Slade's Blog: Recent Episodes
Slade Rice Watkins
This is the latest from Slade's Blog: thoughts on various things, updates on various projects, and more! You can read the blog directly on SladeWatkins.com. The voices you're hearing were generated by BeyondWords.
Hi, my name is Slade. I’m the founder, editor-in-chief, and director of Kakariko Herald, which has been recognized by many game companies and their press agencies. (Even writing that feels wild to me!) Truth be told, I’ve been running it while also looking for a full-time job, which has proved difficult. With my job search now reaching well over 17 months now, and getting declined by Google Adsense to run ads on Kakariko Herald, I’m running out of options. So, I am making a list of ways for folks to support me while I both work on Kakariko Herald, and continue looking for a full-time job. Sharing my work The best way to support me is by sharing my work and spreading it across social media! This gives it (and in turn, me) more exposure and unlocks new abilities for me. Recruiting? Know someone recruiting? Or have something I might be interested in? If you know of anyone recruiting, happen to be recruiting yourself, or have something I might be interested in, please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email. I can be reached at slade@sladewatkins.com. I’d be happy to discuss any potential opportunities with you! “The Extra Mile” – Ko-Fi A donation on Ko-Fi is certainly not required, a share of my work would suffice, but if you feel called to make a donation — this is the way you can do so! All funds donated here will be used to help build up cash reserves that I can use in the future for various needs, which could include moving for work, and of course be invested back into Kakariko Herald and in turn, fund our reporting. You can find my Ko-Fi page here: Thank you for your support. It means the world! <3 Mastodon
The title of this post is a reference to “Never Not Gonna Dance Again” by P!nk, the song’s title inspired the theme of this post. I see so much negativity online, especially after Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, that I guess I wanted to chime in. I mean, I can’t say much more than what others have said, but I at least want my thoughts on-the-record. Twitter can only survive if Musk makes good on the promises he keeps making AND listens to and implements community feedback. If he doesn’t, and he fails to make the site a better place, the site fails. It’s as simple as that. I do believe he can improve Twitter’s profitability – it has been doomed for a while – but only if he steps up to the plate and manages it properly. He’s on his own, quite literally, and I hope he can lead the site into a position where it can be profitable. It won’t happen overnight, though, so all of you that are saying he can make it happen overnight: dial it back. We’ll know for sure in 2023 if his decisions make the site more or less profitable. Until such time, I’d recommend labeling this as a “wait and see” kind of thing. For now, he’s outwardly receptive towards everything and making changes that seem to be for the benefit of the platform (whether those intentions are good or bad remains to be seen). If the platform dies, it dies at the hands of a billionaire who put basically everything he had into it. If he treats this like a playground, it dies. If he ignores the community, it dies. If Tesla fails, it dies. I don’t say this to be negative, but I do worry about it. But since the path is unclear, as it’s still very much early days, just let the music play ’til the end!
Following Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk, and the clear indication that Big Tech was only going to get bigger, I previously announced via social media that I’d commit to using open-source software and technologies on my devices going forward. That reigns true with me taking a moment to reiterate the announcement, as well as detail the specifics of what I’ve changed thus far (as of November 4, 2022). To reiterate, here was my full statement on it. I’m making a commitment to only use open-source software in my workflow starting in 2023. Until that time, I will slowly phase out [most] proprietary software on my systems. The only exception will be if it’s needed for work. Otherwise, an open-source alternative will be used. I’m sick of enabling corporate overlords and billionaires, and will not allow them to exert control over how I operate on a day-to-day. This mission has already begun with my switch back to Linux, this time using the Ubuntu-based Pop!_OS. Where I am able, I will give back to these open-source projects monetarily, time-wise (helping with PRs, issues, development), or both. I am a firm believer in open-source: it is the future. Life’s better when we all work together! [Ubuntu temporarily while I work out issues with my Pop!_OS install. I plan to return to Pop!_OS by mid-or-end November, early December, as I need some of its technologies (like the custom scheduler and support for hybrid graphics).] And here’s what I’ve changed so far. I no longer use Windows in my workflow at all. I’m transitioning away from macOS as well. I use Linux for computing devices, Android on mobile devices. I’ve switched from Adobe Creative Cloud / Final Cut Pro to DaVinci Resolve and will soon add another open source NLE to the mix just to tinker with. I plan to update this article as I continue changing my workflow over to open source alternatives. I except to be fully switched over to mostly open-source projects by February 6, 2023. Feel free to hit me up and ask questions about it! I usually hang out on Mastodon, but I can also be found everywhere else too (including email).
