Dean @dean@librem.one

The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/01/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-simple-html/

I've told this story at conferences - but due to the general situation I thought I'd retell it here.

A few years ago I was doing policy research in a housing benefits office in London. They are singularly unlovely places. The walls are brightened up with posters offering helpful services for people fleeing domestic violence. The security guards on the door are cautiously indifferent to anyone walking in. The air is filled with tense conversations between partners - drowned out by the noise of screaming kids.

In the middle, a young woman sits on a hard plastic chair. She is surrounded by canvas-bags containing her worldly possessions. She doesn't look like she is in a great emotional place right now. Clutched in her hands is a games console - a PlayStation Portable. She stares at it intensely; blocking out the world with Candy Crush.

Or, at least, that's what I thought.

Walking behind her, I glance at her console and recognise the screen she's on. She's connected to the complementary WiFi and is browsing the GOV.UK pages on Housing Benefit. She's not slicing fruit; she's arming herself with knowledge.

The PSP's web browser is - charitably - pathetic. It is slow, frequently runs out of memory, and can only open 3 tabs at a time.

But the GOV.UK pages are written in simple HTML. They are designed to be lightweight and will work even on rubbish browsers. They have to. This is for everyone.

Not everyone has a big monitor, or a multi-core CPU burning through the teraflops, or a broadband connection.

The photographer Chase Jarvis coined the phrase "the best camera is the one that’s with you". He meant that having a crappy instamatic with you at an important moment is better than having the best camera in the world locked up in your car.

The same is true of web browsers. If you have a smart TV, it probably has a crappy browser.

My old car had a built-in crappy web browser.

Both are painful to use - but they work!

If your laptop and phone both got stolen - how easily could you conduct online life through the worst browser you have? If you have to file an insurance claim online - will you get sent a simple HTML form to fill in, or a DOCX which won't render?

What vital information or services are forbidden to you due to being trapped in PDFs or horrendously complicated web sites?

Are you developing public services? Or a system that people might access when they're in desperate need of help? Plain HTML works. A small bit of simple CSS will make look decent. JavaScript is probably unnecessary - but can be used to progressively enhance stuff. Add alt text to images so people paying per MB can understand what the images are for (and, you know, accessibility).

Go sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable location, and stare at an uncomfortably small screen with an uncomfortably outdated web browser. How easy is it to use the websites you've created?

I chatted briefly to the young woman afterwards. She'd been kicked out by her parents and her friends had given her the bus fare to the housing benefits office. She had nothing but praise for how helpful the staff had been. I asked about the PSP - a hand-me-down from an older brother - and the web browser. Her reply was "It's shit. But it worked."

I think that's all we can strive for.

Here are some stats on games consoles visiting GOV.UK

Interestingly we have 3,574 users visiting https://t.co/CcU3PLPTpj on games consoles:
• Xbox - 2,062
• Playstation 4 - 1,457
• Playstation Vita - 25
• Nintendo WiiU - 14
• Nintendo 3DS - 16

20/22

— Matt Hobbs (@TheRealNooshu) February 1, 2021

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/01/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-simple-html/

#HTML5 #web #WeekNotes #work

In the early 2010s, there was a huge wave of planned carbon capture, and it didn't turn into actual, real, operational carbon capture.

Is this wave going to be different? I don't think so: CCS isn't really *meant* to actually work.....

https://ketanjoshi.co/2023/12/17/ccs-the-failure-bomb-the-current-state-of-cop28s-poison-pill/

Never forget this and never forget that this was repeated a dozen times since. There was no need for this war. No need for the genocide. No need for any of this.

It was all a political decision for Netanyahu to avoid accountability, and it was only possible because of the direct complicity of the Biden administration.

#Gaza #Israel #Genocide

I believe passionately that blind people should be leading the organisations that serve us. Lived experience matters. It can make a material difference
to the type and quality of services we receive.
Vision Australia's Board has decided to make an internal appointment for its vacant CEO role, rather than conduct a thorough international search to find
the best person for the job. This means that capable blind people external to the organisation are denied the right to apply.
I am a proud signatory to an open letter written by blind leaders, which has been sent to the Vision Australia Board.
There is a version of this letter available for all who wish to express solidarity to sign.
In the spirit of self determination/nothing aboutus without us, it is time for Vision Australia to appoint its first blind CEO.
If you feel the same, please sign.
https://www.change.org/unitedblindleaders