Next week I’ll be giving a talk on Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on Windows (and desktop) at Microsoft Build. While researching folks perspectives on PWAs for the desktop, I stumbled on this post from Justin Ribeiro. In it, he makes a solid case for why discussions of PWAs should not be limited to mobile contexts:

As web developers we use the desktop browser different than an average user. We use the desktop to develop and we sometimes fall prey to assumptions about the platform from that experience.

I don’t remember what got it stuck in my craw, but I’ve been thinking a bit about HTML fallbacks of late.

This month, podcasters across the globe are urging folks to share their favorite listens with friends and family using the hashtag #trypod. I’ve been on a real podcast tear lately and there are so many awesome programs to listen to, I thought it might make sense to compile some of my favorites here.

A while back I mentioned my desire to move this site from Octopress to Jekyll. I liked Octopress when I re-christened this site, but I didn’t really see much benefit to moving to Octopress 3 over stripping away the Octopress 2 bits and going with a core Jekyll install.

A few weeks back, I put out the call for a mentee for 2017. As part of the application process, I asked folks to publicly discuss why they love the Web. The applicants shared some amazing stories, anecdotes, and experiences in those posts and I wanted to take a moment to share them with you.¹

If you travel abroad for work, you may have some concerns about border crossings, based on recent news coverage. I know I do. I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve been researching quite a bit and asking for opinions and recommendations. Below is a summary of the advice I’ve been given. I’m providing it here in case it might be of use to you.

Next Tuesday I’m planning to take the day to do a little refresh on this site. The largest part of that effort will be moving this project off of Octopress to Jekyll. I’m not expecting it to be a huge challenge—Jekyll underpins Octopress anyway—but I’m sure there are some gotchas I should look out for. If you’ve made the leap yourself in the past and have any advice or recommended reading, please leave a comment or Web Mention.

I didn’t get to where I am in my life and career on my own.

In the work that we do on the Web (as well as in our daily lives), we’re often confronted, informed, or judged based on averages. I never really stopped to think about it, beyond being bugged by the fact that averages aren’t truly representative of reality. Then I listened to 99% Invisible’s episode “On Average”. It was incredibly enlightening and the stories shared in that episode provide sage wisdom that is very relevant to the work that we do.

Late last week, Josh Korr, a project manager at Viget, posted at length about what he sees as a fundamental flaw with the argument for progressive enhancement. In reading the post, it became clear to me that Josh really doesn’t have a good grasp on progressive enhancement or the reasons its proponents think it’s a good philosophy to follow. Despite claiming to be “an expert at spotting fuzzy rhetoric and teasing out what’s really being said”, Josh makes a lot of false assumptions and inferences. My response would not have fit in a comment, so here it is…