Nic Chan
@nicmakesstuff.bsky.social
codes on the weekdays and draws on the weekends. tech stuff, web accessibility, cats, and fire emblem💖
https://www.nicchan.me
Mostly on Mastodon @ https://indieweb.social/@NicMakesStuff
https://www.nicchan.me
Mostly on Mastodon @ https://indieweb.social/@NicMakesStuff
Reposted by Nic Chan
over a year ago, i gave a talk at the xoxo conference about a mural, a mcdonald’s, and a man. (but it was also secretly about life, and legacy, and meaning.)
finally, i’m blogging the full story, with behind-the-scenes details, and a video of the talk.
enjoy. cabel.com/wes-cook-and...
finally, i’m blogging the full story, with behind-the-scenes details, and a video of the talk.
enjoy. cabel.com/wes-cook-and...
Wes Cook and the Centralia McDonald's Mural
A personal story about discovering a mural in a McDonald's, an unknown artist named Wes Cook, saving the mural, and a conference talk about the whole thing.
cabel.com
February 11, 2026 at 7:04 PM
over a year ago, i gave a talk at the xoxo conference about a mural, a mcdonald’s, and a man. (but it was also secretly about life, and legacy, and meaning.)
finally, i’m blogging the full story, with behind-the-scenes details, and a video of the talk.
enjoy. cabel.com/wes-cook-and...
finally, i’m blogging the full story, with behind-the-scenes details, and a video of the talk.
enjoy. cabel.com/wes-cook-and...
Wishcessibility - Nic Chan
No recycling was contaminated in the creation of this post.
www.nicchan.me
February 10, 2026 at 5:55 AM
The Lunar New Year tradition is for married couples to hand out red envelopes filled with cash. By refusing to legalize gay marriage, the government is creating a system by which queer people inadvertently receive reparations for the rest of their lives. In this essay, I will-
February 10, 2026 at 4:34 AM
The Lunar New Year tradition is for married couples to hand out red envelopes filled with cash. By refusing to legalize gay marriage, the government is creating a system by which queer people inadvertently receive reparations for the rest of their lives. In this essay, I will-
Reposted by Nic Chan
I've been on a bit of a social media hiatus, but I've written a new post about something that's been on my mind a lot lately localghost.dev/blog/stop-ge...
Stop generating, start thinking - localghost
Instead of wanting to learn and improve as humans, and build better software, we’ve outsourced our mistakes to an unthinking algorithm.
localghost.dev
February 8, 2026 at 8:34 PM
I've been on a bit of a social media hiatus, but I've written a new post about something that's been on my mind a lot lately localghost.dev/blog/stop-ge...
Reposted by Nic Chan
I had the privilege of penning an article for the latest issue of @goodinternetmagazine.com!
It is all about the process of making and experiencing art and how friction and inefficiency needn't be dirty procurances to avoid and evade.
goodinternetmagazine.com/rebelling-ag...
#IndieWeb #SmallWeb
It is all about the process of making and experiencing art and how friction and inefficiency needn't be dirty procurances to avoid and evade.
goodinternetmagazine.com/rebelling-ag...
#IndieWeb #SmallWeb
Rebelling against efficiency
There is a scene in the episode Who Killed 711? of the 1963 American detective television series Burke's Law in which Burke and crew pay a visit to an eccentric accountant, Harold Harold, who is the p...
goodinternetmagazine.com
February 7, 2026 at 5:30 AM
I had the privilege of penning an article for the latest issue of @goodinternetmagazine.com!
It is all about the process of making and experiencing art and how friction and inefficiency needn't be dirty procurances to avoid and evade.
goodinternetmagazine.com/rebelling-ag...
#IndieWeb #SmallWeb
It is all about the process of making and experiencing art and how friction and inefficiency needn't be dirty procurances to avoid and evade.
goodinternetmagazine.com/rebelling-ag...
#IndieWeb #SmallWeb
I'm archiving some family photographs and how come both my parents are unbelievably model-esque and I look like a potato, life is simply unfair.
February 4, 2026 at 10:28 AM
I'm archiving some family photographs and how come both my parents are unbelievably model-esque and I look like a potato, life is simply unfair.
Reposted by Nic Chan
Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.
DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email
The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.
newrepublic.com
February 3, 2026 at 11:14 PM
Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.
Reposted by Nic Chan
I spent the past month examining how accessibility in design underpins digital infrastructure and how federal divestment creates brittle, inaccessible platforms.
