prose&const

Deep Purple, jQuery and the role of legacy

2026-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

There are people, groups, works and topics that are old just in terms of age, and everyone and their dog wants to replace them for good, often for their age alone. But that turns out to be a wild goose chase, since these are so good at what they do, and/or they command so much mindshare, that they keep going for decades. See Emacs, Vim, COBOL, paperbacks, notebooks, email.

Then there are those that become the talk of the town for a good few months before they fade away into irrelevance. Like the mongoose bat. Or Clubhouse. Or dalgona coffee.

Lastly, there are those rare gems that do indeed get less and less attention with each passing day, because the environment they operate in has become increasingly resistive, or even actively hostile, to what they do. Mentioning them in a discussion inevitably invokes reactions about “good old days” or “WTF is that?”, both of which are unequivocal indications of their perceived irrelevance in the present.

This may sound very much like the previous type, but there’s a major difference. These people, these groups, these communities are very much alive. Their minds are unaffected by the lack of attention they get.

They have a singular focus: to create the best of what they do, both in spirit and in execution.

They care not about likes and downloads, nor about money and fame (any more). They care only about serving their most dedicated fans/customers/patrons.

jQuery was a revolutionary library in 2006. It was the de facto tool for web development for the next few years, and made it well into the next decade, even after component frameworks took over. But by 2015, it would raise eyebrows to mention that you were going to start a new project in jQuery.

On January 17, 2026, a strange blog post showed up on my screen. jQuery 4.0.0 had been released.

20 years is the equivalent of one galactic rotation in the web development world. And yet, there is a perfectly usable library for anyone who prefers that over the so-called state of the art. The new version of jQuery still supports IE11.

This community deserves far more respect than anything that comes out of Microsoft.

In a completely different arena, I have observed a similar example.

Deep Purple are a classic rock band famous for their 1970s hits like “Smoke on the Water” and “Highway Star”. They have many other brilliant songs that seldom make it to top 10 lists, like “Sail Away”, “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” and “Soldier of Fortune”.

Unlike their contemporaries, this band kept releasing songs long after the hard rock culture of the 70s had lost steam and their specific brand of music no longer made the charts like it used to. Nonetheless, Deep Purple are still active, still touring and still making remarkable rock music. Most members have white hair and wrinkled skin. Their performance, on the other hand, is as powerful as ever.

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been able to see them live in 2023. I was born well after their prime, let alone having grown up and being able to spend on concerts. And yet, they were there to dazzle me and thousands of others who otherwise wouldn’t have dreamt of this opportunity.

Their latest album came out in 2024. It was excellent, and from the looks of it, not their last.

Had a friend once, in a room
Had a good time but it ended much too soon
In a cold month, in that room
We found a reason for the things we had to do
— “When a Blind Man Cries” by Deep Purple </blockquote>

Goodbye Arc

2025-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

A couple of years ago, I wrote about my switch to Arc</a> on my macOS workstation. It has served me well. But then BCNY made the biggest mistake: they alienated their early adopters.
For over two years, Arc members did all sorts of cool things with it, shared it with the world, suggested interesting features and were generally a fun crowd to hang out with. I convinced about half a dozen people at work to try it out and ditch Chrome. This is only possible when a product is innovative, easy and generally fun. Arc nailed all of it.
But then the weekly goodies screeched to a halt. They focused their entire team on their newest endeavour: an AI browser called Dia. Arc was relegated to maintenance mode, where the only release notes are Chromium updates or the occasional security patch. The fun vibe was gone.
Even on the technical front, there wasn’t much to write home about. There were no plans for a Linux version. The Windows version was buggy. The mobile versions were severely lacking in features, and the missing sync on Android was a deal-breaker for me.
And don’t quote me on this, but I’m fairly sure they promised to open source it at some point. That never happened.
To put it simply: the only reason I used it at all was the smooth workflows it enabled with Spaces, Command Palette and Split View. On every other front, it was inferior to the mainstream browsers it was trying to beat.
On the other hand, an few months ago, I came across a Firefox-based browser called Zen</a>, that was trying to implement similar workflows. I tried the alpha, and quickly realised why it was alpha. It needed work.
More recently, I decided to give it another shot. At the time of writing, Zen is in beta, and is visually indistinguishable from Arc. They’re making no effort to hide the fact that it’s a blatant ripoff of Arc.
And you know what? That’s fine.
There are several reasons why it’s a better browser than Arc for me:

It is open source from day one.</li>
It is not Chromium. We need less Chromium in the world, not more.</li>
It syncs with Firefox, which I’ve been using everywhere except my workstation.</li>
It’s cross-platform, so I can use it on Linux.</li> </ul>
Sure, it’s still rough around the edges and some things are not as smooth as they were in Arc, but remember that it’s beta software, and things will only improve going forward.
All in all, it made perfect sense for me to switch to Zen for all my desktops while continuing to use Firefox on mobile.
So this is my message to Arc and BCNY: I am thankful to you for proving that browsers can be fun and innovative instead of a boring set of tabs. I am also disappointed that you didn’t see that vision through and changed directions midway. So you have no right to complain about Zen being a ripoff, because they’re only carrying forward the legacy which you abandoned.

Two-week Review of EvoFox Katana X2 Keyboard

2024-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

First things first: I’m no expert on mechanical keyboards.
In fact, this is my first mechanical keyboard after spending half my life on membrane keyboards and being perfectly happy with them. So while this is not an experienced review, it does come from someone who has been somewhat sceptical of mechanical keyboards.
Many people have told me about their superiority, but last month, a friend finally got into my head and I decided to try out an entry-level keyboard and see how it fares.

