Web Review, Week 2026-05
Let’s go for my web review for the week 2026-05.
Neocities Is Blocked by Bing
Tags: tech, web, search, microsoft, vendor-lockin
Huh? What’s going on there? I don’t see why they would exclude this domain completely, it makes no sense.
https://blog.neocities.org/blog/2026/01/27/bing-block
The Enclosure feedback loop
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, copilot, enclosure, vendor-lockin
Interesting point. As we see the collapse of public forums due to the usage of AI chatbots, we’re in fact witnessing a large enclosure movement. And it’ll reinforce itself as the vendors are training on the chat sessions. What used to be in public will be hidden.
https://michiel.buddingh.eu/enclosure-feedback-loop
No, Cloudflare’s Matrix server isn’t an earnest project
Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, copilot, matrix, cloudflare, security, failure
Very in depth review of the mess of a Matrix home server vide coded at Cloudflare… all the way to the blog announcing it. Unsurprisingly this didn’t go well and they had to cover their tracks several times. The response from the Matrix foundation is a bit underwhelming, it’s one thing to be welcoming, it’s another to turn a blind eye to such obvious failures. This doesn’t reflect well on both Cloudflare and the Matrix Foundation I’m afraid.
https://nexy.blog/2026/01/28/cf-matrix-workers/
I Was Right About ATProto Key Management
Tags: tech, social-media, bluesky, decentralized
Indeed, it just can’t be called decentralized…
https://notes.nora.codes/atproto-again/
Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw
Tags: tech, microsoft, security, privacy
Are we surprised? Of course not… As soon as you backup the keys on someone else’s server BitLocker can’t do anything to ensure privacy.
ICE takes aim at data held by advertising and tech firms
Tags: tech, advertisement, surveillance, politics, privacy
What a surprise… No really who would have expected this could happen? I heard so many times “I have nothing to hide” over the years. When something like this happens you suddenly wish you were a bit more careful with your privacy and the privacy of the people around you.
https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/ice_data_advertising_tech_firms/
The Rise of Sanityware
Tags: tech, privacy, surveillance, attention-economy
Those are indeed getting more popular. In a way that’s unfortunate, we shouldn’t need them so much.
https://thatshubham.com/blog/2026
Blogs Are Back
Tags: tech, rss, blog, tools
Looks like a nice tool to help people to get into RSS.
Places to Telnet
Tags: tech, networking, funny
Telnet is not dead! We still have fun places to turn telnet clients to.
https://telnet.org/htm/places.htm
10 Years of Wasm: A Retrospective
Tags: tech, web, standard, webassembly, history
Nice retelling of the story behind WebAssembly.
https://bytecodealliance.org/articles/ten-years-of-webassembly-a-retrospective
cppstat - C and C++ Compiler Support Status
Tags: tech, c++, standard, tools
Looks like an interesting tool to follow availability of C++ features in compilers.
Why I still teach OpenGL ES 3.0
Tags: tech, graphics, teaching, learning
Good point, it is old but portable and carries the important concepts. This is a good teaching vehicle. Even though it’s unlikely you’d use it in the wild much longer.
https://eliasfarhan.ch/jekyll/update/2026/01/27/why-i-teach-opengles.html
SPAs Are a Performance Dead End
Tags: tech, web, frontend, performance
It’s a solution for a problem long gone. SPAs should be the exception for highly interactive applications not the norm. Most web applications don’t need to be a SPA and would be better off without being one.
https://www.yegor256.com/2026/01/25/spa-vs-performance.html
Functional Core, Imperative Shell
Tags: tech, functional, architecture, tests, tdd
Clearly not a style which works for any and every applications. Still, it’s definitely a good thing to aim towards such an architecture. It brings really nice properties in terms of testability and safety.
https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog/functional-core-imperative-shell
How I estimate work as a staff software engineer
Tags: tech, estimates, decision-making
The approach is interesting. I wouldn’t assume it’s doable in every contexts though. What’s sure is that you need to embrace the uncertainty and accept to go with the exercise. Estimates are needed to make decisions and help teams to sync.
https://www.seangoedecke.com/how-i-estimate-work/
Is It Worth It?
Tags: tech, failure, organisation, estimates
Solving paper cuts pay off faster than you’d think.
https://griffin.com/blog/is-it-worth-it
Things I’ve learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager
Tags: tech, engineering, management, leadership
Nice advice, there’s a lot of variation on the role. And yet, some things seem to always be there.
https://www.jampa.dev/p/lessons-learned-after-10-years-as
Because coordination is expensive
Tags: tech, team, organisation, communication, complexity
The complexity and cost in organisations is indeed mostly about coordination. This is a difficult problem and largely unsolved in fact.
https://surfingcomplexity.blog/2026/01/24/because-coordination-is-expensive/
Douglas Adams on the English–American cultural divide over “heroes”
Tags: culture
The contrast is indeed very stark. I got my own bias and fondness for heroic failures.
https://shreevatsa.net/post/douglas-adams-cultural-divide/
Bye for now!