At IndieWebCamp, we collected an overview of everyone’s publishing software tools and hosting providers. And tonight I am doing a bit of research. I’m a little overwhelmed by only going through all those options. Of course, there’s an almost infinite amount of additional options out there, too.
Anyhow, to help narrowing it all down, I thought I’d write down some of my current thoughts on what I might want from both my future publishing tool and workflow for this blog, as well as the hosting options. Here we go:
Tooling
- I’d like the software to spit out a static site in the end. This makes it more easily portable and hostable – even when I myself can’t any longer. It’s much simpler to copy a simple folder and host that somewhere, than being required to run a certain software and database in order to build the site.
- An obvious choice here are Static Site Generators (SSGs).
- The downsides of using those and deploying something static, is that I won’t have dynamic features like – for example – search, comments or Webmentions. Or at least I would need an additional external service for that, since the site wouldn’t be able to accept any data to be put into it.
- If I end up bending over backwards to make those things work with an SSG, wouldn’t it be better to simply use something dynamic like a CMS? Then I’d have all the freedom. Plus, I would probably have a form via which I could post to the site.
- And posting to my site via a web form is a must, to be honest. I want to be able to post from multiple devices. And be able to upload files (mostly images I guess), too. Being able to do so only via a non-mobile device would be a show-stopper, I think.
- There’s an option, though to use something like Netlify CMS on top of an SSG to have an SPA admin interface that adds content directly to my git repository. Certainly an interesting option.
- A way to import my Tumblr blog would be really handy.
- And a way to redirect those old URLs would make sense, too.
- If I go with a CMS, it’d be nice to not rely on a database. I get a little uneasy relying on something so complex as a database. It’s simply easier to read plain text files than it is to get stuff out of a DB again. And I feel using a database is not really necessary for a blog.
- Should be something I would want to use in the long run.
Hosting
- I’d like to manage as little of the tech as possible and is feasible. For example, I feel like managing a VPS is a little too much. Shared webspace might do the job. Or even simple static hosting.
- The servers should probably be located in Germany.
- Preferably a focus on being environmentally friendly, too.
- I favour large storage space over high performance (because I don’t think I have high demands).
- Free or almost free SSL certificates, including wildcard certificates. Probably should offer the Let’s Encrypt ones.
- If possible, use one provider for all projects.
Phew. And that’s just some of the things I‘m considering. Running a risk of overthinking this and never get anything done. I feel this is important, though. Especially to choice for the software.
nightowl.kramser.xyz
NightOwl is the perfect Menu Bar App for nocturnal people.
I really enjoy Mojave’s Dark Mode for working during the evening and night. But always going into the System Settings to switch it from the “Light” mode – which I prefer during the day – was a bit tedious. Luckily, Benjamin Kramser thought the same, and created the little NightOwl utility. So that I can now let it automatically toggle between Dark and Light modes based on whether it’s day or night. Sweet!
When massive sites like Twitter or YouTube break basic browser functionality like the “Back”/“Forward”- and “Reload”-buttons – like is currently the case – I often wonder how and why on earth did this state make it into production.
Another more thing I can’t live without any more. I put this little snippet into my ~/.bash_profile, and the command prompt will show me the currently checked out Git branch.
parse_git_branch() {
git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/ (\1)/'
}
export PS1="\u@\h \[\033[32m\]\w\[\033[33m\]\$(parse_git_branch)\[\033[00m\] $ "
Got it from here.
member.ipmu.jp
Another little tool I need immediately after setting up a new computer, is MenuMeters. I simply feel uneasy when my menu bar doesn’t show me the current upload/download throughput or the CPU workload.
Like Jumpcut, this app hasn’t been updated by the original creator in a long time. But someone else made a little adjustment to make sure it keeps working on newer macOS versions. And I’m very thankful for that! Because every time I tried an alternative in the past, it simply wasn’t as good and I kept coming back to good old MenuMeters.
jumpcut.sourceforge.net
Setting up a new Mac, I pretty immediately notice what software I can’t live without. One of them is the little clipboard utility Jumpcut. It keeps a history of items I copied into the clipboard, and makes them easily accessible via keyboard shortcut. That way I can paste previously copied text again and again.
Jumpcut hasn’t been updated in ten years now, but it still works. It’s free, simple and does its thing well. What more can you ask for?
[UPDATE: it now has been updated and is supposed to work on newer macOS versions. Has a new homepage, too: https://snark.github.io/jumpcut/.]
marco.org
Marco Arment:
Today, I’m launching my own iOS 9 content blocker, called Peace, to bring peace, quiet, privacy, and — as a nice side benefit — ludicrous speed to iOS web browsing.
It’s using the Ghostery database to detect a website’s trackers and advertisers. I’ve been using Ghostery for quite some time now for Safari on my Mac and it’s something I don’t want to miss anymore. A lot of websites load considerably faster and I feel safer using it.
And with iOS 9, it’s now possible to do the same on iOS. Well, unless you have an ancient iPhone 5 like me, which is not supported. I bought Peace on my iPad Mini 2, only to find out later it’s not compatible with my iPhone. :-( First world problems, I guess.
Anyhow, it’s working a treat on the iPad!
[Update]: Well, apparently no content blockers can run on an iPhone 5:
@jpwain: @marcoarment No support for iPhone 5? (Not sure if that’s content blockers as a whole or just Peace…)
@marcoarment: @jpwain All content blockers require 64-bit at the OS level, unfortunately.
deals.macupdate.com
MacUpdate - 8 Developer Apps for $59.99
Looks like a great deal! I’m currently only using Dash out of this bunch, so I’ll certainly have a look at this.
flashlight.nateparrott.com
Check the weather, search the web, set reminders and more, right inside your Mac's search box.
Great OS X Spotlight extension!
dpreview.com
Jeff Keller’s photo editing software history seems to be pretty close to my experience. He’s not going to use the new Photos app:
Given everything that I’ve said above, you can probably tell that I’m not enthused about Photos. Not just because of the loss of features from Aperture, but also the software’s incredibly dumbed down interface, which feels a bit like someone stuffed an iPad into my MacBook Pro.
speirs.org
Helpful post from Fraser Speirs:
This is the story of migrating from a system that involved Aperture and a bunch of jury-rigged hacks to Apple’s new Photos for OS X.
imore.com
Currently reading through this. I’d like to replace Aperture, but the new Photos app doesn’t (yet) seem to be a drop-in replacement. The things I’d definitely be missing would be geotagging and Automator/AppleScript support and maybe third-party adjustments/presets.