Widgets on the desktop. Widgets on the lock screen. Like many Apple features, widgets on the desktop originated with the hacker community for decades before being formally adopted in the proprietary distribution.(from user nnkd on Reddit, 9 years ago).I used to be part of these communities, which usually involved modifying Unix window managers and desktop environments to have dynamic information — stats, graphs, scripts, and more. So some thoughts on historically what’s worked well (and not so well) for the widgetification of the desktop.While rebuilding the site, Harriman and Nguyen made a mistake. Normally, websites that accept contributions from users—such as text entries or photographs—block users from inserting Web Markup Language, such as HTML, into those submissions. Web markup language is the computer code that controls what appears on a webpage, such as the colors or fonts or background images. But Nguyen forgot to block Web markup language in user submissions.His mistake allowed users to build colorful backgrounds and wallpaper and load them onto their MySpace pages. Suddenly teenage girls could decorate their MySpace page with hearts and glitter and smiley faces the same way that they were decorating their lockers and book bags. At first MySpace didn't realize what had happened[…] — excerpt from Stealing MySpace by Michael Agger