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Alex Russell

@infrequently.org

5.6K followers 980 following 1.4K posts

Trying to make a web that works for everyone. Also at https://toot.cafe/@slightlyoff For more: https://infrequently.org/about-me/ https://infrequently.org/

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · Oct 27

Platforms are competitions, and the web is losing. We can do simple, straightforward things to combat that decline...but contemporary frontend isn't doing those things.

Why not?

A consolidated thread from last week:

infrequently.org/2024/10/platform…

Platform Strategy and Its Discontents - Infrequently Noted

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

infrequently.org

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1h

Lest you be taken in, @kentonvarda.com confirms down thread that they had to make the vanilla JS version output 3x as much, otherwise it was "too fast to measure"

Brian LeRoux @brianleroux.bsky.social · 19h

I guess I'm happy they have engineered themselves into a place where they can now render html sub second. The levels of unserious aside.

Kenton Varda @kentonvarda.com · 21h

Those benchmarks from @t3.gg revealed some interesting issues in Workers. Happy to say it's all fixed now, save for some lingering next.js-specific stuff we're continuing to work on. Thanks for the reproducible test cases, @t3.gg.

Excessive details in blog post: blog.cloudflare.com/unpacking-cl...

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 4h

NEW — I dug into the story of ICE abducting a 13-year-old boy in Massachusetts and moving him 500 miles across state lines without notifying his mother, local cop's complicity, and how the federal government's justification for such cruelty is already falling apart:

ICE took a 13-year-old they said had a gun. Local cops say he didn’t.

Now he's detained 500 miles away from his Massachusetts home.

www.thehandbasket.co

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Ana Marie Cox @anamariecox.bsky.social · 21h

To everyone who says, "But this won't matter": *MAKE IT MATTER.*

You have that power! This is not inside baseball and your friends and neighbors will likely be appalled. And if they're *not* appalled, don't be cynical yourself. Take the lead, give the cue.

Politico @politico.com · 1d

EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sorry, is the Trump Administration talking to a tech platform?

Is it...requesting content moderation?

Today following outreach from @thejusticedept, Facebook removed a large group page that was being used to dox and target @ICEgov agents in Chicago.
The wave of violence against ICE has been driven by online apps and social media campaigns designed to put ICE officers at risk just for doing their jobs. The Department of Justice will continue engaging tech companies to eliminate platforms where radicals can incite imminent violence against federal law enforcement.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 1d

a real water is wet scenario here

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 2d

I am going to re-up this a third time:

Please read this excellent piece by Lincoln Caplan about why John Roberts—more than Mitch McConnell, more than Stephen Miller or Russell Vought, more than anyone else—owns the destruction of Constitutional order.

www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/suprem...

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 4d

Re-upping:

Excellent assessment of John "Roger Taney" Roberts.

In @harvardmagazine.bsky.social , by Lincoln Caplan.

As careful, legally informed, judicious-minded writer as you're going to find. With an unsparing judgment.

www.harvardmagazine.com/legal/suprem...

What Trump Means for John Roberts's Legacy | Harvard Magazine

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

www.harvardmagazine.com

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Save Our Country (we/us) @rlab53.bsky.social · 2d

❌👑 OCTOBER 18 ❌👑
NoKings.org

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

Frontenders, I am *begging* you to earn whatever pride you take in your work. How? By testing what you make on the devices and networks most people have. It's not hard, doesn't take long, and there are great automations like webpagetest.org that can make it even simpler.

webpagetest.org

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Zach Leatherman @zachleat.com · 1d

this is Big `data:`

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

And he oughta know! After all, this is the administration that just destroyed the US's reputation by nuking USAID and dooming hundreds of thousands to early and preventable death.

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

You'll find that piece linked in the second paragraph.

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

It was tooling output, but:

- This was *just* a single image
- Choice of (badly compressed) PNG is not a platform issue
- The generated SVG itself is a horror show (scale factors all over the shop; <use>, rather than <image>, etc.)

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

Look, you might think frontend is fine and going well, but today I found a 1.1MB PNG (that could have been a 40K AVIF) in the critical path of an important app.

Embedded in an SVG as a `data:` URL.

