Nostr notes by Alex Russell

And did I follow that up with a jaunty `src.remove();`? Why yes. ...

2026-10-27T02:22:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…uze9
_________________________

And did I follow that up with a jaunty `src.remove();`?

Why yes. Yes I did.

People keep saying I need hundreds of MB of node_modules to ...

2026-10-27T02:20:43Z

People keep saying I need hundreds of MB of node_modules to improve DX, but I just typed `dest.append(...src.childNodes);` without a care in the world. Like a maniac.

It's not your imagination; RAM really has quadrupled in ...

2026-10-25T01:55:02Z

It's not your imagination; RAM really *has* quadrupled in price over the past couple of years and it *is* as expensive as a decade ago (log scale):

https://dam.stanford.edu/memory-prices.html

A bitter lesson of frontend's lost decade is that no ...

2026-10-20T19:49:26Z

A bitter lesson of frontend's lost decade is that no individual can fix what an entire culture is dedicated to breaking. There is no singular, virtuous person in a large org that can wield evidence effectively in the face of a tradition that rejects the scientific method.

RE: https://writing.exchange/@ernie/117445732187751150 This is ...

2026-10-15T17:17:18Z

RE: https://writing.exchange/@ernie/117445732187751150

This is important, but the more durable solution is archival formats for web content. We tried to build one with Web Packages, but other browsers don't seem to appreciate that the web's ephemeral nature is both an asset *and a liability* for society. Archive.org is a SPOF today, etc. etc.

Browsers should accept archival formats and display them *as archival content*.

quoting
note15zr…s2ct

Excited to share my latest piece with Gravesite Media, where I talk about the fact that you cannot register a domain for longer than 10 years. Which is kind of a problem when you die.

https://gravesite.media/p/your-website-should-outlive-you-the-case-for-forever-domains

Nostr event nevent1qqsz2r4dw4l3eanemxxk7yqvpr62rwe34ah3c8zj4cdh2alvdvqsunqzyq9x5fvum4432jwfvzg65qf0q4ftm39rdujctmllupv7av348ywacrtlkty

2026-10-04T05:57:36Z

Shot:

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/brown-brothers-media-ai-slop-empire

Chaser:

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/brown-brothers-media-ghislaine-maxwell

...and Consequences? In 2026? Weird, but OK:

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/brown-brothers-media-halts-publishing

Very glad @npub1fdr…lvhs covers this sort of research; ...

2026-09-07T06:23:23Z

Very glad Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) covers this sort of research; important work:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/06/hotels-california/#the-eagles-were-optimists

It's actually shocking to me how few western politicians ...

2026-09-07T06:00:01Z

It's actually shocking to me how few western politicians understand the pro-Russian through-line between all of these far-right parties. When Trump, Farge, the AFD, etc. all fail the "what would they do differently if they were Kremlin plants?" test, you have to wonder.

It takes management capacity and the ability to direct things in ...

2026-09-02T15:46:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…7kqd
_________________________

It takes management capacity and the ability to direct things in a loose top-down sense (think corporate-level OKRs + delegation) to engineer freedom *from* choice, not just freedom *of* choice.

This is a lesson Linux & friends have never learned, and it's why we are stuck in a Groundhog Day "Year of the Linux Desktop" 25+ years later. Delivering for those who *aren't* (low-level) developers requires abstraction and disciplines that rarely self-organise because they lack free capital.

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/117201955863661640 Back in college ...

2026-09-02T15:39:37Z

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/117201955863661640

Back in college I was pretty heavily involved in the local LUG (organised events, President for a while, etc.), and it didn't take more than a few year's experience to teach me that the politics of the Free Software viewpoint might have been morally right, but were practically useless in the liberatory sense. Unless FOSS stocked away enough capital to liberate *itself*, it could never do enough to build the sort of high-level managerial systems that would allow it to compete under capitalism.

quoting
note130k…ce4v

I wish I'd internalized maybe 20 years earlier that the only way free software could be liberatory, rather than merely, selfishly libertarian, is if the goals became not to secure our own freedoms, but to grant them to other people. Today almost nobody can change the software they use, and as a measurable fact almost nobody who can the change software the use does. But even so: having those choices matters; securing the fact of them, evangelizing and defending that fact, matters.

Nobody will understand when I say that this is why we're ...

2026-09-02T15:39:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…8ds5
_________________________

Nobody will understand when I say that this is why we're still fighting about ABIs and package managers, but that's the deep truth of the matter.

A useful corollary is that the web is necessary to any liberatory agenda because it elides the low-management-capacity aspects of FOSS in ways that still deliver for users. This is perhaps my second most unpopular take.

Google's brilliant "lay off all the senior people with ...

2026-08-24T19:36:23Z

Google's brilliant "lay off all the senior people with taste and experience" plan is going swimmingly.

RE: https://toot.cafe/@slightlyoff/117124586590788576 Here's ...

2026-08-21T04:56:56Z

RE: https://toot.cafe/@slightlyoff/117124586590788576

Here's the piece:

https://infrequently.org/2026/08/notes-on-performance-remediation-strategies/

quoting
note1s3p…p6me

The core argument from an upcoming piece; something I've come to view as nearly an iron rule in BigCo's:

Going from decent to excellent performance is a technical challenge, but moving from poor to decent performance is fundamentally a management and culture problem.

