Author Archives: Kevin
Another Good EDC, ruined
Another good EDC (Every Day Carry) tool design ruined by a bottle opener.
Never in my life have I needed a bottle opener. Not only are most bottles in the US twist-off now but you can use ANYTHING top remove a bottle cap. The back of your knife, a coin, a stick, a towel… ANYTHING. So a bottle opener shouldn’t take up valuable space on nearly every EDC tool.
Why do Space Suit Helmets Have Lights on the Inside?
In nearly all Sci-Fi films and series, space and biohazard suits have lights inside the helmet. Why? Don’t the lights refract in your eyes and impair your vision? For sure it looks cool and makes for good cinematography but seems entirely impractical.
I understand that viewers need to see actors emoting to get invested in the story so I propose a compromise- keep the lights but make them voice-activated. Filmmakers will still get that cool shot they’re looking for and the effect will be practical and help to build dramatic tension. Imagine a dark setting with a group of explorers and the helmet lights turn on only when an astronaut speaks. The voice activated light helps identify who is speaking and conserve energy. Keeping the light on all the time impairs vision and is a potential liability in missions requiring stealth, having lights on all the time draws attention that could compromise a mission.
Smaller bundles with Webpack and Babili
Recently I took an objective look at file sizes for the bundles generated for formBuilder, Formeo.js and mi18n. Each module had between 30-52kb of bloat added to them so I set out to reduce. For this write-up I’ll be focusing on mi18n since it’s the simplest of the 3 and the gains are more easily measured. It’s also fresh in my mind so should be easier to write about. Continue reading