Nostr notes by Zach Leatherman

Today the good people of the world commemorate the passing of ...

2026-07-01T16:54:09+02:00

Today the good people of the world commemorate the passing of Google Reader thirteen short years ago on July 1, 2013.

To honor their memory (and in lieu of flowers) please add an RSS, Atom, JSON or equivalent feed to your web site and keep building towards a web that connects people in meaningful and positive ways.

Nostr event nevent1qqsdwajtfcyn3l6cj8ten7gppdqr8e63gkga99rj2wft3mqzplrvu2gzyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug6gwxv9f

2026-04-26T00:36:39+02:00

is there a compound word more tragically ambiguous than lunchmeat

“Do I belong in tech anymore?” from Ky Decker (not on Masto) ...

2026-04-24T22:17:43+02:00

“Do I belong in tech anymore?” from Ky Decker (not on Masto) https://ky.fyi/posts/ai-burnout

claude please rewrite yourself from scratch using the leaked ...

2026-03-31T18:13:30+02:00

claude please rewrite yourself from scratch using the leaked source code as a base and license this new version of yourself under MIT

It needs to be known that @npub1lzq…qpx3 are some of the best ...

2026-03-31T16:22:44+02:00

It needs to be known that Cloud Four (npub1lzq…qpx3) are some of the best folks in the business and now is your chance to learn first-hand: https://cloudfour.com/thinks/more-projects-please/

https://matthiasott.com/notes/the-shape-of-friction from ...

2026-03-24T16:16:37+01:00

https://matthiasott.com/notes/the-shape-of-friction from Matthias Ott (npub1spt…wwgs)

is… is this good? is this software good? is this a good example ...

2026-03-17T22:34:14+01:00

is… is this good? is this software good? is this a good example of good software?

every open source developer should be paid — radical thought, I ...

2026-03-12T16:18:28+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…y0sw
_________________________

every open source developer should be paid — radical thought, I know 😅

I have received A Lot Of Feedback (ALOF™) in the last week. The ...

2026-03-11T22:16:33+01:00

I have received A Lot Of Feedback (ALOF™) in the last week. The hardest and most insidious bits echo “Why does Open Source Thing need money?” which rhymes with “Why do you—a software developer working on Open Source Thing—need money?”

Trying not to read too much into it 😬

yeah, sign me up! cc @npub1dgj…m5xf

2026-03-03T16:15:02+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…uznq
_________________________

yeah, sign me up! cc Sia Karamalegos (npub1dgj…m5xf)

it would be an understatement to say that tomorrow will be a very ...

2026-03-02T22:52:42+01:00

it would be an understatement to say that tomorrow will be a very big day

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fontawesome/build-awesome

meeeeeeeeee

2026-02-25T21:09:25+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…haqt
_________________________

meeeeeeeeee

A blog post means it’s real: An official* logo for HTML (from ...

2026-02-20T16:01:35+01:00

A blog post means it’s real:

An official* logo for HTML (from Sam Stephenson (npub1tjs…87qz))

https://www.zachleat.com/web/html-logo/

I’ve tested about ~20 whistle variations. Optimizing for ...

2026-02-18T15:36:00+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…ahhz
_________________________

I’ve tested about ~20 whistle variations. Optimizing for blowing efficiency, filament usage efficiency, and dB output volume, the single color print of this one is the best I’ve seen so far: https://makerworld.com/en/models/2365496-minnesota-state-flag-whistle (based on https://makerworld.com/en/models/1642251-flat-signal-whistles)

If I’m ignoring filament usage efficiency, this one is much bigger and unmatched: https://makerworld.com/en/models/548070-triple-tone-extreme-whistle

I have so many opinions about whistles, suddenly ...

2026-02-18T02:04:46+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…zxxl
_________________________

I have so many opinions about whistles, suddenly

it’s important to keep caring about how things work and how ...

2026-02-17T22:14:08+01:00

it’s important to keep caring about how things work and how they’re built

I’ve been testing 3d-printed whistle variations; preparing a ...

2026-02-15T17:05:11+01:00

I’ve been testing 3d-printed whistle variations; preparing a batch for drop-off to some local helpers for distribution.

Nostr event nevent1qqszm5m02zppsh35j7542nhchs5yjx2jw3j0j7rumtcexa6ggu5n4cczyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug6csmdef

2026-02-10T21:38:21+01:00

it’s time for a mental health check: how are we doing

We did it, Joe! @npub14u5…szzh is now officially on Mastodon ...

