Hasty Briefsbeta

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#web development

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Website with a DMCA Takedown
4 months ago
- Worked on a hijacked website affected by a DMCA takedown notice.
- Client's website was taken down due to a DMCA complaint from the original developer claiming unpaid dues.
- Temporarily resolved the issue by moving the nameserver to Cloudflare.
- Original developer escalated the issue by sending another DMCA notice to Cloudflare.
- Client faced a dilemma: pay the developer or contest the notice with the hosting provider.
- Advised the client to stand firm and consider changing to a more resistant hosting provider.
- Client chose to pay the developer, resolving the DMCA notice temporarily.
- Hosting provider later canceled the service due to the escalated DMCA complaint.
- Migrated the website to BlueHost, despite its own DMCA-related risks.
- Client requested assistance in translating for non-English-speaking SEO workers.
What Happened to WebAssembly
4 months ago
- WebAssembly is used in real-world applications like Godot for web games, Squoosh.app for image processing, and Figma for C++ code conversion.
- WebAssembly is a language, not a speed benchmark; its efficiency depends on how well it maps to modern hardware.
- WebAssembly can be compiled from many languages including Rust, C, and Go, and can run in browsers or standalone runtimes.
- Security is a key feature of WebAssembly, with minimal attack surfaces and explicit host-defined imports for external interactions.
- WebAssembly enables portability and embeddability, allowing plugins and tools in various environments without language constraints.
- Performance trade-offs exist with WebAssembly, including binary bloat and boundary crossing costs, but it's generally 'fast enough' for most uses.
- WebAssembly's development is active but controversial, with rapid standardization and feature adoption raising concerns about missteps.
- WebAssembly is unlikely to replace JavaScript in browsers but is widely used by library authors, often transparently to application developers.
LLMs have burned Billions but couldn't build another Tailwind
4 months ago
- Tailwind laid off 75% of its workforce, signaling financial struggles despite its popularity.
- Tailwind remains widely used, powering 1.5% of the web, which is significant given the web's scale.
- Contrary to claims, Tailwind is not bloated; it's a lean, high-quality framework developed by a small, efficient team.
- The framework's open-source terms and single-purchase license reflect its non-greedy approach.
- Despite the rise of LLMs and agent coding in 2025, no small team has replicated Tailwind's groundbreaking success.
- Concerns arise about losing Tailwind, a unique and sophisticated tool in the current tech landscape.
Visual regression tests for personal blogs
4 months ago
- The author uses Astro and MDX to build a static website with complex CSS styling.
- Visual regression testing with Playwright is implemented to detect unintended side-effects from CSS changes.
- The testing involves taking screenshots of pages and comparing them against golden snapshots.
- A custom test script scrolls through pages to ensure all lazy-loaded images are captured.
- The list of pages to test is statically defined, though dynamic generation was considered.
- The workflow is kept simple, running tests manually when significant changes are made rather than in CI.
Text-Based Web Browsers
4 months ago
- Text-based browsers like ELinks, Lynx, and w3m are discussed, excluding browsh which relies on Firefox.
- Modern HTML features are often neglected in text-based browsers, leading to poor support for elements like <details>, <dialog>, and popovers.
- Text-based browsers display all content, including hidden or inert elements, which can disrupt progressive enhancement techniques.
- Support for newer HTML features like the Popover API and inert content is non-existent in text-based browsers.
- The article criticizes the lack of support for hidden content in text-based browsers, calling it an 'epic fail'.
- The future of text-based browsers looks bleak as the gap between them and modern web technologies continues to widen.
PHP in 2026
4 months ago
- PHP 8.5 introduces features like the pipe operator, object cloning with data, closures in attributes, and backtraces for fatal errors.
- Partial Function Application (PFA) in PHP 8.6 enhances the pipe operator by allowing parameter placeholders in functions.
- Pattern matching RFC is under discussion, offering potential for cleaner conditional logic in PHP.
- FrankenPHP, a new runtime written in Go, offers performance improvements and modern HTTP features.
- Mago, a toolchain for PHP written in Rust, provides linting, formatting, and static analysis.
- TrueAsync focuses on async PHP, with ongoing RFCs for multithreading and I/O improvements.
- PHPverse, an online conference, returns in 2026 after a successful debut.
- Tempest, a modern PHP framework, is preparing for its third major release with significant community support.
NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing): The unsung hero of Internet history
4 months ago
- The NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) played a crucial role in the early development of the Internet.
- NCSA developed NCSA Telnet in 1986, an early tool for remote computer connections before SSH was invented.
- NCSA contributed to the World Wide Web by making it cross-platform, developing NCSA HTTPd (a precursor to Apache) and the Mosaic web browser.
