Firehose

Next time I write display: absolute, just kill me.

I always listen to Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music when coding so I can hear how computers think.

I saw this place when I was in Malaysia.

All I could think of were weblogs. It overwhelmed my thoughts and consumed my mind each time I saw it. I’m too far gone.

Cool blog, dude.

I’d like to thank my superannuation fund for sending me an email full of images which all have the alt text ‘alt_text’.

Fun fact: If you write proper semantic code and don’t abstract everything with bloated frameworks, you don’t have to spend as much time faffing around with ARIA.

Me quickly cycling through all the CSS display properties: ‘Surely one of these bails me out…’

Hey guys. I need a few billion dollars in funding to make a diamagnetism-based human levitation machine. Anyone interested in investing?

True horror is having to start a writing session with this incantation:

:setlocal spell spelllang=en_us

Revolt rebranded to Stoat today. Should be an interesting future for the platform. Lots of work to update stuff and move it all over.

https://stoat.chat/updates/long-live-stoat

If you’re wondering the implications for AutoMod: https://automod.vale.rocks/blog/revolt-is-stoat-now

Just marked a margin as !impotent. Sorry margin.

If your screed on AI doesn’t include the word ‘emergent’, what are you even doing?

I don’t think nearly enough people are aware of William Shatner’s music career.

Some highlights for your consideration:

• Elton John’s Rocket Man
• Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody
• Pulp’s Common People - I genuinely don’t mind Shatner’s rendition of this one.
• The Beetle’s Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Paul McCartney said of it, ‘That was good – I think he was on drugs when he did that – but it was good. I’d say still one of my favourite versions of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.’

Something I’d like to try my hand at is giving a proper conference talk. I’m brimming with ideas, and speaking arrangements seem like the natural next thing for me to do.

Certainly difficult as someone who lives in Western Australia, but something that I’d like to pursue nonetheless.

At this point I’m starting to think I might need to begin performing Voight-Kampff tests on ‘people’ I meet online.

It is amazing that Google+ had absolutely no lasting impact on culture whatsoever. I only ever hear it brought up occasionally in passing as that thing that Google aggressively pushed everywhere.

I find a significant observational correlation between people who post about AI and people who post without alt text.

Just absolutely massacred an email I was trying to write with unintentional Vim key binds. Complete bloodbath.

A story in two parts:

• Finally push changes to prod
• Influx of notifications

Local man forgets to put content: "" on his pseudo-element for fifth time this week, spurring community concern.

Saw some great talks at DDD Perth yesterday. There was lots of AI stuff, so I focussed my attendance on some of the talks and discussion away from that.

Ja-Jet Loh presented a fantastic talk on the history of open-source. A fun little refresher as someone who writes open-source code.

Matthew McGillivray talked about programmatic video with a slide deck made entirely in the technologies he was talking about. Really sleek presentation and great live demos.

Kristy Sachse blitzed through a talk about designing multi-modal systems away from the standard screen dynamic.

Eumir Gaspar took the crowd down the rabbit hole (that quickly became a bottomless pit) of custom keyboards. Some proper interesting stuff there and fascinating history I wasn’t privy to.

Rendle talked about some positive applications of technology in this rotting climate we find ourselves in.

Throughout the day I managed to have some great convos with various folks and at the assorted booths (also managed to pick up plenty of swag while doing so).

Thanks to all the organisers, volunteers, and sponsors who made it happen!

I really dislike conducting hiring interviews.

I’ve had to vet applications and proceed through the interview process with applicants several times, and I always despise it. Not because of the people (they’re usually lovely) or any specific issue with the processes, but merely because of the overarching interview system.

I just feel like a bit of a douche when doing hiring interviews – like I’m dangling power in front of someone in some ego play.

When holding a leadership position, I’m usually careful to avoid whatever power I hold having this impact, but it seems unavoidable in interviews.

We both speak in tip-toeing generalistics steeped in corporate sludge, never quite getting to our point or conveying it concisely. If I try to cut through the jargon and corporate speak, then it seems insincere and like a façade hidden behind ulterior motives and a sneer, even if intended genuinely. The same applies to any casual remark or small talk, even if well-intentioned.

Interviews are a necessary part of the applicant vetting process, but years of layered advice and abstracted intentions have warped them into little more than a performative tango that neither partner wishes to dance.

It is only Tuesday, but I already feel like I’ve been punted down a flight of stairs and then locked in a sensory deprivation room that someone periodically throws stun grenades into.

They’re trashing our rights, man.

They’re trashing the flow of data.

They’re trashing! Trashing! Trashing!

Hack the planet! Hack the planet! Hack the planet!

A lazy Sunday. Rain cascades down the window. A cup of tea rests by my side. Jazz plays. I’m exploring personal websites.

Oooooh yeah!