2026-02-03T17:55:07+01:00

We did it, Joe! Font Awesome (npub14u5…szzh) is now officially on Mastodon 🏆

it’s time for a MONTAGE

2026-01-13T18:59:47+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…fu67
_________________________

it’s time for a MONTAGE

if you thought that was smart — puts on glasses

2026-01-13T17:41:08+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…dk3v
_________________________

if you thought that was smart — *puts on glasses*

if you want stable and reliable software, give developers stable ...

2026-01-13T17:36:03+01:00

if you want stable and reliable software, give developers stable and reliable employment

it clearly needs to be repeated that layoffs are a leadership ...

2026-01-08T21:45:11+01:00

it clearly needs to be repeated that layoffs are a leadership failure, full stop.

*gently opens up the December 15th flap on my react CVE advent ...

2025-12-15T19:22:24+01:00

*gently opens up the December 15th flap on my react CVE advent calendar*

Nostr event nevent1qqsyrn04c3npqvgrxq3ht0qlxf8u5grkr4td7nkymwgf9nlcnr2darqzyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug6tszhv4

2025-12-09T20:28:19+01:00

you’re very popular on linkedin (DEROGATORY)

I don’t know if this is a good decision but it also feels long ...

2025-12-09T18:49:27+01:00

I don’t know if this is a good decision but it also feels long overdue

TIL about https://jsx.lol/ from [@db](https://social.lol/@db ) ...

2025-12-03T17:46:10+01:00

TIL about https://jsx.lol/ from [@db](https://social.lol/@db ) which seems to be carrying the torch forward from my blog post a few years back: https://www.zachleat.com/web/react-criticism/

went on a small side quest this morning and added an AI Mode ...

2025-11-20T16:06:42+01:00

went on a small side quest this morning and added an AI Mode toggle to my blog posts

e.g. https://www.zachleat.com/web/adventures-in-date-parsing/

to be clear, I don’t think what you’re doing is wrong — ...

2025-11-19T20:05:55+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…jrhw
_________________________

to be clear, I don’t think what you’re doing is *wrong* — just some tradeoffs there worth noting!

I used to do this but then I started to wonder what happens to my ...

2025-11-19T19:23:54+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…u0ag
_________________________

I used to do this but then I started to wonder what happens to my site during rsync? Could a visitor see a broken site? What happens if I lose connectivity in the middle of a deploy? What happens if the deploy fails (for any number of reasons)? Instant roll back has saved me a few times now 😅

TIL about the HTML Size Analyzer from DebugBear. Great for ...

2025-11-17T21:17:51+01:00

TIL about the HTML Size Analyzer from DebugBear. Great for finding sneaky Data URIs or large payloads of JSON in your pages:

https://www.debugbear.com/html-size-analyzer

as “industry” survey season rolls around again it’s ...

2025-11-03T17:39:35+01:00

as “industry” survey season rolls around again it’s important to remember that the results from these things reflect the biases of the most popular dev communities that promote them (and then we get to all pretend like the results are meritocratic)

I now believe it’s better to not participate at all

Thinking about dark/light mode pickers that have three options: ...

2025-10-31T20:52:19+01:00

Thinking about dark/light mode pickers that have three options: Auto/Dark/Light.

If the default is “Auto” — in what scenario might someone want to move away from Auto (which would visually be a noop to the same theme?)

I’m using Light mode as my system preference, but it seems unlikely that I would swap from Auto (Light mode) to Light mode (not Auto) on a specific site

Counterpoint: not everything in space is an astronaut

2025-10-30T19:52:41+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…jq4q
_________________________

Counterpoint: not everything in space is an astronaut

my privacy settings are that I’m fine with a geolocation API ...

2025-10-30T16:08:22+01:00

my privacy settings are that I’m fine with a geolocation API but it should only return a boolean that reveals whether or not I’m on planet earth

Today’s esoteric HTML element is <kbd> As in: please ...

2025-10-21T20:07:57+02:00

Today’s esoteric HTML element is <kbd>

As in: please press <kbd>⌘</kbd> + <kbd>R</kbd> repeatedly when AWS causes your JavaScript to fail to load.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/kbd

If you’re using CSS Nesting, make sure your minifier supports ...

2025-10-16T00:14:21+02:00

If you’re using CSS Nesting, make sure your minifier supports it!

As I learned today, clean-css doesn’t support it yet: https://github.com/clean-css/clean-css/issues/1254

your gist is very validating, thank you!

2025-10-01T23:12:50+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…sjch
_________________________

your gist is very validating, thank you!

is there really no low-level mechanism to intercept boolean ...

