Stream
Still figuring this out.
Last Friday our cohort started work on our first projects of the bootcamp – an interactive browser game using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
The projects are designed to consolidate the previous two weeks of course material, whilst providing useful experience on how to plan, document, develop, test, and present our work.
I decided on attempting to recreate Guitar Hero. For my version, Iron Hero, the player simply presses keys when the note appears within a specified area to score points.
Splash screen 
Game screen 
Winning screen 
Game over screen
It proved a useful exercise in getting to grips with JavaScript’s object oriented programming (OOP) principles, whilst also familiarising myself with the canvas element.
At the outset I anticipated issues. Firstly, applying the OOP principles, specifically prototypal inheritance, which I had trouble grasping initially, and then animating the items (or notes) in time with music. Still the audio doesn’t match exactly with when the keys should be pressed.
I’ve found canvas very similar to Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash and ActionScript that I used when studying at university. I need to become more familiar with how it can be best used outside of a browser game to understand its real potential.
To wrap up each day (and to ensure we’re making progress) we’re asked to present our work in front of the others. It started with Google Slides and has gradually progressed into also demoing our projects. This is training in preparation of presentations to the whole Ironhack student body on Friday.
Note: a special thanks to my brother, Dan Mallinson, for helping explain some of the processes and principles I had issue with.
I’m sitting in my apartment in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter listening to music playing through the speaker on the table beside me, taking the time to write this article as I sip my coffee. This is the first time since last weekend that I’ve been able to relax.
On Monday I started the Ironhack Barcelona full-time Web Development bootcamp along with 21 others. The cohort is a mix of nationalities mostly comprising of Spaniards, with representation from the USA, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Philippines, Sweden, and the UK (me). Some of the students come from web development backgrounds, like myself, who want to improve their skills and knowledge, whereas others are contemplating a career change.
Each morning is started with a stand-up where we share with the group how we’re feeling, what we achieved yesterday, what we hope to achieve today, if we submitted a pull request (usually tied to a homework exercise), and if we had any ‘blockers’, or issues that inhibited progress/completion of the exercise.
Following the stand-up we have a kick-off where the teacher and the teaching assistants (TA) go over the agenda for the day. It’s also an opportunity for them to adapt the day’s material to slow the pace (in particular when the group is tired or frustrated), revisit material if we’ve had issues understanding it fully, or to change the agenda if we’d like to cover something different but related to what we’ve already gone over.
This week we’ve covered a range of topics from HTML, CSS and Javascript basics to the more advanced flexbox, Javascript objects and arrays, and agile principles. The days are long. Class starts at 9am and finishes between 6-6.30pm and we’ve had homework each evening which has so far taken me between an hour to 3 hours to complete (I’ve logged 39h 37m of computer time this week!). Whilst you’re not required to complete the homework before the next class, you’ll get more out of the bootcamp if you do as it’s usually putting into practice what you’ve learnt to date, and identify any issues with your understanding of the topic.
I’ve found the more visual exercises more enjoyable and easier so far. It could be because I’m more familiar with HTML and CSS and that I’m more of a visual person. Having been schooled in using floats and clears to position elements on the webpage, I can clearly see the benefit of using flexbox to design layouts. We will cover CSS Grid next week.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing though. Thursday morning I felt tired, deflated and frustrated at not having been able to complete the homework. I was struggling with Javascript objects and arrays. But I wasn’t alone. The teacher and TAs adapted the day’s material to go through the exercise to address any blockers. This has been invaluable as I’ve had numerous questions that has only emerged through trying to apply what I’ve learnt.
We ended Friday with a fun, interactive quiz on what we’ve covered during the week followed by beers, to unwind going into the weekend. I finished this weekend’s exercise earlier, and if you’re interested in seeing how I’m progressing and what I’m learning have a look at my Github profile.
😍 The light in Barcelona! And look at those blue skies 👌
After six exhilerating, frustrating, happy, sad, long, and short years in China I’ve moved back to Europe. For a while I’ve wanted to leave China feeling that I’d accomplished what I set out to achieve, and late last year I committed and set in motion ‘the move’.
