So I think Miami is going to be good at football this year.
Miami better beat Stanford by six scores to redeem week one…
Bring back Paul Johnson, you cowards.
The #Blaugust 2026 blogging challenge had a nice set of awards this year based on reaching a certain number of posts published:
* 1* — Newbie Blogger. *if it was your first time doing Blaugust
* 5+ — Bronze
* 15+ — Silver
* 25+ — Gold
* 31+ — Rainbow Diamond
From https://nerdgirlthoughts.game.blog/2026/07/15/blaugust-2026-is-coming/.
These levels, and the total for the duration (rather than one per day) made the challenge more inviting, accessible, and fun, removing (most of) the stress of a typical daily challenge for a month.
When I started the Web And Standards September Useful Posts (#WASSUP) blogging challenge, I said it was similar to Blaugust and noted “30 posts during the month of September”. While I adopted Blaugust’s total posts for the duration (rather than daily) aspect, I meant to include such levels too.
James (@jamesg.blog) reminded me of this in his first WASSUP post yesterday:
* https://jamesg.blog/2026/09/02/hide-on-desktop-mobile-css
and noted explicitly:
“I am not planning to write every day about web development per the challenge, but I will try my best to share a few HTML and CSS tips throughout the month!”
After a bit of brainstorming in the #indieweb cafe channel and some further thoughts, again, inspired by the Blaugust levels, here are the #WASSUP2026 levels to start with:
* 1 ⭐️ Starter. Congrats on starting the challenge!
* 5 ✨ Weekly Tipster. Post once per week, or at least 5 times for the duration.
* 8 🕸 Weekends Weaver. Post every weekend day, or at least that same number, 8 times.
(Thanks to James for this suggestion!)
* 22 ❇️ Weekdays Wizard. Post every weekday, or at least that same number, 22 times.
* 30 💠 Superbly Useful. Post at least 30 times during the month.
I’ve updated the original post to include these awards, and they’re all self-assessed.
https://tantek.com/2026/244/t1/september-blogging-challenge-wassup
Let’s see your useful posts about the web or open web standards!
* 1* — Newbie Blogger. *if it was your first time doing Blaugust
* 5+ — Bronze
* 15+ — Silver
* 25+ — Gold
* 31+ — Rainbow Diamond
From https://nerdgirlthoughts.game.blog/2026/07/15/blaugust-2026-is-coming/.
These levels, and the total for the duration (rather than one per day) made the challenge more inviting, accessible, and fun, removing (most of) the stress of a typical daily challenge for a month.
When I started the Web And Standards September Useful Posts (#WASSUP) blogging challenge, I said it was similar to Blaugust and noted “30 posts during the month of September”. While I adopted Blaugust’s total posts for the duration (rather than daily) aspect, I meant to include such levels too.
James (@jamesg.blog) reminded me of this in his first WASSUP post yesterday:
* https://jamesg.blog/2026/09/02/hide-on-desktop-mobile-css
and noted explicitly:
“I am not planning to write every day about web development per the challenge, but I will try my best to share a few HTML and CSS tips throughout the month!”
After a bit of brainstorming in the #indieweb cafe channel and some further thoughts, again, inspired by the Blaugust levels, here are the #WASSUP2026 levels to start with:
* 1 ⭐️ Starter. Congrats on starting the challenge!
* 5 ✨ Weekly Tipster. Post once per week, or at least 5 times for the duration.
* 8 🕸 Weekends Weaver. Post every weekend day, or at least that same number, 8 times.
(Thanks to James for this suggestion!)
* 22 ❇️ Weekdays Wizard. Post every weekday, or at least that same number, 22 times.
* 30 💠 Superbly Useful. Post at least 30 times during the month.
I’ve updated the original post to include these awards, and they’re all self-assessed.
https://tantek.com/2026/244/t1/september-blogging-challenge-wassup
Let’s see your useful posts about the web or open web standards!
How to add MapQuest with a search shortcut to your Firefox:
1. open Firefox Preferences ("Firefox" menu, "Preferences" item)
2. select "🔍 Search" from the left column
3. click the [ + Add search engine ] button
4. enter "MapQuest" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
5. enter "https://www.mapquest.com/search/%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
6. enter "m" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
If you already had an "m" search shortcut for another search engine, you may need to first edit that search engine (click the pencil ✏️ icon next to it) in the list of "Additional search engines", and remove/replace the existing "m" with something else.
This is my third #WASSUP #WASSUP2026 post, and second useful web tip for September.
