wrong. I can tell it doesn’t work with basic tests. For example, I’ve got a page called “Inline Block Processing” but if you search for “Inline Block Processing” it returns zero results . In the Customizing Jetpack Search area,  I’m specifically telling Jetpack Search  not to exclude “Docs” . That very much feels like it will include it . I’ve tried manually reindexing a couple of times, both from SSHing into Pressable and using WP-CLI to reindex, and from the “Manage Connections” page on WordPress.com. No dice. I contacted Jetpack Support, and they said: Jetpack Search handles Custom Post Types individually, so it may be that the slug for your post type isn’t yet included in the Jetpack Search index.   We have a list of slugs we index here:   https://github.com/Automattic/jetpack/blob/trunk/projects/packages/sync/src/modules/class-search.php#L691   If the slug isn’t on the list, please submit an issue here so that our dev team can add it: Where they sent me on GitHub was a bit confusing. It’s the end of a variable called , which doesn’t seem quite right, as that seems like, ya know, post metadata that shouldn’t be indexed, which isn’t what’s going on here. But it’s also right before a variable called private static $taxonomies_to_sync, which feels closer, but I know what a taxonomy is, and this isn’t that. A taxonomy is categories, tags, and stuff (you can make your own), but I’m not using any custom taxonomies here; I’m using a Custom Post Type. They directed me to open a GitHub Issue, so I did that . But it’s sat untouched for a month. I just need to know whether Jetpack Search can handle Custom Post Types. If it does, what am I doing wrong to make it not work? If it can’t, fine, I just wanna know so I can figure out some other way to handle this. Unsearchable docs are not tenable.