I’ve been thinking about the blog recently, specifically how to improve this for the future and build upon it for years to come. And I think that it’s time to retire it. at least partially. I’d like to explain why, at least very quickly, because all roads lead to something really cool (in my humble opinion.) One of my biggest passions has always been content production, be it audio/video, written blogs, presentations, etc. I just like producing content. And I want to combine them all in some way. so, without further ado, I’m announcing that my primary YouTube channel will relaunch next month. Among the content planned, I’ve already got some strong projects in the pipeline. Here’s just a tiny peek at what’s coming: Tutorials/walkthroughs for how to do things on your computer (ranging from beginner to advanced stuff). How & why I use Mac + Linux, instead of Windows 10/11. What’s on my phones, computers, & tablets (aka showing off my “workflow”). A bi-weekly or monthly podcast. Guest appearances from some fellow content creators and other friends. View this post on Instagram In an Instagram post, I briefly mentioned that I was “working on making my background interesting.” Many didn’t pick up on that, even my best friend, but that was a reference to today’s announcement. After a really long summer filled with many hiccups, I had so many ideas for things to work on that I didn’t stop making. Written blog posts certainly have their place, so how will those work now? Well, they’ll still exist, but they’ll primarily serve as both a broadcast that a video is out, and as supplements to the video itself. The post will associate with a video, and include its resources, transcript, etc. On transcripts, I do plan to have captioning done for the channel. It’s part of the reason why this has taken a bit more time than usual to get this going. Captions will likely appear 1-2 days after publication, depending on YouTube Studio’s cooperation (you know how it is), and will all be based off of my internal scripts to ensure accuracy. It took many months to decide what direction I wanted to go in with my main channel. And after much reflection, I think this is the best direction. I’m very excited to show you what I’ve been working on beginning next month! Stay tuned to my socials for updates! Slade P.S. – Did anyone catch the little easter egg I put in a recent blog post, and my blurb on social prior to this being published? If you did. congrats, that was a hint at tonight’s announcement!
I didn’t watch Minecraft Live in full, just the part where they discussed a little bit about what was new in this update. And honestly? It’s pretty underwhelming so far, but I feel like we kind of expected that. Mojang hasn’t had an excellent track record with delivering upon promised features in one update. (Caves & Cliffs was split into, technically, 3 updates: 1.17, 1.18, 1.19. As a reminder, Caves & Cliffs was initially supposed to be one singular update.) However, all that being said. there are some gems in here I’d like to highlight, because they’re super important! There are new Default Skins! We’ve been introduced to (pictured below in this post, from left to right) Sunny, Kai, Makena, Steve, Alex, Zuri, Efe, Ari, and Noor. This is a huge step towards representation for all in the game, and I’m so happy to see it. Additionally, we heard about a handful of new additions to the game today. They are: Camel Hanging Signs Chiseled Bookshelves Bamboo building blocks Rafts But unlike previous years, we did not learn the name of this update nor have we heard about all of the new additions. We’ve just been given a small taste of what’s to come. I feel like this is a better direction considering 1.17, 1.18, and 1.19’s hiccups. The only thing we did learn is that this is Minecraft 1.20. And I want to talk about these version numbers for a second. As someone who actively follows the development and tests the stable releases of the Linux kernel, I’m starting to feel like the version number for Minecraft is getting too big. Linux, for example, resets its version number usually once it hits the “.19” milestone, then it moves up a main number. With Minecraft, it’s starting to get to the point where “2.0” would feel more fitting for this update. Honestly, the Nether Update is where I feel they should have reset the version numbers. “1.20” is the last version I feel should be “version 1” of the game. We’re coming up on 11 years of Minecraft releasing as a full game, after all. It’s time for a change, dare I say: a new lease on life. I’m excited to see where 1.20 goes, even if I’m skeptical much will be delivered. We’ll likely see this fully release in the summer, with snapshots to take place very soon. I’m looking forward to testing them with my friends when they start releasing snapshots!