#MapQuest #search #searchShortcut #Firefox #FirefoxSearch #searchEngine #map #maps #GoogleMaps #AppleMaps #LakeOntario #tip #webTip #browserTip #webBrowserTip #searchTip
1. open Firefox Preferences ("Firefox" menu, "Preferences" item)
2. select "🔍 Search" from the left column
3. click the [ + Add search engine ] button
4. enter "MapQuest" into the Search engine name field (without quotes)
5. enter "https://www.mapquest.com/search/%s" into the URL field (without quotes)
6. enter "m" into the Keyword field (without quotes)
If you already had an "m" search shortcut for another search engine, you may need to first edit that search engine (click the pencil ✏️ icon next to it) in the list of "Additional search engines", and remove/replace the existing "m" with something else.
This is my third #WASSUP #WASSUP2026 post, and second useful web tip for September.
#MapQuest #search #searchShortcut #Firefox #FirefoxSearch #searchEngine #map #maps #GoogleMaps #AppleMaps #LakeOntario #tip #webTip #browserTip #webBrowserTip #searchTip
If you find a wiki page seemingly from a MediaWiki, but without a "View History" link, here’s a tip for how to find it.
Example: the old HTML Working Group (WG) wiki at W3C
* https://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/Main_Page
Note the warning at the top: “This wiki has been archived and is now read-only.”
Aside: many years ago, each group at W3C had their own MediaWiki install, in a different path and disconnected from both every other group’s wiki, and the top level general W3C wiki (http://www.w3.org/wiki). I pointed out this made no sense, since groups more often than not had overlaps in documentation, technology, practices and would of course benefit from wiki-syntax interlinking. This was never really fixed at an infrastructure level, it had to be fixed at a cultural level, convincing working groups one by one to use the general W3C wiki, and ignore any WG-specific wiki. The other apparent hazard of having a WG-specific wiki is they can be (and have been) shutdown or frozen (like the example given), breaking any chance of fixing typos, other minor errors, or creating redirects to where the work has been restarted subsequently.
Note also the lack of a "View History" link as a tab top right adjacent to the content area (or anywhere else on the page).
This is likely because the page has been archived as static HTML, preserving the markup and styling, but removing any editing or history browsing or diffing or any other form submission based features that would require a dynamic backend like MediaWiki.
Here is how to find such a page’s history:
1. Find the “last modified” date in the footer and note the year, month, day.
2. Check for the page in the Internet Archive, e.g. prepend its URL with "https://web.archive.org/web/"
3. If there’s (presumably) still no "View History" link, look at the year month day numbers in the URL — the first 8 digits after "/web/" E.g. "20260512" for this page as of today.
4. Replace those 8 digits with the year, month, day noted in step 1, with 4, 2, 2 digit numbers respectively. E.g. "20150623" for this page. Press return to load that.
5. You may have to "close toolbar" the (x) in the top right of the page content.
6. Note the "View History" link, click it.
Presto, view history on a former MediaWiki page that’s been archived to static HTML.
This is my second #WASSUP #WASSUP2026 post, and first useful web tip.
#wiki #wikiPage #MediaWiki #ViewHistory #W3C #HTMLWG #wikiArchived #readOnly #staticHTML #InternetArchive #WaybackMachine #LastModified
Example: the old HTML Working Group (WG) wiki at W3C
* https://www.w3.org/html/wg/wiki/Main_Page
Note the warning at the top: “This wiki has been archived and is now read-only.”
Aside: many years ago, each group at W3C had their own MediaWiki install, in a different path and disconnected from both every other group’s wiki, and the top level general W3C wiki (http://www.w3.org/wiki). I pointed out this made no sense, since groups more often than not had overlaps in documentation, technology, practices and would of course benefit from wiki-syntax interlinking. This was never really fixed at an infrastructure level, it had to be fixed at a cultural level, convincing working groups one by one to use the general W3C wiki, and ignore any WG-specific wiki. The other apparent hazard of having a WG-specific wiki is they can be (and have been) shutdown or frozen (like the example given), breaking any chance of fixing typos, other minor errors, or creating redirects to where the work has been restarted subsequently.
Note also the lack of a "View History" link as a tab top right adjacent to the content area (or anywhere else on the page).
This is likely because the page has been archived as static HTML, preserving the markup and styling, but removing any editing or history browsing or diffing or any other form submission based features that would require a dynamic backend like MediaWiki.
Here is how to find such a page’s history:
1. Find the “last modified” date in the footer and note the year, month, day.
2. Check for the page in the Internet Archive, e.g. prepend its URL with "https://web.archive.org/web/"
3. If there’s (presumably) still no "View History" link, look at the year month day numbers in the URL — the first 8 digits after "/web/" E.g. "20260512" for this page as of today.
4. Replace those 8 digits with the year, month, day noted in step 1, with 4, 2, 2 digit numbers respectively. E.g. "20150623" for this page. Press return to load that.
