RE: https://mastodon.social/@webstandards_dev/117054222703928252

This article by @leaverou not only proposes a new best practice for this particular UI feature (a light/dark mode toggle for websites), it also sets out a nice example of how to approach UX decisions.

By *complicating* the internal logic, to factor in the interactions between the user's system-wide light/dark preferences and their preferences for this particular website, Lea was able to *simplify* the user interface down to a single switch-mode toggle, while still supporting an "unset" option.

Bill Oliver, a member of Canada's Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick delivered a speech:

"Public confidence in the office of an advocate matters" he said then, without pausing, Oliver continued:

"Here's a more natural, flowing version of that section that reads like a legislative speech rather than a series of short points..."

He then turns beat red and just keeps reading the AI generated text hoping that no one noticed.

Everyone noticed.

@Wilto of JavaScript for Everyone fame here breaking down the secret third option for JavaScript comments.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@verge/117010425511942166

In related news, the EU now requires publishers & social media platforms to label all "AI" algorithm-generated text & image content.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/07/28/eu-tells-firms-to-label-ai-generated-content-from-sunday_6755910_4.html

(But still, I love that LinkedIn is actually using the term "AI slop" in their UI to describe generated filler text. The tides, they are turning.)

I made an accessibility error in one of my recent videos, and I want you to learn from my mistake:

WordPress updates required: https://wordpress.org/news/2026/07/wordpress-7-0-2-release/

> The attack has no preconditions and can be exploited by an anonymous user in a stock install of WordPress with no plugins — https://slcyber.io/research-center/wp2shell-pre-authentication-rce-in-wordpress-core/

This is a big one.

“(...) standalone generative AI systems, based on unlawful web scraping, are in conflict with international human rights law (...) and standards through their design, development and deployment. While these technologies promise sophisticated automation and efficiency, they rely on data collection and model training practices that abuse privacy rights, enable discrimination, and threaten freedom of expression and thought.”

(via Amnesty International)

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol40/0996/2026/en/

Reading that whole OpenAI post describing them unleashing a bunch of bots on Hugging Face as an "unprecedented cyber incident," is a master class in branding and marketing. Lol and branding what happened as OpenAI now working to "help calibrate on what models are now capable of" is top notch propaganda skills.

If declarations in conditionals were possible ( @tc39 proposal being discussed right now!) what would you expect this to log?

let foo = 1;
if (let foo = 0) { console.log(foo) }
else { console.log(foo) }

If you're dealing with SVG icons you probably know the pain of overwriting colors. There's a new spec in the making that allows controlling CSS variables from "the outside". And it's shipping in Firefox already!

https://drafts.csswg.org/css-link-params-1/

I hate to say it, but I’ve started optimizing my code review comments for LLMs.

Usually, I like to frame my review comments as suggestions that are open to collaboration and discussion, but if I sense an LLM will be involved, I change that to be more direct and explicit about what I want.

For Instagram, my art is "Likely made with AI". Hard to be an artist in 2026...

If your OSS isn’t about politics then it’s just you doing free labor for companies.

On a Mastodon server?

Go to your profile on the website, click that "Edit Profile" banner, then click the camera icons (labelled "Replace Image") over your banner and profile images. You'll now get a pop-up menu with the option to add alt text.

Very nice that you can image describe profile pics and banners now!

Accessibility is resistance! by @tink
"Those of us who use AI to compensate but also recognise the need to resist AI need your help. For 30 years we've been asked, silently and implicitly, to use a web that hasn't been designed or built for us, and AI offers us a solution.
"If you want to resist AI, make accessibility part of everything you do, every decision you make, every product you design and build."
https://tink.uk/accessibility-is-resistance/
#accessibility #a11y

Feels like all of us (even people w/out a car) need to pay way more attention to the WTAF new rules affecting EU and US folk, requiring all new cars to include a driver monitoring camera aimed at your face.

"Glance at your phone, your kids in the back seat, or the radio for too long, and the car will flash a warning light and sound an alert," reads a recent post from Allaboutcookies.org.

https://allaboutcookies.org/eu-mandatory-distracted-driver-system

First spotted this story in the Risky Business newsletter yesterday and have been reading as much as I can about it ever since. https://risky.biz/RBNEWS587/

Risky's @campuscodi writes the new regulation has entered into effect in the EU on Monday and will enter into effect next year in the US. In the EU, the new camera requirement is part of the block's second General Safety Regulation (GSR2), a broader swath of new safety rules introduced for the auto industry and designed to improve road safety.

https://www.inkl.com/news/new-eu-car-safety-rules-take-effect-7-july-how-your-car-could-monitor-you

https://www.gadgetreview.com/federal-surveillance-tech-becomes-mandatory-in-new-cars-by-2027

This is some next level Orwellian shit. My dreams of one day replacing one of our cars with an electric vehicle just got much darker.

The Website Specification is an attempt at creating a spec, that answers the question “regardless of the stack you build on, what should a good website do? “. This covers 160 topics, organised in a checklist from foundations to accessibility, SEO, security and beyond and comes with a MCP if you want to run it via an agent. A project by Joost de Valk

https://specification.website/

📝 New CSS Article!

I wrote about border-shape. A super powerful feature! You might think I'm exaggerating but I am not.

https://css-tricks.com/get-ready-for-the-powerful-css-border-shape-property/

This is just a tiny overview of its potential. Stay tuned for more articles/demos that will blow your mind (I am still not exaggerating!)

#CSS #HTML

Why bother with time zones when you can just offload this problem on your user’s shoulders? Lazy Vattenfall bastards 🙄

(pressing “Continue” reloads the page)