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2020 Roundup of Web Research
22.12.2020
It’s December! Lots of things are published this time of year, like developer advent calendars and organizations reflecting on the past year. We have even our own end-of-year series where we asked folks what they learned in 2020. But we also see lots of research come out around this time....
Retrospective on Fela
21.12.2020
I really appreciate a real-world walkthrough of a technology. Not only in what that technology does, but why it was chosen and how it worked for a team. Anybody can read the docs, but what you know after years of real-world usage is far more valuable. Hugo “Kitty” Giraudel:
I want to properly...
Converting and Optimizing Images From the Command Line
21.12.2020
Images take up to 50% of the total size of an average web page. And if images are not optimized, users end up downloading extra bytes. And if they’re downloading extra bytes, the site not only takes that much more time to load, but users are using more data, both of which can be resolved, at least...
“I Don’t Know”
21.12.2020
I’ve learned to be more comfortable not knowing. “I don’t know”, comes easier now. “I don’t know anything about that.” It’s okay. It feels good to say.
Whether it’s service workers, Houdini, shadow DOM, web components, HTTP2, CSS grid, “micro-front ends”, AVIF… there are many paths before...
Goldman Sachs Calls Bitcoin ‘the Retail Inflation Hedge’ That’s Not a Threat to Gold
20.12.2020
Goldman Sachs’ head of commodities research calls bitcoin “the retail inflation hedge” and likens the cryptocurrency to copper. He says gold and bitcoin can co-exist and does “not see bitcoin’s rising popularity as an existential threat to gold’s status as...
Can Decentralized Finance Ever Be Regulated?
20.12.2020
Iwa Salami, Senior Lecturer in Financial Law and Regulation, University of East London.
As stock markets around the world struggle through the pandemic, bitcoin (BTC) has seen a steady rise in its price. In December, the cryptocurrency surpassed its all-time high of USD 20,000 and hit USD 24,000...
Bitcoin price can hit $25K before 2021 if this key support level holds
19.12.2020
Bitcoin is currently in price discovery but a drop to the $18,500 region in the short term shouldn't be ruled out
Change vs. Inertia
18.12.2020
Recently, I’ve become more deeply aware of the inherent tension between change and inertia, as it applies to the evolution and use of web technologies. These forces have always been present and opposed to each other, but it seems to me that the side effects of these collisions are impacting...
DeNations, a Blockchain-Powered Metaverse, Launches the First INO – Initial Nations Offering
18.12.2020
PRESS RELEASE. Smatoos, which is already known in the blockchain industry as a token economy platform, has released the blockchain-based metaverse, DeNations. DeNations is a blockchain-based decentralized metaverse where anyone can manage nations, cities, and civilizations. Metaverse is...
Optimizing Image Depth
18.12.2020
Something I learned (or, I guess, re-learned) this year is how important it is to pay close attention to the bit depth of images. Way back in the day, we used to obsessively choose between 2-, 4-, or 8-bit color depth on our GIFs, because when lots of users were using dialup modems to surf the...
What Makes CSS Hard To Master
18.12.2020
Tim Severien:
I feel we, the community, have to acknowledge that CSS is easy to get started with and hard to master. Let’s reflect on the language and find out what makes it hard.
Tim’s reasons CSS is hard (in my own words):
You can look at a matching Ruleset, and still not have the whole...
Elrond up 20% in 24 hours as EGLD price triples in December — Can the rally continue?
18.12.2020
Elrond is quietly becoming one of the best-performing altcoins in the current bull market
Can gold and Bitcoin coexist? Goldman Sachs says yes
18.12.2020
Global investors cut gold exposure in favor of Bitcoin, but does the digital coin have any chance to cannibalize gold?
Nervos launches Ethereum bridge it says devs can use right out of the box
18.12.2020
China’s Nervos has launched a trustless bridge designed to simplify cross-chain transactions between its CKB network and Ethereum
Sony Pulls Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store, Says Buyers Can Get A Refund
18.12.2020
Hopefully concluding a rollercoaster few days where PlayStation owners were told to get a refund for Cyberpunk 2077 then asked not to, Sony has confirmed that not only will the company be issuing refunds, but the game itself is being pulled from the PlayStation Store.Read more
What’s Old is New
18.12.2020
This year, I learned a lot about how “old” tricks can solve a lot of modern problems if you use the right tools. Following the growth of Jamstack-style development has been both a learning experience, while also a nostalgic one. It’s been amazing to see how you can power plain...
New Law in Germany Embraces All-Electronic and Blockchain Crypto Securities
17.12.2020
The German government has passed new legislation to introduce all-electronic securities as part of the country’s wider blockchain strategy. According to the country’s finance ministry, the new law relaxes rules forcing issuers and holders of securities to document transactions with...
I learned to love the Same-Origin Policy
17.12.2020
I spent a good chunk of my work life this year trying (in collaboration with the amazing Noam Rosenthal) to standardize a new web platform feature: a way to modify the intrinsic size and resolution of images. And hey! We did it! But boy, was it ever a learning experience.
This wasn’t my first...
25 Years of JavaScript & 25 Free Courses
17.12.2020
(This is a sponsored post.)
Pluralsight is giving away 25 courses on JavaScript for free to celebrate JavaScript’s 25th birthday. It’s no cheapie, either. The courses range from getting your hands dirty with JavaScript for the first time, to full-on reactive development....
21M Bitcoin and the Promise of Scarcity
17.12.2020
In Bitcoin, the promise of a limited supply is great. This was one of the biggest things that initially appealed to me when I heard about Bitcoin. “No more than twenty one million bitcoins will ever exist!” But can this promise be kept in the long run? Has the Promise Already Been...