CSS Wordpress Php

Chris Coyier 2 weeks ago

Hawai’i

I’m just back from the United States 50th state, a staggering 2,500 miles from the mainland. For the next week or two, I’ll pronounce it Ha-Vie-ee, like how it’s pronounced in the native Hawaiian language. A language, by the way, that only a few thousand people speak natively, no doubt due to the 91 years (1896-1987) where there was “strict physical punishment” for speaking it in schools. We humans are pretty damn uncool to each other sometimes. Ruby and I travelled there ( again! ) with some wonderful family friends, Matt, Becky, and their kids, Monroe and Zoey. A nice reminder of how rare and lovely it is to have a situation where the kids are friends, and the adults are friends, and everyone travels together well. We stayed in a villa at the Fairmont Kea Lani on Maui. I’ve been to Hawaii before, but this was my first time on Maui. It was a beautiful place to stay. A beautiful property and buildings right on the beach. The villa had two spacious rooms, a full kitchen, and a living room with a pull-out couch, on which all the kids slept together. I’ve stayed at fancy resorts before where the staff uses special greetings with guests. But in Hawaii, naturally, it’s “Aloha.” Probably because, ya know, a real word, and basically the whole brand of Hawaii. But I just can’t shake the feeling that it’s kinda cheesy. Like, do Hawaii long-timers say Aloha to each other? Like it’s 5:21 am and a local is getting a coffee at the gas station in a local neighborhood, do they say Aloha to the cashier? Do they get an Aloha back? I kept meaning to ask this of locals, but kept forgetting. Or not having the exact 1.5 beers in me it takes to reach that perfect level of fun and charm to ask strangers semi-intimate questions. If I were forced to guess, I’d guess Aloha is more of a thing they have to do at work with the tourists. Like your boss side-eyes you if you just say “Hello, good morning” instead. I never said it back, which felt weird. My goal was kind of a winkwink, it’s cool , you don’t have to do the cheesy tourist thing with me, I very promise I don’t care. The first night, we got checked in and b-lined it to Monkeypod . We’d all been there before (at a different location) and have talked about it endlessly. It’s a micro-chain with 4 locations across two islands. It’s just: great. They make a Mai Tai with Honey Liliko‘i Foam on the top which I have fond memories, and it was every bit as good as I remembered. I had wings and mahi-mahi tacos. 10/10. I never get the fish. I don’t like fish. I like specific little bits of seafood once in a while, but rarely cooked slabs of fish. So on that very first night, I decided I’d get fish every night on this trip. Maybe if I try enough of it, I’ll come around. It didn’t work. I struck out more times than I hit. But no big regrets. I tried. Timing-wise, it wasn’t the absolute perfect time to be in Hawaii. But it was spring break for our school district, so C’est la Vie. Unprecedented rain with some flooding. A rather ironic situation after the horrible fires just a few years back. We were watching the weather and reading the news weeks in advance, but things didn’t seem dire enough to cancel the trip. Honestly, some overcast weather isn’t the worst. None of us left with sunburns. It allows you to hang out outside all day, which you just can’t do on full-sun days, as it exhausts you. The first full day turned out to be one of the rainiest, and we spent most of it at the pool anyway. I got us a cabana that turned out to be awfully useful. Being in the pool in the rain is no big deal, but lying out in chairs in the rain is annoying. And you certainly can’t crack open the laptop or read a paperback. I did both that day and was loving it. We were trying to book an ATV tour for ourselves, and that was the one thing we just couldn’t get done. The rainstorms just weren’t letting it happen. Apparently, there was too much debris and whatnot on the trails; the places that offered these tours didn’t reopen until after we left. We started most mornings at the breakfast buffet, included in our fancy villa booking. It was pretty crowded as they couldn’t seat people outside in the wet. Then we’d hit the water without fail. A few days we did the ocean, but came to understand it really wasn’t a good time for that. Storms wash landcrap out to sea, making the water look muddy. Apparently, that’s worse than just looking ugly; it can harbor dangerous bacteria. The guy at 808 clothing told me that you’d have to be a real idiot to go out in it and that real Hawaiians would never. Last year, some lady had to have her legs sliced open to flush out the bacteria (or something? The guy was pretty weird). Also, later, our zip-line guide told us she loves to surf and wouldn’t go out because the “muddy” water is extra-attractive to sharks, since the low visibility helps them more than it helps their prey. Also later, we went to a surfing beach absolutely full of obviously local surfers. Turns out people don’t exactly speak for all people. We did some knee-deep ocean stuff because it’s hard to resist. One day we drove up to Paia, a northern coastal city with extreme charm. Unfortunately we got there when it was pouring pretty good, so we spent most of it hustling between store overhangs. You could really see how close to flooding everything can get, quickly. We mostly just did a little shopping, walking around, and snacking in Paia, and I didn’t take many photos there. It was super cute though, highly recommended. I sorta regret not buying a Ukulele bass from the music shop there as I’ve been eyeing one up like forever, ever since going on a trip with Brad Frost where he brought his. Which reminds me: we had the kids to Uke lessons at the Fairmont and it was kind of a mess. Probably skip that. The hostess at the bar we stopped at told us how to get down to the turtle beach nearby (Ho’okipa). It was really pouring when we got there, so we just parked for a while and watched the surfers. Really amazing to watch. Huge waves. The turtle beach didn’t disappoint! Hitting the pool was a daily event. The kids are old enough that we could shoo them out the door to the pool and not worry about it too much. Two of the kids had trackable wrist watches that could make calls, so that was extra convenient. There was a swim-up bar that I appreciated existing despite never getting around to using it. I did us the walk-up bar once, and the Zach Bryan impersonator bartended made me a cocktail despite it being almost an hour after it was supposed to close. He was being fawned over by two woman who wanted to make sure he had their number for later. I enjoyed that, naturally. Ruby’s favorite experience, and perhaps mine too, was the zip lining we did. We chose Haleakalā Zipline Tours as, well, it was open, and it’s location high up mid-island looked cool. It was. The two charming guides helped make it fun, showering us with bird-facts and about their conservation efforts. Ruby had to get over some fears of zip lining at all, which she did and of course now loves it. I left thinking of other zip lining we could to back home and hoping to see a ʻAlalā (Hawaiian crow). We hit Black Rock Pizza on the way home, my only non-fish dinner. The very last day, our friends moved on to another island, while we were hitting the redeye flight home. We had most of the day to kill, so we wandered around the property a bit, wandered some stores, then went to the local cinema to catch Project Hail Mary (fun!) and then off to the airport. Only a 5-hour flight back to Seattle compared to the 7-hour flight from Salt Lake City on the way there. We both slept a little and it went easy breezy.

Culture Travel Java Ruby

Chris Coyier 4 weeks ago

Meets Style Sheets

I’ve accepted an invitation to speak at Smashing’s (Online) Conference Meets Style Sheets. It’s free on Wednesday, May 6th. I named my talk In-N-Out Styling . Long time CSS evangelist Chris Coyier will talk about how you can style things on their way into view on a webpage, and on their way out. Of course, with Chris being Chris, there will be plenty of things which are food for discussion, as well as plenty of practical take-aways as well. I’ve been preparing for it. I’ve got like 35 minutes or so, and the concept of modern “entry” and “exit” styles is plenty for that time. It’s kinda complicated in my opinion, involving multiple ways of doing things, modern syntax with weird names, and specificity footguns. I think we can all come out of it with an understanding of what’s possible.

