Notices by josef (jk@mastodon.social)

2025. you go to a website. you see all the elements on the page pop-in, loading one by one. it's like the 90s again. your internet connection might be hundreds of megabits per second. the web designer is using a 4k video file as a looping background, and that somehow loads quickly compared to all the actual useful elements on the page. three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds. each checkbox and table has to initialize its own software stack of UI abstraction libraries and surveillance middleware

i think that as computers penetrated the mainstream, it became clear that the majority of users only have a few basic things they want. most of the vast and rapidly-expanding potential of the machine would sit there, untapped. a wasted resource. this gap had to be filled with something, which is how we ended up with computers where the user does the few basic things they want, and then the computer secretly does a ton of other different things they don't want

heres a computer i made when i was a kid

probably in this analogy javascript might be a 'prefab stick-frame particle-board sprayfoam-insulation' type of style. a tacky and flimsy scourge? or a forgiving and universally-accessible standard successfully serving millions?

i think i feel similarly about programming language design as i do about architecture. i prefer straightforward, human-scale, vernacular designs that evolve over time in response to the practical, if messy needs of people, over the masterplans of glasswall modernist utopias or imposing neoclassical pastiche. while i am impressed by the stringent engineering requirements of the steel suspension bridge or an impenetrable bunker, i could not imagine it too comfortable to live in one

for our New Years party i have made a doom map of our apartment for the party guests to deathmatch in

i think the human sense of rhythm might come from communal long-distance running

as a non-american, theres a lot of things in The Simpsons which i thought were surreal jokes, but turned out to actually be real and normal in america

as a non-american, for my first few years of internet use, i was confused about why americans were so respectful of veterinarians

listening to a CD right now that’s more than 40 years old. still spinning. looking identical. sounding identical. what an incredible format

please change if necessary

@Gargron i looked for an error log somewhere in the app but there doesn’t seem to be one? i suppose I could do a bunch of test posts or something. I didn’t get an error or anything, just posted as normal and then it wasn’t there.

@Gargron the original post was funnier and better probably. but it i hit publish and it’s Nowhere! anyway yet another reason to stop using my phone i suppose if it cant even post reliably

@Gargron yeah, the post is gone? What i said was something like “I dont pay attention to anything when i post on my phone because i dont like using my phone”

@Gargron i just sent you a reply and i don’t think it worked at all??

@Gargron i posted a toot at someone, and it shows up in my main public timeline in a way that all my followers see it by default rather than just people looking at my ‘posts and replies’ or mutuals of the other account. not sure why. probably user error? there’s probably a technical reason. then i posted about that, and that post didn’t post and it seems like it’s vanished forever. probably also user error. i probably need to get fediverse for dummies book or something

i did a post about me posting something and something weird happening with the post, and it vanished. the mystery continues

the ARM instruction set architecture stands for 'Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'

i remember reading about bitcoin in 2009 or something and being like. why would i want to generate world of warcraft money on my computer while im not using it? im already generating proteins. im deciphering communications from aliens. theres no time for this eve online neopets fake economy bullshit for nerds. im doing real science on this pentium 4, buddy

*why im leaving mastodon to join bluesky voice* Why im giving up food to eat Bitcoin