Shipped as a React component.

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 1d

When Mike Johnson or another national leader repeatedly claims they haven’t seen relevant things in the news, an appropriate reporter reaction would be “Holy cow, how do you not know?!? How can you do your job without knowing what’s happening? What are you doing to fix your ‘not knowing’ problem?”

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 2d

I don't understand why U.S. reporters so regularly seem to let politicians get away with 'I haven't seen that' about stuff a) they obviously know and b) is directly relevant to their job. Did they sign some kind of agreement never to ask a follow-up question?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

REPORTER: We know the president moved forward with mass layoffs. We're also learning there were significant cuts to staff at special education services. Are you comfortable with those cuts?

MIKE JOHNSON: I haven't seen the specifics of that and I don't know

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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 2d

I used to think people just didn’t understand what Columbus did but now I think some are really attached to him (as opposed to other worthy italians to celebrate) because their whole thing is not only getting away with doing horrible things but forcing everyone to praise them for being horrible

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

Y'all have no idea how moch code this is going to replace (assuming we drop the idea that we're still shipping for IE9).

CSS by T. Afif @css-only.dev · 2d

Do you want to see more cool stuff using modern CSS? This time, the tooltip will consider all four positions, and the tail will always point to the anchor. 👀

css-tip.com/tooltip-anch...

Still 100% CSS magic! 🪄

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Dave Rupert @davatron5000.bsky.social · 2d

📝 New Post: The Killer Feature of #webcomponents

A quick dive into the Custom Elements Manifest and why this community standard is a 10x effort multiplier.

daverupert.com/2025/10/cust...

The killer feature of Web Components

The personal blog of Dave Rupert, web developer and podcaster from Austin, TX.

daverupert.com

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 1d

This is so well observed; the self-healing parade of excuses that get deployed around serially failed approaches has a cause, and Rob's on the case:

eisenbergeffect.medium.com/default-isnt...

Default Isn’t Design

Why familiar feels right but often isn’t.

eisenbergeffect.medium.com

Reposted by Alex Russell

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 2d

- It is legal to organize and fund protest.
- That someone organizes and funds promotion of a protest does not mean most, some, or any protesters are paid.
- Even if all protesters are paid, that is also legal
- It is good to oppose kings and fascism
- That's not what what "begs the question" means

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d

Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 2d

No worries. Sorry if my response sounded combative.

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 2d

They are *not* "technically allowed to do whatever they want"; the DMA creates obligations. Obligations that Apple is *desperately* trying to weasel out of:

open-web-advocacy.org/blog/apples-brow…

Apple's Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA - Open Web Advocacy

open-web-advocacy.org

Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 2d

Well, the web. And in particular, PWAs. Apple's trying everything it can think of to suppress them, so it's worth supporting @open-web-advocacy.org's work, which is pushing back every effectively:

open-web-advocacy.org/blog/owa-at-the-…

OWA at the EU Parliament DMA Working Group - Open Web Advocacy

open-web-advocacy.org

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 2d

With Apple and Google loaning their app stores to authoritarians, our tech press should be asking: what are the alternatives? And why is Apple working so hard to suppress the web?

But they are not asking those questions:

infrequently.org/2025/10/the-...

The App Store Was Always Authoritarian - Infrequently Noted

Apple bent the knee for months, leaving many commentators to ask why. But the reasons are not mysterious: Apple wants things that only the government can provide, things that will defend and extend…

infrequently.org

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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 2d

If you haven't already, figure out where your local No Kings event is next weekend and make a plan. Inflatable frog costume totally optional:

nokings.org

No Kings

As the president escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to rise stronger. We are united once again to remind the world: America has No Kings and the power ...

nokings.org

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 2d

Absolutely crucial point here by Greg Sargent. When we don’t call propaganda what it is, we co-produce it, and hasten disaster.
newrepublic.substack.com/p/maga-implo...

MAGA Implodes over Kristi Noem’s “Stare Down” with Man in Chicken Suit

A good New York Times piece on Portland nevertheless demonstrates how the conventions of objective reporting fail to accurately capture the bad faith driving pro-Trump propaganda.

newrepublic.substack.com

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