This backslide isn’t inevitable. We can reject it and do better in our work. I explain how in this piece
annaecook.com/writing/2026...
This backslide isn’t inevitable. We can reject it and do better in our work. I explain how in this piece
annaecook.com/writing/2026...
Accessible design is digital infrastructure — Anna E. Cook
What America by Design reveals about how public platforms fail when maintenance, governance, and accountability are treated as optional and how we can do better no matter our job title.
annaecook.com
February 3, 2026 at 1:37 AM
I spent the past month examining how accessibility in design underpins digital infrastructure and how federal divestment creates brittle, inaccessible platforms.
This backslide isn’t inevitable. We can reject it and do better in our work. I explain how in this piece
annaecook.com/writing/2026...
This backslide isn’t inevitable. We can reject it and do better in our work. I explain how in this piece
annaecook.com/writing/2026...
Reposted by Nic Chan
📝 It’s true. I’ve been there. I’ve seen these pages made. Despite the familiar title of the page feeling like an invitation — “Contact Us” — the reality is that so many of these pages are designed to keep you from doing precisely that.
blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/dont-co...
blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/dont-co...
The Don’t “Contact Us” Page
Writing about the big beautiful mess that is making things for the world wide web.
blog.jim-nielsen.com
January 29, 2026 at 4:47 AM
📝 It’s true. I’ve been there. I’ve seen these pages made. Despite the familiar title of the page feeling like an invitation — “Contact Us” — the reality is that so many of these pages are designed to keep you from doing precisely that.
blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/dont-co...
blog.jim-nielsen.com/2026/dont-co...
I do understand CEOs in a way because I too like to see the big numbers go up but instead of ruining the planet and the lives of millions of people I just play incremental games like a normal person
January 24, 2026 at 1:47 AM
I do understand CEOs in a way because I too like to see the big numbers go up but instead of ruining the planet and the lives of millions of people I just play incremental games like a normal person
I have free afternoon today so I think it's finally time to switch to Linux Mint permanently? Bye windows i hated you
January 23, 2026 at 6:56 AM
I have free afternoon today so I think it's finally time to switch to Linux Mint permanently? Bye windows i hated you
Traffic from blogrolls and webrings:
January 22, 2026 at 5:09 AM
Traffic from blogrolls and webrings:
Reposted by Nic Chan
I published one of those posts about this past year of work and personal stuff.
janmaarten.com/2025-year-in...
janmaarten.com/2025-year-in...
2025 Year in Review
I don't write annual postmortems or bother making resolutions for the New Year. It feels like demarcating how the deck chairs have shifted slightly on my personal Titanic over time. I usually prefer t...
janmaarten.com
January 7, 2026 at 6:49 AM
I published one of those posts about this past year of work and personal stuff.
janmaarten.com/2025-year-in...
janmaarten.com/2025-year-in...
Reposted by Nic Chan
🦊
We got some snow this weekend, which thankfully made for light shoveling. And I met a neighbor, right when I needed to. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/i-find...
We got some snow this weekend, which thankfully made for light shoveling. And I met a neighbor, right when I needed to. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/i-find...
I find them on the street & shadow. — ethanmarcotte.com
It wasn’t until the end of our chat that I learned her name.
ethanmarcotte.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:03 AM
🦊
We got some snow this weekend, which thankfully made for light shoveling. And I met a neighbor, right when I needed to. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/i-find...
We got some snow this weekend, which thankfully made for light shoveling. And I met a neighbor, right when I needed to. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/i-find...
The Friendship Material podcast reminded me of my favorite mondegreen from when I was a kid. I thought the line 'Like a wannabe, I gotta be chained to you' from Savage Garden was 'like a wallaby'. I chalked this up to them being Australian.
January 21, 2026 at 11:54 AM
The Friendship Material podcast reminded me of my favorite mondegreen from when I was a kid. I thought the line 'Like a wannabe, I gotta be chained to you' from Savage Garden was 'like a wallaby'. I chalked this up to them being Australian.
Miette likes to sit like an old man at the park
January 20, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Miette likes to sit like an old man at the park
Reposted by Nic Chan
I’m not a big user of BlueSky (yet), but if anyone sees this I’m looking for work.
I’m a front-end developer, with a focus on low-carbon, design-led, accessible, websites — often using Astro and headless CMSs like Storyblok.
I’m open to freelance or possibly the right perm role 🤞
I’m a front-end developer, with a focus on low-carbon, design-led, accessible, websites — often using Astro and headless CMSs like Storyblok.