Frontend Web Development CSS

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

Kermit Roosevelt

I was at a school function the other day where the 2nd graders performed a bunch of Aesop’s Fabels and it was great. It was a double-header with 3rd graders who then read prepared reports on famous people. It was cross-disciplinary thing as the kids brought props from design class, costumes from performing arts, and did the speech both in Spanish and English. It was cute. A lot of astronauts and artists and stuff. One kid did Theodore Roosevelt. I’m not a smart man, and I just had no idea this happened . 1912. He’s giving a speech in my old stomping grounds, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dude friggin shoots him in the chest. The bullet goes through a thick, folded-up bit of paper in his pocket, but then still into his body. Then he’s like “I’m good” and continues his speech for an hour. He recoups a couple of weeks but they leave the bullet in his body and didn’t seem to care. Kind of a badass. No wonder he leaned into the “Bull Moose” thing. Then the kid is like, and he had five kids, yadda, yadda, Kermit , yadda, yadda. I was like LOL, he named one of his kids Kermit. Turns out all of his kids led fascinating lives too! Kermit was an unhealthy kid, but ultimately went to Harvard and then did a bunch of literal jungle exploration with his dad (?!) and later Asia with his brother. … he postponed his marriage to join his father on a dangerous journey to the River of Doubt in Brazil. Both he and his father nearly died during this trip through the jungle. He fought in both World Wars, deciding to go to England and join the British Army to fight for them. Apparently, you can just do that? War breaks out, and you can just pick one of the countries and go there and fight for that side? WTF? He doesn’t make it all the way through WWII because of the health stuff, so they stick him up in Alaska, and he kills himself. Wild stuff. Oh and speaking of his brother Theodore III… Along with his brother, Kermit, Roosevelt spent most of 1929 on a zoological expedition and was the first Westerner known to have shot a panda.

Culture

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

AI is my CMS

I mean… it’s not really, of course. I just thought such a thing would start to trickle out to people’s minds as agentic workflows start to take hold. Has someone written "AI is my CMS" yet? Feels inevitable. Like why run a build tool when you can just prompt another page? AI agents are already up in your codebase fingerbanging whole batches of files on command. What’s the difference between a CMS taking some content and smashing it into some templates and an AI doing that same job instead? Isn’t less tooling good? I had missed that this particular topic already had quite a moment in the sun this past December. Lee Robinson wrote Coding Agents & Complexity Budgets . Without calling it out by name, Lee basically had a vibe-coding weekend where he ripped out Sanity from cursor.com. I don’t think Lee is wrong for this choice. Spend some money to save some money. Remove some complexity. Get the code base more AI-ready. Yadda yadda. Even though Lee didn’t call out Sanity, they noticed and responded . They also make some good and measured points, I think. Which makes this a pretty great blog back-and-forth, by the way, which you love to see. Some of their argument as to why it can be the right choice to have Sanity is that some abstraction and complexity can be good, actually, because building websites from content can be complicated, especially as time and scale march on. And if you rip out a tool that does some of it, only to re-build many of those features in-house, what have you really gained? TIME FOR MY TWO CENTS. The language feels a little wrong to me. I think if you’re working with Markdown-files as content in a Next.js app… that’s already a CMS. You didn’t rip out a CMS, you ripped out a cloud database . Yes, that cloud database does binary assets also, and handles user management, and has screens for CRUDing the content, but to me it’s more of a cloud data store than a CMS. The advantage Lee got was getting the data and assets out of the cloud data store. I don’t think they were using stuff like the fancy GROQ language to get at their content in fine-grained ways. It’s just that cursor.com happened to not really need a database, and in fact was using it for things they probably shouldn’t have been (like video hosting). Me, I don’t think there is one right answer. If keeping content in Markdown files and building sites by smashing those into templates is wrong, then every static site generator ever built is wrong (🙄). But keeping content in databases isn’t wrong either. I tend to lean that way by default, since the power you get from being able to query is so obviously and regularly useful. Maybe they are both right in that having LLM tools that have the power to wiggleworm their way into the content no matter where it is, is helpful. In the codebase? Fine. In a DB that an MCP can access? Fine.

