Notices by Baldur Bjarnason (baldur@toot.cafe)

Modern Operating systems

https://notes.baldurbjarnason.com/2019/10/11/modern-operating-systems.html

It's genuinely a mess out there.

Have I mentioned lately how much of a fan I am of Svelte and sapper? It's the only frontend framework I found that fits my mental model of web development perfectly.

Which is a feat since I have some pretty firm preconceived notions on how these things should work.

The tutorial is pretty great too.

https://svelte.dev

“The Native File System API: Simplifying access to local files  -  Web  -  Google Developers”

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2019/08/native-file-system?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=updates_feed

Interesting proposal. A bit scary to add this level of power to the web stack. And I’m very sceptical about this ever being adopted by other browsers.

Finally getting around to properly digging into Svelte and it looks, well..., close to ideal.

It looks so good that I wish I'd taken the time to try it out earlier so that I could have used it in my current work project.

"Nobody talks about the real reason to use Tabs over Spaces"

https://www.reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/c8drjo/nobody_talks_about_the_real_reason_to_use_tabs/

This is a pretty compelling reason. Esp. if you are writing open source code.

Instead of new JS-based built-in components we need more things like grids, flexbox, and position: sticky that are implementing UI basics in CSS instead of JS.

IMHO and all that.

"Former Mozilla exec: Google has sabotaged Firefox for years"

https://www.zdnet.com/article/former-mozilla-exec-google-has-sabotaged-firefox-for-years/

I mean, I think it's obvious at this point that while the chrome team seems to have good intentions, the company around it is a sleazy, immoral ad company. Being an engineer doesn't make you immune to the policies and incentives of the toxic company you work for.

“Adactio: Journal—Dev perception” https://adactio.com/journal/15011

This matches with my exp.: most of the work being done on the web is invisible and unmentioned on social media.

And I'll add that dev social media skews young and favours the US west coast over the rest of the world.

Random thought:

a. software dev lies at the intersection of tech and arts & humanities.
b. the other industry at that intersection is fashion
c. the two industries have similar dynamics
d. comparing the history of fashion with the history of software would be a very fun project

“Harold Crick and the Web Platform”
https://bkardell.com/blog/Math.html

On MathML.

"I’ve maintained my Mac project for 20 years for free (despite paying $99/year these days) and I can say quite a bit about the experience."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18802098

Making native apps on an Apple platform requires high investment just to stay in place.

"Styling a Select Like It’s 2019" https://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/select-css.html

I had no idea that native styling of select elements (no trickery, just CSS) had come this far.

"Google isn’t the company that we should have handed the Web over to"

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/the-web-now-belongs-to-google-and-that-should-worry-us-all/

"Google has on a number of occasions used its might to deploy proprietary tech"

“Microsoft is building a Chromium-powered web browser that will replace Edge on Windows 10”

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-building-chromium-powered-web-browser-windows-10

I’ll be really disappointed if this is the case. EdgeHTML is a really nice rendering engine with its own trade offs. A browser monoculture could destroy the web.

Sounds like it's time to redouble support for Firefox and Mozilla. 😕

Micro.blog's implementation of ActivityPub is really compelling for a few reasons:

- Defaults to your own domain
- No boosts
- No likes/favs
- Strong micropub and RSS features
- Custom design for your page if you want it
- IndieWeb interop via web mentions and websub
- Automatic mirror of the entire site to GitHub

Not planning on switching in the short term but it's a really tempting long term option.

“This Is How We Radicalized The World” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-facebook-elections

“Websites in 2018”

Too true. https://2018.bloomca.me/en

“Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, study says“

There is a hard limit to how much of an effect lifestyle changes alone can have. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change

“Google exposed data for hundreds of thousands of users.
The company also didn’t tell users about the exposure.”

G+ is being sunsetted because it costs too much to secure it https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/08/google-reportedly-exposed-data-for-hundreds-of-thousands-of-user/

“Apple’s New Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros - Motherboard” https://motherboard.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/yw9qk7/macbook-pro-software-locks-prevent-independent-repair?__twitter_impression=true