The core argument from an upcoming piece; something I've come ...

2026-08-19T22:42:40Z

The core argument from an upcoming piece; something I've come to view as nearly an iron rule in BigCo's:

Going from decent to excellent performance is a technical challenge, but moving from poor to decent performance is fundamentally a management and culture problem.

The obvious corollary is that privatisation shrinks provision and ...

2026-08-15T23:38:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…h5w5
_________________________

The obvious corollary is that privatisation shrinks provision and creates pervasive inequality of access. That is, firms marketing privacy by telling you they think it's "a human right" (which you can access by purchasing their product) are cynically *reducing* net privacy.

Working on an already too long pice about the unbridled cynicism ...

2026-08-15T23:32:21Z

Working on an already too long pice about the unbridled cynicism of Big Tech re: privacy (very much including Apple), but the (unoriginal) core idea fits on a postcard:

Privacy is a public good. Anyone trying to sell it to you is looking to privatize gains and socialise losses.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@owa/117013437073165599 If you listen ...

2026-07-31T17:50:09Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@owa/117013437073165599

If you listen to Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) interviews, one of the things he repeats that resonates with me is that he's not an optimist; things don't default to getting better or worse, we *make them* better or worse.

We can engineer a fairer power arrangement, and folks like Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa) and Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊ (npub1duh…4el7) are some of my heros, doing that work every day. Give their interview a listen:

quoting
note1ykd…mrqg

🎙️ Check out Bruce Lawson’s interview with Alex Moore, executive director and co-founder of Open Web Advocacy. They explore OWA’s history, why it exists, and what it’s fighting for: a better, more competitive web 🌐✊

https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/bruce-lawson-interviews-owa--for-a-better-web/

IDK who needs to hear this, but you shouldn't buy promises of ...

2026-07-27T07:31:01Z

IDK who needs to hear this, but you shouldn't buy promises of utopian futures with abundance and UBI from dudes who spend a considerable fraction of their time figuring out how not to pay their taxes.

Tired: this meeting should have been an email Wired: this app ...

2026-07-14T01:34:06Z

Tired: this meeting should have been an email
Wired: this app should have been a web page

https://danq.me/2026/07/09/your-app-could-have-been-a-webpage/

Spot Apple's astroturf front group once and you can't ...

2026-07-11T16:11:19Z

Spot Apple's astroturf front group once and you can't help but find their enshittified fingerprints every. Here's Cupertino's favourite sock puppet -- "ACT | The App Association" -- arguing against right-to-repair for smartphones:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/28/2024-24563/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control#:~:text=Opponents%20ACT%20%7C%20The%20App%20Association%3B

/cc Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa) Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)

Pro tip for regulators looking to do good by their citizens (a ...

2026-06-29T22:08:34Z

Pro tip for regulators looking to do good by their citizens (a troublingly small subset):

The memorypocalypse (deflationary RAM pricing across multiple years) should put usable hardware lifetimes at the very center of the agenda; the best approaches are legislated bootloader unlocks from date of sale, firmware code-in-escrow (OSS'd + patent unencumbered for firms that fail to deliver security updates less than 6 years out), and legalising browser choice to extend app compat and enable alt OSes.

My favorites are the same as my favourite new Muni routes: ...

2026-06-14T10:22:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…up50
_________________________

My favorites are the same as my favourite new Muni routes: whichever pattern(s) we see in data are expensively provided by private conveyance (cars, JS) most often should be rebuilt as public infrastructure.

I suspect we can get that for the web in both scale and traffic weighted ways without difficulty; expect to see flyout menus, range-date selections, accessible range sliders, carousels, etc.

Heck, just start with the components ARIA already smuggled in through the side door!

My position on new HTML elements is the same as my view of new ...

2026-06-14T10:13:51Z

My position on new HTML elements is the same as my view of new underground Muni & BART lines: we should be adding a new one every year, based on good data about needs, until life feels meaningfully better for the average user.

And then we should keep at it for another decade to make up for lost time.

Per a conversation with a coworker, it turns out that one of my ...

2026-05-29T20:07:53Z

Per a conversation with a coworker, it turns out that one of my most unpopular opinions is that if you haven't read at least a large fraction of the code, you should not be adding it as a dep via NPM. Doubly so with transitive dependencies.

You should be reading No One: ...

2026-05-25T19:09:45Z

You should be reading No One:

https://nooneshappy.com/article/the-ai-bubble/

/via Chris Palmer (npub12nl…6dft)

Nope. The tech press is comfortable people writing for/about rich ...

2026-05-22T21:14:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…yxuq
_________________________

Nope. The tech press is comfortable people writing for/about rich people and anything *but* the predictable, linear consequences of technology.

If tech journalists were: a.) writing in the public interest b. ...

2026-05-22T17:36:11Z

If tech journalists were:

a.) writing in the public interest
b. writing not just for rich people
c.) aware of technology at more than a surface level

Google's scuppering of CrOS and continued attempts to force Android on people would get non-stop, wall-to-wall coverage

...and that's before discussing the layoffs and capital ...

2026-05-18T00:52:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…vyhk
_________________________

...and that's before discussing the layoffs and capital misallocation. Real "hat-trick of value destruction" stuff.

The truly incredible part is that if ML progress had continued to ...

