- Right, I find the use of protobuf lacking with direct support in the browser. Since JSON is a native data encoding format of the browser (effectively), it's just easier to have a JSON-based API.
Yes, there are abstractions or other hacks that would bolt on protobuf support in the browser, but that's not ideal in my mind.
Protobuf is an ideal exchange format when you're not dealing with the public as a whole. That is, a private or corporate API for your data processing pipelines, etc.
- I saw "Mandarin" and "local fetishes" and thinking I'm glad I have no idea what you're talking about, too!
- I can absolutely decide to reject with impunity any and all packets that my computer receives, no matter if I initialized the request. I have not made a sale by reading some other website content and have absolute authority to discriminate over which data is allowed or blocked. Ads have absolutely no higher authority or preference over other packets that would obligate my bandwidth, attention, or time.
- So is Grid supposed to be what we should use to replace the html <table> element? That I still use to this day for layouts because CSS still sucks to me?
- But I can't subdivide 400 in to as many ways as 360. Think about the pie industry. They could be put out of business!!
- That's not pedantic at all! Indeed, without these capabilities, it is by some definition not the real web.
This hits into that concept of what exactly the "web" is. Is it just a media transport system? Or is it something more than that. Of course, we could cite Tim Berners-Lee here or Roy Fielding in this discussion.
But at minimum, I think a lot of us are tired of the app-lification of the web and somewhat wish we could have a bit of the old.
- I deliberately dodged there, as you noted. I do not have full disk encryption setup. I know that I'm probably have a very bad day if I come to lose my laptop, etc. I should do this, no doubt.
But I'm not sure. While maybe good password management is starting to soak into common computer usage, I don't think disk encryption is all that common just yet across the average user. It should be. But the average user is just moving to their phone anyway, with face id and encryption by default, instead of maintain their own personal device.
Corporate devices seem to be a bit better in this regard, though.
- I mean, probably should be. But for me, no. Well, not my personal computer anyway. That's a mistake, I know. But corporate computer yes.
So no, I don't think "in this day and age" necessarily. And I believe that the vast majority of "normal" users don't do full drive encryption either. But yes, we should.
- Yes! Me too. Not adding anything here except a confirmation on the above approach. You kind of need your email password as a "break glass" scenario. But mostly, you just need your password manager.
- Yes, but specifically in the context of Terminals (as discussed in the original article), it's really convenient to be able send Ctrl-C (break) differently than Cmd-C (copy).
So yes keyboard remapping is an option. But there's just differences you can't remap because of the extra meta keys on Mac (and I guess on Windows too, with the Copilot or Start keys in play).
- I really do like Cmd key usage for any terminal in Mac. The ability to send Ctrl+C differently than Cmd+C in a Mac is joyous.
However, for most all other applications in Mac, I dislike the Mac command key. Especially in IDEs like vscode, etc.
And I really hate that the actual Ctrl key on a Mac is in the wrong place, having swapped places with Fn. It's like the first thing I have to remember to do on each Mac setup, swap those two keys.
Because I'm toggling between mac/windows/linux all day long, my poor muscle memory is always confused. And it would be nice if this could be unified. Unfortunately, I'm guessing it would have to be solved more by Apple than by Microsoft or Linux.
- You can't just create yourself an "everything" environment with UV and then experiment with it? Honest question.
I think you're basically suggesting that you'd have a VM or something that has system-high packages already preinstalled and then use UV on top of it?
- I mean, if this doesn't depict modern devops, I don't know what does. Unsung heroes, honestly.
- Super insightful. I feel the same way. I can't mentally "conclude" my read for the day, because there is always just One More Article that is just under the threshold.
An extension of Fear of Missing Out, basically. And yes, I think it causes mental exhaustion and might be directly related to some mental disorders that we have really yet to understand.
- Yes!
- Ah, how cute. An actual "old school" blog. Nostalgia. Tears in eyes.
And the production of articles is about right too.
That read about like my blog 20 years ago.. "Hello World" - The start of something great. [Dec 2024] . "Comparison is the Thief of Joy" - Link to another article. [Apr 2025] . "/dev/null is an ACID compliant database" - Funny, insightful. [Aug 2025]Funny post though, good read!
- Right, I'm so tired of "infinite scroll". There's a mental/emotional reward for actually reaching The End of something.
- Fair and good point. Sharp black bothers me, so just adding in a little hue is nice for my eyes. But that's me, of course.
Noting also that this text is #000000 black, per the CSS. Maybe the background color helps soften it a little? Like contrast white/black is hard on the eyes, but HN is not?
- Better, to be honest. Keep refining of course. But this is definitely more readable.
I admit that straight black is not quite the right answer either. A slightly toned down dark grey would be nice. And again, subjectively, I like how HN has a row of non-link smaller (lighter shaded) text under each listing, which I think plays nice for the white space between each item.
Not that I condone capitalism, or socialism, or communism, or fascism, or any ism for that matter. Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself.
But a private company, at this point, can arguably affect the greater good just as much as a public company. The rich are getting richer, and the corporate model is just there to support that transfer of wealth.