5. You may have to "close toolbar" the (x) in the top right of the page content.
6. Note the "View History" link, click it.
Presto, view history on a former MediaWiki page that’s been archived to static HTML.
This is my second #WASSUP #WASSUP2026 post, and first useful web tip.
#wiki #wikiPage #MediaWiki #ViewHistory #W3C #HTMLWG #wikiArchived #readOnly #staticHTML #InternetArchive #WaybackMachine #LastModified
Welcome to September! Time for a new blogging challenge for the month. After some ideation, here’s my proposed September blogging challenge, on topics I find myself reading and posting about, with an emphasis on pragmatism:
The Web And Standards September Useful Posts blogging challenge
Or the #WASSUP challenge for short.
I really enjoyed the #Blaugust blogging challenge last month (31 posts ✅ — summary in another post), and not feeling a resonance with the two prior September challenges noted on the IndieWeb wiki, decided to come up with my own. Iterated on some ideas yesterday until arriving at WASSUP (yes, as a backronym, inspired somewhat by WHATWG which also has WHATNOT and WHATUP meetings).
Similar to Blaugust:
* 30 posts during the month of September (1 per day if you wish, or double/triple-up to get ahead or catch-up)
Topic:
* Anything *useful* (features, tips) about open web standards, the open web as a whole, web browsers, or web services like search engines.
Hashtags:
* #WASSUP #WASSUP2026
And that’s it.
If those are topics you already blog about, great, join in using the hashtags and share what you find useful about them!
Otherwise, take a look at how you frequently use the Web, and post what you have found useful, especially the most useful for you.
Blog clever tips about how you have made better use of the Web, web browsers, search engines etc.
If you’re a web developer or designer, share what you find most useful about web standards, your choice, either in their entirety or of individual features, like HTML elements, attributes, CSS properties, Selectors, DOM features, WebAPIs, standard media formats on the web, etc.
Let’s see what positive pragmatic things we can share with each other about the web and how it works in practice.
Glossary:
Blaugust:
* https://indieweb.org/Blaugust
blogging challenge:
* https://indieweb.org/blogging_challenge
September blogging challenges:
* https://indieweb.org/September#Challenges
standards
* https://indieweb.org/standards
#blog #blogging #bloggingChallenge #September #web #openWeb #webStandards #openWebStandards #webDev #webDevs #webDeveloper #webDevelopers #webDesign #webDesigns #webDesigner #webDesigners #useful #pragmatic
This is post 20 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
← https://tantek.com/2026/243/t1/many-paths-indieweb-custom-domain
→ 🔮
The Web And Standards September Useful Posts blogging challenge
Or the #WASSUP challenge for short.
I really enjoyed the #Blaugust blogging challenge last month (31 posts ✅ — summary in another post), and not feeling a resonance with the two prior September challenges noted on the IndieWeb wiki, decided to come up with my own. Iterated on some ideas yesterday until arriving at WASSUP (yes, as a backronym, inspired somewhat by WHATWG which also has WHATNOT and WHATUP meetings).
Similar to Blaugust:
* 30 posts during the month of September (1 per day if you wish, or double/triple-up to get ahead or catch-up)
Topic:
* Anything *useful* (features, tips) about open web standards, the open web as a whole, web browsers, or web services like search engines.
Hashtags:
* #WASSUP #WASSUP2026
And that’s it.
If those are topics you already blog about, great, join in using the hashtags and share what you find useful about them!
Otherwise, take a look at how you frequently use the Web, and post what you have found useful, especially the most useful for you.
Blog clever tips about how you have made better use of the Web, web browsers, search engines etc.
If you’re a web developer or designer, share what you find most useful about web standards, your choice, either in their entirety or of individual features, like HTML elements, attributes, CSS properties, Selectors, DOM features, WebAPIs, standard media formats on the web, etc.
Let’s see what positive pragmatic things we can share with each other about the web and how it works in practice.
Glossary:
Blaugust:
* https://indieweb.org/Blaugust
blogging challenge:
* https://indieweb.org/blogging_challenge
September blogging challenges:
* https://indieweb.org/September#Challenges
standards
* https://indieweb.org/standards
#blog #blogging #bloggingChallenge #September #web #openWeb #webStandards #openWebStandards #webDev #webDevs #webDeveloper #webDevelopers #webDesign #webDesigns #webDesigner #webDesigners #useful #pragmatic
This is post 20 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
← https://tantek.com/2026/243/t1/many-paths-indieweb-custom-domain
→ 🔮
There are many paths onto the #indieweb. Two of the most common:
1. an idea for a name and a website
2. a desire to create and express yourself, independently of social media
If you start with (1), have an idea for a domain name, find one, and buy it, then you need a place to direct it to.
