A web designer in Leeds, my musings

Writing a blog gives you the opportunity to help other people, and if you are helping other people a consequence is you help yourself.

For example, when you are writing a blog it helps if you have clear explanations.

In one post I talk about useful Linux commands for finding the speed of website pages.

ab -S -n 1 -c 1 <a href = "http://onsitenow.co.uk/">http:// onsitenow.co.uk/</a>
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{time_starttransfer}\n" <a href = "http://onsitenow.co.uk/"> http:// onsitenow.co.uk/</a>

They are quite abstract and not very memorable so I wanted to jot them down so I wouldn't forget them and could use them again without too much hassle. Normally I would have written them on a piece of paper and put them in a file somewhere. But I though it's useful to me so it might be useful to other people so I can put it in a blog post.

So I thought I'd write a couple of sentences about what each command did and how it worked. And that is all that it was. But to write those sentences I had to revisit the commands and re understand them properly, so that the explanation was clear.

And that's the point, because I feel like there may be an audience, I feel a little bit of extra pressure to to explain the concepts properly, so I have to understand the concepts properly.

But in that process I am doubly helping myself because I am revising what I used and getting it absolutely clear in my head and I am not only providing a resource for others, but I am providing a resource for myself.

I know if I had used my usual method I would have taken a quick, less detailed note (if at all), and filed it away. I would then have come back to it later and probably not understood it as well.

What has this web developer coded today?

Hardly anything:

Total: 30 minutes

The weather forecast looked quite good for cycling so I headed off into the Dales, details in a later post...

Exercise: 32 mile bike ride 800m of height gained, exploring the Tour De France opening stage route from Hawes to Reeth and back.

Tomorrow: Back to work.