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In The Desk

Why Medium.com?

Author Jesse SteelePosted on

Over the last seven years, I’ve been quietly building content. I knew that when I was ready make the push, I needed to have a history of content already piled up. Well, here’s a start…

I’ve written 15 books on Smashwords with over 4,600 downloads, published a syndicated weekly column for the last four years, podcasted 200 weeks in a row, developed VPS cloud control systems where I manage web servers for small business, and have been laying in a foundation for supply side sourcing—all while living in Asia and not running one single ad.

Having accurately predicted the Trump victory in February (and posted my pretty accurate map on Instagram), I decided that I knew a thing or two. It’s one thing to have a following, it’s a whole other story to predict the unexpected.

So, I was randomly scrolling through Leonard Kim’s Tweets when I stumbled on a video where he talked up Medium.  · · · →

In The Desk

Night and Day Theming

Author Jesse SteelePosted on

The punchline: We need flat/zen themes with push-button dark/light theme settings that apply both system-wide and dark/light theming per individual app.

I am firstly and lastly a writer. But, Ubuntu was just too attractive for me not to understand development life under the hood. I’m one of the chosen who identifies with both app users and app developers. I stand in the middle and see the future.

For almost two years, I have watched my VPS/Desktop Ubuntu hobby mature into verb.ink beta. In the process, I have come to understand two best-kept secrets about theming.

  1. Coders and media workers need “dark” desktop/environment themes; writers need “light/bright” themes.

  2. There are WAY too many desktop themes for Ubuntu.

Light/Dark Themes: Writers v Coders

Dark themes are all about eyesight and pupil dilation. We see pictures, videos, and computer code better by looking at light letters against a dark background.

But, desktop publishing apps prepare text as it will appear on white, printed paper.  · · · →

In The Desk

Why I cancelled my Glenn Beck subscription

Author Jesse SteelePosted on

Actually, I didn’t want to. I’ll go back once he fixes a few things…

He jokes too much with his co-hosts, bloating the show with unhelpful cynicism.

His website is too heavy with load times and sys resources. As a developer myself, it looks like the problem is from adding too many little things when he needs a centralized programming—it looks as if they need a better web team, as if they hired the team they have through an MBA, not knowing how development actually works.

They have in-show advertisements during paid subscriptions filling nearly half of the content. One should have an ads version and a subscription version, not both together.

He preaches despair and not hope. He himself probably has lots of hope in his heart and lots of reasons for that hope, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to carry on. But, he doesn’t share his good reasons for hope.  · · · →

In The Desk

Blogging Links to PDT

Author Jesse SteelePosted on

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll notice that my post links are changing. Rather than linking to jessesteele.com, @JesselSteele Twitter links will point to the same posts at jessesteele.pacificdailytimes.com.

Posts have always gone in both places, but I am preparing in case I decide to use jessesteele.com for more of a landing home page, rather than regular blog posts. The Pacific Daily Times site is better for reading anyway, IMHO. I designed it that way. Cheers!  · · · →