The simplest next step is setting up a content hosting service, and configuring it with your new domain name.
If you start with (2), a desire to create and publish, then similarly, the simplest first step is to set up a content hosting service.
Either way, you should choose a service that supports custom domain names.
Had a great chat with Joe Crawford (@artlung.com) this morning about the many ways people find their way to the indieweb, and set up their own indieweb site.
We talked about the challenges of attaching a domain name to a service, and how that could be better documented and explained.
Subsequently Joe took the initiative to create a new "custom domain name" page on the IndieWeb wiki to help consider and choose a content hosting service that supports custom domains:
* https://indieweb.org/custom_domain_name
There are both free options and paid options depending on what kind of features, user experience, and support you want.
Most paid options cost less than a latte a month, certainly less than monthly mobile phone or video streaming fees.
Know other content hosting services that support custom domain names?
Add them to the wiki page!
And if you prefer to install and run your own content management software or create your one yourself, you can do that too:
* https://indieweb.org/CMS
If you do create one, watch out for spending more time coding than writing.
Or code away! It’s your site, code, write, mix it up as you wish.
Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/242/t1/indieweb-own-domain-content-personal-website
This is post 19 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts
#independent #socialMedia #domain #domainName #contentHosting #customDomain #customDomains #customDomainName #customDomainNames #CMS
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/242/t1/indieweb-own-domain-content-personal-website
→ 🔮
1. an idea for a name and a website
2. a desire to create and express yourself, independently of social media
If you start with (1), have an idea for a domain name, find one, and buy it, then you need a place to direct it to.
The simplest next step is setting up a content hosting service, and configuring it with your new domain name.
If you start with (2), a desire to create and publish, then similarly, the simplest first step is to set up a content hosting service.
Either way, you should choose a service that supports custom domain names.
Had a great chat with Joe Crawford (@artlung.com) this morning about the many ways people find their way to the indieweb, and set up their own indieweb site.
We talked about the challenges of attaching a domain name to a service, and how that could be better documented and explained.
Subsequently Joe took the initiative to create a new "custom domain name" page on the IndieWeb wiki to help consider and choose a content hosting service that supports custom domains:
* https://indieweb.org/custom_domain_name
There are both free options and paid options depending on what kind of features, user experience, and support you want.
Most paid options cost less than a latte a month, certainly less than monthly mobile phone or video streaming fees.
Know other content hosting services that support custom domain names?
Add them to the wiki page!
And if you prefer to install and run your own content management software or create your one yourself, you can do that too:
* https://indieweb.org/CMS
If you do create one, watch out for spending more time coding than writing.
Or code away! It’s your site, code, write, mix it up as you wish.
Previously: https://tantek.com/2026/242/t1/indieweb-own-domain-content-personal-website
This is post 19 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts
#independent #socialMedia #domain #domainName #contentHosting #customDomain #customDomains #customDomainName #customDomainNames #CMS
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/242/t1/indieweb-own-domain-content-personal-website
→ 🔮
Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett on the same DL is going to be wild. This has to be the best shot at a Super Bowl for the Rams since 2021.
What does it take to be on or be part of the #indieweb?
As several have shared before me:
* own your domain and publish some content on it
That’s the foundation. If you have a personal website on a domain you own and control, you’re on the indieweb or part of the indieweb or however you would like to express a sense of belonging.
Of course there are lots of things you can do to be more indieweb, and that’s very much a choose your own adventure journey.
Maybe you’ll decide to post your content first on your personal site rather than on silos, and only post copies (syndicate) to social media walled gardens.
* https://indieweb.org/POSSE
Maybe you like taking an explicitly principled approach, step-by-step.
* https://indieweb.org/principles
Maybe you’ll decide to entirely quit using specific silos, for any reason, whether you created a replacement with your own site, or switched to a community owned and run solution.
* https://indieweb.org/silo-quits
Maybe you’re a developer and decide to implement various open web standards (formats and protocols) so your indieweb site can interact more with other indieweb sites.
* https://indieweb.org/building-blocks
Maybe you want to join a community of like-minded folks creatively expressing themselves on their personal sites, treating each other respectfully, encouraging each other, and collaborating on building better solutions than sites that require agreeing to long and heavily imbalanced terms of service.
* https://indieweb.org/join
All of these are optional.
Make a personal website on a domain you own, put some content there.
Welcome.
This is post 18 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts
#domain #domainName #ownYourDomain #ownYourIdentity #identity #personalWeb #personalWebsite #smallWeb #ownYourData #ownYourContent #POSSE #indiewebPrinciples #principles #siloQuit #siloQuits #openWeb #openWebStandards #webStandards #community #IndieWebCommunity
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/240/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions
→ 🔮
As several have shared before me:
* own your domain and publish some content on it
That’s the foundation. If you have a personal website on a domain you own and control, you’re on the indieweb or part of the indieweb or however you would like to express a sense of belonging.
