Chris Coyier 4 days 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

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Chris Coyier 5 days 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

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Chris Coyier 1 weeks 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.

Science Health

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Chris Coyier 2 weeks 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

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Chris Coyier 1 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

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Chris Coyier 1 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

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Chris Coyier 1 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

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Chris Coyier 1 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

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Chris Coyier 2 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

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Chris Coyier 2 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

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Chris Coyier 2 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

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Chris Coyier 2 months ago

The Jeopardy Phenomenon

There’s the thing where if you’re reading an article in the newspaper, and it’s about stuff you don’t know a ton about, it all seems well and good. Then you read another article in the same paper and it’s about something you know intimately (your job, your neighborhood, your hobby, etc) there is a good chance you’ll be like hey! that’s not quite right! I think of that as the Jeopardy Phenomenon. On the TV game show Jeopardy, if you don’t know the answer to a question, it can feel very much like jeez this quiz show is really hard ! But then if a category or question comes up around a topic you know a bit about, the question (or “answer” in reverse Jeopardy parlance) can feel very basic and simple. Like if the “answer” is about popular fantasy card games, the “question” is not going to be Android Netrunner, it’s going to be Magic: The Gathering. (and you’ll roll your eyes a little bit, because it’s like duh ) I think AI has the Jeopardy Phenomenon too. If you use it to generate code that is outside your expertise, you are likely to think it’s all well and good, especially if it seems to work at first pop. But if you’re intimately familiar with the technology or the code around the code it’s generating, there is a good chance you’ll be like hey! that’s not quite right!

AI Programming

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Chris Coyier 3 months ago

The Great (Refrigerator) Divide

I like a good hot sauce. It’s not, like, my personality , but I enjoy them. There are enough different hot sauces that having a bit of a collection of them is reasonable. Cholula is a mainstay, working equally well on Mexican and egg-based dishes. Although admit Tabasco is my general go-to. The green Tabasco works particularly well on Chipotle for whatever reason. Tapatio is right in there working maybe slightly better on the rice-y-er Mexican stuff. Red Hot on my chili or wings, absolutely. Those are all big names. Hot sauce has quite a long tail. There plenty of Tier-2 (in popularity) sauces. Think Tiger Sauce, which is quite sweet and tends to work well on dishes that evoke that anyway (I’m thinking sautéed peppers and onions, for instance). Yellow Bird is having their hot sauce moment lately — I quite like the literally yellow habanero style — which has a tang to it that works well with chicken I think. Roasted veggies like carrots and broccoli? There I like the Portland all-timer Secret Aardvark . Much Asian food is born to pair with Sriracha, of course. I’m a big fan of Heatly lately. I’d call Tier-3 that whole genre of hot sauces people buy you when they go on vacation and stop into a store that only sells hot sauces (right next to the oil & vinegar shop!). These are the Johnny’s Burning Butthole sauces and Sally’s Simmering Sweetspot. They have cheezy cartoon graphics on them and there are hundreds and hundreds of them, and some of them are perfectly good, but you never quite know what you are going to get and it’s easy to forget even after you’ve tried it. Tier-4 is the bottle you got from the local restaurant in town with an ambitious chef trying to diversify income streams. I’ve taken too long to get to my point though. SOME of these hot sauces say “Refrigerate after opening.” on the bottle, a rule you probably shouldn’t break (unless you’re a Johnny’s Burning Butthole kinda guy). SOME of these hot sauces… don’t. And my theory is: the bigger and more successful the hot sauce brand, the less likely it requires refridgeration. I ain’t trying to knock fridge brands. Yellow Bird, Heatly, Secret Aardvark are all favorites and require it (along with all Sriracha’s, which makes more sense as it’s so ketchup-like). I will admit though that I don’t love it. I don’t really want a whole area in my fridge that’s loaded with hot sauces. That veers too closely into personality territory. Much easier to have some basic cabinet space for them. So anyway. If you wanna go huge with your hot sauce brand, you can’t require refrigeration. The next big-Tabasco needs to sit right out on those diner tables with the salt and pepper.

