Dennis Morello writes about Defrag98, a free browser-based simulator that recreates the Windows 98 Disk Defragmenter. Unlike scripted animations, each run simulates the defragmentation process from the current disk state, so no two runs look alike. It features four virtual drives with different sizes and speeds, authentic period hard-disk audio, and exact color palettes sampled from the original utility. The app runs entirely offline as an installable progressive web app and never touches real files on the device.
- Realistic mode mimics Windows interrupting the defrag mid-run, causing the progress bar to drop back; after the first completion the run never finishes again, just like the original
- Each pass can make one of three moves: consolidate a run in place, drag a chunk forward from further down the disk, or shove a run out of the way to clear space ahead
- The project has been written up by PC Gamer, heise online, Boing Boing, and kottke.org, and discussed on Hacker News and Lobsters
- On mobile devices it displays a period-accurate "Windows 98 is not supported on mobile devices" warning that users can dismiss before the simulator runs normally
- Realistic mode mimics Windows interrupting the defrag mid-run, causing the progress bar to drop back; after the first completion the run never finishes again, just like the original
- Each pass can make one of three moves: consolidate a run in place, drag a chunk forward from further down the disk, or shove a run out of the way to clear space ahead
- The project has been written up by PC Gamer, heise online, Boing Boing, and kottke.org, and discussed on Hacker News and Lobsters
- On mobile devices it displays a period-accurate "Windows 98 is not supported on mobile devices" warning that users can dismiss before the simulator runs normally
Lightpanda is an original headless browser written in Zig, purpose-built for high-performance web automation and LLM-driven agents rather than being a fork of Chromium or WebKit. It prioritizes low memory consumption and execution speed by omitting unnecessary graphical rendering components while maintaining JavaScript support through the V8 engine. The system provides a CDP server to maintain compatibility with existing Puppeteer and Playwright workflows.
- Benchmark data suggests 9x faster execution compared to Headless Chrome.
- Includes an "Agent mode" that outputs deterministic PandaScript from natural language instructions.
- Offers native Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for seamless agent interaction.
- Benchmark data suggests 9x faster execution compared to Headless Chrome.
- Includes an "Agent mode" that outputs deterministic PandaScript from natural language instructions.
- Offers native Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for seamless agent interaction.
An article detailing FastRender, a web browser built by Cursor using thousands of parallel coding agents. It explores the project's goals, architecture, and surprising findings about using AI for software development.
Wilson Lin at Cursor has been experimenting with a large fleet of autonomous coding agents, successfully building a web browser from scratch with over a million lines of code. The article details the approach, the resulting browser's functionality (and minor glitches), and its implications for AI-assisted software development.
Thorium is a Chromium-based browser that prioritizes speed and efficiency by stripping back unnecessary Google services and optimizing performance. It offers faster page loads, smoother scrolling, and lower CPU usage compared to Chrome, but has less frequent updates and potential DRM limitations.
A guide to common pitfalls and best practices when starting with Playwright and Python, covering topics like browser context, waiting strategies, and handling different environments.
>The Playwright MCP Chrome Extension allows you to connect to pages in your existing browser and leverage the state of your default user profile. This means the AI assistant can interact with websites where you're already logged in, using your existing cookies, sessions, and browser state, providing a seamless experience without requiring separate authentication or setup.
Extensions load unknown sites into invisible Windows. What could go wrong?
Notte is an open-source browser using an agent, designed to improve speed, cost, and reliability in web agent tasks through a perception layer that structures webpages for LLM consumption. It offers a full stack framework with customizable browser infrastructure, web scripting, and scraping endpoints.
Browser Use is a library that enables AI agents to interact with web browsers, making websites accessible for automated tasks. It includes features for browser automation, agent memory, and various demos showcasing its capabilities.
