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posted by chromas on Thursday September 27 2018, @01:20PM   Printer-friendly
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)


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:34PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:34PM (#741049) Journal

    Ad blindness has always been and will always be. Trying to break through it may be short term effective, but long term self defeating. Advertisers will utterly fail to recognize any patterns here. People adapt and learn to not look at ads they are not interested in. If the ads become too offensive or obnoxious, then people will:
    1. try to subvert or somehow avoid the ads (maybe, if they even try this step)
    2. completely avoid the site once it is effectively unusable

    Users go the a site for a purpose. And ads ain't it.

    The advertisers, and their apologists will fail to recognize how advertising drives its own demise. Who to blame for ad blockers? The Advertisers themselves! They are unable to police or moderate themselves.

    I haven't even touched yet on the topic that ad networks are effective ways to spread malware and scams. I'm just (falsely) assuming that all ads are benign and legitimate so far.

    Advertisers will blame everyone but themselves. There are no limits on how far they will go when unchecked. I truly believe that when the technology is available, advertisers will try to put ads on the inside of everyone's eyelids. You may smirk, and not believe it. But it will happen. And for all of the reasons ad apologists give for why the web has to be so bad. And why cable TV ads had to get to such a bad situation. And radio ads. And magazine ads. And network tv ads. Etc, etc.

    If I want home siding, I am resourceful enough to start searching for it and find what I want. Ditto for just about any other product you could insert into that sentence. And most other people are too. It's amazing how people will look for a commercial product when they have made up their mind to buy one or just shop for one.

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    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by acid andy on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:57PM (2 children)

    by acid andy (1683) on Thursday September 27 2018, @09:57PM (#741057) Homepage Journal

    There are no limits on how far they will go when unchecked. I truly believe that when the technology is available, advertisers will try to put ads on the inside of everyone's eyelids. You may smirk, and not believe it. But it will happen.

    Yeah, there are almost certainly very scary times ahead. Remember that article about a wi-fi powered tracking device that could fit into a label on a parcel? We're not too many decades away from self-charging, invasive electronics getting so small and cheap that the devices will begin infesting every room of every home. Sure mobiles and Internet of Things devices do that already to an extent but think insect sized and smaller and arriving under its own steam uninvited. Once you have that, it's only a few steps away from artificial parasites that crawl under your eyelids or into your ears, as you said. Nanotech research won't stop and there are more powerful organizations that want this sort of thing than people in power that can make a moral stand against it, so I can't see how it won't happen. *Shudders, then doffs tinfoil hat1*

    1 Actually I think I'd better keep it on, thanks.

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    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 28 2018, @02:29PM (1 child)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 28 2018, @02:29PM (#741337) Journal

      I am reminded of Dune.

      They had some very advanced tech. Applied sparingly.

      They seemed almost technophobic.

      Especially no computers, but instead Mentats.

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      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.