microsite VS hubs

None are ready for the public yet, but all in the hopper or under serious consideration:

- Personal site/blog with a bunch of algorithmically generated art and other fun stuff, built on Node/Preact but progressively enhanced/almost completely JS-free at runtime. Motivation for the build approach is that I’m on the low/no client JS static site bandwagon but I quite like the DX of JSX components and CSS-in-JS.

- I’m using a few excellent existing tools[1][2] for said site which unfortunately aren’t designed to work well together, so I have a variety of wrapper tooling that makes them live peacefully together. I’m also developing a bunch of other build-stage tools for my use cases. I plan to open source (or hopefully contribute back) all of that as soon as I’m satisfied with their quality.

- A set libraries for building declarative, type safe, automatically validated/documented service API boundaries (HTTP/REST to start, but I also plan to support other transport protocols) — think io-ts[3] type interfaces but you get swagger docs for free in a transport-agnostic interface. I’ve built this kind of thing before, it was wildly successful in real world use, but it’s proprietary to a previous employer and I’m starting over with all the stuff I learned in hindsight.

- A “nag me” app that’s basically “reading list” plus “reminders” with minimal config, eg “nag me soon” or “nag me after a while”. My personal use case is I frequently screenshot/text myself/etc stuff I want to look at later (usually on phone but need a computer to dive in), then it just goes down the memory hole. I’ve tried setting reminders but it’s often too much fuss, and I’m far too ADHD to use a passive list.

- Exploring building yet another FE build tool/bundler that’s explicitly multi-stage/sequential with static input/output validation, per-step/time travel debugging. Motivation is that existing tools are just a big ball of config magic and totally inscrutable. I’d likely wrap existing build tools because their set of responsibilities isn’t my motivation and I don’t want to introduce that much more new API surface area to weary FE devs.

[1]: https://github.com/natemoo-re/microsite

Microsite es un generador de sitios estáticos (SSG) construido sobre Snowpack y que utiliza Preact como framework.

> Firefox Reality on the Oculus Go VR Headset

yes, through not limited to the Oculus

and it kinda folded Hubs (https://hubs.mozilla.com/) into it

and and I think there was a bit of additional research level stuff never ending up in user hands

but both are somewhat dead, idk. if Firefox Reality still works with any VR headset at all (it might still work with non standalone headset usage) and Hubs is shutting down end of March, a community version still exist (Hubs ~= somewhat like VRChat from the idea but not as VR specific and just less interesting in general)

same for most other things they are either dead or fizzled out (and some are stables, but don't bring users, like pdf.js)

One thing I forget to mention is FF does a lot of work to reduce fingerprint-ability of existing interfaces (while trying to avoid breaking websites by changing/breaking existing interfaces, like some other more privacy focused browsers do). A bunch of this is done in context for the tor-browser but also benefit normal FF. Sadly you using FF ads more information to the fingerprint then any of the protections due to better fingerprint protection (something which is true for any form of privacy protection not used en mass by every one).

Sounds like they have this huge pile of cash and can't think of a way to improve Firefox with it in any way that seems gee whizz enough.

They tried hopping on Blockchain train and ended up jumping back off after getting roasted by JWZ [0] "we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals. ... [although] decentralized web technology continues to be an important area for us to explore."

I guess AI is gee whizz enough to escape the Planet Burning argument for now.

They had a stab at VR with Mozilla Hubs [1]- and copied off Meta by also not including legs in the avatars! Your personal Hub for only $10 a month. Judging by the code commits it is, er, stable.

Imagine if they put all that effort into innovating the browser.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/6/22870787/mozilla-pauses-cr...

[1] https://hubs.mozilla.com/

[2] https://github.com/mozilla/hubs/tree/master/src

Why the comment "This is that rare announcement that's far more significant than it sounds." In El Reg, which is usually rather skeptical. Am I missing something?

[1] https://hubs.mozilla.com

Not sure if Mozilla Hubs federates, but as already said, ThirdRoom is Matrix VRchat thing.

Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash introduced the concept of the Metaverse, a virtual reality universe accessible to all used for gaming, work, and socializing. The Metaverse-as we might know it in real life-is a virtual world being built by a variety of companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, and Sony. This visionary idea has influenced the development of open source virtual reality platforms like Mozilla Hubs. Many of the OSS projects inspired by Snow Crash create immersive and collaborative virtual spaces that can be explored, built upon, and customized by users.

Is it not? https://github.com/mozilla/hubs

Comme: https://hubs.mozilla.com/

Looks similar to the existing FLOSS Mozilla Hubs :) https://hubs.mozilla.com/

Mozilla hubs just use your browser