Here’s what I think the lineup for the iPhone will look like in 2023-24. Disclaimer: This is purely speculation not based on any real data, so take it all with a grain of salt! I believe the line will be comprised of the following (cheapest to most expensive): iPhone SE (3rd gen) iPhone 14 iPhone 14 Plus iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Ultra Possible iPhone SE refresh in the spring of 2024? For the chips, I believe these will be the ones in the lineup in 2023-24: iPhone SE 3rd: A15 Bionic iPhone 14: A15 Bionic iPhone 15: A16 Bionic iPhone 15 Plus: A16 Bionic iPhone 15 Pro: A17 iPhone 15 Ultra: A17 TL:DR – I believe the lineup will only be A15+ in 2023-24. (If iPhone SE is refreshed, I think that will get an A17 and be introduced in the Spring, or potentially closer to iPhone 16’s release.)
It’s 2022, and the web is very much a mess. How do you tackle something like this? How can you share your thoughts in an environment that isn’t so noisy? Are you even able to do that? The answer, surprisingly, is yes. In November 2021, I was approached by someone within Wallymer to potentially create a blog. I was immediately interested and greenlit the idea. Weeks later, I was approached again by this person with a concept that I couldn’t let go of. We gave the project a codename, GobbleGobble. And together, in secret, over the course of nearly a year, our idea came together as Tackling The Web – a blog from the people around Wallymer. I heard there’s an “inside story” behind it, too. Remember, Wallymer isn’t a company. Its only funding? The blood, sweat, and tears of like-minded folks. It’s a place to belong. Our hope is that we’ll get to share that experience with you. Come join us at Wallymer.com.
I saw an article from someone who has been in the industry for over three decades say that they care how much their team does, and don’t care how well they do. I’d been reading a lot of those sorts of articles lately. I’m building my team at Kakariko Herald, trying to collect advice and guidance on how to run a team. But it turns out, 2022 is very different. You can’t run a company the same way you could in 1992. So, I stopped reading the articles and am taking a different approach to making this work. One that’s modern, actually makes sense, and doesn’t make the team suffer. People have families, lives, responsibilities. They need to make sure there’s food on the table, can’t be working 9-forevers, and it seems like managers lack that basic empathy. So, how are we different? I don’t care how much you do, only how well you do. Can’t do 18 things in a day? Don’t. No, really. Enforced time off! Yep, every year, each team member is required to take a week off. When they do is up to them, and they have two additional weeks to use on top of that, but we value rest here. We appreciate and value our guiding philosophy, it’s the cornerstone of everything we do. We’re not perfect and we’re always learning. But 2022 requires a new approach. This is the road we’ve decided to go down, and somehow, some way: it’s working.
I email myself a lot. Random things, important things, sometimes even simple. Some people wonder why. And honestly, my mentality about email is that it’s “on the record.” If it’s on the record, I’ll actually follow it. Or do it. Or remember it. That’s really the only reason why. I never email myself something I can put on a sticky note. Sticky notes are temporary. Emails? Permanent. I need permanence. Something that figuratively sticks, that I can quickly look for, reference, and swear to someone that I’ve said before. To: me, from: me, label: note to self.
My publication, Kakariko Herald, is a team of 4 people (myself included) that are placed all around the globe. It’s safe to call KH “remote-first.” Since inception, we’ve communicated through several means: email, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal. Heck, even recently, my primary editor and I have switched to using Basecamp to run our operations. (Seriously: you name a service, and we’ve probably tried it.) We’ve never really found a service that has met our needs. But something I’ve noticed is that most of our business operations still happen through email. I have over 9,000 waiting for me at the moment. Most of it is probably junk. And no, it’s not a funny haha meme. That’s a lot of time I’ll now have to spend digging in and finding what’s worth replying to and what’s not. It’s time I take back control of my time. (And it’s time we take back control of KH’s time, too.) This starts with a new guiding philosophy, inspired by industry folks I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to over the past few years. It’s 5-points in length, and has been carefully considered as a course-of-action. (You can read more about each point on my website!) This philosophy will guide me as a person, and KH as a publication, where applicable. Email’s a tool. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Balance time. Not micro-manage it. Set aside time for yourself. Quantity isn’t worth suffering over. It’s these principles that I hope get deeply woven and embedded into the Kakariko Herald culture. It’s how I want us to operate: like our time is a sacred resource. Because it is. [P.S. blog post on why I’m switching email services — as alluded to — in the pipeline!]