AI JavaScript Web Development

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

Claude is an Electron App

Juicy intro from Nikita Prokopov : In  “Why is Claude an Electron App?”  Drew Breunig wonders: Claude spent $20k on an agent swarm implementing (kinda) a C-compiler in Rust, but desktop Claude is an Electron app. If code is free, why aren’t all apps native? And then argues that the answer is that LLMs are not good enough yet. They can do 90% of the work, so there’s still a substantial amount of manual polish, and thus, increased costs. But I think that’s not the real reason. The real reason is: native has nothing to offer.

AI Rust Web Development JavaScript

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

Mad CSS

Round One of Mad CSS is out on YouTube!

CSS

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

Me Trying To Take a Selfie in 2001

Entertainment

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

FOREVERGREEN

In the first few minutes, Ruby says to me, “ This is like The Giving Tr ee “, and by the end, I was like, “ OK, you’re right .”

Writing Books Ruby

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

Tucci Pan Review

Stanley Tucci has a set of cookware named after him that GreenPan sells. I’ve got these two pans: I forget where they came from exactly, some silent auction or something, but I unboxed and started using them about 8 months ago. I was so hyped the first few months! It’s my daily-driver pan. I’d say it’s used once a day, on average. Then it looses it’s luster after a while. I could scrub the bottom, but I just don’t care about that. The inside was more concerning. I hit up their customer support, as it’s not just the aesthetics that were dimming here, the pan really seems maybe half as nicely non-stick as it was 8 months ago, and cleaning it with non-abrasive techniques takes much longer. Fill the pan halfway with water and bring it to a simmer for about 2 minutes. Pour out the water and place the pan on a safe sturdy surface. Carefully use a Melamine sponge (Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, our Restoring Sponge or any melamine sponge) and a little plain water on the warm surface to wipe away the food or stuck on oil.  This should do the trick. Fair enough: that technique worked well to remove what they called “a layer of carbonized oil”. I got it entirely clean with a bit of elbow grease. I’d say the pan performs 10% better after that. But it ain’t back to its former glory. I highly suspect at the one-year mark the pan is basically gonna be toast. So my review is:   it’s an incredible pan for 6 months and a so-so pan for 6 months, then you’re done. There is some kind of coating, and it’s way better than average, but it’s just not a forever thing. If you can stomach a few hundred bucks a year to replace it, go for it. Me, I’ve got some research to do on what to replace it with because I think I want a little longer longevity. And yes, I’ve got a well-seasoned cast-iron I’ve used most of my life. That’s fine, but I wanna try other things. Specifically, less-honkin’ pans that are easier to handle. Ultra extremely non-stick Washing them with a soft sponge is nearly effortless because of how non-stick they are. Feels good, like I’m taking care of it correctly. The edges of the pan, with the steep angles, are perfect for that cool chef move where you toss/flip stuff in the pan with a wrist movement.

Hardware

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

You Get Good At What You Do (Or Do You?)

I used to feel really strongly about this. You get good at what you do. Like, if you build websites all the time, you get good at building websites. If you make burritos all the time, you get good at making burritos. It could extend to almost anything. Healthy places that fit into the logical narrative you already know, like if you lift weights to the point of exhausting your limits a lot, you’ll get stronger. But also silly and unhealthy situations. Like, if you sit on your ass and watch TV all day, you get good at sitting on your ass and watching TV all day. Your body and mind will tolerate it well. You’ll know how to operate the remote well. You’ll know what you want to watch and when. I have some doubts, though. In the ~9 years I’ve lived in Bend, Oregon, I’ve gone skiing ~100 times. I do not think I’m any better at skiing in my 100th time than I was when I moved here. Maybe like, a little? But I’m not entirely sure. Could be worse. I do it, and I don’t get better at it. I want to get better like I want to like seafood. It’s aspirational, it’s just not happening. I’m sure most people get very good after skiing 100 times. I’m just a weirdo. Yes, I’m getting older. Yes, I could be healthier . I’m not sure that’s the entire math here. I think I’m uniquely bad at skiing because I do not like going fast. I don’t like going fast in cars. I don’t like going fast on a bike. I don’t like going fast… ever. I get this extreme discomfort really quickly. So I’m constantly fighting to slow down, which just isn’t very enjoyable and doesn’t lead to the breezy flow state I see most people in. There’s like a speed threshold: if you’re comfortable there, that’s a super normal speed to travel down a hill and get into that breezy flow state where it’s fun, and you feel safe. If you’ve got this higher-speed tolerance, a much wider zone of fun opens up. Whereas I have this narrow sliver I can enjoy, and precious few runs that offer that kind of experience. I’m gonna keep doing it, but just because I want my daughter to be super comfortable skiing, because it’s quite a cool lifelong hobby.