Of course there are lots of things you can do to be more indieweb, and that’s very much a choose your own adventure journey.
Maybe you’ll decide to post your content first on your personal site rather than on silos, and only post copies (syndicate) to social media walled gardens.
* https://indieweb.org/POSSE
Maybe you like taking an explicitly principled approach, step-by-step.
* https://indieweb.org/principles
Maybe you’ll decide to entirely quit using specific silos, for any reason, whether you created a replacement with your own site, or switched to a community owned and run solution.
* https://indieweb.org/silo-quits
Maybe you’re a developer and decide to implement various open web standards (formats and protocols) so your indieweb site can interact more with other indieweb sites.
* https://indieweb.org/building-blocks
Maybe you want to join a community of like-minded folks creatively expressing themselves on their personal sites, treating each other respectfully, encouraging each other, and collaborating on building better solutions than sites that require agreeing to long and heavily imbalanced terms of service.
* https://indieweb.org/join
All of these are optional.
Make a personal website on a domain you own, put some content there.
Welcome.
This is post 18 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts
#domain #domainName #ownYourDomain #ownYourIdentity #identity #personalWeb #personalWebsite #smallWeb #ownYourData #ownYourContent #POSSE #indiewebPrinciples #principles #siloQuit #siloQuits #openWeb #openWebStandards #webStandards #community #IndieWebCommunity
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/240/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions
→ 🔮
Due to recent reports about “AI”/LLM/“agent” tools and services, I have growing concerns that the #security properties of the open web are changing, or have already changed, in practice, to a degree that we haven’t seen in many years.
This past week’s articles / reports on further investigations and details of the OpenAI Hugging Face intrusion / incident:
* OpenAI report: https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf
* 2026-08-26 https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/
* 2026-08-28 https://www.planned-obsolescence.org/p/the-hugging-face-attack-surprised
and articles like:
* 2026-08-26 https://blog.trailofbits.com/2026/08/26/vms-wont-contain-cyber-capable-agents/
Previously I wrote about an instance of (presumably) unintentional subversion of site security by someone making mostly reasonable requests of a software “agent”:
* 2026-08-24 http://tantek.com/2026/226/t1/cybersecurity-friday-small-business
Combining those data points, it seems reasonable to conclude both that existing sites are in practice more vulnerable now, and as more advanced LLM models are available for use, as open models advance further, more sites will be vulnerable to more attacks, by a broader set of attackers, using fewer resources than were required in the past.
One implication of these growing vulnerabilities in practice is a growing need to reduce one’s personal exposure to such sites and services. Exposures as “small” as merely having an account on such sites, all the way to depending on such sites for critical home or transport needs.
For example, as vulnerable as various “internet of things” or “web of things” devices and services were in the past, we should expect they are or will shortly become even more vulnerable, and it would be reasonable to disconnect or otherwise take offline any such internet connected devices in your home.
Similarly, if you happen to be driving a vehicle that is either “always connected” (e.g. built-in WiFi or cell connectivity), or frequently connected to the internet (e.g. joins your home WiFi when parked in the garage), you may want to investigate if it is possible for you to disconnect it from the internet and be certain of its disconnection (like hardware disabling), or at least manually choose when to connect it.
Personally I do not have any “internet connected” home appliances (not counting a router or video streaming devices, home computers) or vehicles and even before this, never planned to get any for both security and privacy reasons.
Even if you “only” have an internet connected robot vacuum or lightbulbs that depend on an internet connected “app” in order to change their colors, might be worth taking steps to disconnect them and figure out how to use them offline. And if they fail to function when disconnected, might be a good idea to invest in offline-only (local-only), offline-first, or at least offline-capable replacements.
This is merely scratching the surface. I believe the larger implication of what this past week’s investigations have revealed is that we likely have to re-assess the security considerations/profiles of every website and web service we regularly depend on, especially those with account logins, profile information, and access to other parts of our lives.