Spoiler alert: I wasn’t disappointed.
Buying experience: 3/5</h2>
I got myself the tenkeyless variant of EvoFox Katana X2</a> with blue switches and black colour. They have a white one with full-size layout and red switches, but that’s the only other variant at the time of writing. And on Amazon, this is listed as a variant of older generation Katana keyboards.
So while EvoFox makes good budget products, their cataloguing sucks.
I say good products, because I already have a game controller from them, which works great. So I took a leap of faith despite there being no reviews of this product other than the scant customer reviews on Flipkart and Amazon — which are extremely favourable.
Build quality: 4/5</h2>
The keyboard is sturdy and uses quality plastic. It is neither heavy nor light and can be easily carried in a backpack along with a laptop and a charger.
The keycaps are fairly stable, but not the most stable I’ve seen. It also claims a lifetime of 50 million keystrokes and comes with swappable switches.
Typing experience: 5/5</h2>
Feel</h3>
The tactile feedback is accurate, in that you can feel the exact millisecond the switch clicks. It is what you would expect from blue switches.
Sound</h3>
My more experienced friends have called it somewhat on the thockier side. I’ve felt the thock only on the larger keys like Enter</kbd>, Backspace</kbd> and Spacebar</kbd>, while the other keys sound clicky to me.
Speed</h3>
On membrane keyboards, I used to hit 60 to 70 words per minute depending on which typing tutor I use to measure. With the Katana X2, I was at a good 50 within the first hour of usage, and by the second day, I was at my usual speeds.
After a couple of weeks, I’m hitting 70 to 80 words per minute, which is slightly better than my previous best.
Other stuff</h2>
The keyboard comes with a handy volume control knob at the top right corner. It also lets you control the backlight brightness after a long press.
Speaking of backlight, it has rainbow lighting, with fixed colours for each key. There are a bunch of lighting effects, but I’m not interested in backlights at all, so I have no opinion on that.
Conclusion</h2>
If you’ve never tried mechanical keyboards and don’t want to spend a lot before you know you’re into the hobby, and you’re okay with a wired keyboard, then the EvoFox Katana X2 is for you. It’s a bargain at the price of ₹1799–₹1899.

Fixing the Stupid Defaults on macOS

2024-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

Why</h2>
My work laptop is usually a MacBook, and installing Linux on that is not possible for various reasons.
Now, being stuck with macOS isn’t all that bad. I’d take it any day over Windows. I even get to sync my dotfiles</a> across Linux and macOS.
That said, one of the first things I do after receiving a new MacBook for a project is fixing some of its silly defaults and making it somewhat more sensible</a>.
Auto-hide the dock</h2>
System Settings > Desktop & Dock > turn on Automatically hide and show the Dock
It’s not as smart as elementary OS, so it stays hidden even when there is no window blocking its space, but turning on this setting is more useful than giving so much real estate to something I rarely touch</a>.
Stop reordering spaces</h2>
System Settings > Desktop & Dock > turn off Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use
I don’t know who uses this, but I prefer to know exactly where my windows are instead of finding them by trial and error.
Scroll Reverser</h2>
Sometimes I use a mouse, sometimes the trackpad. I want natural scrolling on one but not the other, so I should change the setting for each of them, right?
Oh, my sweet summer child! Just because they are two different checkboxes doesn’t mean they are two different settings. They’re bound to the same thing. Changing one updates the other. The US really needs to do something about their drug problem.
But until then, install Scroll Reverser</a> to keep your sanity.
AltTab</h2>
What are all these background apps doing in my Cmd</kbd> + Tab</kbd> switcher? Why do I see apps from other spaces? Who invited Finder?
AltTab</a> fixes all that and lets you tweak it as per your needs.
Bluesnooze</h2>
You’re going for a walk, so you decide to play a podcast on your phone and listen to it on your earphones. But guess what? Your earphones get connected to your sleeping MacBook before your phone.
Now, you could open your backpack, take out your MacBook, unlock it, turn off Bluetooth and put it back in the pack. Or you could install Bluesnooze</a> and get on with your life.
There used to be a setting to turn off this (even then) abominable default, but it’s gone now.
Hidden Bar</h2>
No, this is not the name of a shady place you go to for cheap alcohol. Hidden Bar</a> is a tool to control the chaos of apps filling up your menu bar with icons you either never click or don’t want to look at because they’re ugly.

Two-week Review of Arc Browser

2022-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Arc Browser</a> had been making waves in my social media circles, so I was mildly intrigued by what they were making. But it is in closed preview at the time of writing, so I didn’t bother taking a deeper look. I was happy with Firefox.
That was until my friend Rahul mentioned he had been enjoying it and shared an invite to the preview. Now, after two weeks of using it as the primary browser on my macOS workstation, I want to share some thoughts.
What I like</h2>
Spaces and Profiles</h3>
Spaces are a way to group your tabs and bookmarks, which is Arc’s answer to multiple windows. Profiles, on the other hand, group your logins, much like Firefox Containers. The two features work well together.
I use these to separate my personal browsing, my work browsing and my client work browsing. I even colour-coded the Spaces to match the brand colours of the said companies, while choosing an autumn orange for my Personal Space.