2026-05-18T00:32:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…q2gh
_________________________

The truly incredible part is that if ML progress had continued to be pushed forward at the pace of better medicines and energy efficiency breakthroughs, it would have been nothing but celebration.

And yet.

There will be a blog post; apologies in advance

2026-05-08T02:21:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…j3fa
_________________________

There will be a blog post; apologies in advance

A point excerpted from a talk I gave earlier this week at ...

2026-05-08T01:56:27Z

A point excerpted from a talk I gave earlier this week at Microsoft's internal performance symposium (alt talk title: "CSS-in-JS: Frontend's Worst Idea"):

Browsers are virtual machines tuned to efficiently turn *markup* into *pixels*.

If your system tries to generate pixels from not-markup, you'll be working against the grain of the system, and should expect to suffer massive performance penalties -- both in CPU and memory use -- as a result.

For deep reasons, this is not going to change.

Somehow not mobile viewport friendly? Is this a message?

2026-04-23T05:59:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…stdc
_________________________

Somehow not mobile viewport friendly? Is this a message?

Having helped more than a hundred teams convalesce with codebases ...

2026-04-12T06:58:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…u54p
_________________________

Having helped more than a hundred teams convalesce with codebases that are in deep, deep JS-ecosystem-dogma-created trouble, I'm well out of patience for the "but speed!" nonsense. Because it's nonsense.

These teams get *beached* by JS dogma. The frameworks and tools become ends unto themselves, and usability declines to the point that for all the churn, no progress is detectable by mgmt; only a knot so Gordian they fear it, rather than manage it. This is anything *but* going faster.

I like the (generous) nod towards specialisation, but it's ...

2026-04-12T05:43:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…20gs
_________________________

I like the (generous) nod towards specialisation, but it's not only that. There's a power dynamic that (superfluous) complexity creates, and it sand-blasts teams and leaders down to their values.

Turns out a lot of the JS community (esp Over Reactors) had pretty shitty values, and saw the opportunity to talk down to CSS knowers as an opportunity, rather than a problem. Complexity as gate to keep the riffraff out.

This React -> Web Components post by the MDN team touches on ...

2026-04-11T14:53:07Z

This React -> Web Components post by the MDN team touches on challenges and solutions I've seen dozens of times over frontend's lost decade. Kudos to them for the improvements in performance, and the bravery to tell the story in an unvarnished way:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/blog/mdn-front-end-deep-dive/

Had missed @npub1duh…4el7's excellent "Apple at 50" ...

2026-04-06T00:03:26Z

Had missed Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊ (npub1duh…4el7)'s excellent "Apple at 50" post; nodded the whole way:

https://brucelawson.co.uk/2026/apple-at-50-my-top-five-apple-moments/

Twenty-five years ago, aggressive antitrust action made safe, ...

2026-04-05T06:17:14Z

Twenty-five years ago, aggressive antitrust action made safe, interoperable, tax-free computing possible, and the web delivered, unlocking economic opportunity at the pace browsers got more powerful.

Today's regulators (and the press that cover them) are not following in the footsteps of that blockbuster success. A look at why:

https://infrequently.org/2026/04/the-web-is-an-antitrust-wedge/

Got a piece out while on holiday, taking journalists and ...

2026-04-04T08:55:55Z

Got a piece out while on holiday, taking journalists and regulators to task for failing to clock the importance of legalising browser competition:

https://infrequently.org/2026/04/the-web-is-an-antitrust-wedge/

...but I'd missed that Brussels was discussing full surrender. WTF:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/04/digital-subjugation/#greenlands-next

/via Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)
/cc Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa)

ICYMI, all of the arguments the mobile duopolists make to justify ...

2026-03-19T18:44:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…xysm
_________________________

ICYMI, all of the arguments the mobile duopolists make to justify their chokehold over mobile software are bullshit, starting with security. Cutting off side loading furthers the coverup of native app insecurity:

https://infrequently.org/2026/01/naked-power/#the-security-argument

MADA hijinks (look it up), nerfing PWAs in Play, and failure to open up WebAPKs is a funhouse mirror of Apple's anti-web strategy.

Portability and interoperability are the duopolist's enemies, so a safe, powerful web is kryptonite.

/cc Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa) Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)

You might think that Google's latest Android moves are ...

2026-03-19T18:34:15Z

You might think that Google's latest Android moves are designed to undercut choice and alt OEM/ODM ecosystems that could challenge Play...:

https://www.theverge.com/tech/897420/android-sideloading-unverified-developers-process

But rest assured, there's *plenty* of malware choice inside the walled garden:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/study-reveals-googles-play-store-is-main-distributor-of-malicious-apps

Back in '21, court filings recounted an Apple engineer ...

2026-03-18T16:35:42Z

Back in '21, court filings recounted an Apple engineer characterising Cupertino's App Store protections as "bringing a plastic butter knife to a gunfight". And for however bad Apple has been (terrible), Play was always worse.

So how's that going? Oof:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/study-reveals-googles-play-store-is-main-distributor-of-malicious-apps

A wonderful overview of some of the pain folks are wading through ...

2026-03-18T04:57:53Z

A wonderful overview of some of the pain folks are wading through to make good mobile UIs on the web today. We need to fix the Chromium/Android issues; some of it likely comes down to Android kbds themselves...we'll have to dig in.

But the iOS situation Apple uniquely controls? Disgraceful.

https://zouhir.org/blog/virtual-keyboard-api/

Sure would be a bad time for the US to have dropped the ball on ...

