About InputOutput.dev

We've all been there. You want the answer to some basic calculation, to convert a file format, or to count the number of characters in a piece of text.

But before you can do that, you must first trawl through search results, decline cookies, deny notifications, close a signup window, and only then you get to find out how many feet and inches in 4.3 meters — but it's too late, your brain has already melted.

It's frustrating. It's even more frustrating if you're using an old web browser, or a dial-up connection, or a screen-reader.

Browsing the internet without a content blocker has become a deeply crap experience. Most of the web is trying to extract as much value from people as possible — often with no regard for who that leaves out.

I do hope to make money with this website, but not at the expense of the website being good. Maybe I'll stick a single ad on here from ethical ads, or sell hats made of up-cycled car seats or something.

The goal for this website is to be repository of tools that just work without being annoying or causing harm — the rest of this page details how I hope to achieve that.

Accessibility

The word accessibility on the web is usually used in reference to physical or cognitive disabilities — but this site takes a broader approach — what is stopping people from literally having access to the tools on this site — especially the people for whom similar sites fail.

Here's how I hope to achieve broad accessibility on InputOutput.

WCAG 2.1 AAA compliance

I'm not an expert on web accessibility for people with physical or cognitive disabilities — but i'd like to be. I aim to make this site fully WCAG 2.1 AAA compliant — and more.

If you find any accessibility issues on this website, please let me know and they will be fixed pronto.

Socio-economic issues

Techie people build the internet — and techie people also tend to have fast internet connections, new devices, and money to spend on data.

Here's some of the issues you might face if you're going online without being a rich tech bro.

• Bandwidth and latency - many millions of people use mobiles on 2g network speeds, and in 2022 dial-up internet is still a thing.
• Data cost - the cost of mobile data varies wildly around the world — in Mauritania visiting the average website costs 1.47% of the average daily income.
• Legacy browsers and older devices - many websites simply do not function on older devices or browsers.

Backwards compatibility

InputOutput works on as many browsers and devices as possible — with the exception of when doing so would compromise people's security.

That means support for Internet Explorer 8 and many other legacy browsers.

Support for IE 8 - 10, and Firefox 24-26 requires TLS 1.2 being enabled in the settings.

Privacy

InputOutput doesn't use tracking scripts for the following reasons:

• Nobody wants to be tracked
• It slows down the website
• Cookie consent banners are annoying
• It uses up batteries — which reduces the lifetime of the device.
• The data sits on a server that runs on fossil fuels.
• The data is used to…
  1. Convince people to buy plastic crap they don't need
  2. Interfere with democracy
  3. Probably a really horrible third thing too

None of this is worth it when, especially when the data you get is…

• inaccurate
• requires a doctorate in data science to successfully interpret
• tells you less than just watching someone use the website

Security

Security is the most important item on this list. It would have been at the top, but it's very boring.

Just a static website

InputOutput is just a static website. You don't download an app, or give it your phone number, or sign up to a mailing list. There's no data collected, so no chance of a data breach.

Basic web security stuff

It forces the use of https, uses TLS 1.2, HSTS preload, and other modern security measures.

Works without JavaScript

Some people and organisations disable JavaScript for security reasons — InputOutput works with JS disabled — and when JS is working, all the tools run on your device. No information is shared elsewhere.

Environment

Actually, this is the most important one.

The internet is a huge emitter of green house gasses — around 5% of global emissions — more than the airline industry.

The average website emits 0.9 grams per page view — InputOutput produces around 0.00002 grams per page view.

For every one million page views InputOutput receives instead of another average website — almost a ton of carbon is saved.

0.9g minus 0.00002g times one million = 899980g 899980 gram to tons

Preventing new device purchases

More greenhouse gasses are released into the atmosphere from the production of new devices, than from the using the internet itself. CITE

People buy new devices for a variety of reasons – a big reason is because their current device no longer works.

If we can keep devices working for longer, we can prevent devices being purchased. Here's how InputOutput does this.

Backwards compatibility

Making this website compatible with older devices allows people to continue using them — see more on backwards compatibility above.

Dark-mode by default

InputOutput supports dark-mode, and enabled dark-mode by default.

Phone screens are the largest drain on phone's battery life.

Phones with OLED screens save lots of energy when the pixels are darker – sometimes up to 25% less energy. CITE

This energy saving has a tiny direct effect on emissions — (phones are very energy efficient devices). It does however, have a big effect on the life expectancy of the phone's battery.

Lithium-ion batteries can only be used so many times before they stop working — increasing the life-time of a phones battery, increases the life-time of the phone.

Making the phone last longer, prevents the purchase of new phones.

That's all for now

Stay tuned. I will be regularly adding tools to the website — it's still very new, so there may be some bugs.

I hope you find it useful — if you do, make sure you bookmark it, come back, tell your friends, and let me know if there are any tools you'd like added – and i will add them!

Many thanks, — Nathaniel 09.03.23