While I may not know where to start, I am beginning to form the earliest concepts for what Kakariko Herald’s new CMS platform will entail. Why? Well, because Kakariko Herald is has grown to a point where WordPress is having serious trouble keeping up. I have to build something that’ll get us through in the long term. I figured I’d make this post to list some of my wishes for what this new platform will entail. A lot of it won’t be there at launch, no. I still have to figure out how to approach (and build) this because I’m still a newbie at web development, after all. But these are the main ideas: Privacy-friendly, generic analytics only (We use GoatCounter) A simple, lightweight experience that’s quick to load Simple backend as well, quick at posting updates Scheduled posts Autoposting to social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Mastodon in our case) In-house accounts backend Comments Forums Moderation tools hCaptcha It’s possible I could approach some [more experienced] folks that I know in the space to see if they could help me build v6 of Kakariko Herald. I definitely don’t want to approach this alone, as that’d be unwise. I don’t know yet. (And if you happen to be a reader of our site. please know that Kakariko Herald is here to stay. We’re taking off fast, and this is only the beginning!)
It’s no secret that I enjoy building websites. I’ve done it for work, and for fun. Over the years, I’ve become accustomed to my usual suspects: WordPress, Drupal, done. But even though I’ve grown fond of these tools, I find myself wanting to build a bigger, more rich content management system (CMS) that could manage Kakariko Herald (KH), and in which isn’t built atop a WordPress base. I have no idea where to start, and I’ve been researching like crazy, but PHP and MySQL are still new to me. So, to say a lot of it sounds really complicated is an understatement. I toyed around with the idea of hiring an outside agency to develop this, or asking some of my more knowledgeable friends to lend a hand, but I quickly shut that down due to funding (and respect for their time, obviously!) I have a lot of ideas for how the CMS could work/function, since it’s being imagined with KH in mind. The fact of the matter is: building something this focused, alone, will take 2-3 years if I started today and did it in my off-hours. My hope is that KH won’t outgrow WordPress too much in that time. It mostly already has, something I shared my feelings for in the KH work chat this morning. So it’s WordPress for now. hopefully it’ll last ’til I can build something new. I suspect it won’t. (But fingers crossed.) [Oh, and hey, if you have any pointers or something, I’m all ears. Drop me a line!]
I use an Android phone because of RCS (“Chat”, which I’m going to refer to it as for the rest of this post, as that’s what it’s called if you use Google Messages as your texting app), the fact that a majority of my family uses Android, and that it’s open, customizable, etc. I get that Google doesn’t have a great track record with keeping chat applications alive and well (see: Allo, Talk, Hangouts) but Google Messages and by extension, Chat, are both here to stay. why? because Chat is a GSMA standard (see:/). that’s right: the same organization that made SMS and MMS a standard? they made RCS a standard! Apple has no trouble adopting them, but anything remotely similar to iMessage? forget about it. not gonna happen. (see: Epic v. Apple, PX-356; Epic v. Apple, Cue Deposition 91:17-onwards/pages 53-55) however, I am also an iPhone user who is rooted in other parts of the Apple ecosystem (TV, iPad, Watch, Mac, etc.) and am frustrated by Apple’s inaction since 2019 to bring Chat support to iPhone. not only would it open up a ton of doors, but it’d get rid of the aging SMS/MMS protocols that make it basically impossible for iPhones to send videos to each other without using a third-party app. I know why they’re doing this: iMessage lock-in. this was proven in the aforementioned Epic v. Apple court case. but as the one and only Linus Sebastian once said: “it’s actually the worst chat [method], because it’s not cross-platform.” (see: in full, Linus and Luke make some great points too!) I end by saying this, making a couple clarifications, as well as giving a TL:DR. iMessage is not amazing, it’s not the killer application. it’s just a chat application that’s only available on devices ranging from $500-$55,000 USD (no joke on that last number; see: Mac Pro Tower maxed-out, not even looking at Mac Pro Rack) and can only be used to message other devices of the same cost. RCS is a GSMA chat standard, not an application. all Apple has to do is take the Universal Profile (/) that Google, Verizon, and AT&T all use and implement it on iOS, making SMS/MMS a thing of the past. there is no acceptable reason for a single company to worsen the experience for people who don’t happen to have the money to afford an expensive, “iconic” “brilliant” or “(insert marketing term here)” device, who just want to keep in touch with children/grandchildren/other family members and actually be able to enjoy pictures and videos sent to them. in summary: Apple, please get the message and implement RCS. this post was in response to this article:/