With the UK’s current political climate in turmoil (read Brexit) and still very much wanting to be part of the EU, I’ve made Barcelona my home for the foreseeable future.
I’ve been here for just over a week now and first impressions are promising. Blue skies, warm(ish) weather, and fresh air. Quite a departure from the grey, cold, and polluted environment of Suzhou, my home for almost four years, that I’ve left behind.
The move has encouraged me to think about where I see my career going. In China I advanced through web development roles ultimately to becoming web development manager. Through that progression I feel like I somehow lost touch with making things and the excitement that it brings. The development work was largely outsourced owing to a small in-house team, and the management was of internal stakeholders. That is not to downplay my role. Listening and communicating with a large academic community is no mean feat, and I take pride in the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University website.
Tomorrow I start on a web development bootcamp at Ironhack to refresh my skills utilising the latest technology and practices, but most importantly to find enjoyment in building again. The reason why I first got into web development.
Had a great time exploring the Stanley Kubrick exhibition at the Centre de Cultura Contemprània de Barcelona. Kubrick is one of my favourite directors and it was so inspiring to see his life’s work presented in such a way.
Stretching our legs in the hills overlooking Barcelona city (our new home for now), just thirty minutes away from our apartment. Endless blue skies, warm weather and fresh air 👌
The different perspectives of Busuanga Island from Mount Tapyas 🗻
Merry Christmas from Boracay! We’re having a #whitechristmas on the soft, clean sands of White Beach.
The theme of this year’s festival is ‘the wind of time’ and it features visionary work from some of the world’s most renowned photographers. The striking images, from fashion shoots to food factories, can be seen at the Lianzhou Museum of Photography in southern China until 3 January 2019
Source: Vogue shoots and bike cemeteries: Lianzhou Foto festival 2018 | Art and design | The Guardian
In the last month or so I gave three talks about blogs and me: one lightening talk at ViewSource, one at TODO London and another one at ReactJSGirls. Although I had applied for them at different times, they all happened close to each other and with IndieWebCamp, FFConf, organising a career panel and a work deadline in between it is fair to say that I had a busy November so only now I’ve had time to convert my talk into a blog post.
Source: Oh Hello Ana – Blog
All this WordPress 5.0 Gutenberg stuff got me thinking. With WordPress it seems like the Indieweb starts making serious and cool progress and the WordPress people come along and knock the game board…
Source: Blog Engines and Indieweb Controlling Upstream | Brad Enslen
Today, Nextcloud 15 has been made available. As there is so much new and improved in this release, we have dedicated separate blogs to each main area of improvement. This blog covers the brand new Nextcloud Social, introducing social networking to Nextcloud. Download now! The Mastodon project is excited that…
Source: Nextcloud introduces social features, joins the fediverse – Nextcloud
Since 2007, photographer Jono Rotman has been documenting the Mongrel Mob, a violent brotherhood with over 30 networks across New Zealand.
Snapshots from a couple of weeks ago. These photos of @xjtlu’s Central Building – my second home – were taken 6 days apart when air pollution dropped from absurd to bearable 😷🙁
China’s Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn’t Real by (Foreign Policy) Blacklists and monitoring systems are nowhere close to Black Mirror fantasies.
Early days with my new OnePlus 6T but the night mode camera has produced some nice photos so far.
At China’s Internet Conference, a Darker Side of Tech Emerges by (nytimes.com) The World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, China, has long showcased flashy new tech. This year, discussions also dealt with counterterrorism, data breaches and surveillance.
China’s state-run press agency has created an ‘AI anchor’ to read the news by (The Verge) But the agency’s new host isn’t any more sophisticated than a CGI puppet
How MTV Alumni Came to Rule Digital Media by (The Information) MTV is trying to re-establish itself as the network for millennials. What would help is if it could hire back just a few of the many executives it has lost over the past decade to internet firms like Facebook, Spotify and YouTube.Perhaps more than any other TV network, MTV has been a hunting …
A Contract for the Web by (A Contract for the Web) The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity. By committing to the following principles, governments, companies and citizens around the world can help protect the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone.
