General request: if you post pictures, please please include alt text describing the image so that everyone, regardless of visual ability, can enjoy your toot.
Please consider asking others to do this. Optionally, reconsider boosting toots if they don't have alt text.
We all have an opportunity to help shape the culture of this place and I'd love, love, love if it were "oh, everyone posts alt text with their images because that's just what you do."
Please consider writing your hashtags in upper camelcase so screen readers have a chance at figuring them out.
#whyistayonmastodon sounds like an giant undecipherable mess of sounds.
#WhyIStayOnMastodon reads out "Why I Stay On Mastodon" 😄
(Reason #44 I stay here: my previous requests like this have been generally well-received, proving that most people are awesome.)
I've released a new tool called plus-x, which allows developers on Windows to set executable permissions for their game binaries in order to make them easier to run on Linux or Mac OS. It's small, easy to use, and has a rad logo https://cheeseness.itch.io/plus-x #gamedev #indiedev #linux
Scanning through some old project code:
#define ADC_VREF 1.249f
Uhh... that seems odd. *looks at data sheet*
1.240 V nominal.
My first guess was typo, but I recall the developer who wrote this and they are *exactly* the sort of person who'd put a multimeter on a dev board and go "YEP IT'S A 1.249 V PART". I'm being uncharitable but this isn't the first mess I've had to clean up this month.
@dadegroot <cracks knuckles> The Wikipedia page for J is actually quite good and it explains a lot of this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J
Short version: it was just a swash version of I (IVLIVS CAESAR) but it evolved to mean the “consonantal” version. Pronunciation drifted /i/ → /j/ (German, Dutch) → /ʒ/ (French) → /ʃ/ (early Spanish) → /x/ (modern Spanish).
ukpol covid
This isn't twitter so I probably don't need to clarify this, but doing a fundraiser for a service that ought to be publicly funded is an ok thing to do, but if one gets famous doing it, one has a responsibility to speak out against the politicians lionising it. The line should always be "I'm doing this because *you* failed!"
Any statue put up of this guy needs to be contextualised as a memorial to political failure and corrupt thievery. Any tribute to how much he raised should always be contextualised to how much the Tories cut away away and gifted to their corrupt friends.
We /can/ crowdfund needed services. That's called "taxes." Rich people pay more because they have more. We can't do it as a voluntary scheme of collecting spare change.
Hey programming nerds,
I’m going to be teaching a class on low level system programming, mostly in C, starting in February. The textbook keeps recommending people read K&R. As you know, K&R is quite old and contains much advice that is either obsolete or flat-out wrong by modern standards.
I would like to have an alternative to recommend to my students, but I learned C so long ago that I have no idea what’s out there. Please suggest books.
Several months ago, I emailed a trans refugee group asking how I could donate and promote them on the web and a language issue meant they thought I was offering to *make* them a website. I didn't make the website; my colleague at #Fossbox, Kate Lomax made it.
This is very exciting that this has happened. This came about not just by accident but because I thought it would make a good mastodon post. Essentially, all of you are why this happened. I hope you can please give. The group is amazing and does necessary, important front line work with trans refugees. This isn't an international NGO, but an actual group of trans women on the ground, helping their comrades.
So whenever anyone tells you "We live in a democracy" you say "No. We live in an oligarchy, one in which the ruling class is united and the working class is divided. If you truly care for democracy, then get out there, do some gay crimes, destroy the ruling class fam"
bicycling programmer in mostly #embedded #c & #cpp in off-grid #solar; into road, tour, gravel #bike fun; #linux, #python, etc.; #hiking, #books, #machining, #hamradio, you name it. southwestern Virginia, USA.