bradbice.com

A month of housekeeping

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 12:00:00 -0400

Twenty-six days, 115 commits, and 70 closed issues later, this site is faster, more accessible, and depends on almost nothing.

A little over a year ago I wrote about vibe coding some improvements to this place after years of neglect. That was a handful of features over a few evenings. This was something else: I pointed Claude Code at the whole site and worked through it from top to bottom in some free time throughout July.

Also, I can’t really call this vibe coding. Vibe coding is accepting output you haven’t read. This was closer to directing a very fast engineer who needed a spec.

Time spent on this website has been limited lately. I have children to play with and raise, a wife to enjoy the world with, time to spend with friends and family, and (very importantly) time to just do something other than look at a screen. So sitting down and figuring out how to restore a URL sanitizer in the markdown render hooks (just as an example) wasn’t really high on my list.

But I’ve also been doing some other work on my computer lately, and sitting at a car dealership a few times, and relocating to a library on some days… all times when I can run Claude in parallel to my current situation (either waiting for something or doing my day job) to do some of these more tedious tasks. So off we went, hand in (AI-simulated) hand.

The short version: 115 commits, 70 issues closed, July 1 to July 26. Here’s roughly what came out of it. (Sorry, this gets a bit nerdy from here.)

Accessibility

This is the part I care most about, and the part I was most sure I’d been getting wrong.

Unlabeled icons, missing alt text, and a few broken ARIA relationships, all fixed
The mobile menu is now fully keyboard operable
Added a skip link, and an actual h1 to detail pages that were missing one
Form labels and tab semantics on the contact page and ratings lists
Link colors now meet WCAG AA contrast

Accessibility is at a 100 Lighthouse score now, which I’m happy about.

Performance

The movies ratings page went from 1.13 MB to about 594 KB
The games page went from about 560 KB to 373 KB, because it had been rendering every poster twice
Images are now cropped at the CDN to the size they actually display, instead of shipping a full frame to be cropped away by CSS
Fonts, scripts, and stylesheets got the usual treatment: subsetting, font-display, deferring, bundling, fingerprinting
The search filter on an 800 item list no longer re-renders on every keystroke

Lighthouse performance went from the low 80s to 94. First paint dropped from 2.6s to 1.0s.

Security

I barely know what “security headers” are, and didn’t know I needed them on a personal website. Turns out they don’t fix anything that’s already broken. They just limit what a bad script could do if one ever got in, which mattered more than I thought, since I was loading three scripts I didn’t control. I had none of them.

Added a content security policy, HSTS, nosniff, referrer and permissions policies
Fixed a real XSS hole in the Twitter archive, where tweet text went into innerHTML unescaped
Restored Hugo’s URL sanitizer in the markdown render hooks, which had been switched off, so a javascript: link in a post can no longer produce a live href
The build now verifies the checksum of the Sass binary it downloads before putting it on the path
Deleted a service worker that had not been registered since 2018 and a dead publishing endpoint that was still advertised in every page’s head

Getting rid of dependencies

The site was loading three third-party scripts. All three are gone.

A dialog library, replaced by the browser’s native <dialog> element
A search library, replaced by about twenty lines of plain JavaScript, because 813 tweets do not need a search engine
A live CodePen embed, replaced by static syntax-highlighted code

The site now loads zero third-party JavaScript apart from analytics, and has no npm dependency at all. No node_modules, anywhere, ever. That is now written down as a rule. (And if you have ever created a website with Node, then you know how freeing this can be.)

Design and everything else

This is my favorite part.

New nav pills and a rebuilt mobile menu
The theme toggle cycles light, dark, and system, and each one finally has its own icon
Typography moved to Source Serif 4 for the blog posts and Source Sans 3 for the interface
The ratings pages got a shared search, sort, and filter, plus a real build-time scoring engine and an Airtable database sync
The library index, blog sidebar, ratings cards, and my resume all got reworked

So, Claude Code

Here’s the honest accounting. I am a designer. I am comfortable in CSS. I am not comfortable writing Go templates, reasoning about content security policies, or thinking about how Hugo’s URL sanitizer interacts with a Cloudinary transform string.

Most of this list is work I’d have done slowly, if at all. It’s work I would simply never have gotten to, because between a job and a family, time is at a premium.

What actually changed the game for me was that Claude Code held context from session to session and I could run that work while I worked elsewhere. Kind of like having my own software developer on staff.

The part I’m still careful about

I said something similar last year and it still holds. There’s a real risk of ending up with a site I don’t understand. Though, again, a lot of this work was scripting and security fixes and tedious behind-the-scenes stuff that I know very little about. Before last year I had written every line of this site by hand. I’m ok with giving some of that up now to make these huge leaps in efficiency and organization.

A few things helped. I asked for the reasoning behind changes, not just the changes. I pushed back when something seemed off, and it was sometimes right to hold its ground and sometimes wrong. Every change went through a branch, a build, and a look in the browser before it went anywhere near production. The security and accessibility work in particular got checked by measurement rather than by eye.

Anyway. The site is in better shape than it has ever been, and most of the work was the boring, unglamorous kind I have been avoiding for a decade. There’s a logo redesign and a music ratings section still on the list. We’ll see how those go.

Vibe improvements

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 00:40:04 -0700

Using AI to “vibe code” some improvements to this place after a good number of years of neglect.

Here are some of the projects that GitHub Copilot and Anthropic Claude have helped me accomplish, with no more than an hour devoted to each:

Added a light/dark theme switcher to the entire site, that respects a user’s system setting and allows them to override it
Added micro blog posts into the main blog posting feed
Added top 5 directors list to the Movies rating page
Added top 5 years and top 5 systems to the Video Games page

(I also restyled the ratings items, but I didn’t need - or want - AI help for that.)

So… AI.

It’s been fun using these crazy tools. Seeing what they can do with so little given to them in terms of prompts, watching them learn from the files I upload to them - it’s all really fascinating.

A case study

Also, a file that I usually work on annually for my playoffsbracket site is one that usually takes me hours to complete by manually referencing and copying and pasting NBA scores into a custom format I established several years ago. I also needed to copy and paste the URLs for each game I reference in the playoffs from nba.com to that file. This is a slog for me that I was actually planning on putting off this year.

Instead, I decided to show Anthropic Claude my file from last year, and my empty file from this year, and gave it this prompt:

Using 2024.json as an example, add all of the games from the 2025 NBA Playoffs to 2025.json, with links to nba.com and scores.

…and it created the entire file in 5 seconds. It actually scoured the internet for the NBA Playoffs results and the appropriate nba.com links to the games, looked at and learned from my custom format (which likely doesn’t make any sense since I don’t know what I’m doing writing JSON), and wrote the complete file. I saved it and ran it, and it ran perfectly. I didn’t need to make one change. It saved me hours.

Well, ok then

So if it can do that, what else can it do? Apparently a lot, as the above list demonstrates. I’m not a programmer. I’m not a frontend web developer. I’m a practiced web designer and design systems specialist, which has nothing to do with writing code in Go or figuring out how to traverse complex JSON data files and return data from them. I just want to make that data look cool on the way out.

Happiness, for now

So, I’m very happy for now to allow AI to take over the heavy lifting of the “complex” programming aspects of my private projects while I move on to the parts I like to do, like styling with CSS, figuring out what else I want to add, and what features I can make better or more accessible. Though I do want to be careful about having AI do a bit too much, and getting lazy with it, to the point where I’m not really internalizing how something works in CSS or how to apply new features. That’s why I’m writing my CSS manually still.

Anyway, this has been pretty fun for the past few days that I’ve been able to implement it. I have some ideas to run through these tools soon that should push them a bit further, so we’ll see how far we can go.

Concerts I've Attended

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve collected concert and tour posters from all of the concerts I’ve ever attended - a remarkably pitiful list!

As a part of my recent efforts to expand my Library, I’ve added all of the concerts I’ve ever attended, and also collected tour posters from many of them to display as well. Some didn’t exist or couldn’t be found, so the next best things were included instead.

I’m using my Library to help collect information that I can refer to as a personal wiki of sorts. It’s been a fun personal project.

What do I do?

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A question I get often, and often struggle with answering, is: “So what do you do for work?”

I am currently Principal Product Designer, Design System at Pluralsight.

I work on design systems, which are basically groups of tools, resources, principles, and libraries that designers and developers use to create digital products. Tools include color palettes, design program setups, and other items used to create digital art or products. Resources include research histories, best practices, documentation, and communication connections. Principles define what the design system and its parts are trying to accomplish, and why and how people should apply the systems to their work. Libraries include groups and types of elements that make up a digital product, including pieces like buttons and form inputs, and shared resources like icons and digital art.