Previously:
* http://tantek.com/2026/226/t1/cybersecurity-friday-small-business
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #agent #agents #AIagent #AIagents #OpenAI #HuggingFace #VM #VirtualMachine #cyberSecurity #openWeb #IoT #internetOfThings #WoT #WebOfThings #disconnect #offline #offlineOnly #localOnly #offlineFirst #offlineCapable
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
This past week’s articles / reports on further investigations and details of the OpenAI Hugging Face intrusion / incident:
* OpenAI report: https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf
* 2026-08-26 https://metr.org/blog/2026-08-26-openai-hugging-face-incident-investigation/
* 2026-08-28 https://www.planned-obsolescence.org/p/the-hugging-face-attack-surprised
and articles like:
* 2026-08-26 https://blog.trailofbits.com/2026/08/26/vms-wont-contain-cyber-capable-agents/
Previously I wrote about an instance of (presumably) unintentional subversion of site security by someone making mostly reasonable requests of a software “agent”:
* 2026-08-24 http://tantek.com/2026/226/t1/cybersecurity-friday-small-business
Combining those data points, it seems reasonable to conclude both that existing sites are in practice more vulnerable now, and as more advanced LLM models are available for use, as open models advance further, more sites will be vulnerable to more attacks, by a broader set of attackers, using fewer resources than were required in the past.
One implication of these growing vulnerabilities in practice is a growing need to reduce one’s personal exposure to such sites and services. Exposures as “small” as merely having an account on such sites, all the way to depending on such sites for critical home or transport needs.
For example, as vulnerable as various “internet of things” or “web of things” devices and services were in the past, we should expect they are or will shortly become even more vulnerable, and it would be reasonable to disconnect or otherwise take offline any such internet connected devices in your home.
Similarly, if you happen to be driving a vehicle that is either “always connected” (e.g. built-in WiFi or cell connectivity), or frequently connected to the internet (e.g. joins your home WiFi when parked in the garage), you may want to investigate if it is possible for you to disconnect it from the internet and be certain of its disconnection (like hardware disabling), or at least manually choose when to connect it.
Personally I do not have any “internet connected” home appliances (not counting a router or video streaming devices, home computers) or vehicles and even before this, never planned to get any for both security and privacy reasons.
Even if you “only” have an internet connected robot vacuum or lightbulbs that depend on an internet connected “app” in order to change their colors, might be worth taking steps to disconnect them and figure out how to use them offline. And if they fail to function when disconnected, might be a good idea to invest in offline-only (local-only), offline-first, or at least offline-capable replacements.
This is merely scratching the surface. I believe the larger implication of what this past week’s investigations have revealed is that we likely have to re-assess the security considerations/profiles of every website and web service we regularly depend on, especially those with account logins, profile information, and access to other parts of our lives.
Previously:
* http://tantek.com/2026/226/t1/cybersecurity-friday-small-business
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #agent #agents #AIagent #AIagents #OpenAI #HuggingFace #VM #VirtualMachine #cyberSecurity #openWeb #IoT #internetOfThings #WoT #WebOfThings #disconnect #offline #offlineOnly #localOnly #offlineFirst #offlineCapable
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
What I wouldn't give to have some popular cookbooks like Rombauer's The Joy of Cooking, Bittman's How to Cook Everything, Better Homes & Gardens' New Cook Book, Brown's Good Eats, America's Test Kitchen books, or Christopher Kimball's Milk Street published as recipe cards in 4 x 6 inch index card format.
While their book formats are lovely and lend themselves to lean back aspirational food content, they're not so great in an actual kitchen. If all the content was on the front of the card, perhaps with those aspirational photos on the back, and a reasonable tabbed index and packaged for sale in a nice cardboard card index box , I'm sure my kitchen life would be far better.
Can one of the recipe giants produce something as functional for use in the kitchen as their recipes?
If they wanted to go crazy, they could also:
- offer a deluxe wooden card index with a thin, angled notch on the top to hold the recipe as an easy display while cooking;
- print the cards in high quality in such a manner as to make them liquid/splash proof or alternately include a reusable plastic sleeve or two for covering the cards while in use in the kitchen;
- add all their "methods" information on individual cards in a separate section;
- number them to allow for cross-indexing them to related recipes or methods (color or textual effects like bold, italics, underlining could also be used to cross-reference these)
- There are a handful of publishers doing this in the cocktail space.
- Zola Gregory's The Pasta Box
- Gold Medal Flour Recipe Boxes (vintage)
- McCalls Great American Recipe Card Collection (vintage)
- Chronicle Books is publishing a Card Catalog: 30 Notecards from the Library of Congress as note cards in a similar format
- Some of the weekly food-in-a-box services like Green Chef and Hello Fresh publish 8.5 x 11" card stock recipes that come with their food deliveries
🎞 watched “The Odyssey” at the Metreon in 70mm IMAX on opening weekend, and mostly enjoyed it. No spoilers in this post.
My pal Rohit (@rohit.khare.org) had bought tickets last year, had a spare, and invited me along last minute. After an early dinner at Cha Cha Cha (@chachachasf.com) we made our way to the Metreon.
There was a line to get in. I have never before seen a line merely to get into the IMAX theater. We only missed maybe 1-2 movie trailers.
