A Clean Start for the Web
Metadata
Highlights
- There was a time when we could install applications, give some sort of explicit agreement that something would run on our computers and use our hardware. That time is ending, and web pages now have rather complex ways of getting at everything from webcams to files, game controllers, audio synthesis, cryptography, and everything else that was once the domain of
.exe and .apps. This is empowering, sure, but is quite an unusual situation. (View Highlight)
- The markdown-centric approach feels very doable. I think the clearest rebuttal is that it ‘sucks all the fun out of the web,’ and there’s some truth to that. But the early web wasn’t fun in many conventional ways - you couldn’t quite create art there, or use it as much more than a way of sharing documents. But it was fun as heck, because sharing is fun and it was simple and flexible in some cool ways. So the key is to discover the small things that unlock the possibilities in this plan, if they’re there. Or find a different plan with ‘just enough fun.’ (View Highlight)