@aeveltstra@mastodon.social
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aeveltstra

@aeveltstra@mastodon.social

Hi, this is Andre. I'll be writing about software architecture and development, cyber security, UX/UI topics, politics, and queer experiences. I'm a classically trained musician and music composer, band director, and music instructor. I'm handfasted, have kids, and play and create (video) games. Sometimes I don't recognize social cues.

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docpop, to random
@docpop@mastodon.social avatar

I'm sick of justifying ethical behavior in terms of profit. We use phrases like "adding alt-text brings more customers to your site" or "protected bike lanes increase revenue for local businesses."

You should add alt-text descriptions to images because it helps people.

We need to build bike lanes because it makes cities safer and more accessible.

Reduce carbon emissions because it's the right thing to do! Discussing these things in purely economic terms misses the point.

aeveltstra,
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

@docpop Fair, but money seems to be the only language shareholders speak.

samwho, to random
@samwho@hachyderm.io avatar

Made a dumb website so I wouldn't ever have to Google "tm symbol" again.

https://symbol.wtf

aeveltstra,
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

@samwho Yay! Now I can write half my name!

aeveltstra, to math
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The other day my kid asks me to present math problems about area. Early middle school: simple multiplications and divisions. He got taught a formula for areas of trapezoids: A = 1/2h * (b1 + b2).

I decided to show him how to his solution, by giving him a different approach: A = a + 2b, where a = area of the square, and b = area of each triangle on the sides of that square.

He threw a fit and refused to accept my approach, because it wasn’t the same as he had learned.

smh

aeveltstra,
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

There’s 2 morals to this story:

  1. Educators should avoid making belief that the approach they teach is the only possible one.
  2. You cannot verify your approach by repeating it. That only tests whether it leads to the same outcome, but doesn’t verify. Instead, you need to find a different way to get to the same conclusion, and then compare.

aeveltstra,
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@SmartmanApps I recognize learning materials are malleable. The choice you present assumes they aren’t. Maybe you had hoped readers wouldn’t recognize that? I would teach both your simplest formula, which itself is a derivative, and the formula I presented. The fact that your learning materials don’t include that is caused by the prior choice to teach your simplest formula. It shouldn’t be used in turn to teach only that formula: that is circular reasoning.

aeveltstra,
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@SmartmanApps a) Then some of you do a bad job conveying that to their pupils, as my kid’s response proves. Maybe you want to encourage each other to do better.

b) We aren’t unit-testing the formula itself - we are unit-testing the pupil’s application of it to the problem. If they can approach the same problem with a different formula that should result in the same outcome, they can compare outcomes and either affirm or reject their own work.

aeveltstra,
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@gooba42 Teachers are as much constrained by their learning materials as the people they teach. They got taught by the same educational machine which probably has taught people in mostly the same way for decades, making change really hard. Any variety brought by pupils and from the outside (like me, a parent), is met with great resistance as a result, for allowing it means a teacher has to expend more labor than they deem acceptable.

aeveltstra,
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

@SmartmanApps You yourself said teachers choose to teach the simplest formula. Do you wish you retract that statement?

I also am not trying to teach 3 things at once. We are in agreement on that.

The fact that something currently is a high-school topic, shouldn’t stop us from reviewing whether it SHOULD be. Breaking apart a complex shape into simpler ones and adding them should be a middle if not a primary school topic. As soon as you learn addition and multiplication.

aeveltstra, to random
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

If anyone knows of, or can come up with a projected input device that feels like a typewriter, please, share!

APBBlue, to random
@APBBlue@zirk.us avatar

I was having a bad dream and woke up in a panic, which seems highly unnecessary.

aeveltstra,
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

@APBBlue I’ve done that. I found it highly disturbing.

Raffzahn, to random German

Wissing hilflos: Fahrverbote sind zwingend.

aeveltstra,
@aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

@Raffzahn Na klar: die wollen uns nur zum Arbeit fahren lassen.

jpmens, to random
@jpmens@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    aeveltstra,
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    @jpmens Clearly, Katie wants us to know they’re using Microsoft Word to create and send email. They might be browsing your website using Microsoft Spyglass.

    aeveltstra, to webdev
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    fits every screen size out of the box. gets abused to stop it from doing that; to constrain the display by web browsers to specific widths. That’s counterproductive. The solution therefore is to remove such constraining CSS. Don’t apply a minimum width rule, and allow on-screen components to flow underneath each other as screen size dictates. Stop trying to make computer screens behave like hard-copy magazine paper.

    aeveltstra, to random
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    Woah: turned 25 years old. One of my old blogs is still around and still providing tech support for a product that doesn’t exist anymore…

    misty, to random
    @misty@digipres.club avatar

    Finding out that Windows uses the same powershell function to check for the existence of either a) files on disk or b) paths within the Windows registry is breaking my brain. They're not... the same thing?? Right???

    aeveltstra,
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    @misty Nope. The same is also used to locate scheduled tasks and Active Directory objects… almost anything with a path.

    aeveltstra, to typescript
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    Hey, devs: is there any way to compile typescript without needing NPM and Node?

    Microsoft’s documentation says the easiest way to install tcl is by using NPM. That means they aren’t saying it’s the only way. But it also lacks mention of other ways.

    I’m not adverse to building tcl myself if needed, or use different methods for different operating systems.

    Please advise!

    aeveltstra,
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    @lukem Thank you, I’ll check it out.

    aeveltstra,
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    @castarco Thank you!

    aeveltstra, to random
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    If faced with a new API there’s a learning curve. If faced with an API SDK there’s 3 learning curves. I’ll stick with plain API thankyouverymuch.

    aeveltstra, to Java
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    Hey, software devs: how do you prevent the from dumping memory into the application folder if the application or system causes it to malfunction? I still want the memory dump, just somewhere else. Can that be done? Please show me the way!

    aeveltstra,
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    @PHolder yes it does! Thank you!

    aeveltstra, to UX
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    You really shouldn’t call your product “enterprise level” when:

    1. Your product forces us to store cache on the system hard drive rather than letting us choose where to store it.
    2. Your product forces us to install a system module that is 10 years old, no longer supported by its vendor, and refuses to work with any newer, supported version.
    3. Your product is single-threaded when its purpose is to provide gigabytes of data transfer, simultaneously.

    Do better.

    aeveltstra,
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    @SQLAllFather OK… What other vendors sold networking systems at that time? I remember Novell Networks, IBM thin clients, terminals and terminal emulators for IBM Mainframes, AppleTalk… Some were better and others worse. Microsoft doesn’t sell NT4 anymore, does it? Are we going to resign to mediocrity? Or are we going to pave the way for improvements?

    aeveltstra,
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    @SQLAllFather And I apologize for taking your comment as a critique of my stance. I hadn’t even considered it could have been written to commiserate!

    aeveltstra, to random
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    My train just ran over something pretty intense. Now we’re stopped a short distance away from a railway station. The power went out. I smell burnt brakes. Let’s hope whatever we ran over wasn’t alive before we hit it…

    aeveltstra,
    @aeveltstra@mastodon.social avatar

    Thank you, powers that be, for imparting wisdom on the train engineer who stopped us safely, and the passengers who chose to stay on instead of endangering their life. Stepping on live tracks will earn you a Darwin Award.

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