Add mascot, add good post about dynamic blogging
Jes Olson j3s@c3f.net
Wed, 06 Apr 2022 14:55:02 -0400
8 files changed,
293 insertions(+),
7 deletions(-)
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go.sum
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go.sum
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ filippo.io/age v1.0.0/go.mod h1:PaX+Si/Sd5G8LgfCwldsSba3H1DDQZhIhFGkhbHaBq8=
filippo.io/edwards25519 v1.0.0-rc.1/go.mod h1:N1IkdkCkiLB6tki+MYJoSx2JTY9NUlxZE7eHn5EwJns= github.com/SlyMarbo/rss v1.0.1 h1:fiaIU5UhcXauVOniHOIocWG7uj8Ej6pHNarMGPJilzA= github.com/SlyMarbo/rss v1.0.1/go.mod h1:JNF+T33oj4m5WLCQXpBTCgO+SxRbYVgdiiimHNgzcbA= +github.com/SlyMarbo/rss v1.0.3 h1:AnP63RxQxa0flEaiOryiTe5J5es0KCCfji6lU+rQ8tc= +github.com/SlyMarbo/rss v1.0.3/go.mod h1:w6Bhn1BZs91q4OlEnJVZEUNRJmlbFmV7BkAlgCN8ofM= github.com/axgle/mahonia v0.0.0-20180208002826-3358181d7394 h1:OYA+5W64v3OgClL+IrOD63t4i/RW7RqrAVl9LTZ9UqQ= github.com/axgle/mahonia v0.0.0-20180208002826-3358181d7394/go.mod h1:Q8n74mJTIgjX4RBBcHnJ05h//6/k6foqmgE45jTQtxg= golang.org/x/crypto v0.0.0-20210817164053-32db794688a5 h1:HWj/xjIHfjYU5nVXpTM0s39J9CbLn7Cc5a7IC5rwsMQ=
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templates/about.html
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templates/about.html
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
{{define "title"}}me{{end}} {{define "body"}} <h3>Jes Olson</h3> +<a href="/"><img src="/static/scrombles.png" width="140" alt="pic of an unnamed puffer fish"></a> <p><i>patient anxious mentor, teacher</p></i> <p><i>loves simplicity and minimalism</p></i> <p><i>statically compiled binary FREAK</p></i> <p><i>dota2 + beat saber expert, osu! liker</p></i> <p><i>existential crisis actor</p></i> -<p><i>loves walking, soft food, half life, liquid</p></i> +<p><i>loves walking, cats, sushi, crepes, & friends</p></i> <h3>contact</h3> <p>email: <a href="mailto:j3s@c3f.net">j3s@c3f.net</a></p> <p>matrix: <a href="https://matrix.to/#/@j3s:cyberia.club">@j3s:cyberia.club</a></p>
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templates/layout.html
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templates/layout.html
@@ -29,14 +29,12 @@
<meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <title>{{template "title"}}</title> - <link rel="icon" - href="data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22><text y=%2226%22 font-size=%2226%22>🐈⬛</text></svg>"> + <link rel="icon" href="data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns=%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22><text y=%2226%22 font-size=%2226%22>🐈⬛</text></svg>"> </head> <body class="grayscale"> <div id="header"> - <a href="/"><img src="/static/scrombles.png" alt="scrombles the cat"></a> - <h1>jes shit hell</h1> + <h1><a href="/"><img src="/static/unnamed-puffy.png" width="140" alt="pic of an unnamed puffer fish"></a>jes? somewhat horrible</h1> <p> <a href="/now.html">now</a> <a href="/about.html">about</a>
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templates/now.html
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templates/now.html
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ <li>decided to sell/give away everything else</li>
<p><b>2022-03-08</b></p> <li>have been in florida for awhile</li> <li>decided to sell my house</li> -<li>decided that a core value of mine is freedom</li> +<li>decided that i value freedom and autonomy</li> <p><b>2022-02-10</b></p> <li>going to go to florida for awhile</li> <p><b>2022-02-04</b></p>
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templates/projects.html
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templates/projects.html
@@ -10,4 +10,5 @@ <p><a href="https://git.j3s.sh/neoarkbot">neoarkbot | a very funny mumble bot</a></p>
<p><a href="https://git.j3s.sh/shitchat">shitchat | the worst chat app on planet earth</a></p> <p><a href="https://git.j3s.sh/dotfiles">my dotfiles | neurotically curated</a></p> <p><a href="https://git.j3s.sh/jrss">jrss | my personal rss feed reader lmao</a></p> +<p><i>someone on hacker news said that my projects have a "consistent scatalogical theme" and i will never forgive them for making me aware of this</i></p> {{end}}
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templates/thoughts.html
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templates/thoughts.html
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ {{define "body"}}