This way, I can tell at a vague glance the Space I’m in right now. Switching Spaces with the touchpad gesture has become second nature in a short time.
Easels</h3>
You can capture any rectangular area on any web page and save it to a so-called Easel. This is like a sharable board to collect stuff from various parts of the web. You can even add text, pictures and arrows to it. Think of it like a love child of Excalidraw and Pinterest.
And that rectangle you captured? By default, it is an ordinary screenshot with a link to the source page. But the magic starts when you press the Play button on it. This will make it update live, so you can keep an eye on a part of a page without opening the entire page. Nifty!
I’ve been using an Easel to track my Inktober</a> progress. I added an image with the list of daily prompts and my to-do item which I could check right away. I also added links to the Mastodon and Twitter threads where I post the artworks.

This lifts the overhead of deciding what to do next: everything is (literally) laid out in front of me.
Command Bar</h3>
I use VS Code, so I’m used to summoning a genie text input and typing my wish.
Arc has this feature, and it’s pretty smart. Enter a URL, a web search query or a browser action, and it will know what to do.
Arc is also keyboard-friendly in general. Not only does it have good shortcuts, it also makes them easy to discover and change.
Little Arc</h3>
You’re in another app, say, Slack, and you click a link. You don’t have to switch over to the main browser window. You can choose to open a smaller window right there, do your thing and close it without switching contexts.
I use this to check out shared links and review small pull requests. If it needs more time and space, there’s a button to open it in the main browser window.
Boosts</h3>
This is a fancy name for what are traditionally known as user styles and user scripts, except that you don’t need to install an extension.
The idea is that you can add custom code to some or all websites and tweak them to your liking. People have used these to theme pages, add features and remove unwanted crap among other things.
The major difference is that Boosts in Arc are more approachable. You can choose from pre-built templates, which come with nice code comments to guide you through the process.
I’m yet to write my own Boost, but I’m more likely to write one for Arc than any other browser.
Also, by giving it a simple name and making it more developer-friendly, Arc could even create a marketplace to share and install public Boosts. I haven’t heard of any plans to do so yet — it’s a complicated undertaking — but they could if they wanted to.
Split view</h3>
This is what it says on the tin. You can split the window to see multiple tabs at once.
I have often wished for this in other browsers. While this can be solved by tiling two browser windows, I am not a fan of the window management in macOS, so a built-in split view is a boon.
What I don’t like</h2>
No reader mode</h3>
Websites like to smother their articles with cookie banners, pop-ups and other annoyances.
With a click of a button, I can get rid of it all and focus on the content, while being able to tweak the appearance to my liking. In Firefox, that is. I sorely miss this feature in Arc.
It’s only for macOS (for now)</h3>
My other devices are a phone (running Android), a laptop and a Raspberry Pi (both running Linux). Firefox syncs among all these devices. Arc does not (yet).
The next platform they’re planning to support is a logical choice, but one I couldn’t care less about: Windows.
It’s Chromium</h3>
It’s sad that yet another new browser has to contribute to the Chromium monopoly.
Even if I do swallow that pill, what’s harder for me is to get used to Chromium devtools. The UX just doesn’t compare to that of Firefox devtools. And while there are some brilliant designers working on Arc, they’re unlikely to change the devtools.
Furthermore, Arc uses the Chrome Web Store for extensions. This means I cannot install extensions which Google doesn’t like because they harm their ad business. The Firefox add-ons marketplace is much more relaxed in those terms.
Conclusion</h2>
Overall, I’m happy with the direction Arc is going in. I love the features and happily use it as my default browser. That said, there are few important things missing, so I will likely switch back to Firefox soon.
If you are reading this as a part of the Arc team, I will keep cheering for you (unless you do something terrible). All the best, and keep up the great work!
Update: 2023-03-25</h3>
Four months later, Arc is still my default browser, and I see no reason to switch away at this point. However, I am closely watching how the company plans to make profits. If they make a move that does not sit well with me ethically, I will pull out in a heartbeat.

On Going Back to the Office

2022-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

My workplace has asked everyone to start coming to office at least thrice a week. Each team picks which three weekdays are best suited to them.
This means that I will be moving to Bengaluru this week and find a place to stay somewhere close to work.
I, for one, am excited about this.
Work From Where?</h2>
There’s a narrative that says knowledge workers no longer need offices, because they are equally productive working from home. While I respect their choice, I find myself to feel much better about my job — and life in general — while working from an office.
For one, it helps you set a clear boundary between work and not-work. Your mind gets into either mode based on where you are.
Furthermore, as a developer, you do much more than just write code. You spend a lot of time talking to people. You discuss requirements, ask for help, give help, clarify things and review code to name a few.
All this is possible to do over the internet, no doubt. But I find it much more organic, much more human to do it in person.
Our brains are more accustomed to reading facial expressions and body language than they are at processing words. And it is much easier to showcase your intent through these. Heck, it’s harder to hide your intent.
For example, while providing critical feedback, you don’t want to come across as bossy or arrogant. No matter how good you are at language, this is hard to do with mere words and emoji. But wearing a kind, friendly expression on your face is so natural that you don’t even stop and think about it. Think about it.
There’s a reason people are regularly misunderstood on social media.
Note: I am saying all this from a subjective, neurotypical viewpoint. I mean no disrespect to people who cannot or don’t want to work from an office for any reason.
Not-work Work</h2>
Moving from living with my parents to living on my own also comes with an advantage. I get more time and space to work on things that matter the most to me: side projects, open source and pixel art.
I have been procrastinating for far too long, and it’s about time I went back to following my own advice</a>.

