a tiny fairy @atinyfairy@computerfairi.es

One of the creepier tech-related incidents I remember was many years ago when I wanted the Sam's Photofacts (a third-party creator of device specs and schematics, etc.) for a very old portable TV. Way out of date, but I was trying to help someone with it.

I mentioned to a friend that I was looking for old Photofacts, but I did not say anything about the TV. He scribbled an address on a scrap of paper, an address locally here in L.A. "Try him," he muttered.

I drive over. It's a small unmarked storefront. I go in, the bell on the door rings. Sitting inside, like the caterpillar in "Alice in Wonderland", is this little guy perched on a stool, with immense stacks of paper surrounding him everywhere. Total mayhem.

I walk up to him -- knowing that this was a waste of time and really wanting to get out of there -- and asked if he had the Sam's Photofacts for that specific very old TV model.

Without saying a word, he reached over to the pile of papers right next to him, took the TOP item off the pile, and silently handed it to me. It was the ancient one I needed. Stunned, I paid him the amount marked on the item, and left with it, not completely sure what had just happened.

When I drove by there a month later that storefront was something else entirely. He was gone.

If you are, or have ever been, a sysadmin, grab a bag of popcorn and cruise through this one. Thrills and chills! https://thomasp.vivaldi.net/2023/07/28/what-happened-to-vivaldi-social/

by popular demand: they're gay!

#furry #furryart #art #mastoart

I was at the picket line outside WB Discovery on 19th St yesterday and the energy was huge and powerful and positive. Then I came home and ran into my UPS guy on the block and he said WE WON OUR BATTLE YOU WILL WIN YOURS

#WGAstrong #SAGAFTRAStrong #Strike #Union

Tonight, on Twitch, I am playing something ridiculous.

It's called "Yeah, you want "those games", right? So here you go! Now, let's see you clear them!"

It's basically a collection of fake mobile game ads, made real.

Twitch.TV/LauraKBuzz

I never took the time to appreciate @dasharez0ne‘s alt text

To understand Musk's renewed obsession with X and focus on financial services, you REALLY need to understand the X/Confinity merger that became PayPal.

And, particularly, the Peter Thiel-led coup that kicked Musk out as CEO/Chief Strategist.

Here's how that happened. 1/🧵 #history #technology

Don’t get me wrong: I emphatically do not think absolutely everyone should go to a 4-year liberal arts college like the one where I teach. I don’t think everyone should have to go to college at all. Education can — should! — take many, many forms. Education doesn’t even have to happen in school!

What I •do• believe is that some form of education with that liberal arts philosophy — “Because you are free, you must prepare for the unknown” — should be present in the life of every human being.
14/

Is a Religious Studies course “for” a software career? Well, is a Computer Science course “for” a software career?

That Religious Studies course applied to my software career in •exactly• the same way that my Algorithms course applied: I rarely use (and have mostly forgotten) the specific knowledge from it. I use its approach, its patterns of thought, •constantly•.
8/

Here’s the hidden truth of education:

You don’t know what you’re preparing for.

Your teacher doesn’t know. Your school doesn’t know. Your future employer doesn’t know. Nobody knows. Not really.

Much of what you’re preparing for doesn’t even exist yet. We •hope• it doesn’t exist yet: don’t we educate students in the hope that they will make the world better by changing it? By creating realities that don’t even exist yet?
6/

When I’m on a software project, I try to listen hard to what everyone is saying, to the words they choose. “Don’t blame me! They asked for it!” is never good enough. I ask critical questions about what people are really thinking, what we’re all hearing each other say, from the start.

I have saved many companies on many projects a whole lot of money (and tears) by using that skill to nip misunderstandings and hidden assumptions in the bud early.

A skill I honed in a Religious Studies course.
5/

Art I recently got!! The artist can be found here and is really good at drawing sporty girls: https://skeb.jp/@shark_waka

I posted this a while back but am reposting for pride month, iI wrote it a few years ago for a Pride open mic event
​​
-
Prefer Not to Say:

I am filling out yet another form
On which I am asked my gender
And then given only 3 options to choose from
Man, woman, And “prefer not to say”

I have seen it too many times
And as someone who is not a man
And is not a woman
But who has a hell of a lot to say
I will be
From this point forward
Formally requesting
No
I will be DEMANDING
That every form or survey that gives me an option
Of prefer not to say
Also gives me an option
Of prefer to shout

An option of
I have spent far too long being forced “not to say” and I refuse to stay quiet any longer

Or better yet
A blank box

Give me a blank box
And I will write you an epic poem
About how I spent years looking for myself only to realize I was calling out the wrong name

I’ll find a way in 100 characters
To write a thesis
Examining theories of why
Even after countless hits
Each new gut punch of erasure
Somehow hurts as much as the first one did

Or remove the character limit
If finally accepting my gender taught me anything
It was that limiting myself
Is no way to live

So give me unlimited space
And let me write you a book
Titled “Enby Euphoria”
Filled with stories that will make you laugh
And cry
And understand why this matters

Because at the end of the day
That’s what I really want
For you to understand why this matters
To understand THAT this matters

And I will never get a chance to explain any of that to you
If you keep making me check a box next to the words
“prefer not to say”

#Pride #PrideMonth #Nonbinary #Trans #Transgender #Enby #Queer #Gender #GenderNonconforming #QueerPoetry #QueerArt