New server means a new #introduction
Hi, I am a design executive in Europe who started as a backend developer in Missouri.
My life has taken many turns, but I’ve always benefited from the advantage of being a white cishet male who is stereotyped as credible. Hopefully, I leave this planet more equitable than I found it.
I strive to apply critical analysis to everything yet also find solidarity with everyone.
While I value “strong opinions, weakly held”, I do indulge in strongly-held opinions on a few issues. I’ll thread them here so you can make an informed decision on whether to follow or block me:
Happy international Transit Driver Appreciation Day!
I hope your city is observing it, but thank a bus driver or train conductor in any event.
Considering the grift that gets through Apple’s precious App Store screening these days, it might be time to try this one again: https://blog.forumwarz.com/2011/02/01/irejected-how-apple-took-nine-weeks-to-arbitrarily-reject-our-app/
@SholemAlejchem heh, good point.
(God forbid we think of online services as places for work akin to the labor we prefer to delegate to migrants.)
Whatever became of Bokode? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokode
This has aged well. https://twitter.com/gerwitz/status/942145318
Why did we stop calling them "server farms"? Farms make so much more sense than clouds.
@gruber remember when “social media” was playful? https://twitter.com/gruber/status/13648331
It’s not “kids these days” that make me yell at clouds, but the dopamine cartel. https://www.honest-broker.com/p/the-state-of-the-culture-2024
Leaving a note here so I can say “I was right” later: by the time I retire, it will seem quaint that we thought global economics could be understood as the US vs China, ignoring the self-determination of India and African societies. https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/reimagining-economic-growth-in-africa-turning-diversity-into-opportunity
TIL my online writing style with copious ellipses, a careful ratio of periods and exclamation points, and emoji is optimized to alienate people of every generation. https://www.purewow.com/tech/why-do-boomers-use-ellipses
@waldfunk @bert_hubert +1 for this, I have a cheap and “green” little ARM VPS at Hetzner, and used the Docker “app” to establish it. So it’s not quite _serverless_ but is a very-low-ops container host that I retain full control of.
a16z jumped the shark quite some time ago, but nothing quite captures that as well as this news: https://crypto.news/kickstarter-secret-investment-web3/
@mosseri perhaps you already know, but out here in the fediverse none of your media is loading for me. (Even the avatar.)
I feel like the abusive mode of software business models is so embedded at this point that we have a generation of designers who don't actually know how to prioritize user utility — which was already complicated for folks to understand even before the enshittification started.
It doesn’t require much analysis to guess that Apple will announce a major Siri upgrade at WWDC, but I can think of few signals stronger than @gruber openly trashing the current product.
I’m so proud of the Krewe of Freret for leading Mardi Gras towards a more sustainable future. 👑
I am happy to report there already exists a gopher client for visionOS, courtesy @navanchauhan@mastodon.social
https://apps.apple.com/ro/app/igopherbrowser/id6474638845?platform=appleVisionPro
People who say that Apple is anti-web have no idea what they're talking about. Just this week they released the Apple Sports app *specifically* to showcase why Web Apps are so often a better choice than native apps. It's a masterful proof by example. By stripping what could have been a fun app down to its barest components, a flat list of scores with no design whatsoever, they can focus on demonstrating how these "list apps" are usually just the thinnest of wrappers around a JSON API. (1/🧵)
How does anyone post to Medium with a clean conscience anymore? To have your writing hidden behind upsells and Google account pushes and cookie warnings?
Internet connection problems take on a bit of urgency when 80% of your work time is spent in video calls.
Sales drone for a B2B services firm sends me unsolicited email, then follows up a week later with “URGENT: Follow up on previous email” subject and a message the explains nothing but asks me to confirm I’m receiving their mail.
Really, Benjamin? Does this strategy gain you customers?
@mattl @danhon @luis_in_brief +1, we should have a “replies warning” field on Mastodon posts.
I knew the Apple Vision Pro’s EyeSight looked familiar. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1071804/characters/nm0512386
TIL that taming our otoliths to prevent VR motion sickness is likely to require ready access to scopolamine, also a date-rape drug. 😬 https://www.ign.com/articles/disney-unveils-the-holotile-floor-inching-us-closer-to-a-real-life-holodeck
@gwynnion Mike and Patricia McCloskey said the quiet part out loud.
Anyway, in case this wasn’t on your radar, you might enjoy: https://archive.is/grtme
I’ve been using “American Gentry” ever since reading that.