General

2021 In Review

2021-12-31T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 31st December 2021.

2021 was the year everything just carried on being a bit rubbish in the world. There were, however, some excellent highlights in the year

Incremental updates don't win awards

2021-06-28T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 28th June 2021. Written For Liquid Light

The web industry thrives on “the big reveal” of new designs and websites but we don't believe that should ever be the case.

My 2021 writing schedule

2021-04-06T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 6th April 2021.

Since 2021, I have stuck to a writing schedule - not only has it helped write more posts, it prevents the flurry of inactivity

Side Project Imposter Syndrome

2021-04-02T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 2nd April 2021.

What is a side project, if not a safe place to get imposter syndrome?

Socket RSS - The Gleefreshing answer to your Doomscrolling habits

2021-02-22T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 22nd February 2021.

I have recently made a side project called "Socket RSS". The idea is it becomes a place for Gleefreshing, not Doomscrolling.

Making sure you're not doing everything at work

2021-01-14T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 14th January 2021.

Delegation is hard for people who find themselves in management roles. The trick is to be the overflow, not the gatekeeper.

2020 In Review

2020-12-31T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 31st December 2020.

2020 brought the first pandemic of my lifetime, but plenty of good things too

Mikestreety's New Clothes

2020-04-15T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 15th April 2020.

For regular readers, you will notice a fresh new face on the old dog (my first blog post that made the many migrations was from 2009!).

2019 In Review

2019-12-31T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 31st December 2019.

2019 was a strange year, new kitchen, bathroom car and bike. But overall it was good. I enjoyed it.

How do you deal with designers who design without any thought?

2019-12-10T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 10th December 2019. Written For Liquid Light

As a developer, dealing with designers and their creations can sometimes be challenging. At Liquid Light we've honed our process to ensure minimum friction between both developers and designers.

How to become device agnostic and what it means for your data

2019-11-11T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 11th November 2019. Written For Liquid Light

All too often you hear about people losing their phones and, along with it, their data. This blog post explores how you can become "device agnostic", freeing the tether between your device and your memories.

email.subscribeto - a newsletter database

2019-08-22T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 22nd August 2019.

I've always been keen to discover new newsletters and have always kept my eye out for recommendations. I decided to collate these recommendations and build a directory.

The Real World of Web Development

2019-07-31T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 31st July 2019.

I read "The Real Dark Web", a blog post from @sonniesedge and within a few paragraphs it really hit home. There are a few noisy web developers who are innovating, ...

2018 in review

2018-12-31T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 31st December 2018.

2018 was a big year for me, in all sorts of ways. This blog post summarises one of the most life-changing years of my life.

Xbox One vs PlayStation 4

2018-11-17T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 17th November 2018.

I recently sold my Xbox One S and bout a PlayStation 4 Pro. Why did I do this and what are the differences? This post outlines my thoughts from an "everyday consumer".

Music obsessions

2018-10-18T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 18th October 2018.

The table below details what I've been listening to, what I am listening to, or albums I've discovered. There is no shame in this list

Why we're not dropping Slack for Google Hangouts Chat...yet.

2018-03-19T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 19th March 2018. Written For Liquid Light

At the beginning of this month, Google announced they were rolling out Hangouts Chat to all users of Google Suite over a week or so. Our suite was finally updated ...

How I wrote a book; the writing process from one of our Developers

2018-03-08T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 8th March 2018. Written For Liquid Light

In 2017, one of our front-end developers wrote and released a book about the JavaScript library; Vue.js. This blog post explains the process he went through to get the book from his mind to print.

2017 in review

2017-12-31T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 31st December 2017.

It seems to be the done thing to do a "year in review" post. I initially scoffed at the idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about how keeping track of accomplishments can be a little encouragement and ego boost. So here goes!

How I kicked a millennial habit

2017-06-22T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 22nd June 2017.

Changing habits is hard - especially when it's being part of your lifestyle for so long. After watching a video, I decided to address my reliance on social media and mobile phones.

Render Conf 30th March 2017 - A review

2017-05-18T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 18th May 2017. Written For Liquid Light

On 30th March, I took the many trains over the many hours required to get to Oxford from Brighton and attended Render Conf. In it’s second year, this conference ...

"HD" cheap action cam - you get what you pay for

2016-12-12T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 12th December 2016.

Recently, a friend and I purchased a cheap action camera from eBay to see what quality you get for £14

How we use Trello to keep track of our marketing schedule

2016-08-02T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 2nd August 2016. Written For Liquid Light

Trello is a great tool which lets you easily manage projects. Ranging from websites to weddings, Trello helps you create tag and move cards. At Liquid Light, we use Trello to keep track of our marketing output - this blog explains how.

Using lego to build a device lab

2016-07-13T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 13th July 2016. Written For Liquid Light

My Dream: Multi-room audio with Chromecast and central music server

2016-01-29T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 29th January 2016.

I have been searching for a solution to my problem for a while now and I have had no luck - so i'm putting it out to the masses to ...

YouTube videos vs self-hosted: Which one is better for you?

2016-01-25T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 25th January 2016. Written For Liquid Light

We are often asked whether videos for your website should be uploaded and hosted on your own website and server or if they should be uploaded to a social website ...

