MStrutt.co.uk is the personal portfolio site of Michael Strutt, a Front-end web developer based in London http://mstrutt.co.uk Copyright Michael Strutt 2007 - 2019 There’s a pattern I’ve observed through my time as an engineer and a manager. As someone progresses through their career, the amount they ask for help from others follows a u-curve, and takes a significant dip around the mid-level portion of their career. If left unchecked, that lack of support and collaboration can slow down their growth, cause a lot of unnecessary stress, and lower the quality of their work. This is something which then needs to be unlearned as the person continues to grow on to a more senior level. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2023/08/why-you-should-never-stop-asking-for-help-at-work/ 2023-08-04T16:37:37.000Z I see a lot of mentions of journaling on social media. Some of the personal development books I’ve read include journaling prompts at the end of each chapter. Any search of the term will turn up a lot of content on the benefits of journaling. But what I don’t really see anyone talking about, is what journaling means to them, or how they go about it. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2023/01/how-i-use-journaling-to-support-my-wellbeing/ 2023-01-30T22:22:00.000Z It’s February - which, by now, is usually the point in the year where I realise I’ve already failed most of my New Year’s Resolutions. This year though, I’ve approached things a little differently. I’ve swapped my goals for habits. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2022/02/new-years-resolutions-vs-habits/ 2022-02-18T16:35:00.000Z As I write this article, I’m 31 years old. I’m not married. I don’t have kids, or anyone who’s dependent on me in any way. I’m not studying for a new qualification, or any of the other classic reasons to work part-time. For me that’s precisely why it’s the perfect time to start this new chapter in my life. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2021/10/why-i-dont-work-wednesdays-anymore/ 2021-10-20T09:59:00.000Z When I shared my story about my journey with mental health, I expected to get a range of reactions. The reception I received was overwhelmingly positive, but there was one kind of reaction from a few people that I really hadn’t anticipated: they were surprised that I hadn’t said something sooner. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2021/08/why-its-so-hard-to-reach-out/ 2021-08-13T10:23:00.000Z In this second interview for The Front End Coach Podcast, James and I talk about the interview and job application process. I shares some of my own experiences and give tips on how to stand out and give yourself the best chance of landing your first dev job. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2021/05/insights-from-a-tech-community-lead-part-2/ 2021-05-05T16:25:01.000Z In this episode of The Front End Coach Podcast, I share my thoughts with James on what it takes to become a great developer, alongside tips regarding job applications and how to handle imposter syndrome. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2020/12/insights-from-a-tech-community-lead/ 2020-12-22T16:08:38.000Z In light of World Mental Health Day and the increasing spotlight that mental health has seen this year, I would like to share my story, as both a person and an Engineer http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2020/10/one-engineers-journey-with-mental-health/ 2020-10-17T09:00:00.000Z My notes from Front-end London's March Event - Reflect and refactor by Melinda Seckington, Sizing with content by Oliver Williams, and The Open Metaverse by Shaun Dunne http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2017/04/notes-from-front-end-london-march-2017/ 2017-04-26T20:54:10.000Z My notes from Front-end London's April Event - Service Workers Practically by Anna Doubková, Elm - the good, the bad & the alternatives by Jon Kelly, and The Weird World of Native Mobile by Andy Trevorah http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2017/04/notes-from-front-end-london-april-2017/ 2017-04-27T19:00:00.000Z My notes from Front-end London's March Event - Reflect and refactor by Melinda Seckington, Sizing with content by Oliver Williams, and The Open Metaverse by Shaun Dunne http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2017/03/notes-from-front-end-london-march-2017/ 2017-03-30T19:00:00.000Z My notes from London Web Standards' March Event - Chrome Debug Tools by Katie Fenn, and Using WebPageTest by Andy Davies http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2016/03/notes-from-london-web-standards-march-2016/ 2016-03-21T19:00:00.000Z My notes from Front-end London's February Event - CSS Modules, Design Sprints, and The Art of Reduxion http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2016/02/notes-from-front-end-london-february-2016/ 2016-02-25T19:00:00.000Z I found some old hand-written notes from a conference when my laptop had died. Although late, hopefully they'll still be of some value http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2016/01/old-notes-from-an-epicfel-past/ 2016-01-24T16:50:00.000Z My notes from Front-end London's January Event - Taking Part in the IndieWeb by Calum Ryan, The Miracle of Generators by Bodil Stokke, and How to not use jQuery by Callum MacRae http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2016/01/notes-from-front-end-london-january-2016/ 2016-01-28T19:00:00.000Z The last of the old notes I found from a conference long ago http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2016/01/more-old-hand-written-notes/ 2016-01-31T20:38:49.000Z NPM v3 has been out for a little while now, and with it has come a not insignificant change, the structure of the node_modules folder has been largely flattened. If you're just using other modules within your project, then this change shouldn't really impact you. If you're publishing an npm module with dependency on other modules, however, then this change means that the dependencies of your module are likely to be in the root level. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/11/dont-assume-whats-in-your-node-modules-folder/ 2015-11-06T08:06:21.000Z My notes from Phil Nash's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/the-web-is-getting-pushy/ 2015-09-12T16:30:00.000Z My notes from Laura Elizabeth's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/modular-design-and-what-it-means-for-our-clients/ 2015-09-12T14:30:00.000Z My notes from Chris Heilmann's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/mind-the-gap/ 2015-09-12T12:30:00.000Z My notes from Melinda Seckington's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/learn-reflect-repeat-how-we-run-internal-hackdays-and-other-events/ 2015-09-12T11:30:00.000Z My notes from Bruce Lawson's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/ensuring-a-performant-web-for-the-next-billion-people/ 2015-09-12T14:00:00.000Z My notes from Adam Onishi's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/best-viewed-with/ 2015-09-12T15:00:00.000Z My notes from Martin Jakl's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/another-billion-browsers-and-internet-of-things/ 2015-09-12T12:00:00.000Z My notes from Ada Rose Edwards's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/animation-performance-on-the-web/ 2015-09-12T16:00:00.000Z My notes from Edd Sowden's talk at State of the Browser 2015 http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/09/accessibility-and-how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-screenreader/ 2015-09-12T10:30:00.000Z My notes from London Web Performance's March event - Responsive and Fast by Michael Gooding and Ellen van Keulen from Akamai. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/03/notes-from-london-web-performance-march/ 2015-03-04T20:59:38.000Z A Gruntfile can become less-manageable quite easily when there are multiple things wanting to run the same set of tasks. For example, the steps to compile CSS might always be to run sass and then autoprefixer, but this would be both part of the main build task, required as part of any dist task there may be, and then run on watch any time a .scss source file changes. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/03/cleaning-up-your-gruntfile-with-hidden-subtasks/ 2015-03-15T10:27:14.000Z My notes from Front-end London's January Event - OK Computer from Peter Gasston, Visual Regression Testing from Charlie Owen, and Hackers guide to testing with real users from Tom Alterman. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2015/02/notes-from-front-end-london-january/ 2015-02-14T11:27:12.000Z My notes from London Web Standards June Event #lwssausage - Bruce's tour of the sausage factory by Bruce Lawson, and Building awesome responsive experiences with JavaScript by Jonathan Fielding. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/07/notes-from-lwssausage/ 2014-07-16T20:59:35.000Z My notes from Front-end London's June Event - Browse the web like Xerces - The God King of the Persians from Mike MacCana, Why is using typography on Web so difficult? from Clare Evans, and Know Thy Interaction from Ashley Nolan. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/07/notes-from-fel-june/ 2014-07-16T21:34:32.000Z My notes from London Web Standards' 2014 Conference - State of the Browser http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/04/notes-from-state-of-the-browser/ 2014-04-26T10:00:00.000Z My notes from Front-end London's April Event - The world keeps spinning round and round from Arran Ross-Paterson, Bridging the gap between developers and designers with Sass from Kaelig Deloumeau-Prigent, and Over promised and under delivered from Peter Gasston. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/04/notes-from-front-end-london-april/ 2014-04-25T15:06:15.000Z My notes from London Web Standards March Event #lwshttp - Playlister: Developing a new music product at the BBC by Sara Gonzalo, and What to expect from HTTP/2 from Mark Nottingham. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/03/notes-from-lwshttp/ 2014-03-17T21:30:38.000Z My notes from Front-end London's March Event - How to Win Designers and Influence Developers from Adam Rogers, Exploring CSS3's 3D space from Daniel Grant, and Can Code Quality be Measured? from Tim Ruffles. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/03/notes-from-front-end-london-march/ 2014-03-28T00:14:07.000Z My notes from London Web Standards November Event #lwslightning - Architecting for Success from Daniel Knell, and four lightning-talks by Laura Dawson, Leonard Houx, Fabio Bertone, and Daniel Appelquist. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/01/notes-from-lwslightning/ 2014-01-20T22:26:49.000Z My notes from Front-end London's January Event - AngularJS from Todd Motto; Are you browsing comfortably? from Steve Workman; and ServiceWorker and the offline web from Tom Ashworth http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2014/01/notes-from-front-end-london-january/ 2014-01-30T23:17:54.000Z My notes from the two talks at London Web Standards November - Firefox OS in a nutshell, by Fernando Campo and Borja Salguero; What's new in Web Standards by Daniel Appelquist. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/11/notes-from-lwsw3trends/ 2013-11-18T22:26:49.000Z My notes on the two talks - Modern Progressive Enhancement and Online Identity. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/10/notes-from-lwsprogid/ 2013-10-21T22:33:17.000Z My notes on the four talks from #12Devs October - Life behind the curve; Node.js - what is and why do?; The internet is real anyway; Digital feudalism and how to avoid it http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/10/notes-from-12devs-october/ 2013-10-24T23:47:16.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/09/do-i-need-jquery/ 2013-09-01T19:57:07.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/08/graduation-and-employment/ 2013-08-11T13:13:55.000Z Initially I fell down on the LESS side of this divide, the main reason being the ease of it. All you have to do is include the javascript file and you're away. Syntactically it's a whole lot easier to use as well, there's almost no extra syntax to learn, and writing custom mixins takes no time at all. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/08/converting-from-less-to-sass/ 2013-08-11T17:59:24.000Z In theory user agents are great, it's a way for devices to identify themselves to servers. Great for analytics, and in theory something that can be used, along with other methods, to optimise the content the server delivers. http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2013/06/user-agents-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ 2012-06-03T21:09:38.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2012/12/layout-in-css/ 2012-12-07T13:57:10.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2012/10/the-box-model/ 2012-10-06T19:58:17.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2012/05/its-not-always-internet-explorers-fault/ 2012-05-27T17:56:23.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2012/05/is-that-html5/ 2012-05-20T17:35:54.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2012/04/responsive-vs-adaptive/ 2012-04-18T22:22:00.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2011/08/new-skills-new-site/ 2011-08-14T21:28:56.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2011/07/starting-at-snowvalley/ 2011-07-04T08:32:15.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2011/05/weve-won-another-award/ 2011-05-31T19:48:27.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2011/01/new-site-live/ 2011-01-24T22:16:00.000Z http://mstrutt.co.uk/blog/2010/12/weve-won-an-award/ 2010-12-10T00:58:00.000Z