2026-03-09T00:20:32Z

Sure would be a bad time for the US to have dropped the ball on renewables and electric vehicles.

https://www.investing.com/commodities/crude-oil-streaming-chart

Clearly my fault. Apologies!

2026-03-02T15:31:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…ct0e
_________________________

Clearly my fault. Apologies!

"can" seems to be mentally transposed with "will" ...

2026-03-02T15:31:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…tht4
_________________________

"can" seems to be mentally transposed with "will" by executives, and it elides the fact that code generation getting cheaper means that the new most important skill is knowing to ask for *good* code (for whatever version of "good" matters in your domain). These tools spit out crap by default, and that won't change because the corpuses they're trained on are pretty average.

A sense of taste and occasion, combined with understanding what's possible, is the new (old) differentiator.

Heading out of London, and missing it already. #sotb26 was ...

2026-03-02T15:17:21Z

Heading out of London, and missing it already. #sotb26 was lovely; was great to see so many wonderful people. Seemed "everyone" was there!

Both.

2026-02-27T13:19:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…xn2e
_________________________

Both.

A good question for @npub1kn4…3asa. My advice would be to call ...

2026-02-27T13:04:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…uu24
_________________________

A good question for Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa).

My advice would be to call for regulatory alignment with the EU's DMA at a minimum. Actionable timelines for interoperability requests, transparent and public processes, and no hiding the ball when it comes to requests that are initially denied.

Apple have been playing games around this sort of things since the DMA came into force, and what UK is proposing is exponentially weaker.

If you are in the UK, I'd like to beg 5-10 minutes of your ...

2026-02-27T11:57:45Z

If you are in the UK, I'd like to beg 5-10 minutes of your time to file comment with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about the proposed (toothless) "Interoperability Commitments" from Apple and Google.

These are dramatically weaker guidelines than even the EU's DMA, and Apple (particularly) has been utterly contemptuous there, ducking compliance for more than a year. Why is the UK rewarding scofflaw behaviour over these predatory practices?

https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/apples-interoperability-commitments-to-the-uk-cma-promise-nothing/

/cc Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)

A conversation with a coworker re-triggered an intrusive thought ...

2026-02-20T20:50:11Z

A conversation with a coworker re-triggered an intrusive thought that I find myself returning to regularly while working in a firm in the grips of AI influences:

Teams and engineering processes are like fish in tanks. There's a careful balance of the nitrogen cycle that keeps delicate organics alive; above a certain pH, it's just not plausible to believe things will keep working. But to understand effects, we have to take into account causes and add the effect of time.

Apple and Google arrive at enclosure differently thanks to their ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…vuaq
_________________________

Apple and Google arrive at enclosure differently thanks to their differing relationships to hardware ODMs, but the contours are similar: you, a developer, must pay a vig to them to get access to essential APIs, either on the front-end, or through a cut of revenue, and no permissionless innovation will be tolerated once it becomes big enough to catch the eye of the app store taxman.

In the beginning of a platform's life, this is an empty-ish ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…9yx7
_________________________

In the beginning of a platform's life, this is an empty-ish threat. Platforms that aren't monopolies don't have the power to do more than rattle sabers regarding the the embedded patent, copyright, and breach of contract consequences. But what happens when the situation flips? When market power begets legal and lobbying might? When firms become comfortable corrupting governments to protect profits?

That's the situation in our pockets. Every smartphone now perpetuates enclosure.

First, you should read @npub1djp…ept4's most recent post: ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

First, you should read Mark Nottingham (npub1djp…ept4)'s most recent post:

https://www.mnot.net/blog/2026/02/20/open_systems.html

Then, let's discuss "permissionless innovation" and what he called recently "the power of 'no'":

https://www.mnot.net/blog/2026/02/13/no.html

A short thread thisaway... 👇

The mobile duopolists fear and loathe the potential of ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…xzxm
_________________________

The mobile duopolists fear and loathe the potential of interoperability with the intensity of a thousand suns and the briefs of a thousand lawyers. As I type this they (primarily Apple) are doing are doing a dozen underhanded and shitty things to keep anything from threatening the monopoly they've declared on standardized, largely Open Source, features and capabilities of underlying hardware and OSes.

Want access to a USB device? Or to make games? Or to access MIDI controllers? Pay up.

The path to technology that serves open societies (qua Popper) ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…ne97
_________________________

The path to technology that serves open societies (qua Popper) flows directly through open systems of the sort Mark Nottingham (npub1djp…ept4) describes. And through those open systems, we can achieve the goal of interoperability, and through it, portability.

And as Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) will tell you, that's how you fix the outsized power of these petty tyrants. The gatekeepers only get away with extraction because they erode (and sometimes dynamite) the foundations of portable, interoperable computing: open access to APIs.

Last year I pointed out that Apple has effectively broken this ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…m2r9
_________________________

Last year I pointed out that Apple has effectively broken this permissionless structure and hollowed out the internet's standards bodies:

https://infrequently.org/2025/09/apples-crimes-against-the-internet-community/

This situation persists, and it matters because what Apple (and to a lesser extent, Google's Android team) are doing here is to enact an *enclosure agenda*.

Enclosure works by lacing open and standardised technologies with proprietary poison as the price of access, backed by legal agreements forced on everyone who wants to play.