Creating Underlined Hyperlinks in Inkscape

2021-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

Sometimes you want to create a vector graphic résumé or an infographic and export it as PDF. Doing this is easy in Inkscape using its Print function to create a file instead of printing on paper.
If your document has a web or email address, it is a good idea to make it clickable, so that anyone looking at the PDF doesn't have to copy and paste the address.
I'll show you how to do that.
Creating a link</h2>
Using the Select tool (the mouse-pointer arrow thing), select the object which you want to turn into a hyperlink. This will usually be text, but it can be anything: a rectangle, a path, a vectorized taco, anything.

Now right click on this object and select Create Link.
This will open up a pane on the right that looks like this:

In the Href field, type your address:

That's it. There's no Apply button. Your object is now clickable. Go home.
But there's a problem. Our text doesn't look like it's clickable.
Adding an underline</h2>
The most foolproof way to make text look like a link is to underline it.
To do that, open the Object menu at the top of your window, and select an option called Selectors and CSS…. Then select your text object. This will open up another pane to the right:

What you see is a table of the various style properties applied to the text under the hood. These are the defaults, but we want to add one more property here.
Click the + icon at the top left corner. It will add a new row.
Start typing text-decoration</kbd>.

You can select the suggestion. Once done, press Tab</kbd> to go to the next column. Here, type underline</kbd> and hit Enter</kbd>.

Boom! You have your underline.

But it's not over yet.
What if you, like myself, are not a fan of pure black text on white, and prefer some colour in your life? A black underline is no good.
Colouring the underline</h2>
Easy. In the same pane where you added the underline, add another property called text-decoration-color</kbd>.

In the right column goes your colour's hex code, #156255</kbd> in my case.

You should see the coloured underline now!

References</h2>

This one</a></li>
This one</a></li>
And this one</a></li> </ul>

Implementing a ‘Select all’ Checkbox Using ES6 Set

2020-11-21T00:00:00+00:00

Problem statement</h2>
Say you have a list of selectable items like emails or todos. There’s a checkbox next to each item, and the user can select multiple items to do some action with them.
Since you love your users, you don’t want them to always select items one by one, so you provide a ‘Select all’ checkbox. There are four criteria you need to fulfill:

On checking the ‘Select all’ checkbox, all item checkboxes should be checked.</li>
On unchecking the ‘Select all’ checkbox, all item checkboxes should be unchecked.</li>
On individually checking each item checkbox, the ‘Select all’ checkbox should also be checked.</li>
On unchecking at least one item checkbox, the ‘Select all’ checkbox should also be unchecked.</li> </ol>
Why use a set?</h2>
You could use an array for this, and indeed, most of the code I have mentioned can be adapted for an array. However, we put our selected items in a set for these reasons:

