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browser archaeology by Alan Z. '23, MEng '24

a non-comprehensive analysis of the 95 tabs I have open on my phone

I’ve always been pretty picky about managing my tabs on my laptop—I don’t like having too many things open, since this inevitably slows down my computer more than I would otherwise like. These days, I use a web browser that automatically archives tabs after 24 hours of inactivity,⁠01 no, this is not completely insane; there are a few tabs I keep around permanently because I am likely to refer back to them often. Most things, however, are ephemeral, because I can always find them again if I need. which tends to keep things pretty clean.

My phone, however, is a different story. The problem with the phone browser is that, when I’m done looking at websites, I just close the whole thing, expecting the tabs to be gone afterwards. Yet, they persist, and when I return to Chrome, they are still there, yearning to be read. Some of these tabs have been open for nearly a year, with no hope of ever actually being closed or dealt with. This post commemorates their existence, providing commentary when it is needed.

poems (7)

Many of these poems I keep around because there is a line, or two, or maybe more which I keep coming back to. Mostly, I just scroll back up to them and read them whenever I need to, which is sometimes often.

MIT websites (5)

  • “Emerson/Harris Program for Private Study” – MIT provides a program for instrumentalists and vocalists to get private lessons for free! I’ve never even auditioned because it’s very scary, but the people who do it are incredibly talented, the recitals are very cool, and the tab lives on in my browser
  • “Listening Tour” – as you may have heard, MIT got a new president last year, and she’s been going around and listening to input from many different parts of the Institute,⁠02 I actually got to talk to her as part of our Dormitory Council last year, which was pretty cool! which is pretty cool, and the feedback is publicly available!
  • “thank you notes” – I have a habit of keeping around nice notes which people write me, because sometimes I need a bit of an emotional/ego boost when I’m feeling particularly down about things; this is one of those posts
  • “MIT Policies & Procedures Section 9.2 Personal Conduct and Responsibilities Towards Students and Employees“
  • “BSO College Card Program” – MIT subsidizes the BSO college card, which is a program that the Boston Symphony Orchestra provides to students. You buy one (1) card for $10, and you get to go to most concerts for free!! It’s worth it even if you just go to one concert :)

social media (4)

There was less of this than I expected—sometimes I have like five different Twitter⁠03 I refuse to call it X under any circumstances. tabs open, but I guess I usually prune them when I realize that fact.

graduate school investigation (4)

I’ve been kicking around the idea of applying to various kinds of graduate school programs, and, for a brief period of time, I was thinking about applying to playwriting MFA programs. I’m now thinking that I’ll push that decision off a few more years, but, in the meantime, there’s still lots of writing to be done.

random articles (7)

These are mostly things I wanted to read at some point but never really finished. I don’t have a lot of thoughts about them, because, well, I haven’t read them yet.

google searches (12)

because sometimes you search things and you don’t follow up.

scotusblog (11)

Every year, at some point in June, I get really into reading Supreme Court opinions and following the big decisions of the term. Mostly, I just get kind of depressed reading them, but sometimes it’s fun to read dense legal text and learn things.⁠04 is this weird? Maybe it's weird.

wikipedia (25)

Over a quarter of my tabs are just Wikipedia articles I pulled up to reference once, most of which I probably no longer need, but, y’know, sometimes you just have to keep them around in case you want to come back to them.

media
seattle?

I’ve spent the past two summers in Seattle, which has some fascinating infrastructural history;⁠05 did you know that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Point_Floating_Bridge">Evergreen Point Floating Bridge</a> is the longest floating bridge in the world? this is just what remains of a pretty intense series of searches I did one morning on the bus to work.

music
  • “Marin Alsop” – I got to see Marin Alsop conduct the Seattle Symphony this summer! Among a number of other pieces, they played “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story,” which I got to play in high school and therefore was very excited by :)
  • “Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)” – another Seattle Symphony concert! I was very impressed by this piece as well, and wanted to know more about it
  • “Gurre-Lieder” – a piece I mostly know of because it “calls for exceptionally large orchestral and choral forces” (literally hundreds of musicians and singers)
computers et. al.

I could talk your ear off about most of these things, but I will restrain myself. Let’s just say that computers are very cool.

???

other things that computer nerds care about (6)

  • “Computer Engineering for Babies” – because sometimes you just need to know what an XOR gate is
  • “Arm Cortex-A Series Programmer’s Guide…Snoop Control Unit” – your computer probably has multiple CPU cores on it, and all of them have data caches which make them run faster. sometimes, though, if you have a program running on more than one core, it has to make sure those data caches are consistent! the snoop control unit is one of those things that can make this possible.
  • “AEPIC Leak” – it turns out modern CPUs are very complicated and so lots of security bugs abound! they’re usually super specific so kind of hard to explain, but they are quite cool
  • “Zenbleed“
  • “USB Type-C and power delivery 101 – Power delivery protocol” – this is why you can now plug your USB-C laptop charger into your USB-C phone and it doesn’t explode – it negotiates the voltage in advance!⁠06 if your hardware is compatible. if you buy sketchier chargers, this might not be true; just be careful.
  • “I’m mystified what this ‘memory training’ even is” – RAM, the place where your computer programs use memory when they are running,⁠07 this is a hand-wavy explanation, but, y'know, Wikipedia exists to learn more. is one of those things in your computer that’s getting more complicated over time. it turns out the wires for modern RAM have variable timing based on all sort of conditions, and this really matters so that memory works correctly.

I don’t even know anymore (14)

  1. no, this is not completely insane; there are a few tabs I keep around permanently because I am likely to refer back to them often. Most things, however, are ephemeral, because I can always find them again if I need.⁠ ↑
  2. I actually got to talk to her as part of our Dormitory Council last year, which was pretty cool!⁠ ↑
  3. I refuse to call it X under any circumstances.⁠ ↑
  4. is this weird? Maybe it's weird.⁠ ↑
  5. did you know that the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge is the longest floating bridge in the world?⁠ ↑
  6. if your hardware is compatible. if you buy sketchier chargers, this might not be true; just be careful.⁠ ↑
  7. this is a hand-wavy explanation, but, y'know, Wikipedia exists to learn more.⁠ ↑