<p><i>these are all tiny thoughts</p></i> <p><i>that don't deserve their own blog posts</p></i> <h4>2022</h4> -<li><a href="/thought/there-is-beauty-in-the-minimalism-of-email.html">there is beauty in teh minimalism of email</a></li> +<li><a href="/thought/my-website-is-one-binary.html">my personal website is one binary</a></li> +<li><a href="/thought/there-is-beauty-in-the-minimalism-of-email.html">there is beauty in the minimalism of email</a></li> <li><a href="/thought/dynamic-blog.html">making a dynamic blog</a></li> <h4>2021</h4> <li><a href="/thought/using-discord-is-morally-lazy.html">using-discord-is-morally-lazy</a></li>
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thought/my-website-is-one-binary.html
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+ my website is one binary + ---------------------------- + + a.k.a. this one weird trick that inspires me to program creatively + +i have struggled for years to figure out a website framework that feels good +to me. i tried all of the classics, including but limited to: +- ghost +- hugo +- jekyll +- sr.ht + tarball +- manual html editing + +i have very high and unusual standards, and none of the above felt correct to me. +more importantly, none of the above excited me. + +i have uncovered the secret. i have discovered my path. a website that feels good. + +but first, the search. + + + mY vALuES + ------------- + +i place an extremely high value on systems that i am capable of understanding +and trivially maintaining front-to-back as a single individual. i like human- +friendly code that is optimized for readability, and i like extremely fast +feedback loops. i like fun and cleverness and being cute too. + +the first recommendation people always get is "hugo." for those who aren't in +the know, hugo is a "static website generator" - aka, it is a program that takes +templates & markdown as input and compiles HTML that you may deploy wherever you'd +like. + +people normally couple a static site generator (SSG) framework with some hosting +platform for an ez-pz pretty reliable & fast blog. or so they say. + +one of my core values is maintainability. this is true of most everything that +i own. from my framework laptop to my bicycle, i like to be able to get my hands +dirty when things break down, and i will always prefer tools and platforms that +treat users as capable and curious. i make a lot of unconventional sacrifices +and people think it's weird - but the truth is that i _hate_ maintaining things. +i'm extremely bad at it. but when something of mine breaks, i _need_ to be able +to dig in myself, because god knows i'm not responsible enough to go through the +painfully long feedback loop of having someone else help me. (i am so averse to +this in my personal life that i will simply let my broken things stay broken if +i cannot trivially fix them myself) + +hence another core value of mine - reliability. i need the thing to work today, +and i need the thing to work in ten years. i spend a lot of time choosing my +things, and i refuse to depend on anyone else to ensure that they continue to +work. i don't care if your company went under, my car will keep working. i don't +care if you end-of-life'd the product, my laptop takes generic components that i +can insert myself. you get the point. + +so, when people say "just build your blog with hugo and host it on github pages +bruh!" i am naturally very skeptical. here are some of the dependencies that +hugo + github pages come with: + +- github pages, the service + (it must remain up) +- github pages, the product + (it must remain viable) +- hugo, the project + (it has 1,200 dependencies that require constant updates) +- hugo, the community + (they must document the code) + (i cannot read it all myself) + (i have limited time and interest) +- hugo, the plugin ecosystem + (if you rely on any of their plugins) +- hugo, the binary + (it must compile your HTML in roughly the same way over time) + (it must not break your website between releases) +- github pages, the deployment mechanism + (the ability for github to actually deploy the hugo code) +- golang + (it's pretty clear that golang is here to stay) + +it could be argued that you could use a single version of hugo forever - but in +my experience that rarely works out. (i quickly run into a bug, and am forced to +upgrade). + +nah, i won't - i tried it, i don't like