A great idea, but when companies such as Google and in particular, Facebook, are listed as supporters you have to wonder if they really intend to develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst.
Designing, laws, and attitudes. — ethanmarcotte.com by (ethanmarcotte.com) What would happen if the law required us to design fast websites?
The business value of design by (McKinsey & Company) How do the best performers increase their revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry counterparts? The value of design comes from top management rigor, company-wide teamwork, rapid iteration, and relentless user-centricity.
We Need to Have an Honest Talk About Our Data by (WIRED) VR pioneer Jaron Lanier talks with WIRED about why the original architecture of the internet forced us into a kind of information trickery, and how we can fix it—to everyone’s benefit.
China is making the internet less free, and US tech companies are helping by (The Verge) While doing business in China, US tech companies must play by local rules — or face getting kicked out.
The Chinese Farmer Who Live-Streamed Her Life and Made a Fortune by (The New Yorker) Liu Mama, a loud-mouthed, ruddy-cheeked Northern farmer with millions of online followers, is one of many Chinese streamers participating in a virtual gold rush.
Measuring Performance With Server Timing by (Smashing Magazine) The Server Timing header provides a discrete and convenient way to communicate backend server performance timings to developer tools in the browser. Adding timing information to your application enables you to monitor back-end and front-end performance all in one place.
The EU’s Link Tax Will Kill Open Access and Creative Commons News by (Electronic Frontier Foundation) All this month, the European Union’s “trilogue” is meeting behind closed doors to hammer out the final wording of the new Copyright Directive, a once-noncontroversial regulation that became a hotly contested matter when, at the last minute, a set of extremist copyright proposals were added and…
How China complicates Apple’s chest-thumping about privacy by (The Verge) A former Facebook executive points out that Apple likely has to make compromises, too
Headless WordPress: The Ups And Downs Of Creating A Decoupled WordPress by (Smashing Magazine) Everyone knows that if a website is slow, users will abandon it. Many studies demonstrate the connection between website performance and conversion rates. In this article, Denis Žoljom shares his experience and the basics of creating a decoupled WordPress.
China systematically hijacks internet traffic: researchers by (iTnews) Exploited omission in US-China cyber detente agreement.
UK data watchdog fines Facebook maximum legal amount for Cambridge Analytica scandal by (The Verge) The fine is just £500,000, but regulators say it should have been ‘significantly higher’
Server to Client by Before anything can happen in a browser, it must first know where to go. There are multiple ways to get somewhere: entering a URL in the address bar, clicking (or tapping) on a link on a page or in another app, or clicking on a favorite. No matter the case, these all result in what’s called a navigation. A navigation is the very first step in any web interaction, as it kicks off a chain reaction of events that culminates in a web page being loaded.
Can I? Should I? Will I? A fellow @beijinghikers assessing one of the many peaks in the Baicheng Landform.
Thank you @mathiasheng for awarding me first prize 🏆 for this photo from our recent trip to Xinjiang. A special thanks to @beijinghikers for organising the incredible and eye-opening trip.
The Baicheng Landforms in Xinjiang are how I’d imagine the surface of Mars to look. Vast and barren with rich reds and browns.
The tool and the task. — ethanmarcotte.com by (ethanmarcotte.com) Our design tools change the design of our products and, at times, they can change us. How do we talk about that?
Research, Empathy, Simplicity, Speed: A recipe for great digital products – Designer News by (Designer News) Research, Empathy, Simplicity, Speed: A recipe for great digital products
André Staltz – Reinvent the Social Web by Google’s CEO confirms it’s returning to China with a censored search engine by (Fast Company) The censored search engine is known internally as “Dragonfly” and has been in testing since last year.
A thread written by @real_vijay by (threader.app) 1/ Google is working on a new search engine code-named “Dragonfly” that will aid China’s effort to censor information from its citizenry.
