ravisambamurthy

@ravisambamurthy@drupal.community

I work as Drupal/Symfony/PHP developer for my dev shop. I post mostly my photos, and occasionally my opinions. Rarely, I engage in technical discussions when I feel compelled.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ravisambamurthy, to Youtube

On every video that discusses the EVM / VVPAT machines, YouTube pastes the 'context' bubble peddling the official line on these machines. Even the search result page for 'vvpat' thrusts this 'context' in your face. Looks like the global SM platforms are also not free from the clutches of this regime. #IndianElections #MastIndia #YouTube @mastodonindians

Another news video reporting a supreme court development over EVM VVPAT usage. YouTube feels compelled to point us to the official line.
Screenshot of the search page on the YouTube app. If you search on a sensitive subject related to EVM, you will first be schooled on the official propaganda.

ravisambamurthy,

@gabboman @mastodonindians Sadly, a lot of us here want a fascist regime dethroned and all we have is an EVM-powered election to accomplish that.

ravisambamurthy,

@gabboman @mastodonindians It was introduced some 25 years ago, but still has failed to convince the skeptics. Activist groups have been fighting to improve the transparency of this whole thing. The following links provide some background info.

ravisambamurthy, to random

Came across this concept of ikigai - a venn diagram of four circles that matter in life: what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs and what's lucrative. The minimalistic me thinks there are at least two redundant circles here. If there's demand for your skill, that should do. Or maybe, just having a skill would suffice, and the rest will follow.

ravisambamurthy, to Bloomscrolling

This guy greeted me today morning, after a really stressful aftermath of cyclone Michaung. #Bloomscrolling

Close up of the same water lily, towering above the water

clive, to random
@clive@saturation.social avatar

“The Literary Style of Alt-Text”

For years, I didn’t add alt-text to my online images

But I’ve started doing it all the time now — being on Mastodon is what showed me how important it is!

Along the way, I’ve started noticing …

…. what an oddly literary activity it is

Here’s an image I wrote alt-text for when I blogged a few weeks ago, below

My essay on alt-texting: https://clivethompson.medium.com/the-literary-style-of-alt-text-9f1595cd8f0c

A free “friend” link in case you don’t subscribe to Medium: https://clivethompson.medium.com/the-literary-style-of-alt-text-9f1595cd8f0c?sk=1d9cd685997cb08d8909da687a2d03cf

A screenshot of a story written by the author, describing how he wrote alt-text for the attached photo. I reads: And at first I just wrote a simple description, something like "a cyclist going down the street." Then I added more details, including that the cyclist is in the center of the picture, and behind them are a bus stop and a brightly lit store, and that the cyclist is moving quickly. But as I was writing that last clause - "the cyclist is moving quickly" - I realized something curious about the composition of the photo: The cyclist is crisp, while the background is blurred. That's not an easy effect for the photographer to achieve! And it' precisely what gives the image its power. So I wound up writing the alt-text thusly ... “A cyclist going rapidly down a city street. The photo is taken from the side, and the cyclist is in the center of the image, heading towards our right. In behind the cyclist we see a bus stop and a brightly lit store. Interestingly, despite the fact that the cyclist is moving quickly, they are unblurred and crisp in the photo - while the background is blurred. The ultimate effect is curious: It's as if the store were moving quickly, while the cyclist was standing still” One could critique this alt-text for being too damn long. Fair enough! And there's something a bit narcissistic about me focusing on the internal experience I have while puzzling over how best to describe this image.

ravisambamurthy,

@clive The moving cyclist photo is usually called a 'panning shot' and is achieved by using a slower shutter speed, smaller aperture (to prevent over exposure) and moving the camera (i.e. panning) along the moving subject, so that it appears stationary when compared to the background. It's indeed a difficult capture, and is a great shot by Roman Koester who has been credited in your blog.

ravisambamurthy,

@clive Here's my panning shot of a flying painted stork :) The water body and the vegetation in the background are blurred by the panning camera, while the bird is captured in full detail. #BirdPhotography

christianselig, to random
@christianselig@mastodon.social avatar

Introducing Language Pal, easily learn languages right on your iOS Home Screen, no opening apps needed! Available now (for free!) in Pixel Pals! 🥳🇫🇷🇪🇸🇩🇪🇮🇹🌍🇨🇦🇮🇳🇨🇳🇰🇷🇯🇵

Trailer for Language Pal, an iOS 17 interactive Home Screen widget where you can learn 10 different languages right from your Home Screen

ravisambamurthy,

@christianselig Looks awesome, though I don't have iOS to test it out.

Just wanted to point out that using the Indian flag for Hindi might not be accurate, given that there are 1500 languages spoken here, of which almost 30 are considered major enough to be the official languages of the Indian Union.

For more info: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_India

ravisambamurthy,

@christianselig Long story short, Hindi is not the 'most popular' Indian language. A minority of Indians speak it, around 40% - in terms of numbers. Even this number of 40% has been arrived at by considering distinct languages such as Maithili, Awadhi, Rajasthani, etc. as 'dialects' of Hindi, which is strongly contested by native speakers of these languages. Removing these dialects would leave about 26% to be speaking the actual language. (Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindi_Belt )

ravisambamurthy,

@christianselig Yes, Hindi is at #1 in terms of number of speakers. But to assign the Indian flag to it, is it spoken by an absolute majority of Indians? No. Will it be appropriate to label the US flag as 'California', because there are more Californians than there are residents in other states?

Also, if you plan to include the next popular Indic language in your app, then which flag will you assign to it? To workaround, I suggest using ISO language codes instead of national flags.

s3thi, to mastodon
@s3thi@fantastic.earth avatar

i really love #Mastodon. the community here is so much nicer, there are no ads, nobody trying to manipulate me, and no "trends" that i don't want to see.

but there are, like, seven people from #India on this whole entire network, out of which there are probably only two who live in #Bangalore.

i lost a whole community of developers, writers, artists, journalists, and other creative folk from India when #Twitter died. that community hasn't managed to come together again in the same way.

i hope the melon man bankrupts Twitter as quickly as possible so that people can either finally leave, or Microsoft can buy it up and make it boring again.

ravisambamurthy,

@s3thi You can follow hashtags like #MastIndia and also follow groups like @mastodonindians to come across more Indians. Also, following other hashtags of interest would reveal content and users relevant to your interests.

Memeghnad, to india

Hello new people from #India who have just arrived from hellsite!

We had done this exercise a few months ago, so trying to revive it again. If you're from India and want to find new people to follow/audience to follow you, go toot on #MastIndia.

Post a smol introduction and follow people who are active here. Hope this helps!

Boost for good karma! 🖖

ravisambamurthy,

@Memeghnad Also worth mentioning about the @mastodonindians group. Here's how to go about:

  1. Tag the group in your posts
  2. Follow the group to see similarly tagged posts.
ravisambamurthy, to random

Why is the 'Explore' page different for different instances? I do get that it shows 'posts/hashtags that are gaining traction on this server', but it somehow defeats the purpose of showing the happening content around the Fediverse. #AskFedi #TellFedi

ravisambamurthy,

@seachanger Exactly. My previous bigger instance had a lot more on the Explore page compared to the present one, which shows just 4 posts right now. Wish this issue gets addressed.

ravisambamurthy, to mastodonindians

#Bheed on Netflix is a painful must-watch. #MastIndia @mastodonindians

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