2023: The Year in Review
Published on 14 December 2023 by Andrew Owen (4 minutes)
It’s been nearly two years since I began publishing a weekly article on this blog. The aim was to serve the DevRel community, and for the most part I’ve stayed on topic. As 2023 comes to an end, it’s time for that old staple of the look back on the past year.
In January, I migrated this site’s headless CMS from Forestry to Tina. I ran x64 binaries on ARM under Debian with UTM. I learned about sales methodologies. And I explained how to move from Markdown to structured authoring.
This year I’ve written a fair amount of JavaScript. In February, I wrote the first version of the Document Object Model article that I added to over the year. I looked at the similarities between Redocly’s developer portal and my own previous effort. I gave advice on writing a resume. And I shared an idea for password reminders that aren’t based on personally identifiable information.
In March, I began localizing this site for French. The process was completed in December when I finished translating the previously published blog articles. I updated my translation workflow to use the VScode plug-ins for DeepL and LanguageTool. I wrote a piece on surviving an uncivilized workplace. And I summarized the larger updates to previously published articles. The biggest change was replacing all the Book Depository URLs with Wordery equivalents.
In April, I went on a European road trip through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. This included returning the Mega 65 I had on loan and donating my old computer stuff to the Museum of Electronic Games and Art. I added television shows to the curated list series of articles. It was 100 years since the opening of Yankee Stadium in New York. And the last two remaining newsstand American computer magazines ceased publication.
In May, I described how to use Buffer to automate social posts. I looked at Bitbucket Pipelines and decided I much prefer GitHub Actions. I set up a headless Mac using Google Remote Desktop. And I found a convenient way to get Word documents out of Confluence.
In June, I figured out how to do component single-source multichannel publishing with Markdown. I wrote an introduction to Postman. I made the case for locating data centers in Ireland. And I added obscure macOS applications and French films to the curated list series of articles.
In July, I had some ideas about creating dynamic shared libraries on microcontrollers. I gave a shout-out to helpdesk staff. I looked at ways of bulk converting Markdown to HTML. And I reflected on the state of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter (TSMPFKAT).
In August, I wrote about analytics, accessibility, operating system design and whiteboarding with Freeform. I also created a guide to help users of other dialects write American English.
In September, I was a speaker at the TCUK23 conference in Birmingham. I wrote about time management, cloud data storage and the Unity pricing fiasco. I also added children’s authors to the curated list series of articles.
In October, I wrote about hiring and retaining Generation Z, how to do docs-as-code without Markdown and two articles on translation; which languages to support and how to do secure offline translation on macOS.
In November, after long consideration, I finally weighed in on the Artificial Intelligence debate. I also wrote about the semantic web, the art of story and tips on managing an online community. Shortly afterward, I was invited to become a moderator in a Discord. I wrapped up the month by writing about the end of the analog era, which could be the summary for the year.
In December, I reflected on my experiences doing five document migrations. There are two articles left to go after this one. Next week’s will be on Lua and the final one will be predictions for 2024.
This was a tough year for everyone. There are three people who I knew personally and had a great deal of respect for who won’t see in the new year. It’s always a good time to ask a friend: “How are you doing today?”