FoxQuirk 🦊 @quirk@computerfairi.es

@sarahzedig every couple years some government somewhere does a pilot program which shows universal benefits are cheaper, more effective at reducing poverty, and do not lead to the mass quitting the "nobody wants to work anymore!!!" crybabies assure us is inevitable. Everyone makes positive murmurs about it for a couple months, the articles get published, and then it's never brought up by the government ever again.

work requirements for food stamps are evil

the recertification process is insulting

the whole means-testing apparatus is a vile and disgusting affront to basic human integrity

@Bwee

today i have been writing a program that reads a midi file. as is typical for me, i decided to write my own parser.

so i've been consulting the “standard midi files specification” and “midi 1.0 detailed specification”, neither of which i had ever read before. it's been pretty fun! they're written in a refreshingly informal and thoughtful style that makes the purpose and form of everything clear. the protocol and file format are remarkably well-designed… very efficient encodings for example

Second article from me for @thespacebar: why you should NOT use Brave Browser. I've been meaning to write this for a long time but never got around to it. https://www.spacebar.news/p/stop-using-brave-browser

i present:

high street betting shop carpet and wall segment
(2018, light on ccd)
https://mastodon.social/media/i4eh5Od_aonlG17CVVo

What other Microsoft certifications do you wish you had stickers for?

Meanwhile somewhere in India 😂

A broken clock fixed by taping a working clock over it is a metaphor for every codebase you’ll encounter in your professional career as a software developer.

"One of the most real scenes in modern television. Representation is so so important. We need to see the realities of living with disabilities and we need to see disabled actors featured as complex characters." - Brains and Spoons

My flight at gate 404 is delayed because... the plane isn't there.

I am not making this up.

Lifehack:

Instead of wondering if something is normal, ask if it's harmful.

Dressing up as an anthropomorphic animal character isn't normal, but it makes a lot of people smile.

Being exceptionally talented isn't normal, but it sure offers a way to enrich your life as well as the people you care for.

To hell with normal. To hell with being afraid of being called weird. Furries figured this out decades ago. Many anime fans and gamers, too.

Yet, I hear people ask things like, "Is it normal to feel the way I do?"

I dunno.

Does it make your life harder? Then you might want to do something about it. Does it cause harm to others? Definitely do something to correct it.

But to cry when you watch movies? Or to want to cuddle so much that you lose any interest in actually having sex? Or to hate the world we inherited so much that it hurts, and so you channel it into helping others suffer a little less?

Who gives a shit about normal. That's human.

"SMASH THE ORBS" is an incredible rallying cry

There is a certain company that, whenever I used its service, would constantly nag me through the entire experience to purchase a subscription. (It charged for the service, of course, but only when I used it; subscriptions incurred charges on a regular basis.) At one point I thought about it, decided that it would actually be worth the money.

Now that I am paying for a subscription, the advertising emails it sends me are different, and every time I use the service it constantly nags me to upgrade my subscription.

The corporations can never extract enough wealth from you to be satisfied. They will always want more. Never forget that.

Re-posting this 🐤 thread from 2018 which, sadly, is still relevant:

#WomenInSTEM who talk about #harassment and sexual misconduct get a lot of antagonistic & unhelpful replies.
@shrewshrew and I (a woman & a man in science) tried to categorize them. #9ReplyGuys

THE NINE TYPES OF REPLY GUYS 🧵

#1: THE LIFE COACH

so it may be worth mentioning that ALL of the toxic reactions described in the #9ReplyGuys thread above are used by white people (including WW) against people of color all the time, especially against Black people who talk about racism. None of it is exclusive to gender harassment/discrimination.

Mastodon can be a safe place for everybody, or it can be a comfortable place for white people, but while #racism exists it can’t be both.

The idea behind #9ReplyGuys is that, if you wish, you can use the 9 images in the thread above to quickly categorize & dismiss sexist replies. Misogynists *hate* being called unoriginal.
Thanks from me and @shrewshrew for your support, suggestions, boosts and encouragement 💕

"firefox only has a 3% market share"

bruh that's 150 million people

Oh, that thing I’ve been putting off for days? That insurmountable, torturous task? The thing that’s been haunting me with every step like a malevolent wraith? It took two minutes. I will not learn from this