That can be a lot, and design systems can be vital to a product, brand, or team in helping to align toward a single source of truth. This often requires a person or an entire team to be dedicated solely to curating and maintaining them as a product.

I work closely with our design and engineering teams to help bridge communications, establish best practices, and ensure that all of our people have the tools and resources they need to work and produce fast and efficiently.

New job: Principal Designer at Pluralsight

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’m happy to announce I have started as Principal Product Designer, Design System at Pluralsight!

After 7 years and 3 months at Cars.com, I began a new position with Pluralsight in May of this year as Principal Product Designer on the Design Operations team. I’ll be working on the Design System team with two very experienced and talented engineers (and hopefully more members soon) as we take the Pluralsight design system to its next level of evolution.

Working at Cars.com was a truly beneficial experience that brought me many opportunities, challenges, and experiences throughout my time there. I loved working in downtown Chicago, in two separate and beautiful office buildings right in the heart of a city that would captivate me on a daily basis. During my tenure there, I grew from a “Visual Designer” that could develop some frontend web pages to a Senior Manager of Product Design, leading the design system efforts as well as the direction of our Product Design practice.

At Pluralsight I have been fortunate enough to be welcomed onto a great team of people, which was the main draw for me. Working with and around (virtually, at least) experienced, knowledgeable, empathetic, and helpful people helps motivate me, and also helps me grow as a designer, employee, and person. Pluralsight as a company also exhibits many of the culture and professional aspects I’ve been looking for, including working toward a good cause, being inclusive, and emphasizing a good work/life balance.

There’s a lot to do to get where we want to be with the design system at Pluralsight, and I’m very excited at where we’ll be going over the next year. I’m gracious and humbled to have this opportunity.

Even More Movie Ratings Groups

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Time for some more groups of ratings, folks!

In these series of posts, similar to the last one, I post groups of related movies I’ve watched and compare their ratings. This time I’m going to add some other stats as well.

Batman movies

Average score: 58.43%
80s/90s movies average: 45.25%
Nolan trilogy average: 76%

The Dark Knight Rises

61%

Star Trek movies

Average score: 54.5%
Originals average: 50.33%
Next Generation average: 53.25%
Kelvin timeline average: 69.5%

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

39%

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

72%

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

58%

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

37%

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

31%

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

86%

Star Trek: Generations

41%

Star Trek: First Contact

67%

Star Trek: Insurrection

Star Trek Into Darkness

60%

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 1 movies

Average score: 71.2%

Captain America: The First Avenger

72%

The Avengers

81%

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 movies

Average score: 54.5%

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

60%

Guardians of the Galaxy

56%

Avengers: Age of Ultron

74%

Ant-Man

67%

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3 movies

Average score: 66.25%

Captain America: Civil War

50%

Doctor Strange

58%

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

70%

Spider-Man: Homecoming

74%

Thor: Ragnarok

78%

Avengers: Infinity War

79%

Avengers: End Game

72%

Spider-Man: Far From Home

76%

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4 movies

Average score: 68.5%
MCU total average: 65.11%

Spider-Man: No Way Home

64%

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

78%

New ratings, June 2022

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Newly added ratings in TV and Movies for June 2022

As always, all ratings are in the Library.

Movies

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

78%

Dune

88%

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was a great popcorn movie. There was enough craziness and special effects to forgive a less-than-stellar plot (and Benedict Cumberbatch’s stiff acting, he does much better in other roles) and it kept me interested throughout, something the previous installment did not do.

“Dune” suprised me as I went in thinking this would be more of a Stargate clone, but it relied more heavily on dark cinematography and drama, which worked. The size of the visuals is worth the price of admission here, and I’m excited to see a sequel if it’s made.

TV

“Moon Knight” started out hot but then got its feet caught up in the sand and too many levels of Egyption-type lore. Also having little-to-no connection to the Marvel Cinematic Universe hurt it a bit, as I was waiting for that to happen all series. Ultimately decent and entertaining, though not as good as I was hoping for.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” was saved by incredible Darth Vader scenes, and the return of James Earl Jones and Hayden Christiansen as Vader in and out of suit, respectively. Ewan McGregor is fantastic, as usual, but the series didn’t have enough vital “meat” to it to feel truly significant.

“The Boys” is shock-TV superheroes for a Trump-era America, basically poking fun at everyone who thinks conservatism will save America. Some funny moments, some cool drama and tension-filled scenes, some over-the-top blood, sex, and gore… It’s not something I’d recommend to almost anyone, but it’s been a fun ride for what it is so far (2 seasons in).

“Yellowstone” started out hot: my wife and I were absolutely hooked about 3-4 episodes in. Season 1 was all over the place plot-wise, but it was fun to watch. Season 2 was bad, and season 3 was slow. Season 4 picked back up a little, but it ultimately never hit its high spots ever again. Worth watching, for sure, and we’re looking forward to season 5, however we’re hoping it can gain back a little of its lost luster.

New ratings, April 2022

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Newly added ratings for TV and Movies

As always, all ratings are in the Library.

Movies

The Lighthouse

85%

Spider-Man: No Way Home

64%

“The Lighthouse” was a “beautiful in a creepy way” telling of a classic going-mad tale. Willem Dafoe is brilliant as always, underscoring my new appreciation for his acting prowess. The film style lends to the drama and suspense as well, providing a thrilling atmosphere of suspense and fear.

“Spider-Man: No Way Home” didn’t live up to the hype for me, though I was spoiled by the reveals having waited until it was available to rent to see it. Ultimately it seemed a bit of an overstep for the formula, repeating a lot of the same types of jokes and stretching the cast and story a bit too far without fundamentally changing it enough to be fresh. Hopefully this is the last for this rendition of Spider-Man, and maybe we’ll see a new take (but keeping within the MCU continuity).

TV

Severance

90%

“Severance” is brilliant. Its combination of comedy, drama, sci-fi, and suspense, all built on top of a very intriguing and intertwining mystery, made it a must-see for me each week. Those benefitting from being able to binge this entire season will love it. There were hints of Stanley Kubrick as well as Black Mirror-type storytelling and settings throughout, which added to the thrills.

Winter Cleaning, 2022

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 05 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It was time for some cleanup around these parts, so here’s a list of what was fixed.

I spent some time this winter diving deep into this website and cleaning up what was initially a lot of add-on, messy, and less-than-optimally organized code. I also made some design updates and basically rounded off a lot of sharp edges. Here’s a roundup, for posterity:

Design changes

Standardized link hover states
Removed sunruise lines from homnepage
Fixed heading sizes in article-stubs
Changed up and fixed some dark mode colors and styles
Standardized button and form specs across the site
Fixed some movie rating layout issues
New menu button location and fixed header
Tweaked the Blog header to use a less-repeating image of the Chicago skyline

Code cleanup

Moved seasonal styles to date-conditional class
Restructured articles layout, and basically re-wrote the entire structure of every page
Changed colors to use hsl()
Converted all font-size px values to rem
Fixed some broken links across the site
Converted all modals to the new <dialog> element
Changed the primary branch from master to main

Content

Added new work post about Figma
Added a goodbye blog post for Tom
Added more movie, video game, and TV ratings
Switched from a Google Form to a custom form on the Contact page
Updated some Work posts with larger images and up-to-date content

What’s next

This was a clean-up and bug-fix phase, and now I have a list of some enhancement, performance, accessibility, and usability fixes to come next. Not to mention that it’s about time for a design refresh soon. This is a 2018 special that’s been going strong, and I’m happy with it still, but the itch is forming.

Core Web Vitals work
Lazy loading ratings images
Performance! ~~Currently scoring a 60 (94 on desktop) on the homepage. Embarrassing.~~ Edit: That was actually some adblocking scripts getting picked up. All good with 100 now!

More Movie Ratings Groups

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Rating groups of movies, just for fun.

Let’s bring up some groups of movies and compare their ratings, ok?

Christopher Nolan movies

The Dark Knight Rises

61%

Interstellar

94%

Quentin Tarrantino movies

Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood

75%

Star Wars (release order)

Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope

90%

Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

88%

Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi

62%

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace

54%

Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones

63%

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

66%

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

73%

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

67%

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

63%

Tom

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

On your birthday, a goodbye letter that’s a year overdue.