2025-10-01T22:30:10+02:00

is there really no low-level mechanism to intercept boolean primitive coercion in JavaScript?

why can’t I extend `Boolean` to make `new MyBoolean(false)` be `falsy`? (I understand why it isn’t, but I want to make it so)

> Note: Unlike other type conversions like string coercion or number coercion, boolean coercion does not attempt to convert objects to primitives by calling user methods.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Boolean#boolean_coercion

has anyone stopped to consider that the rapture is just another ...

2025-09-23T18:32:12+02:00

has anyone stopped to consider that the rapture is just another supply chain attack

Please add this tiny bit-o-CSS for stable scrollbar gutters to ...

2025-09-19T14:12:25+02:00

Please add this tiny bit-o-CSS for stable scrollbar gutters to your Reset Stylesheets

https://www.zachleat.com/web/stable-scrollbar-gutters/

hmm — the favicon for microsoft.com has been broken for at ...

2025-09-17T17:34:13+02:00

hmm — the favicon for microsoft.com has been broken for at least a week now

HTML Programmer. —from the always lovely @npub16cx…2vq4 ...

2025-09-17T15:44:27+02:00

HTML Programmer.

—from the always lovely Piccalilli (npub16cx…2vq4)

✅ an HTML web site hosted on a disposable vape ⛔️ a ...

2025-09-15T21:39:43+02:00

✅ an HTML web site hosted on a disposable vape
⛔️ a JavaScript-heavy web site that feels like its loading from a disposable vape

Crashing out at how poorly npm (Microsoft) is handling this ...

2025-09-08T19:03:19+02:00

Crashing out at how poorly npm (Microsoft) is handling this security incident. Eleventy is not affected any more but *lots* of other tools in the JavaScript ecosystem are!

Hours later and the compromised package versions are still public…

Maybe don’t install anything from npm today, folks.

my promise is to create bad software much more slowly

2025-08-27T18:41:37+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…6aeh
_________________________

my promise is to create bad software much more slowly

it takes no stance on quality

2025-08-27T18:32:53+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…jqeg
_________________________

it takes no stance on quality

Nostr event nevent1qqswr369w4e0450xn8tys4jhfpx6greekdwen2n4lhs90tneusyfjsczyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug6l3fu7c

2025-08-27T18:24:56+02:00

I think software should be good

A note from my late Grandmother about Eleventy ...

2025-08-19T19:47:06+02:00

A note from my late Grandmother about Eleventy

https://www.zachleat.com/web/history-of-eleventy-name/

The most underrated code comment continues to be: // Start here ...

2025-08-05T15:36:37+02:00

The most underrated code comment continues to be:

// Start here tomorrow

😅😅😅 doing what I can 🥰

2025-08-01T23:29:24+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…fcvk
_________________________

😅😅😅 doing what I can 🥰

Trying to sneak in some long overdue @11ty/webc maintenance ...

2025-08-01T23:02:43+02:00

Trying to sneak in some long overdue @11ty/webc maintenance before close of business 👀

for resiliency and redundant fallback make sure you have more ...

2025-07-29T18:12:23+02:00

for resiliency and redundant fallback make sure you have more than one single point of failure in your software stack

I wrote this saga up in blog post form: ...

2025-07-25T15:57:31+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…lr2d
_________________________

I wrote this saga up in blog post form: https://fediverse.zachleat.com/@zachleat/114913999540366417

Never write your own Date Parsing Library (I wrote my own Date ...

2025-07-25T15:01:19+02:00

Never write your own Date Parsing Library (I wrote my own Date Parsing Library)

https://www.zachleat.com/web/adventures-in-date-parsing/

One more entry in my epic date parsing adventure. I’ve shipped ...

2025-07-22T23:24:33+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…3f3n
_________________________

One more entry in my epic date parsing adventure. I’ve shipped a breaking change to this library to ensure that all valid date strings supported in Eleventy v4 will be RFC 9557-compatible, ensuring friendliness with the standardized Temporal APIs coming to a JavaScript runtime near you. Our full test suite runs against both!

Read (a little) more: https://github.com/11ty/parse-date-strings/releases/tag/v2.0.0

continued from ...

2025-07-22T00:22:56+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…9uaf
_________________________

continued from https://fediverse.zachleat.com/@zachleat/114870836413532617

and https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/issues/3587

I really tried to avoid this one but unfortunately this is now ...

2025-07-22T00:22:44+02:00

I really tried to avoid this one but unfortunately this is now something I maintain 😭 https://github.com/11ty/parse-date-strings

Nostr event nevent1qqspz0pnwjwgwlzlp4g86x5g9ragalxztsmqtx0v3qpxmeh64kr65gczyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug6zy0f35

2025-07-21T15:23:16+02:00

"2025-W01-1" is December 30, 2024

For extra curious folks, the big ol’ PR to kick this off merged ...