Career

Chris Coyier 1 months ago

Miscalibrated

I’ve been gaining weight again. More than twenty pounds in the last ~4 months. I’ve been hitting the gym hard and getting measurably stronger, so: Food! See, your boy can eat. The amount I can eat before I feel full would astound most of you out there. Whatever you think of as a complete hearty meal, sure as you’re born, ain’t gonna get me there. Being fat comes with one (1) society-regimented bucket of shame. People look away. It’s a thing. I had gone off my last round of GLP-1 drugs because I was doing OK, and it had lost its effectiveness. I’m not sure if it’s everyone’s experience, but it’s mine, and it’s happened a couple of times now. Honestly, I think my I CAN EAT THROUGH OZEMPIC line of XXXL T-Shirts has a chance. These drugs work very well for a bit. I like them because it gives me a glimpse of what it’s like to be a regular person who eats a regular amount of food and feels a regular amount of full. You settle into that for a while with these drugs. But, in time, effectiveness wanes. And the pharmacies have an answer: higher doses! All these GLP-1 drugs, and I’m pretty sure it is all of them, have dosage tiers. The three I’ve tried have three tiers. Ozempic rolls like this: Wegovy is getting in on the action: Mounjaro has even more layers: Again, they do this because it loses effectiveness. I don’t think people quite realize this??? Even though it’s not hidden in any way. I think these drugs are pretty amazing, and I’m proud of science for starting to figure all this out, but I’m also a little sick of hearing about how airlines are going to spend less money on fuel now. I’ve been reading this story for many years. It’s laughable when we literally know they don’t work permanently. Look at those graphics above. This isn’t a forever solution yet. They are literally showing and telling us that. There is no answer once they lose effectiveness. Perhaps controversial, but I think overeating, in the form I experience it, is an addiction, and addictions come back. Is it possible to beat it? Absolutely. Is it likely? No. I hope you don’t know firsthand, but I bet you already know that cocaine doesn’t maintain effectiveness, either. You need a second line for the same thrill before long. It doesn’t end well. Anyway, I’m back on GLP-1s. At least they work for a while, and that while feels pretty good. It was a rough start, though. My doctor agreed it’s good for me and we should kick up the dosage based on the waned effectiveness. Wegovy this time. It was this past Tuesday that I picked up the meds. It’s down to $350 now! It used to be like $1,200 without insurance. I jabbed myself Tuesday night at about 8pm. I was hugging the toilet hard by midnight. That was a first. See, there was a lot of food in my body. I remember lunch that day, where I made a sandwich were my rational brain saw it and thought that’s 2-3 sandwiches. But of course I ate all of it. And one of those salad bags that make a Caesar salad for a family of four. And a pint of cottage cheese. And a bag of Doritos. I was full after that, but the trick is just to switch to sugar after that, and I can keep going. It wasn’t quite noon, and I had a decent breakfast in me already. I ate dinner that night as well. So when the Wegovy started to hit, which tells your body you’re full when you eat a celery stick, it told my body that it was about to pop . I puked in four sessions over 24 hours. Now it’s Friday, and I’ve barely eaten since. I’ve eaten a little . Like, I’m fine. It’s just weird. I’m miscalibrated. On my own, nature, nurture, whatever you think, my current body is miscalibrated. It doesn’t do food correctly. On GLP-1 drugs, I’m also miscalibrated. My body doesn’t do food correctly. It highly over corrects. That can feel good for a while. I don’t wanna be skinny, I just wanna be normal. I want to eat, and stop eating, like a calibrated person.

