@thomasfuchs seems like a dodge. Do you castigate auto workers and gig workers? Perhaps tech workers have more privilege and power. Of course many tech workers at MS and Google are pushing back against their bad practices tho certainly it’d be great if more did.
No doubt many are complicit in the harms. Certainly we should all try to align ourselves with our values and this includes where we work. I just think we’d do better to encourage solidarity across workers and fight together
Worth setting aside that this opinion piece was written by Danny Westneat who doesn’t generally think very deeply on issues. There are also some minor points to quibble with. But, the larger point about the shortsightedness of school closures is important and I’m glad it’s getting raised in Seattle’s biggest paper
@baldur really insightful piece! It’s been pretty obvious that recent layoffs and some of the AI hype has been about labor discipline but I hadn’t thought of how frameworks and technology choices also serve this purpose.
Perhaps also related is how tools like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor push a certain individualist framing of job market that claims to be about empowering workers but curiously bereft of any labor organizing. Know of any research or analysis on this topic?
Today would be the great writer Carol Emshwiller's 103rd birthday. She is too little known today, and so my message to the world is a simple one: Read Carol Emshwiller!
@melikhovo@bookstodon saw someone else recommending her book The Mount recently. With this additional high praise, I reserved a copy from my local library. Thanks
@moira@ascentale@artemesia I've been using the Mspeedwax on my racy road bike for the past year and am largely very pleased with results. I really like how clean it keeps my drivetrain. One challenge is it's not obvious how to tell when to re-wax. But, I've found in nice weather, it's best not to exceed 300km or chain wear will start accelerating.
@moira@ascentale It was a little intimidating to get started with the waxing process, but is pretty simple and easy now that I'm used to it. I follow the "Waxing your training chain" guidance at https://moltenspeedwax.com/pages/waxing-your-chain (the "race chain" steps seem excessive to me).
In my teaching, the adult learn-to-ride classes are some of the most meaningful classes I've been a part of. @younata asks:
Q6. I have a few adult friends who don’t know how to ride a bike and would like to learn. They aren’t near me, so I can’t help them in person. What are the best ways for them to learn?
In today's cyberdystopian news, a company making wheelchairs is locking "premium features" like cruise control behind a paywall. WHEELCHAIRS WITH PAYWALLS
Listen, I understand that people believe I exist in an endless state of incandescent rage, but they are going to have to invent new words for how angry I am about Glassdoor adding real names without users' consent.
@evacide I’d always been leery about posting there and now am really glad I didn’t. Heinous move here tho I think we have to be similarly cautious with any “career” site including LinkedIn. They are not on the side of workers
Wallethub included me in a panel of experts to talk about insurance for "high risk" drivers and I argued with their entire premise. To their credit, they published my response anyway
TL;DR: people are "high risk drivers" in many cases due to factors beyond their control. Jacking up their insurance rates helps the insurers but doesn't actually solve the problem.
@DrTCombs great response! I’ve been cringing seeing these new insurance plans where in exchange for invading your privacy you can get lower insurance for being a low risk driver. The ads often make fun of high risk drivers
@billyjoebowers I like it when it works but was not working very well trying to search my own history. Behaving as if only the last few days were indexed
#ICJ / Nicaragua threatens UK, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands with court action over 'facilitating genocide in Gaza'
[…] In a bilingual Spanish and English statement, the Nicaraguan government said the four Western nations were being made aware of its “decision to hold them responsible under international law for gross and systematic violations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.
[…] #Nicaragua has urged the governments of the United Kingdom, #Germany, the #Netherlands, and #Canada to immediately halt the supply of arms, ammunitions, technology and/or components to Israel as it is plausible they might have been use to facilitate or commit violations of the #Genocide Convention, including but not limited to acts of genocide, attempted genocide, complicity in genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide.”
We’re told repeatedly that it’s just the price of one coffee a month, but the combined cost of every single tool, service, app and game demanding one coffee a month becomes the equivalent of paying for enough caffeine to poison even the strongest constitution.
My current take: internal cable routing on bikes (and especially thru-headset routing) is stupid and worse. The aero benefits are stupid (unless, maybe, you’re racing- but if you’re fast enough to benefit you’re going to have a tech to deal with it for you). The maintenance is stupid. The routing makes shifting and breaking worse, and the “aesthetics” seem overblown.
I won’t buy a bike with through-headset routing, and I’d think hard before buying one with fully internal routing. #BikeTooter
This is a follow-up on the question I asked on #BikeNite about hand signals.
I almost exclusively bend my left arm at 90 degrees and point my hand straight up to indicate a right turn. Like a driver does, so to speak.
Reading the replies in the thread, I've been reminded how it makes sense for me to use that method instead of sticking my right arm out horizontally, which many say is more intuitive and better understood. It is for consistency. I use my left arm to signal all other actions. I also use my left hand to operate my bar-mounted phone, ring the bell, and reach my water bottle. My right hand almost never leaves the handlebar. (As some of you may have guessed, I'm lefty.)
Someone has suggested that in addition to pointing my hand up, I make my intent clearer by pointing my left thumb or index finger to the right. In fact, I had a cycling buddy who did that pretty often. I believe it's good practice.
@daihard reminds me of one of the rationales for using your left arm, which is that it ensures you’re using your right for braking which (generally) means the rear brake that is less likely to lead to front flip on sudden hard braking.
Hey fediverse, what are your favorite podcasts?
I'll share mine in replies which seem to be in the following categories:
News/politics (definite left slant)
Climate
Urbanism
Local - Seattle/WA
Cycling
Tech politics
SW Dev & Testing
Education
Misc
@linazubyte@dgodon Yes! I realized after that I missed including it. I only recently discovered it when I heard @testobsessed was on an episode. Really enjoyed that episode. Challenged my thinking on QA teams and roles.