We don’t care about the order.</li>
Removing an item from a set is trivial: just call .delete(item)</code>. It’s not so easy for arrays. You have to find the index of that item, either implicitly or explicitly.</li>
You don’t have to look out for duplicate items while adding or removing them.</li>
You don’t have to look out for empty slots after removing items.</li> </ul> I am going to provide a step-by-step solution to this. The code uses Svelte, but you should be able to adapt it to React, Angular, Vue or any other framework. Step 1: Display the checkboxes</h2> In our <List></code> component, we define an array of items and render each item in a list of checkboxes. <script> const ducks = ['Huey', 'Dewey', 'Louie']; </script> <style> ol { list-style-type: none; padding-left: 0; } </style> <ol> {#each ducks as duck} <li> <input type="checkbox" id={duck} value={duck}> <label for={duck}>{duck}</label> </li> {/each} </ol></code></pre> This works as you might expect. Step 2: Add a ‘Select all’ checkbox</h2> We do this by adding another <li></code> above the loop. <ol> <li> <input type="checkbox" id="select-all"> <label for="select-all"><strong>Select all</strong></label> </li> {#each ducks as duck} <li> <input type="checkbox" id={duck} value={duck}> <label for={duck}>{duck}</label> </li> {/each} </ol></code></pre> It will, again, meet expectations. Step 3: Define a set to hold the selected values</h2> We initialize an empty set called selectedDucks</code>. Every time a user checks a box, we add it to the set. Every time they uncheck one, we remove it from the set. <script> const ducks = ['Huey', 'Dewey', 'Louie']; let selectedDucks = new Set(); const onCheckDuck = event => { if (event.target.checked) { selectedDucks.add(event.target.value); } else { selectedDucks.delete(event.target.value); } selectedDucks = selectedDucks; }; </script></code></pre> Notice how we add a redundant assignment? selectedDucks = selectedDucks;</code> would do nothing in plain JavaScript, but we need it here to tell Svelte to rerender the component. Calling methods like .add()</code> and .delete()</code> on a set does not rerender it. Next, we bind onCheckDuck</code> to the change</code> event on the checkboxes. {#each ducks as duck} <li> <input type="checkbox" id={duck} value={duck} checked={selectedDucks.has(duck)} on:change={onCheckDuck}> <label for={duck}>{duck}</label> </li> {/each}</code></pre> We bind the checked</code> attribute of each item to its presence in the set. We need to do this one-way binding so that if the set is updated from elsewhere (which it will), the checkbox gets checked too. Step 4: Bind the ‘Select all’ checkbox</h2> Just like the item checkboxes, we handle the change</code> event on the ‘Select all’ checkbox too. The difference is that when it is checked, we add all the items to the set, and when it is unchecked, we clear the set. This will affect the checked</code> attribute on item checkboxes, thus satisfying our first two criteria. const onSelectAll = event => { if (event.target.checked) { selectedDucks = new Set(ducks); } else { selectedDucks.clear(); } selectedDucks = selectedDucks; };</code></pre><li> <input type="checkbox" id="select-all" checked={selectedDucks.size === ducks.length} on:change={onSelectAll}> <label for="select-all"><strong>Select all</strong></label> </li></code></pre> Did you see how we bound the checked</code> attribute based on the size of the set? This way, the ‘Select all’ checkbox will get automatically checked and unchecked depending on whether all the item checkboxes are checked. This satisfies the third and fourth criteria. That’s all, folks!</h2> We used a set to define which items the user has selected. Based on the contents of the set, we checked and unchecked a ‘Select all’ button. We also handled user interaction on the ‘Select all’ checkbox to fill or empty the set, which in turn checks or unchecks the item checkboxes. Here is the full code for your reference. <script> const ducks = ['Huey', 'Dewey', 'Louie']; let selectedDucks = new Set(); const onCheckDuck = event => { if (event.target.checked) { selectedDucks.add(event.target.value); } else { selectedDucks.delete(event.target.value); } selectedDucks = selectedDucks; }; const onSelectAll = event => { if (event.target.checked) { selectedDucks = new Set(ducks); } else { selectedDucks.clear(); } selectedDucks = selectedDucks; }; </script> <style> ol { list-style-type: none; padding-left: 0; } </style> <ol> <li> <input type="checkbox" id="select-all" checked={selectedDucks.size === ducks.length} on:change={onSelectAll}> <label for="select-all"><strong>Select all</strong></label> </li> {#each ducks as duck} <li> <input type="checkbox" id={duck} value={duck} checked={selectedDucks.has(duck)} on:change={onCheckDuck}> <label for={duck}>{duck}</label> </li> {/each} </ol> <p>{selectedDucks.size} ducks selected.</p></code></pre>
Creation and Consumption 2020-11-05T00:00:00+00:00 The activities you do in your free time fall into three categories: creation, recreation and consumption. In this post, I want to highlight the contrast and the relation between creation and consumption. Creation is when you produce something previously nonexistent. This includes writing, cooking, painting, playing music and coding to name a few. These are activities you will always find rewarding. Consumption is when you ingest content created by someone else. This could be reading, listening to music, watching a movie or browsing social media. Consumption may or may not be rewarding, depending on what you consume. Creation cannot exist in itself. You have to consume to create. You cannot be a chef without first understanding how your ingredients blend together. You cannot produce good music without having listened to some. Unlike creation, consumption can exist in itself. You can spend all your time consuming, but it won’t take you far. Sure, reading a good book or listening to an insightful podcast will give you knowledge. But knowledge alone is futile if you don’t also apply it. This is where creation comes in. It is the application of what you know from consumption. You will find your time to be the most fulfilling when you balance creation and consumption. The general principle you want to follow is: Spend as much time as you can creating something. Do it until you run out of ideas.</li> When you’re out of ideas, consume. Not just anything, mind you. Consume with the intention to create more. Be a picky consumer.