richard dawkins

Eat the rich.
#EatTheRich

"In 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country..."

🔊🎵 #OPL3MIDI

The unreasonable effectiveness of simple HTML

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/01/the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-simple-html/

I've told this story at conferences - but due to the general situation I thought I'd retell it here.

A few years ago I was doing policy research in a housing benefits office in London. They are singularly unlovely places. The walls are brightened up with posters offering helpful services for people fleeing domestic violence. The security guards on the door are cautiously indifferent to anyone walking in. The air is filled with tense conversations between partners - drowned out by the noise of screaming kids.

In the middle, a young woman sits on a hard plastic chair. She is surrounded by canvas-bags containing her worldly possessions. She doesn't look like she is in a great emotional place right now. Clutched in her hands is a games console - a PlayStation Portable. She stares at it intensely; blocking out the world with Candy Crush.

Or, at least, that's what I thought.

Walking behind her, I glance at her console and recognise the screen she's on. She's connected to the complementary WiFi and is browsing the GOV.UK pages on Housing Benefit. She's not slicing fruit; she's arming herself with knowledge.

The PSP's web browser is - charitably - pathetic. It is slow, frequently runs out of memory, and can only open 3 tabs at a time.

But the GOV.UK pages are written in simple HTML. They are designed to be lightweight and will work even on rubbish browsers. They have to. This is for everyone.

Not everyone has a big monitor, or a multi-core CPU burning through the teraflops, or a broadband connection.

The photographer Chase Jarvis coined the phrase "the best camera is the one that’s with you". He meant that having a crappy instamatic with you at an important moment is better than having the best camera in the world locked up in your car.

The same is true of web browsers. If you have a smart TV, it probably has a crappy browser.

My old car had a built-in crappy web browser.

Both are painful to use - but they work!

If your laptop and phone both got stolen - how easily could you conduct online life through the worst browser you have? If you have to file an insurance claim online - will you get sent a simple HTML form to fill in, or a DOCX which won't render?

What vital information or services are forbidden to you due to being trapped in PDFs or horrendously complicated web sites?

Are you developing public services? Or a system that people might access when they're in desperate need of help? Plain HTML works. A small bit of simple CSS will make look decent. JavaScript is probably unnecessary - but can be used to progressively enhance stuff. Add alt text to images so people paying per MB can understand what the images are for (and, you know, accessibility).

Go sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable location, and stare at an uncomfortably small screen with an uncomfortably outdated web browser. How easy is it to use the websites you've created?

I chatted briefly to the young woman afterwards. She'd been kicked out by her parents and her friends had given her the bus fare to the housing benefits office. She had nothing but praise for how helpful the staff had been. I asked about the PSP - a hand-me-down from an older brother - and the web browser. Her reply was "It's shit. But it worked."

I think that's all we can strive for.

Here are some stats on games consoles visiting GOV.UK

Matt Hobbs (@TheRealNooshu@hachyderm.io)

@TheRealNooshu

Replying to @TheRealNooshuInterestingly we have 3,574 users visiting GOV.UK on games consoles:
• Xbox - 2,062
• Playstation 4 - 1,457
• Playstation Vita - 25
• Nintendo WiiU - 14
• Nintendo 3DS - 16

20/22

❤️ 27💬 1🔁 010:45 - Mon 01 February 2021

#HTML5 #web #WeekNotes #work

When the monster shows up the main character is already "ok whatever I was in a very bad place already maybe this is an improvement"

Warhammer Horror: half the horror comes from the living conditions of the Imperium's people
#warhammer40k

This is probably the best thing I ever posted on Twitter. The memory is pretty dear to me; I'm sharing it here so it still exists somewhere if that place collapses.

(Cont.)
Water cuts in Tenerife because of the drought: not for agriculture, not for drinking:
https://www.antena3.com/noticias/sociedad/restricciones-agua-tenerife-sequia-campo-consumo-humano_20240428662df4c88e66020001bbbf9e.html

I could keep going for a while and I haven't even mentioned the various grassroots movements protesting gentrification and the prioritizing of tourism and its infrastructures over the lives of everyone else.

Let me add some links (you can use google translate since there's no english version of most of them, being spanish news sites):

- Valencia: Rent goes up an 8% even though rental offers are skyrocketing:
https://www.levante-emv.com/economia/2024/08/28/precio-alquiler-habitacion-valencia-sube-107404640.html
-Record-breaking rent prices forces tenants to share apartments:
https://www.lasexta.com/noticias/economia/precio-alquiler-sigue-batiendo-records-obligando-inquilinos-compartir-piso_2024082866cf21b61dd440000179307e.html

-Record-breaking tourism despite massification protests:

https://elpais.com/economia/2024-08-21/el-turismo-enfila-otro-record-pese-a-las-protestas-por-la-masificacion.html
-A summer of jugs and water restrictions in the Valencian Community:
https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/valencia/20240811/9863887/verano-garrafas-restricciones-agua.html

Bonus track: please please if you come here learn to say at least "Por favor" "gracias" and "disculpe, no hablo español". I don't even live in a touristic town and I've had the urge to yeet a rude guiri* at least two times this summer.

*I didn't because I'm very polite, but I though about it very hard

Spain have been a touristic destination since the 60s, I don't think we can be accused of being hateful. But there's a lot of strain lately and it's already unsustainable, if not at the breaking point.

Landlords are evicting people to rent their properties as AirBnBs; rent is rising everywhere and is getting more and more difficult to have a roof over our heads even with a good paying job. Please be mindful of all this.

People is getting fed up, not because of the tourists themselves* but because of the infrastructure strain and rent rise they represent.

* except the kind of tourist that pisses in the street and try to jump from a balcony, I trust there are not many of those here ( I hope)

Our local governments are desperate to make money from tourism and are releasing advertising campaigns at a speed; don't fall for it. A lot of the tourist flow that used to go to other mediterranean countries is coming here instead (for reasons, mainly geopolitical) and we are overloaded. Some areas had water restrictions already ( not that you will notice if you stay in a hotel, since they get prioritised over the locals) and it will only get worse with time. 2/

I thought I could give some kind of update for people wanting to come to #spain, for #holidays or as #digitalnomads etc: we are being hit hard by climate change, friends. I live in an usually temperate area and this summer I've seen temperatures of 30°C PAST MIDNIGHT. We've had at least three heatwaves interspersed by locally strong hail storms (strong enough to damage cars). 1/

Mi típico manual en Google Drive con todo lo que hay que saber de #mastodon, ¿eres #nuevo por aquí? ¿Buscas #ayuda 👀? Aquí tienes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L_FHJVb7pvyjABG197zea-fQrR7Y3G3AVNyQFfaENSk/edit?usp=drivesdk

assigned female at barn

Escucharme, sobre lo de aprender electrónica: encontré no hace mucho uno de esos foros de los primeros dosmiles que siguen funcionando y están llenos de información y tutoriales https://www.forosdeelectronica.com/

Aquí el tuic; lo que no sé es por qué no están en mastodon, creo que les gustaría :<
https://x.com/EntreBarris/status/1811085757798404292