Jim Nielsen

  1. Write Code That Runs in the Browser, or Write Code the Browser Runs

    I’ve been thinking about a note from Alex Russell where he says: any time you're running JS on the main thread, you're at risk of being left behind by progress. The zen of web development is to spend a little time in your own code, and instead to glue the big C++/Rust subsystems together, then get out…

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  2. Research Alt

    Jeremy imagines a scenario where you’re trying to understand how someone cut themselves with a blade. It’d be hard to know how they cut themselves just by looking at the wound. But if you talk to the person, not only will you find out the reason, you’ll also understand their pain. But what if, hear me…

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  3. Social Share Imagery via a Data Attribute

    I’ve done something few on the internet do. I’ve changed my mind. A few posts on my blog have started to unfurl social share imagery. You might be wondering, “Wait Jim I thought you hated those things?” It’s not that I hate social share imagery. I just think…well, I’ve shared my thoughts before (even…

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  4. Doing It Manually

    I have a standing desk that goes up and down via a manual crank. I’ve had it for probably ten years. Every time I raise or lower that thing, it gets my blood pumping. I often think: “I should upgrade to one of those standing desks that goes up and down with the push of a button.” Then there’s the other…

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  5. Running Software on Software You’ve Never Run

    I love a good look at modern practices around semantic versioning and dependency management (Rick Hickey’s talk “Spec-ulation” is the canonical one I think of). Niki recently wrote a good ‘un at tonsky.me called “We shouldn’t have needed lockfiles”. What struck me was this point about how package manifests…

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  6. The Risks of NPM

    There was a time when I could ask, “Did you see the latest NPM attack?” And your answer would be either “Yes” or “No”. But now if I ask, “Did you see the latest NPM attack?” You’ll probably answer with a question of your own: “Which one?” In this post, I’m talking about the Qix incident: Prolific maintainer…

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  7. Anti-*: The Things We Do But Not All The Way

    I was reading Chase McCoy’s article “Antibuildings” where he cites Wikipedia’s entry on the term “Antilibrary” which points to another entry about the Japanese concept of Tsundoku, all of which deal with this idea of things we do with intention but that never make it to fruition. Antilibraries are the…

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  8. RIP “Browsers”

    Richard MacManus just posted “Chrome Switches on AI: The Future of Browsing Begins Now” where he points out that what we think of today as “browsers” is undergoing a radical change. Here’s the lay of the land: Microsoft launched “Copilot Mode” on Edge and promotes it as an “AI-powered browser.” Mozilla…

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  9. Why Make a Website in 2025?

    The same reason you would bake a batch of cookies: because you enjoy it — the process itself, but also the result. And perhaps, if you like, you share the result with others. Who is out there asking, “Should I bake a batch of cookies? How well can that act be monetized? Should I do something else instead…

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  10. The Mac App Flea Market

    Have you ever searched for “AI chat” in the Mac App Store? I have. It’s like strolling through one of those counterfeit, replica markets where all the goods look legit at first glance. But then when you look closer, you realize something is off. For the query “AI chat”, there are so many ChatGPT-like…

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