When someone from my direct family leaves us, I usually have the opportunity to stand up and say a few words from my heart about what that person has meant to me, what they’ve meant to all of us, and the lasting impression they will leave now that they are gone. I wasn’t exactly given that opportunity in a formal setting, so I feel this has been an unchecked box for quite a while now.

Tom left us too early, with so much more potential for life talks, inappropriate jokes, supportive phone calls, Michigan football games, and family get-togethers that we feel robbed of by his absence. We look back on the past 5 years that he’d suffered through (and that Karen had beside him as well), and our hearts ache that any person would have to go through the pain and the anguish, and the anxiety of “is this going to be the time?”, let alone someone so close to us. And we’ve been just far enough way, and buried in our world of jobs and children (our oldest was born at the same time Tom had life-threatening heart surgery), that we’ve had to anguish with them but from afar, both physically and mentally.

But I guess that’s the thing: We instinctively think of the past 5 years and think “That’s a shame about what Tom went through and how it all happened.” But after that fades, there’s a sense of yes, it was bad, however that is 5 years that we had to still talk with Tom. That is 5 years that Tom was able to watch his grandsons grow older (and one be born). That is 5 years of occasional get-togethers, birthdays, holidays, and going out to eat. COVID definitely diminished this, but that doesn’t detract from what we were able to do. Phone calls were still there, and Facetime visits were still there. Masks and nice weather allowed some in-person visits, as well.

The point is that the more time is put between us and those 5 years, the more I guess I look back on that time as a blessing rather than a curse. And without diminishing the significance of the bad parts, we can look back on that time as extra time given to us and to our boys to know their Grandpa and to have conversations, take photos, and make memories.

Tom watching his grandson ride his bike, something his doctor promised him he would be able to do.

And sometimes, I get tired of thinking about what went wrong in Tom’s life, and I just want to think about all the things that went right. Like how he became a great father for his daughter to talk to. How we’d have so much fun watching the Detroit Lions lose. How he’d love to take long train rides across the country, and visit us in Chicago, and spend way too long reading every placard in the museum exhibits. He loved his sausages and tuna sandwiches and visiting a loved restaurant and a glass of beer. He loved spending time with his friends and family, and yucking it up and complaining about the liberals. He loved walking out to the lake with his dog and enjoying the sunshine and the fresh air. He loved the newspaper and the crossword and his latest history book.

Tom wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes as we all do, and he paid for some of them, as we all do in our own ways. But Tom was mostly just a great person. Ask anyone that’s ever met the guy. Did he ask you how you are first before talking about himself? Did he quickly get off the subject of his medical issues to find out about that trip you took? Did he wear his heart on his sleeve? You’re damn right he did all of those things.

Tom’s legacy lives on in our hearts and in our memories, and in our stories and photographs. He’s not gone, but just transferred from a person that can only be with us sometimes, to an idea, a feeling, a presence, and a thought that can be with us forever.

“So, there we were, in the Florida sunshine, my wife of 35 years, my daughter, and my son-in-law. Folks, it doesn’t get any better than that for me. Would I go back and change any of that? Not on your life.” - Tom Fett

My Favorite Holiday Movies, Ranked

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Here are my favorite holiday movies, and how I’ve rated them.

The criteria for the rating system is explained here, and does not necessarily take into account which is the best holiday movie. This list is fairly accurate however. As you can see, guilty pleasures like “The Holiday” and “Love Actually” represent the corny – yet necessary – side of the holidays.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

87%

Four Christmases

81%

The Nightmare Before Christmas

84%

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

It's a Wonderful Life

69%

Introducing Dark Mode

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve added a dark mode to bradbice.com, as well as some quick and simple ratings comparisons.

Dark mode

My website has been a little too bright lately, so I’ve implemented a dark mode which will activate according to your OS settings. Thanks to CSS custom properties and the (prefers-color-scheme: dark) media query, this was really simple to do and was completed in about 30 minutes and around 20 lines of CSS. Most of the time was coming up with alternative colors (granted mostly shades of black, gray, and white at this point) and checking color contrast ratios.

I hope it’s a little easier on your eyes if you’re viewing the site at night or if you’ve turned the rest of your computer dark.

Movie comparisons

My other side project is rating movies. Here I’m collecting every movie I’ve ever watched in my entire life, documenting them, and rating them. My wife will join in when we watch the same movie together.

At times, I may want to compare movies of a certain run, certain eras, that have similar actors, etc. Now I’ve created a simple shortcode in Hugo that allows me to do that by passing in a list of movies like so:

blog-movies "batmanbegins:thedarkknight:thedarkknightrises"

The Dark Knight Rises

61%

Now I can compare any types of movies, and as many as I can list (as long as I’ve already rated them).

Back to the Future

94%

Back to the Future Part II

90%

Back to the Future Part III

91%

However, as of this writing I’ve only rated 153 of 737 movies (21%), so I’ve got a ways to go before I can fully utilize this feature.

Apple Event, September 2019

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

My take on this year’s “iPhone event”, Apple’s yearly event to showcase their new hardware.

I didn’t mean for this to be my first full blog post since last year’s event (almost to the day), but here we are.

iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max

I was generally warm on this year’s model after seeing it revealed at the event. THe focus is mostly on the camera, and while there are some great new features, the camera is not the function I use the most on my phone. So I was convinced I was not going to get this year’s model and stick with my XS from last year.

However, that only lasted for about 12 hours and then I preordered a Midnight Green 256GB iPhone 11 Pro. I also ordered a clear case this year, after having the leather case for the last 4 years. I really want to see this new phone’s color so I want to give this type of case a try.

Apple Watch Series 5

The always-on display is very intriguing. It got me to look up how much I could get for my Series 4 on trade-in, but it wasn’t enough to justify buying this watch now. The Series 4 has the health, notification, and activity features that I need now, and while always-on display is a game-changer, I can hold of on that for a year or so.

TV+

I’ll be a subscriber to this for buying a new iPhone, but I would have gladly paid the $4.99/month for this service just to test it out, if nothing else.

The original shows that Apple has lined up aren’t that interesting to me, though “The Morning Show” could be good. My main question is what else we’re getting with the service (movies, TV shows, etc) if anything?

Arcade

I’ll also be trying out Arcade, Apple’s video game subscription service. I’m not convinced that I will maintain a sustained subscription, since I’m not a huge mobile gamer, however a couple of features have me intrigued:

Over 100 games to choose from
Apple devices are including support for PS4 and XBox controllers
These games are expected to work on iOS and tvOS, which means I can play them on my iPhone, iPad, or AppleTV.

Overall the event was a little lackluster, though much of what Apple is unvealing was already leaked and I was privy to since I follow all fo the Apple news channels. It will be exciting to check out the new services from Apple, and see if they will compete with or compliment cometitors such as Disney+, which is another one I’m very excited to check out this Fall.

Apple Event, September 2018

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s Apple Event is dubbed “an ‘S’ year”, so the big reveals weren’t groundbreaking, but there’s some real substance there.

Here’s my take:

iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR

I will likely stick to my iPhone X this year. No really compelling reason to upgrade to a XS. Speed, slight camera spec bump, gold, larger size… none are needs or even big wants.

Though that would mean fixing my malfunctioning screen on my current model, so maybe I just talked myself into it.

Apple Watch Series 4

Now this I want. This I need. I’m still wearing an Apple Watch (often referred to as “Series 0”) which is the first iteration of the product. It’s over 3 years old now, but is now 4 generations behind. This means it will not support watchOS 5, is extremely slow compared to newer models, does not have GPS, a lower-brightness display, low tolerance to water, older bluetooth, and no cellular connectivity (though I doubt I would spring for cellular versions, anyway.)

One of the best features of Series 4 for me is the new suite of health and heart-related functions. Heart-rate monitoring has taken a huge step up with both high and low heart rate monitoring, ECG report generation, and generally better Health app integration. As I get older this becomes more of a big deal for me.

I wear my Apple Watch almost every day now, so an upgrade here makes sense.

Overall, this was an important event that unfortunately was spoiled by some Apple leaks that might have lessened the impact of some of the announcements for everyone. Apple is moving forward on some of their products here, with another event rumored for October for some iPad and Mac-related announcements. That’s the one I’m really excited about, though my bank account is not.

And Now... The Movies

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A lot can happen when you’re sick and the wife and child are away. Movie ratings are here.

I’ve had a bit of an upper-respiratory infection (undiagnosed) this weekend, and the wife and child are away for a couple of days, so I’ve had a lot of time to sit around the house. This also has meant watching a few movies I normally wouldn’t have.

