iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vale @vale.rocks · 30/09/2026

Looking across at the venue I'm speaking at feels like the scene in a video game where the title card comes up introducing the boss battle. On Saturday I'll be on stage giving my first conference talk across the Matagarup Bridge at Optus Stadium.

A bright, illuminated bridge that coils into the sky in front of a massive stadium. It is reflected in a river. In the foreground is me beside my unicycle.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 03/09/2026

The state of affairs of my desk following a heck of a lot of device testing. This isn't even all of it. There is so much more out of shot. Send help.

A desk absolutely covered in laptops, phones, all-in-one PCs, floppy disks, adaptors, and cables.

They range in age from the 90s to mid 2010s.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 29/08/2026

On occasion one must find an outlet to vent their accessibility overlay frustrations. #Accessibility #a11y

Anthony Bourdain quote originally about Henry Kissinger and Cambodia edited to read 'Once you’ve been a web developer, you’ll never stop wanting to beat "accessibility" overlay companies to death with your bare hands.'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 28/08/2026

I've always thought the DOS release of Mat-Quest was the definitive port.

Mat but as pixel art with the text 'Traveller! I have a quest for you.' in a dialogue box.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 24/08/2026

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Git commit reading 'Overhaul tags (I beg to never manage 1000+ tags ever again)'.

1033 files changed. 1073 additions, 1099 deletions.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 20/08/2026

Just replaced the battery in my trusty old Casio watch. Such a unique little watch with such cool little features including the moon phase and current tide. #Casio #Watch

A largely grey and very well worn watch. The bottom display portion shows typical watch functions, but the upper portion shows a small moon phase graphic, a single fish, and a waving tide with one segment active. The screen is illuminated a bright blue.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 20/08/2026

This is my absolute favourite of my grandmother's poems. #Poem #Poetry

MY COMPUTER

I’ve bought a new computer
Because I like to write,
I’m almost afraid to touch it
‘Cos I’m sure that it will bite!

My cosy little study
Has been taken over by this thing,
They tell me when I’m used to it
Ease to my work ‘twill bring.

It sits there like a grey ghost
Seems to give a lurid grin,
Now I ask myself with stubborn pride
“Am I going to let it win.

When I press the ‘ON” button,
It’s like all hell breaks loose,
It whirrs and clicks and flashes,
It’s then I call a truce,

“Okay, you win,” I tell it
When it tries to show me what to do,
The messages are all gobbly dook,
“I can’t get no sense from you.

Just click onto the HELP key
If you get in a mess.
I tried that but it doesn’t help,
My brain’s not addled less.

My friends try to be helpful,
Try to show me what to do,
I tell them, “Thanks, I’ll try that,”
But really haven’t got a clue.

So I’m doing some TAFE classes,
Hoping the lessons will help me
To make sense of this contraption
That threatens me you see,

And Yes, at last it’s coming,
I can surely see a light,
It might only be a pin point
But it’s a start alright.

If I can just grasp the basics
I’ll be on my way and then,
I can use my new computer,
And throw away my pen!

Pamela M Carter
November 1998

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Vale @vale.rocks · 17/08/2026

I feel like this version of the Mozilla website from 2011 does a much better job representing what Mozilla should be and should stand for than their current site. This is the Mozilla I want to see. Focusing upon the web and 'keeping it free, open, and accessible to all'.

Screenshot of Mozilla.org. Heading says 'We're building a better internet and we're dedicated to keeping it free, open and accessible to all.'.

Front and centre are Firefox, Thunderbird, and Drumbeat. Beneath is a news feed, showing Firefox related news, and in the sidebar are community endeavours and a web showcase.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 14/08/2026

A microscopic annoyance that forever irks me is the discrepancies between the 'Get it on Google Play' and 'Download on the App Store' badges. I hate how they're so similar, yet fail to have any cohesion. They always look awful when placed together, and I cop psychic damage each time I see them.

