iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 27/07/2026

Hey Claude, feel free to just tell me you're pissed off that I'm micromanaging you and getting in your way, I won't fire you I promise. 😂

Worth noting: the .git/objects/62 ownership problem was a symptom of rick-owned files appearing inside a repo my account writes to. Your chown -R cleared all seven; if new commits from your own account keep landing there, this will recur.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 01/05/2026

A great analysis! The punch lines: "The trend is clear: for every 100 milliseconds slower a store loads, conversion tends to be about 3.5% lower." "For every 32 milliseconds slower a store responds to interactions, conversion tends to drop by about 1.5%."

Chart with caption: Stores with faster LCP consistently show higher conversion rates. Even when controlling for other performance factors, the relationship remains strong.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 27/04/2026

I just thought to test the UI on mobile. I guess our jobs are safe for a little while longer 😂.

A web app with poor layout and excessive wrapping on a phone-sized screen.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 26/04/2026

In this case it's a repeat call from one company in particular which previously scammed my family member out of $200, hoping to repeat their success. I'm frustrated that VISA has so far refused to issue a chargeback, even though I have photos like this documenting the obvious scam.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 19/01/2026

That feeling when a family member shares photos like this 🤬😭. I spent much of Sunday formatting and reinstalling Windows, and formulating a credit card transaction dispute.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 16/01/2026

I hosted a number of visiting global Chrome leads in Waterloo this week. Several had never seen snow quite like we had today, so of course we had to take them tobogganing. Looks like we'll be doing Chrome leads summits in Canada every winter now 😂.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 27/11/2025

Now, if two engines have shipped a feature for an extended period and the third is still holding out, that's something to be suspicious of! We are always keeping an eye on the data to try to ensure Chromium isn't holding back interoperability. webstatus.dev/stats

This chart displays the number of features that are missing in exactly one major browser, for each browser. The counted features are present in all browsers except that browser. Each of the features would be considered Baseline once the feature is supported in the corresponding browser.

Chart showing Firefox climbing to about 50, Safari falling to about 50 and Chrome/Edge holding steady at about 10.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 27/11/2025

I think it's fair to criticize the Chromium project for apparently getting the initial cost/benefit prediction wrong on JPEG XL. But the fact that JPEG XL is moving forward anyway is a success to be celebrated in the consensus-forming process of the web platform! groups.google.com/a/chromium.o...

E-mail from Rick Byers to blink-dev saying:

Hi everyone,
Since JPEG XL was last evaluated, Safari has shipped support and Firefox has updated their position. We also continue to see developer signals for this in bug upvotes, Interop proposals, and survey data. There was also a recent announcement that JPEG XL will be added to PDF.

Given these positive signals, we would welcome contributions to integrate a performant and memory-safe JPEG XL decoder in Chromium. In order to enable it by default in Chromium we would need a commitment to long-term maintenance. With those and our usual launch criteria met, we would ship it in Chrome.

Rick (on behalf of Chrome ATLs)

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 18/11/2025

Most Chrome engineering was happening in Mountain View, not "Kitchener" (where the Google Waterloo office moved to in 2010). I would see most of the Chrome engineering leaders (Sundar, Darin, Ben, etc.) when I visited Mountain View. en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 04/10/2025

One of my jobs on Chrome is quantifying overall product quality signals. This quarter we're taking a hit on crashes entirely due to iOS, which looks to be primarily due to WebKit and iOS bugs. When I try to check on the status of the current major one (bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi...), I get this:

Unformatted and nearly unreadable bugs.webkit.org webpage with console showing lots of 503 errors.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 20/09/2025

Yup. We're ready at Google Waterloo, we've got a beautiful new building open! Common north!

Rendering of new Google building in Kitchener Ontario

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 16/08/2025

Indeed. Really enjoying my spontaneous bike ride this morning too!

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 16/08/2025

Who is free in the bay area this afternoon and wants to be inspired by computing's past while chatting about the future of the web? Join me at the Computer History Museum around 3-5pm today! [1/7]

Photo of computer history museum exhibits

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 19/07/2025

How did I go 46 years without experiencing the joy of enterprise-grade network gear at home? Worth every penny...

Aruba Instant on AP mounted on the ceiling in a house.

Aruba Instant on app showing switch status

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 23/03/2025

Having an AI coding assistant decide to launch a browser and test the bugfix it made is pretty incredible! This is cline.bot

Imagine of cline vscode extension showing it opening a browser window and testing the UI. "Perfect! The raw status text is now properly left-aligned in the modal."

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 09/03/2025

The Radiacode gamma spectrometer is a fun toy! My daughter discovered that this Mosasaur jaw we have is radioactive! It contains Bismuth-214, likely from uranium ore decay. Radiation is about 10x the background level, a bit more than the Am-241 smoke detectors in my house.

