The IAB loves tracking users but hates users tracking them
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is a standards development group for the advertising industry. Their members love tracking users. They want to know where you are, who you're with, what you're buying, and what you think. All so they can convince you to spend slightly more on toothpaste. Or change your…
Reclaiming the web with a personal reader
There’s a kind of zen flow that programmers unblock when they experience their software daily as an end user. There’s no better catalyst for ideas and experimentation, no better prioritization driver than having to face the bugs, annoyances, and limitations of an application first-hand.
Using extra Firefox profiles to make my life better
You're probably reading this page because you've attempted to access some part of my blog (Wandering Thoughts) or CSpace , the wiki thing it's part of. Unfortunately you're using a browser version that my anti-crawler precautions consider suspicious, most often because it's too old (most often this applies to versions…
Don't use custom CSS scrollbars
While a custom CSS scrollbar may seem flashy and fun, consider that it may present a significant, unnecessary barrier to access.
A page with no code
View Source shows nothing, but the page has content. The Page With No Code is the kind of puzzle that makes web developers unhappy.
3D in CSS
Notes about creative coding on the Web.
Website search hurts my feelings
Searching and displaying results isn't hard, why do so many websites suck at it?
Thoughts on Svelte
Assorted thoughts about Svelte after a month of use.
No new iPhone? No secure iOS: Looking at an unfixed iOS vulnerability
A look at the messy reality of iOS vulnerabilities: which bugs get patched, which quietly linger, and the challenges of tracking real device risk over time.
The worst API ever made (2014)
A call-by-call look at context switch logging with the Event Tracing for Windows API.
Easy SVG sparklines
Using SVG to easily create sparkline charts, and rendering them on the server side with Elixir and Phoenix.
Laying Out a Print Book with CSS
In which I embark on a quixotic quest to make a physical book using web rendering technology.
Digital Audio Workstation Front End Development Struggles
My opinions have changed somewhat since I last wrote this blog post, and I wish to clarify some things. Please read the follow-up in my latest post Clarifying Some Things .
Reddit API Pricing Would Cost Apollo Developer $20M per Year
Link to: https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3/had_a_call_with_reddit_to_discuss_pricing_bad/
An interactive guide to SVG paths
An interactive guide to understanding SVG paths and path commands.
I don’t want to sign up for your newsletter (2018)
When a user moves their mouse from the middle of the page toward the navigation bar — presumably to abandon the page — there are technologies which can track this behavior and trigger a “mouse-out” alert. While this UX element (from companies such as Crazy Egg and Rooster) has great potential, I’ve found it far too…
How Bear does analytics with CSS
Bear Blog has a few design constraints for speed, efficiency, and stability. There are many great open-source, privacy-focussed analytics platforms out there...
A glitch in the SEO matrix
Or: A comprehensive ecosystem of open-source software for big data management
Nobody cares about your blog
Nobody cares about your blog, but you should keep writing!
Dear websites, stop asking for ransom sign-ups
A rant about websites that collect user data before revealing that a sign-up is required to see the results.
A Blog Post with Every HTML Element
Patrick Weaver’s Website
APIs for content sites must be free
Social media businesses should not charge* for APIs. If a company like Reddit or Twitter derives most of its value from content that users write for free then it must provide APIs for anyone to download and manipulate that content. While an interactive API that enables third party applications is desirable, a simple…
RSS can be used to distribute all sorts of information
Thoughts for Nov 19, 2023
Better HTTP server routing in Go 1.22
An exciting proposal is expected to land in Go 1.22 - enhancing the pattern-matching capabilities of the default HTTP serving multiplexer in the net/http package.