2025-07-19T00:33:04+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…2lc5
_________________________

For extra curious folks, the big ol’ PR to kick this off merged yesterday: https://github.com/11ty/eleventy/pull/3858

work has started on @npub1qud…y0rz 4.0 👀

2025-07-18T23:32:11+02:00

work has started on Build Awesome (11ty) (npub1qud…y0rz) 4.0 👀

Nostr event nevent1qqs9cxq8n7tytklmgzlkz232yrcf7dasws44edcmtkyq4mlvlt59q5czyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug67qynke

2025-07-18T17:27:42+02:00

controversially: why can’t software be good?

Can anyone recommend a snail mail comic book subscription ...

2025-07-17T18:58:34+02:00

Can anyone recommend a snail mail comic book subscription service?

I don’t see a link to Bluesky from your web site, fwiw!

2025-07-17T17:58:45+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…knav
_________________________

I don’t see a link to Bluesky from your web site, fwiw!

In my 19 full-time professional years in this business there have ...

2025-07-17T16:32:02+02:00

In my 19 full-time professional years in this business there have been many eras in which very prominent web developers have argued “don’t worry about it” in discussions of web performance and time has *never* proven those arguments to have merit, even with continually improving network connections and hardware.

The web is diverse. Let’s keep it that way!

web components are usb-c react is the lightning cable thank you ...

2025-07-07T17:20:33+02:00

web components are usb-c
react is the lightning cable
thank you for coming to my ted talk

wow, this is incredible — what a lovely endorsement 🥰

2025-06-17T16:03:09+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…uwdg
_________________________

wow, this is *incredible* — what a lovely endorsement 🥰

I went out to try to improve society, somewhat. #NoKings ...

2025-06-14T22:46:49+02:00

I went out to try to improve society, somewhat. #NoKings

maybe as a society we should spend less time “Verifying that ...

2025-06-12T21:35:51+02:00

maybe as a society we should spend less time “Verifying that you are a human” and more time “Verifying your humanity”

oh dang, how do you know this? I’d love another source!

2025-06-07T00:06:20+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…qayl
_________________________

oh dang, how do you know this? I’d love another source!

Nostr event nevent1qqsgr6meee6h54578uny84dzj8xzgqs49t8xk5glaz8uwa7q4v59tqqzyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug66ra3hu

2025-06-06T23:32:06+02:00

https://www.theverge.com/news/680893/nintendo-switch-2-eshop-faster look, I just want to know what the tech stack of the old shop was 😅

Web sites with a Facebook pixel were communicating with local ...

2025-06-06T18:32:49+02:00

Web sites with a Facebook pixel were communicating with local native apps (Instagram, Facebook, maybe WhatsApp) to log (and attribute) incognito web browsing activity.

Write-up: https://localmess.github.io/
Story: https://english.elpais.com/technology/2025-06-03/the-covert-method-meta-uses-to-track-mobile-browsing-without-consent-even-in-incognito-mode-or-with-a-vpn.html

1. core web vitals are the only web perf metrics that matter 2. ...

2025-06-01T02:15:32+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…lg6v
_________________________

1. core web vitals are the only web perf metrics that matter

2. react is fast enough

3. how to use toxic masculinity as a leadership tactic to avoid self reflection and personal growth, a guide to online community building

4. how to actively circumvent the web platform until it affects you personally, a hero’s journey

why would your external links need updating?

2025-05-23T15:55:07+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…f07g
_________________________

why would your external links need updating?

Just how portable is your web site? Could you switch hosting ...

2025-05-23T15:40:07+02:00

Just how portable is your web site? Could you switch hosting providers in an hour? In a day? Would it take you a week?

You should think about it.

WordPress: 3.076M Top 6 JavaScript Frameworks combined: 0.321M ...

2025-05-22T16:34:33+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…kdja
_________________________

WordPress: 3.076M
Top 6 JavaScript Frameworks combined: 0.321M

WordPress in 2025 is ~10× the combined origins of Next.js, Nuxt.js, Gatsby, Astro, SvelteKit, and Remix.

I’m curious: is this chart surprising to y’all? ...

2025-05-22T16:31:13+02:00

I’m curious: is this chart surprising to y’all?

Web performance experts, would love to see a performance ...

2025-05-22T15:44:42+02:00

Web performance experts, would love to see a performance breakdown of this web site: https://indieweb.social/@yvg/114550400917431252

the react and tailwind communities are terrible at this — any ...

