This post by @bell.bz expresses one of my fears around the effects of AI: the disincentive for independent developers to produce high-quality learning content.
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-09-18-youll-miss-publishers-when-theyre-gone/
Microblog
RE: https://beep.town/@initech/117283435848945386
Pretty soon, all our answers will be the same: I type words in the chat box
RE: https://hachyderm.io/@ttscoff/117275782830531604
Yes! I've implemented user requested features on both my new-tab-page browser extension and my web-based D&D character sheet app.
Sometimes the users will have a use case I haven't thought of and have a smart idea of how to handle it. Sometimes their ideas are horrible.
Either way, I always write back to thank them, and I don't make any promises. But if I end up doing the thing they asked later on, I email them to let them know.
As an avid fan of links, I couldn't resist linking to @jimniels's post about links.
This is a link to my link blog post that links to his post about links.
What a time to be alive.
I wrote this little web book in 2024 because I wanted to express the simplicity of HTML and show how easy it is for anyone to get started by making their own personal website.
As of today, HTML for People is available in three languages!
English: https://htmlforpeople.com/
Español: https://victorhck.gitlab.io/htmlparapersonas/
Português: https://htmlepessoas.com/
Many thanks to @victorhck and @pablo for their work translating and hosting the other versions!
HTML for People is now available in Portuguese! 🎉 Big thanks to @pablo for making it happen!
I’m working on a v2 of my web-based version of Zachtronics' Sawayama Solitaire. I'm remembering how much fun AnimeJS is. A new version and a new website have come out since I last looked at it. And it's stunning.
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-09-11-animejs-all-in-one-animation-engine/
Spent an hour hunting a bug only to find that it came from some AI slop code.
I just found out this weekend that EchoFeed is going away. Fortunately it didn't take too much refactoring to fix my microblog workflow. This is a sort of test post to see if it's working.
Previously, I used EchoFeed to let my server know that it needed to hit Mastodon and status.lol then rebuild the website. But now I'm just going to poll hourly.
I like that I have a permanent record of all my social posts on my website. And both Mastodon and status.lol provide useful APIs for grabbing those posts.
The first section of the homepage of any streaming service should be Continue Watching. No exceptions.
I reconnected with an old friend, Sublime Text.
Now the sun goes down over Dolly Parton bridge
The one time home of soul takes our country's final breath
I guess it takes
More than a king
More than a song
For such a fight
Graceland is a ghost town tonight
🥃
Really enjoyed this guide by @neatnik about making a website on the cheap where you are 100% in control.
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-08-23-hardcore-indieweb-run-your-own-website/
Gorgeous blocky font family. Like I need to purchase another font. It’s free for students, though!
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-08-21-juncture-an-industrial-font-superfamily-from-lettermatic/
RE: https://mastodon.social/@kottke/117129908192670732
Tired: weird AI music
Wired: Weird Al music
RE: https://mastodon.social/@drrjv/117119500780155481
I wonder if this would have been more damning if it just used the original text.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
"Yes, and allow all edits this session" will be the last thing humans agree to.
We need to call internet trackers something different because my fat self does not like to reject cookies.
I really love this post from Michelle Barker about the joy of building a website as a human for humans (my words lol).
https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-08-18-little-websites-everywhere/