A badge for Google Play and a badge for the App Store. They're similar at a first glance, but the longer they're inspected, the more tiny differences there are. Size of the badges and elements, alignment of type, fonts used, borders – everything!

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Vale @vale.rocks · 10/08/2026

Currently living it up in 1998.

A 90s Samsung Hitron, a lava lamp, and a HiFi system on a wooden desk. A Doctor Strange poster and a cannabis poster can be seen in the background. Cassettes sit atop the HiFi and at the back of the desk is a mirror reflecting a Pink Floyd poster.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 08/08/2026

I love being a cyborg. Really comes in handy during repairs to save me from misplacing screws.

Several screws attached to my hand. In the background is my partially disassembled Xbox controller.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 01/08/2026

Do you hear that? That's the simultaneous exasperated sighs of thousands of users.

A Stoat message from Vale reading 'Time to YOLO a feature into prod'.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 30/07/2026

Here is my site rendered with extreme data saving mode in the latest version of Opera Mini. I'm pretty sure this is Presto in 2026, which feels an odd thing to say.

Vale.Rocks rendered in Presto. The content is largely present, but most of the CSS is broken.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 27/07/2026

So lovely that Nintendo keeps old versions of the Super Smash Brothers website up. All listed bellow 👇 Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64 (Japanese): www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/soft... #Nintendo #SmashBros #SSB

'Super Smash Bros.' written in an orange font on a blue chequered background. Other text reads 'Click to enter'.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 07/07/2026

Chromium on NixOS:

GPU {wgslLanguageFeatures: WGSLLanguageFeatures}wgslLanguageFeatures: WGSLLanguageFeatures {size: 10}size: 10[[Prototype]]: WGSLLanguageFeatures[[Prototype]]: GPUgetPreferredCanvasFormat: ƒ getPreferredCanvasFormat()requestAdapter: ƒ requestAdapter()wgslLanguageFeatures: (...)constructor: ƒ GPU()Symbol(Symbol.toStringTag): "GPU"get wgslLanguageFeatures: ƒ wgslLanguageFeatures()[[Prototype]]: Object

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Vale @vale.rocks · 04/07/2026

You can say 'the industry is fucked and we're all doomed' and people don't even dispute it. They just look at you like:

Brendan Fraser in The Whale with a deeply sad expression.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 20/06/2026

Here are the settings on web and desktop, for anyone wondering:

Interface with two main toggles. One enables desktop notifications, the other enables push notifications.

Below are a list of sounds which can be individually toggled.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 17/06/2026

Google's AI Overview just confidently informed me that the PDA operating system EPOC (which isn't an acronym and is instead a reference to the term 'epoch') actually stands for 'Electronic Piece of Cheese'.

Google AI Overview reading: 'The EPOC Web Browser refers to the internet browsers developed for Psion's EPOC (Electronic Piece Of Cheese) operating system, which eventually became the foundation for Symbian OS. Though primitive by modern standards, these lightweight browsers were revolutionary for bringing internet access to early Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 09/06/2026

Eh, close enough. Welcome back Sony Ericsson. #WWDC

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Vale @vale.rocks · 09/06/2026

Some gorgeous Sega Saturn Net Link pictures I took that didn't make the cut for my upcoming article but which may nonetheless tickle some fancies. #Sega #SegaSaturn

Net Link version 3 home. The interface is busy and provides a top-down view of a city. Each district is labelled with a topic. Around the peripheries are a range of buttons and branding.

A beige page explaining the internet. It reads:

'What is the Internet?
The Internet is, essentially, a giant network connecting tens of thousands of computers around the world. Each computer on the Internet uses a special standard language to send information so that any other computer on the Internet can understand the message.

What is the World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a subset of the Internet. The "Web" consists of thousands of web servers (computers that send information) that use a special language (hypertext transport protocol or https) to send graphics, text and sounds that can be displayed and listened to on-screen by any computer connected to the Internet using a special...'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 09/06/2026

What is this 'URL' you speak of? (From the Nintendo DS Browser manual. archive.org/details/manu...)

