@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

thomasapowell

@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org

Mostly sharing thoughts on #webdev, #softwareengineering, #retrogames and humanistic aspects of tech. Old tech guy, UCSD CSE Lecturer, Author, pint.com founder, and person behind ZingChart and ZingGrid. 🤓

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atomicpoet, to random

Chinese fried chicken served with shrimp crackers.

I like this a lot more than KFC.

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@atomicpoet are you by chance in Richmond having an amazing 10 course Cantonese meal. It sure looks that way and I am jealous my friend. My version via my wife is in Rowland Heights LA which while good has nothing on BC. We visited a summer back and it was second only to Hong Kong. Enjoy every bite!

thomasapowell, to LEGO
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

Not exactly a clean build of a Space 1999 Eagle. That’s what you get I guess for knock off Chinese still an icon of 1970s

thomasapowell, to ai
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

Last year I told my team we have to get off because this train wreck would likely happen and I wasn’t ok with info leakage like that of our private and customer chat. Sadly as we are finding out it happened. We had picked and found it was fine as a replacement but the migration has been a slow effort. At least now it will accelerate.

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@StOnSoftware yep unfortunately that’s quite true but not a reason to keep with them going forward I’ll dub staying the sunk privacy fallacy 🤪 anyway Mattermost is good enough. We’d used Hipchat before Slack and MS Communicator before Hipchat so this is just another move for a long running firm.

ricmac, to random
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

A media podcast I listened to today said that “the web is old-fashioned”, as part of their analysis of the OpenAI and Google news this week. As if the web will turn into The Well, or something. But I am seeing the fediverse, standards-based web builders like Eleventy, and open newsletter platforms like Ghost and Buttondown (that both support the web), and I just don’t agree that the web is old-fashioned. Quite the opposite, it’s only just getting started (again)!

thomasapowell,
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@ricmac the web is always dead or dying per people who both post and read this hot take on …. the web. 🧐

thomasapowell, to random
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Dystopian SciFi books need to be reclassified as Non-Fiction these days.

hbuchel, to random
@hbuchel@hachyderm.io avatar

Is this a real thing people using Tailwind do because this made me actually lol at work
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72826605/how-to-style-nested-elements-based-on-parent-class-using-tailwind-css

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@hbuchel @cferdinandi makes perfect sense according to “Argumentum I got lots
of followerum”

Same bullshit different millennia 😛

thomasapowell, (edited ) to LEGO
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

So having does have the upside of free time at home to get to this 2600 build. The cartridges can go in, the joystick has movement as do the switches, and a fun seen flips up from the console if you slide it forward.

thomasapowell, to ai
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

A few things about in the cloud we probably should acknowledge. First spinning up a cell phone’s radio constantly is gonna kill battery life. Add to this the network latency and variability making the UX painfully inconsistent or even unworkable. Also privacy but whatevs right?

Hasn’t Humane, R1, Echo, Siri… taught us anything or we just gonna wave this off as easily solvable?

On device really is required here but AI gold rush time so let’s gooooo! 🤷

thomasapowell, to ai
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

Worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDUC-LqVrPU

jasongorman, to random
@jasongorman@mastodon.cloud avatar

Search for "Certified Scrum Master" on YouTube. "When I found out there was something called 'project management' and then I found out about 'Scrum' "

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@jasongorman were the videos like “Hey guys! Today I am gonna tell you how you too can get certified in just one day and land your six figure dream job leading teams of rockstar ninja devs building world changing hyper scale AI powered software for the block chained powered metaverse. But first remember to like and subscribe so I can put out more killer content for y’all and turbo charge your tech leadership!”

thomasapowell, to random
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

Pithy thought

Full Team Devs >>> Full Stack Devs

thomasapowell, to random
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

Well I finally broke my long term luck and am positive with

I did most of the right things over the years with masks and vaxxing but we are so loose now it was bound to happen esp being on campus and having massive lectures.

Sadly it isn’t some simple cold or flu I feel weird as hell. 😬 so shifting down to a lower gear in my life for a bit.

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

those devs and tech “influencers” who pioneered the technical work of putting “AI” shit in everything everywhere, and are—for the most part—the assholes who enabled our brave new “AI” world by actually figuring out how to make it run, are also going to be the people who get credit for criticising it after the bubble pops, aren’t they?

Everybody will latch onto their vague concerns and ignore the fact that they literally implemented the shit that got smeared everywhere, aren’t they?

thomasapowell,
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@baldur you are probably right and without a doubt that should be dubbed the Kara Swisher effect.