In an earlier era, the web stood in opposition to this sort of ...

2026-02-20T08:16:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…frjj
_________________________

In an earlier era, the web stood in opposition to this sort of enclosure. Open operating systems enabled browsers to go "over the top" of OS vendors and liberate essential system capabilities, re-standardizing capabilities that had their open, low-level representations overgrown in a thicket of proprietary OS goo. Browsers could create a tunnel of IP safety down to those essential features, standardising them, and making them interoperable.

And it's interoperability that gatekeepers *hate*.

Have been groggily writing up the deep reasons why CSS-in-JS (the ...

2026-02-17T18:50:56Z

Have been groggily writing up the deep reasons why CSS-in-JS (the sort with a "runtime") is unfixably slow led me to reflect on the warnings I gave the various over-Reactors who popularised this anti-pattern. Apparently at some point last night I wrote:

"Evangelical hubris laced with virulent incuriosity has been the calling card of the entire enterprise."

I don't think I'm going to remove it from the post.

If you're a technologist in the US, I think it's worth ...

2026-02-12T17:51:29Z

If you're a technologist in the US, I think it's worth sitting with the reality that the government's current abuses against the population are playing out almost every single *"if we allow databases of X, bad thing Y will be possible"* warning.

Performative privacy protections were never enough; we have to make them structural (in law), toothsome (right-of-action for individuals), and national. Nothing else will do.

Seems like a dam is (finally) breaking; here's just a small ...

2026-02-03T08:21:01Z

Seems like a dam is (finally) breaking; here's just a small set of the "wow, Apple...really?" posts from the past week:

https://www.loopwerk.io/articles/2026/tim-cook-sold-apples-soul/
https://om.co/2026/01/27/a-ceo-captured/
https://spyglass.org/tim-cook-captured/
https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-crisis-no-5

Liz Lopatto, Anil Dash, and Charlie Warzel were far ahead on all of this.

The mobile app stores demand we believe that they must be ...

2026-01-27T18:25:42Z

The mobile app stores demand we believe that they *must* be trusted exclusively to protect us, to the exclusion of a powerful open web:

https://www.theverge.com/news/868614/nudify-apps-ttp-report-google-apple-app-stores?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IlVsREJZWHdXOFoiLCJwIjoiL25ld3MvODY4NjE0L251ZGlmeS1hcHBzLXR0cC1yZXBvcnQtZ29vZ2xlLWFwcGxlLWFwcC1zdG9yZXMiLCJleHAiOjE3Njk5NzAwNTgsImlhdCI6MTc2OTUzODA1OH0.uSVbunb5TN_U_3391Iuc6IohVTH7xuBYKeBfnP4IEJQ&utm_medium=gift-link

The only thing they're protecting is profits:

https://infrequently.org/2026/01/naked-power/

The Grok/Musk AI undressing scandal teaches us that Apple and ...

2026-01-22T01:09:10Z

The Grok/Musk AI undressing scandal teaches us that Apple and Google's shameful app stores stand for nothing but profit, invalidating one of the 5 arguments they make to retain monopoly power to tax all software. But the other four arguments are bullshit, too. The iceberg of deception is larger than the tip of content moderation:

https://infrequently.org/2026/01/naked-power/

I quote @npub1fdr…lvhs here because his work has helped us all ...

2026-01-20T22:23:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…67xr
_________________________

I quote Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) here because his work has helped us all understand how technically and ethically threadbare the app store justifications are. Now that they're silent in the face of widespread, above-the-fold abuse of women and girls, the jig is well and truly up. Tim and Sundar's next arguments before any self-respecting regulator are forfeit.

Apple and Google's quisling era unearths the lies they've ...

2026-01-20T18:32:23Z

Apple and Google's quisling era unearths the lies they've told to justify monopoly power over software for the most consequential computing platforms of our lives. If the app stores can't move against Musk/Grok, they should not be trusted with any of the powers they demand:

https://infrequently.org/2026/01/naked-power/

The web is that platform, which is why Apple has done literally ...

2026-01-10T04:26:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…2n65
_________________________

The web is that platform, which is why Apple has done literally everything in their power, including funding astroturf lobbying groups, to defeat a future for a powerful, interoperable web:

https://infrequently.org/series/browser-choice-must-matter

The Verge is actually doing it. Actually connecting the dots ...

2026-01-09T23:02:50Z

The Verge is actually doing it. Actually connecting the dots between the fascistic tendencies of app stores with the profit motives of their proprietors.

FINALLY.

The open web has been roadkill in the profit games the mobile duopoly has set up, muscled out of view with policies and choices that were designed to leave no fingerprints. But we can all see it clearly now:

https://www.theverge.com/policy/859902/apple-google-run-by-cowards

Americans on the left of fascism need to internalize that this [ ...

2026-01-06T02:46:34Z

Americans on the left of fascism need to internalize that this [ gestures expansively] is why staying out of the ICC and international law with teeth is terrible for the US.

These people would not be doing this shit if they truly feared consequences.

This is outstanding work, DSD + slotting will open up new worlds ...

2025-12-28T05:41:22Z

This is outstanding work, DSD + slotting will open up new worlds to folks exploring these patterns:

https://calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/revisiting-html-streaming-for-modern-web-performance/

The ones I resent most cosplayed solidarity while it was ...

