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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
pipefail

A Big New Beautiful Future for the Web at Tumblr

javascript

In the ten years that Tumblr’s been around, a lot has changed in web technology. We’ve kept up, of course, but it’s always been a process of addition, layering one new technology on top of another. And what we were working with—a custom framework built on top of Backbone, messily entangled with a PHP backend and its associated templates—was becoming unmanageable. Our piecemeal conversions to new technologies meant we had thousands of ways posts were rendered (only a moderate exaggeration). And each of those had to be updated individually to support new features or design changes.

It was time to step back, survey the world of web technology, and clean house in a big way. That we could finally test some of the new tech we’ve been itching to use was just a little bonus.

We started by laying out our goals:

  • A web client codebase fully separated from the PHP codebase that gets its data from the API in the same way our mobile apps do
  • A development environment that’s as painless as possible
  • Dramatically improved performance
  • Isomorphic rendering
  • Robust testing tools
  • Built on a framework with a healthy and active community, with some critical mass of adoption

With those goals in mind, we spent the beginning of the year on research - figuring out what kinds of things people were building web apps with these days, tooling around with them ourselves, and trying to assess if they would be right for Tumblr. We landed, eventually, on React, with a Node server (running Express) to make isomorphism as easy as possible. On top of that, we’re using Cosmos for developing components, React Router for routing, and TypeScript to make our lives better in general. (My colleague Paul already wrote about what went into our decision to use TypeScript here.)

As if writing an entirely new stack wasn’t enough, we realized along the way that this was our perfect chance to start deploying containerized applications with Kubernetes, a first for Tumblr. We had never previously deployed a node application to production here, and didn’t have the infrastructure for it, so it was a perfect green field on which to build another new and exciting thing. There’ll be more to come later on Kubernetes.

So where are we now? Well, we’ve launched one page powered by this new app - image pages, like this - with more to come very soon. 

Though it may seem simple, there’s a whole new technological world between you clicking that link and seeing that page. There’s a ton more exciting stuff happening now and still to happen in the future, and we’re looking forward to sharing it here. Wanna get in on the action yourself? Come work with us: https://www.tumblr.com/jobs.

- Robbie Dawson / @idiot

Source: javascript
staff

Once more for old time’s sake

staff

🔥 With your help, we passed Title II net neutrality protections. Now we need to defend it.🔥

On December 14 the FCC will vote on Commissioner Pai’s plan to repeal Title II rules. This week he tried to justify that decision with a “myth busting” explainer where he makes a lot of sweeping claims he doesn’t think you’ll fact check. 

So let’s go through his big points:

❌ Mr. Pai claims ISPs won’t block access or throttle content

These are the real facts. Before Title II, the internet was so “free and open” that… 

  • Comcast blocked P2P file sharing services (EFF).
  • AT&T blocked Skype from iPhones (Fortune) and, later, wanted FaceTime users to pay for a more expensive plan (Freepress).
  • MetroPCS blocked all streaming video except YouTube (Wired).

In today’s media market where the same huge companies make and deliver content, Commissioner Pai wants us to trust that corporations won’t use their dominance to bury competitive content or services. 

❌ Mr. Pai claims Title II keeps ISPs from building new networks

Here’s another claim Commissioner Pai doesn’t want you to fact check, but:

  • AT&T’s own CEO told investors that the company would deploy more fiber optic networks in 2016 than 2015 when the FCC passed Title II protections (Investor call transcript). 
  • Charter’s CEO said “Title II, it didn’t really hurt us; it hasn’t hurt us” (Ars Technica).  
  • And Comcast actually increased investment in their network by 10% in Q1 of this year (Ars). 

❌ Mr. Pai claims repealing Title II won’t hurt competition

As we mentioned above, ISPs tried to interfere with the services their customers could access and courts had to step in to stop them.

The FCC tried to craft net neutrality rules in 2010 called the Open Internet Order but the ISPs sued and won. The courts told the FCC that the only way to guarantee a free and open internet was using their Title II authority. Without those protections, any of these things would be legal:

  • Your ISP launches a streaming video service and starts throttling other streaming services until they’re unusable.
  • Your phone company cuts a deal with a popular music streaming service so it doesn’t count towards your data cap but lowers your overall data limit. If a better service comes along (or your favorite artist releases new tracks somewhere else) you can’t use it without incurring huge data fees.
  • A billionaire buys your ISP and blocks access to news sites that challenge their ideology. 