As a former Google engineer I wanted to share some information on what it’s like to be inside Google as these decisions are made https://t.co/HAts5wXwsU
Google CEO says it’s ‘important for us to explore’ search in China by (The Verge) Sundar Pichai downplays concerns that a China-centric search product would stifle freedom of thought
How Poor Branding is Holding Chinese Companies Back Abroad by (Sixth Tone) As domestic competition mounts, some Chinese brands are taking aim at international markets, but their strategies remain a work in progress.
Sheep 🐑, cows 🐄, camels 🐪, and goats 🐐 all for sale at Kashgar’s livestock market.
An evening wandering the dark, smokey streets of Kashgar’s Old City.
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#kashgar #xinjiang #china #uyghur #travel #silkroad #kashi #islam #lamb #fire #streetphotography #farwestchina #silkroute #architecture #kashgaroldcity #oldcity #guardiantravelsnaps #natgeotravel #natgeo #streetshot #travelasia #lonelyplanet
The legendary Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine near Kashgar, Xinjiang Province, China.
How Google’s China project undermines its claims to political neutrality by (The Verge) A leaked internal presentation about censorship frames the issue correctly — but the company’s work in China contradicts it
Rethink: Web (Open Space) When we struggle to explain the inherent qualities of a medium, we tend to defer to analogies and metaphors. This is especially true of the internet.
Back to work in Suzhou after an eye-opening National Week holiday exploring Xinjiang in far-west China. Lots to process – photos, views/opinions, and memories.
Workplace topology | Clearleft (Clearleft) Within our organisations, we have increasingly been introducing practises such as dev ops and design ops, to reduce operational inefficiencies.
Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station (上海虹桥站) Zhengzhou Railway Station (郑州站 Zhengzhou Railway Station) Guang Dong Hotel Zhengzhou Xinzheng Intl. Airport Terminal 2 (郑州新郑机场T2航站楼) Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport (LHW) (兰州中川国际机场) Kashgar Airport / 喀什机场 (KHG) Night Market (夜市) Qinibagh Hotel, Kashgar Id Kah Mosque (艾提尕尔清真寺) Notes from a crosswalk. — ethanmarcotte.com (ethanmarcotte.com) On the route, the steps, and what follows.
Herenbag Bashkram Markets Kashgar Old Town Apak Khoja Mausoleum (香妃墓) Bahqa Saray Kashgar Old Town Qinibagh Hotel, Kashgar 
Stretching our legs on a 6km there-and-back trek to break up the drive from Baicheng to Aksu.
Splendid Hotel Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves (拜城克孜尔千佛洞) 
The ruins of Subashi, an ancient temple complex in the Taklamakan Desert, used continuously from the 3rd to 10th centuries. Subash is a Uyghur word meaning “the origin of water”.
Yang Zi Shui Du Hotel Baicheng Landform Tianshan Mysterious Grand Canyon (新疆天山神秘大峡谷) Yardang Landform Kizilgaha Beacon Tower Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins Kuqa Grand Hotel King’s Palace Kuqa Grand Mosque (库车大寺) Kuqa Grand Hotel 
Distant views from a short hike over the Tiemenguan, the end of the Great Wall of China in Korla, Xinjiang, and a key passage on the Silk Road.
Pear City Garden Hotel (梨城花園酒店) Visited Tiemenguan, the western-most gate of the Great Wall of China, and a key passage on the Silk Road.
鐵門關 Korla 
The incredible sculptures at the Longmen Grottoes, painstakingly carved out of rock over several hundred years.
Arrived into Korla earlier this evening. Hungry, we stumbled into the nearest eating establishment we came across. Only after ordering a couple of dishes did we realise it specialised in dog and donkey meat 😳
Home | Solid (solid.inrupt.com) Ming Yue Crown Boutique Hotel Korla Airport (KRL) 库尔勒机场 Goodbye Zhengzhou. It’s been short but sweet. Hope to see you again. Next stop Korla (库尔勒).
Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport (CGO) (郑州新郑国际机场) Innside Hotel By Melia 綠地怡思得酒店 
The Longmen Grottoes are truly spectacular. So many sculptures ranging from 2cm to several metres tall. It’d be an incredible feat to construct them today with modern tools, let alone 1,500 years ago!