2025-12-22T22:06:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…feu8
_________________________

The ones I resent most cosplayed solidarity while it was popular/expected while undermining the web's future. Some promoted tech they knew would limit access (JS frameworkists), others helped to undermine publisher's autonomy (AMP team, FB, etc.) thereby removing funding for truth-finding.

I often worry that it might just be the narcissism of small differences talking, but then I go back to the record and it infuriates me all over again.

Highly recommended listening/reading for your winter break: ...

2025-12-20T18:25:24Z

Highly recommended listening/reading for your winter break:

https://www.volts.wtf/p/the-cure-for-misinformation-is-not

A conversation with an incredibly technical friend last night ...

2025-12-13T20:31:39Z

A conversation with an incredibly technical friend last night made it clear to me that the biggest change in computing of the last 15 years eludes the SV blob: most client devices are slow, low-end Androids with *incredible*, *up-to-date* browsers.

Anybody whose actions make you think "the Copyright Mafia ...

2025-12-03T02:46:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…lx7x
_________________________

Anybody whose actions make you think "the Copyright Mafia might have a point..." is playing with fire.

Frontend is failing. 75% of devices with browsers are ...

2025-11-25T17:23:10Z

Frontend is failing. 75% of devices with browsers are smartphones, but not even half of sites pass Core Web Vitals on them. Why not? Too much JavaScript, added to indulge SPA fantasies the data is falsifying in real time:

https://infrequently.org/2025/11/performance-inequality-gap-2026/

Inspired by perfnow.nl, I've dusted off drafts of my network ...

2025-11-24T19:31:40Z

Inspired by perfnow.nl, I've dusted off drafts of my network and device situation analysis. Good news/bad news: devices and networks are improving, but web page payloads are swelling.

The result is predictable: the web is usable for the wealthy, but less so for everyone else. This is an ethical crisis for frontend:

https://infrequently.org/2025/11/performance-inequality-gap-2026/

How broken is today's frontend culture? @npub12nl…6dft ...

2025-11-23T22:44:06Z

How broken is today's frontend culture?

Chris Palmer (npub12nl…6dft) points out that the median *mobile* page is now larger than a copy of DOOM (2.6 MiB vs. 2.48 MiB), the P75 page is larger than 2 DOOMs, and the P90 mobile page is 4.5x the size of DOOM:

https://httparchive.org/reports/page-weight

I meet web developers who cannot accept that most smartphones in ...

2025-11-18T03:15:43Z

I meet web developers who cannot accept that most smartphones in the world, and even in the US, are not iPhones. And that keeps them from understanding that the "i" in "iPhone" stands for "inequality":

...and the second is marginal.

2025-11-08T16:23:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…qfqf
_________________________

...and the second is marginal.

My god. We're all going to be on Linux in 6 months, ...

2025-11-03T14:53:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…0yec
_________________________

My god. We're all going to be on Linux in 6 months, aren't we?

Look, I've given RSC a hard time — for at least 3 years it ...

2025-10-26T21:44:56Z

Look, I've given RSC a hard time — for at least 3 years it featured viral client-side dependency ambush, it generally makes code harder to factor and reason about, and doesn't add anything useful to the toolbox except to make RPCs slower — but JFC, this takes the bloody cake:

https://marma.dev/articles/2025/when-perfect-code-fails

Worth your time: ...

2025-10-24T13:55:00Z

Worth your time:

https://terminal.ahumanfuture.co/posts/2025-10-17/the-world-is-something-that-we-make/

(can't recall link source; apologies if it was you!)

US-EAST-1 really jumping the gun on the general strike, but I ...

2025-10-21T04:59:14Z

US-EAST-1 really jumping the gun on the general strike, but I appreciate the enthusiasm.

At a critical moment, the tech press are failing to connect the ...

2025-10-12T00:18:09Z

At a critical moment, the tech press are failing to connect the dots between Apple and Google's craven capitulations and the authoritarianism they have nurtured within their own ecosystems. Apple is now corrosive to democracy itself, and we have to get smarter about the way these forces interact:

https://infrequently.org/2025/10/the-app-store-was-always-authoritarian/

/cc Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa) Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)

This tool from Firefox DevRel is awesome, and if you care about ...

2025-10-09T21:33:21Z

This tool from Firefox DevRel is *awesome*, and if you care about how much progress the web platform delivers *please* go rank your interests:

https://interop-rank.jakearchibald.com/

So Apple is censoring another ICE-spotting app, and I think we ...

2025-10-09T03:04:07Z

So Apple is censoring another ICE-spotting app, and I think we need to talk about the coverage, as much as Apple's groveling pre-compliance.

404 Media (npub1psa…j5uh) broke this, specifically Joseph Cox (npub1n2y…qlcl), and unlike some previous coverage, it includes this:

https://www.404media.co/apple-banned-an-app-that-simply-archived-videos-of-ice-abuses#:~:text=The%20website%20for%20Eyes%20Up%20which%20functions%20essentially%20the%20same%20way%20is%20still%20available

This is a good start! Much better than the coverage re: the ICE Block takedown last week. Mentioning that the web as an alternative opens the door to discussing why this is happening: Apple wants stuff from the govt

Every time I watch a team of hard-working folks burn months on a ...

2025-10-08T20:10:38Z

Every time I watch a team of hard-working folks burn months on a React upgrade, I'm reminded of how thoroughly the JS-Industrial-Complex gaslit us.

