There’s a bit of a debate in various corners of the Internet about how Google’s adding of Not Secure to HTTP-only sites as an indicator in the address bar is somehow bad for the Internet.

This tweet sums up both sides nicely:

The sites that have stood the test of time are our most valuable — but they are the least likely to be updated. No platform change is worth losing 20+ years of accumulated value

— Matt Webb (@genmon) March 8, 2018

I have mixed feelings. I get where folks are coming from when they say that Google shouldn’t be doing this carte blanche, but it also seems like a petty hill to die on. Google is a shit company but HTTPS is easy, free, and at least does some stuff to ensure the content you’re accessing is the content that was served. The barrier for entry into an HTTPS-enabled Web site is super low and we should be making these migrations independently of what Google is pushing.

Sure, adding that indicator is a scare tactic, and I’d bet it’ll be a good one. We should also be cautious that anywhere between your site and your visitor, there’s the very real possibility someone could very well take over that connection and replace the site or inject code on a whim. ISPs are for the most part shitty companies all around. Does moving to HTTPS only solve that problem? No, but it does provide piece of mind.

If folks are worried about their sites that have 15 years worth of content and haven’t been largely updated since 2004 all of a sudden becoming irrelevant or the “Independent” web being silenced… fine. We need to start somewhere in setting the benchmark for the Internet to be above plaintext HTTP. I don’t see other alternatives that don’t make things more complicated.

There’s really no reason why the Internet can’t be secure everywhere at this point.

When it comes to making sure “old content” is still accessible by all, as someone who jumped on the HTTPS train as soon as they could, it would stand to reason that means for accessing this “old content” should be updated as well. Analog media is digitized to keep it accessible.

To say I’m never content with the way my blog looks is an understatement. I resurfaced the old 2-column layout I was using and tweaked it, cleaned it up. I got to thinking that big images isn’t really a part of my brand and I’ve always been partial to simple and clean.

Let’s see how long that lasts…

In reading Remote: Office Not Required, I had my first revelation moment right in the first chapter of the book. Remote is broken up into parts and each part covers a specific meta-topic related to working remotely with mini-chapters within each part drilling down and covering individual points about the larger topic. In the first part, Jason Fried and DHH discuss how right now is the best time to consider and even make the transition to leaving the office behind in a traditional sense and embrace working from wherever. The very first chapter: “Why work doesn’t happen at work” made a lot of sense. I didn’t realize how right they were until I started reflecting on my past office experiences and how often I struggled to be productive.

(more…)

Sometime in the next couple weeks I’ll be starting the first book discussion of 2018. I’ve been wanting to discuss this topic for a long time. I want to talk about the topic of remote work and address some of the stigma behind it, along with some tips and stories from my own experiences working remotely 100% for the last two years.

The companion book is Remote: Office Not Required from 37Signals founders David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried. I highly recommend picking it up and following along as each post will use parts from the book as their base for discussion.

Stay tuned for the first post.

It’s out and it sounds amazing.