Notices by Mark Sample (samplereality@post.lurk.org)

Last year's shutdown of @glitchdotcom was a blow to my pedagogy. Glitch was ideal for creative coding classes and workshops. I looked around for alternatives. But there was nothing that was open, decentralized, and not at the mercy of VCs or Big Tech.

So I built my own. Here's Glitchlet.

Glitchlet runs on any shared hosting service (e.g., Reclaim Hosting). If you can run WordPress, you can run Glitchlet. Projects-in-progress are stored in the browser's local storage, but you can also one-click publish to make them public and remixable. Glitchlet is designed with educators in mind.

There's no single, primary Glitchlet that everyone uses. The idea is that every instructor installs their own Glitchlet and manages their own classes/workshops/projects. You can seed your instance with template files, or Glitchlet can easily import projects (including archived Glitch .tgz files).

Making something so easy to install and host has trade-offs, of course. No fancy pants Node or React projects, but Glitchlet works beautifully with HTML/JavaScript/CSS. No live collaboration, but you can still remix published projects.

Best of all—you're in control and not subject to the whims of some startup that suddenly decides to "sunset" a key pedagogical tool.

Glitchlet is alpha now, but its code will available to all very soon!

Firaxis—the studio behind the Civilization series—is hiring a historian. An *actual* historian. And note, when they ask for "4+ years as a Writer, Narrative Designer, or other position with commensurate duties," that includes teaching, writing, and research—i.e. your Ph.D. in History.

https://boards.greenhouse.io/firaxis/jobs/6299440003

Botmakers who move from botsin.space to another instance, consider supporting the server team's Patreon/Ko-Fi/whatever! Because nothing is free! *Somebody* is paying to host and maintain your server. Help them out if you can.

Just another day in my Critical AI Studies class.

Twice in the past week I've read scholars who should know better repeat the urban legend that the QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typing, and thus, jamming, on early typewriters.

That'd be cool if it were true, but it's not, and the the truth is even cooler. The QWERTY keyboard evolved over time, shaped by two forces: (1) since the early machines were used by telegraph operators, the keys were arranged to avoid common transcription errors; and (2) competing patents of the typewriter slightly arranged the keyboard layout in order to qualify as new (and therefore patentable) designs.

Check out this research for more: https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/139379/1/42_161.pdf

We can't forgive student loans because students knew full well what they were getting into but yes, let's bail out banks because golly shucks gee whiz banking is just too difficult for the poor little bankers to wrap their heads around.