I’m open to freelance or possibly the right perm role 🤞
January 15, 2026 at 8:19 AM
I’m not a big user of BlueSky (yet), but if anyone sees this I’m looking for work.
I’m a front-end developer, with a focus on low-carbon, design-led, accessible, websites — often using Astro and headless CMSs like Storyblok.
I’m open to freelance or possibly the right perm role 🤞
I’m a front-end developer, with a focus on low-carbon, design-led, accessible, websites — often using Astro and headless CMSs like Storyblok.
I’m open to freelance or possibly the right perm role 🤞
Encountered an interesting bug with a drag and drop canvas interface today. In Firefox-based browsers, the direction of my pointer was inverted, making this form filling exercise the worst video game I've ever played
January 15, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Encountered an interesting bug with a drag and drop canvas interface today. In Firefox-based browsers, the direction of my pointer was inverted, making this form filling exercise the worst video game I've ever played
My friend asked me to help her shop for wedding dresses and it was so much fun! I really do love fashion but I try not to overconsume so it's an interest that goes neglected. Take me to your wedding dress shopping outings please!!
January 14, 2026 at 1:36 PM
My friend asked me to help her shop for wedding dresses and it was so much fun! I really do love fashion but I try not to overconsume so it's an interest that goes neglected. Take me to your wedding dress shopping outings please!!
Reposted by Nic Chan
per my point about the mercator projection being the root of this whole thing
Why is Trump fixated on Greenland? @sbg1.bsky.social recalls what he told us in 2021: "I said, 'Why don’t we have that?' You take a look at a map...I love maps. And I always said 'Look at the size of this, it’s massive and that should be part of the United States.'" www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...
Why Donald Trump Wants Greenland (and Everything Else)
There’s no Trump Doctrine, just a map of the world that the President wants to write his name on in big gold letters.
www.newyorker.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:48 AM
per my point about the mercator projection being the root of this whole thing
Partner: so we have these cows at work-
Me: COWS? you have actual cows at work?
Partner: yeah, Computers On Wheels, is that not a term?
🐄
Me: COWS? you have actual cows at work?
Partner: yeah, Computers On Wheels, is that not a term?
🐄
January 8, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Partner: so we have these cows at work-
Me: COWS? you have actual cows at work?
Partner: yeah, Computers On Wheels, is that not a term?
🐄
Me: COWS? you have actual cows at work?
Partner: yeah, Computers On Wheels, is that not a term?
🐄
I ran the values from the ChatGPT-generated color contrast report included in the article through WebAIM's contrast checker and got dramatically different values. I'm not sure this article actually proves the point it's trying to make.
January 7, 2026 at 1:34 PM
I ran the values from the ChatGPT-generated color contrast report included in the article through WebAIM's contrast checker and got dramatically different values. I'm not sure this article actually proves the point it's trying to make.
'It Was Just an Accident' is easily one of the best films I've ever seen. It deals with heavy themes, but it's well worth the watch if you get the opportunity!
January 7, 2026 at 1:13 PM
'It Was Just an Accident' is easily one of the best films I've ever seen. It deals with heavy themes, but it's well worth the watch if you get the opportunity!
Reposted by Nic Chan
Thank you for wanting to share it 🥺
Focus State editions will be posted on the feed on my site, you can see the first edition there and share! annaecook.com/focus-state
Focus State editions will be posted on the feed on my site, you can see the first edition there and share! annaecook.com/focus-state
January 6, 2026 at 7:28 PM
Thank you for wanting to share it 🥺
Focus State editions will be posted on the feed on my site, you can see the first edition there and share! annaecook.com/focus-state
Focus State editions will be posted on the feed on my site, you can see the first edition there and share! annaecook.com/focus-state
Reposted by Nic Chan
After updating my list of slop bots that you can block with a robots.txt file (at least the ones who actually respect robots.txt).
Since the last update, the list has doubled in size. 🙃
Since the last update, the list has doubled in size. 🙃
Good sabotage for bad robots (Updated)
A thorough list of AI crawlers you can block on our your website, as well as a few other choice methods to confound the robots who want to steal everything you've ever published online.
janmaarten.com
January 6, 2026 at 12:57 AM
After updating my list of slop bots that you can block with a robots.txt file (at least the ones who actually respect robots.txt).
Since the last update, the list has doubled in size. 🙃
Since the last update, the list has doubled in size. 🙃