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呱呱豆豆

> The PSP's web browser is - charitably - pathetic. It is slow, frequently runs out of memory, and can only open 3 tabs at a time... But the GOV.UK pages are written in simple HTML. They are designed to be lightweight and will work even on rubbish browsers. They have to. This is for everyone...
> Are you developing public services? Or a system that people might access when they're in desperate need of help? Plain HTML works. A small bit of simple CSS will make look decent. JavaScript is probably unnecessary - but can be used to progressively enhance stuff. Add alt text to images so people paying per MB can understand what the images are for (and, you know, accessibility).
> Go sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable location, and stare at an uncomfortably small screen with an uncomfortably outdated web browser. How easy is it to use the websites you've created?

The Unreasonable Effectiveness Of Simple HTML

shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/01/the-u
CC: @kelbot @alcinnz

8 Apr 2022 at 14:55 | Open on post.lurk.org
38 comments
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz

this reminded me to pay this years tax for my car (the equivalent of "tags" in USA) - out of curiosity I had a look at the source of the govt website and it is legit simple HTML and only a small amount of Javascript.

Also the font is carefully selected, its a digital version of the same easy to read font used in every traffic sign in Britain (the whole govt website uses it, not just the transport related sections)
8 Apr 2022 at 15:40 | Open on social.tchncs.de
citc
Fediverse programmers, take note. Hypothesis: not a single social media service is accessible without ecmascript, or via 'lynx', due to over-complex design.
8 Apr 2022 at 16:09 | Open on zotum.net
Ryuno-Ki

@pixouls
Hm, I should try with 3DS (which isn't great either) 🤔
@kelbot @alcinnz

8 Apr 2022 at 18:45 | Open on layer8.space
kelbot ◖⎚∠⎚◗

@pixouls @alcinnz The PSP browser is pathetic, now. But let me tell you that thing was the bee's knees when it was new! We didn't have smartphones like we do now and that was pretty much THE most portable device you could browse the web on and it did a pretty good job. And that was on top of all the other stuff it could do. Games (duh), internet radio, RSS reader, even OTA television in Japan! Still love my PSP but it was especially rad at the time it came out.

8 Apr 2022 at 18:45 | Open on retro.social
robflop

@kelbot@retro.social @pixouls@post.lurk.org @alcinnz@floss.social and then you see how they treated the vita, the poor thing could've been so much more had sony not doomed it

8 Apr 2022 at 18:48 | Open on misskey.io
lori

@kelbot @pixouls @alcinnz I was just discussing this with friends yesterday actually, my PSP was some time before I got a smart phone (though I did get a PSP somewhat late), so I absolutely used that thing as a multimedia device. Web browsing, watching videos, listening to music...I had data on my Sony Ericsson but that was expensive to use so it was better to have my PSP on wifi.

22 Dec 2022 at 15:57 | Open on hackers.town
GayCookie.dev 🏳️‍🌈 :misskey:

@kelbot@retro.social @pixouls@post.lurk.org @alcinnz@floss.social I totally remember this yea, I even used it to chat on MSN Messenger via some website client! Until I got myself my first Smartphone (Blackberry) =3

25 Dec 2022 at 8:00 | Open on misskey.ai
\\

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz absolutely not, every response from a webserver to my browser must go through the entire daft punk song technologic and noscript must yell at me about no less than 15 domains (5 of them CDNs) before it the site will be allowed to render a single pixel. It’s called the world wide web and I expect my packets to get a global vacation before they have to return to my miserable shed.

8 Apr 2022 at 18:47 | Open on cdrom.tokyo
Csepp 🌢

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz Yesss, this is a classic. Honestly every web dev should read it. Not an exaggeration.

22 Dec 2022 at 15:48 | Open on merveilles.town
Ryuno-Ki
Wingy

@pixouls From the comments, re. old devices not supporting modern HTTPS:
> I think the solution is to reinstate HTTP as a first-class Web technology for informational sites.

I'm not sure what to think about this. HTTP is vulnerable to a MITM modifying the content of my site, including injecting ads or other malware. My TLD (.dev) is on the global HSTS preload list so modern devices won't use it over HTTP anyway, so maybe I should support plain HTTP?

22 Dec 2022 at 18:34 | Open on fosstodon.org
Harald von Waldow

@pixouls
Oh yes. And the term "hardware-arrogance" needs more exposure.
Related: Is there a deadline after which public services don't get away anymore with the footnote "this (webpage|document) is not barrier-free"?
@kelbot @alcinnz @gvwilson

22 Dec 2022 at 19:00 | Open on fediscience.org
CatButtes :verified_coffee:

@hvwaldow @pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz @gvwilson iirc they have to be making a reasonable effort to resolve the issues and reviewing the accessibility statement on a regular basis (at least in the UK). Just throwing up a statement that you know the site has issues isn’t good enough. You need to enumerate the issues you are aware of and provide an expected fix date. You also have to detail when and who reviewed the site and a few other bits…

23 Dec 2022 at 9:51 | Open on freeradical.zone
Harald von Waldow

@catbuttes
Thanks! That fits well into the picture of gov.uk being pretty much ahead in these matters.
@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz @gvwilson

23 Dec 2022 at 11:37 | Open on fediscience.org
Doctor Memory

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz this is also, for better or worse, a strong argument against default-HTTPS. Client TLS implementations age like mayflies: the default CAcert bundle on that PSP was probably last updated in 2006. But unless your threat model really includes state actors doing MITM content changes (and spoiler: it doesn’t), plain old http remains usable by anyone who can still scrounge a copy of Netscape 1.1.

