Notices by Kat (kats@chaosfem.tw), page 2

@inthehands That's an almost impressive perversion of a perfectly good argument.

Somebody had interviewed the CEO of a software development company (can't remember who or which; doesn't matter). In a time when "you must fix all bugs before release" was popular dogma, they asked whether he was comfortable with shipping releases that he knew contained bugs.

"Absolutely!" he said with a big smile.

Then he explained. Their customers got more value from having the software as it was, even with those bugs, than from not having it. Perfect, good, enemy, value of "now" vs "eventually, when it's perfect" and all that.

I think he was also enthusiastic about fixing those bugs to improve the quality over time. I'm taking that approach, in any case.

@beka_valentine You got the result and they're complying now, yes?

If they've stopped doing the bad thing, the punishment worked, and now it's time to show them and others that if you do comply, then the punishment stops.

If you continue boycotting them after they've acceded, you've shown them and others that acceding accomplishes nothing, and they should simply ride out boycotts.

I can't help much with the icky taste in your mouth of doing business with a company you had to boycott, sorry.

I would like for everybody responsible* for the UI pattern of disruptive pop-ups interrupting every page or message transition, to be unable to focus on anything ever again.
That should get them out of the way of the rest of us.

I'm a little tired of websites interrupting with a blocking upsell advert while I'm trying to use the services I'm already paying for. Or that I'm trying to pay for, and am now having second thoughts about.
At this rate, I'm going to start specifically checking for this issue as part of the vendor-selection process.

*Please don't explain to me that the people implementing things don't always have a choice. I said "responsible" for a reason.

@Jaden3 Some will, and you can't help that. But some of us grow up eventually - I can give you that much hope.

When I started university, I found out that two places in my pre-law class were reserved for Maori students whose high school grades hadn't been high enough to be admitted the regular way.

As a deeply ignorant white kid, I though it was ridiculous.
Eventually I understood why, and now I'm completely behind it. In fact, I'd put money on those kids studying many times harder than I did.

Besides which, have you tried studying law? The first year is basically a nonstop hazing to see who actually makes it through to the second year. IDGAF what your grades were beforehand; if you get through that, you've earned your place. Doubly so if you're dealing with the kind of shit that keeps Maori kids back.
(I did not make it through)

@roadriverrail That goes for anything else, too.
Having well-developed taste doesn't necessarily mean you always go for the super-refined stuff. It just means you're better equipped to appreciate all of it.

Besides, sometimes the cheap trashy stuff is just plain fun, and there's nothing wrong with that.
:looks back at own dating history:
There isn't always anything wrong with that.

If you're already preparing to flee your country, and you're looking at Spain as a destination, talk to me. I may be able to help you with somewhere to stay when you get here.

I'm not ruling out other people, but for obvious reasons my primary focus is on helping other trans folk.

No promises yet, because I need to verify how I can make this work.

@roadriverrail I'm being mean.
Her voice is lovely, their cover of Bela Lugosi's Dead is inspiring and, from the live footage I've seen, they don't miss on stage either.

It's just that for me this is disconcertingly girly.

Pet peeve: no, compression does not make the quiet parts of your signal louder, and I really wish people would stop repeating this.

• Compression makes loud sounds quieter. That's all.
• Compressors usually have a compression stage, followed by a separate volume-boost stage which makes the entire compressed signal louder.
• These are not the same thing.

Why does this bother me? For many years, I looked in vain for an explanation of how compression makes quiet sounds louder.

There actually is a related technology that dynamically makes the quiet bits louder. It's called upward expansion. It's a crucial part of how Dolby noise-reduction works.
Yes, there's also downward expansion; that's how noise-gates work.

Thankyou for coming to my TED talk.

#Music #GuitarEffects

These hormones are great and all, but I think the side-effects could be more clearly communicated.

Apparently I'm going through a Nouvelle Vague phase. What's next? Cheesecloth dresses and scented candles?

Adventures with Google's creepiness on Android continue: I found an entire new section of settings, where I have to tell it not to "learn from this app" - individually, per app.

I'm at the point of shopping for a physical metronome, and seriously considering buying a physical navigation device, just to keep even that data out of Google's (easy) reach.

On that note, is anybody working on an OSM-based equivalent to Garmin/TomTom?

@engagedpractx True.
Same question stands with modified phrasing, though.
@glyph @mattly

@engagedpractx @glyph @mattly "What value are you giving me in exchange for the fruits of my labour?"

Yes, I think it does. In the case at hand here, we're looking at one party creating value and another making use of it without providing anything in return.

If you have a counter-argument, please go ahead and state it.

@engagedpractx @glyph @mattly I don't see how that qualifies as value received by the developer.

I understand "that's what I was taught," but I don't find it at all persuasive. I certainly don't see how that's the kind of exchange of value that can reasonably construed to bind the developer to any responsibility of unpaid labour for the benefit of the user.

@adriano @cwebber @lanodan @shtwzrd OK, gamers, today we're porting Doom to... oh dear God, what is this abomination?!!

@jeffowski Or who fears being treated the way he's seen other men treating insufficently-overtly-masculine men.

Sorry, but this one's rubbish. Please stop repeating it.

@clacke Then somebody found one from 1650.
So it's probably (but not necessarily) newer than "this generation of kids is destroying civilisation", but appears to older than "are tattoos becoming mainstream?"

It's good to keep the timelines in approximate order :)

@mike @anarchiv "Snakes... why did it have to be snakes?"

Raiders of the Lost Rack - coming soon, to a datacentre near you!

@darrellpf @actuallyautistic This is an autistic thing?
Not just me, then. That's affirming :)

@enigmatico I'm old enough to remember putting some time into learning VRML.

@chris @revk Oof. Thank heavens for managers who understand that people are fallible.