It’s been an odd week for web browsers:
- Yet another Chromium browser is released in the form of the new Microsoft Edge, ditching its old rendering engine (EdgeHTML, a fork of Trident which goes all the way back to 1997). The web is less diverse now - browsers are either chromium/webkit or gecko. Speaking of Firefox…
- Mozilla announce 70 layoffs , and the internet shows off it’s best side with the hashtag #MozillaLifeboat to help those made redundant.
- Then there was a report from Hindenberg Research about Opera moving into some decidedly shady practices to raise revenue. Opera refute this although their reply doesn’t really answer all the claims satisfactorily for me.
To be honest, I loved using Opera, but since leaving them in 2016, it’s felt like something to put behind me and move on. I’m still a Firefox user these days, but occassionally Safari as well. Chrome just annoys me.
In personal news this week:
I’ve been a grumpy sod as my lovely new Swarovksi binoculars (a birthday present from last October) had to be send away for repairs. I loved those binoculars! Fortunately I still have my old pair, but they are terrible in comparison. Apart from the image quality, the focus wheel is very stiff, they’re bigger and heavier, and the field of view smaller. I find I’m missing birds more now - by the time I’ve got them sharp they’ve left. Apparently the repair process takes up to four weeks :(
I went to see the film 1917 and absolutely loved it. The ‘one long shot’ format works so well in making it feel realistic and real-time, and sometimes the building tension was almost too much. One of the best films I’ve seen in ages - incredible!
Finally, last night we went to see Bombay Bicycle Club at the O2 academy in Oxford for the album launch party for ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’. Bombay are one of the few bands that everyone in the family is a fan, so it was nice outing. They are brilliant live (so tight), but dissapointingly after an hour and half wait for them to come on stage, they only played for an hour.