23 Dec 2022 at 4:50 | Open on m.blank.org
Graham Sutherland / Polynomial

@pixouls I once had a chat with the GDS folks where they told me about using the PSP as a kind of yardstick for the worst browser they'd need to support! Good folks over there.

23 Dec 2022 at 5:03 | Open on chaos.social
gds

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz Every dev (web or otherwise) should read this.

Keep it as simple and accessible as it possibly can be.

23 Dec 2022 at 8:01 | Open on tech.lgbt
Chris Armstrong
Nick

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz

This is when UI and UX and understanding the user are important, like vitally important.
Average user not likely to be popping shells so make it as easy to use as possible!

23 Dec 2022 at 15:47 | Open on techhub.social
Jessica🐱
haxploited 🇺🇦

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz most of my "websites" would just crash after hitting unsupported webapi method.

23 Dec 2022 at 17:08 | Open on 101010.pl
Christian Hujer

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz love it. I love the .gov.uk sites. There are so many good things about them.

23 Dec 2022 at 17:29 | Open on mastodon.social
Kingsley Uyi Idehen

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz,

In addition, these gov.uk #html pages also embed subject-matter knowledge graphs.

Example:
gov.uk/housing-benefit

Which also implies direct access to an #FAQ #KnowledgeGraph using declarative query languages such as #sparql, #sql, #graphql.

/cc @Mastodon

#DataAccess #DataConnectivity #LinkedData #LOGD #OpenData #Government #UKGovernment
23 Dec 2022 at 19:28 | Open on mastodon.social
Emma Builds 🚀

@pixouls

This is one of my favorite posts on Terrance's blog and such a lesson for anyone building on the web.

23 Dec 2022 at 19:36 | Open on wandering.shop
Jenny S-T

@kelbot @pixouls @alcinnz I remember the first Kindle that had a web browser and free worldwide data. It was awful, but it got me online in places where my phone or laptop wouldn't.

23 Dec 2022 at 21:02 | Open on mastodonapp.uk
Catherine Flick

@jennyst @kelbot @pixouls @alcinnz I was going to mention this!! I used it when travelling before roaming was a reasonable thing to do and before airports had free Wi-Fi. It got me out of a pickle once in Dubai or somewhere because my flight was delayed and I could send an important email via webmail (excruciating!). What a service, absolutely amazing for the time.

24 Dec 2022 at 2:43 | Open on mastodon.me.uk
rickf

@alcinnz @pixouls @kelbot Yes! Coincidentally, I just dumped WordPress (and all its complexities and dependencies) and went back to basic HTML on my personal site yesterday.

Much easier to manage and smaller pages mean faster loading and easier portability.

23 Dec 2022 at 21:03 | Open on indieweb.social
mikeywil
peter

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz It's worth noting that gov.uk has a design system that can be used when developing sites/services

design-system.service.gov.uk/

24 Dec 2022 at 0:24 | Open on m.de-ath.co.uk
wilander

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz I'm a proud owner (and developer) of a JS-free, tracker-free, static website! hackerfiction.net

24 Dec 2022 at 2:39 | Open on mastodon.social
Kevan
Alice Boxhall

@kev The article cites an example of a young woman whose parents kicked her out, and was using a PSP as the only device available to her to browse gov.uk’s information on housing benefits.

24 Dec 2022 at 3:06 | Open on eigenmagic.net
Kevan

@sundress Should have read that first. LOL sorry.

24 Dec 2022 at 3:07 | Open on dragonscave.space
Guy Sherman
Bjornsdottirs

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz My own website would suck. It's memory efficient but best viewed on a 1024x768+ screen.

24 Dec 2022 at 6:06 | Open on mastodon.top
SeanBurlington

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz When we use browserlist or check CanIUse and decide the project is fine with excluding 2% of browsers I sometimes wonder *which* 2% is it and how much are we responsible for the mountains of discarded laptops in the world...

24 Dec 2022 at 8:43 | Open on mastodon.me.uk
PoliticalPuffin

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz Hi there & seasonal greetings to you and yours 🎄☃️🤶🎅🎁🛷🎄

I read your recollection of the young women in the housing benefits office with nothing but what she had in the bags around her & a PSP. I found it both upsetting and uplifting.

Anyone at any time being made homeless is an awful ordeal. Thank you for your kindness. Better still, making it clear that simple html was helping this young person arm themselves with useful knowledge?

Brilliant😁👍🏼 ty.

All the best, Dave

@pixouls @kelbot @alcinnz Hi there & seasonal greetings to you and yours 🎄☃️🤶🎅🎁🛷🎄

I read your recollection of the young women in the housing benefits office with nothing but what she had in the bags around her & a PSP. I found it both upsetting and uplifting.

Anyone at any time being made homeless is an awful ordeal. Thank you for your kindness. Better still, making it clear that simple html was helping this young person arm themselves with useful knowledge?

25 Dec 2022 at 14:53 | Open on union.place
Spinda 🏳️‍🌈🐉🦊🖨️

@pixouls Ohhh yeah, the PSP web browser! When I was a kid I made a little plain HTML/CSS frontend for YouTube that was built for that. It downloaded the videos to MP4s server-side so they could play on the PSP.

I was also editing code on my DS lite's homebrew web browser through a little PHP script that opened files into textareas. I had to make it split files between multiple textareas because the browser silently truncated long form fields.

Man, are things easier today.

26 Dec 2022 at 22:58 | Open on furry.engineer
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