Links, November 1, 2024

We can have a different web

From the department of closing tabs that have been open for months:

We can develop protocols — more resilient versions of those early footpaths — that inherently resist the tollbooths and border crossing gates established by the businesses with the walls. We can even develop our own community gardens with spaces for tenants that have their own models of governance far beyond the single benevolent platform dictatorship model — that inevitably grows less benevolent as money changes hands.

The Website vs. Web App Dichotomy Doesn’t Exist

The implication is that at some point, it makes sense to use a JavaScript framework rather than progressively enhanced HTML. Web developers tend to divide themselves into roughly two camps here — and depending on which camp you ask, the location of that inflection point varies widely.

Honestly I’m getting tired of all this web/javascript stuff but unfortunately I got into an argument with someone recently about it. This is going to be my go-to “read this before arguing with me” link on the matter. Many of the things I’ve worked on are both very dynamic/local in nature; and unless your goal for that type of thing is a completely locked-in service with no plans for offline support, you can’t manage state on the server.

Spotify Fraud Fees - A New Low for the Company

Spotify had recently announced that they’d be cracking down on streaming fraud, an announcment I ignored because I don’t do it. I checked my streams for the year thus far and on Spotify up to June I’ve been paid for 6032 streams.

If you care about music, stop using Spotify.

Latewood

But those periods of rapid growth are often (and ideally) followed by periods when the growth is slower, more focused, moving in short and careful steps instead of giant leaps. These latewood periods are when the novelty of a new situation has worn off, and the time for reflection and deep-skill building arrives.

I’ve worked at nearly every scale of tech company, and I can count on one hand the number of people with the power to shape things who understand this. It’s one of the reasons I’m not looking to return to traditional tech work any time soon.

8x8 Repeating Fill Patters

A group of public domain 1-bit 8 x 8 tiles, meant for the Playdate. I’ve always loved these sorts of things.