You know who hasn't slogged through constant breaking change migrations? Web Components developers. New runtimes drop *every month*...and it's *fine*.

One of these just arrived, and it's now my new writing ...

2025-10-06T19:00:57Z

One of these just arrived, and it's now my new writing machine...and while I wish the screen was *slightly* higher res and wish I could get it in 32GB config, it's otherwise incredible:

https://www.theverge.com/reviews/697878/lenovo-chromebook-plus-14-laptop-google-chromeos-review

ARM CPU is very much the star of the show.

I mean, I appreciate self-deprecation. Can't blame 'em ...

2025-10-05T05:24:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…mj3h
_________________________

I mean, I appreciate self-deprecation. Can't blame 'em for that. I don't even blame 'em for the output. It's fine-ish (if Web Components-hostile; but that's resolvable). It really just fell in with a bad crowd that don't want to learn how browsers really work, then cargo cult a bunch of (usually false) things around without measuring anything. And again, that's not even Tailwind's fault.

.@npub1psa…j5uh : no mention of web apps as an alternative ...

2025-10-03T06:17:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…d8gg
_________________________

.404 Media (npub1psa…j5uh) : no mention of web apps as an alternative
Bloomberg: same
Reuters: ditto
BI: you were expecting...what, exactly?...from BI?
The Verge: [ drooling sounds ]
NYT: [ copies The Verge's homework ]
Engadget: [ copies less prestigious outlet's homework ]
BBC: lolsob, but in British accent
Bloomberg: same slop, but at Bloomberg because you're at a terminal, I guess?

Cooked. Totally, absolutely, Tim levels of cooked.

Would a web app be fully censorship resistant? No. But it ...

2025-10-03T06:07:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…55p4
_________________________

Would a web app be fully censorship resistant? No. But it wouldn't be a single point of failure like this.

The tech press are 100% cooked. I double dog dare you to find any ...

2025-10-03T06:04:46Z

The tech press are 100% cooked. I double dog dare you to find any mention in any of the stories covering this that point out it there is an alternative to the App Store:

https://www.techmeme.com/251002/p40#a251002p40

Apropos of nothing, but maybe monopolies on software distribution ...

2025-10-03T05:39:58Z

Apropos of nothing, but maybe monopolies on software distribution are, like, bad? And a threat to the legitimate exercise of civic rights?

Anyway, make web apps and support Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa)

My usual reply: trace or it didn't happen.

2025-10-02T21:14:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…sj9d
_________________________

My usual reply: trace or it didn't happen.

A colleague asked me yesterday what I thought of Tailwind, and ...

2025-10-02T18:37:40Z

A colleague asked me yesterday what I thought of Tailwind, and thought I'd share the topline response: avoid it, not because it's slow (it's fine-ish), but because of the culture it drags behind it.

Instead, hire people who know CSS, then let them loose on your UI problem(s). Give them space to turn huge pile of JS into tiny rulesets, and create guardrails to keep slow selectors from hurting (e.g., Shadow DOM). Lean on the browser, not the transpiler.

All I can add [1] to @npub1fdr…lvhs's latest is that Apple ...

2025-09-27T16:23:52Z

All I can add [1] to Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)'s latest is that Apple are the primary force keeping us from having powerful, interoperable apps on phones through suppression of the web. It's not an accident, and Open Web Advocacy (npub1kn4…3asa) has the receipts [2]:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/26/empty-threats/

[1]: https://infrequently.org/2025/09/apples-antitrust-playbook/
[2]: https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/apples-browser-engine-ban-persists-even-under-the-dma/

What Apple is trying to pull in the EU is as embarrassing for ...

2025-09-25T23:34:03Z

What Apple is trying to pull in the EU is as embarrassing for Cupertino as it is for the EU and the tech press that have credulously repeated Apple's talking points. The only good news is that the EU declined to unilaterally disarm:

https://infrequently.org/2025/09/apples-antitrust-playbook/

You can tell the tech press is cooked because 95% of them can ...

2025-09-25T15:10:16Z

You can tell the tech press is cooked because 95% of them can connect the dots. Apple's regulatory playbook is the same that Big Oil and Big Tobacco use: delay == winning. The steps:

- try corruption (a.k.a. "lobbying" usually works)
- plant fake "think tanks" (ACT, etc.)
- set up false comparison points with public
- petulance when laws pass
- market "compliance" (but do not comply)
- appeal to public, claim law hurts kittens ("jobs", "privacy", "american pie")

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250925-apple-asks-eu-to-scrap-landmark-digital-competition-law

"so, um, this law you passed...yes, we know we're not ...

2025-09-25T03:49:52Z

"so, um, this law you passed...yes, we know we're not complying, and, well, you see, it's *inconvenient* that we keep getting caught trying to mislead you. Could you scrap it? Cheers."

-- Cupertino

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250925-apple-asks-eu-to-scrap-landmark-digital-competition-law

Also, absolute LOLLLLLLL at the bootlicker drooling over this ...

2025-09-21T22:00:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…vkqm
_________________________

Also, absolute LOLLLLLLL at the bootlicker drooling over this kind of abject failure:

https://www.webpagetest.org/video/compare.php?tests=250921_ZiDcCX_72E-r:1-c:0

Technology is political. Film at 11. ...