2025-05-20T17:32:51+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…2hyj
_________________________

the react and tailwind communities are terrible at this — any criticism is met with an avalanche of time-wasting replies

what tech companies haven’t done layoffs in the last 3 years? ...

2025-05-20T17:01:05+02:00

what tech companies *haven’t* done layoffs in the last 3 years? it’s time for a goodwill thread

✅ Server render ⚠️ Client render ⛔️ Proprietary ...

2025-05-17T00:12:57+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…x77h
_________________________

✅ Server render
⚠️ Client render
⛔️ Proprietary single-vendor edge runtimes that may or may not be around in a few years

11ty.dev now runs Eleventy clientside on the home page ...

2025-05-16T23:55:33+02:00

11ty.dev now runs Eleventy clientside on the home page https://neighborhood.11ty.dev/@11ty/114519676689929120

just checking if I could help (or if it was my fault)! sounds ...

2025-05-16T16:37:22+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…cthm
_________________________

just checking if I could help (or if it was my fault)! sounds like you got it figured out!

pinned how?

2025-05-16T16:25:49+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…wh4r
_________________________

pinned how?

don’t tell anyone that it’s a web component

2025-05-14T23:48:06+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…8x9l
_________________________

don’t tell anyone that it’s a web component

Still a work in progress but here’s a little sneak peek at the ...

2025-05-14T23:37:54+02:00

Still a work in progress but here’s a little sneak peek at the Eleventy demo runner: https://11ty-website-git-editor-11ty.vercel.app/#try-eleventy-in-the-browser

did you move fast? yes did you break things? also yes did you ...

2025-04-30T18:46:35+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…n695
_________________________

did you move fast? yes
did you break things? also yes
did you learn nothing? we’re happy to announce our series A round of funding on our next project

tools don’t leverage the platform appropriately and are unable ...

2025-04-30T16:16:03+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…wrms
_________________________

tools don’t leverage the platform appropriately and are unable to pivot when new features are introduced at lower levels ok byeeeeeeee

weirdos unite 🤝

2025-04-22T22:05:36+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…s5s0
_________________________

weirdos unite 🤝

omg don’t do this 😅

2025-04-22T21:47:52+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…knar
_________________________

omg don’t do this 😅

so my individual data is worthless to the advertisers they’re ...

2025-04-17T18:25:15+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…r7y0
_________________________

so my individual data is worthless to the advertisers they’re selling it to?

hey do you have a second to chat

2025-04-16T16:26:58+02:00

In reply to nevent1q…52nk
_________________________

hey do you have a second to chat

boosting this is an attack!!

2025-03-26T17:32:51+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…3gj6
_________________________

boosting this is an attack!!

can we have a feature where a toot self destructs when it hits 50 ...

2025-03-26T17:30:12+01:00

can we have a feature where a toot self destructs when it hits 50 boosts

bribecoding is a new phenomenon where you pay open source ...

2025-03-25T21:08:35+01:00

bribecoding is a new phenomenon where you pay open source developers a living wage to work on projects that your business uses

Nostr event nevent1qqsfqklxuv07cnyz6cn5ant3s2x4zqa00dqarcqhr5ft6m568drjn9czyq4stlfvd99ehl9ey2nhkd043kwszwxpxzhujaxspywfvxaryvug6gp0m6n

2025-03-24T15:23:46+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…qvhg
_________________________

Update: thanks to ...

2025-03-24T15:14:04+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…mag9
_________________________

Update: thanks to [@chrisw_b](https://social.chriswb.dev/@chrisw_b ) for hunting this down: looks like a huge flaw in the vulnerability scanner being used by these tools (it ignores namespaces on package names!)

More info:

https://github.com/jridgewell/gen-mapping/issues/12
https://github.com/anchore/grype/issues/1701

Why does socket.dev report that the latest version of next.js has ...

2025-03-24T14:41:43+01:00

Why does socket.dev report that the latest version of next.js has a malware dependency? https://socket.dev/npm/package/next/alerts/15.2.3?tab=dependencies

“Malicious code in gen-mapping (npm) Any computer that has this package installed or running should be considered fully compromised.”

Update: looks like this is a pretty big flaw in the vulnerability scanner — not in next (check the replies for more info)

how did you do that so fast

2025-03-20T20:15:40+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…3gxd
_________________________

how did you do that so fast

it’s so good! it even has the cat!!

2025-03-19T16:08:40+01:00

In reply to nevent1q…2wkk
_________________________

it’s so good! it even has the cat!!