5 ms·

I always wonder, who puts together nifty little blog posts on this kind of thing complete with graphics just for the article? By that I mean, literally what tit

I always wonder, who puts together nifty little blog posts on this kind of thing complete with graphics just for the article? By that I mean, literally what title do they have? Myself and my colleagues would/could write up a technical breakdown of something neat or innovative we might have done to solve some problem at work, but we sure as shit can't make cool little graphics interspersed between opportune paragraphs, nor could we figure out how to make the thing entertaining to read. Is this kind of thing done in coordination with like a PR/graphics department?

0xCMP 9y ago
Technical writers often do this. At an agency I worked at my co-worker worked that job + being a freelance technical writer and she used to make graphics all the time for documentation and articles.
LoSboccacc 9y ago
Marketing depth has a budget usually and can hire external graphic talent as needed. Not saying that this was the case eh, speaking generally.
tedunangst 9y ago
> Lin is an engineer on the Mozilla Developer Relations team. She tinkers with JavaScript, WebAssembly, Rust, and Servo, and also draws code cartoons.
Swizec 9y ago
Staff blogger perhaps? I've been hired before by companies to take something their engineering team has done and turn it into a blogpost. I can't do graphics, but I can write a mean blogpost about pretty much anything you can think of. Some posts/articles that came out of such initiatives have gone on to get published in dead-tree magazines or stick around the frontpage of HN for a few hours. Broadly speaking, if you were doing this as a job job, I think it would fall under "developer evangelist". Your job is to make the company look good to potential hires and API consumers. Do whatever it takes. That involves going to conferences, writing blogposts, drawing graphics, and using freelancer resources to help you out in areas where you can't go. Usually evangelists can do most of the job on their own.
pmlamotte 9y ago
I believe she just has a talent for it, she's an engineer as far as I know and has other related cartoon descriptions: http://lin-clark.com/ http://lin-clark.com/ Her talk on react fiber this year is quite good as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuYPiUIONs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuYPiUIONs
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
linclark 9y ago
No, I created Code Cartoons in my spare time. After I worked at Mozilla for a while, I pitched the idea of me making Code Cartoons explaining the things we were developing in Emerging Technologies. My (current) boss was super into the idea. I talked more about this on a recently recorded Hanselminutes podcast. It should come out soon.
- k__ 9y ago
  Nice! Did you also do the React Fiber cartoons?
  - linclark 9y ago
    Yes, that was me :) I've created a lot of cartoons around things in the React ecosystem. I've also done cartoons on WebAssembly and SharedArrayBuffer/Atomics.
    - k__ 9y ago
      Cool. I had the feeling they looked similar, but I didn't think someone who does this whole low-level stuff AND works for Mozilla would also like React, which got much hate from non-FB employees lately :D
    - ziftface 9y ago
      The one on WebAssembly was also very informative, thanks!
    - jameskegel 9y ago
      I knew it!
- StavrosK 9y ago
  That's a great idea, blog posts are usually too dry and we try to spice them up with photos and related media, but they're usually only tangentially related. Having the ability to draw something specific to the post really makes it more enjoyable to read.
- 9y ago
javitury 9y ago
If you read this article with a HN mobile app, try again with a real web browser. The cartoons are awesome but are not displayed in the app.
nothis 9y ago
That's honestly one of those big differences between Mozilla and the tons of other idealistic free/open source projects out there. They care about presentation. They care about clarity. They care about layout. They care about style. IMO understanding how to appeal to non-tech-y users (and that tech-y users don't always want to sift through 5 pages of links to SDK-tarballs when trying to download a software) was how they managed to compete with IE/Microsoft back in the day. They're also one of the few non-profit organizations releasing software that understands user interfaces. All that stuff going on with FF57 and whatnot must be tough for them but overall, I believe they're a huge success story and more open projects should look up to them for inspiration. If there was an operating system (sorry, Firefox OS didn't count) or office suite developed with a similar attitude, it could really make an impact. Just compare the download page of Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/ https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) with that of Firefox. I'd link the latter, but it basically just starts to download the file you actually want. It's the little things...
- buovjaga 9y ago
  > Just compare the download page of Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/ https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) with that of Firefox. Without the budget of Mozilla, there is no time to put enough thought and effort on presentation. Our volunteers are our money. I wear like five different hats in LibreOffice and do not get paid for any of them. If I focus on web layouts for some weeks, I watch in horror as our unconfirmed bug stats start growing out of control. The number of people actively thinking about LibreOffice web presentation and layout is zero. If someone wants to start doing it for no compensation whatsoever, feel free to ping me.
  - FooBarWidget 9y ago
    As a fellow open source developer I completely understand you. Thank you for your work on LibreOffice. Having said that, the grandparent reflects an undeniable truth of our time. User expectations are high, users are "spoiled": they expect it all and they expect it for free. Not commenting on whether that is a good or bad thing, just pointing out that it is true.
DrReinhold 9y ago
YES, this! Who on earth does that?
odbol_ 9y ago
Drawing is learned like any other skill. Just practice it for a while and you will become better at it
lucideer 9y ago
In my experience, it's happenstance that varies on an author-by-author basis. I've worked in places where one author would put up a mostly text article which would be immediately followed by something incredibly creative like this from another colleague. It's a bit of a pity really, as it would be nice to take some of the insight of the not-quite-so-graphically-gifted engineers and have them collaborate with colleagues to present it in a great accessible format, but I've not seen this happen in practice.

