4 min read
How to check an email countdown before you send it
The timer that looks right in the campaign builder is not the one your reader gets. Four checks that cost nothing and catch nearly everything.
Writing
Notes from building small web tools — what we tried, what it cost, and what we would do differently. No newsletter, no sign-up.
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5 minDo QR codes expire, and what happens when they do
A printed code has two ways to stop working, and only one of them is about the paper. What providers actually do when you stop paying.
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5 minWhy your QR code scans on screen but not on paper
The code did not change. The light did, and so did the contrast and the size. What paper takes away from a code that worked on a monitor.
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10 minCountdown timers for email: the complete guide
How a countdown can exist inside an email at all, how to add one to a campaign, what mail apps do to it, and how to use urgency without spending trust.
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10 minDynamic QR codes: the complete guide
What makes a QR code dynamic, what that indirection buys and costs, what scan tracking can honestly tell you, and how to choose a provider.
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16 minHow two pixels become one
Blending looks like one multiply. Underneath it sit forty years of pixel formats, palette tricks, integer maths and one famous 1984 paper.
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7 minWhat actually happens when a countdown lands in someone's inbox
Mail apps cache images, block them, and open messages before anyone reads them. Here is what that does to a timer.
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5 minWhat a QR code is actually doing, and how one can change after printing
What the dots mean, why contrast and fault tolerance decide whether a code scans, and how a printed code can change where it points.