Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

@eniko I will forever stand 100% by what my favorite professor once said:

“The more symbols I see on your paper, the less interested I am in reading what you have to say. If you can’t express your idea in plain simple words, reevaluate what you’re trying to say. Ideas are meant to be conveyed, not deciphered” (paraphrased a bit because this was like 4 years ago)

people always tell me "mathematical notation is just like jargon, its just more efficient." no, mathematical notation is not like jargon

1. jargon are words. anyone can put a word into a search engine and find a glossary of terms explaining what that jargon word means in some context. you can't do that with math notation unless you already know math notation

2. jargon is almost never overloaded like mathematical notation is. the same letter or piece of punctuation can mean wildly different things in wildly different context or even can vary based on the *font the symbol is displayed in*

imagine if someone in software engineering used the symbol ⍼ instead of "garbage collector", except it only maps to "garbage collector" if it's written in sans serif. if it's written with serif, it means "compute shader" instead. but if its in comic sans it means "SIMD divide"

and also 98% of the time they used the ⍼ symbol it was inserted as a picture, not a copy/pastable unicode glyph. *that's* math notation

anytime you hear "no politics", you're hearing the oppressor

You should always be running the latest version of any software program.

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Sure, until #accessibility for disabled users goes down the pisser and they're left feeling frustrated, upset, worried and confused as to how long it'll take for the shit they rely on every day to be usable again.

I rely on subtitles for everything, it feels so fucked to put an accessibility thing behind a paywall

A moderator of a FB group I frequent has fallen headlong into the “politeness” trap, insisting that participants observe “civility” and “manners” when they post.

Many of you probably already recognize that #politeness is a trap. It is a tool used by aristocrats and the powerful to silence dissent, by protesting *how* the oppressed choose to cry, instead of dealing with *why* they cry. Southern slaveowners were probably the most polite bunch of folks you’ll ever know.

Focus on what’s important: kindess, empathy, respect, tolerance. And tell politeness to go fuck itself.

Devs: You know what? Fine! I'm outta here. I realize now that I never should've taken this deal. I'm gonna make my own Torment Nexus. It's gonna be better than this one too. And it's gonna be totally free! So people don't have to depend on big corporations like this one. I'm gonna build tech that let's people choose when and how to torment themselves! That's the world I wanna live in.

-Fin-

Devs: We've finally got the thing that's definitely not a Torment Nexus up and running.

That's awesome! We're gonna make a ton of money from tormenting people. They keep asking for it for some reason.

Devs: Speaking of money, I think I deserve a raise.

Absolutely not! Did you even do any work? Also, this thing requires the power of a small country to do even a small amount of tormenting. It's costing us billions. We're gonna have to let you go.

Devs: Ok, I'll help you build Torment Nexus. Just so we're clear, you can't just lay me off after we've get the thing up and running.

Oh, we're definitely gonna do that.

Devs: That seems harsh. Then I don't want to be blamed for it when it starts hurting people.

Well who else would we blame? You built that damn thing! And if I'm not mistaken, a bunch of people warned you not to. I'm afraid this ones on you champ.

Devs: Fine! Can I at least get an office with a door that closes?

lol, no.

Will you help us build the Torment Nexus?

Devs: What?! Absolutely not!

What if we paid you $1 million a year?

Devs: It's not about the money. My reputation is at stake!

You could tell people you had no choice.

Devs: I won't be responsible for building the Torment Nexus. It's evil!

Oh... well you know it won't look like a Torment Nexus until much later. Right now it's just a cool toy that makes up answers to silly questions.

Devs: Haha, this thing is cool. Wait, what were we talking about?

If you're just going to call anything that uses electricity "electronics" then I'm going to call anything that uses gravity "gravitronics".

My drip coffee maker?
Gravitronic coffee maker.

That grandfather clock?
Gravitronic clock.

The slide on the children's play set?
Gravitronicly-powered play.

Reposting something here that I wrote for a conversation elsewhere. It's not going to provide any new insights here, I'm just happy that I finally managed to put it all into one coherent point. Edited for punctuation.

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I have a real problem with the normative culture of "having an opinion about everything", especially from white dudes - at no point do people ask themselves "am I actually qualified to cast an opinion on this, or should I defer my judgment to someone who is materially affected by it and who will be familiar with the details?", instead it is just assumed that "everyone" (read: white men) have a fundamental right to Have An Opinon, and do so loudly, and that it should be taken into account regardless of qualifications or skin in the game.

This is so culturally embedded that even people who do not *intend* to disrupt discussions still end up doing so by displaying the above behaviour, detracting from the subject matter experts, and refusing to ever trust anyone's word on anything unless *they, personally* feel that they fully understand and agree with it. And this happens at such a scale that it is almost impossible to defend against.

That problem makes an appearance in the discourse for just about every marginalized group in some form or another, *and outside of that too*, down to things like technical conversations where people get irritated by people chiming in with useless commentary that wasn't asked for while someone is trying to figure something out.

Once the new footbridge is open in Zwolle, it will be a magnificent location to watch the performance of “Knoop Zwolle”. It is a very dense program where every half hour 10 trains are connecting to each other and the reason why Zwolle is the starting point of the Dutch train timetable.

Na de zoveelste non-profit of goed bedoelende site vol trackers en cookies moest ik dit toch echt even kwijt. Want het hoeft echt niet. En probeer vooral eens uit te zoeken wie in je organisatie iets zou DOEN dan met al die tracking data. Goeie kans dat er niemand naar omkijkt maar je wel het surfgedrag van je gebruikers verklikt aan adverteerders:
https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/of-je-doet-geen-cookies/