0xCMP 9y ago

Technical writers often do this. At an agency I worked at my co-worker worked that job + being a freelance technical writer and she used to make graphics all the time for documentation and articles.

LoSboccacc 9y ago

Marketing depth has a budget usually and can hire external graphic talent as needed. Not saying that this was the case eh, speaking generally.

tedunangst 9y ago

> Lin is an engineer on the Mozilla Developer Relations team. She tinkers with JavaScript, WebAssembly, Rust, and Servo, and also draws code cartoons.

Swizec 9y ago

Staff blogger perhaps? I've been hired before by companies to take something their engineering team has done and turn it into a blogpost. I can't do graphics, but I can write a mean blogpost about pretty much anything you can think of. Some posts/articles that came out of such initiatives have gone on to get published in dead-tree magazines or stick around the frontpage of HN for a few hours. Broadly speaking, if you were doing this as a job job, I think it would fall under "developer evangelist". Your job is to make the company look good to potential hires and API consumers. Do whatever it takes. That involves going to conferences, writing blogposts, drawing graphics, and using freelancer resources to help you out in areas where you can't go. Usually evangelists can do most of the job on their own.

pmlamotte 9y ago

I believe she just has a talent for it, she's an engineer as far as I know and has other related cartoon descriptions: http://lin-clark.com/ http://lin-clark.com/ Her talk on react fiber this year is quite good as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuYPiUIONs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuYPiUIONs

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

linclark 9y ago

No, I created Code Cartoons in my spare time. After I worked at Mozilla for a while, I pitched the idea of me making Code Cartoons explaining the things we were developing in Emerging Technologies. My (current) boss was super into the idea. I talked more about this on a recently recorded Hanselminutes podcast. It should come out soon.

k__ 9y ago
Nice! Did you also do the React Fiber cartoons?
- linclark 9y ago
  Yes, that was me :) I've created a lot of cartoons around things in the React ecosystem. I've also done cartoons on WebAssembly and SharedArrayBuffer/Atomics.
  - k__ 9y ago
    Cool. I had the feeling they looked similar, but I didn't think someone who does this whole low-level stuff AND works for Mozilla would also like React, which got much hate from non-FB employees lately :D
  - ziftface 9y ago
    The one on WebAssembly was also very informative, thanks!
  - jameskegel 9y ago
    I knew it!
StavrosK 9y ago
That's a great idea, blog posts are usually too dry and we try to spice them up with photos and related media, but they're usually only tangentially related. Having the ability to draw something specific to the post really makes it more enjoyable to read.
9y ago

javitury 9y ago

If you read this article with a HN mobile app, try again with a real web browser. The cartoons are awesome but are not displayed in the app.

nothis 9y ago

That's honestly one of those big differences between Mozilla and the tons of other idealistic free/open source projects out there. They care about presentation. They care about clarity. They care about layout. They care about style. IMO understanding how to appeal to non-tech-y users (and that tech-y users don't always want to sift through 5 pages of links to SDK-tarballs when trying to download a software) was how they managed to compete with IE/Microsoft back in the day. They're also one of the few non-profit organizations releasing software that understands user interfaces. All that stuff going on with FF57 and whatnot must be tough for them but overall, I believe they're a huge success story and more open projects should look up to them for inspiration. If there was an operating system (sorry, Firefox OS didn't count) or office suite developed with a similar attitude, it could really make an impact. Just compare the download page of Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/ https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) with that of Firefox. I'd link the latter, but it basically just starts to download the file you actually want. It's the little things...

buovjaga 9y ago
> Just compare the download page of Libre Office (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/ https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) with that of Firefox. Without the budget of Mozilla, there is no time to put enough thought and effort on presentation. Our volunteers are our money. I wear like five different hats in LibreOffice and do not get paid for any of them. If I focus on web layouts for some weeks, I watch in horror as our unconfirmed bug stats start growing out of control. The number of people actively thinking about LibreOffice web presentation and layout is zero. If someone wants to start doing it for no compensation whatsoever, feel free to ping me.
- FooBarWidget 9y ago
  As a fellow open source developer I completely understand you. Thank you for your work on LibreOffice. Having said that, the grandparent reflects an undeniable truth of our time. User expectations are high, users are "spoiled": they expect it all and they expect it for free. Not commenting on whether that is a good or bad thing, just pointing out that it is true.

DrReinhold 9y ago

YES, this! Who on earth does that?

odbol_ 9y ago

Drawing is learned like any other skill. Just practice it for a while and you will become better at it

lucideer 9y ago

In my experience, it's happenstance that varies on an author-by-author basis. I've worked in places where one author would put up a mostly text article which would be immediately followed by something incredibly creative like this from another colleague. It's a bit of a pity really, as it would be nice to take some of the insight of the not-quite-so-graphically-gifted engineers and have them collaborate with colleagues to present it in a great accessible format, but I've not seen this happen in practice.