</li> </ul> Once you fall into this virtuous cycle, you will never find yourself bored, idle or disappointed in yourself. It will give you a sense of achievement and satisfaction that you can never find with consumption alone.The Keyboard Is Mightier than the Pen 2020-09-24T00:00:00+00:00 We have all been “writing” since we were toddlers. But it’s only after a certain age that we start writing for ourselves, if at all. The mode in which we write depends on our personal choices, the time we were born in, and the environment we work or study in. As for me, any non-trivial writing I have ever done falls into one of three modes: handwriting: for all my formal education (~18 years)</li> glide typing: since I started using a smartphone in 2011 (~9 years and counting)</li> touch typing</a> on a hardware keyboard: since I started my first job in 2014 (~6 years and counting)</li> </ul> I stopped using pen and paper the moment I stepped out of college. Few people will agree, but using the pen is an activity I find painful and tedious. This could be because my last memories of using a pen are largely negative. School and college required students to submit long, written assignments at the end of each term. Few students put any brain into it. I find this an unproductive, unnecessary chore which yields zero value to education. As if that is not enough, there is little focus on actual programming in courses like Computer Science and Information Technology. I graduated in the latter, and landed a software job, yet I could not touch type. Because I rarely needed to type at all. Such is the plight of the Indian education system. That said, I’m not the one to whine. My first role at the said job was that of a manual tester. And I was unamused at the prospect of listing test scenarios in a spreadsheet. So I used that to my advantage. I forced myself to touch type. It was painstaking at first: I would take three seconds to type one key. It would appear as though the spreadsheet program was stuck. But I had been watching Naruto at the time and had learnt not to give up. One month later, touch typing became second nature. Thinking back, this month-long practice is one of the best life decisions I’ve made. To this day, I find touch typing to be the optimal way of putting down my thoughts. It puts me into a natural state of flow. Whether I am writing a blog post, styling a web page, or free writing</a>, the experience is nothing short of meditative. Funnily though, this is the mode of writing I have spent the least time with: a mere third of what I have spent handwriting. As it happens, my preference of mode is inversely proportional to the time I have spent using it. Touch typing is my go-to solution. If not possible, I will glide type on my smartphone. I do not own a pen. And like any touch typist, I have strong preferences when it comes to the keyboard. I am a gentle typist. My previous boss used to say that it was always an enjoyable experience to watch me typing. He said that the way I swiftly but silently pressed the keys, the keyboard would last centuries. And when you type gently, a mechanical keyboard doesn’t work for you. Chiclet is the way to go. The one on my Dell Vostro is so perfect that it’s a reason I still use</a> the seven-year-old machine as my primary device. But never go too far with chiclets. Apple did</a>. While I am by no means their fan, I need to use a MacBook Pro for work. And I’m glad the 2020 MacBooks got rid of that butterfly monstrosity. Life with Low-end Hardware 2020-09-20T00:00:00+00:00 I am 28, and I have only owned two personal computers in my lifetime. Excluding workstations, I have had one desktop and one laptop. Desktop (2007–2015)</h2> This one had a CRT monitor, a single-core AMD Sempron processor, an 80 GB hard drive and 256 MB of RAM, later upgraded to 1.25 GB. It was my high school machine and my father’s occasional taxation machine. It came with Windows XP, which I later replaced with various Linux distributions. Now decommissioned and sold, I thank it for sparking in me the curiosity about computer science, programming and open source. Dell Vostro 2520 (2013–present)</h2> The laptop has a 15.6″ 1366×768 display, a dual-core 3rd generation i5, no dedicated graphics and 4 GB of RAM. I upgraded the 500 GB spinning hard drive to a 480 GB SSD last year. It is a clunky box with ancient tech: a DVD drive, an RJ45 port, a VGA port and (by today’s standards) an HDMI port. Forget Type-C, it does not even have USB 3.0. There are three USB 2.0 ports, supported well even today. I bought it with Ubuntu, then distrohopped</a> for a bit before settling down with elementary OS</a>. This has been my primary machine for seven years and counting. In 2020, this might sound like weak, barely running hardware, and you won’t be entirely wrong. Yet, I haven’t felt the need to replace it, even though I can afford it. Let me tell you why this machine is brilliant. It is economic.</h3> I got it for ₹33,000 (about $450). Then I made two screen replacements, two battery replacements and one SSD upgrade. The total cost including purchase has been less than ₹65,000 (about $885). The keyboard is excellent.</h3> The keys are neither as flimsy as MacBook’s butterfly keyboard nor as hard as a mechanical keyboard. They are “Goldilocks” easy to press. It works.</h3> It serves all my needs without breaking a sweat. Without the fans going off, it can: emulate</a> Nintendo 3DS games at 100% speed</li> run Firefox, VSCodium</a> and a Node.js server with no lag</li> compile Vala apps in seconds</li> build my website in milliseconds</li> </ul> I realize that a lot of this is thanks to the SSD and would not have been so impressive before the upgrade. But as mentioned before, it is economic. But it’s growing old.</h3> It’s not all rainbows and butterflies. The device’s age shows in a few areas: The 1366×768 resolution is fine, but I am spoilt by my HiDPI workstation.</li> The touchpad is tiny. (Again, spoilt by workstation, but I have a mouse).</li> The camera applies funky filters to your image unless you pinch the bezel.</li> </ul> There’s this balance of good and bad things about it, and it is inevitably approaching a tipping point where the bad outweighs the good. That being said, my old buddy can pull off a few months to a year before I need an upgrade. Final thoughts</h2> The bottom line is that it is okay to be conservative about hardware purchases. Quality hardware will last several years without needing a replacement. The Making of This Site 2020-09-19T00:00:00+00:00 TL;DR: I moved from WordPress to a superfast static site. Here’s the source code</a>. This is not my first site. I’ve had a WordPress blog hosted on this domain since 2013. And I recommend WordPress to anyone who wants their own site but cannot write HTML and CSS. Then why did I move away from it? Because I can. As an experienced web developer, I was itching to write my own site by hand. Reasons being: I wanted to tune the performance and accessibility in very specific ways.</li> I wanted it to be a static site, which makes it inherently faster than WordPress.</li> I wanted to add personal style and navigation that was only possible if I wrote the code myself.