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from the hope-we-don't-drain-the-battery dept.
Low-tech Magazine explains how to build a low-tech web site, using its own (solar powered) web site as an example. They cover both the web design and the actual hardware in use, an Olimex A20. The idea is to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing the content, seeing as complex designs with Javascript have burdensome resource requirements that translate into increased use of electricity. Renewable power sources alone are not enough to address the growing energy use of the Internet. Their server is also self-hosted so there's no need for third-party tracking and cookies either.
Low-tech Magazine was born in 2007 and has seen minimal changes ever since. Because a website redesign was long overdue — and because we try to practice what we preach — we decided to build a low-tech, self-hosted, and solar-powered version of Low-tech Magazine. The new blog is designed to radically reduce the energy use associated with accessing our content.
Earlier on SN:
Conservative Web Development (2018)
About a Third of All Web Sites Run on WordPress (2018)
Please, Keep your Blog Light (2018)
(Score: 4, Informative) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @01:58PM (21 children)
<html>
<head>
<title>Efficient web pages are easy.</title>
<body>
Just keep it simple. And keep your organization free from pointy-haired bosses that want to add shinies and animations and pop-over ads.
I think TFA's website uses JQuery. That's not very energy efficient for the client.
</body>
</html>
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:00PM (18 children)
Prize for anyone that can spot the tag I forgot to close!
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:07PM (6 children)
I spotted it. What's the prize?
(Score: 3, Funny) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:15PM (5 children)
You get to feed the buzzard. He doesn't bite. Sometimes.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Thursday September 27 2018, @04:08PM (4 children)
Just don't look, act, or smell like buzzard food and you'll be fine.
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Thursday September 27 2018, @05:34PM (1 child)
Dammit! I missed taking a shower last night.
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @07:08PM
Oh. I see. Be sure to check yourself over carefully with one of our highly sensitive, purpose built, Political Compasses™ (patent pending). Available now for just $99.99 a month. If it shows less than sixty degrees right of center, run away immediately.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @06:22PM (1 child)
Stupid and clueless?
(Score: 3, Funny) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @07:04PM
Nah buzzard food often has the aroma of SJW occasionally mixed in with a hint of the lesser regressive-looter-shithead, or so I'm told.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:12PM
<head>
Now give me some. :)
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:18PM
http://www.metrolyrics.com/wheres-your-head-at-lyrics-basement-jaxx.html [metrolyrics.com]
(Score: 2) by pendorbound on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:42PM (1 child)
Does the prize involve giving </head>?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday September 27 2018, @10:03PM
Depends, is that read as "end head" or "stop head"?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 5, Touché) by Pino P on Thursday September 27 2018, @04:27PM (6 children)
The <!DOCTYPE> is missing; that's for sure. With a DOCTYPE, I could tell what version of HTML this was supposed to be and thus whether <body> adds an implicit </head>.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @05:00PM (5 children)
OK, you're the real winner (Mr Wise Guy). I have to say though that I really dislike the HTML 5 tolerance for unclosed (or implicitly closed) tags. After the strictness of XHTML, it's like the web consortium just went "Ah, fuck it--no-one closes their tags properly anyway so let's just allow it in the spec!"
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday September 27 2018, @06:48PM
Be that as it may, your sample page above with no document type declaration is simpler than a page with a type declaration.
As it will be rendered in the browser's "quirks mode", the body tag will close the head tag about 99.99999% of the time. Seven nines is pretty good here.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday September 27 2018, @06:49PM
HTML5 has an XHTML mode too, if that's what you prefer.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday September 27 2018, @07:05PM (1 child)
> I really dislike the HTML 5 tolerance for unclosed (or implicitly closed) tags.
Why? Are you a COBOL programmer? Cutting down the verbosity so that fewer characters have to be transmitted makes it all go faster, and takes less energy.
Or, if you prefer, we can lay out a proper, formal way to have all tags properly balanced, and still save on most of the excess verbiage. One way is to have a 3rd type of tag. We have < and </ for opening and closing tags, respectively. Add a 3rd kind of tag, an opening tag that closes when its containing tag closes. Denote it with this: <: Further, we all know one of the biggest, ugliest redundancies in HTML is spelling out the tag name twice. Did you know SGML (HTML's parent) has this "shorttag" construct, </> ? Then your example can be this:
<html>
<head>
<:title>Efficient web pages are easy.
</>
<:body>
Just keep it simple. And keep your organization free from pointy-haired bosses that want to add shinies and animations and pop-over ads.
I think TFA's website uses JQuery. That's not very energy efficient for the client.
</>
The first </> closes title and head, and the second closes body and html.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @07:25PM
No. Mainly C and C++. Gotta match up those brackets.
I agree in principle, so long as you have access to an editor that can expand and collapse the elements so you can easily match up the closing and opening tags when they are deeply nested. It's one reason people started using JSON to serialize data.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Reziac on Friday September 28 2018, @04:20AM
"the HTML 5 tolerance for unclosed (or implicitly closed) tags."
Wait, now we're emulating IE4 ??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 27 2018, @06:28PM (1 child)
What a crap page. Not only did you fail to close a tag, you forgot:
* scripts to provide a highly interactive user experience
* ads
* social media integration buttons and tracking
* user engagement (tracking you)
* google analytics
* more ads
* videos
* user satisfaction scripts (stalking you)
* more scripts and crap under the name of other euphemisms, even though it still means junk that doesn't help the user in any way
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Thursday September 27 2018, @08:06PM
Please don't forget the popups, slide-ins, videos that not only start playing, but float so they stay onscreen no matter how much you try to scroll them off. Yes, I use video blockers, but I notice they saturate my Internet connection even when not playing.
If only we could direct and control all of that evil cleverness, we might be able to cure cancer or something useful.