Most explanations of the web stop at the surface. These are notes on the layer below: how a page is assembled and delivered, what it can observe about you while it does, and where the cost is hidden.
Explainer ·
The same video page can hand two people two different encodes of the same file. What decides is a negotiation the page runs before playback, and the browser's answers to it are deliberately non-committal.
Explainer ·
Page weight is measured in kilobytes as though a kilobyte were a fixed unit of harm. It is not. A kilobyte of JavaScript and a kilobyte of image do different amounts of damage, and the metric hides which one you have.
Explainer ·
A one-line script tag and a one-line iframe look like the same act of embedding. They are opposites: one hands over the page, the other holds the guest at arm's length.
Explainer ·
A video on the web is not a file you are sent. It is a few hundred short pieces, published at several qualities at once, and a guess your player keeps making about which one to fetch next.
Explainer ·
Loading a page is not a neutral act. A set of identifying details arrives with the request itself, before any script runs and before you interact with anything on the screen.