2025-09-29 03:13:00
A lot of technical people currently spout regressive and harsh messages about race, religion, identity and women’s rights to side with “strong man” politicians and parties. That’s their right, but it also is an abuse of reach and power. Time to focus.
A lot of the people whose work I adore and admire are terrible and weird human beings. That’s where it’s tricky to separate the art from the artist and consider if and how you want to support it. This gets even trickier when you find out more about the person, they get caught doing horrible things or their fame gets to their head and they start promoting a terrible opinion about something just because they can.
Maybe the real issue is the cult of the person and we need to stop inflating people’s egos or pretend that there is such a thing as one person’s skill and ideas being the main reason why their work becomes a success.
Let’s take a look at some examples:
There is no doubt that Stanley Kubrick was a genius and transported cinema into places it’s never been before. All the reports of working with him sound terrible as he pushed people to the brink of exhaustion. Studios hated working with him as every movie went far over budget.
There is also no doubt that Quentin Tarantino left an indelible mark on pop culture but I for one wouldn’t want to be locked in a broken down lift with him as the man just seems off.
Sometimes it’s the other way around: I don’t like the Roger Moore Bond movies as he comes across as smarmy, horrible towards women and silly. The more I read about Moore himself, the more I admire the person as a genuinely great chap.
Sometimes there’s no surprise at all. When Till Lindemann, the singer of Rammstein got accused of sexual misconduct and abuse nobody who ever saw the chap or can read German lyrics should feel any surprise. That doesn’t excuse it, of course.
Then we get the utterly baffling ones. JK Rowling created an amazing world with Harry Potter (and failed to extend it to more with Fantastic Beasts). The first few books were questionable when it comes to the quality of writing, but the world building was amazing and the overall arc of seven books getting darker and darker as the main protagonist got older was excellent.
Rowling built a magical world where love is the strongest power, even protecting yourself against non-blockable death spells. A world full of magical creatures, some of them half human, and a pivotal gay character. A world where the good people stand up for the rights of merpeople, centaurs and elves and the bad people bang on about blood purity. A world where dark forces use weak politicians to break down the order and establish a fascist regime. It’s a great depiction of what can go wrong if people strive for power at all cost.
How a person responsible for a world like that can not mount the mental curb that some people aren’t the gender they were born as baffles me. That a person that did the great thing of paying her taxes and giving back to a social system that once supported her now spends her money on lobbying to get laws in place that limit the freedom of people baffles me even more.
Currently hordes of old comedians complain that everything is too woke and they are being censored because they can’t tell their old racist and sexist jokes and that people were much more open then or “could still take a joke”. Maybe they couldn’t even back then but society was less evolved and considered a sexist statement just a thing that women should be “open enough” to endure. Or – maybe your art should have evolved with the society we are in now.
My favourite is podcasters with hundreds of thousands of listeners banging on about that they are being censored. Both them and their listeners would do well to look up irony.
Maybe it is really true that power, reach and wealth corrupts. I even felt that with the limited impact I have. I wrote books, taught courses and spoke at hundreds of events over the years. I was on podcasts, on panels, an invited expert on some lawmaking processes and got interviewed by mainstream media. This feels good and you think you should use that reach and fame to also do more and bring your beliefs and political ideas to people, too. After all, they are yours and can only be correct and amazingly insightful, right?
People ask you for all kinds of advice, too. What computer you use and if it’s the best there is. What they should do to be as successful as you are. What you think of other successful people and products. Where you think everything is heading. It is stifling and scary that people think everything you do and touch is the correct way of doing things. But it is also tempting to start believing that.
Fact is that we all talk bollocks from time to time and it’s easy to get excited about your own success and make blanket, cool sounding statements.
Currently there is something really worrying and disgusting happening. Leaders of countries, owners of media outlets, politicians and company owners start embracing strong, simple, regressive messages. Dividing messages and calls to return to values of old. Where men were real men, women were there to have children and everybody was healthy, fit and strong. Where the strongest survived and there was a clear hierarchy of worth when it comes to what people look like. In other words, a fairy tale of things being better in the old days before we had to care about what other people feel. Nobody calls out for proof, blatantly lying about your achievements is considered a normal way of “fake it till you make it”.
