# Declan Chidlow (@vale.rocks)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/vale.rocks
Headline: Front-End Developer & Writer | Design & Implementation | HTML, CSS
Website: https://vale.rocks

## About

Front-end developer with a skew towards the front-of-the-front-end, specialising in core web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Paired with a proven track record of striking graphic design and high-quality technical writing for industry-leading publications.

## Career

- **Freelance Front-End Developer, Writer, and Designer** (Jan 2024 - Present)
  Freelance · Hybrid
  Applying technical expertise on contract basis for organisations ranging from small local businesses and indie studios to large global enterprises, such as bunny.net.
- **Doer of Assorted Things at Stoat** (Jun 2023 - Present)
  Remote
  Assorted work at a user-first chat application, helping it grow and scale from under 100K users to over a million users.
  
  https://vale.rocks/portfolio/stoat
- **Tech Support at CapChord** (Nov 2021 - Jun 2024)
  Self-employed · Hybrid
  Established an independent tech-support business catering specifically to elderly and technologically inexperienced clientele. Services were offered both physically and remotely, with outreach via print advertising, which was optimal for reaching the target audience.

## Talks & sessions

### Newly Acquired Powers of the Web Platform
- DDD Perth · Oct 2026 · Perth, Western Australia, Australia · Presenter · In person

## Publications

- Beauty in DVD Menus — vale.rocks (Oct 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/dvd-menus
- Speaker Rider — vale.rocks (Oct 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/speaker-rider
- CSS Curiosities of the Past — vale.rocks (Sep 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/css-relics
- My HTML Boilerplate — vale.rocks (Sep 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/html-boilerplate
- Antiquated HTML Snippets and Artefacts — vale.rocks (Sep 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/html-relics
- The Curiosity That Is Minecraft: Pi Edition — vale.rocks (Sep 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/minecraft-pi-edition
- A Complete History of Stoat — vale.rocks (Aug 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/stoat-history
- The AT Protocol Harkens An Old Web Ethos — vale.rocks (Aug 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/atproto-ethos
- A Great Deal of Information About Hacker News — vale.rocks (Jul 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/hacker-news
- Web Platform Wishlist — vale.rocks (Jun 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/web-platform-wishlist
- Web Browsers in Augmented, Mixed, and Virtual Reality — vale.rocks (Jun 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/extended-reality-browsers
- The Oculus Go — vale.rocks (Jun 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/oculus-go
- Web Browsers on PDAs — vale.rocks (Jun 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/pda-browsers
- Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles — vale.rocks (Jun 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/game-console-browsers
- Overview of Digital Accessibility Technologies — vale.rocks (Jun 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/digital-accessibility-technologies
- The Internet Is Going To Change Everything — vale.rocks (May 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/internet-dreams
- There Isn't A Microchip Under Your Skin Tracking You — vale.rocks (May 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/tracking-implants
- Lessons From Tech Support — vale.rocks (May 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/tech-support
- The $25 MacBook Pro — vale.rocks (May 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/25-dollar-macbook
- AI Terminology is Poorly Defined and Oft Misused — vale.rocks (Apr 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-terminology
- It's All Just Trees With Web Origami — vale.rocks (Apr 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/web-origami
- The Regulated Reality of China's Gaming Industry — vale.rocks (Apr 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/china-gaming
- China’s Parallel Web Behind the Wall — vale.rocks (Apr 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/chinas-web
- Beyond the Square and Under the Rug — vale.rocks (Apr 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/1989-peoples-movement
- Stay Away From Accessibility Overlays — vale.rocks (Apr 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/accessibility-overlays
- The Death of Character in Game Console Interfaces — vale.rocks (Mar 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/game-console-interfaces
- Design Considerations for Moderation Tooling — vale.rocks (Feb 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/moderation-tooling-design
- My Opinionated CSS Reset — vale.rocks (Jan 2026) https://vale.rocks/posts/css-reset
- You Can't Opt-Out of Accessibility — vale.rocks (Dec 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/accessibility-importance
- Frequently Asked Unicycling Questions — vale.rocks (Dec 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/unicycle-faq
- Strongly Worded Emails — vale.rocks (Nov 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/strongly-worded-emails
- On Writing for Publications — vale.rocks (Nov 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/professional-writing-advice
- Nootropical Notes — vale.rocks (Oct 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/nootropics
- Switching to Colemak-DH — vale.rocks (Oct 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/typing-systems
- Identifying AI Content Is A Fool's Errand — vale.rocks (Sep 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/detecting-ai
- Tea Reviews — vale.rocks (Sep 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/tea-reviews
- Biological Donation — vale.rocks (Aug 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/biological-donation
- Winter Rhapsody — vale.rocks (Aug 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/winter-rhapsody
- Wishes Upon My Demise — vale.rocks (Jul 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/regarding-my-death
- How I Configure Neovim — vale.rocks (Jul 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/neovim
- Advising Reasonable AI Criticism — vale.rocks (May 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-criticism
- Creativity Came to Pass — vale.rocks (May 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/creativity-came-to-pass
- How I'm Using AI — vale.rocks (May 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-usage
- My Writing Style and Mannerisms — vale.rocks (May 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/writing-style-and-mannerisms
- Why Video Isn't My Publishing Preference — vale.rocks (Apr 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/why-not-video
- Why I Write — vale.rocks (Apr 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/why-write
- The Analytics of This Site — vale.rocks (Apr 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/traffic-analysis
- Airports and Aeroplanes — vale.rocks (Apr 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/airports-and-aeroplanes
- Open-Source is Just That — vale.rocks (Apr 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/open-source-entitlement
- Build, Use, and Improve Tools — vale.rocks (Mar 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/build-use-and-improve-tools
- AI Model History is Being Lost — vale.rocks (Mar 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-model-history-is-being-lost
- Respecting User Preference — vale.rocks (Mar 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/respecting-user-preference
- Strong Opinions on URL Design — vale.rocks (Feb 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/strong-opinions-on-url-design
- AI is Stifling Tech Adoption — vale.rocks (Feb 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-is-stifling-tech-adoption
- Improving Early Kindles — vale.rocks (Jan 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/improving-early-kindles
- An Inventory of Lexical Loves — vale.rocks (Jan 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/an-inventory-of-lexical-loves
- The Flow State — vale.rocks (Jan 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/the-flow-state
- My Experience Biohacking — vale.rocks (Jan 2025) https://vale.rocks/posts/my-experience-biohacking
- The Implementation of This Site — vale.rocks (Dec 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/the-implementation-of-this-site
- Media Review Reasoning — vale.rocks (Dec 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/media-review-reasoning
- Lorem Ipsum — vale.rocks (Nov 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/lorem-ipsum
- Building Sites With iFrames — vale.rocks (Oct 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/building-sites-with-iframes
- Technology I Use — vale.rocks (Aug 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/uses
- I Got A Flipper Zero — vale.rocks (Jun 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/i-got-a-flipper-zero
- JPEG XL and Google's War Against It — vale.rocks (May 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/jpeg-xl-and-googles-war-against-it
- My Code Formatting Guidelines — vale.rocks (Apr 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/my-code-formatting-guidelines
- Minecraft, Nostalgia, and Growing Up — vale.rocks (Apr 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/minecraft-nostalgia-and-growing-up
- Cybersecurity Superstition — vale.rocks (Feb 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/cybersecurity-superstition
- I Hate My Nokia — vale.rocks (Feb 2024) https://vale.rocks/posts/i-hate-my-nokia
- Everything is Chrome — vale.rocks (Dec 2023) https://vale.rocks/posts/everything-is-chrome
- A Year With The Framework Laptop 13 — vale.rocks (Dec 2023) https://vale.rocks/posts/a-year-with-the-framework-laptop-13
- Prematurely Pulling The Plug On 3G — vale.rocks (Nov 2023) https://vale.rocks/posts/prematurely-pulling-the-plug-on-3g
- Halo: My Thoughts — vale.rocks (Aug 2023) https://vale.rocks/posts/halo-my-thoughts
- The Ultimate LibreOffice Setup — vale.rocks (Jun 2023) https://vale.rocks/posts/the-ultimate-libreoffice-setup
- Connecting to Australian Public School Internet — vale.rocks (Oct 2022) https://vale.rocks/posts/connecting-to-australian-public-school-internet
- The Design of This Site — vale.rocks (Sep 2022) https://vale.rocks/posts/the-design-of-this-site

