arborelia @arborelia@computerfairi.es

The most beloved era of #pinball (1992-1999) coincides with the Web 1.0 era, so it is right and fitting that this amazing site exists:

http://www.pinballperfection.com/

Holiday Major Glitches: it's ALttP Randomizer's festive December mode and it's also Hybrid Major Glitches

https://twitch.tv/arborelia

It's another episode of Silver Ball Century, my chronological playthrough of virtual pinball. In 1980, pinball is on top of the world. There are so many tables to choose from.

So I'm running stream raffles where viewers pick the tables, as long as they're from 1980.

Going live: https://twitch.tv/arborelia

2000: you search in English because there isn’t enough on the Web in other languages

2010: you search in English because what you find in other languages is SEO scam “translations” by WebHostingGeeks dot com

2020: you search in English so you can find Reddit results, the ones that still help

2025: you search in French because the chat-bots can’t fake expertise in it

2030: same but in Indonesian this time

I predict that, in a couple of years, a benefit of knowing a non-English language will be to search for information written by humans. The LLMs are only fluent in English.

🖼

My wife Kat made me an Earthbound PK Scramble seed called "Kat why". She knows what the settings are, I don't. https://twitch.tv/arborelia

Earthbound PK Scramble, mystery random settings, with my wife randomizing a few more settings that aren't usually randomized:

https://twitch.tv/arborelia

I used a coffee grinder for coffee beans that I had just used to grind star anise, and you know what, this tastes good actually

There's an #alttp #randomizer mode I've wanted to play except it broke in a way that defeated the point. I fixed it!

The point is to put progress items only in dungeons, so you don't have to search the overworld. Sometimes the logic would get tangled and it would be unable to put an item in a dungeon, so it would fall back to somewhere random in the overworld, so you _did_ have to search for it.

My fix is to put it somewhere obvious, like Link's house.

Trying it: https://twitch.tv/arborelia

I focus on the "shutting down Google Scholar" option now, more than the "listening to trans people" option.

We know by now Google is terrible at listening to trans people that aren't Google FTEs, but they're very good at shutting things down.

#introduction: my name

(I think this is the last of four introduction posts)

I got rid of one name a while ago, and replaced it with more names.

You can call me Elia if you know me, or Robyn if you know something I wrote. Neither of those is my deadname.

If you know a #Google employee, ask them what they are doing to shut down Google Scholar.

It is one of the few places on the Internet where calling a trans person by their deadname is standard and expected. The other places are hate sites and the New York Times.

#introduction: my battles

I was the first trans person to change my name on already-published research papers. I didn't think I was the first when I did it, which helped.

I'm part of the Name Change Policy Working Group (https://ncpwg.org) to make this easier for others. Many journals now allow name changes.

Google Scholar refuses to call trans authors by their names, or even talk to trans people. I made https://scholar.hasfailed.us. Google should either listen to us or shut down Scholar.

#introduction: my joys

I am poly, married, and not actively dating. My wife and my girlfriend bring light to my life.

I play randomized video games, particularly Link to the Past Randomizer. Modes that require glitches are fun.

I enjoy #pinball almost as much as my wife does. I have a Twitch stream series, Silver Ball Century, where I am playing virtual versions of pinball tables in chronological order.

I like to ride my bicycle, I like to ride my #bike. I like to ride it where I like.

#introduction: my work

I do natural language processing. I hope for a future where NLP code can still be run by individuals, not just by hitting the expensive, opaque, harmful APIs of the same three companies. ChatGPT is a demo of a bad future.

I was the lead developer of the multilingual semantic network ConceptNet from 2006 to 2020. I don't run it anymore but it's still there (https://conceptnet.io).

I made "ftfy", the Unicode-fixer used everywhere: https://ftfy.readthedocs.io