And this is where a lot of people see their chance to get a slice of power. They repeat and amplify these messages and paint themselves as better than others because of their successes and because they concentrated on being an alpha person. They also wallow in self victimisation painting themselves as people forced for years to keep silent and now finally have a chance to say what they really think. That these topics mesh to 100% with the rhetoric of the current strong man politics can surely only be coincidence.
The most evil character in Harry Potter isn’t Voldemort. It’s Umbridge. The most evil character in DS9 isn’t Gul Dukat. It’s Kai Winn. The enablers, the repeaters, the multipliers of control, censorship and exclusion.
And this is what I see right now when I look at tech bros, podcasters and washed out celebrities siding with the enemies of progress. This isn’t about believing what they say, this is about seeing an opportunity.
In every totalitarian regime there were people who gave inhuman orders. There were others who executed them, either because they believed them to be necessary or because they were scared of the consequences when they didn’t follow the orders. And then there were thousands of people who looked the other way or felt powerless to prevent these atrocities. They didn’t commit crimes, but they enabled them.
Many people spouting hatred complain about “cancel culture” and movies, music and podcasts being cancelled because they won’t fit the “woke agenda”. This does exist and maybe being too zealous about this topic is to blame for this counter movement. I’ve been uninvited to speak at events because of things I said and even more often about things people heard other people say that I did or said. This hurts and there is not much you can do about it. I used it to introspect and learn to care more about what I say and do especially if it could be taken out of context.
When it comes to existing art not being shown anymore, I’m not for cancellation at all. Keep showing old programs unless they actually by now represent hate speech. Show them with warning and explanation to consider them as a product of that time and place. If you don’t do that, people can’t learn and will create new products that make the same mistakes.
It’s not about legitimising inappropriate content, it’s about making it obsolete and embarrassing.
If we stopped showing anything inappropriate, the whole Mel Brooks back catalogue would be gone, and that would be a shame. His work was lampooning everything and everyone and it was funny as hell. And the artist himself helped a lot of others succeed. Also see: South Park.
When it comes to new content being created, it’s about context. A far right podcaster spouting hatred towards immigrants comes with the territory. The job of all of us is to detect lies, hyperbole and conspiracies and shine a big light on them. You won’t be able to sway their already existing audience but you can warn others and uncover the rat catching method behind the tirades.
We always talk about separating the art from the artist when it comes to excusing the ongoing showing of movies and music of people who turned out to be toxic.
We could use this and turn it around though: separate the work on the product from the biased messages they try to also tell the world about.
I don’t need the opinion of a football player on the Middle East in prime time news. Morrisey brings nothing of value to the table when it comes to Brexit. Seeing John Cleese becoming the very limited and bigoted person he lampooned in Monty Python and Fawlty Towers is painful to watch.
If a presenter at a technical conference bangs on about being an Alpha male, racial purity or family values that is simply hijacking the speaking slot. As a moderator I’d have no qualms interrupting and stopping the talk. Not to censor but to avoid wasting everybody’s time. If someone is invited to give a specialist talk and requests to also bring in their radical beliefs, I will not pick that person. Stage time, podcast time and online interview time should be considered precious to give usable information to the audience, not give hatred a platform.
We need to break the fandom and admiration down to focus on the things that person does well. I can tell you tons about building accessible interfaces and writing maintainable code. If I ever give advice on how to raise a child I’ll be talking nonsense as I’ve never done it. So disregard my advice in this matter and tell me to stop.
Warning bells should go off any time the creator isn’t willing to separate their ideals (or those he or she repeats to get on the good side of those in power) from their product.
A developer of a highly successful framework or app speaking their political mind on their social platforms is their right.
The same person publishing them on the official blog of the product or starting to stop contributions from people not aligned with their beliefs is an abuse of power. The community of that product should react accordingly, calling out that this behaviour isn’t wanted, limit the powers of that person or – in the worst case – fork it. That isn’t censorship, it’s acting against a hostile takeover from within much like any other social engineering hacking attempt.
As a customer or consumer of that person’s product it’s up to you if you want to support such abuse as the product is too useful or if you want to consider alternatives. Nobody has to agree with those who shout the loudest. And being an expert in one thing that gives you a large following doesn’t mean we need to hear you evangelising your truth on all other matters.
