Matthew Howell

HTML Energy HTML Day is on August 2nd, 2025!

Just seeing that tomorrow is HTML day and there’s no event listed in Auckland - anyone around and want to talk about the <details> element?

html.energy/html-day/202...

It's at least somewhat Diablo's fault that I get very excited, decades later, as an adult, about upgrading the cushioning (armor) in a pair of shoes.

Very nearly just died doing what I love: crossing a street while proving anecdotally that Tesla autopilot software is unsafe 😬

Me as well, but I also recognize this might be a sickos.gif opinion

Writing a longform text thing and pretty happy with the current Makefile > 11ty > pandoc > pagedjs pipeline for generating html, markdown, epub, and pdfs. Anybody working on something similar? #amwriting

Toolmen Even the best weapon is an unhappy tool.

“What AI is is an ideology—a system of ideas that has swept up not only the tech industry but huge parts of government on both sides of the aisle, a supermajority of everyone with assets in the millions and up, and a … growing sector of the journalism class.”

aworkinglibrary.com/writing/tool...

When was the last time that you were pleasantly surprised by software?

I was nearly finished reading a book when my library loan ended and my ereader auto-returned it.

After waiting weeks, I was able to borrow the book again.

And when I opened it, the ereader remembered my page. It just worked.

Bubble Trouble An AI bubble threatens Silicon Valley, and all of us.

I'm halfway through this article & like (and agree with) the points made thus far.

But I want to have an aside on how people uncritically use the term "foundation models" & "reasoning," when it is very likely that the models memorized all these benchmarks. 🧵

prospect.org/power/2025-0...

I am once again asking humans who are or may be in Aotearoa to @ me and get yourselves on this cool list #nz #aotearoa #kiwi
bsky.app/profile/did:...

Ministry of Social Development to use 'basic AI' to check if jobseekers have met their obligations Opponents fear a potential law change will create a loophole allowing AI to cut benefits and impose sanctions, which the ministry denies.

🤮
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

The first in @pepperraccoon.com's Par Avian series of enamel pins inspired by the birds of Aotearoa New Zealand have dropped and they're super-cute!

pepperraccoon.com/collections/...

Pros and cons of using HTML data attributes to store web component state?

I'm talking small, simple states (not serialized json or large objects). I kind of love declarative state that's visibly attached to the component.

Me: I'll never finish all of these small side projects

Also me: maybe I should combine these countless small side projects into one huge side project, then I'll be able to focus

Finally, me: this side project is too big

Kevin Roose tweet There is a weird amount of overlap between the people who insist we take climate expert seriously when they warn of a big changes on the horizon, and people who refuse to take AI expert seriously when they say the same thing

This is your periodic reminder to never take Kevin Roose seriously about anything again.

A black t-shirt with a hot pink angry raccoon on the back, it says Back Off!

A person holding up a black bandana with lime green spooky illustrations of bones, bats, and spiderwebs

a closeup of a green bandana with eels and aquatic plants printed on it

a flatlay of four native bird stickers, featuring the kokako, kakapo, kea, and tieke in rubberhose cartoon style

Hey fam, just a wee reminder that I'm an artist and I draw lots of nature-inspired cool stuff including apparel, bandanas, and stickers (and enamel pins!) over at pepperraccoon.com <3 would appreciate some folks checking out the store, it's been real sleepy!

Those all sound like nice options. For me it would be LOZ The Wind Waker and its beautiful, cell-shaded oceans.

Fast and Furious franchise centered around public transportation

The author, Joe Harkness, stands to the left holding his book, Bird Therapy. He doesn’t look it, but he’s struggling with his depression on the day this is take . The book is bright yellow, he’s wearing a bright yellow y shirt, and is standing in front of a bright yellow field of oilseed.

If you, or anyone you know, likes birdwatching and struggles with poor mental health. I’d love to send an e-copy of Bird Therapy (pdf) to read for free. It can be helpful to know you’re not alone. Please message me if you do and also consider sharing this post.

#naturewriting #birdtherapy #booksky

Atproto Ethos - AT Protocol A deep dive into the philosophical and aesthetic principles underlying the design of AT Protocol.

This is an article that I've wanted to write for over a year, and I finally got the chance to do it!

Atproto Ethos is a deep dive into how we think about protocol design - its influences, the core innovations, and the opinionated takes that we've adopted

A figure that shows the attr() syntax.

✍️ New Article: First Look at The Modern attr()

I explored the new attr() capabilities and shared my thoughts about it. Happy reading!

ishadeed.com/article/mode...

ARIA - Accessibility | MDN Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) is a set of roles and attributes that define ways to make web content and web applications (especially those developed with JavaScript) more accessible to people with disabilities.

Where is the best, clearest explainer of when to use aria properties?

I like the MDN page because it begins with some forceful advice against using them. Anything better and more specific about common situations when they are needed and make sense?

#a11y

developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

Let’s talk about placeholder, format indication and accessibility.

Short and simple version: don't placeholders to communicate input format indication.

uaplus.css | fokus UA+ (User agent plus), a different type of reset style sheet

Here's the first of many smaller projects I plan to release this year:

A custom reset style sheet that comes with a website that allows you to compare it with the default user agent styles and other reset style sheets.

fokus.dev/tools/uaplus/

Signal Domain Shortcut Send people to your domain to start a Signal chat.

Bluesky has encouraged me to use my domain for more of my identity online. Here’s how you can use your domain to start a chat on @signal.org

justingarrison.com/blog/2025-03...

We’re introducing the kids to a wide variety of older popular music. And made the mistake of starting with Queen. 🤦

And now they’re ruined.

Every band we show them, the younger one just side eyes, asks the name of singer, and then says “not as good as Freddie.”

And he’s not wrong.

#parenting

We hide them in gyoza 🤷

[bluesky timeline]

me: [chanting] blogs, blogs-

other users: blogs, BLOGS

bluesky staff: [pounding their computers] BLOGS, BLOGS, BLOGS!

🔥🔥🔥

“If you personally work on developing LLMs et al, know this: I will never work with you again, and I will remember which side you picked when the bubble bursts.”

drewdevault.com/2025/03/17/2...

"Please stop legitimizing LLMs or AI image generators or GitHub Copilot or any of this garbage. I am begging you to stop using them, stop talking about them, stop making new ones, just stop."

drewdevault.com/2025/03/17/2...

In other totally real news, I’d like to announce that matthewhowell.net entered into talks to be acquired by reasonable.work in a deal valued, by me, at precisely 484 quadrillion double dollars, 200kg of Japanese sencha, and three bowls of oatmeal