I was recording a course last week when I ran into an unsurmountable problem. You know the type where you think: I have no idea why this isn't working or how to solve this. Being an experienced moron, I did what I always do. Sleep on it. Which doesn't exactly make the problem go away, but I know that at that point, what I really need is a break.

At times like this, I remember a scene in Man of Steel where as a boy, Superman starts coming into his powers and since some of them involved enhanced senses, he's overwhelmed by the amount of inputs he's receiving. He tells his mother...'The world is too big mom' and she wisely tells him to 'make it small' and to focus on just her voice.

That's how I solved my problem. I broke down the code into smaller pieces and attacked each one separately. Making sure each of the pieces was working properly and by focusing, I was able to isolate the problem. With the extra sleep, a fresh mind is always capable of a solving old problems.

Speaking of...

Speaking of making things smaller, you should really check out a fantastic tool from Google called Squoosh. It can help you compress images using some of the web's newest formats like WebP, Avif and even JPEG XL. The controls are wrapped in an excellent GUI and there is a CLI available so you can compress a whole folder full of images or incorporate it into your videos.

Icon Update

In the last edition, I talked about one of my favorite libraries called React Icons, which is great, but there's been a whole lotta movement with icons on the web. Google, for example, just announced that they will be supporting Icon Fonts within Google Fonts. They're starting with Material Design icons, but since they've created a whole other tab, I expect this to grow quickly.

Things I'm Posting About

I saw a cool new Pinterest for Code that you can use, which looks like a very cool idea. A quick site for building HTML boilerplates. Plus a simpler analytics that is privacy friendly called Counter. Make sure you're following me, if you want to get about two new posts daily with cool stuff curated by me.

How About That?

One last thing I found interesting this week was an attempt to build an Open Video Infrastructure to compete with other projects owned by large companies. The video market is really heating up. It will be interesting to see if this takes off, but I love seeing new approaches.

Should I, or shouldn't I?

Have you heard of Clubhouse. It's currently a mac only, invite only App. The closest I can relate it to is a call in radio show, but with a lot of hosts and a lot more people having the ability to contribute the content.

I've been thinking of starting a weekly live stream here on LinkedIn, but Clubhouse also opens up some new possibilities. So let me know what you think? Should I jump in? What would you like to hear about.

Drop me a comment below, I've been really enjoying those every week. Here's some good ones from last week's newsletter.

And ok..that last one was mine, but really? Nobody noticed. I might just be too old. See ya next week my Nerdherd!