Our seats were in the front row, only a few seats from the left edge. In general I would not recommend the front 3-4 rows at an IMAX theater because it requires craning your neck back, and lots of swiveling to see the entire screen. Ironically being near the corner helped minimize the latter. Despite being sold out, the seat to my left was empty so I was able to lean back kinda diagonally to take in most of the screen.
The film itself was excellent (as many others have said).
There were parts that felt like they dragged a bit, yet also parts that felt rushed, where a bit more build-up before resolution would have hit harder. The only negative of the experience was the seating location in the IMAX theater, and the rigidness of the seats (they’re quite old, not like newer, plushier reclining seats that most theaters have upgraded to.)
The best part of The Odyssey is despite all the action, it dives into a number of philosophical and other intellectual challenges, illustrated by the situations encountered and paths taken.
I recommend seeing this film with nerdy friends on the earlier side, grabbing dinner after and discussing the nature, ethics, decisions, actions of the characters, and consequences thereof.
I definitely want to see it again.
#TheOdyssey #Odyssey #Odysseus #IMAX #70mmIMAX #IMAX70mm #Metreon #Blaugust #Blaugust2026 #2026_199 #2026_07_18
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My pal Rohit (@rohit.khare.org) had bought tickets last year, had a spare, and invited me along last minute. After an early dinner at Cha Cha Cha (@chachachasf.com) we made our way to the Metreon.
There was a line to get in. I have never before seen a line merely to get into the IMAX theater. We only missed maybe 1-2 movie trailers.
Our seats were in the front row, only a few seats from the left edge. In general I would not recommend the front 3-4 rows at an IMAX theater because it requires craning your neck back, and lots of swiveling to see the entire screen. Ironically being near the corner helped minimize the latter. Despite being sold out, the seat to my left was empty so I was able to lean back kinda diagonally to take in most of the screen.
.png){kind=link}
The film itself was excellent (as many others have said).
There were parts that felt like they dragged a bit, yet also parts that felt rushed, where a bit more build-up before resolution would have hit harder. The only negative of the experience was the seating location in the IMAX theater, and the rigidness of the seats (they’re quite old, not like newer, plushier reclining seats that most theaters have upgraded to.)
The best part of The Odyssey is despite all the action, it dives into a number of philosophical and other intellectual challenges, illustrated by the situations encountered and paths taken.
I recommend seeing this film with nerdy friends on the earlier side, grabbing dinner after and discussing the nature, ethics, decisions, actions of the characters, and consequences thereof.
I definitely want to see it again.
#TheOdyssey #Odyssey #Odysseus #IMAX #70mmIMAX #IMAX70mm #Metreon #Blaugust #Blaugust2026 #2026_199 #2026_07_18
Over the years I and others have experimented with "watch" posts, short notes that express having seen a movie or TV show, sometimes with a link, and brief review or other commentary, like earlier today:
https://tantek.com/2026/214/t1/watched-spider-man-brand-new-day
I was inspired by @Gregorlove.com publishing watch posts, and a few others have also done so, documented on the IndieWeb wiki page for watch posts:
https://indieweb.org/watch
I like to use a leading emoji to indicate a watch post, and perhaps what specific kind of a watch post. After some iteration and reflection, these are the emoji that I have converged on for briefly expressing and distinguishing some watch posts:
🎦 movie in a cinema/theater
▶️ online video whether a brief YouTube clip, an Internet Archive upload of an #IndieWebCamp session, or a movie or show on a streaming service like Netflix.
In addition, I expect to use the following emoji for more specific watch posts:
🎞 analog film viewing, e.g. 70mm IMAX (like Chris Nolan’s The Odyssey)
📀 DVD/Laserdisc
📼 videocassette
📺 television, from over the air broadcast or cable like in a hotel room
In-person live performances:
🎫 concert or music festival
🎭 theater/play, perhaps stand-up comedy
🎟 other ticketed performances
This seems like a good start for both recent movies I’ve seen, and (likely) upcoming shows and events. I had a few thoughts for other possibilities and have added them to the Brainstorming section of that wiki page, where I expect the #indieweb community will iterate further.
Who else publishes watch posts and do you use any emoji to indicate what kind of thing you watched (or where)?
This is post 10 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts
#August #Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/213/t1/welcome-to-august-blaugust
→ https://tantek.com/2026/216/t1/hashtag-proposal-datetags
https://tantek.com/2026/214/t1/watched-spider-man-brand-new-day
I was inspired by @Gregorlove.com publishing watch posts, and a few others have also done so, documented on the IndieWeb wiki page for watch posts:
https://indieweb.org/watch
I like to use a leading emoji to indicate a watch post, and perhaps what specific kind of a watch post. After some iteration and reflection, these are the emoji that I have converged on for briefly expressing and distinguishing some watch posts:
🎦 movie in a cinema/theater
▶️ online video whether a brief YouTube clip, an Internet Archive upload of an #IndieWebCamp session, or a movie or show on a streaming service like Netflix.
