Last week, I attended the annual Computers in Libraries 2026 conference in Crystal City. This year, they should have renamed the conference to AIs in Libraries 2026. Out of 4 keynotes and 70 tracks, the focus was primarily on AI. There used to be a track dedicated to website and UX, but this year there were only two presentations on website and UX. I attended both. For the rest, my brain was about to explode with AI lectures. Then again, I learned something about Vibe Coding.

As a web designer and developer, I had always been skeptical of using AI to create webpages. After hearing and seeing some demo about Vibe Coding at the conference, I decided to give it a try. One of my passion projects has been creating typographic sample pages for my Vietnamese Typography web book. Whenever I read something interesting in Vietnamese, I would create a sample of it—of course with proper credits. For instance, if I read a book, I would sample my favorite chapter and provide an English translation if I could. If I read from a printed book, I would take photos of the pages, copy, and paste the text. After that I would write the HTML markups for the text. The process beat typing up the text manually, but it was still tedious because I had to change dumb quotes to smart quotes, markup italic words, and make sure hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes were applied correctly.

With the latest sample page showcasing Bảo Ninh’s short stories, I tested out Google Gemini. I uploaded 10 images since the free version only allows 10 images at a time. I put in the prompt: “Convert images into one HTML page. Markup <em> tags for italic text. I changed the option from “Fast” to “Thinking.” Within 15-30 seconds, Gemini showed me the HTML page it had created. I copied and pasted into my HTML editor, removed everything else except for the main content. I was amazed how clean the HTML page was. All the smart quotes, hyphens, and dashes were correct. Italic words were marked up in <em> tags. Furthermore, it places all the footnotes correctly at the bottom of the pages. It was definitely a time-saver for me not having to do these tasks manually. I still do not trust AI to do the design for me because I still want to write my CSS and the way I structure my HTML document, but I can let it help me with speeding up the manual, repetitive labor.

I had a mixed vibe about Computers in Libraries, but I always ended up attending. While not all of the presentations fit my interests, a few did. If nothing else, I had a chance to get away from my regular work for a couple of days.

Some useful directives for .htaccess

Turn on Rewrite:
RewriteEngine On

Configure the base path
RewriteBase /

Forces HTTPS and without WWW
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^visualgui.com
RewriteRule (.*) https://visualgui.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect everything file in a directory
RewriteRule ^old-dir/(.+)$ /new-dir/$1 [R=301,L]

Redirect old URL to new URL
Redirect /old-file/ /new-file/

Custom 404
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

Prevent directory listing when index file is not present
Options -Indexes

WordPress’s Site Health recommended that I should upgrade to PHP 8.3. I didn’t even realize that I was running on PHP 8.2. I googled for tutorials on how to update PHP on my DigitalOcean’s Droplets. Of course, I took a snapshots of my Droplets. Unfortunately, none of the tutorials I found worked. I had to restored my snapshots a couple of times. After about two hours, I almost gave up. Then I came across my own write up how I upgraded to PHP 8.2. All I had to do was replacing 8.2 with 8.4. I skipped 8.3. I also removed all old PHP packages and only leave 8.4. I was so glad that I documented all of the things I did. It definitely came in handy.

At work, I documented as much as I could as well on our Web Design & Services blog.

I am paying DigitalOcean almost $40 a month for my two Droplets. This blog (visualgui.com) is hosted by one Droplet. The other Droplet hosts the following sites: donnytruong.com, hiepkieuky.com, prowebtype.com, simplexpression.com, and vietnamesetypography.com.

In my initial setup, I wanted my blog to have its own Droplet because it is powered by WordPress. All sites on the other Droplet are static, except for with a bit of PHP includes and a few minor PHP functions. Both Droplets are performing well. They have enough resources to power all sites. The only downside is that I have to update and upgrade both Droplets. I have been thinking of putting all sites into one Droplet.

If I could put all of my sites in one Droplet, I could potentially cut the month fee in half. I am not sure if the server has enough resources to power all these site as one. As a result, I have been thinking about it, but I have not consolidate all sites into one Droplet.

Anyone has experience with DigitalOcean, please let me know if I can drop all my sites into one Droplet.

At the last minute, I decided to attend the Computers in Libraries 2025 in Crystal City, Virginia. In the previous years, I came away disappointed and this year was even more. The web presence talks from previous years have been replaced with AI presentations.

