• he/him

one more cute disaster… it’s hard here in paradise

last.fm listening



NireBryce
@NireBryce

I wish there was more Computers PhD+beyond research that was like, "I am going to explore how to make zsh more comprehensible and devote 3-5 years to this" for open source projects that need better documentation or rewrites-of-the-project-but-dont-currently-have-any-plans-but-everyone-thinks-about-it.

all of it is basically technical writing, techno-sociology, UX design, user studies, research, and hands-on testing -- and universities could be doing this but instead we keep sending them towards high-level math instead of doing these community service projects to pay for their sin, cos, and tans


sudocurse
@sudocurse

breathes in, mobile firefox has crashed on me twice while trying to draft this, now on my laptop, i can play with css easily

Computer literacy is not even learning to program. That can always be learned, in ways no more uplifting than learning grammar instead of writing.

Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and enjoyable. As in all the arts, a romance with the material must be well under way. If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be spent to make computing a part of our lives? [source]

I really like Alan Kay's thoughts on computational tools as ubiquity because I imagine we'd be in a really cool world if it was one where things like shell scripting, data-munging, p2p networks, broadcasting info to audiences, media editing were as readily accessible tools as art, math, and writing. (We have those tools, but I mean in a way that wasn't locked behind ad money and run by corporate product teams and susceptible to casual systemic collapse.)

don't click here
css crimes make us all web devs!!!!!!!!!!

and I hate to mention it but this is the reason that a significant portion of people were drawn to blockchain tech! The idea that we could have a lot of these capabilities available more ubiquitously without corporate obstruction. Unfortunately web three runs on ROI engines as well and, as hopefully is obvious by now, just as susceptible to systemic collapse.

anyways this is a lot of derail from OP but my point is we dont get any of these things until our tools are written, taught, and refined to create foundations for more and more users to build on. Schools and companies should invest in these foundations (and in a more meaningful way than let's pay a couple devs to fix bugs with 10%) to actually deepdive into how people use public tools and how they could use them better


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