User:Www.disquisitioner.com

From IndieWeb

David Bryant

about me

I’m an electrical engineer both genetically and by training and have spent over forty years designing, developing, marketing, selling, and using computers and software. I'm currently a Technical Fellow at Mozilla, and have worked previously at Nokia, Sun Microsystems, and Bell Laboratories.

my indieweb presence

I love the idea of owning my own identity and content on the web, and have been slowly crafting a suitable on-line home that'll let me learn, exchange ideas, and share what I'm up to. At the moment that site (www.disquisitioner.com) is built using the Eleventy static site generator, hosted on Netlify.

indieweb itches

I have a number of ideas about enriching my home site and getting more into the delights of the IndieWeb:

  • I'd like to add some sort of database to my site so I can store, retrieve, and analyze data from my home weather station and other IoT devices. One possibility is to use MySQL, which I believe I can add to my Dreamhost hosted domain. I have no idea how to setup and use MySQL, though, and really only need a simple system to store and retrieve time-series data.
  • Figuring out how to more easily post to my site via a mobile device. I'd like to think I could enable micropub services somehow, but haven't come across a good way to do that. My current posting workflow requires editing files, using git to commit changes to a repo, and then having Netlify automagically deploy the update to my site. That works fine on a laptop but not a tablet or mobile phone.
  • I'm trying to figure out what position to take on WebMonetization given I feel pretty strongly that the web needs a much better, more user friendly way of enabling content creators to be compensated for their work. For now that means adding the right metadata to selected pages on my site and using browser plugins to initiate micropayments for suitably-enabled sites I visit.
  • I still haven't decided if I can go back to regular posting on Twitter given my deep dismay over many of the things they've allowed to happen on their platform, but lately there are signs they're turning over a new leaf. If so, I'd be interested in syndicating content from my site to Twitter.
  • I've got a number of articles I'd like to write up for my site, including documenting a variety of "Maker Movement" projects I've been tinkering on in my workshop.