Christopher Rodriguez @yewscion@tech.lgbt

Don't get me wrong, computers can absolutely help us regain our environmental efficiency. They just *aren't*.

Not as long as we're:
* constantly syncing everything to the cloud,
* expecting same-hour delivery,
* funding our clickbait via surveillance advertising,
* buying a new phone every year,
* using AIs because they're cool rather than useful,
* running bloated software & webpages,
* buying into "big data"
* etc

Computing is environmentally cheap, but it rapidly adds up!

if u highpass filter ur voice at the right frequency u can cut out chest resonances and it will instantly sound much more fem, without sounding obviously processed either.

rich text editors be like: "yeah, you pasted an unordered list, i see that, so only the first item is a list item, right?" 🤦‍♂️

My first computer was a Commodore C16 in 1986, followed by a C128D in 1987, on which I ran the included CP/M 3.0 and wrote my first Turbo pascal programs on it.
1991, I got my first MS-DOS-based PC with a real screen reader, HAL v4.5 by @yourdolphin.
---
RT @BlondeHistorian
But if you’re blind how do you type?! 👩🏼‍🦯🤳🏻

Blind people online have to answer these kind of questions constantly.

So help raise some awareness & share this…
https://twitter.com/BlondeHistorian/status/1485377239248220161

It's okay if you failed today. You can try again tomorrow.

GuileScript 0.0.0 Because, why not?https://github.com/aconchillo/guilescript
#GNU #guile

#bash tip: use ^foo to say run the last command, but remove the string “foo”. ^foo^bar means “replace “foo” with “bar” in the last command.

Get yourself a laptop that you love so much that you find reasons to do work to use it

That's me with my 2010 MacBook. I love this thing to fucking shreds and am constantly looking for excuses to play with it

Stop using #youtubedl. It's painfully slow. yt-dlp is a fork that improves and updates the project.

from an interesting article #amreading about The Potterization of Science Fiction: https://hugoclub.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-potterization-of-science-fiction.html

"One of the fundamentally troubling assumptions behind the born-great protagonist is the anti-democratic idea that the lives of some people simply matter more than the lives of other people. If we accept that Harry Potter is destined to be the only one who can do the thing that’s important, then why should we care about the life of Ritchie Coote? Likewise, if Aragorn is destined for the throne then we have to accept that all other Men of Gondor would be incapable of managing the kingdom (let alone Women of Gonder). There is a direct link between the idea that one person can be born great, with the ideas that underpin racism, classism, and sexism. See also: the equally flawed “great man” theory.

Just as troubling an assumption is the idea that greatness is unearned; those who are great have not thought about it, have not put in effort to attain greatness, have not practiced whatever inherent part of their nature makes for greatness. It wouldn’t matter if Húrin the Tall graduated at the top of his class in urban planning at the University of Dúnedain, he’d still be incapable of managing Minas Tirith, and would be doomed to repeat Denethor’s mistakes. This is an idea that breeds complacency as we are taught by the stories we consume that greatness is achievable only through parentage. That is, one’s efforts to improve their lot in life are largely irrelevant, as is the society that supports the achievement of greatness at all."

even though i'm not sure it's necessarily the best mindset for approaching creative work, i don't want to discourage anyone working on a game or anything else creative.

a lot of creative work is aspirational and creating something for yourself/a younger version of yourself is totally ok.

If you make a piece of software, and people are required to use that piece of software in order to, say, pay for their housing or groceries or pay back a loan, you are on the hook to make sure that software works for _every single person_ who needs to use it.

All of them.

Every screen reader user. Every person with muscle issues who can't use a mouse. Everyone who doesn't speak English. Everyone with three first names, or no last name. Everyone who is Irish or Jewish and has a ' in their name. Everyone with slow internet.

EVERY person.

"Oh we don't have the resources to do that!" Great. Then you don't have the resources to make and sell that kind of software. Pack up and go home.