Mastodon Feed: Posts

collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth") wrote:

It's good, I suppose, that a lifestyle electronics brand is adding accessibility features to its high-end headphones, but y'all, it's still a $250 luxury electronics purchase. I'm not sure the bar has really been lowered much here.

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

brianleroux@indieweb.social ("Brian LeRoux 💚") wrote:

i know we all got sold on 'isomorphic' or whatever but littering code with conditionals is the definition of spaghetti code. looking code like 'use server' or isNode or likewise reeks of problems in an uncanny valley no compiler can fix.

we separate concerns for these very good reasons!

its cool if the language is the same that doesn't mean the logic is or even should be between client and backend.

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

zachleat@zachleat.com ("Zach Leatherman :11ty:") wrote:

@brianleroux yes! Isomorphic JS was a mistake

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

alcinnz@floss.social ("Adrian Cochrane") wrote:

Semi-Annual Reminder to Learn and Hire for Web Standards - Adrian Roselli:
https://adrianroselli.com/2024/09/semi-annual-reminder-to-learn-and-hire-for-web-standards.html

An enhancement to accessible responsive tables - tempertemper:
https://www.tempertemper.net/blog/an-enhancement-to-accessible-responsive-tables

Improving the Screen Reader Experience for Learn WCs - Component Odyssey:
https://component-odyssey.com/articles/12-improving-the-screen-reader-experience-for-learn-wcs

The Ultimate Guide to Font Performance Optimization - Anna Monus @ DebugBear:
https://www.debugbear.com/blog/website-font-performance

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

JFC, what bigoted morons:

"Reacting to reports that pets were being stolen in Springfield, JD Vance posted, "Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar?"
...the Springfield Police said there was no report of pets being stolen and eaten."
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/jd-vance-speaks-up-for-cats-turns-out-it-was-for-a-conspiracy-theory/ar-AA1qgpoM

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

Drywall does a pretty good job for its intended purpose (hold paint while pretending to be a solid wall), but I sure wish more people understood that it's just soft rock held together with paper and you shouldn't try to hang much on it.

Also, while drywall does solve the problem it is intended to solve, I hate having to repair the dang stuff. At some point you just have to tear it all up and start over. :(

(This complaint brought to you in part by a 6yo attempting to swing from a towel rack.)

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

For the avoidance of doubt, that was 300K *COMPRESSED*, so something like 1.5MB of JS source.

The worst thing the Reactors ever did was to convince people that their own dreams of infinite network and CPU abundance into the future were real, when in fact they were just playing themselves.

Reblogged by collinsworth@hachyderm.io ("Josh Collinsworth"):

rachelnabors@toot.cafe ("Rachel Lee Nabors") wrote:

So I'm making an "intro to web development as a career" course for O'Reilly, and I want to get some quotes of real folks working in web development to sprinkle in the slides. If you'd like to be featured/help me out/share your story with newcomers to this field, I'd be so happy if you'd fill out this wee form: https://forms.gle/qW3wNvvHeZ2cqGB5A

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

It's 2024, the web platform now includes a full component system, CSS we only dreamed of 10 years ago, deferred module loading is now a platform feature, and a fuller JS standard library than it ever...even in Safari!

And yet.

Today I was told unironically that 300K of JS was a hard target to hit for first load of a simple-ish experience.

I am verklempt.

Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):

veerlepieters ("Veerle Pieters") wrote:

🚴🏻 What is behind the physics of a bicycle?

This interactive article explains it all in great detail.

https://ciechanow.ski/bicycle/

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

joelanman@hachyderm.io ("Joe Lanman") wrote:

Just remembered something - GOV.UK Design Principles used to start like this:

1. Start with needs*
* user needs not government needs

but when the list was replicated (as it was, a lot) this first most important point often came out as:

1. Start with needs

Which is just not right, and could actually lead directly to what it was trying to avoid (government needs). I suggested the change to "Start with user needs" which is what we have now.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-design-principles

Reblogged by rmrenner ("The Old Gay Gristle Fest"):

voxel@merveilles.town wrote:

Hah, today I learnt that the wireframe 'CGI' in Escape from New York, used for Snake Plissken to make a stealthy glider entry into the lawless prison island by air, was actually 'faked' by building a model of Manhattan covered in reflective tape. In 1981 this was the cheaper solution for a movie with limited budget

Attachments:

• A 'wireframe' view of manhattan from the air, overlaid with some altitude and airspeed indicators (remote)
• special effects technicians apply reflective tape to a miniature city (remote)
• Model twin towers having reflective tape applied by a special effects technician (remote)

pzmyers@octodon.social ("pzmyers 🦑") wrote:

I don't need to watch the stupid debate tomorrow, because one of the participants is hopeless, making it a waste of time.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2024/09/09/74284/

Attachments:

• Setting the rules of the debate: Harris must be competent and flawless, Trump must manage to not poop his pants (remote)

Reblogged by keul@fosstodon.org ("Luca Fabbri"):

eklektikos@mastodon.uno ("🖖 εκᴧεκτικός :fediverso:") wrote:

Il primo equipaggio che partirà per Marte tra 4 anni is the new entro il 2018 Tesla sarà dotata di guida completamente autonoma. 😆

Attachments:

• Post di Elon Musk su X: "The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years. Flight rate will grow exponentially from there, with the goal of building a self-sustaining city in about 20 years. Being multiplanetary will vastly increase the probable lifespan of consciousness, as we will no longer have all our eggs, literally and metabolically, on one planet." (remote)

Reblogged by rmrenner ("The Old Gay Gristle Fest"):

a2_4am ("4am ❧") wrote:

Total Replay v5.2 is out. It features 502 Apple II games (200 new since v4), all playable from a single bootable 32MB hard disk image.

https://archive.org/details/TotalReplay

Code & changelog: https://github.com/a2-4am/4cade/releases/tag/v5.2

Thanks to @a2_qkumba, @txgx42, @helix_nrg, @Roughana, Frank M, Kris Kennaway, @ladyailuros, and everyone else who contributed to this project in the past five years.