Culture Go

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Chris Coyier 3 months ago

ToiletTree Fogless Shower Mirror

I know this is a weird product recommendation, but I’ve just thought about it too long and it needs to come out. I’ve used the ToiletTree Fogless Shower Mirror for like 15 years at least. See you’ve got this problem with shower mirrors where they like instantly fog up with the steam. This mirror solves the problem with science. It’s got a narrow cavity behind the mirror you fill with hot water, and the hotness makes the mirror not fog up at all. It’s either that or magic that takes hot water as magic fuel. The design of it makes it easy to slide off the mirror and fill up the cavity. But then maybe it’s already fogged up or is covered in little water dots. So it comes with a squeegee to clean it off after you’ve filled the cavity. The squeegee is a weird touch, but it never seems to get stiff or turn to crap, so I have some affinity for the little guy. The installation is also great. The original design I linked to above comes with an adhesive gel that you squirt onto the mirror and stick it into place. Sticks to anything. It’s not so strong it’s hard to get off or damages the surface, you just pull decently hard and it pops right off (like when you move or whatever). It leaves no residue. I’m all hyped on this damn mirror again because I’ve just needed a new one for a new shower and noticed they have a newer nicer model. Apparently it’s the Deluxe Fogless Shower Mirror . I liked the old model so much I barely considered how it could be better, but this one is in all ways! I just love that they cared enough to take a great product already and make it a ton better. It’s 10 bucks more than the original model, but the still sell the original so it’s a choice not a squeeze. The mirror is a bit bigger and portrait shaped. About the size of, ya know, your face. The adhesive gel is now and adhesive strip, which is just a little easier to work with. The cavity to fill is thinner, so it fills up faster, despite the mirror being bigger. The mirror adjusts on a ball joint making it easy to move to any angle. It has a hanger for multiple razors, instead of just a shelf for one.

Hardware

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Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Microsoft™ Ergonomic Keyboard (now sold by Incase)

For my own long-term reference. My favorite keyboard is the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard. But Microsoft is out of the keyboard hardware game. So apparently they sold the design to Incase, who now continues to sell it at a perfectly fair price.

Hardware Business

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Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Everything is Broken

Over in the ol’ ShopTalk Discord (that’s what our Patreon thingy unlocks) our editor Chris Enns was venting about some streaming gear woes. And I said: Nothing Ever Works Chris ultimately blogged the situation and used my reply as part of the title of the blog post. Then shortly after, Jason Rodriguez’s post made the rounds in my circles: Why doesn’t anything work anymore? I’ve officially reached “old man yells at cloud” age. Same, Jason. I feel like this should be one of those viral blog post topics! Like the “good newsletters” one that went around or “why I started blogging” before that or whatever those were. Let’s make it happen people. Here’s my list from the last week or so. I was trying to log into Paramount+ on my AppleTV, but was getting some kind of unclear error. I wasn’t even sure if I had an account or not, so I tried the signup flow from my laptop. Another unclear error. Tried a different browser and the same. I just wanted to watch the Packer game and this service I either already pay or wanted to pay just wouldn’t let me. And it wasn’t the only reason I was annoyed at Paramount+ that day. I bought a Gandalf costume for Halloween for like $50. The picture has a guy, ya know, dressed up as Gandalf on the cover of the package and it looks fine. Big grey beard. Small text on the package: beard not included . What the what. I use TablePlus (which I get through SetApp ) for local database spelunking. I had some data I was trying to get at that I knew was going to be a fairly complicated query to write. It was a count of entries on a column that wasn’t the index but then I needed the index to join onto another table while having where filter and also filtering on that final count as well. I could probably reason it out, but it would probably take me an hour. So I was like: AI! Turns out TablePlus does have an AI assistant built in, so I tossed in my OpenAI API key and… You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. Fair enough. Figure out where I can put a few bucks into my account and… I get some “unknown” error. WHY WILL NOBODY TAKE MY MONEY. I tried another browser and another credit card and turned off any “blocker” extensions I had in case of interference, but nothing worked. So I tried to use the Anthropic integration instead, and it was behaving the same. (In retrospect, it was probably the us-east-1 downtime period.) I tried the Gemini integration last, and it worked and I got my API key properly. I got my prompt together explaining exactly what I needed to do and… I am sorry, I cannot fulfill this request. The available tools lack the ability to query data or cross-reference tables. I can only retrieve metadata such as database lists, schema lists, table lists, and table creation statements. What in the what. The AI tool built into TablePlus can’t… query data? Like, wouldn’t that be the entire point of an AI assistant in a tool like this? I tried using the built-in tool rather than just going to an AI tool because I figured it would be all extra-smart, having access to the actual local database structure and stuff to use as context. I get that it might be a saftey concern (you don’t want a tool like this sending actual data over to an LLM) but that wasn’t a concern here and I didn’t need that anyway, I just needed a query that I’d run myself. Anyway I just Zoomed Marie and she helped me write the query in like 2 minutes. We brain coded it. I bought a little cheap remote control car the other day from Fred Meyer, for me and Ruby to drive around and torment her new puppy. The car took 6 AA batteries. The package came with 4 AA batteries. What in the what. Can you imagine being in the meeting where this is decided? Everybody at that table was either stupid or mean. I can’t even say greedy because someone greedy would just advocate for no batteries at all which at least is understandable. (As a consumer you’d just assume they adjust the price accordingly and you don’t have to worry about cheap junk batteries that have lost their power after sitting in a warehouse for 3 years. How far we’ve fallen.) I needed one of those like 4-cup measuring cups the other day, so grabbed a GoodCook brand one from the grocery store. After one usage and trip through the dishwasher, the markings on the side are unreadable. What in the what. Just complete garbage. Not sure why I would forsaken Pyrex , I just assumed the competition would have caught up, but apparently they have not.

