@benschwarz@front-end.social

benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 18, 2026

I was thinking about this interview question over the weekend, but was more thinking:

User hits enter
Dismisses email sign up
Dismisses cookie notice, isn't sure if cookies got stored anyway
Downloads 3mb of JavaScript that recreates a URL router, query string parser, date library, CSS rendering, buttons, accordions, and form controls
Renders one page
User closes tab

The long way around.

https://infosec.exchange/@SecureOwl/116584747509188880

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 17, 2026

Replying to @decryption@aus.social

@decryption@aus.social Its annoying when you have to explain to a customer that they're not getting the full refund (because they forgot to turn off a renewal or something)

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 17, 2026

Replying to @decryption@aus.social

@decryption@aus.social and also stripe keep the fees after the refund.

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 07, 2026

David Attenborough turned 100 years old today.

David spent some 70 years travelling to the most remote and far-reaching places in the world, and brought it to our living rooms.

To see the wonder and beauty of nature is one of life’s best gifts, one he shared with us all. What a rich legacy.

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 07, 2026

Replying to @ajft@aus.social

@ajft@aus.social @jessta@aus.social aye it’s super frustrating. I just try to remember that local council have a lot to do, and kind, respectful persistence is seemingly been a good way to influence what gets done.

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @gnoll110@ruby.social

@gnoll110@ruby.social floodgates open. I (mostly) avoid all of these businesses because of it

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @gnoll110@ruby.social

@gnoll110@ruby.social afaik, no harm no foul, play on. facial recognition will continue. how nice they can identify you and how much you spend. how much is a shovel? how much you got? $200 oh, it's your lucky day, this shovel is just $199 🫠

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @benschwarz@front-end.social

i suspect a lot of hardworking aussie tradies have no idea they could be videoed and identified

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @benschwarz@front-end.social

time to break up with bunnings

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 06, 2026

Replying to @benschwarz@front-end.social

data gets sent all over the world for processing and there is no mention of how long data is kept or whom by they have third parties, but they don't list them

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 06, 2026

Bunnings, a giant retailer in Australia just dropped their updated privacy policy, and boy. they like collecting data:

customer identity (gore PII), credit history, income details, images of you in store, online activity/habits/interests

and of course, use cookies to track you across the web

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 04, 2026

Replying to @ajft@aus.social

@ajft@aus.social it sucks but sometimes they do have people on the road at the right time. If it’s repeated you can make a case for upgrades to the infrastructure, or have a ticket issued Source: did this recently and some small changes were made by council. It took at least a few hours of my time tho and YMMV

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 04, 2026

I spent years manually taking product screenshots. Cropping them. Replacing them. Seeing many outdated images. Losing the will to live.

So I automated it with Playwright. 585 screenshots, every theme, every viewport, generated in minutes.

But the real surprise? Opening the output folder turned into the best design QA tool I've ever had. Inconsistencies you’d never notice while navigating suddenly become obvious when you see everything at once.

https://calibreapp.com/blog/screenshot-pipeline-qa-review

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · May 04, 2026

Replying to @ajft@aus.social

@ajft@aus.social Please report to council. They do respond… not always in time, but SOMETIMES they come and ticket 🦅

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 29, 2026

✨ New blog post by me: All about Calibre’s new UX Rating metric and how it categorises overall user experience quality and distills into something everyone can understand.

You’ll learn how it works and why it’s a powerful paradigm for team focus.

https://calibreapp.com/blog/ux-rating

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 28, 2026

Replying to @slightlyoff@toot.cafe

@slightlyoff@toot.cafe @mwichary@mastodon.online bankruptcy? customers who are tasteless boomers? the automatic punishments seem befitting

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 27, 2026

RE: @assaf@mas.to

I recall back to a time long forgotten, with Kathy Sierra’s excellent “don’t make the demo look done”.

This stuck with me since the day I read it, almost 20 years ago.

TLDR: if you demo looks complete, people will believe it’s complete. But it isn’t. It’s a pile of tradeoffs, three children in a trench coat trying to act like a real man.

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 24, 2026

Replying to @cliffordheath@mastodon.social

@cliffordheath I’m regularly shocked how smart some creative tech people are, building all sorts of clever tech for their homes, or building a better understanding of the world. Super cool to see what weird stuff people end up learning

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 24, 2026

RE: @benschwarz@front-end.social

I ran into a few people IRL who read this post and started talking to me about map projections. I see you map perverts!! There are dozens of us 👀 👀

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 24, 2026

Replying to @tdp_org@mastodon.social

@tdp_org tell grafana to make an offer I can’t refuse 😋

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 23, 2026

Replying to @_Nec@mastodon.social

@_Nec listen I don’t make the rules 😜

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 22, 2026

RE: @benschwarz@front-end.social

I actually wasn’t sure if anyone would really be interested. Is that imposter syndrome?

TLDR: always publish. If you enjoy something, others will too. ✌️

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 22, 2026

Replying to @implgeo@mapstodon.space

@implgeo I did not, but it might be worth considering for a future update. I like how it scales down Russia, Antarctica, scales up Australia etc. lovely.

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 22, 2026

🆕 On the blog: How I built Calibre’s new dynamic hexagonal world map, in just 10kb.

https://calibreapp.com/blog/building-our-beloved-hex-map

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 21, 2026

Replying to @decryption@aus.social

@decryption @camwilson nice one, sounds like it worked out

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 16, 2026

Replying to @richiekhoo@hachyderm.io

@richiekhoo@hachyderm.io for a newsletter, button down https://buttondown.com/ for transactional sending, postmark is still ace despite the recent takeover

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 13, 2026

Replying to @kornel@mastodon.social

@kornel@mastodon.social Americans seem to love the stuff. Let em have it

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 10, 2026

Replying to @eric@social.ericwbailey.website

@eric do you allow guest posts??? I can link exchange

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Apr 08, 2026

You are *not* imagining it — Airline websites really are the slowest and most frustrating to use.

Only 3.7% pass Google's Core Web Vitals. For comparison, 56.5% of news sites clear the same bar.

See how your favourite airline ranks:
https://calibreapp.com/tools/website-speed-leaderboard/airline-booking

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Mar 27, 2026

A new calibreapp.com customer overnight shared a review that got me all giddy 🥰

"I never thought I’d really 'enjoy' using a performance tool, but everything about Calibre seems solid and makes identifying and trying to fix these issues quite fun in a way."

What a review. It made my day. Never doubt the lift you can give someone with positive feedback.

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Mar 26, 2026

🚀 Calibre’s Real User Monitoring has arrived

Session-based Core Web Vitals monitoring. See actual DOM elements dragging your site down. No cookies, no bloat, predictable pricing. Let's go!

https://calibreapp.com/blog/real-user-monitoring

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @hmiron@fosstodon.org

@hmiron render.com, railway.com both might be viable options. I use render

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Mar 11, 2026

Replying to @orangeacme@fosstodon.org

@orangeacme it’s incredible that governments everywhere can be easily thwarted by a 10 year old

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Mar 06, 2026

Replying to @decryption@aus.social

@decryption@aus.social fuck it, they can do dock and dock pro (in black, for $500)

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benschwarz @benschwarz@front-end.social · Mar 04, 2026

Replying to @decryption@aus.social

@decryption@aus.social it’s a $2000 phone, it should just be dockable. Make a $200 HDMI dock! 😁

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