2025-09-21T21:33:16Z

Technology is political. Film at 11.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lopqc5qlyamugbxdujsojdhb/post/3lzee26lse22g

If you've ever wondered if there's anything to the ...

2025-09-21T08:34:05Z

If you've ever wondered if there's anything to the critique that some browsers "ship whatever they want" or "don't follow standandards", here's the long-form explanation of why those arguments fail on their own terms:

https://infrequently.org/2025/09/standards-and-the-fall-of-iamus/

Nostr notes by Alex Russell

And did I follow that up with a jaunty `src.remove();`? Why yes. ...

People keep saying I need hundreds of MB of node_modules to ...

It's not your imagination; RAM really *has* quadrupled in ...

A bitter lesson of frontend's lost decade is that no ...

RE: https://writing.exchange/@ernie/117445732187751150 This is ...

Nostr event nevent1qqsz2r4dw4l3eanemxxk7yqvpr62rwe34ah3c8zj4cdh2alvdvqsunqzyq9x5fvum4432jwfvzg65qf0q4ftm39rdujctmllupv7av348ywacrtlkty

Very glad @npub1fdr…lvhs covers this sort of research; ...

It's actually shocking to me how few western politicians ...

It takes management capacity and the ability to direct things in ...

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@mhoye/117201955863661640 Back in college ...

Nobody will understand when I say that this is why we're ...

Google's brilliant "lay off all the senior people with ...

RE: https://toot.cafe/@slightlyoff/117124586590788576 Here's ...

The core argument from an upcoming piece; something I've come ...

The obvious corollary is that privatisation shrinks provision and ...

Working on an already too long pice about the unbridled cynicism ...

RE: https://mastodon.social/@owa/117013437073165599 If you listen ...

IDK who needs to hear this, but you shouldn't buy promises of ...

Tired: this meeting should have been an email Wired: this app ...

Spot Apple's astroturf front group once and you can't ...

Pro tip for regulators looking to do good by their citizens (a ...

My favorites are the same as my favourite new Muni routes: ...

My position on new HTML elements is the same as my view of new ...

Per a conversation with a coworker, it turns out that one of my ...

You should be reading No One: ...

Nope. The tech press is comfortable people writing for/about rich ...

If tech journalists were: a.) writing in the public interest b. ...

...and that's before discussing the layoffs and capital ...

The truly incredible part is that if ML progress had continued to ...

There will be a blog post; apologies in advance

A point excerpted from a talk I gave earlier this week at ...

Somehow not mobile viewport friendly? Is this a message?

Having helped more than a hundred teams convalesce with codebases ...

I like the (generous) nod towards specialisation, but it's ...

This React -> Web Components post by the MDN team touches on ...

Had missed @npub1duh…4el7's excellent "Apple at 50" ...

Twenty-five years ago, aggressive antitrust action made safe, ...

Got a piece out while on holiday, taking journalists and ...

ICYMI, all of the arguments the mobile duopolists make to justify ...

You might think that Google's latest Android moves are ...

Back in '21, court filings recounted an Apple engineer ...

A wonderful overview of some of the pain folks are wading through ...

Sure would be a bad time for the US to have dropped the ball on ...

Clearly my fault. Apologies!

"can" seems to be mentally transposed with "will" ...

Heading out of London, and missing it already. #sotb26 was ...

Both.

A good question for @npub1kn4…3asa. My advice would be to call ...

If you are in the UK, I'd like to beg 5-10 minutes of your ...

A conversation with a coworker re-triggered an intrusive thought ...

Apple and Google arrive at enclosure differently thanks to their ...

In the beginning of a platform's life, this is an empty-ish ...

First, you should read @npub1djp…ept4's most recent post: ...

The mobile duopolists fear and loathe the potential of ...

The path to technology that serves open societies (qua Popper) ...

Last year I pointed out that Apple has effectively broken this ...

In an earlier era, the web stood in opposition to this sort of ...

Have been groggily writing up the deep reasons why CSS-in-JS (the ...

If you're a technologist in the US, I think it's worth ...

Seems like a dam is (finally) breaking; here's just a small ...

The mobile app stores demand we believe that they *must* be ...

The Grok/Musk AI undressing scandal teaches us that Apple and ...

I quote @npub1fdr…lvhs here because his work has helped us all ...

Apple and Google's quisling era unearths the lies they've ...

The web is that platform, which is why Apple has done literally ...

The Verge is actually doing it. Actually connecting the dots ...

Americans on the left of fascism need to internalize that this [ ...

This is outstanding work, DSD + slotting will open up new worlds ...

The ones I resent most cosplayed solidarity while it was ...

Highly recommended listening/reading for your winter break: ...

A conversation with an incredibly technical friend last night ...

Anybody whose actions make you think "the Copyright Mafia ...

Frontend is failing. 75% of devices with browsers are ...

Inspired by perfnow.nl, I've dusted off drafts of my network ...

How broken is today's frontend culture? @npub12nl…6dft ...

I meet web developers who cannot accept that most smartphones in ...

...and the second is marginal.

My god. We're all going to be on Linux in 6 months, ...

Look, I've given RSC a hard time — for at least 3 years it ...

It's not your imagination; RAM really has quadrupled in ...

The mobile app stores demand we believe that they must be ...

This tool from Firefox DevRel is awesome, and if you care about ...