@parismarx

thomasapowell, to TeslaMotors
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

I am well over ten and maybe even 20+ #CyberTruck sightings now and it still makes me look, shake my head and wonder what type of person buys and drives this thing? When the tinting isn’t illegal level I always make sure to look. The trend is unbroken so far. Any guesses ?

thomasapowell, to ai
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

A student shared this with me about their upcoming graduation ceremony. It's the sign of the times that of course we would use during graduation so it too can mispronounce names.

Sigh.

thomasapowell, to shitposting
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

So if I understand these wearable AIs approach I am supposed to carry a second super cheap phone that is specifically for AI around and that will help me not take out my primary smart phone?

Cool cool got it. One question.

Can I get a third phone with special software for #shitposting to make phone of the second phone so I don’t have to take out the first phone to dunk on them?

#Rabbit #Humane #AI #Fail

film_girl, to random
@film_girl@mastodon.social avatar

This is fantastic. If you’ve got the Rabbit apk launcher plz share with me christina at christina dot is. This is hilarious. https://www.androidauthority.com/rabbit-r1-is-an-android-app-3438805/

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@film_girl well this would totally fit with the automations being Playwright scripts doing some sort of budget zapier like actions. It’s “quality” all the way down!

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

How many companies adopted MongoDB because “it’s the future!” and are now stuck with it until insolvency or the heat-death of the universe, whichever comes first?

Be careful about making technical decisions based on bubble logic

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@baldur the snarkiest yet true version of that thought would be to remind everyone that MongoDB is webscale 🤣

https://youtu.be/b2F-DItXtZs?si=sk4ueBxiw4G4iCOt

thomasapowell, to Rabbits
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

So the R1 folks thinks they can learn a UI and automate it no problem. Err people if you can do that for real and properly automate E2E testing you are rich right there no product required. This has never worked well screen recorders

Apparently leaked code says Rabbit is just using Playwright which is a gigaton of fail ready to happen. Enjoy everything breaking every single day. 🤦‍♂️

I guess they married Zapier + GenAI + Voice. It’s a mashup 2020s style y’all!

brad_frost, to random
@brad_frost@mastodon.social avatar

Written almost 10 years ago, "Just" remains one of the most impactful posts I've written: https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/just/

“Just” is a dangerous word.

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@brad_frost I think it is part of my client trigger phase “Well why can't you just…<insert ridiculous ask way out of scope or with massive complexity>?”

I probably start having facial twitches esp if the thing is some vague statement about making something “pop" or "work better" or ... esp if coupled with “I'm not sure but I'll know it when I see it” as a response to any questions posed.

TL;DR - that post needed a CW on it for some of us :-)

thomasapowell, to Japan
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

I was in in Feb and I saw all these people doing a Lawson parking lot photo with Mr Fuji. I had no sense this was a thing nor why until later. At the time it made absolutely no sense to me as you could get so many better photos elsewhere. It wasn’t even a great contrast anyway. I mean a conbini + Fuji errr ok.
What next a 7-11 + Grand Canyon ?

Good on the town for putting a stop to this.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/japan-mount-fuji-view-barrier-tourists-intl-hnk/index.html

randahl, to random
@randahl@mastodon.social avatar

If you use Ivory for Mastodon, could you check if you are seeing a 🎬 icon next to my profile picture, or if it is only shown as part of my name?

For other accounts I see, Ivory moves any icon placed in the profile name up to the profile picture as a badge, which I think is a nice feature.

But for some reason, it does not work for my own icon, at least not when I view myself.

Perhaps @ivory has a bug?

image/jpeg

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@randahl name only

Oh also keep up the good toots you have great insights on days ending in “y”

thomasapowell, to Rabbits
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

Imagine if someone made a clip for an Apple Watch so you could wear it. Maybe the clip has a camera that connects via Bluetooth boom you best Humane, Rabbit R1, etc immediately and have an existing OS and app ecosystem and phone integration. Seems a bit easier than what everyone is currently doing.


brucelawson, to random
@brucelawson@vivaldi.net avatar

Why do marketing people get so obsessed about time someone spends on a page (with the assumption that longer=better because 'engagement')? Good IA should mean users find what they want quickly; good UX means quick ordering. Good copywriting means quick comprehension, doesn't it?

thomasapowell,
@thomasapowell@fosstodon.org avatar

@brucelawson taught this idea which I call the “visit fallacy” as in more time and engagement in a visit = more success for years in my web analytics course. Use an example about successful visits to the course page to find the homework assignment using time on site and page views and compare to one with the answer on the home page and one buried somewhere. The students really relate to this one! I point out fallacy is untrue if paid by more time or click though…there’s the rub. 😖

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