Elfi, known bug enjoyer @elfi@pixie.town

(Un)popular opinion: I honestly wish we could go back to using one client (i.e Pidgin or Kopete) for all IMs.

For some people out there it might be a history lesson, but just like now, we used to use multiple IM services for different social circles.

- IRC
- XMPP/Jabber
- Google Talk/iChat
- Localized services (i.e GG or TLEN in Poland)

Just imagine that you could use Matrix, Discord, Telegram, Signal or whatever people use these days in a single app with coherent interface, that would use maybe like 200 - 500MB of RAM (assuming caching from Discord severs and what not).

Instead of having each "webapp" open which on my desktop usually accumulates to ~2GB of RAM usage on the desktop, you could use a literal potato to talk to other people.

I fondly remember using an ancient PDA (HTC TyTn II with Windows Mobile 6) in high school. It was an absolute marvel to use - mSD card, headphone jack (though via dongle, so how tables have turned), physical QWERTY keyboard and stylus.

It served me for literal ages. I would use it to talk to my friends, watch movies, connect to server in my bedroom running FreeBSD 9.2 over SSH and so on.

All of that on Qualcomm MSM7200 - 400MHz ARM11 (though not sure why I thought it was an XScale, weird) and 128MB of RAM.

I know for a fact that most IM software is unnecessary bloated, as my laptop lasts a loooot longer on battery if I don't use Discord on it.

This opinion will once again will light my butt on fire, but I believe EU should force companies providing messaging services to open up their APIs and allow using 3rd party clients without ToS bullshit that discord is doing.

Good morning paleolithic pachyderms, it's ya favorite Black, disabled dinosaur
photographer! Did you know if 65 people bought one of my $10 wallpaper bundles from ko-fi, or a 12$ print from my site per month, I could afford a bunch of basic necessities like food & transit? Why not help a Black photographer survive capitalism?

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https://www.pictorem.com/profile/LunarRise.Photography

#photography #FediGiftShop #FediArt #AYearForArt #Mastoart #ArtBooster #DisabledCreative #BlackPhotographer

W3C has posted that we are no longer active on X/Twitter and have directed all our followers here to Mastodon.

We are encouraging all W3C-related accounts to do the same.

Encourage your friends to follow us here!

I can finally reveal some research I've been involved with over the past year or so.

We (@redford, @mrtick and I) have reverse engineered the PLC code of NEWAG Impuls EMUs. These trains were locking up for arbitrary reasons after being serviced at third-party workshops. The manufacturer argued that this was because of malpractice by these workshops, and that they should be serviced by them instead of third parties.

1/4

tyson tan designing the #kde mascot be like:

let's talk about racism and how it shows up in everyday instances ...

when i first got to the states as a resident back in 2008, the then-fiancee (now husband) asked me to drive his car into the dealership for an appointment he made to get the brakes worked on.

when i got there, they told me they had no record of a service call for me or the car and that they were not going to work on it that day...

hubster calls "do you have an appointment on the books for me?"
them: "oh yes - we're ready and waiting for you when you show up"
him: "er ... my wife is there and she says you turned her away"
them: "oh .. heh .. didn't realise that was your wife. ok - but it might take a while to get you done"

no slurs, no outright "we don't want black people here", just this toxic undercurrent of "you are not welcome" here.

this is what racism looks like today. it's not obvious, it's not something you can even call out because the way they do it is to give them maximum deniability "no that's not what we SAID" ... "oh no that's not what we meant" ... and when asked to explain, the goal posts move ...

in this instance, it wasn't that they couldn't or wouldn't work on his car, even after telling him they were waiting on him to start work, now it was that they're suddenly too busy to do what they were contracted (via appointment) to do.

when you want to know what racism looks like, ask the victim what their experience is ... don't, for the love of all that is good in this world, depend on what your reading of a situation is because your (white) experience is ALWAYS tempered for deniability.

The first fairy looked at the baby princess. "I give the gift of beauty."

The second fairy rolled their eyes. "This is my gift: you will always have the power you need."

"Damnit," the third fairy said. "I was going to give her a good voice, but now I must give her compassion."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

This one isn't for me. Carol has been a friend of mine for nearly 15 years.

If you can help, I would appreciate it. If not, I understand.