龙门石窟 Longmen Grottoes 洛阳龙门站 Luoyang Longmen Railway Station Arrived in Zhengzhou and checked into our hotel. Initial impressions of the city: modern, clean, and illuminated. So many lights!
Hurtling through China at 300km/h towards Zhengzhou, the first destination of our National Week trip.
[Chile unveils Patagonian Route of Parks hiking trail](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45663960) Yes, yes, YES!
How to Build a Low-tech Website? (LOW←TECH MAGAZINE) Our new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content.
Can Google make the web faster without taking over the web? by (The Verge) Google’s Malte Ubl on The Vergecast
My favorite design tool. — ethanmarcotte.com (ethanmarcotte.com) What if someone doesn’t browse the web like I do? Or like you do?
Charging ALL THE DEVICES in excited anticipation of our trip to the north west of China for National Day Golden Week.
China’s hunger for soybeans is a window into an encroaching environmental crisis (Fast Company) How China’s desperate efforts to source soybeans from all over the world is explained by the country’s fear of running out of water.
Preparing a conference talk (adactio.com) I gave a talk at the State Of The Browser conference in London earlier this month. It was a 25 minute spiel called The Web Is Agreement.
While I was putting the talk together, I posted some pictures of my talk preparation process. People seemed to be quite interested in that peek behind the curtain,…a post (blog.bellebcooper.com) It Isn’t About The Technology (blog.dshr.org) A year and a half ago I attended Brewster Kahle’s Decentralized Web Summit and wrote: I am working on a post about my reactions to the fi…
The Beautiful Market (美丽市场) Fresh Mart (鲜品馆) Starbucks (星巴克) My foreword for Image Performance. — ethanmarcotte.com (ethanmarcotte.com) I was asked to write an introduction for Mat Marquis’ new book on images and performance, which I loved. (I think you’ll love it, too.)
Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China (The Intercept) The company forced employees to delete the document, which stated that a Chinese partner would have “unilateral access” to user data.
The vast, impressive, and arid landscapes of Gansu Province in Western China.
See the ghostly remains of a failed techno-utopia (Fast Company) These secret cities of the former Soviet Union point to a “perfect technocratic future that never happened.”
A framework for web performance | Clearleft (Clearleft) Here at Clearleft, we’ve recently been doing some front-end consultancy. That prompted me to jot down thoughts on design principles and performance:
Whatever Happened to the Semantic Web? (twobithistory.org) In 2001, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, published an article in Scientific American.
Google is giving up some control of the AMP format by (The Verge) Sending the project to committee
RevAMP. — ethanmarcotte.com (ethanmarcotte.com) Google’s Accelerated Mobile Project (AMP) has announced it’s moving to a more open governance model, which is great. I still have some questions.
zemo cafe Décathlon (迪卡侬) Tech in Asia – Connecting Asia’s startup ecosystem (techinasia.com) Cloudflare goes InterPlanetary – Introducing Cloudflare’s IPFS Gateway (The Cloudflare Blog) Today we’re excited to introduce Cloudflare’s IPFS Gateway, an easy way to access content from the the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) that doesn’t require installing and running any special software on your computer.
What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet? by (Jeremy Dormitzer) A new kind of social network
There’s a new social network in town. It’s called Mastodon. You might have even heard of it. On the surface, Mastodon feels a lot like Twitter: you post “toots” up to 500 characters; you follow other users who say interesting things; you can favorite a toot or re…Sam’s Club (山姆会员商店) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Rong Vietnamese Cuisine Holiday Inn Express McDonald’s (麦当劳) 
The weather here in Suzhou has been much cooler and more humid these past days, so I’m thinking warmer, drier thoughts of our California road trip earlier this year that took us through Joshua Tree.
zemo cafe Today, Europe Lost The Internet. Now, We Fight Back. (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Today, in a vote that split almost every major EU party, Members of the European Parliament adopted every terrible proposal in the new Copyright Directive and rejected every good one, setting the stage for mass, automated surveillance and arbitrary censorship of the internet: text messages like…
Taking back control of my digital life – Timo Zimmermann (screamingatmyscreen.com) Google Is Handing the Future of the Internet to China (Foreign Policy) The company has been quietly collaborating with the Chinese government on a new, censored search engine—and abandoning its own ideals in the process.
EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’ (The Verge) Those in favor say they’re fighting for content creators, but critics say the new laws will be ‘catastrophic’
Why we’re building a social network supported by people, not advertisers (Fast Company) The designers behind Are.na explain the thinking that led to their nascent social platform, winner of the 2018 Innovation By Design General Excellence award.
The top four web performance challenges | Clearleft (Clearleft) Counting down the charts—what will be in the number one spot?
The future of the Home of the Future by (The Verge) We join Grant Imahara in examining where the Home of the Future goes next.
Robustness and least power | Clearleft (Clearleft) A tale of two principles.
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) 
To prevent overfishing and to improve the quality of the environment, fishing is banned on Lake Tai for 6 months of the year. On 1 September, the first day of the finishing season, I was invited out on one of the boats.
Suzhou Railway Station (YUQ) (苏州站) 
Had fun exploring the less visited, more wild parts of Hangzhou with @lands_remote this weekend.
Hangzhou East Railway Station (杭州东站) eShine eats 壹向轻食 college b&r R•S Longjing Tea Plantation – the Dragon Well Village 茅草屋 三台阁 Citynest Youth Hostel McDonald’s (麦当劳) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Three tools to help automate your SEO workflow (Econsultancy) As digital marketers, we find ourselves limited on the most valuable resource: time.
Décathlon (迪卡侬) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Burger King zemo cafe Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Fresh Mart (鲜品馆) Sam’s Club (山姆会员商店) Accessibility is not a feature. — ethanmarcotte.com (ethanmarcotte.com) Lately, I’ve been reflecting on some of the language I use to talk about accessibility. It might be language you use, too.
Airlio Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) 欧尚 Auchan Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Subway (赛百味) McDonald’s (麦当劳) Suzhou Railway Station (YUQ) (苏州站) Digi.me wants to put you back in charge of your personal data (Fast Company) Harnessing the data that companies collect about you sounds like a great idea, but how much are they willing to share?
Shanghai Railway Station (上海站) Holiday Inn (假日酒店) Beef & Liberty Sony Style Shanghai Railway Station (上海站) Logged off: meet the teens who refuse to use social media by (the Guardian) Generation Z has grown up online – so why are a surprising number suddenly turning their backs on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat?
Suzhou Industrial Park Railway Station (苏州园区火车站 | Suzhou Industrial Park Railway Stn.) Café Mersey McDonald’s (麦当劳) Facebook has removed all cross-posted tweets (TechCrunch) Facebook users are complaining the company has removed the cross-posted tweets they had published to their profiles as Facebook updates. The posts’ removal took place following the recent API change that prevented Twitter users from continuing to automatically publish their tweets to Facebook…
Café Mersey The Low Hanging Fruit of Web Performance – Media Temple (The Media Temple Blog) There is so much to know about making websites fast. It’s rather incredible. Things like understanding servers and networks, how browsers parse things and make decisions, efficient coding…
zemo cafe Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) 
The different landscapes of Joshua Tree National Park 🌵⛰🌴🏜
The Real Deal About rel=”me” by (wiki.zegnat.net) Earlier today, Barry Schwartz published a piece over on Search Engine Roundtable called Google Does Not Use rel=me Microformats. The article got shared around Twitter a lot, and those tweets surfaced on the microformats IRC channel. In it he mentions a few things that I would like to respond to, tha…
This island’s “water microgrid” is saving its aquifer from tourists (Fast Company) Bluewater is making Baltic Sea water drinkable for visitors to the tiny Swedish island of Sandhamn–and helping other water-strapped communities thrive.
