This week - 2018-05-27

This week I have been:

Technology 💻

With GDPR out this week it’s time to think even more about user privacy. There’s been an endless march forward in web browser technology without enough thought in what the technology is used for. Having large JS frameworks to build an enterprise tool is undoubtedly useful. Why is the same level of JS making it’s why into journalism.

USA Today published a GDPR safe site with no tracking and less interactivity - it’s 1/10th the size of the regular site. The Guardian functions just as well and is massively faster without javascript.

I’m no using noscript to trim down my privacy surface even further but it definitely makes me more aware that some things we do in JS either shouldn’t be done, or can be done through other methods. CSS handling has become a lot more efficient recently.

Life ⽣

Wow… The Timex Weekender is loud! You can hear it ticking from across the room. I wonder if they do this to encourage you to upgrade to a more expensive and quieter watch.

I’m working my way through Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. I think the linked Guardian review sums up my feeling on it quite well - the facts of the stories are fascinating but the presentation is sometimes overblown.

Food 🍽

I made buffalo wings last night. They’re now another food that I can’t eat out. When I learn how to make a dish and it’s really easy then I stop feeling like I can justify paying for it elsewhere. It’s been a long time since I’ve been happy ordering expensive restaurant pasta dishes. Fried chicken is just the right level of inconvenient that I’ll pay fast food prices for it. Chicken wings, however, are a cheap ingredient, cooked with little skill and dunked in sauce. Maybe I’ll still have them in a bar as bar snacks but nothing more than that.