#AppleII #retrocomputing

Attachments:

• title screenshot from "Ether Quest" by John Carmack and Peter Rokitski
• title screenshot from "Fido" ©1982 by Pat Montelo
• title screenshot from "Mutant" by Steve Waldo ©1983 Universal Software
• title screenshot from "Pick N Pile"

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

Brands commenting under viral videos made by small creators feels like... theft? It's an advert without payment.

Imagine your painting displayed in an art gallery, then some executive walks by and slaps a Taco Bell logo underneath it with a 👍

Reblogged by rust@octodon.social ("Rust tips"):

timClicks@mastodon.nz ("Tim Clicks") wrote:

A new #rustlang tip is live on my site https://timclicks.dev/tip/how-to-accept-a-file-as-a-command-line-argument-in-rust

Reblogged by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤"):

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

The federation concept is dope. Big fan. But this emerging worldview that "all connection is good connection" regardless of implementation or even an ounce of thoughtfulness, is bizarre.

To me, it feels like VC growth-at-all-cost religion repackaged. Big Boz memo vibes. It's giving "your safety is a sacrifice I'm willing to make"

Where's this weird urgency coming from? What deadline are we trying to meet that demands such thoughtless action, and subsequent unabashed defending?

#fediverse

Attachments:

• Leaked memo from Facebook executive 2016: So we connect more people That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned

Reblogged by kornel ("Kornel"):

UncleDuke1969@universeodon.com ("Uncle Duke") wrote:

i think both sides are to blame here

Attachments:

• A silver SUV has crashed into the side of a brick building marked "Drive-Thru Pharmacy." (remote)

kornel ("Kornel") wrote:

Browser benchmarks used to be much better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaT7thTxyq8

#vivaldi

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

a good night to listen to Mr Prine

https://music.apple.com/us/album/bruised-orange/285601729

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

"They" don't deliver your service, *you* deliver your service. "They" aren't going to be in the room after the contract is over, *you* will be. And any procurement plan that doesn't provide simple-to-execute change of vendor at *any point* in procurement is TBTF, and should be verboten.

Residual capacity to change systems comes from owning systems in a "can we make changes and deploy them?" sense. And that requires control and continuing technical capacity.

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

A good (the best?) first step is to build a mandate and a budget for in-house service development and delivery, then prevent omnibus contracting in any form. Hire in-house talent to integrate and run services that will be continuously delivered, then start small and iterate. Success breeds success.

From there, tools like OSS can have a big impact on breaking up this sort of boondoggle contracting.

Procurement *is* policy; treat it that way.

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

I wrote a series a couple of weeks ago [1] that highlighted the destructive role of too-big-too-fail govt software procurement practices in the US, saddling the state of California with a benefits portal so slow that many struggle to use it.

This sort of thing is everywhere when you start looking; monopsony requires solutions that don't allow predatory vendors to treat each municipality as prey:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-09-05/tyler-tech-s-odyssey-software-took-over-local-government-and-courts?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTcyNTgzODc5NywiZXhwIjoxNzI2NDQzNTk3LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTSkMxMFZEV0xVNjgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiI3RjAzNTczNkJDRjE0NDg0QjY5MUUwODYzMjFERjBGNCJ9.la23SPmGgIFJQS5a1IZIO0pjQuBgrWwsMHDT6jSZhTo

[1]: https://infrequently.org/series/reckoning/

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

Wouldn't it be cool if we had an annual blog awards?

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

Can't wait for sweaty-boy autumn.

Attachments:

• Me outside. I'm very sweaty. I'm wearing a red t-shirt and yellow bandanna. I'm staring into the camera.

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

Me: *in the wilderness alone and scared*

CVS: *from behind a tree* you want me to ask your doctor to refill your Adderall subscription?

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz 🖤") wrote:

The funniest thing my mother ever said to me happened after I trapped a spider in her house and let it free outside.

She said to me, as a stranger would, "oh you're one of those."

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

tomayac@toot.cafe ("Thomas Steiner :chrome:") wrote:

@bendelarre @slightlyoff @jensimmons And we have an update: François Beaufort, DevRel for WebGPU, just let me know: "It's actually shipping in chrome 129: https://github.com/blurbusters/testufo-public/issues/4#issuecomment-2333689442".

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

A friend tipped me off that a Major American Sporting League's website had, from a low, low point (which I had traced in years prior due to a partnership engagement with the Chrome team) descended to the depths of JS excess. The names have been obfuscated to protect the guilty.

Folks, this is how you break a digital business: a legacy site teetering on the edge of usability, suddenly sunk by hundreds of KB of Reactor overconfidence and "works fine on my $3K laptop and $1K phone"

Attachments:

• 11 seconds of main thread script work...on an i7 laptop, plugged in, on the tip-of-tree Chromium. It's "only" 4.2MB of JS (14.8MB unzipped), but it's really punching above its weight. (remote)