Let's drop IE8

2015-12-03T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 3rd December 2015. Written For Liquid Light

For website creators, making sure a website looks good across device and browsers is our biggest challenge. Websites don’t have to look the same, but they do have to ...

Using Slack to Improve Team Communication

2015-04-30T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 30th April 2015. Written For Liquid Light

Slack is a hugely popular communication team tool which has grown from strength to strength over the last year. It was publicly released in February 2014 and has recently been valued ...

HTML Newsletters - Design Considerations

2014-12-15T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 15th December 2014. Written For Liquid Light

HTML emails are a great way of keeping your customers up-to-date, but are not as versatile as web pages. Here's our list of things to consider when designing and building HTML emails.

Be a Better Road User

2014-02-18T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 18th February 2014.

I've been cycling since I can remember, and driving since 2009. Over the last few years, I've believed something more and more and I would like to make a bold statement - Cyclists make better drivers, drivers make better cyclists

Trailwalker 2013

2013-07-29T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 29th July 2013.

The Trailwalker event is something I've had my eye on for a while. 100km over 30 hours seemed like a sporting challenge I could do. I was 16 when a friend started ...

Forget-me-not

2013-05-22T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 22nd May 2013.

Frank Turner, a wonderfully talented musician with whom I have recently embarked a music-man crush upon, has sung some beautiful songs on his recent album.

A world without the web

2013-02-21T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 21st February 2013.

For those of you that know me, you would be aware that I have recently moved house. For those of you that don't, I have recently moved house.

Starting Afresh, Starting Anew

2013-02-15T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 15th February 2013.

So like my good friends Anthony and Kris, I've realised how little i've blogged over the last year. Looking at my archive the last 6 months of 2012 played host to just 1 ...

Start Your Own Event

2012-08-29T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 29th August 2012. Written For .net magazine

This article first appeared in issue 230 of .net magazine – the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Conferences are great. You get to meet fantastic people, you learn ...

I hate road cycling

2012-07-19T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 19th July 2012.

Road cycling. Its boring. Its rubbish. Most road cyclists just go round in circles. Up to the top of a hill, turn round and back again - wash, rinse, repeat.

Future of Web Design - May 2012 - Day 1

2012-07-11T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 11th July 2012.

In the middle of May, I attended my first big web conference – the Future of Web Design. I’ve been to a few small-scale conferences before, but never one but never one of the big boys

I bloody love twitter

2012-05-16T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 16th May 2012.

I bloody love twitter. It's great. Now, I'm not some twitter addict or nerd, well I am, but that's by the by.

Dahon Vitesse Speed D7

2012-02-26T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 26th February 2012.

Whenever I am thinking about making a significant purchase, I always hunt around for reviews, check out blogs and generally search the web for word, be it good or bad.

My Favourite 5 Books - A smashing story

2012-02-16T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 16th February 2012.

Recently I've been going through a fad of buying web related books. I love the feel of books, I love reading books.

The Commute: The Rant

2012-02-04T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 4th February 2012.

I’ve been commuting for nearly a year now. Proper commuting that is. Getting up at some unearthly hour to sit on a train for a bit. Living in a ...

Chilly's Dip

2011-05-19T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 19th May 2011.

I found this in an old recipe book I found in a charity shop. Not quite sure what happened to it, but I've tweaked the recipe and named it after my wife!

Public Relations

2011-03-16T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 16th March 2011.

Sometimes I wish we lived in a musical. Not not necessarily with all the singing but just with all that general happiness.

Wiitar: Combining the Wiimote, MAX/MSP and Mainstage

2010-06-25T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 25th June 2010.

For the final year of my degree, I was required to create an Experimental System Design. At the time, I was heavily involved with a live version of The ...

The next step...

2010-06-02T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 2nd June 2010.

So you've got a brand new website that you want to promote? Recently I finished a website for Frag Records. Once completed they asked me for some hints and tips ...

Twitter; Twettle

2010-04-22T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 22nd April 2010.

Just a short note on my Twitter series of posts! I thought i'd let you know about this tweeting kettle...or Twettle (seeing as it is on the title..). I ...

Twitter; Twintergration

2010-04-21T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 21st April 2010.

Twitter, Twitter Twitter. How you have taken over the world? (And my life?) I have recently properly got into Twitter. Before it was just a laborious update to show I ...

Covers and Remixes

2010-04-20T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 20th April 2010.

I have always been a music fan. Playing violin from the age of 7 and progressing onto guitar, the musical world has always intrigued me.

Geeks

2009-01-29T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 29th January 2009.

I feel geeks are somewhat underestimated in the continuum of time and space. But, in reality, they are amazing. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a geek.

To Know or Not To Know

2009-01-28T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 28th January 2009.

Knowledge is a powerful thing. I can turn worlds into war, it can turn people to power, and it can turn children to critics, humans into inhabitants. Its one of ...

Thoughts...

2009-01-27T00:00:00.000Z Posted on 27th January 2009.

Thoughts are someone’s heart, someone’s soul, someone’s hero trapped inside the body of their worshiper, their disciple, and their devotee. Thoughts can make someone’s day, someone ...