I’ve long wanted to add movie ratings to my site and so now I’ve done it. Now Natalie and I can both rate movies as we watch them and tally our scores. Check it out at the Movies page.

It’s sparse for now, but we’ll be adding more as we have the time. I’ll also want to redesign the Movies home page a bit to better show our top rated movies, as well as being able to sort by criteria such as rating, genre and date. All in due time.

Enjoy!

Goodbye Facebook

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

After thinking it over for the past few weeks, I’ve finally pulled the plug and deactivated my Facebook account.

I haven’t fully deleted my account just yet, in case there’s some reason I’m forgetting that I should maintain it. Deactivating it just means people can’t see my timeline or search for me. I’m also assuming it means advertisers can’t access my data, though this link at Facebook’s Help site doesn’t explicitly state that.

It’s not that I don’t want to connect with everyone anymore — it’s that I just don’t use Facebook to do it. I wasn’t posting anymore, I don’t really derive much happiness from browsing it anymore (I am using Instagram a little more often lately for keeping up with friends,) and the recent privacy scandals have really sealed the deal about me putting too much of my life information on there.

So, bye-bye Facebook. It’s been real.

Update 2023-01-24 I've remained on Facebook because of some local requirements, mainly to sign up for volleyball. Without being on Facebook, I haven't found another way to connect with people in our area socially. I really do hate Facebook the company and what they've become. If there was a viable alternative to communication then I'd definitely ditch Facebook immediately, and I'm always looking for an opportunity to do so.

Windows XP As Art

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Windows XP as art

The local Walgreens uses the default Windows XP wallpaper as art pieces near their pharmacy areas.

¯\(ツ)/¯

Groundhog Day

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Okay campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ‘cause it’s cooooold out there today!

On a frigid February 2nd, we celebrate one of my favorite non-holidays — Groundhog Day! This year’s results, appropriately posted by AP_oddities

Climate change has most certainly had an effect on Punxsutawney Phil’s sleep cycle over the years, as he’s only not seen his shadow for 13% of the 131 years he’s been coming out of his hole. Sad!

As always, I’ll be watching Harold Ramis’ and Bill Murray’s excellent Groundhog Day movie tonight. Bing!

Newspapers to video

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’m seeing what seems to be an exponential increase in people watching TV shows/Movies/YouTube videos while riding the train or bus lately.

Are most people downloading this content to their device before watching it? Or obliterating their data plans?

For those that are downloading at home before heading out: it harkens back to Netflix of old, where you had to receive TV seasons on DVD, one or two discs at a time. Finish those, and you have a lonely (and at times agonizing) wait until the next disc arrives. Or in current times, until you reach a suitable WiFi network to download more content.

It also makes me wonder how people have allocated their device space for this content, when it seemed that the popular complain was devices filling up.

Twitter Alternative: Micro.blog

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a daily user of Twitter, but it has some problems. Luckily, there’s hope in an alternative: Micro.blog.

I love using Twitter on a daily basis for my topic-specific news and to follow interesting people on the web. I make the most of the mess that is Twitter by sticking to a few specific methods:

Follow people, not companies — I’ve had much more “success” on Twitter following specific individuals (not celebrities) of whom I respect their opinion, mostly without too much of an agenda.
Use lists — My main Twitter timeline is an ever-updating mess waterfall that upsets my compulsiveness. Lists are focused, topic-based groupings that allow me to catch up on specific categories one at a time.
Stay away from Twitter.com — I can’t stand promoted tweets or non-linear timelines. I use Tweetbot on iOS and macOS to prevent this and also for the vital synced timeline position between devices.

Sticking to those points helps me actually enjoy reading the content on Twitter. However, the company itself has proven to be pretty horrible in how they organize and conduct their business. They don’t really seem to respect their users, they don’t utilize a logical business model, and they won’t ban hate groups or other offensive content.

Unfortunately there aren’t many or any alternatives. Definitely none as popular. App.net was a promising venture that acted as an ad-free Twitter alternative. It ultimately failed due to low engagement and a failed business model.

Micro.blog is the latest player in the space, and the simplicity and model of it has me excited. It’s a free micro-blogging service, that encourages users to feed content from their own blogs to their timelines. Users can also pay nominal fees to host a micro-blog or to cross-post content to Twitter and Facebook (I’m paying the $2/month for this).

I’m hoping that this will take off and that the owner has some higher standards for rules around content, and that he maintains the simple business model.

Newwwyear Grand Re-Opening

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve redesigned and re-launched my website multiple times. Let’s go again!

Inspired by years of frustration of having my content fragmented across multiple websites and social networks, and the timely tweet above, I’ve spent the last few months pulling together this new project.

I’ve finally come to a place where I’m happy enough (but still embarrassed) to deploy my work-in-progress redesign and reorganization of my website. However, I can’t release my baby into the wild without some caveats:

Perfection is the enemy of done

This is a work-in-progress, and it’s meant to be. There is a lot going on in this simple personal website that I’m not happy with, and a lot I want to improve and add on to. However, if I wait until I’m absolutely happy with what I have, I won’t ever publish it. This includes:

The color scheme - After experimenting with a bunch of color palettes, stripping it all and going with black & white was the quickest and allowed me to focus more on the content and layout.
The typography - I generally like my selections here, but am not completely sold on them. Plus I’m using 3 separate font-families – Roboto Slab, Montserrat and system fonts – so I’ll need to reconcile those for performance and aesthetics at some point.
Work portfolio - I’ve added most of my examples of work, but no actual visuals like screen grabs or images just yet. I’m still looking for the best way to present those in a gallery-type fashion.
Resume - The information is there, but it’s not too aesthetically pleasing. I need to spice that up, and add in some print styles as well.

Other stuff

Contact form (currently using Wufoo)
Tag/category page list styles
The logo - It’s version 0.5, for sure.

With that said, I’m happy enough to push this live and start publishing content to it. Any Twitter posts will hopefully be mirrored here, except Retweets. If you don’t know what that is or don’t read Twitter, then you’re missing a lot and nothing all at once.

One point of all of this is to combine my personal and professional-facing websites into one. I don’t need two, no need to put on a business face or anything like that. Might as well push everything together and make it simpler on myself.

Thank you for reading, please stop by again (or add my feed to your device or feed service), and follow me on Twitter for update notifications and other stuff. Yay!

(Also, if you’re wondering about the “After Hours” title of my blog, it’s a name I’ve wanted to do something with for a long time. I’ve always been a night owl, and have historically stayed up late and worked late and actually do most of my best thinking and work at night. I’d like to parlay it into a brand of sorts maybe, given the right ventures and opportunities. If not, it’s a fun blog title that gives a little spice to my thoughts and ramblings.)

Apple Event, September 2017

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Today was one of the most highly anticipated of the now legendary (and infamous, in some circles) Apple Events in recent years.

I have taken the time to watch these events every year since 2007 and the introduction of the original iPhone (which at times involves some strategic lunch planning or side-by-side windows on my computer at work.) I was pretty excited to see all of the new offerings, though I had been spoiled by the leaks over the weekend of all of the specs for the new iPhone.

Leaks aside, it’s always enjoyable to witness Apple make their spectacle of a presentation and take in all of the products, personalities and atmosphere. This time was no exception, as the Event emanated from the newly-built Steve Jobs Theater on the grounds of Apple’s brand new campus, Apple Park.