In addition, I expect to use the following emoji for more specific watch posts:
🎞 analog film viewing, e.g. 70mm IMAX (like Chris Nolan’s The Odyssey)
📀 DVD/Laserdisc
📼 videocassette
📺 television, from over the air broadcast or cable like in a hotel room
In-person live performances:
🎫 concert or music festival
🎭 theater/play, perhaps stand-up comedy
🎟 other ticketed performances
This seems like a good start for both recent movies I’ve seen, and (likely) upcoming shows and events. I had a few thoughts for other possibilities and have added them to the Brainstorming section of that wiki page, where I expect the #indieweb community will iterate further.
Who else publishes watch posts and do you use any emoji to indicate what kind of thing you watched (or where)?
This is post 10 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts
#August #Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/213/t1/welcome-to-august-blaugust
→ https://tantek.com/2026/216/t1/hashtag-proposal-datetags
🎦 watched “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” in the Metreon Dolby Cinema this past Friday and really enjoyed it.
Took a half day off to recover from a long week & last weekend, and decided to see the new Spider-Man movie. The theater was packed except for the front row. Lots of fans wearing Spider-Man gear.
If you haven’t seen the previous Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, you could watch only those three then this film and still have a great time. No significant dependence on other MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) stories in Brand New Day.
Optionally, you could watch the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies before watching the third Tom Holland one, “No Way Home”, for character development and additional narratives.
#SpiderMan #BrandNewDay #SpiderManBrandNewDay #Blaugust #Blaugust2026 #2026_212 #2026_07_31
Took a half day off to recover from a long week & last weekend, and decided to see the new Spider-Man movie. The theater was packed except for the front row. Lots of fans wearing Spider-Man gear.
If you haven’t seen the previous Tom Holland Spider-Man movies, you could watch only those three then this film and still have a great time. No significant dependence on other MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) stories in Brand New Day.
Optionally, you could watch the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies before watching the third Tom Holland one, “No Way Home”, for character development and additional narratives.
#SpiderMan #BrandNewDay #SpiderManBrandNewDay #Blaugust #Blaugust2026 #2026_212 #2026_07_31
Welcome to August which means once again it is time for the Blaugust Festival of Blogging!
In its simplest form, Blaugust is a blogging challenge “to post 31 times during the month of August”, typically once a day, however, doubling up (etc.) is allowed and provides the nice forgiving flexibility of catching up in case you miss a day.
Started in 2014, the challenge has been officially announced and organized every year since except 2017. However in 2020 there were two! The organizer first moved it up to April, renaming it “Blapril”, then held another in August 2020 with the usual name and routine.
See the IndieWeb wiki page for more details and history:
* https://indieweb.org/Blaugust
And this year’s Blaugust announcement post:
* https://nerdgirlthoughts.game.blog/2026/07/15/blaugust-2026-is-coming/
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to start posting again to your blog or personal site, join the challenge and do it with friends.
You may post about any topic, and simple note posts (like this one) are fine.
I am going to use this as an opportunity to resume my 100 Posts of IndieWeb effort for the year.
This is post 9 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #IndieWeb
#August #Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/055/t1/happy-twin-peaks-day
→ https://tantek.com/2026/214/t2/watch-posts-movie-tv-emoji
In its simplest form, Blaugust is a blogging challenge “to post 31 times during the month of August”, typically once a day, however, doubling up (etc.) is allowed and provides the nice forgiving flexibility of catching up in case you miss a day.
Started in 2014, the challenge has been officially announced and organized every year since except 2017. However in 2020 there were two! The organizer first moved it up to April, renaming it “Blapril”, then held another in August 2020 with the usual name and routine.
See the IndieWeb wiki page for more details and history:
* https://indieweb.org/Blaugust
And this year’s Blaugust announcement post:
* https://nerdgirlthoughts.game.blog/2026/07/15/blaugust-2026-is-coming/
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to start posting again to your blog or personal site, join the challenge and do it with friends.
You may post about any topic, and simple note posts (like this one) are fine.
I am going to use this as an opportunity to resume my 100 Posts of IndieWeb effort for the year.
This is post 9 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #IndieWeb
#August #Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/055/t1/happy-twin-peaks-day
→ https://tantek.com/2026/214/t2/watch-posts-movie-tv-emoji
at my first Homebrew Website Club Nuremberg meetup!
Thank you Tilman for hosting!
#indieweb #hwc #hwcnue #NUEDIGITAL #Nuremberg
Thank you Tilman for hosting!
#indieweb #hwc #hwcnue #NUEDIGITAL #Nuremberg