As WordPress provides sufficient insight into how visitors use my website through Jetpack, I’ve now removed Google Analytics tracking from [scottmallinson.com](https://scottmallinson.com). Immediately seen an increase in performance.
Café Mersey Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) 
More from our Southern California roadtrip. We stopped at Salvation Mountain ⛰ to witness one man’s commitment to God.
欧尚 Auchan Décathlon (迪卡侬) Suzhou Industrial Park Railway Station (苏州园区火车站 | Suzhou Industrial Park Railway Stn.) Shanghai Railway Station (上海站) Wagas (沃歌斯) Sony Style Home Thai Original Coffee Bakery W.W. Chan & Sons Tailor Ltd. Shanghai Railway Station (上海站) Suzhou Industrial Park Railway Station (苏州园区火车站 | Suzhou Industrial Park Railway Stn.) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) zemo cafe 
Trekking the 49 Palms Oasis Trail in Southern California earlier this year
McDonald’s (麦当劳) Café Mersey zemo cafe Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Café Mersey zemo cafe Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Café Mersey Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) zemo cafe Café Mersey Xietang Laojie (斜塘老街) 韩庭院 Korean BBQ 
Already thinking about my next trip 🤔 Somewhere away from the oppressive heat of the city, like the hike we did earlier in the year in Ninghai 🚶🏻♂️🏕⛰
Has it been a week already since Tioman Island?! 😯🌴☀️⛰
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Shanghai Railway Station (上海站) 文星广场 Wenxing Plaza Citi Hotel Vishal Food And Catering KFC Kg. Genting Jetty Sea Side Cafe Kg Mukut Pulau Tioman Tunamaya Beach & Spa Resort , Tioman Pulau Tioman Vision Commerce Duty Free Shop Juara turtle centre Tekek Jetty SK Mukut Pulau Tioman Sea Side Cafe Kg Mukut Pulau Tioman Mersing Harbour Center Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店) Suzhou Center (苏州中心) Starbucks Reserve (星巴克臻选) Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (西交利物浦大学 Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) Starbucks (星巴克) Gaokao exam results are being released and we’re starting to see spikes of traffic to our admission results system at www.xjtlu.edu.cn/gaokao/. If you’ve applied to @XJTLU, good luck!
Things I love about MacOS… NOT! Hello MacOS, please meet iCloud Drive.
Is it valid to write … enclosing a whole page’s content, navigation etc. within a schema type?
Testing…1…2
Trying to work out a publishing strategy that combines the benefits of POSSE, captures engagement through webmentions, and importantly makes sense.
Back in Hong Kong 🇭🇰 Spent the evening wandering around Kowloon taking in the Blade Runner-esque sights
It’s fascinating to see how Shanghai has changed since its portrayal in 1987’s Empire of the Sun. Whilst the Bund remains largely unchanged, the same can’t be said for the rest of the city. The skyline is quite different!
Hiking in China – exploring the Ninghai national trail system (Lands Remote) China's first national hiking system, the National Trail System – Ninghai, offers 500km of waymarked hiking trails through the mountains near Ninghai city in Zhejiang province, China. Ninghai is just 2.5 hours south of Shanghai on China's highspeed train.
Hard work but had great fun getting away from the office, and into nature on this trail.
That feeling when the web service you’re pulling data from changes their encoding, doesn’t do any testing nor informs you of the changes 🤦
Finally getting the hang of #webmentions. Managed to successfully poll and retrieve responses for scottmallinson.com and landsremote.co.
The only emails I seem to receive from Apple are either invoices or to sell me a new product. As someone who has invested a lot of 💰 in Apple products, would it hurt to send the occasional email offering advice on how I can get the most out of my purchases?!
There are definitely worse ways to spend your Saturday morning/lunch. Devouring excellent food at The Commune Social in Shanghai.
Excited to see Bill Bailey in Shanghai!! #internationalcomedyfestival
Trying to get my head around microblogging, #IndieWeb, WebMentions, valid RSS feeds, and a #POSSE strategy.
New toy. For work, of course! #raspberrypi
We haven’t quite managed the 50km of the Ninghai Trail we intended to do, but we’re happy with the 35km or so we’ve covered. Resting our feet before catching our train later.