2025-09-25 20:08:53
When I moved to the UK at the tail end of the last millennium, I wasn’t in a good place. I was hired by a US company to work in their German office, and they sent me over to the US to work on their product. I lived in a hotel for a few months, coming home to an empty, cleaned room every day. It was very “Lost in Translation”. The German part of the company went bankrupt during this trip, so I was asked to move to the UK to stay with them. Anglophile as I was, I took this opportunity and had a few trips in between the US and the UK to find a place to live.
My partner of five years also said they’d love to make that move with me and start a new chapter. That didn’t work out – I was dumped in a call on a pay phone in a hotel in San Francisco, went out and got really drunk. When the US stint ended, I went to London, checked into my new flat and waited for my stuff from Germany to arrive.
And then I plunged into London. I went clubbing a lot. I spent the day in the office and went to the pub with my colleagues in the evening. I enjoyed and fell in love with the place. I met people from all over the world, I dated people of many races and backgrounds. I had food I never had, I heard music and saw bands I’ve never heard of or even knew existed. I’ve been to Notting Hill Carnival, immersing myself in this wonderful, wild and colourful scene.
London opened my mind, it made me find the great in lots of cultures and seeing them bringing that to the UK lifestyle was at times a hilarious clash, but wonderful to witness. Very early on I realised one thing: being British is not the same as being a pasty white uptight person, Brits come in all shades and sizes. The most British person I know with a clipped accent, fierce devotion to the Royals and a fetish for a good cuppa is a gay friend who is dark Indian.
Working in Soho I got to know a lot of LGBTQ folk and a few of my colleagues came out or even changed gender during the time I worked there. And they got support from everyone, it wasn’t a problem or a scary thing. London was inviting, colourful, open and amazing. That’s the London I miss.
It’s a big city. In my 16 years tenure I had one laptop, a mobile and a bike stolen. I got into some fights and had three attempted muggings. All by white young dudes, by the way. I lived next to a huge mosque and the area two streets down was hard-core Jewish. My butcher was Algerian and when I ordered in French-ish, I got better prices. It worked.
Then UKIP came around and told people that everything is terrible and its all the forrins’ fault. And disappointed and disgruntled people believed that nonsense. I left the country after Brexit and moved to Berlin, which is great but does feel like a Tesco value version of the London I encountered.
So if people claim that they remember a safer, cleaner and racially homogenous London they either never lived there, or didn’t immerse themselves in it. Or completely talk out of their arse following an utterly different agenda, one that I find despicable, regressive and governed by fear and hate and not inclusion and inspiration.
2025-09-12 20:43:33
Cleaning out some old boxes trying to find an old work contract I came across a sticker sheet I got back when HTML5 became a standard that has all the icons on there the W3C defined as part of the “web reboot”:
I posted it around on social media to see who can remember them all and to indulge a bit in nostalgia. As these are official icons ratified by a standards body, they should be pretty known, right? Personally, I also forgot about a lot of them, but here is the info:
The first column is all the HTML5 logo – that one is pretty known.
Top row: Star, Multimedia, Semantics
Middle row: Offline Storage, Device Access, 3D Effects
Bottom row: Performance, Styling, Connectivity
The star is a bit of a weird one, but it is listed as a “supporting element” on the official logo site.
Now, bad enough that we forgot, but what does AI think? So I asked Grok what these icons mean and here is the hilariously wrong hallucinated answer:
Question: “Explain the meaning of the icons on this photo”
Searched for “HTML5 CSS3 JavaScript icons sticker sheet”Overview:
This photo shows a sheet of glossy, die-cut stickers featuring minimalist geometric icons commonly associated with web development technologies. These are likely from a developer sticker pack (such as those sold on sites like Redbubble, Etsy, or CSS Weekly), designed for laptops, water bottles, or notebooks to represent programming languages, frameworks, and tools. The icons are arranged in a 3×3 grid (with the top-left being the prominent HTML5 logo), and they follow standard visual identities for these technologies. Below, I’ll describe each icon’s position, appearance, and meaning, reading left-to-right and top-to-bottom for clarity.