Repealing Title II would be like letting a car company own the roads and banning a competitor from the highways.

❌ Mr. Pai claims there won’t be fast lanes and slow lanes

Let’s break this down: We won’t have fast lanes and slow lanes, we’ll have “priority access” and…non-priority access? Well gosh.

🚨 Please help us protect Title II one more time! 🚨

This week we co-signed a letter with more than 300 other companies—businesses Mr. Pai gleefully ignores—urging the FCC to retain the Title II internet protections. Now we need you.

Go to 👉 Battle For The Net 👈  to start a call with your representatives in Congress. Tell them to publicly support Title II protections. 

The FCC votes on December 14.

We’re only powerful when we work together.

Oh, also: that post about automatically unfollowing the #net neutrality tag—it’s not true. It’s really not. That’s not who we are. Whatever happened, we haven’t been able to reproduce it. We tried. A lot.

But if it were true—which it’s not, we feel compelled to say again—THAT’S EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES and demand a free, open, and neutral internet.

We can do this one more time, guys! ❤️

beerlabelsinmotion

Creatives in Craft Beer with Trevor Carmick of Beer Labels in Motion

hopstories

I first came across Trevor through his blog, Beer Labels in Motion. Through a careful eye and years of practice, he has taken his love of beer and put his own spin on it. Here’s a short interview with him:

Who are you? What do you do?

I’m currently working at Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Media Technician. My background is video production in a post-production position. When I’m not at my day job, I also own a video production company with a friend called Wow Signal Media. And of course when I’m not doing either of those two jobs, I’m probably animating some beer labels!

What draws you to craft beer?

My old answer to this question would have been that craft beer is so unique and stands to prove that beer can be much more than Bud Light. But now I’d say my answer is the beer community draws me to craft beer. Everyone is really friendly towards each other and I admire how breweries collaborate and help one another. The craft beer scene has become so wildly popular that I don’t consider it a niche anymore.

How does craft beer inspire you?

Craft beer provides me the canvas to work with animating beer labels.

Why animate beer labels?

Why not animate beer labels? I love craft beer so it made sense to take the labels and animate them. So many craft beer labels are creative and unique. There’s a reason why many breweries and artists join forces; both are creative outlets and compliment each other. 

How do you approach a new label?

I start by looking at the overall action in the label. Is there a central figure to animate or is it mostly text based? Or maybe the label is something like Magic Hat #9, where it’s all abstract design based. I also take time to think about where the animation loop point will be. Will it require an object to be moving through the frame or can it be moving while I place. 

What has been your most challenging project and how did you overcome the challenge?

Every project has its challenges but I think the most challenging project to-date has been Slumbrew’s Porter Square Porter. The label for that beer mimics a piece of artwork outside the subway T station in Cambridge. The kites slowly rotate around and flip as the breeze rotates them around the pole. I knew that in order to accomplish replicating that movement on the label that I’d need to create the kite sculpture as a 3D object. I watched some Blender tutorials and taught myself (very crudely) how to design and then color a 3D object. I was very pleased with the final look. But I haven’t touched anything 3D in Blender since then!

If you could work with one brewery, who would it be and why?

I’ve either already worked with some of my favorites or animated labels on my own time for them. If there’s one brewery I’d love to be in contact with it’s Great Lakes Brewing Company in Ohio. They were my first craft beer experience back in college and they will always hold a special place in my heart.

What was the beer that started you down this craft beer rabbit hole?

Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Fitzgerald Porter. That beer is the definition of a perfect Porter in my mind. It was a stark contrast from the “Nasty Naddy" (Natural Light) that everyone drank at Ohio University.

What are you drinking right now?

Our local brewery Night Shift is killing it in the beer scene around here. Their rotating Morph IPA changes each two weeks and somehow gets better every variation. Plus, unlike some other local breweries, Night Shift excels at styles other than IPAs which helps keep things interesting. I’m not saying I don’t care for New England IPAs but the style is definitely becoming old here in the Boston area. 

What do you wish you were drinking right now?

A Heady Topper by The Alchemist. That beer never gets old for me.

Make sure you check out more of Trevor’s amazing work here:

instagram.com/beerlabelsinmotion

beerlabelsinmotion.com

twitter.com/beerlabelmotion

facebook.com/beerlabelsinmotion

Source: hopstories
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