Chris Coyier 2 months ago

The Good & Not Good

I’ve spent more time with religious people in the last year than perhaps I have in my whole life. It’s got me thinking about religion with more curiosity than I ever have. So I’m having what are probably middle-school level thoughts. I’ve forever identified as agnostic, likely because that’s how most of my family rolled when growing up. Aside from what anyone truly believes,  most people  end up doing the religion their family does. I’m no exception. I want to be a good person. I like good people. I’m interested in what drives people to be good and vice versa. Here’s an oversimplification of all humans that rolls through my brain: There are people in all quadrants. There are cases that make obvious sense: Who’s evaluating these people as being good or bad, and their individual actions, as good or bad ? Me, I do. I’m the judge. I wonder — are there cases that are nearly the opposite? I’m interested in what helps any individual person be good and provides some kind of framework for evaluating their actions. Maybe I can learn from them. Religious or otherwise, equally. I’d like to think I can. I’m not above reading some scripture to help understand the world and myself if it can help me be better. But I struggle. I’ve talked to three men in the past year who have had an encounter with a powerful religious figure. They came to them, as it were, in a time of need, and spoke to them clearly and directly and told them what to do. Did they, though? My agnostic brain is full of doubt. Like… you talked to a ghost? OK. Or did their brain just invent that (brains are wild!) because they needed it and the culture they grew up in supports and rewards stories like this? But I can’t help but worry that my own lack of faith prevents me from these powerful guiding moments. After all, I look up to all three of these men in certain ways and find them to be good men. Maybe I can change my brain to get in on this. I’m just as interested, or more, in the fuel and motivations behind not-good people. I don’t need help understanding doing bad, I don’t think. If I take candy from a baby, then I have candy! Plus, that baby was different to me, and I don’t understand and thus fear it. I can think of two recent personal instances with very religious people hiding behind a religious shield. They did bad. Not horrifically bad, but you know, they had a choice and made the bad one. I can’t perfectly know their mind, but based on their words and actions, it feels like religion pre-excused the choice. Of course I’m doing something bad, I’m born bad, and I actively feed bad about being bad. Religion isn’t a battery of good for them; it’s trapping them into a counterproductive way of thinking. Perhaps being directly and truly accountable for your own actions can be a way out of that trap? I think I’ll just continue to be interested in people and try to pick the best path I can. I’m not sure I’m ready to let religion be a guide to me. But I’m very comfortable with the thought that there is an incredible amount of unknown in ourselves and the universe, and that our actions matter. The contradictions in religion and action will continue to sit uncomfortably for me. I’ve been thinking about this for a year, but high five to Derek Sivers recent post Religion is action, not belief for the motivation to get my own words out. One man believed God was on his side. He often lost his temper, hurt people, and did more harm than good. But he believed that what matters is what’s in his heart, since God will forgive his actions and see his good intentions. Another man was full of doubt but followed the rules of his religion. He stopped to pray five times a day, and donated to charity. He was calm and kind to everyone, no matter how he felt. He was never sure about his beliefs, but kept that to himself, since what mattered were his actions. What is the point of beliefs if they don’t shape your actions?

Culture

Chris Coyier 2 months ago

Tubes

Me, Stacey, and Miriam kicking it talkabout about CSS Scope & Mixins: Daniel and I chattin’ about playing the long game

Frontend CSS

Chris Coyier 2 months ago

Worry Bird

I think the Worry Bird is a cute idea. You use it to, ya know, worry into, by rubbing your thumb into the satisfying little divot to do so. Of course, us web workers tend to turn our worry into superfluous personal website redesigns . [feels urge growing]

Web Development Career Design

Chris Coyier 2 months ago

The Breakaway Moment

I know I’ve mentioned a ton of times: while I enjoy playing videos games sometimes , a little, I enjoy watching other people play them more . Even as a little kid. Like an awesome play date would be going over to a friends to watch them play. Perfect world, the friend would only play when I was watching, so I could see everything. Even more perfect, I could sidekick, referencing maps, looking up tips, keeping track of things, etc. I honestly thought I was just weird for a lot of my life. It was literally an oh cool I’m not weird at all moment when Amazon bought Twitch for $970 million in 2014, a platform for literally watching people play video games. It was like a mini version of learning that being introverted isn’t weird . For better or worse, I don’t have a lot of space in my life right now now to sit on a couch with friends watching them play video games. Probably better, honestly. I think my freetime is better suited for things that fullfill me in a little deeper way like music stuff and going for a dang hike. But now’a’days, naturally: YouTube. I can watch people play videogames on YouTube (I do actually like Twitch too, but only when the “live” aspect is additive, which isn’t usually). But you know what I don’t do? Hear about some new game that seems cool, and just go right to YouTube to check it out by watching a “playthrough”. What do I actually do? I buy the game, play it for a while, enjoy it, but ultimately give up, then I go to YouTube. That’s what I mean by the breakaway moment . This isn’t some moral high-ground where I soapbox about how gaming studios are losing money because people aren’t buying the game they are just watching it “for free” and my buying of the game is my way of feeling good about that. I think that’s an oversimplification and probably not even true. It’s just… that’s how my brain works. I think I can’t really get into a YouTube playthrough unless my own brain and fingers have played the real game itself and felt it. Then I can engage with the video somehow much quicker and on a deeper level. I just did this dance with Expedition 33: Clair Obscur . I bought it. Well, I was prepared to anyway, but it was included with my XBOX Game Pass. I played it for — I dunno ~7-8 — hours. But I wasn’t very good at it. Even though it’s turn-based combat, there is lots of timing involved and it’s the kind of thing I grow to resent. Like doing an action and needing to press a button at the exact right moment to enhance it, or an enemy attacking and you needing to dodge or parry at timing that is designed to be tricky . I don’t get as much satisfaction from getting it right as I get annoyed from missing it. Particularly when, as it turns out, perfectly-timed parries are all but required for winning battles and progressing in the game. It’s not that I dislike the mechanics, they just aren’t for me in the sense that most game mechanics aren’t for me. Maybe I’m just at a point in my life where I’m so frustrated by so many things that paying to be artificially frustrated is a no-go. But: I want to see the mechanics at work, I want to see someone master them, I want to see how the choices and progressions pan out. I really want to see the story unfold. Video game stories can be truly cinematic. So I’ll just experience them how works best for me. And apparently that’s trying the game myself, waiting for the breakaway moment, then off to YouTube it is.