A booklet page with header 'The URL Input Screen'.

Content reads: 'By entering the URL (address) of the desired page on the UAL Input Screen, you can jump to that page.. What is a URL? A URL is the address of a Web page on the Internet. The term "address" is sometimes used instead.'

Different characters are then displayed and explained alongside a fancy picture of the globe with bits whizzing about it.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 08/06/2026

I'm just logging on with CD-Online Disc 97-10 for the CD-i to do some work for an article. Gotta love it.

A weathered scroll like interface with buttons for 'gamezone', 'goldclub', 'services', 'e-mail', 'www', and 'news', among other interface buttons.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 04/06/2026

I dug out my old graphic design portfolio. I love it for being an almost physical manifestation of my website, albeit a slightly older version. The colours and type might have changed since I put this portfolio together, but the general style remains intact.

Front of a spiral-bound portfolio. It has a magenta to black gradient with the text 'Graphic Design Portfolio. Declan Chidlow'.

Front spread of the portfolio. On the left page is a stylised picture of me with a shocked expression. To the right reads 'Ahoy! I'm Declan Chidlow' with a brief blurb.

A page showing my meat font, a bony typeface with muscle attached. The words 'Meat Font' are written, and on a page falling out of the crop are a collection of all the glyphs.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 01/06/2026

Glad to see things are going well for @kevinpowell.co over on YouTube.

Screenshot of a YouTube Short thumbnail with Kevin's smiling face above the text 'Everybody is dead!'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 29/05/2026

Just discovered this is a thing you can do if you're so inclined. youtube.com/tv works on non-television devices (as long as you spoof your user agent).

YouTube's TV interface displaying in Chromium on a Linux desktop.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 28/05/2026

You fool! You neglected to specify currency! Better get the clippers ready.

Kickstarter screenshot. 'AU$ 125,216 pledged of AU$ 42,244 goal. 752 backers. 7 hours to go'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 25/05/2026

I like to think I'm semi-decent at unicycling, having unicycled on television and at events a few times. Am I good at animating and creating interactive visualisations of unicycle behaviour, though? That's the more pressing and worrying question...

Me on my mountain unicycle about to gun it up a dirt ramp.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 25/05/2026

After a long break from working on it, I'm back to chipping away at my interactive guide to unicycling.

A figure on a unicycle, with an arrow indicating their centre of mass. A slider from slow to fast is present at the bottom.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 23/05/2026

There is a point during the process of my annual haircut down to bald where I survey the sink with a certain trepidation.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 22/05/2026

Oh, okay. Thanks Google. I was wondering where all the traffic went.

Google Search Console notice reading 'A query recently got fewer impressions than usual. Check this query's performance to investigate further. "in game background shows the console on which it is being played". Down 72%.'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 16/05/2026

They say you mustn’t Log Off. #AnalogHorror

CRT monitor displaying the text 'It's not safe to turn off your computer.' At the bottom in smaller text it says 'run'. The monitor bezel is slightly stained by crimson.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 14/05/2026

I love dark mode, but it mustn’t be the only option. For a lot of people, white text upon a dark background is illegible. Common eye conditions like astigmatism, myopia, and presbyopia can make content look foggy, become hard to focus on, and cause eye strain. #a11y #Accessibility

Pure white text on a pure black background, blurred in a manner representative of what some people with astigmatism might see. It is difficult to read and focus on due to halation, with the bright text appearing to bleed into the dark background.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 12/05/2026

I've successfully broken Hacker News. This submission has -4 points, somehow. news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4810...

Hacker News interface with a post that has -4 points. One comment reads, '-4 points on this submission? What? How did that happen? I've never seen it go negative.'

