When I was a smartass computer nerd in the 80s and 90s, an eternal theme was friends and family sheepishly asking me for tech support help, and me slowly, patiently explaining to them that computers aren't scary, they're actually predictable, they won't explode or erase your data (unless you really make an effort), and they operate by simple (if somewhat arcane) rules. Edit > Cut, then click, then Edit > Paste. Save As. Use tabs, not spaces. Stuff like that. Maybe not easy, but simple, or at least consistent and learnable.

But that's not true anymore.

User interfaces lag. Text lies. Buttons don't click. Buttons don't even look like buttons! Panels pop up and obscure your workspace and you can't move or remove them -- a tiny floating x and a few horizontal lines is all you get. Mobile and web apps lose your draft text, refresh at whim, silently swallow errors, mysteriously move shit around when you're not looking, hide menus, bury options, don't respect or don't remember your chosen settings. Doing the same thing gives different results. The carefully researched PARC principles of human-computer interaction -- feedback, discoverabilty, affordances, consistency, personalization -- all that fundamental Don Norman shit -- have been completely discarded.

My tech support calls now are about me sadly explaining there's nothing I can do. Computers suck now. They run on superstition, not science. It's a real tragedy for humanity and I have no idea how to fix it.

#HCI #UX #UI #okdoomer

Someone left a stack of bales of insulation on top of the block of apartments under construction over the way. Currently soliciting friendly wagers on when it becomes ground insulation during the storm later.

really appreciating https://blog.tidelift.com/will-the-new-judicial-ruling-in-the-vizio-lawsuit-strengthen-the-gpl by @luis_in_brief to help me understand what's potentially really exciting about a recent US court ruling

All engineering is reverse engineering if you document things poorly enough.

Bring back self-hosted blogs, reinstall a feed reader, make your feed icon prominent on your blog. Blogs + Atom/RSS is the best decentralized social media system we've ever had!

And yes I am saying that as co-author of ActivityPub: self hosted blogs is the best decentralized social networking we've had

Happy Caturday!

Did someone say "AIOps"?

Debian: "To retain parity with proprietary software the open development process needs to be entirely exempt from #CyberResilienceAct requirements”
https://bits.debian.org/2023/12/debian-statement-cyber-resillience-act.md.html

Happy Boxing Day to all cats who celebrate

#BoxingDay
#CatsOfMastodon

Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and Jim Lovell were the first human beings to leave Earth's orbit. On Christmas Eve 1968, upon orbiting the Moon, they were also the first to witness an Earthrise. One of the most iconic images in history (photo credit: Bill Anders).

The untold history of web development:

1990: HTML invented
1994: CSS invented to fix HTML
1995: JS invented to fix HTML/CSS
2006: jQuery invented to fix JS
2010: AngularJS invented to fix jQuery
2013: React invented to fix AngularJS
2014: Vue invented to fix React & Angular
2016: Angular 2 invented to fix AngularJS & React
2019: Svelte 3 invented to fix React, Angular, Vue
2019: React hooks invented to fix React
2020: Vue 3 invented to fix React hooks
2020: Solid invented to fix React, Angular, Svelte, Vue
2020: HTMX 1.0 invented to fix React, Angular, Svelte, Vue, Solid
2021: React suspense invented to fix React, again
2023: Svelte Runes invented to fix Svelte
2024: jQuery still used on 75% of websites

(by @fireship_dev on Birdsite)

Everyone should get 2024 as paid leave to finish their personal projects