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slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I'm proud that in the face of absolute recalcitrance, we kept our quality bar, only shipped what was defensible, and did the hard work to make catch-up for trailing-edge browsers (Safari) easy and fast.

We didn't need to be that generous. We didn't need to make the lives of our engineers that much harder for the greater good.

We did it anyway.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Having it play out on a loop over a decade, with only relatively weak policy responses (e.g., the Blink Launch Process, in which we make developers walk uphill in the snow, both ways, when Apple withholds engagement, per usual[1]), has not been great! In fact, it's demoralising. They say "create dilemmas, not problems" for your enemies, and Apple have done that for their enemy (the web) *par excellence*.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z83L6xa1tw

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

The web we could have had is about people, at the end of the day. Apple inserted their people and their (belligerent) omniscience for every single user and developer need, while keeping their boot on our faces the whole time.

Folks with less steel in their veins -- the good people that the web depends on to learn what users need and carefully build good solutions -- have been the first casualties.

I'm livid about it. They deserved better.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

It's a minor point in the grand scheme, but Apple gaslighting -- enabled by shockingly unfair platform terms on iOS -- has been a key contributor in the horrible experiences that many of the best web platform engineers I've known have experienced.

For them, and for them alone, I can say confidently that Cupertino's got what's coming to them.

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Drafting a post on Safari 16.4 beta news, and the footnote I'm having to add about a *single tiny sub-feature* that Apple fucked the entire community around on for SEVERAL YEARS, is a microcosm of GALAXY-SCALE GASLIGHTING.

Recalling what they did w/ whataboutist "just asking questions" to prevent the best, kindest, most thoughtful, most thorough engineers from shipping *what they knew was right* will make my blood boil for decades to come.

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
mikeindustries@macaw.social ("Mike Davidson") wrote:

Gargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:

Post editing is now available for testing in our iOS app's TestFlight!

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
garry@mstdn.social ("Garry Knight") wrote:

Reblogged by slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell"):
mmasnick ("Mike Masnick ✅") wrote:

Attachments:

• How much does the pope make? Let’s start with the money. According to salary comparison site Comparably.com, the average Pope in the United States earns $46,077 per year, but this is inaccurate. The position of pope offers no salary. The idea is that you’re living as Christ lived, off the kindness of others. But over a few thousand years, those “others” have been very generous—the Vatican City State and the Catholic Church are worth an estimated $30 billion, and it’s essentially at your disposal. As the absolute monarch of a small nation, you can have anything you’d ever want or need just by asking for it. So the pay is low, but benefits are good.

Reblogged by jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein"):
aburtch@triangletoot.party wrote:

Reblogged by jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein"):
fionabradley@fediscience.org ("Fiona Bradley") wrote:

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emilymbender@dair-community.social ("Emily M. Bender (she/her)") wrote:

Attachments:

• Screencap from article in pervious post: "By Friday night, Microsoft had started restricting how long the chatbot could talk, saying in an announcement that overly long conversations with people could “confuse” the bot into speaking in “a style we didn’t intend.” Before this latest episode, our reporter interviewed Bing. Here’s what happened:" Highlighted in blue: "our reporter interviewed Bing" (remote)

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

Obviously, libraries spring to mind, and I do make use of them myself... But depending where you live, they can be quite limited. But still, maybe I just need to talk about the wonders of libraries more and convince others to build up their library systems. :)

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

(You can still have the companies promising instant answers, but they're useful for things that change frequently like, "What movie is playing in the theater? What's the latest political scandal? Who should I be mad at today?")

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

It occurs to me that a lot of very valuable human knowledge, thought, and culture is actually of a "slow" nature (holds still for long periods and is replaced slowly (if ever)). For example, you don't need the latest index of all the web, to provide high quality information on physics, chemistry, philosophy, literature, culture etc.

Does that leave room for search and curation techniques outside of the tech companies promising instant answers? If it does, how do we deliver it to people?

Reblogged by technomancy@icosahedron.website ("tech? no! man, see..."):
Elucidating ("⛈️ Information ⛈️") wrote:

jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

so very true

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• d9af42001da248dc.png

Reblogged by jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein"):
oatmeal ("The Oatmeal") wrote:

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• f0221e142e1dac86.png

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xyzzy@mastodon.sandwich.net ("Text Adventure") wrote:

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Green_Footballs ("Charles Johnson") wrote:

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cridge17@universeodon.com ("Ridge :verified:") wrote:

Attachments:

• Zombie survival meme (remote)

Reblogged by jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Jake_Vig@mastodon.online wrote:

Reblogged by NfNitLoop ("Cody Casterline 🏳️‍🌈"):
annmlipton@esq.social ("Ann Lipton") wrote:

Reblogged by jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein"):
FosseLeo@urbanists.social ("Leo Fosse on Mastodon") wrote:

jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

[END TODAY IN HISTORY RUN]

jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Today in History: Yoko Ono Lennon is born in Tokyo, 1933

jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Today in History: Be Happy! It's Adar

jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Today in History: Rosh Chodesh Adar (Beginning of the month of Adar)

jeffsonstein ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Today in History: Independence Day in The Gambia