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Vale @vale.rocks · 07/05/2026

I released some 88x31 web buttons/badges for various Git forges which are hopefully useful for folks leaving GitHub. (I also released badges for @stoat.chat and @listenbrainz.org)

A collection of six 88x31 web badges: Codeberg, Tangled, Forgejo, GitLab, Stoat, and ListenBrainz.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 04/05/2026

Publishing pixel art on the web? Don't let it get blurred and smushed. Apply the `image-rendering: crisp-edges` CSS property. Alternatively, export your pixel art at a higher resolution, so each visual pixel is made of many pixels, minimising impact from scaling and compression. #PixelArt #CSS

A collection of 88x31 buttons. One set is blurry and rendered with `image-rendering: smooth`. The other is sharp, and each individual pixel can be seen. It is rendered with `image-rendering: crisp-edges`.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 27/04/2026

They went and did it as well!

Italy, which looks vaguely like a boot/leg, displayed on Apple Maps.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 20/04/2026

Vercel got pwned, so here is another prompt to stop using them. Entirely unrelated, but here is a picture of Vercel's CEO with Netanyahu, the man responsible for the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch smiling in a selfie with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 16/04/2026

Watching on in abject horror as a post of mine climbs the rankings on Hacker News...

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Vale @vale.rocks · 13/04/2026

‘You need to understand that Sam can never be trusted. He is a sociopath. He would do anything.’ — Aaron Swartz, who was federally charged while trying to make information free, talking about Sam Altman, whose company OpenAI harvests information en masse.

2005 group photo of Y Combinator's first batch. Sam Altman stands beside Aaron Swartz to the centre-right of the photo. Many other people are also present in the photo.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 05/04/2026

It is an open secret in Australia that K-Mart sells a coffee grinder perfect for grinding bud, and the reviews from stoners on the K-Mart website are appropriately fantastic. (In store, this grinder is one of the few products with an anti-theft tag strapped to it.)

5-star review from Jessica W. 'Best whizzer ever. We all know what these are used for and they work great'. Quality excellent. Value excellent. 81 people find the review helpful.

5-star review from Reece O. 'Grinded my weed to the most perfect consistency. Has done for years and will do for many years to come thank you'. 177 people find the review helpful.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 02/04/2026

I'm working on PersonalSit.es and saw these logs. I really do think we ought to keep @strange.website away from the build systems.

Run node screenshot-new-site.js
🚧 Watch out fellas, papa's screenshotting 1 site(s)...
example.com does not exist on S3
Capturing screenshot for https://www.example.com/...
🤯 — Oh god, screenshot FAILED for example.com.
They're saying Navigation timeout of 30000 ms exceeded

=====
Screenshotting for this PR is complete.
✨ Successful: 0
💥 Failed: 1

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Vale @vale.rocks · 02/04/2026

631,152,000 seconds, 10,519,200 minutes, 175,320 hours, 7,305 days, 1,043 weeks (and 4 days), 240 months, 20 years. Looking forward to many more.

Me, draped over a blue sofa armchair placed in the middle of the Australian bush. The image is aggressively dithered.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 30/03/2026

The variety of thoughts that I find wandering my mind on a Monday night could kill if administered in tablet form. I present to you a fish smoking a cigarette underwater.

A fish, underwater, smoking a cigarette. There is smoke rising through the water.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 18/03/2026

There is a new entry on Strangers by Spring.

'The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere', a painting of a man riding a horse and shouting while holding out a lantern. A man runs out of a nearby house.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 10/03/2026

Not too shabby of a result if I do say so myself. That was a lot of fun. Great little test!

Test result screen showing a score of 0.0033.

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Vale @vale.rocks · 09/03/2026

I couldn't help myself. I've made some more funky web buttons to adorn websites with! They're such fun to put together, and the size constraint presents a lovely challenge. If anyone has any requests, I'd be open to hearing them. #88x31 #IndieWeb #SmallWeb

A collection of pixel-y web buttons/badges. Shown are badges reading:
- Melt Ice
- Free Palestine
- Slava Ukraini
- RSS
- # MD
- ./npmx
- imood.org
- TechConf.Directory
- Ko-fi
- Jet Set Radio
- Minecraft
- Terraria
- Evangelion
- Cowboy Bebop
- Team Fortress
- SiIvaGunner
- Under Construction

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