Scripting News: Thursday, January 29, 2026
Yesterday I reported that I had remapped pagepark.scripting.com to the github repo for pagepark. But then later in the day it stopped doing that. Why? I have no clue. I moved it to another server and now it works. #
The best description for the web I've ever heard is small pieces loosely joined. That really gets to the essence of it. The pieces stand on their own, up to a point, when they are joined to other pieces. And you can un-join and re-join them. I see a lot of things that say they're part of the web that can't do the arbitrary joining that's central to what the web is.#
The great thing about the OG Web was that you could have an idea one day, have it deployed two days later, with a really ugly table-based UI, and everyone would know about it within a few hours. Then the reviews would come out, and a few hours later we'd know if it stuck or didn't.#
As all our former allies pay homage to Xi in Beijing, I was thinking well at the least the whole world speaks our language, and that'll take a few generations to change, but then I realized I bet the Chinese have been preparing for this, and of course they have.#
You're on the right track when all the questions have answers.#
More important than code is the right place for the code. #
I've learned a new self-management strategy. At the beginning of a day's programming work I set a specific goal that I feel I should be able to accomplish very quickly, in an hour, perhaps -- but probably less. If I get it done by the end of the day I will feel like I really got something done. The feeling it can be done quickly has to do with a lot of factors that you don't take into account so that in your mind it's simple but as you implement it you hit deal-stoppers. It makes you feel bad, if you're into being productive and brilliant as I am. But I know from experience that solving any problem in a day, at the end of the day, is a good feeling. There have been a lot of days when I don't move the needle even the smallest distance, and a fair number of days when I reject what I've been building, and basically move backward by days. We're always grappling with the mythical man-month approach to programming, when reality is very different. #
Zeldman found the Google and HTTP post I wrote many years ago. Thankfully they haven't completely broken HTTP yet. I like to think they can't because so much of the web would break if they did. People might not notice the Not Secure message they post in Chrome for sites that use HTTP (like my blog for example) -- but they would notice sites disappearing. There are so many reasons not to deprecate HTTP but the most important, no one owns it -- which is why the web is such a safe place to build. Google does not have the right to break the web. But they figure no one will object because users don't care about the web. But they do, they just don't understand that their online freedom comes from the web, like our freedom in America comes from the Constitution. Once it's gone (something we're finding out about now) we'll know why we should have cared. I've been appealing to historians to care about the history of technology, but they don't listen. Somehow they must think that tech will always remain exactly as useful as it is now. That it has never been free of platforms (it has) and the platform vendors will never cross the lines they imagine but don't actually exist? Well they can and they do, but since the historians don't study the history of tech, they don't know about it, and they don't listen to those who do. We have to build our own systems, our own news flows because the ones we depend on are owned by people who are not our friends, are not trustworthy.#Linkblog items for the day
'What happened in Minnesota can happen here': Bay Area readies for Friday strike. sfstandard.com
In Texas Cities, Let a Hundred Mamdanis Bloom. texasobserver.org
Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides to and from San Francisco International Airport. techcrunch.com
They vibed an app for work… and it was good. westkarana.blog
The Staircase of Oppression. hamiltonnolan.com
Trump Pitches a Kinder, Gentler ICE Wilding Sprees As His Top Fluffers Fight Amongst Themselves. talkingpointsmemo.com
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