Gaming Entertainment

Chris Coyier 3 months ago

Default Apps Early 2026

It’s a time of slow change for me when it comes to the apps I use most regularly. I also maintain my subscription to SetApp , because I use a handful of things it offers that makes it super worth it: TablePlus , Typeface , Paste , CleanMyMac , Bartender , etc. 🔐 1Password for passwords , but ideally I’d like to switch to Apple’s Passwords/Keychain for most things. Partly because of iOS. When I save a new password on iOS, it’s always the native Passwords app that offers to save it, not 1Password, and that neuters the usability of 1Password to me. I don’t like having one foot in both apps, but it feels somewhat inevitable as 1Password is required for work sharing. 👨‍💻 Cursor for large project coding , but I’ve bounced around a lot. There are so many VS Code forks with AI integration it’s been interesting to try them, but I mostly find them all pretty similar. Windsurf , Trae , Antigravity … nearly identical. There are also alternative extensions to Copilot in canonical VS Code that are also largely the same. Some have better design polish than others, but the overall UX of Cursor seems the best. I also used Zed for a good month and found it pretty good. And obviously I use CodePen quite a bit for coding, but not for CodePen itself or other larger-scale projects. GitHub Desktop for Git. But I’m pulled back toward Tower because I think the features are nicer. But I’m really torn as GitHub Desktop is free and works flawlessly with things like precommit hooks that Tower sometimes has trouble with. Things for TODOs . I’m still really happy with Things and don’t feel any particular pull away from it. Other than that my TODOs are fairly disjointed overall. My inboxes are TODOs. My notes app can have TODOs. My open tabs can be TODOs. GitHub issues and pinned Notion pages can be TODOs. I wouldn’t mind a smidge better consolidation. Really wish it supported images/videos. Bear for notes . Everyday I find myself needing a notes scratchpad to write things down and it’s always Bear for me for this. I’ve had two failed-starts with Obsidian though and feel a pull toward that. Mimestream for Gmail. Surprises me as I’ve always like the web interface for Gmail, but I’m a few years on Mimestream now and feeling no big desire to leave it. Although, I’ve now got Fastmail going now too and find it very nice. I’ve got coyier.com now and [email protected] as well as setting up some family member emails through it, all through Fastmail. More Discord than Slack for group chat. I’m still in a few Slacks, including the internal CodePen Slack that is my most important one, but not terribly busy. I do more active chatting on community Discords than I do in Slack. Zoom for video calls . But gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to get off Zoom? Like maybe Google Meet is good enough since we pay for an organization there anyway? Maybe the stuff built into Slack is fine? I don’t need any features of Zoom at all other than “look at each other and talk and share screens sometimes” and it feels like that’s a commodity now and Zoom as a standalone could go. Local for WordPress Local Dev. But I think I’d rather get on Studio as I’m on Pressable hosting now and quite happy with that and Studio seems more integrated. BusyCal for calendering. But I feel like I don’t have any specific love for BusyCal. Would Apple’s default Calendar be good enough? Apparently I can’t use Google Calendar directly as there is no great way of seeing events from multiple accounts without weird trickery (which is wild??). NetNewsWire for RSS. But I also use Unread . And Reeder for iOS, but the classic one not 4. But it’s all powered by Feedbin under the hood. Ghostty for a terminal. But I’m switching back to iTerm2 . Ghostty is nice in how painless it is to switch to it, but I don’t need it to be so feature-free. The lack of search in Ghostty is the main thing pushing me away. Figma for design. Whatever though I don’t do a massive amount of design outside of the browser. I’m sure I’d be happy in Sketch or whatever Adobe thing. To me the killer feature of Figma is that it’s web based so it’s easy to link to things and share across a team. System Color Picker is the best for color. Raycast for a launcher , but I make so little use of it’s robust feature set it’s tempting to just nuke it can go back to spotlight. Arc for a browser. I’m still annoyed with the abandonment of Arc, as it’s just a damn masterclass in browser design. I switched away for most of the year, giving other browsers a real shot, using them for a week+. I tried Dia but it’s just shallow shadow of Arc. I tried Orion and switched away for reasons that ended up being my fault (it was nice though, expect for Safari DevTools), and same deal with SigmaOS. I tried Zen which was quite nice but didn’t sync as well as I needed it to. I tried Shift, Atlas, etc, there are so many . But Atlassian buying The Browser Company of New York because the CEO loves Arc was encouraging to me and I switched back. Haven’t seen any big Arc improvements, but whatever, it still works great.