Here’s some annotations from the event, with my opinions:

Seeing the completed Steve Jobs Theater was incredible. You could tell from our limited view on the stream that is was an immaculate structure. Everyone walking through had their phones out like they were tourists at a national monument. I can’t wait to be able to visit that campus someday.
The theater itself struck me as smaller than I thought it would be, and I’ll miss the giant stage and hundreds of attendees at each announcement. However, the seating looked brilliant and the intimacy of the venue worked well. Even the stage lighting helped to focus on exactly what Apple wanted us to see, hear and feel.
The tribute to Steve Jobs at the beginning hit me hard. Hearing his voice brought an emotional wave over me that I’m almost embarrassed to admit to. He was such an influential figure to me, and his story is so phenomenal. Perfect? Hell no. A genius? Arguable. An influence over millions? No doubt. I do agree that he would have loved this theater and much of what Apple is doing today, though he would definitely have a little bit more of a stranglehold over some of the product design.
Since I’ve been watching the progression since it started, it was really fun to get an update on and see the excitement and focus on the new Chicago “flagship” retail store. This new store looks incredible and I can’t wait to check it out on October 20th.
I’m actually quite excited about the advancements in health with the Apple Watch. Having live, real-time insights into heart rate and other biometrics is invaluable, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.
LTE/cellular on the Apple Watch seems like a ho-hum feature, but I’ve actually wished for it many times when out for a run or just far enough away from my phone. I don’t think I’m in for $10/month just yet, though. I’ll be waiting for a smaller form factor (if possible) to upgrade my Watch, most likely.
Apple TV 4K was, quite frankly, a disappointment. The 4K/HDR support is very welcome of course, and the iTunes Store pricing on 4K movies was much better than I was expecting. But the bump in system specs doesn’t address the biggest concerns with Apple TV, which mostly revolve around content. No Netflix support in the TV app still. No announced Amazon Prime app release date (or confirmation that it will be compatible with the TV app.) No Apple-sponsored or packaged TV bundle for cord-cutters. And apart from content, no improvement on the less-than-ideal (but not as horrible as everyone makes it out to be) Siri remote. Apple keeps making minute incremental updates to Apple TV but doesn’t seem to want to go all-in. It’s frustrating for those of us who want to stay with the ecosystem of devices, but are limited by Apple’s decisions. I’m pretty sure I’ll be skipping this version, but to be fair, I don’t own a 4K TV so I don’t really need it.
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus looked really good, for the older, 5 year-old form factor. I really wish they would have squared off the sides of these phones ala the iPhone 4 or SE, but this is what we get. The glass sandwich design is a welcome one and adds a bit more class to the device.
Not too much more happening to the 8 other than some spec bumps and the welcome additions of a TrueTone display and wireless charging. I was also hoping for OLED in these 8 models, but that was reserved for the X. The cameras get incremental bumps with awesome frame rate options. And the processor apparently is fast enough for an iMac, blowing every other smart phone out of the water. This will be an awesome phone for someone coming from a 6 or 6S.
I however will be ordering an iPhone X. This thing looks beautiful.
The huge screen is where I’ve wanted the phone to be at for a while and it’s going to be great to view big, colorful iOS apps on this thing.
Face ID is a point of contention from a lot of people who either don’t trust its accuracy or the logistics of using it day-to-day in a variety of situations. After Apple’s demos, I’m mostly sold. It looks very fast, and I’m betting the angle at which you have to hold the phone up to your face is fairly forgiving (TBD, though.) Touch ID was never perfect, and while I did get used to it and will miss it slightly, I’m certain that Apple would not put out Face ID (and remove Touch ID as an option) if it wasn’t a good enough replacement.
I’m really excited to get a larger screen in a reasonably sized phone. It’s only .2" taller and .15" wider than the iPhone 7 I have now. I can definitely live with that. And iOS 11 relocates much of the navigation to the bottom of the screen, so reaching won’t be as much of a problem.
The OLED display will be exciting to experience in real life.
I haven’t had a phone with dual cameras yet so that will also be fun. And it’s great that this phone has OIS (optical image stabilization) on both cameras, as opposed to only the primary like the 7 Plus.
I don’t like how the phone still sticks to the rounded edges. It makes the device more slippery.
I don’t like the notch, though reviewers have said it grows on you over time. To me it’s very un-Apple.
I don’t like the name. I keep saying “iPhone eks”. I always said “oh ess eks” for OS X, too. It’s something I’ll have to get over, and accept other people doing as well.
I love the potential for wireless charging, and the AirPower pad for charging the phone, watch and AirPods looks awesome. Wonder how much that AirPods wireless charging case will be, and how available.
I’ll be ordering a silver, 256GB iPhone X.
Overall a good event, and I can’t help but wonder what my thoughts would be if I hadn’t been spoiled by almost everything days before the event. Not knowing about iPhone X would probably have blown my mind, as I would have thought that iPhone 8 was it. Apple skipping from 7 straight to 8 (and not implementing a 7S model this year) is surprising but a great move. Skipping 9 is strange, but not many people seem to care (and why should we?)

I’m glad this event is over and that we can now dig into these products as well as software offerings like iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra. And we’ll see how hard it will be to actually get my hands on an iPhone X. I’m assuming I’ll be lucky to get one by the end of the year.

iPhone 7 iOS home button

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

At first I went in and changed the setting for the iPhone 7 home button to unlock my phone by testing my finger on the Touch ID sensor. It more closely resembled how I used my iPhone 6s with the mechanical home button.

Now, after a few weeks of use, I have reverted that setting, requiring a “push” of the button to unlock the phone. This is because I use Notification Center much more now. I pick up my phone, it lights up thanks to “raise to wake”, and I swipe right to see my widgets. Weather, appointments, sports, etc are all there.

Resting my finger on the button bypassed the lock screen to quickly for me to access Notification Center. This way I can decide on the fly which direction I want to go.

It was perceived by me and many others as a strange decision by Apple at first to make this behavioral change to the home button, but now I understand why, and agree with the reasoning.

New Job: Visual Designer at Cars.com

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

After eight months of contracting/freelancing, I have accepted a position with Cars.com as a Visual Designer.

I’ll be working with the Visual Design and Interactive Design teams to create working prototypes of new functionality and website layouts. These may be used in user testing and other facets.

So far the company is very large and intricate but everyone has been very welcoming. It will be a struggle for a while to catch up with the inner workings and the approximately 1500 people across two floors of the downtown-Chicago office, but it keeps things fresh.

I’ll also have a new area to explore in the Loop, having never really spent much time down there apart from being a tourist.

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive over the past eight months while I struggled to pay my share of the bills, answer questions about my job and live up to expectations. Thanks especially to my wife Natalie, who has had nothing but patience with me (with a few “we’re going to be ok, right?” moments here and there) as I was picky over finding a new job and at times deciding that I should continue to make very little money by working for myself.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes us!

Work Update

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 01 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

After a great year working with Medtelligent and Panopta, I’ve moved away to begin working on projects on my own.

This summer I’ve worked mainly with Agency EA, an experiential and event marketing agency. With them I’ve worked on digital brochures for both GE/Synchrony and Hilton, as well as a new website for Agency EA themselves.

In between projects I have been exploring full-time and contract opportunities. I am looking for a great fit with a growing company and a good team. I’ve also updated my resume page, which can be printed directly from a browser.

Chicago Divvy Bikes Problems

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I was a huge fan of the Chicago Divvy Bike system (http://www.divvybikes.com) when it was introduced last summer.

It provided a very convenient, cheap, personally beneficial and eco-friendly method of transportation in a city where those criteria can usually never be completely or concurrently fulfilled. I quickly signed up for an annual membership at $75, and used the system sparingly but happily throughout the warm months.

I’m not sure if the harsh winter of 2013/14 took it’s tool on the equipment, or if there the rapid expansion of the Divvy system itself is to blame, but my experiences this summer have been lacking to say the least. I’ve taken 4 trips on Divvy so far this summer and here are the problems I’ve encountered:

Credit card reader malfunctioning: The card swipe device just refused to even acknowledge that a card was being dipped at all. This happened two machines that we encountered, forcing us to walk to the nearest station, about 2-3 blocks away.
On a trip to Montrose beach, the one station int he vicinity of the beach, and nowhere near any other station, had 3 open docks to store my bike. Great, no problem, I thought. Wrong. All 3 docks were in the locked position, not allowing a Divvy bike to be plugged in. Rider after rider came up to the station, only to be forced to go to another station. On top of that, the console did not allow for extra time to be requested, apparently thinking that it had 3 open docks. So after riding a mile to this station, my wife and I had to ride the mile back to the nearest station, dock the bikes (luckily there were open, functioning docks there) and then walk back to Montrose, where we were now late to our volleyball league game.
On top of the above story, my wife had just bought an annual pass, but could not use it since the key had not yet arrived. No temporary code or pass is offered in this situation. When she tried to dip her credit card in the console, the machine said that our Visa was not a supported credit card. 5 attempts later, it was finally accepted.
Again in the #2 situation above, and in every trip I’ve taken this summer, the bikes have been in a horrible state of disrepair. The gears slip very often, almost causing me to lose traction on the pedals and fall off the bike. The fenders are loose and rattle with each bump. The gear shift rarely clicks and stay into its (admittedly horrible) 3 gear slots. Possibly related, the mechanism used to dock the bike may be so mashed up that it is causing some docks to lock without a bike in them.
Paying for a one-day pass at a kiosk involves WAY too many steps. On busy weekend days, there are often multiple people waiting to take out a bike, and each person has to spend an almost 5 minute process clicking through each of the steps and acknowledgements on the kiosk screen.