## Skills

### Technical
- AT Protocol
- Git
- Technical Documentation
- CSS
- HTML
- JavaScript
- Progressive Web Apps
- Tailwind CSS
- Web Development
- WordPress
### Business
- Writing
- SEO
### Creative
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Photoshop
- Figma
- Penpot
- Graphic Design
- UI Design
- UX Design

## Education

- **North Metropolitan Tafe** — Diploma, Information Technology (Front-End Development) (Jan 2024 - Dec 2024)
  Completed units on object-oriented design, validating application designs against specifications, managing client problems, building dynamic websites and web apps (including with Next.js), completing user experience testing and audits, developing information architecture, creating complex website layouts with CSS, building documents using markup languages, and writing client-side scripts.
  
  A real client project (https://vale.rocks/portfolio/public-libraries-western-australia) was involved.
  
  National ID ICT50220
- **Mount Pleasant College** — Certificate IV, Graphic Design (Feb 2023 - Dec 2023)
  Completed units on articulating, presenting and debating ideas, investigating business opportunities, applying colour theory, generating design solutions, exploring and applying the creative process to 2D forms, creating typefaces and applying typographic techniques, user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, approaching briefs, and applying information on design history and theory.
  
  National ID CUA40720
- **International Institute of Business and Technology** — Certificate IV, Information Technology (Jan 2022 - Nov 2022)
  Completed units on cyber-security risk management, writing scripts for software applications, designing and implementing network security infrastructure, evaluating cloud solutions and services, installing and configuring virtual machines and small enterprise branch networks, resolving ICT problems, monitoring and administering systems, and applying programming techniques.
  
  National ID ICT40120

## Languages

- English (native)

## Links

- Website: https://vale.rocks (verified)
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/declan-chidlow
- Fediverse: https://fedi.vale.rocks/vale
- GitHub: https://github.com/DeclanChidlow/ (verified)
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@outervale
- tangled: https://tangled.org/did:plc:7qg6mz2xtzozxkgbcvf4pdnu