Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

Some day soon a child will ask “what is the smallest ant in the world?” and discover that, unless they want to become an expert they simply can’t know.

This is the death of polymaths— a hurdle for interdisciplinary learning— and a return to a kind of human gatekeeping for real information: you best ask someone qualified if you are not expert enough to tell on your own. (this was already true for contentious topics, but now it will be everything)

Once you could count on some things posted online probably being true because, well, why would anyone bother to put out misinformation about a topic so obscure or uncontroversial? now the simple fact that someone might want to know a bit of information makes it worth faking if it can get their eyeballs on an ad— or improve the search ranking for some company. The harmless act of *being curious* about the world causes misinformation to spring to life. We have made wanting to learn destructive.

Today I went to the store to pick up yeast, and I came home with:
- radishes
- daikon
- carrots
- bathroom spray cleaner
- vinegar
- basil seed and honey soda
- milk
- fennel
- a bookmark
- a tiny little Vaseline

..what I did not come home with:
- yeast.

Where the #ICQ „Uh-Oh“ sound really came from: Not Worms or Lemmings, as some are telling you. Instead Windows 3.0 MultiMedia Edition from 1991 contains the exact same sample as „ohoh.wav“. #retrocomputing #windows #1990s

There's something very sad about reading "there was no money in giving water we extracted from the air to drought-ridden people so we're selling it to hotels instead"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd11nnwp646o

@flexion There is something surreal in this big-ass architectural diagram to power a tamagotchi

Any #gamedev got reccommendations for image viewing software? I want something where I can browse a library of pngs with transparency easy to discern and nearest neighbor rendering allowing zooming in real close even on lower resolutions. Preferrably FOSS.

ProRail: We need to do a technical investigation on the railway line between Den Haag and Rotterdam Centraal!
Everybody: when?
ProRail: Monday between 7:30 and 8:15!

*chaos ensues*

Has anyone written a regex to wasm compiler yet because that’s exactly the sort of thing I would want to write.

nothing is universally accessible, though some things are near-universally inaccessible.

conflicting access needs are what happens when two disabilities, or even two instances of disabilities broadly considered "the same", have needs wherein one cannot be fulfilled in the same space at the same time as the other.

some examples of this include:
- folks who need quiet time and a lack of loud interruptions vs folks who need to make loud noises or cannot control doing so via tics and such
- ppl who need light mode vs ppl who need dark mode
- ppl who need linux vs mac vs windows' various features (ie, screen reader support vs deep customizability and ability to change how everything functions, not having intrusive UI changes forced upon you every update, etc)
- needing specific content warnings vs needing to be able to talk about things that are fundamental to your everyday life without slapping a warning on every other post

this concept is a big reason why providing more *choice and autonomy* is an improvement on accessibility in many cases. and, of course, every space can stand to be more accessible.

like, linux SHOULD have more screen reader support and many more accessibility features, just as windows SHOULD stop putting fucking ads in people's faces and fucking with privacy And And And etc. a space full of lots of loud things or expecting many people should have quiet spaces for rest where u can escape the noise.

but i think it's utterly unhelpful to think about these things as "this space is accessible!"

accessible to whom? how? you cannot simply say something is More Accessible than another thing without specifying who it's accessible to.

Random reminder that if your project has a Code of Conduct, but it is not enforced, then your project does not have a Code of Conduct.

I haven't commented on the latest idiocy w.r.t. Google & their "AI summaries." But I honestly don't have anything left to say. We wrote all the papers to be written & gave all the warnings to be given.

Maybe they'll all destroy each other chasing this AGI dream of theirs🤷‍♀️

I’m immune compromised - would you mask for me?

“No! Stay home forever!”

I can’t stay home I need food - can I order in?

“Do it yourself! It’s entitled and privileged to get delivery! SURELY you can use a microwave!”

I’ve got a family member to help me.

“Don’t be a burden!”

I need the hospital so I’m going to wear a respirator.

“Haha that’s illegal now!”

This is genuinely how it feels to be a high risk disabled person in society right now. It’s not enough that the loudest voices won and governments basically dismantled all covid protections, reporting tools, testing etc… they still scream at us for trying to protect ourselves. We stay home and rely on gig economy & delivery services and we’re exploiting others. We ask people to mask and we’re tyrants. We try to mask ourselves and we’re mocked and teased and now at least one US State is actively trying to criminalize medical masks.

Yet whenever I bring up eugenics I’m shouted down and told I’m exaggerating - despite the fact that a large portion of society very clearly doesn’t want disabled people to survive (and they certainly won’t lift a finger to help us).

It feels terribly bleak and I wish the “my freedom” crowd would recognize that disabled people are the canaries in the coal mine. Governments won’t stop with us. We’re just unlucky enough to be first.

#CovidIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver #CovidCautious #sarscov2 #maskup #WearAMask #CleanAir #Pandemic #Disability #accessibility #DisabilityRights #N95s #Ableism #CommunityCare #Eugenics #MaskBan