Yesterday we managed between 18 and 21km on the Ninghai Trail (distance varies between GPS watches). Attempting to do another long stint today. Had a cold night camping with a colder one to come.
Breakfast at @McDonalds. On our way to Ninghai for a long weekend of camping and hiking.
Since getting a @Sonos speaker I’ve found I’m listening to a lot more music and, through @Spotify, discovering more artists 🤘🔊 https://www.last.fm/user/boardstupid/library?from=2018-03-01&rangetype=month
Prepping for hiking the Ninghai Trail this weekend. Aiming to complete 50km over three days. Need to test out our tent 🏕️, make sure our packs 🎒 aren’t too heavy, whilst ensuring we’ve enough food and water!
CloudFlare’s new DNS 1.1.1.1 blocked in China 🤷♂️
Fun afternoon-into-evening in Shanghai drinking coffee, beers, cocktails meeting up with friends, old and new.
Busy, productive day 👨💻😓💪 followed by drinks and food🍹🍔. Hello weekend!
[https://www.wired.com/story/china-megacities-gallery/](Spectacular!)
Had a productive meeting with a local web development agency here in #Suzhou to undertake a priority project 🤞
So I’ve set up a little micro.blog over at [https://scottmallinson.com] as a means of POSSE-ing to Twitter and Facebook. If I’ve set up Webmentions correctly, comments and likes should backfeed to my website 🤞
Let’s see if this works…
This month marks my fifth anniversary of working in China, and it’s time I started to share some of the interesting, wonderful and frustrating things I encounter in the Middle Kingdom.
I will be writing posts documenting insights I’ve gathered over the past few years, as well as observations and findings on society, culture and technology related to my personal and professional life.
Being in China limits my access to social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter (which I’ll cover in time), so if you have any questions, concerns or observations of your own, feel free to comment on any of the posts using the form below.
Last year was great for traveling. Here are my #2017bestnine. Spot the photo that wasn’t taken in 2017.
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#2017bestnine #2017 #happynewyear #2018 #bestnine2017 #newyear #instagood #photooftheday #instadaily #photography #travelgram #travel #travelphotography #explore #life #wanderlust #travellife #travelpic #best9 #instatravel #trip
Tianjin West Railway Station 🚊throwing some shapes
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#tianjinwestrailwaystation #tianjin #china #railwaystation #reflection #trainstation #train #highspeed #instasize #shotoniphone6 #iphoneography #highspeedrail #architecturephotography #exploretianjin #archilovers #vsco #building #chineseexperience
Minyuan Stadium, Tianjin, built in 1926 and modelled after Stamford Bridge in London. Now home to shops, hair salons, and eateries
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#minyuanstadium #tianjin #china #wudadao #minyuan #vsco #vscocam #minyuanplaza #stadium #daily #architecture #travel #5thavenue #yellow #sunset #oldbuilding #building #fiveavenues #igworldclub #instadaily #agameoftones #weekend #structure #tj #architecturalphotography #nightlights #plaza #arch #dailyphoto #travelphotography
Part of the adventure is the journey ✈️ .
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#adventure #travel #explore #wanderlust #photography #instagood #travelgram #travelphotography #love #photooftheday #instatravel #beautiful #vacation #picoftheday #traveler #traveling #trip #fun #lifestyle #life #instadaily #photo #travelling #holiday
Looking out over the Sea of Clouds 🌊☁️⛰
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#huangshan #china #anhui #travel #mountains #nature #yellowmountain #mountain #hiking #landscape #traveling #travelphotography #asia #yellowmountains #travelgram #huangshanmountain #instatravel #instagood #nationalpark #holiday #clouds #wanderlust #photography #love #adventure #beautiful #explorechina #view
A fun weekend hiking Mount Huangshan with @t.ennis27 and @lands_remote
Ascending Mt. Huangshan
Suzhou’s Panmen Gate looking resplendent in the Autumn sun 🌞
En route to Ningbo