- Mosaic was the first widely used web browser, available on Unix, Windows, Mac OS, and Amiga, making the web accessible to a broad audience.
- NCSA's innovations laid the groundwork for the commercialization of the web, influencing later browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer.
- The Internet's success is attributed to public-private partnerships, including contributions from universities like the University of Illinois.
Show HN: HyTags – HTML as a Programming Language
4 months ago
- Modern web frameworks typically separate applications into backend and frontend, connected via an API.
- This separation adds complexity, including duplicated routing, API contracts, and data transfer layers.
- hyTags aims to unify backend and frontend into a single application with composable UI components.
- The goal is to define UI behavior and markup together without sacrificing user experience.
New Safari developer tools provide insight into CSS Grid Lanes
4 months ago
- Safari Technology Preview 234 introduces CSS Grid Lanes for masonry-style layouts.
- CSS Grid Lanes allows content alignment in either columns or rows, not both.
- Content flows perpendicular to the layout shape, improving packing of various aspect ratios.
- New 'Order Numbers' feature in Safari's Grid Inspector helps visualize content flow.
- Grid Lanes Inspector reveals grid lines, sizes, line numbers, and area names.
- Order Numbers assist in understanding content flow for better accessibility.
- Safari's layout tools allow multiple overlays without performance issues.
- Flexbox Inspector distinguishes between free space and gaps, showing item boundaries.
- Grid and Flexbox Inspectors are the only tools labeling content order.
- Order Numbers feature is available in Safari Technology Preview 235.
Fitdrop: Personal exploration of fashion from 1980 to 2025
4 months ago
- Fitdrop is a personal fashion exploration from 1980 to 2025.
- Users can drag outfits to the corner for more details.
- The pile can be restarted if it gets too messy.
- Iain, the creator, works at FOOD and has been a web nerd for years.
- Iain's inability to code limited his ability to make things in the past.
- 'Vibe coding' allows Iain to create projects like Fitdrop.
- Iain is open to sharing more about how he created Fitdrop.
Show HN: HTTP:COLON – A quick HTTP header/directive inspector and reference
4 months ago
- HTTP headers are a fundamental component of the HTTP protocol.
- They contain important information about requests and responses, such as content type, caching instructions, and authentication tokens.
- Understanding HTTP headers helps optimize web applications for performance, security, and functionality.
- They are crucial for API integrations, enabling communication with external services.
- Mastering HTTP headers is essential for building high-quality web applications.
The File System API is so underrated
4 months ago
- The File System API is underrated and underutilized.
- Small utility apps, typically downloaded as freeware, could run in the browser using this API.
- Examples include a bulk file renamer and a swipe-to-delete photo curator.
- The API is capable, with features like FileSystemObserver for real-time file tracking.
- Combining it with WebAssembly could replicate many desktop utilities.
- Lack of popularity may stem from distrust in browser file access.
The Overcomplexity of the Shadcn Radio Button
4 months ago
- The author was tasked with updating the visual design of radio buttons in a web app.
- Discovered the app was using Shadcn, a UI framework that provides prebuilt components by copying them into the codebase.
- Shadcn's radio button implementation involves two React components, importing from Radix and a third-party icon library, totaling 45 lines of code.
- Radix is another UI framework that provides unstyled components, which Shadcn then styles.
- The Radix implementation uses ARIA attributes to mimic radio button behavior instead of using native HTML elements, contrary to the First Rule of ARIA.
- The author questions the complexity, noting that styling radio buttons with CSS is straightforward and doesn't require JavaScript or additional dependencies.
- The author provides a simple CSS example for styling radio buttons without any frameworks or libraries.
- While acknowledging the convenience of component libraries, the author advocates for simplicity and using native browser elements where possible.
- The complexity of using multiple libraries for a simple radio button adds unnecessary cognitive load, potential bugs, and impacts website performance.
- The author nostalgically reflects on the simplicity of native HTML radio buttons.
Pale Moon v34.0.0 – a new milestone release
3 months ago
- Pale Moon v34.0.0 introduces new features like theme updates for Windows 11, WeakRef implementation, and CSS shorthands.
- Security and stability updates include CSS Cascade Layers re-landing, viewport overflow propagation, and NSS library updates.
- v34.0.0 addresses several CVEs, with some fixes marked as Defense-in-Depth (DiD).
- v33.9.1 was a bugfix and security update, temporarily rolling back CSS Cascade Layers and color-mix due to issues.
- v33.9.0 focused on web compatibility, introducing CSS4 features like revert keyword and clip for overflow.
- Implementation notes detail changes like stricter overflow: clip behavior and prefers-reduced-motion media query support.
- v33.8.2 and earlier versions included minor updates, security fixes, and adjustments to cookie handling and NPAPI plugins.