it. people think that it's simple and +effortless, but it's riddled with dependencies (on people, software, and companies) +and winds up making me feel helpless, like my values are being violated. + +it took me a long time to figure out why hugo made me feel uneasy. + +(to be clear, i am not attacking hugo _specifically_, this is a problem that i +have with most software) + +so, clearly, i needed a system that fit my values + + + plain old html + ------------------ + +i decided that i would host a website on a machine that i controlled, and +program in plain old HTML, and edit everything by hand using vim. + + ~ * ~ and so i gave birth to the worst workflow ever used ~ * ~ + +the first draft of https://j3s.sh was built like this - it is where a lot of my +ideas for the layout came from. the website still looks largely the same - +writing HTML by hand felt a lot like doing intensive labor by hand - like +dishwashing with a hand pump instead of a sink. it forced me into an insane level +of minimalism in order to avoid the pain of having to use the workflow. i +embedded styling directly into the HTML, made cross-site functions as minimal +as possible, and shied away from much styling. + +in a lot of ways, this experience was exactly what i had hoped for. it was +simple, reliable, and maintainable - the HTML i wrote could be reused without +modification, and i felt pretty confident that my site would be around for +awhile. i had no dependencies. but i grew very tired of the workflow. + +i wanted to handle "templating" of common functionality more efficiently. +i didn't want to use a pre-existing framework. i wanted to have fun. and i +wanted to leave myself a lot of room for adjustment in case i changed my +mind about this-or-that. + + + single binary website + -------------------------- + +one afternoon, i was browsing the internet neurotically - this is typical of me. +i had a sudden idea: if i wrote my website entirely in one language, i could +contain and deploy it within a single binary. + +i have been using linux & programming for a long time, and golang is by far my +favorite language to develop in, for a few reasons: + +- it is easily maintainable by a single person +- it emphasizes few dependencies +- it is a relatively simple language +- there is a backwards compatability guarantee +- it produces statically compiled binaries trivially +- compilation speed is fast (less than 10s most of the time) +- most of the standard library is very well developed (but not overdeveloped) + +and so i gave birth to my personal website project for j3s.sh. a single binary that +serves my website. it has many amazing properties. + + + >>> it is d y n a m i c <<< + +statically generated websites may seem "simple" (even though i think that most +SSG frameworks are not), but dynamically generated websites are simpler. the +reason i think they're simpler is because you don't need to think about arcane +workarounds to generate content - you can just generate it easily, on the fly. + +for example, say you want to print the visiting users IP address - how would you +do this on a statically generated website? to be honest i'm not sure. typically, +you would scrape a header and display it. on my website, i do this: + + func ipHandler(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { + w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "text/plain") + fmt.Fprintf(w, r.Header.Get("X-Forwarded-For")+"\n") + } + +four lines of code - and then i just call it with a handler: + + http.HandleFunc("/ip", ipHandler) + +simple. i could call this function wherever i need it. + +all i needed to research was the best way to scrape user IP addresses, and +implement only that functionality. it answers "what do i want" in a very +straightforward way. + +with a static site, i imagine you'd need to wind up with external dependencies, +since you'd likely need to rely on javascript. this means adding the dep, making +sure it loads, and executing it. you need to integrate the javascript on any +page, and think about handling cases where javascript isn't available (some of +my readership refuses to execute javascript - i don't blame them!) + +honestly, that sounds like a lot of toil to me, and discourages me. the dynamic +solution excites me, because the website viewer simply receives HTML that has the +IP address in it already. this has another nifty benefit: you can request the