I hadn’t followed up on AI as much as I should so I figured I would learn something. Unfortunately I didn’t find the IA talks to be useful. The speakers went through lists of AI tools for web design, marketing, social media, and on and on. Out of all the talks, I found one somewhat useful: “AWS & Cloud Computing: Server Management.” I asked the speaker if there’s an automated tool for upgrading the OS. His answer was not really. I am running two cloud instances for my personal sites on DigitalOcean’s Droplet and I am getting tired of having to upgrade them every few months.

Despite not finding these presentations too useful, I still attended to get out of work without taking personal days off. I just needed some escape from my home office as well as my work office for a few days. I am not sure if I will return next year. I wish there are other useful conferences around the Metro area. I don’t want to travel far. I need to start searching.

Last night, I upgraded the Law School website to MODX 3.1.0. With MODX Cloud hosting, making an upgrade was just a click of a button. Of course, I had to make a backup first and that was also a click of a button.

MODX has to be one of the most unappreciated content management systems. After working with other systems, both open source and proprietary, I appreciate MODX even more.

As a designer, I appreciate the freedom and flexibility MODX offers to create a unique experience without any compromise. I don’t need to rely on bloated frameworks or predetermined templates.

As a developer, I appreciate its powerful architecture to deliver a rich experience. Its reusable code keeps the content manageable. I reuse its code plenty of times to create dynamic content.

As a server administrator, I appreciate its cloud hosting service for a peace of mind. Since we switched to the cloud-based subscription, I no longer have to manage the server. From security to backup management to failover strategy, MODX takes care of everything.

The MODX support team is superb. I can reach out to them at any time and they would respond promptly. Obviously no one knows MODX better than the people behind the CMS.

After more than 15 years of using MODX, I still can’t figure out the reasons it is not widely adopted. I hope MODX continues to thrive even if it stays small.

/* Base Rules */

@viewport {width: device-width;}
:root {font-size: 100%;}

html {hanging-punctuation: first last;}

*, *::before, *::after {box-sizing: border-box;}

* {margin: 0; padding: 0;}

body { text-align: left;
font-kerning: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures contextual;
font-feature-settings: "kern", "liga", "clig", "calt","lnum";
}

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
overflow-wrap: break-word;
text-wrap: balance;
}

p {
overflow-wrap: break-word;
text-wrap: pretty;
}

pre {overflow-y: hidden; }

audio, canvas, embed, iframe, img, object, svg, video {
display: block; width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;
}

img {height: auto; }

ul, ol, dd, summary { margin: 0; padding: 0; }

nav ul, nav ol, aside ul { list-style: none; list-style-image: none; }

abbr {font-variant-caps: all-small-caps; text-decoration: none;}

input, button, textarea, select {
font: inherit;
letter-spacing: inherit;
word-spacing: inherit;
color: currentColor;
}


In over 25 years of using computers, I had done countless copy and paste texts. Yet, I got annoyed with formatting every time I performed these two tasks.

Recently, I was helping Đán with his homework and I watched him copied and pasted text in to his assignments without the formatting.

He showed me how:

Win: Ctrl + Shift + V
Mac: Cmd + Shift + V

How in the world have I not known this all these years? Then again, better late than never. Thanks kiddo!

After several failed attempts to upgrade Ubuntu 22.04 to 24.04.1 early this month, I was doing some research to migrate off DigitalOcean. My first choice for this WordPress-powered blog was WP Engine. After the controversy between WordPress and WP Engine unfolded, I was debating between WordPress.com and Pressable, both owned by Automattic. I still haven’t made up my mind.

I still don’t know where to move my PHP sites, which I put them all in one DigitalOcean’s Droplet. I don’t want to go back to shared hosting plans. I need a managed cloud hosting solution. I haven’t dug far enough. I was doing research on running my own server in my house, but that seems like a terrible idea. So I scrapped that.

I still don’t know what to do with the hosting for all of my sites, especially in the long run when I will no longer alive. I guess they should all evaporate with me. I shouldn’t even be thinking that far.

Today I tried to upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS again. Of course, I created snapshots before I did. To my surprise, the upgrade worked for both Droplets. It was a huge relief. I am going to stay with DigitalOcean for a bit longer. Maintaining Ubuntu keeps me up-to-date with backend development.

Running two Droplets costs me $35 a month. They are more than what I wanted to pay. I was thinking off combining all my sites into one Droplet, but I am not sure if that’s a good idea.

In the last couple of days, I am following the battle between WordPress and WP Engine. On Wednesday Matt Mullenweg banned WP Engine from access WordPress.org. This ban has a huge impact on us. George Mason University hosts hundreds or even maybe thousands of is WordPress sites on WP Engine. The Scalia Law Sites, which powered by WordPress MultiSite, is also on WP Engine. I hope the issue will resolve quickly.