CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@aronowski

Social organization is important, yes.

Figuring out how to engage in such organization in a way that's healthy and intentional, so that individual members don't get burnt out from having to coordinate, resolve differences, and otherwise do the nitty-gritty 'people management' parts of social organization is difficult, and unfortunately many people in tech have opted not to practice those skills because they are difficult and do not lead to obvious gains, as they are systemic improvements and not acute ways to address visible problems.

a lot of people mourned extensively when elon bought twitter and ruined what was, effectively, a quasi-public commons where vast numbers of people could collaborate to get a view of the world, perform useful osint, and find community?

this has been of much the same pattern: a formerly extremely valuable resource that was publicly available as a means to quickly find useful information, made unusable by management.

fuck all of this.

eat flaming shit, google.

You can no longer Google the word 'disregard' | TechCrunch

After Google Search's AI update, the word "disregard" now effectively breaks the search interface.

TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

@petherfile @alice @AmyZenunim

Unironically, no, no they do not.

There's been some significant problems in literacy in recent years due to a -fantastically- ineffective model of reading pedagogy that's done a horrific disservice to millions of children.

How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers

For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.

(www.apmreports.org)

RE: https://tacobelllabs.net/@selectric/116609148853162165

it was a perfectly functional machine but you bastards made it perform anxiety

@Alonely0 @CordiallyChloe @alice

That was the first incidence, yes, lol - at which point, a former meta pointed out the existence of the "phi" character in greek; I've taken to signing my name with that 'cuz it amuses me :3

@CordiallyChloe @alice

I chose my name very deliberately to be easy to spell - it's spelled exactly as it sounds, there's only one common canonical spelling, and while perhaps not a super common name it's one that a few famous people have had.

And yet some people have gone thru great effort to spell "Fiona" incorrectly, tho I suspect the one coffee shop person who keeps fucking it up has dyslexia.

@AmyZenunim @alice

.....wait, really?

I mean yes, as a trans girl I'm more likely to see it than most, but it's one of the top 100 popular names; is it really that rare to see it?

@alice

they say that no man is an island, but

@0xabad1dea

I feel a deep kinship with the eldritch cryptid that you met, and I hope his researches into the occult depths are fruitful.

welp, time to add google dot com to the killfile.

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch

Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

TechCrunch (techcrunch.com)

RE: https://mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/116597735999289806

I hope it explodes with great vigor.

This applies heavily to tech interfaces generally - looking at you, iOS and android, where not only do they hide significant parts of the machine's function from the user (kids these days don't know what a filesystem is because of this!) but the developers keep changing the interface and the workflows to access functions of the device.

like, in all seriousness, the way that consumer-facing tech -prevents expertise- drives me up the fucking wall.

Because it's all tuned to the lowest common denominator inexpert user, there's no way to go any faster than the developer's idea of what an absolute beginner's speed will be.

When I worked a register back around the turn of the century, I was able to gain -significant- skill and speed at ringing up purchases; if the store would let me use the trad checkstand I'd prolly still be at least 75% as fast as their employees.

RE: https://lgbtqia.space/@alice/116583524994091524

I've taken to going thru the crewed register - regardless of how busy things are - out of spite.

I don't particularly want to interact with a human, no.

But I want to interact with a badly fucking tuned - seriously, I outrun the damn thing's refresh rate by miles - surveilled automated system that, frankly, is making -me- do labor for the -store-, even less.

RETVRN to the days of the oldschool general store when you could hand your list to a clerk and they would fetch your stuff and ring you up right there.

if you want users to take security seriously?

gotta give them some reason to think it will matter.

they have a solid point, y'know.

users don't have meaningful agency here, but businesses sure the fuck do, and the way tech has treated users is creating perverse incentives and frustrations.

tho one time I did get an interviewer who -did- realize the need to scope after I specified the way in which the buckling-spring mechanism of a model-M keyboard made electrical contact and was converted into a USB HID event* and started going into how that bus was connected into the system and would be interpreted by the OS.

* it's a Unicomp variant. love that keyboard. it's very loud.

"Oh, you choose" buddy you need to specify your scope of work better; this is a failure on your part and I am judging your competence as a project manager accordingly.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@SecureOwl/116584747509188880

I always start my answer by asking what granularity they want and where in the stack they want me to start, because I -will- go into -excruciating- detail at levels I know they are not prepared to engage with.