I definitely do not blame the Divvy company for trying; this system is a blessing to Chicago and with the right amount of maintenance and upkeep it can be great. But right now, I believe that Divvy has grown beyond its capacity for quality and has instead concentrated on quantity.

I will not be recommending Divvy to anyone until I see that the quality has caught up with better functioning kiosks and docks, repaired bikes, and better options for riders stranded at remote stations.

Why and How I Use Twitter

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I use Twitter every single day of my life, and have my live stream of tweets open on either my computer when working or at home, or on my phone when I’m commuting or waiting in line somewhere.

A lot of people ask what Twitter is used for, and why they would need to know when someone is “eating dinner or going to the bathroom.”

Twitter started out that way, yes. It was a simple, text-based system to tell your friends what you’re doing “right now.” But in the years since it was introduced, Twitter has blown up and become a vital part of our society. It’s a prominent method of communication and a vital part of the public sphere. You cannot watch TV or go online without feeling Twitter’s presence.

So how is it used? I’ve seen a lot of new users to Twitter follow people like celebrities, only to quickly realize that this tends to be more towards the “I’m having dinner” type of information stream. In contrast, I only follow a handful of celebrities and/or actual “people.” They are the ones I’m either really interested in their opinions, or I find their tweets to be hilarious distractions from my day.

The rest of those I follow are news sites (APNews, BuzzFeedNews, local newspaper), Sports related (ESPN, DetroitBadBoys), Tech related (AppleInsider, various software companies), and web development bloggers and resources (SmashingMagazine, Zeldman, AListApart, etc.). I follow accounts for any services I use, such as Gmail, Twitter, and Dropbox, so that I can get updates on outages and new features as soon as possible.

Of course I also follow my friends and colleagues, as I like to read their witty tweets about whatever is bothering or exciting them at the time.

So the gist is that I recommend using Twitter as less of a celebrity and sports team-following service, but rather as more of an information-stream, news and opinion service.

Love and Other Drugs

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

From July 2008 until July 2011 I lived alone, in 2 cities and 2 separate single-bedroom apartments. What set it off was a breakup with my girlfriend of 3 years, something I initiated.

The details of that breakup are portrayed from the other side in multiple blog posts and published in a book(!), all of which don’t really paint me in the best of lights. To sum it up, I came to a very quick realization, acted on it, and ties were severed quickly. I was able to move on very quickly. The other party was not. The rest is history. Opinions vary on if I’m the bad guy.

So I bachelored it in a new apartment far away from downtown and pretty much out in the sticks. It was a 25 minute drive to school, where I had one more year to complete my bachelors degree. I also joined the club volleyball team. I was hoping to find some sort of social connection at school but, being 8-10 years older than most everyone, was unable to fit in much. I made a few connections but they were mostly hometown ties as opposed to new friends and groups.

But I enjoyed being alone and exploring where I wanted to go and who with. I did not date, but that didn’t stop me from falling in love. There were probably 3 women who I was madly in love with, without even so much as a lunch date with any of them. Girl “A” was a friend of a friend, we all went out a few times and I paid much more attention to “A” than our mutual friend, who liked me. Girl “T” was a fantastic person who I met in class and fell for on the first day. We actually became friends and still are to this day. Girl “K” lived in Chicago and was miles away but on a couple visits I felt like she was fun, pretty and wholesome. Despite knowing her hardly at all, and despite her being one of my best friend’s best friends, I thought she was perfect for me.

But alas, hindsight is 20/20. I understand now, 3 years later, that I was merely alone and I was reaching. I was reaching for companionship, manifesting it in my mind wherever I found friendliness, and even mild attraction. I was looking for a quick solution to what I thought was a non-problem: not having anyone to share my life with.

I moved to Chicago in 2009 and almost immediately started online dating. I found one girl who was fun to be with but we had hardly anything in common. I broke things off with her once I met Girl “B”. I though “B” was great but it was the same thing as before: I was creating love where there was just companionship and a list of commonalities. So when I started attending volleyball meet ups and meeting new friends I found that I just wanted to hang out with them instead of with her. She was a great person, but we just weren’t as compatible as I had told myself we were. After 3 months I broke it off when I realized what was happening.

I swore off of online dating and just dedicated myself to having fun with friends. I wasn’t necessarily looking for love or even a date, I just wanted to explore the city and have fun with new companions. What happened was that one of my new good friends turned out to be my current wife.

Girl “N” and I had a lot in common, and we talked a lot in the early days as friends. But even from the beginning I could tell there was more to her than anyone I had ever met. She understood me, she supported me, she leaned on me, and she boosted my confidence. We ended up spending more and more time together and eventually we realized we were more than “just friends.” We were in love. It wasn’t forced, it wasn’t an expectation that I created out of nowhere. It was organic and pure attraction and emotion. We just loved being together and talking to each other about our lives, about our friends, and about our futures. So much so that we ended up moving in together and eventually getting married. And now she’s the love and light of my life.

I guess the point of this post is that being alone is kind of like being stranded in the middle of the desert. You have to be really careful or you’re going to encounter mirages. Your mind is going to crave water and shelter so bad that it will create it at some point. A lonely person will create emotion and connection where it isn’t if it gets to a certain point. I feel like patience and even restraint are the best practices for someone who is alone and unsure of where they will find love. Because it will most assuredly come from somewhere that you don’t expect.

I am a CSS Designer

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve done a few job interviews over the summer as I’ve transitioned between roles. Each interview has similar questions, one of them being:

“What is your ideal role?”

I often begin explaining that I would like a role that offers a bit of web design and web development mixed into one. I am proficient in graphic design and I am slightly more advanced in writing HTML/CSS code. I’ve worked with designers and developers directly for my entire career, and have often bridged the gap between the two (and it is often a large gap.)

However, the word design seems to capture everyone’s attention very quickly. When it comes to the web, I’ve found that “design” or “designer” can mean something very different from the world of print, 3D space or other mediums. This is because unlike print or sculpture or other mediums, the web is a very fluid, malleable, living thing.

There are millions of devices that display the web very, very differently, from a laptop browser to an iPhone to a Playstation on a TV to a watch, there is no guarantee that the person viewing a website will be doing so under specific circumstances or environments. And in those very different devices are more variables like window sizes, screen orientations, interactive capabilities (pointer device or touch?) and more. And to add even more complexity is the thought process into how a person is using web content, on what device, and where they may be or what they may be doing (sitting at home on a laptop vs. in the subway on a mobile device. Different environments, different challenges like screen space, network bandwidth, ease of use, etc.)

Along with being fluid, web content can also be required to be very malleable. What I mean by this is that an image can not be displayed at 1024x768 pixels on every device. Text size of 12 points might look great on a desktop monitor, but may be way too small on a large projection screen. That neon green background color makes a paragraph look outstanding, however if the page is printed, the background color most likely will not be and the effect could be lost. Web content needs to be molded and shaped into what the user needs, whenever and wherever they are accessing it.

Finally, the web is a living breathing thing. Sure there are sites that have gone untouched since 1997, however the most commonly visited websites are those that are frequently updated with fresh content, keeping their visitors coming back for more. With changing content comes new challenges. Maybe that one line headline that we made room for now has two lines. Maybe that photo for the news story is in landscape instead of portrait orientation. Or maybe a huge sale will need to push all of the other content out of the way, for this weekend only! Web content is always changing, moving and being manipulated.

For these reasons, there needs to be CSS designers. CSS designers should work hand-in-hand with graphic designers and User Interface designers when planning and designing a website. A plan for a website can include a header with a navigation menu running across the top, but what happens when the user shrinks their browser width, or moves to a mobile phone? As designers create visual compositions for these scenarios, a CSS designer will need to plan and develop for the in-between moments. At what point will the menu shrink behind a menu button on mobile devices? Will the menu just pop behind the button or will there be a transition effect?

Along with solving implementation of design, a CSS designer must also solve other problems, such as saving on bandwidth, and progressively enhancing the web experience for all users and devices.

Many of us enjoy fast internet connections in our homes and workplaces, but can be saddled with data plan caps and/or slow network speeds on our mobile devices. That large, 3MB photo may download just fine on your laptop at work, but when you check it on the train at night delivers a not-as pleasant waiting period. CSS designers must implement ways to account for these situations by delivering appropriately sized images, or preventing download until the image is displayed (for example.)

Along with bandwidth, another unknown is technology. Many offices and homes are up-to-date on the latest browsers, computers and capabilities. However, most are way below the cutting edge. CSS designers are tasked with maintaining accessibility and usability of web content while adding on features and complimenting effects for those with technology that supports them. This is called progressive enhancement, and it ensures that even if someone is using a very outdated form of technology, the web content is still readable and usable.