Position Icon Description Meaning Top-Left Red/orange shield-like shape with “5” inside (HTML5 logo) HTML5: The foundational markup language for structuring web content, including elements like audio, video, and semantic tags. This is the official W3C logo for HTML5. Top-Middle Black circle with a white five-pointed star inside jQuery: A popular JavaScript library for simplifying DOM manipulation, event handling, and animations. The starburst design is its official logo. Top-Right Black rectangle with a smaller white rectangle inset on the top-right corner (like a code editor tab) Sublime Text: A widely used code editor known for its speed, syntax highlighting, and plugin ecosystem. The tab-like icon mimics its interface. Middle-Left Smaller red/orange HTML5 shield (variant or duplicate) HTML5 (variant): Same as top-left; possibly a size variation or emphasis in the sticker set. Middle-Middle Black circle with a right-pointing arrow emerging from the right side (Ethernet-like) Node.js: A JavaScript runtime for building server-side applications using an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model. The arrow evokes network connections. Middle-Right Black shape resembling Japanese katakana “mu” (ム) or a sideways “W” Vue.js: A progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces and single-page applications. This stylized “V” is its official logo. Bottom-Left Even smaller red/orange HTML5 shield (another variant) HTML5 (variant): Repeated for emphasis or multiple sizes in the pack. Bottom-Middle Black six-pointed cogwheel or gear (hexagon with rounded teeth) npm: Node Package Manager, the default package manager for Node.js, used for installing and managing JavaScript dependencies. The gear symbolizes tools and configuration. Bottom-Right Black shape like a stylized “R” in a diamond or a slanted bracket with a line React: A JavaScript library for building dynamic user interfaces, developed by Facebook. The “R” in a hexagon/diamond is its official logo.
Then again, Grok inside X was closer:
These are stickers of the HTML5 logo and its feature badges from W3C, representing web tech aspects:
- Red shield with 5: HTML5 (semantics/structure)
- Circle with star: Offline & Storage (local data, app cache)
- Clapperboard: Multimedia (audio/video)
- Upward arrows: Performance & Integration (web workers, etc.)
- Power symbol: Connectivity (WebSockets)
- Wave symbol: Device Access (geolocation, camera)
- Hexagon arrow: Geolocation
- Flower gear: Styling (CSS3)
- Shield with 3: CSS3
- Abstract arrow: 3D Graphics & Effects (canvas, SVG)
ChatGPT didn’t fare much better:
This photo shows a set of stickers with various tech and developer-related icons, primarily centered around HTML5 and associated technologies or communities.Here’s a breakdown of the icons from left to right, top to bottom:
Left Column (Orange Shield Icons)These three icons are HTML5 logos in various sizes. The HTML5 logo, introduced by the W3C, represents:
HTML5 specification.
A broader family of open web technologies including CSS, JavaScript APIs, etc.
Middle ColumnThese are less universal, but they are often associated with web development or design systems. Here’s what they most likely represent:
Star Icon – Could represent a “favorite” or “featured” element. Often used in design or rating systems.
Power Button / G Symbol – This resembles a power button and is sometimes stylized to look like a “G”, possibly referencing Gadget, Game, or Grid.
Flower-like Icon – This may symbolize a framework, modular system, or settings/gear-like function.
It resembles some older logos from Mozilla or lesser-known JS frameworks.
Curved Bracket + Slash (>) Icon – Resembles the CSS3 logo in a stylized form, indicating stylesheets or front-end design.
Right ColumnThese icons resemble stylized badges or logos for web-related APIs, technologies, or conceptual tools:
Chevron Up Arrows – Often represents “ranking up” or progress, could be symbolic of increasing levels or navigation.
Broken Television/Display – May represent video, media, or an error state (e.g., “no signal”).
3D Hexagon – May represent WebGL, 3D rendering, or a JavaScript 3D library like Three.js.
Chain Links / Detach Icon – Looks like a “disconnect” or “unlink” symbol, possibly referring to APIs, modules, or external linking.
Summary
The most recognizable symbol is the HTML5 logo (left column).
The rest are likely conceptual or stylized representations of web development components, maybe from a sticker pack made for developers.
Some might come from Mozilla or open web campaigns from around the early 2010s.
