Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts

Monday, January 26, 2015

The Great FireWall of China and Web Development

The new leader of China, Xi Jinping, had strengthened the Internet Censorship in China. Beginning this new year, all Google services became inaccessible from mainland. 

The impact is severe, for that it does not only affect the well-known Google Services - Gmail, Google Drive, Google Play, etc - but also developer-oriented services, such as Google App Engine. Furthermore, since many scripts and fonts are hosted on Google CDNs, the total banning of Google services has rendered tons of websites not related to Google ugly or non-functional. Many modern websites rely on Javascript to function correctly, not to mention web apps.

Before going back to China I was wondering if it would be necessary to develop websites that still works without Javascript. As far as I know, that's a compatibility requirement even rarer than "This has to work on IE6". During this winter in China I have experienced what it's like to use the Web this way, and it's not pretty. Sometimes I have to use view-source to extract the information I want. The modern web has already became heavily javascript-dependent, and from how it looks in the industry, there is no going back.

Maybe a wise thing to do is to keep in mind that there would be users accessing your website without the Javascript functioning. My experience in China is a pretty unique situation, but there are many other situations that might break your javascript on the user's computer. A broken website that still has the information the user is looking for with some ugly default fonts and misplaced CSS is better than nothing at all.

P.S. This post is not an excuse for my low productivity this winter.
P.P.S. Since so many important services became inaccessible, especially Gmail, I took the opportunity and installed Firewall-breaching softwares on my family members' computers. Another major victory for Chinese Democracy.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The "wonderfulness" of Javascript types

> le me, opens js console
> parseInt("derp")
> NaN
> typeof parseInt("derp")
> "number"




One day I will understand the design philosophy behind all that weird javascript types, and I will transcend into something else, something more than a front end code monkey.

But that day is not today.

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

"Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

 - Audio Interface doesn't work. Connection error
 - Spent 2 hours reinstalling drivers, digging through user manuals... no progress
 - Spent 2 minutes restarting the computer. Everything works.

Why can't "restart the computer" be the top item in any Windows troubleshooting guides?

Monday, June 2, 2014

要死就一定要死在你手里-莫西子诗 (If I Must Die I Want to Be Killed by You-Moxi Zishi)

曲: 莫西子诗 (Composer: Moxi Zishi)
词: 俞心樵 (Lyrics: Yu Xinqiao)
演唱: 莫西子诗 (Singer: Moxi Zishi)
MV: 要死就一定要死在你手里-莫西子诗 (If I Must Die I Want to Be Killed by You-Moxi Zishi)
VERSE #1:
不是你亲手点燃的
bú shì nǐ qīn shǒu diǎn rán de
If it's not ignited by you
那就不能叫做火焰
nà jiù bù néng jiào zuò huǒ yàn
then it cannot be called a flame
不是你亲手摸过的
bú shì nǐ qīn shǒu mō guò de
If it is never touched by you
那就不能叫做宝石
nà jiù bù néng jiào zuò bǎo shí
then it cannot be called a gem
你呀你 终于出现了
nǐ ya nǐ zhōng yú chū xiàn le
You oh you, finally showed up
我们只是打了个照面
wǒ men zhǐ shì dǎ le gè zhào miàn
We just came across each other
这颗心就稀巴烂
zhè kē xīn jiù xī bā làn
And this heart was totally smashed
整个世界就整个崩溃
zhěng gè shì jiè jiù zhěng gè bēng kuì
The entire world just collapsed entirely
VERSE #2:
不是你亲手所杀的
bú shì nǐ qīn shǒu suǒ shā de
If it's not killed by your own hands
活下去就毫无意义
huó xià qù jiù háo wú yì yì
then there is no point in living on
你呀你 终于出现了
nǐ ya nǐ zhōng yú chū xiàn le
You oh you, finally showed up
我们只是打了个照面
wǒ men zhǐ shì dǎ le ge zhào miàn
We just came across each other
这颗心就稀巴烂
zhè kē xīn jiù xī bā làn
And this heart was totally smashed
整个世界就整个崩溃
zhěng ge shì jiè jiù zhěng gè bēng kuì
The entire world just collapsed entirely
CHORUS:
今生今世要死
jīn shēng jīn shì yào sǐ
And if I die in this life
就一定要死在你手里
jiù yí dìng yào sǐ zài nǐ shǒu lǐ
then I want to be killed by your hand
就一定要死在你手里
jiù yí dìng yào sǐ zài nǐ shǒu lǐ
then I want to be killed by your hand
就一定要死在你手里
jiù yí dìng yào sǐ zài nǐ shǒu lǐ
then I have to be killed by your hand

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Styling in Chrome Console

So uh, apparently you can use CSS styling for Chrome Console. Even include emoticons.

Link.

This would actually be pretty useful for debugging!

Also - having easter-eggs in console messages is pretty awesome. I should add that for my site.