The Collective #899

Olá, frontend friends! 👋

Here’s a fresh digest of our latest Collective news!

We’ve gathered some of the most interesting links and resources from the past week to inspire and inform you. We hope you discover something new and exciting!

Happy exploring! 💙

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🎶 StringTune

StringTune is a modular JS library for smooth web effects like parallax, cursor interactions & animations, using a simple, attribute-based approach.

^{animation / javascript / library}

🤖 smolmodels

Smolmodels is an open-source Python library for creating machine learning models using natural language and minimal code.

^ai

🔍 Evaluating overlay-adjacent accessibility products

The article critiques overlay-adjacent accessibility products, highlighting their flaws, ethical concerns, AI reliance, and business models while advocating for built-in browser and OS accessibility features.

^{accessibility / article}

🐞 Firefox + custom elements + iframes bug

A known Firefox bug causes custom elements to lose their prototype when moved to an iframe. This post explains why it happens and provides a fix using customElements.get() to restore the element’s prototype.

^{article / firefox / javascript}

⚡ Fast & Smooth Third-Party Web Fonts

Scott Jehl shares a faster way to load third-party web fonts asynchronously while keeping text hidden for up to 3s, improving page speed and UX.

^{performance / tutorial / typography}

💣 Smuggling arbitrary data through an emoji

Paul Butler explores encoding data in Unicode variation selectors, hiding arbitrary bytes within emojis and text. A clever but abusable Unicode trick.

^{article / hacking / security}

📂 How to add a directory to your PATH

Julia Evans explains how to add a directory to your PATH across different shells, covering gotchas, debugging, and best practices for bash, zsh, and fish.

^{terminal / tutorial}

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🌟 Astro 5.3

Astro 5.3 boosts performance with faster page rendering—SSR up to 4x faster. Plus, easier session storage setup and improved Netlify bundling.

^astro

🎀 Ribbon

A WebGPU-powered physics demo featuring a simulated ribbon using Rapier for physics and Three.js for rendering. Made by Christophe Choffel.

^{physics / three-js / webgpu}

🎉 Smuggling arbitrary data through an emoji

Paul Butler shows how Unicode variation selectors can be used to hide data inside a single emoji, with possible applications in watermarking and bypassing content filters.

^unicode

👁️ Style-observer: JS to observe CSS property changes, for reals

A robust JavaScript library to detect CSS property changes, supporting custom and standard properties with browser bug workarounds.

^{css / javascript}

🔄 Marquee

A Marquee component built on the Web Animations API for smooth, customizable scrolling, offering real-time control over speed, direction, and playback.

^{animation / react / ui-components}

✂️ CSS text-box-trim

Adam Argyle introduces CSS text-box-trim in Chrome 133, allowing developers to trim space above and below text for better alignment.

^css

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💭 Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?

A series of lessons on LLMs, exploring their potential to simplify tasks, their risks of spreading false information, and how to navigate both.

^{ai / tutorial}

⚠️ We are destroying software

Modern software is collapsing under complexity, fragile dependencies, rushed development, and neglect of documentation, killing the joy of coding.

^{opinion / software-engineering}

📱 Less Precious

Naz Hamid explores the pitfalls of social media, urging creators to move beyond the algorithm-driven trap and invest in their own spaces for genuine self-expression.

^{article / social-media}

🚀 NGT Threlte Spaceship

Chau Tran ports a stunning spaceship demo from Threlte to Angular using Angular Three. Explore the project on GitHub

^{angular / three-js}