Microsoft Copilot at least got the styling right, but was very chipper about it:
Absolutely! This sticker sheet is a fun mix of tech-related symbols, many of which are tied to web development, software engineering, or digital design. Here’s a breakdown of what each icon likely represents:
—-### Top Row
1. HTML5 Logo (Red & White) – Represents HTML5, the fifth version of the HyperText Markup Language used to structure content on the web.2. White Star in Black Circle – Could symbolize a “favorite” or “featured” item, often used in UI design or rating systems.
3. Clapperboard Icon – Typically associated with video or media content—might represent a video editor, media player, or production tool.
—-###
Second Row
4. Three Upward Chevrons – Often used to indicate “upload,” “expand,” or “elevate.” Could also be a stylized logo for a tech brand.5. HTML5 Logo (Again) – Repetition suggests emphasis on web development themes.
6. Power Symbol in Black Circle – Universally recognized as the “power” button—used to turn devices on/off.
—-### Third Row
7. Broken TV Screen Icon – Might represent a glitch, error, or retro tech aesthetic. Could be symbolic of debugging or outdated tech.8. 3D Hexagon Outline – Hexagons are popular in design and often used in blockchain or engineering contexts. The 3D effect suggests depth or complexity.
9. HTML5 Logo (Third Time) – Clearly a central theme—HTML5 is foundational to modern web development.
—-### Bottom Row
10. Gear with Star Center – Gears represent settings or engineering. The star could imply a featured tool or premium functionality.11. Stylized “E” (CSS3-like) – Likely a nod to CSS3, the style sheet language used to design and format web pages.
12. Angular Symbol with Overlapping Shapes – This resembles the Angular framework logo, used for building dynamic web applications.
—-### Overall Theme
The sheet seems to celebrate web technologies, UI/UX design, and digital creativity. It’s the kind of thing a developer might slap on their laptop to show off their tech stack or aesthetic.Want help identifying any specific frameworks or tools these might be linked to?
I suppose we still have a long way to go to a standardised web – or we just forgot to enforce it…
2025-09-05 14:34:17
For our weekly WeAreDevelopers Live Show I wanted to have a way to include a time progress bar into the page we show. The problem there was that these are markdown files using GitHub Pages and whilst I do use some scripting in them, I wanted to make sure that I could have this functionality in pure CSS so that it can be used on GitHub without having to create an html template. And this is it:
The bars support dark and light mode and should be pretty bullet proof. You can check out the demo page to see the effect in action with the liquid source code or play with the few lines of CSS in this codepen. Fork the repo to use it in your pages or just copy the `_includes` folder.
You can use as many bars as you want to in a single page. The syntax to include a bar in a markdown file is the following:
{% include cssbar.html duration=”2s” id=”guesttopic” styleblock=”yes” %}
You can of course also use the bar in pure HTML documents, as shown in the codepen. The syntax is:
Don’t forget to set a unique id both in the checkbox and the label and define the duration in the inline style.
2025-09-01 22:49:09
When I still worked for a US company, I traveled every few weeks to the US, so much so that I had gold status on several airlines. Ever since the Covid pandemic hit and I got laid off by my last employer as part of a 10k employee cut, I stuck to Europe. Other reasons were my partner hating aircraft and long trips and – * gestures vaguely at everything *.
But, I am always up to support folk, which is why I am coming back over the pond to speak at All Things Open on the 12-14th of October 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
To this end, I am preparing a fire and brimstone talk on AI and open technology called With AIs Wide Open…. Here’s what I challenged myself with in terms of talk outline:
We are in the middle of a revolution of human and computer interaction. We’re also in the middle of a ridiculous hype that burns money, up-ends the lives of people and changes the market we work in. How can we survive this change and come out as winners? How can we ensure that decades of open efforts aren’t being taken over by corporate greed and hidden in closed environments? In this talk Chris Heilmann shows how this “revolution” isn’t new but has been tried before and gives you active advice on how to make yourself indispensable in a world of agents and services. Open isn’t dead, open just needs to lead the way. AI is here to stay and it is up to you to see it as a threat or as a chance to steer it into a good future.
So, if you’re East Coast and want to meet, see you at all things open. As you may have already heard, we’re also planning a US edition of the WeAreDevelopers World Congress next year, so if you’re a speaker at the event or have a booth, hit me up for opportunities in that regard.