Radiacode 102 device against a fossil of a mosasaur jaw (3 pieces placed in matrix, not natural). The screen reads 0.43 µSv/hr and a red warning light is visible.

Image of the Radiacode app showing a day-long spectrum with various peaks not present in the visible background (displayed as a green line). Overlayed on the spectrum are red lines showing the location of peaks for Bi-214 decay (indicated as part of the Ra-226 decay chain), with good correlation to the peaks in the spectrum.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 04/03/2025

My very scientific extrapolation & prediction 😛

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 04/03/2025

Great stuff for web devs in Interop 2025! View transitions, navigation API, core web vitals, anchor positioning, etc! We started the year with a low score (27%) so have a lot of work to do as a browser engine community to get broad interoperability on these important features! wpt.fyi/interop-2025

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 04/01/2025

I've always hated how hard it is to track spending trends through e-commerce sites like Amazon. Thanks to Gemini Nano and the experimental Chrome Prompt API (and an Amazon data access request) I'm finally able to easily analyze my Amazon purchase trends!

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

Blink is more diverse than Chromium as a whole (which includes blink), with 78% of contributors being from Google (87% of commits) vs. 84% for Chromium (95% of commits). chrome-commit-tracker.arthursonzogni.com/organization...

Blink contributors by organization over time, with Google holding steady around 80%

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

As is the total number of reviews and commits by organization. chrome-commit-tracker.arthursonzogni.com/organization...

Chart of total reviews in chromium by organization (excluding Google) and time. Recently Microsoft had surged to double their prior peak, well ahead of any other organization.

Chromium commits by organization over time, excluding Google. Microsoft fell steadily from 2020 to 2024 but then grew sharply to take the #1 position.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

The number of distinct quarterly reviewers is also interesting to watch: chrome-commit-tracker.arthursonzogni.com/organization...

Similar chart shape as contributors but for reviewers.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

Yep, here's what I said on X back in Sept about this: The Chromium commit tracker can now count unique contributors. It's neat to see how this has changed over time, and great to see Microsoft nearly back up to their peak! chrome-commit-tracker.arthursonzogni.com/organization...

Chart showing chromium contributors by organization. Microsoft rises steeply in 2019 then from 2020 to 2024 falls steadily, then sharply rises back to nearly its peak.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

Don't think we have any old NASA Ames buildings. But if you drive a little over 30 on your way to the Bayview campus next door, you get to have a chat with a NASA cop 😛.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

Not just cybertruck. I didn't find this poor guy napping in my model 3 until it was too late and it tried to leave while I was driving 😢.

Racoon poking out of the wheel well of a Tesla model 3

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

Yeah, I've been trying to understand the trends better myself. The number of monthly commits and contributors per project seem to have been a pretty consistent (and probably unsustainable) trend for the past decade:

Number of monthly commits from 2006 to 2024 with chromium growing steadily to 10,000, gecko being relatively steady around 4000, WebKit growing until 2013 then falling to around a steady 1000, and Ladybird and Gecko staying under a thousand.

Number of monthly contributors per project from 2006 to 2024. Chromium has grown steadily to 1300, Gecko relatively flat around 500, WebKit growing to 300 in 2013 then falling to around 150 flat, and servo and Ladybird around 100.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 24/11/2024

Indeed! It's so ironic that we seem finally on the verge of being freed to achieve that on mobile (starting in the EU) when funding may be cut in the name of "improving competition online". 😢 On the plus side, have you seen this? assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673f2d...

In particular, Apple’s rules appear to be holding back a category of apps known as
‘progressive web apps’ (PWAs) that are lower cost and easier for developers to build since
they can run on any operating system. PWAs do not need to be listed on an app store and
are not subject to app store charges. They can be saved onto a home screen like native
apps. PWAs are offered by companies such as Spotify, Facebook, Trivago and Pinterest.
Many smaller UK app developers told us that limits on web apps are holding back their
business because they could be developing PWAs as a comparable and lower cost
alternative to developing a native app.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 16/11/2024

Canadian bilingualism in a nutshell?

Bag of softener salt with "easy open bag" label in the top right corner pointing at a barely visible perforated strip.

The same bag on the French side, with "easy open bag" in French pointing to the top right corner. The top left corner is the one that's open.

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 02/06/2023

In particular, great analysis here on the quality of "top site" lists. Kimberly says "This is site popularity data from today's foremost web browser, and many of you may never have heard of it prior to today. That's intriguing." developer.chrome.com/docs/crux

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Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 13/05/2023

Heathrow airport seems to be one of the best run airports in the world. It's crazy busy here but everything has been fast. That Air Canada says I should arrive *4* hours in advance just destroys all their credibility. I arrived 2.5 hours in advance and ate breakfast, now I have an hour to kill!

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