Turbopack: Building faster by building less
3 months ago
- Turbopack is designed for fast iteration loops using caching and incremental computation.
- It is the default bundler for Next.js, aimed at enabling instant builds and fast React Fast Refresh.
- Turbopack's architecture is built with caching in mind, drawing from research and tools like Salsa, Parcel, and Rust compiler's query system.
- It uses fine-grained caching with 'value cells' to track dependencies and minimize recomputation.
- Turbopack's approach avoids manual dependency graphs, reducing errors and improving efficiency.
- The system marks dirty cells and propagates changes efficiently, only recomputing when necessary.
- Aggregation graphs help in efficiently querying large portions of the dependency graph.
- File system caching was introduced in Next.js 16.1, persisting caches to disk for faster restarts.
- The development of file system caching took over a year to meet performance and quality standards.
December in Servo
3 months ago
- Servo 0.0.4 and December nightly builds now support multiple windows.
- Added support for various web platform features including 'contrast-color()' in CSS, partial support for <meta charset>, and 'background' attributes on table elements.
- Vendor-prefixed CSS properties like '-moz-transform' are now supported for better compatibility.
- SubtleCrypto API now fully supports ChaCha20-Poly1305, RSA-OAEP, RSA-PSS, and RSASSA-PKCS1-v1_5.
- Servo now supports HTTP proxies and uses system root certificates by default.
- New APIs introduced: SiteDataManager for managing localStorage, sessionStorage, and cookies; NetworkManager for cache management.
- Servo's devtools now partially support the Network > Security tab and are compatible with Firefox 145.
- Fixed rendering bugs related to 'float', 'order', 'max-width', 'max-height', and other CSS properties.
- Improved event handling for 'wheel', 'hashchange', 'dblclick', 'resize', and 'seeked' events.
- Memory and performance improvements, including HTTP cache eviction and reduced selector matching work.
- Servo now receives 7110 USD/month in recurring donations, supporting CI, benchmarking, and maintainer work.
- Upcoming talks at FOSDEM 2026 about Servo's impact on the web platform ecosystem and implementing Streams Spec.
XHTML Club
3 months ago
- The website is a collection of XHTML valid websites and a blog.
- It serves as a platform for discussing the bloat of the modern web.
- There is no manifesto or call to return to the old internet; it's simply about respecting valid XHTML.
- XHTML has been largely replaced by HTML5, with validation often ignored in modern web development.
- The site aims to highlight the value of proper HTML craftsmanship without shaming or persuading others.
- XHTML Club exists to show that valid markup still matters and that some developers still care about building with it.
I added a Bluesky comment section to my blog
3 months ago
- Added a Bluesky comment section to a statically generated blog to avoid the complexity of maintaining a dynamic web service.
- Chose Bluesky over other platforms like Twitter, Disqus, or GitHub Discussions due to its open platform and public API.
- Initially considered allowing direct posting via OAuth but simplified to fetching and displaying replies from a specified Bluesky post.
- Used the Bluesky TypeScript SDK and Tanstack react-query for API interactions to manage loading and error states efficiently.
- Simplified UI by focusing on text content and basic threading, with styling to match the blog's design.
- Encouraged engagement by linking to the parent Bluesky post, though previous articles saw low interaction.
Ktor 3.4.0
3 months ago
- Ktor 3.4.0 released with stability improvements and new features.
- New OpenAPI generation from code with dynamic documentation.
- Duplex streaming support for OkHttp client engine.
- Zstd compression support added to the Compression plugin.
- HttpRequestLifecycle plugin for canceling in-flight HTTP requests.
- Community contributions and feedback are highly appreciated.
The browser is the sandbox
3 months ago
- Paul Kinlan explores the browser as a sandbox for coding agents.
- The browser is designed to run untrusted code securely from any web source.
- Three key sandbox aspects: filesystem, network access, and safe code execution are handled by browser technologies.
- Co-do demo illustrates using the browser's capabilities for file interaction and LLM provider configuration.
- Challenges with <iframe sandbox> documentation and a double-iframe technique for network rules.
- Discovery of the <input type='file' webkitdirectory> tag for directory access across browsers.

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About|Login

#web development

Website with a DMCA Takedown

What Happened to WebAssembly

LLMs have burned Billions but couldn't build another Tailwind

Visual regression tests for personal blogs

Text-Based Web Browsers

PHP in 2026

NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing): The unsung hero of Internet history

Show HN: HyTags – HTML as a Programming Language

New Safari developer tools provide insight into CSS Grid Lanes

Fitdrop: Personal exploration of fashion from 1980 to 2025

Show HN: HTTP:COLON – A quick HTTP header/directive inspector and reference

The File System API is so underrated

The Overcomplexity of the Shadcn Radio Button

Pale Moon v34.0.0 – a new milestone release

Turbopack: Building faster by building less

December in Servo

XHTML Club

I added a Bluesky comment section to my blog

Ktor 3.4.0

The browser is the sandbox