</li> </ul> And thus began my hunt for the right tools. Static Site Generator</h2> A static site generator</a> is a program which takes your content and puts it into nice-looking HTML pages. You can then host these on any static web server. No back end needed. There’s no shortage of such generators on the internet. But I needed something that could build my site in milliseconds, even on my low-end hardware</a>. This led me to two choices: Hugo</a> and Zola</a>. After trying them both for a while, I decided to go with Zola for its relative simplicity and ease of learning. I knew I’d miss out on the huge community that comes with Hugo. But thanks to Zola’s excellent documentation and forum, I rarely felt stuck. The number of community themes was irrelevant to me since I planned to write my own. Turbolinks</del> Turbo</h2> One day, I landed on a post on taniarascia.com</a> from a web search. The site looked so clean that I decided to explore it, and was floored by how fast the navigation was. Unvisited pages opened as if they were stored offline. Something was fishy. I dug around the site to find a post</a> about how it was made (much like this one). It uses Gatsby, which turns the site into a single-page application. Each page load is a JSON call, and even that is likely preloaded</a> by the current page. I had no intention of switching away from Zola, but I wanted this superpower. I remembered seeing a GitHub repo that can do something similar to a site using traditional navigation. I peeped into my Pensieve (read: Firefox history) and came out with Turbolinks</a>. (Update: Now using Turbo</a>, the successor to Turbolinks.) This library hijacks all same-origin hyperlinks on your site and fetches them in the background. Then, without causing a full page reload, it swaps out the <body></code> and merges the <head></code>, making navigation blazing fast. This way, you can still use old-school hyperlinks and your site will behave like a single-page application. The best part about Turbo that there’s nothing to configure. Load it in a <script></code> and it starts working. And if a browser doesn’t support JavaScript, links work like they always have. Everybody wins! Which brings me to— Progressive Enhancement</h2> It shouldn’t take a read-through of Resilient Web Design</a> to understand the importance of progressive enhancement. My site had to work on everything from a command-line browser to a full-blown Firefox. And that’s easy. Use accessible, semantic markup, and serve it without any client-side DOM manipulation. Everything else is an addition. Even CSS. Snazzy Underlines</h3> I was itching to use the new underline styles</a> now possible with pure CSS. At the time of writing, they only fully work on Firefox. How do I not break</a> over 90% of the web for some snazzy effect I felt like adding? Feature queries to the rescue. CSS supports the @supports</code> at-rule to detect whether the browser supports a declaration. Then you can write separate styles for supporting and non-supporting browsers. The only problem is IE support. It doesn’t support @supports</code>, so I don’t support it. Fine, I’ll stop saying ‘support’. Keyboard Navigation</h3> You can navigate the menus and lists on some pages using arrow keys and Vim-style HJKL keys. You’re welcome. This is a feature that games and CLI apps offer out of the box but is rare on the web. I wrote some JavaScript</a> to enable it where it makes sense. This is another progressive enhancement. You can still click the links as usual, with or without JavaScript. Design</h2> I felt I should let my retrogaming interest ooze into my site, so I originally designed it to look like a game straight out of 1990. The font I’d have used for headings and menus was Press Start 2P</a>. This is also why I wanted keyboard navigation: to emulate a game controller. That dream did not last long. I picked the brilliant Recursive</a> font for body text. I tried it on headings too, and it looked so good that I dropped the whole blockiness idea and used Recursive for everything. Update 2020-09-28</h3> After publishing the site online, I found myself writing about serious topics, and Recursive didn’t seem to fit the image of “serious”. But I was cautious about adding multiple fonts since Recursive offered so much in one font resource. After reading some typography advice from Erik D. Kennedy</a> and Jeremiah Shoaf</a>, I decided to try a few different approaches to font selection. Some experimentation with Google Fonts and many iterations led me to what you see today: serious, but not too much so. I even added a nice light color scheme, which looks even better than the dark one with the new typography. Update 2020-10-03</h3> I rebranded from Dubious Disc to prose&const and refreshed the home page and navigation styles. Again, I applied the UI design lessons learnt from the two brilliant folks mentioned above. Moreover, I no longer have to compete for search results with Pokémon</a>. Performance</h2> Need I say more? Final thoughts</h2> While this lacks many common features, I am happy with the result. It’s fast, responsive, privacy-respecting, open source</a>, and most importantly, it’s mine. It is exactly how I want it to be. I recommend this to anyone who knows HTML and CSS (and has the time): if you want to make a site, write it yourself. Not only does it give you street cred and bragging rights, it is also more satisfying and rewarding. And of course, you learn a lot along the way. Machine Learning for the Offline Web 2019-02-22T00:00:00+00:00 Offline Web apps are finally a thing. The cleverest of ideas which were previously only imagination, are now reality. Thanks to the various storage mechanisms provided by modern browsers, it is now possible to save machine learning models directly on the client side. You can then use these to produce outputs without requiring a connection with the server. This post demonstrates how to do that. How to Write Unfancy Web Apps 2015-12-19T00:00:00+00:00 Ever since the advent of HTML5 and ES6, the web is moving forward at the speed of the Millennium Falcon. While the world was still in awe at Angular's superpowers, the React phenomenon happened. And while the average corporate Java dev gets over the overwhelming pace of events, Angular 2 and Polymer will be ready to refill their pile of things to be amazed at. And that is a good thing. It means better APIs, better developer ergonomics, and most importantly, better resulting products. However, sometimes people forget that they do not need a Batmobile to get to the grocery store. When you're building a simple web app that does one small thing, you do not need an MV* framework, with a component-driven view layer, powered by a Swiss Army CSS Toolkit. All you need is the bare minimum abstraction, just enough to save you from the nitty-gritty of the raw JavaScript and CSS.… Making BCM43142 Wireless Chipset Work on Debian 2013-10-13T00:00:00+00:00 So I couldn't get WiFi to work on my SolydK installation. It does come with a nifty tool called 'Device Driver Manager', but even that couldn't find a driver for my wireless chipset, the Broadcom BCM43142. Some other Broadcom drivers sure are available in the Debian repos, but this one isn't. So I did the only sensible thing to do: searched the Web. And here's the solution.…