Recently, I took it upon myself to start rebuilding my website. Giving it an overhaul and moving away from WordPress. It’s not that I don’t like WordPress — I do — it’s just that, as a web developer at heart, there’s was a part of me that missed being able to get into the deep parts of what makes a site on the internet tick. Thus, I ripped everything out and got to building. I tried some other static generators, but those didn’t do it for me. Bootstrap Studio felt too limiting, too basic, and my license is now two years removed from updates so I was running an older version anyway. That was out. Drupal, another CMS, was out early on also. And then, it hit me. What if I resurrect an old beginning-of-quarantine project? OneCMS. OneCMS was built overnight, in April 2020, the night my youngest brother was born. I was stressed, I was anxious, and I needed something to do. This was it. I built 4 versions of this thing until I moved to WordPress. What if I gave it a fresh coat of paint? And by that, I mean, rebuild it from the ground up and make it actually work. So, I dug through my archives, pulled everything out, and got to work. A quick history lesson on what each version did previously before I explain what OneCMS 5.0 can do (because, oooh boy is it a treat!) OneCMS 1.0 was actually titled “ShadowCMS” after my dog. It had support for basic HTML and CSS. It contained no JS libraries or anything of the sort. It was built to be simple. OneCMS 1.1 added support for FontAwesome, making it the first (and only) library addition. OneCMS 2.0 was a little more advanced. It gained the “WatkinsCMS” title, as I needed a name, and was built a little more carefully. It got some more CSS enhancements, as well as improved support for “meta tags” (for social sharing). OneCMS 2.1 was a special release given to a select number of outside testers to play around with. Only difference was that most references OneCMS 3.0 got animated, literally! There were more CSS-based animations inside of WebKit and Blink. Because of this, Internet Explorer support was removed. The name was also changed to “OneCMS” with this release. OneCMS 4.0 improved upon the predecessor, but improved loading times. The site was just 300 KB with this change, and was hosted on Netlify for maximum speed. OneCMS 4.1 added support for blogs, but was never utilized. In short, most versions of OneCMS 4 and prior were simple static site generators. All they did was make HTML5 and CSS files work. No mass amounts of JS files, no other special files, none of that. Just something to sit atop GitHub Pages and (later) Netlify. OneCMS 5.0 introduces a ton of new-old technologies, and is ultra-quick on its feet. Here’s a list of all the changes and fun stuff. (Yes, it’ll keep everything from 4.1 and earlier! Not everything is built-in quite yet.) PHP 8 base, now runs on the web server instead of a static generator running on a computer. “Components” exist to aid in site development, allowing for less edits overall. For instance, if I need to update the navigation bar, I can go edit the header file and update every page across the site instantly. Currently these include the head section of the HTML source, as well as the header/footer of the webpage itself. Blog mechanism has been removed. Instead, I’m here! Ultra-fast load times, thanks to a massive decrease in file size and dependencies. (see this image!) No JS/external libraries this time around. Everything is done locally, without any outside resources. No cookies or analytics. Just the site itself. For the time being, I’ve archived the old site. Not sure if I’ll leave it or nuke it entirely. Yet to be decided. OneCMS 5 is something I made purely because I love making this stuff. And while it isn’t really a CMS anymore, it is powerfully simple. That’s really what matters! (I’d personally classify it as a “Framework,” if it had to have a name.) I’m going to continue building and iterating on what I have, and keeping everyone updated along ...