AI Technology Culture Ruby

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Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Plates

Like, that you eat off. I asked about them the other day: Who’s got a set of dinner plates they really love? Having a fairly direct relationship to an artist would be nice… Otherwise, shopping! IKEA — GLADELIG . $5.99 for a 10″ plate is a good deal and it’s a classy look. (via Nicole ) Corelle — Winter Frost White 18-piece Dinnerware Set The ultimate classic for me. This is what I grew up with. They are thin, light, and strong. And only $79.99 for 6 of each large plate, small plate, and bowl. (via Chris ) Noritake — ColorWave The ColorWave sets are pretty simple and classy looking. $139.99 for 4-of-each. They have showier stuff like a Frank Lloyd Wright set and My Neighbor Totoro set as well which appeal to me. (via Montster ) East Fork — Starter Set This is actually what I had before, and honestly they are really nice. I love those unglazed rims and the spotted look. They are just pricy at $426 for a 4-of-each set. Wanted to try something new. (via Zack ) Crate & Barrel — Mercer $74.95 for 8 plates is a pretty good deal. Create & Barrel was where my mind first goes for something like this and I’m sure it would have been a good choice as well. (via Cassidy ) Fable — Dinner Plates Love the look of these. So plain but with just tiny bits of waves/variations. $104 for 4 (just plates) (via Brian ) Fiestaware — Skeleton Duet This is what I went with! ‘Tis the season, I guess, but I loved the design and I’m gonna rock them all year long. I paired the small orange Skeleton places with these black larger “Dinner Bowls” , a couple of oblong Skeleton serving platters, and got a free Skeleton dish towel. (via Bryan ) Get a local ceramics artist to do them . Love it, do it if you can. It will probably be expensive and take a while. It’s also subject to the style of the artist and likely won’t be simple/plain if that’s what you’re after. Find a ceramics artist on Etsy you like. Good luck, Etsy is so full of garbage these days I find it hard to find anything decent in any category.

Design Culture

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Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Oregon Rocketry

My co-worker Robert is into model rocketry. I made a few rockets in my day, but the hobby stopped at Estes . I didn’t really realize people take rocketry much further until knowing Robert. His partner Michelle produced a short video piece for OPB on the community around it here. I’d embed the video here, but it looks like OPB hosts their own video and doesn’t offer an embeddable format. A move I think it probably pretty smart for an independent, nonprofit media organization these days.

Hardware Media

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Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Oatmeal on AI Art

Reading Oatmeal stuff is always such a seesaw for me. It’s so riddled with like boobshark jokes and I’m like, yeah yeah ha ha. I don’t hate that kind of humor or find it offensive, I just don’t think it’s very funny. Then it’s also so riddled with such earnest heartfelt well-articulated thoughts that I’m super into it. None more than Let’s talk about AI art . I love the message. The process matters and if you work hard making stuff, that’s beautiful.

Culture

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Chris Coyier 4 months ago

Media Diet

📺 Wondla — 10/10 kids show. I was way into it. Post-apoc situation with underground bunkers (apparently Apple loves that theme) where when the protagonist girl busts out of it, the world is quite different. The premise and payoff in Season 1 was better than the commentary vibe of Season 2, but I liked it all. Apparently there is one more season coming . 🎥 Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale — The darkest of the three movies? Weird. I love spending time in this world though so I was happy to be there. But honestly I was coming off a couple of day beers when I saw it in the theater and it put me in a weird mood and I should probably watch it again normally. How to proper movie critics review movies without their random current moods affecting the review?! 📕 Annie Bot —  Sierra Greer is like, what if we turned AI into sex bots? Which honestly feels about 7 minutes away at this point. I’m only like half through it and it’s kinda sexy in that 50-shades kinda way where there is obviously some dark shit coming. 📔 Impossible People — Binge-able graphic novel by Julia Wertz about a redemption arc out of addiction. I’m an absolute sucker for addiction stories. This is very vulnerable and endearing. Like I could imagine having a very complicated friendship with Julia. It doesn’t go down to the absolute bottom of the well like in books like A Million Little Pieces or The Book of Drugs , so I’d say it’s a bit safer for you if you find stuff like that too gut wrenching.

Books Julia AI Entertainment

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