Many of these decisions can be made by UI designers, web architects, graphic designers and more. However, a CSS designer/developer is the one who will implement and ship these solutions. I enjoy being a part of thinking through and solving the many road bumps of the web. I enjoy optimizing and progressively enhancing content for all users. And I enjoy writing CSS. It is a form of design that is unconventional but, I believe, is very essential.

To-Do: Find the Right To-do App

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Having recently gotten married, I’ve gone through a few months of hectic planning and the attempt to organize tasks, assignments (from the wife-to-be) and various to-dos that come along with joining in holy matrimony. I tried out pretty much every to-do app available for iOS/iPhone/iPad, as well as a few web-based systems.

Update 2019-04-03 Finally updating this to remove the broken link to the Mailbox app website, since this app was sunset by Dropbox in February of 2015.

Some of the better systems that I tried included Wunderlist, TeuxDeux and Clear. I was looking for the ability to obviously create tasks with reminders, but also to be able to assign them to others and categorize them. While many of these apps were designed well and did one or two of those functions very well, none of them completely met my needs.

The solution I ended up with involves use of 2 apps: Apple’s Reminders and Mailbox.

So, after spending lots of time researching and using other to-do apps, it turns out that Apple’s default Reminders app does pretty much everything I need. You can create tasks, turn on reminders per time or per location, and share lists with someone. Lists and items also sync over iCloud, so anything I do on my phone automatically appears on my desktop computer and vice-versa.

For more complex to-do items, or tasks that come from email (as they often do,) I am trusting Mailbox. It is an email app that makes keep track of messages and mail much less stressful. They designed it with email as a to-do list in mind, since that was what many people were using email for. It allows you to check off (or archive) email that you don’t need to do anything, hide and be reminded later of mail that you can put off for a while, and helps you get to the satisfying and relaxing empty inbox. It takes a little while to get used to, but once I had used it for a few days I ended up loving it and probably won’t be able to go back.

Both of these apps are free (Reminders comes with iOS devices and Macs, Mailbox is a free app but requires a Gmail account, for now.) Try them out and see if you agree.

Thoughts On Dwyane Wade

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I make it no secret that I hate the Miami Heat. And I hate Lebron James. And I hate the star-system that has taken over and ruled the NBA ever since Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen joined the Celtics in 2008.

But I can deal with it all in some fashion or another. However I can’t deal with my absolute hatred of Dwyane Wade and the miserable human being he is. This is a pretty close summarization of my thoughts on him, via Andrew Sharp on Grantland:

To review:

He dresses like Lucille Bluth.

When he’s struggled, he’s generally refused to take responsibility.

He remains king of the cheap shots.

He nicknamed himself “WOW” earlier this season, and even LeBron said it was corny.

He’s been a liability for the majority of the Heat’s playoff run, and before Thursday, there was plenty of evidence the Heat are better without him.

Even when he plays well, he still dominates the ball, complains to the refs constantly, and hijacks the Miami offense for possessions at a time.

This is an incomplete list of Dwyane Wade transgressions, but you get the idea.

And he’s not getting traded. No matter what anyone says about the Heat maybe possibly parting ways with D-Wade, no matter how badly he falls off, it’ll never happen. Because he played a crucial role in the shady process of recruiting LeBron, because he is a certified deity in South Florida, because nobody would ever trade for him at this point. In other words, we’re stuck with Wade front and center on the best team in the NBA for at least the next year or two. After Game 7 he told reporters to call him “three,” and then corrected a reporter who called him “Dwyane.” It’s horrible. He is horrible.

But he played well last night. And came up huge in a must-win Game 4. And in the two biggest games of the Pacers series. And in the closeout game against the Bulls.

I wrote about this a few weeks ago: You can hate Dwyane Wade, you can curse his name during every Heat game, and you can make jokes about how objectively horrible he’s become, but he always finds a way to show up and silence everyone. He did it again in Game 7 — 23 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks — because of course he did.

And when he was giving drunk interviews and doing confetti snow angels and giving himself nicknames last night, I was even a little happy for him. Just for a second. He deserves it, because he sold his soul to the devil and/or Pat Riley, got baptized in Moët and/or ate Rony Seikaly’s heart, and because he probably played through an ungodly amount of pain the past few months. He’s incredible whether we like it or not.

See you next year, D-Wade. Hate you. Love you. Will never escape you.

Browser Wars Episode VI: Return of the Mac

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve switched over almost completely to Google Chrome after being a Firefox loyalist since it was first called Firebird. I even contributed to the Firefox 1.0 project and got my name in the New York Times.

But after a while Firefox’s memory leaks and constant slowness got to me and sometime around the beginning of last year I changed over completely to Google Chrome. What sold me on it was definitely not the UI (aka the “chrome”) but rather Google Sync, which allowed me to have my bookmarks sync across any computer I was signed into (home, work and phone.) Also, Chrome uses Webkit so they were usually leading the charge in supporting new web standards.

I’ve been looking for quality alternatives to pretty much any Google product lately, so I’ve been browser shopping. Lately I tried a complete switchover to Safari, seeing as how I’m pretty much married to Apple products (our household has 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, a Mac Mini, a Macbook Air, and an Apple TV… all marvelously synced in the Apple-ecosphere. Oh, and yes we have home owners insurance.) However, Safari turned out to be very slow, a pretty significant UI changeover from Chrome, and had a few other minor annoyances that I just could not get past.

I went crawling back to Chrome for a couple of weeks, but I’m trying Safari again. I’m not entirely sure why but maybe the minimalistic nature of it appeals to me. Some of the small unique quirks of Safari are growing on me, but there a few things I would like to see either changed or made optional:

Resizable tabs - If I have 4 tabs open, don’t stretch them to fill the full width of the window. Or at least make this a setting.
Right-click, Open in New Tab - Allow me to put this option above Open in New Window in the right-click menu
Sync settings - iCloud syncs bookmarks and tabs, well how about browser settings? I don’t want to have to remember settings for each of my computers
Allow me to move the refresh button - I’m not sure why they would bury it in the address bar ala Internet Explorer.

Game over

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

My time in the sports licensed retail business is done. I have moved on to a new opportunity after 3 1/2 years at Dreams Retail / Fanatics, Inc.

It was great to be able to apply my web skills to the sports world, and to work with brands such as the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bulls. I’ll always appreciate the experience I gained and the relationships that formed while there.

But life moves on and I am now a member of a great development team at Medtelligent, Inc. They create web-based software for assisted living communities and I’m very excited to work with a great group of people on a wonderful product.

Life works in strange ways, and I’ve been very fortunate to be able to pursue my professional dream with wonderful opportunities!

Pro Wrestling

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been 25 years since I first saw professional wrestling on TV.

I’m not sure why I remember that it was in March of 1988 that I turned the channel and became mesmerized by Superstar Billy Graham flexing and two pathetic no-name wrestlers trying to pull his arms down, only to be thrown to the mat. I was 8 years old at the time, Saturday morning cartoons had just ended and I was probably bored and looking for something else cartoon-ish to entertain me.

Fast-forward 25 years and I’m still entertained by pro wrestling. Definitely not to the extent that I have been in periods of my life, but I’ll still watch a show or linger on the channel or visit wrestling websites for the latest news and gossip. But I can’t quite put my finger on why I like it, and I as I grow older it gets harder to justify to myself.

When I was young, it was easy to understand why I loved it. Here were these costumed superheroes, fighting costumed bad guys, and looking and sounding so cool while they did it. They wrestled/performed in huge arenas with rocking 80s music and a spectacle that no one but Vince McMahon has ever been able to display. Monsters ranged from the incredible Andre the Giant to the dastardly “Million Dollar Man” Ted Dibiase. They wore cool shiny gold belts and walked around with gorgeous women. I wanted to be them, I wanted to wrestle, and I wanted to dress like a superhero. They were building toward WrestleMania 4, and I recreated this with my toy wrestling ring and figures.

5 years in, around 1993 and now 13 years old, I was approaching high school and was knee-deep in adolescence. My attentions diverted to music and girls, and whatever else kept me busy as a teenager. So I stopped watching wrestling, but never really stopped following it. I knew who was good and who was bad still. I knew who was WWF and who was WCW. I still leafed through black-and-white wrestling magazines at the grocery store.