Typing experience: 5/5</h2>

Feel</h3>
The tactile feedback is accurate, in that you can feel the exact millisecond the switch clicks. It is what you would expect from blue switches.</p>

Sound</h3>
My more experienced friends have called it somewhat on the thockier side. I’ve felt the thock only on the larger keys like `Enter</kbd>, Backspace</kbd> and Spacebar</kbd>, while the other keys sound clicky to me.</p>`

Conclusion</h2>
If you’ve never tried mechanical keyboards and don’t want to spend a lot before you know you’re into the hobby, and you’re okay with a wired keyboard, then the EvoFox Katana X2 is for you. It’s a bargain at the price of ₹1799–₹1899.</p>

AltTab</h2>
What are all these background apps doing in my `Cmd</kbd> + Tab</kbd> switcher? Why do I see apps from other spaces? Who invited Finder?</p>`
AltTab</a> fixes all that and lets you tweak it as per your needs.</p>

Hidden Bar</h2>
No, this is not the name of a shady place you go to for cheap alcohol. Hidden Bar</a> is a tool to control the chaos of apps filling up your menu bar with icons you either never click or don’t want to look at because they’re ugly.</p>

What I don’t like</h2>

Update: 2023-03-25</h3>
Four months later, Arc is still my default browser, and I see no reason to switch away at this point. However, I am closely watching how the company plans to make profits. If they make a move that does not sit well with me ethically, I will pull out in a heartbeat.</p>

References</h2>

This one</a></li>
This one</a></li>
And this one</a></li> </ul>

The keyboard is excellent.</h3>
The keys are neither as flimsy as MacBook’s butterfly keyboard nor as hard as a mechanical keyboard. They are “Goldilocks” easy to press.</p>

Final thoughts</h2>
The bottom line is that it is okay to be conservative about hardware purchases. Quality hardware will last several years without needing a replacement.</p>

prose&const

Deep Purple, jQuery and the role of legacy

Goodbye Arc

Two-week Review of EvoFox Katana X2 Keyboard

Fixing the Stupid Defaults on macOS

Two-week Review of Arc Browser

On Going Back to the Office

Creating Underlined Hyperlinks in Inkscape

Implementing a ‘Select all’ Checkbox Using ES6 Set

Creation and Consumption

The Keyboard Is Mightier than the Pen

Life with Low-end Hardware

The Making of This Site

Machine Learning for the Offline Web

How to Write Unfancy Web Apps

Making BCM43142 Wireless Chipset Work on Debian

prose&const

Deep Purple, jQuery and the role of legacy

Goodbye Arc

Two-week Review of EvoFox Katana X2 Keyboard

Typing experience: 5/5</h2>

Feel</h3> The tactile feedback is accurate, in that you can feel the exact millisecond the switch clicks. It is what you would expect from blue switches.</p>

Sound</h3> My more experienced friends have called it somewhat on the thockier side. I’ve felt the thock only on the larger keys like Enter</kbd>, Backspace</kbd> and Spacebar</kbd>, while the other keys sound clicky to me.</p>

Conclusion</h2> If you’ve never tried mechanical keyboards and don’t want to spend a lot before you know you’re into the hobby, and you’re okay with a wired keyboard, then the EvoFox Katana X2 is for you. It’s a bargain at the price of ₹1799–₹1899.</p>

Fixing the Stupid Defaults on macOS

Why</h2> My work laptop is usually a MacBook, and installing Linux on that is not possible for various reasons.</p>

Two-week Review of Arc Browser

What I don’t like</h2>

Update: 2023-03-25</h3> Four months later, Arc is still my default browser, and I see no reason to switch away at this point. However, I am closely watching how the company plans to make profits. If they make a move that does not sit well with me ethically, I will pull out in a heartbeat.</p>

On Going Back to the Office

Creating Underlined Hyperlinks in Inkscape

Implementing a ‘Select all’ Checkbox Using ES6 Set

Creation and Consumption

The Keyboard Is Mightier than the Pen

Life with Low-end Hardware

The keyboard is excellent.</h3> The keys are neither as flimsy as MacBook’s butterfly keyboard nor as hard as a mechanical keyboard. They are “Goldilocks” easy to press.</p>

It works.</h3> It serves all my needs without breaking a sweat.</p> Without the fans going off, it can:</p>

Final thoughts</h2> The bottom line is that it is okay to be conservative about hardware purchases. Quality hardware will last several years without needing a replacement.</p>

The Making of This Site

Machine Learning for the Offline Web

How to Write Unfancy Web Apps

Making BCM43142 Wireless Chipset Work on Debian

Feel</h3>
The tactile feedback is accurate, in that you can feel the exact millisecond the switch clicks. It is what you would expect from blue switches.</p>

Sound</h3>
My more experienced friends have called it somewhat on the thockier side. I’ve felt the thock only on the larger keys like `Enter</kbd>, Backspace</kbd> and Spacebar</kbd>, while the other keys sound clicky to me.</p>`

Conclusion</h2>
If you’ve never tried mechanical keyboards and don’t want to spend a lot before you know you’re into the hobby, and you’re okay with a wired keyboard, then the EvoFox Katana X2 is for you. It’s a bargain at the price of ₹1799–₹1899.</p>

Update: 2023-03-25</h3>
Four months later, Arc is still my default browser, and I see no reason to switch away at this point. However, I am closely watching how the company plans to make profits. If they make a move that does not sit well with me ethically, I will pull out in a heartbeat.</p>

The keyboard is excellent.</h3>
The keys are neither as flimsy as MacBook’s butterfly keyboard nor as hard as a mechanical keyboard. They are “Goldilocks” easy to press.</p>

Final thoughts</h2>
The bottom line is that it is okay to be conservative about hardware purchases. Quality hardware will last several years without needing a replacement.</p>