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The online home of Jeremy Keith, an author and web developer living and working in Brighton, England.

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Managing Editor: Jeremy Keith

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Irish odyssey

I’ve been taking some time off after UX London. That was a big project I was working towards all year and it went great, so I think I’ve earned a reward for myself. My reward is to head off to Ireland to immerse myself in the language and music. A week at an Irish language ...

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Illustrated Talk: The Session.org with Jeremy Keith

belfasttradfest.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/1173666686

I’m giving an afternoon talk during Belfast Tradfest—come along if you’re around!

Join Jeremy Keith for an insightful talk about his pioneering work with TheSession.org—the world’s leading online hub for traditional Irish music. Discover how Jeremy helped build this vibrant digital community that connects musicians, shares tunes, and preserves Ireland’s rich musical heritage. Learn about the challenges and triumphs of creating an online space where thousands of players worldwide can collaborate, learn, and celebrate traditional music together.

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Live

Ever since Salter Cane recorded the songs on Deep Black Water I’ve been itching to play them live. At our album launch gig last Friday, I finally got my chance.

It felt soooo good! It helped that we had the best on-stage sound ever (note to the bands of Brighton, Leon at the Hope and Ruin is fantastic at doing the sound). The band were tight, the songs sounded great live, and I had an absolute blast.

Salter Cane on stage, with Chris in full howl singing into the mic and playing guitar, flanked by Jeremy on slide bouzouki and Jessica on bass (Matt on the drums is hidden behind Chris).

I made a playlist of songs to be played in between bands. It set the tone nicely. As well as some obvious touchstones like 16 Horsepower and Joy Division, I made sure to include some local bands we’re fond of, like The Equitorial Group, Mudlow, Patients, and The Roebucks.

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The Imperfectionist: Navigating by aliveness

ckarchive.com/b/zlughnhk8772ma7qrr9qehwzgng00f6

Most obviously, aliveness is what generally feels absent from the written and visual outputs of ChatGPT and its ilk, even when they’re otherwise of high quality. I’m not claiming I couldn’t be fooled into thinking AI writing or art was made by a human (I’m sure I already have been); but that when I realise something’s AI, either because it’s blindingly obvious or when I find out, it no longer feels so alive to me. And that this change in my feelings about it isn’t irrelevant: that it means something.

More subtly, it feels like our own aliveness is what’s at stake when we’re urged to get better at prompting LLMs to provide the most useful responses. Maybe that’s a necessary modern skill; but still, the fact is that we’re being asked to think less like ourselves and more like our tools.

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UX Londoners

A bunch of the UX London speakers have been saying very nice things about the event over on LinkedIn. I’m going to quote a few of them for my future self to look at when I’m freaking out about curating the next event… Valentina D’Efilippo: Still buzzing … UX London smas...

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Baseline Newly Available: Stay on Top of New Web Features - The New Stack

thenewstack.io/baseline-newly-available-stay-on-top-of-new-web-features/

Grrr…

Chrome, Edge and Firefox updates usually reach 95% of users within three months. But Safari updates are tied to a new release of the underlying operating system, so they take around 19 months to reach the same usage, and some updates may even need a new device.

This is so shameful. And glad as I am to see new features landing in Safari, as long as they hobble updates like this it’s all just pissing in the wind.

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JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress) - Jono Alderson

jonoalderson.com/conjecture/javascript-broke-the-web-and-called-it-progress/

Semantic HTML? Optional. Server-side rendering? Rebuilt from scratch. Accessibility? Maybe, if there’s time. Performance? Who cares, when you can save costs by putting loading burdens onto the user’s device, instead of your server?

So gradually, the web became something you had to compile before you could publish. Not because users needed it. But because developers wanted it to feel modern.

Everything’s optimised for developers – and hostile to everyone else.

This isn’t accidental. It’s cultural. We’ve created an industry where complexity is celebrated. Where cleverness is rewarded. Where engineering sophistication is valued more than clarity, usability, or commercial effectiveness.

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