In 1996 a couple of guys (Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) jumped ship from the WWF to WCW in a way that made it look like they hadn’t actually left the WWF, but were appearing on WCW TV anyways. This BLEW MY MIND. Before the days of internet news sites and Twitter and the information era, the audience didn’t know all the backstage goings-on with wrestling. We didn’t know wrestlers’ contract status or info about who signed with what company. So when Hall & Nash appeared on WCW Nitro, my brain snapped and I was back in. More than ever, I was a pro wrestling fan. I went to a Nitro live show. I went to a WWF Raw show. I bought the magazines, taped the TV shows, and bought a couple of wrestling t-shirts. For another 4-5 years, they had me.

After that, it was just casual entertainment. I didn’t fret if I missed a show here or there. Besides, I now had the internet to help me catch up on storylines and happenings. Because of the internet, spoilers kept too much from surprising anyone, taking some of the magic away from the whole thing.

This weekend is WrestleMania 29, highlighted by current stars like CM Punk, John Cena and Brock Lesnar. The audience has matured from the good guys vs. bad guys schtick, they all know matches are predetermined and that the guys (usually) don’t actually hit each other.

But the thing that most people never understood is that whether any of it is real or not wasn’t the point. The point was how real they made it feel to us, what emotions they could bring out, and how fun they made their shows. It was fun watching the matches, it was fun booing people we didn’t like, and it was fun watching the spectacle of the whole thing. They coined their own term of “sports entertainment” because they get it.

It’s still fun for me to keep up with, and until it really gets watered down, I’ll probably still know who will be in the main event each year at WrestleMania.

Why the Closing of Google Reader Matters

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

On Wednesday, March 13th, Google announced that they will be closing their popular (in opinion if not in numbers) Google Reader product on July 1, 2013.

As a Reader user, I was kind of shocked to see that a product that seemed to be steadily improving, and that also seemed to not be too resource-dependent on Google’s part, be relegated to the trash bin.

For those that don’t know, Google Reader is a tool for aggregating and viewing RSS feed content. RSS feeds are streams of updates from websites and services. This blog has an RSS feed that contains each of the posts that I have made, along with time and date and other meta information for indexing and organization. Reader was a tool that collected and organized feeds for easy reading, allowing users to access one page to browse all of their favorite website updates (as opposed to opening a bunch of bookmarks into multiple tabs or remembering site addresses.)

Upon release of the announcement of the closing, the web went completely ape-shit and popular news items of the day like NFL free agency and oh, just the appointment of a new Pope were pushed aside for complete panic over what people are going to do now that Reader is closing. It may seem a little trivial considering this is just a free tool for reading RSS feeds (there are lots and lots of alternative tools available,) but this is actually a fairly important red flag for everyone that uses the web.

Most of us use free services like GMail, Yahoo Mail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. for sharing and storing our information on the web. They’re great: they’re free, easily accessible, constantly updated and enhanced and they’re relevant to the types of information we want and need and how we want and need it. Services like GMail make something like email easy for the masses. Setting up your own email server or even using POP with your own domain (what’s that, right?) are fairly complicated, especially for the less-techy users out there.

The problem comes with the complete integration of our lives with these services. Sure, Google can shutter Reader and we’ll grumble but move on to another service. But what if they decide to close GMail? Our email includes details about not only our online lives, but also our offline lives as well. Bank account logins, loan details, school and work documents, and other vital details for accessing important information all lives in our email. Not to mention all of the personal correspondence and records of conversations that are also archived there. Even businesses and universities have converted from private to GMail-run email services. We have all put our vital, private information in the hands of a corporation that has the justifiable power to erase it all at the flip of a switch.

Now, it’s highly unlikely that Google will close GMail, one of its most successful (if not most popular or industry leading) products. But it’s not impossible. It’s also not impossible for services such as Yahoo, Twitter or Facebook to close either. Or to be bought out or merged with another company and fundamentally changed for better or worse. Internet giants like Flickr and Instagram have both been eaten up by larger corporations (Yahoo and Facebook, respectively,) and while their core functionality has yet to change, decisions regarding these services must eventually bend to the will of the stockholder.

I’m not giving up my GMail account anytime soon, but I will be keeping my eye on what is a growing trend of commercialized information. And I’ll try to own and/or pay for as much of my information and services as I can.

The Mythical "Fold"

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The “fold” on the web is a controversial topic. I personally believe that the web is different from print (where the term and concept originated) in that it is interactive.

Scroll bars and touch controls allow users to manipulate their viewing experience more and more with each new device and browser. Also, “mobile” internet use will surpass desktop use by 2014 (Update: it actually didn’t happen until November 2016,) meaning that any concrete identification of the fold will be out the window.

Obviously there are cases where putting content near the top of a page can be beneficial, since most if not all browsers render pages with the starting point scrolled to the top (is top a relevant term when describing page location anymore? Especially since devices can be rotated and turned more than older monitors ever could.) But I believe that is different from expressing that something be entirely or mostly “above the fold.” There should always be a content hierarchy and browsing trends will usually point to people scrolling from top to bottom to support this.

Responsive design especially defeats the concept of the fold since it makes the “fold line” a floating and ever-changing border. Instead of concentrating on what should be above or below a line that may or may not even exist in a majority of cases, I believe authors should instead focus on a consistent hierarchy of content and embrace the ambiguity of the web.

Responsively Redesigning

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’m currently redesigning this site to take advantage of Responsive Web Design, something anyone with a website should be doing.

I’m using a “Mobile First” approach (do you see a trend here?) by serving up a minimal content set for those on cellular networks or slow connections. As the screen size increases, the design will change to allow for a different experience (a slightly different layout, larger images, etc.) The design is also resolution independent, thanks to icon fonts (the exception being photos and images, I have yet to provide new versions of those, as my focus has been on the mobile side for now.)

This is a work in progress but I wanted to express my desire and determination to create a responsive version of my website. It’s part of a “design in the browser” method that I’m using for this particular project where I am the client. So if things happen to look a little muddy at times, that’s why!

Note: Current development and testing has taken place in Google Chrome and Safari on iOS 5. These are the most-utilized browsers according to my analytics so I design in those first. Firefox and IE support is coming next. I am only using this “live-redesign” process on my personal page, and would not use or recommend it for a commercial site. See Zeldman and Zeldman.

Internet Explorer 6 compatibility

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of web developers everywhere, much like Netscape 4 was in the early 2000s. How do we support IE6 users without going crazy?

There is a growing campaign in the web development community calling for the death of version 6 of the Internet Explorer browser by Microsoft. Introduced in 2001, it had ruled the market share of browser usage for years until the coming of Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer 7.

I did a quick Google search for the term “ie6” and found a startling six “death to ie6” websites on just the first two pages of results. These include:

Bring Down IE6
STOP IE6
IE6 Update
IE Death March
DearIE6
Stop IE6

And one likely parody, SaveIE6.

Update 2023-03-05 All but one of those no longer exists, appropriately, since IE6 is no longer a large issue.

One of the main reasons for the IE6 hate is its lack of support for web standards such as full CSS 2.1 compliance and PNG alpha transparency. Another is its many security issues which come with being the top browser for approximately 5 years. While no browser available supports every standard, even IE7 at least supports a larger contingent of CSS 2.1 selectors, PNG alpha transparency and is a little better on security.

While it may seem easier to point visitors to new browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera, Google’s Chrome, Apple’s Safari or even Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8, it is important to note that some people either can not or will not upgrade. Many business computers still run IE6, and will do so for years to come. So what is the solution for web developers who want to escape having to “fix” their websites for IE6?

Andy Clarke, a member of the Web Standards Project and a former invited expert to the W3C’s CSS Working Group, provided a solution that I find appealing. Since the content of a website is most important, make sure that content is viewable and accessible to users of IE6 by providing them with an IE6-only CSS stylesheet. This renders the page in a very readable and organized yet generic design while separating the main design for others using more current and advanced browsers.

This is done by inserting IE conditional comments into the <head> portion of your website’s HTML, like so:

<!--[if IE 6]><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="ie6.0.3.css" media="screen, projection" /><![endif]-->

The stylesheet code is available on Google Code for anyone to use for free. I am using it on this website as a mere 10% of my visitors are currently browsing with IE6. It is important that designers and developers view their logs and stats to determine what browsers to support. I will usually adapt my design for IE6 (or any other browser) if more than 30% of my visitors are using it.

As Jeffrey Zeldman said when referring to Clarke’s method, “no solution, however elegant, will work for every situation.” But work like this will allow for an easier transition as the world upgrades.

Typekit will change the web

brad@bradbice.com (Brad Bice) — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Looking forward to using Typekit, a new technology that easily allows for @font-face use in websites.