iOS Programming

Chris Coyier 4 months ago

EMTBs in Bend

The decision is in from the Forest Service: Of the over 500 miles of singletrack maintained by COTA, about 320 miles of trails are in the Deschutes National Forest (DNF). As of December 2025, it is now allowed to use Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes on 160 miles of those trails. Feels like this is on the right side of history. This just opens up the physical activity of mountain biking to more people (like me) and makes it more fun for others. Like how they stock lakes with fish… because it’s fun. This isn’t a fundamental shift to the trails, like allowing motorcycles on them would be. This is a more subtle, and welcome change. I don’t give a shit if I’m side-eyed on trails for riding my eMTB, but it’s nice to not be breaking the rules.

Sports

Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Media Diet

🎵 Florence + The Machine, Everybody Scream — I have no prior Florence experience but really like this album. The whole “start slow and build a song to a wild ass peak” thing works for me. “You Can Have It All” is a favorite. A little called out by “It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can” in “One of the Greats” but, fortunately, narrowly escape as I only aspire to make music that is good enough to be boring. 🎧 Get Up in the Cool  — Podcast from Cameron DeWhitt totally focused on the heavily niche musical interest of Old Time. My friend Darin was on recently . 🎥 Predator: Badlands — What a friggin masterpiece. This is why going to the movies exists. I loved how predator boy shows up at the end and uses like every single thing he learned on the death planet in the final fight. 🕹️ Ball x Pit — Just fun as heck. I the end I didn’t even hate the meta progression city building stuff. Really enjoyed the different characters and upgrades that take some of the monotony away just as you’re starting to feel it. 🎥 Eddington (why don’t all movies have an obvious “this is the official website of the movie” website? If I made a movie you’d better as hell know it would have a banger website.) — I loved how this movie evokes how it feels to observe the foreverbattle of the far right and far left. And how there is a sliding scale of just how crazy any given person on either side can be. When the movie gives way to violence, it felt like a release to me, like obviously this is where things are going. 📺 Stranger Things  — Just a fan like everyone else. Anxiously awaiting this story to continue, wasn’t disappointed when it did, and can’t wait for Christmas for the next four. 📕 I am Rebel  — A very helpful lady at Barnes & Nobel helped Ruby and I find the perfect book to buy with her birthday gift card. We both really enjoyed this story of a dog sticking to his feelings and finding his owner despite changes, both physical and emotional. I wanted a little more about the corrupt king and the revolutionaries plan, but that would have aged the book up. 🎵 Western Centuries — What an amazing band, I’m sorry I missed their active period. They lost a guy and must have just called it, understandably. This is just perfection to me:

Ruby Entertainment

Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Ol’ Bob

My friend Jason came over as he’d just got a new MacBook and a new Black Lion audio interface he wanted to try out. We plugged my Ear Trumped Mabel into it and did a few songs. I dragged my web cam setup downstairs to do the video haha. The song is Ol’ Bob from Roger Netherton . There is a 2nd take at the end that I think I like a little better. The first take I did a 2-finger style which sometimes I like but is probably better suited when there is a guitar too. Clawhammer and fiddle is so classic.

Music Web AI