HTML +from non-browser tools & receive a correct response (otherwise, the tool would +have to understand javascript!) + +another example - i generate all of my RSS feeds on my homepage when my website +starts up. this ensures that i get a fresh copy of my friends' latest posts. +this is another dynamic thing that would be nontrivial to do statically - it +would be so nontrivial that i'd probably just give up tbh. + +instead, i've programmed my own rss feed fetcher that will work for years and +years with no maintenance. additionally, i understand exactly how it functions. +i can't wait to make more little fun dynamic things just like it. + + >>> deployment is simple <<< + +i use a shell script to deploy my website. it looks like this: + + #!/bin/sh -eu + # + # deploy my website + + cd /home/j3s/code/j3s.sh + if git fetch origin; then + go build + mv j3s.sh /usr/local/bin/j3s.sh + service j3s.sh restart + fi + +this script runs every minute on a cronjob, and rebuilds my site if the git repo +has been updated. in this sense the deployment is automatic - i just test my +code locally, upload it, and it's reflected in my public website within a +minute. good enough for me. and simple enough that it'll probably just work +forever. again, very few dependencies. you can read it and understand it in +ten seconds if you know a little shell. beauty. + + + you should do this too! + --------------------------- + +i find that personal websites have a very _distinct_ feel on the web nowadays. +nobody really makes personal sites anymore, so when we stumble across them they +seem fun and quirky - and they can deeply reflect what the author cares about. + +if statically generated sites suit you, please use them! but they don't suit me. +if you have values similar to mine, i strongly suggest trying a dynamic website. +it's a ton of fun, you can start small, and it enables you to iterate through all +manner of fun ideas! you can also write your code like shit and hardcode everything, +because hey - it's yours and yours alone. that's part of the fun. make it in your +favorite language! rust? perl? python? that's part of the fun too. do it because +it's exciting. + + + start small + --------------- + +i know you're all excited now, but let's do a quick reality check. + +we get it, you have big ideas. you want to use the big rust framework, you want to +learn elixer and implement wokesockets. google dot gov said that phoenix is the next +big web framework! isn't nasa using wordpress 6.9?? + +stop. consider how much time you actually have. consider how much motivation you have. + +if you're like anyone else with a fulltime job, probably not much of either. + +do you think that you can keep up with any project that's continuously developed +and makes breaking changes constantly? i hate to break it to you, but most +people who work with those projects _full time_ can't keep up. you definitely +can't in your personal time. your website will outdate itself in .2 seconds. + +start small. make an index.html and focus on getting your language to serve it. +don't worry about RSS. don't worry about markdown. write HTML and serve it. +then, as your needs increase, extend the scope using the simplest, most +maintainable tools you can find - normally this means the standard library. in +ruby, it might mean using Sinatra instead of Rails. in python, maybe use Gin +instead of Flask. i suggest going even further - can you just do it yourself +with 0 libraries? you should try - if you run into horrible blockers, you should +consider using something larger at that point. but there's no reason to start +with someone elses project. + +start with your own project. just write python. just write ruby. just write erlang. +or WHATEVER! but if you start big, you'll burn out fast. that's a fact bruh. + +the beauty is that you'll be sitting on a plane and will have a marvelous idea for +a feature - and then, you'll realize that you can pretty easily incorperate it into +your personal website project. it's liberating. and so. much. fun. + + + closing arguments + --------------------- + +the web needs more weirdness. and more excitement. and more peronsality. + + SO GET OUT THERE AND MAKE A FUCKING DYNAMIC WEBSITE. + + THERE'S NOTHING STOPPING YOU. + + YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID. + + 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND + + WITH MUCH LOVE. + + + JES