Engrossing Mobile Shield (esm.sh); “Excuse me, I gotta take this…”; The End Of (Arguing) Guides

Happy 🦃-Eve to the Drop’s U.S. readers!

Thanksgiving is usually a time spent with family, but we all know how quickly such engagements can go pear-shaped. $RELATION gets into a political debate that ruins dinner or your other $RELATION won’t stop complaining about [INSERT TOPIC HERE]. These situations are not limited to this U.S. holiday, and it helps to go into them with a plan.

So, today, we have one resource that will let you use your mobile device as an impenetrable engagement shield whilst also leveling up your coding skills, another with three tools that can get you out of a testy situation, and a final one with some fairly sage advice.

TL;DR

This is an AI-generated summary of today’s Drop.

• Engrossing Mobile Shield (esm.sh): Discusses using a mobile device as an engagement shield and introduces esm.sh, a web service for using ECMAScript Modules in JavaScript projects, that includes an interactive playground.

• “Excuse me, I gotta take this…”: Provides three tools for getting out of testy situations.

• The End Of (Arguing) Guides Happy 🦃-Eve: Discusses the drawbacks of contentious debates with relatives during holiday gatherings and suggests having respectful, long-term conversations to broaden perspectives, citing this piece in the Intelligencier.

Engrossing Shield for Mobile (esm.sh)

Increasingly, gatherings of all kinds usually have some moments where our portable glowing rectangles are held up with both hands, pointed squarely in at our noggins, with thumbs furiously engaged in some app interaction. While one could just play some casual game, it’s a bit more convincing, to those around you, that you need to be super-engrossed if there aren’t flashing lights and mini-sprites bouncing across those screens.

If you need a way to slink back behind your mobile device whilst others drone on, or — worse — decide not to heed the advice given by the resource in today’s third section, might I propose diving into the esm.sh Playground?

Before we talk about that we need to talk about what esm.sh is.

esm.sh is a FOSS web service that provides a convenient way to use ECMAScript Modules (ESM) in your JavaScript projects. These modules, as we’ve noted before, are a standardized way of organizing and sharing code in JavaScript, and they offer several advantages over the previously used CommonJS and AMD module systems.

One of the standout features of ESM.SH is that it requires no installation or setup. You can start using ESM.SH in your projects instantly, without the need to configure package managers or build tools. It also works seamlessly in both browser and Node.js environments, which means you can use the same module syntax and structure across different platforms without any compatibility issues. It’s also backed by a global CDN, so it should perform well, no matter where you are.

This does you no good if all you have is your tiny portable glowing rectangle…or, does it?

The section header is a screencap from my iPhone. It shows the ESM Playground, which is a live editor (with a live preview that’s hidden in that capture). This 100% web-based tool let us experiment with ESM modules in a browser environment. It provides a convenient way to write and run ESM code without the need for a local development environment or build setup. The playground is powered by the esm-compiler, which is written in Rust and is used to compile and run ESM code in the browser.

You can literally do anything in that playground. Take the time to learn Lit, Vue, or React! Play with WebR! Try out a crazy idea you’ve recently pondered.

The important part is to head into the situation with some sort of plan or project list ahead of time, so you can get those extended family shields up and keep them up for as long as possible.

“Excuse me, I gotta take this…”

Quick section since it’s just links to two services and one FOSS one you can stand up on your own.

One of the easiest ways to get out of a painful situation is to respond to a call or notification.

It’s best to have a plan here, too. Such as setting up a series of notifications that come in while your phone is on silent mode, which lets you “accidentally” flip it off silent for a well-timed digital escape hatch.

Pushover and PushBullet are both free services that can help with this endeavour. I have and do use both (the former for kev-push).

If you want more control, gotify is easy to self-host, and lets you go to town.

The End Of (Arguing) Guides

Over the years, a plethora of articles have provided tips for arguing with $ORG/PERSON/CAUSE-supporting relatives at holiday gatherings. The author of this piece in the Intelligencier argues that too many of these posts overly pressured readers into contentious and fruitless $TOPIC debates with extended family members.

While important discussions can sometimes influence beliefs, caterwauling at others is unlikely to change minds. In the U.S. the annual march of these guides waned for a time as a certain individual temporarily embraced his Florida Man existence. But publications may still seek holiday content and recycle “tips” for discussing $TOPICS with reticent relatives. Not to mention that we’re six weeks away from Primary season in the U.S.

The author believes changing views happens through respectful, long-term conversations that broaden perspectives, not rude confrontations over the cooked remains of some wild beast. This is how my state exceeded expectations in November of 2020. It’s one thing to “punch [random] Nazis” on X, it’s quite another to win 💜 & 🧠.

If you are wont to argue, the advice is to do so only if it truly makes one happy, not because of a sense of duty. Progress is better paved through understanding between humans than it is indignant jibes between divided relations.

Or, you could do what #4 and I have done this year, and bow out entirely. 🙃

FIN

My plan is to actually chill for the four-day “weekend” (i.e., no Drops), but I suspect I will not be able to resist getting at least one edition out over the break.

For those celebrating or just having some time off, don’t forget to take some time to recharge. You 100% deserve it. ☮️