Tech Righting – Pickling the pixels

Back in my day … we made do any way we could

The Internet used to scream. Before that, message boards used to scream. A guy I knew named Screech could connect at 300 baud with his vocal stylings.

Things were, in a word, primitive. Discussions, compared to today, were nearly up to the speed of Victorian England mail delivery if the message board owner had splurged for two modems and phonelines.

Our emojis were simple text characters or abbreviations, such as <EG>, Evil Grin. Eventually, “always on” internet became a thing, smart phones became a thing, and we could message as fast as we could think.

So I started using emojis for each train of thought, and still sometimes remember to use it today. You know, maybe we could use AI, the pretty little thief machine, to help? First, make emoji easier to tab to when texting, then train AI to start to string our thoughts together for us.

Just a thought.

Category: dev random | Comments Off

April 16

Who needs social media to micro content?

Yeah, I’m busy. We’re all busy. But we gotta get stuff done. Social media does help with virtual and actual “task/body doubling” or “XYZ goal challenges”. Helps make them visible and get them done.

As my kids move out of their school years into the work world, I’ve tried to make them see how important keeping a regular portfolio going is … and failing miserably at it myself.

So now I’m microblogging like all the cool kids. The goal is to every week team-microblog with my kids and just throw stuff out there instead of GETTING ALL SERIOUS WITH A SERIOUS FULL BLOG POST.

Welcome to the disarray.

Category: dev random | Comments Off

September 16

Filter me this, Netflix

Let us teach your algos more about what we really want, Netflix.

I’ve a friend who posts “the date” every day to help us keep track. Today is Wednesday, March the 199th, 2020.

Social media has become more widely used in the last decade, and the tools to manage them have matured as well. You can hide specific dates or people from popping up as “memories” on Facebook. You can mute or enhance keywords, hashtags, and channels on Twitter, Slack, Discord, and more.

But what about our TV streams? I’m sure I’m not the only bingewatcher out here. Help a binger out, Netflix.

Category: Netflix, User eXperience | Comments Off

December 19

PokémonGO Buddy Gameplay Upgrade: Broken Buddies?

I got into tech writing (and righting) because I wanted to understand and improve technology more. But my approach to efficient (lazy path, minimal clicks) gameplay made me think the old buddy stats were broken or gone due to this week’s PokémonGO client update.

I’d walked nearly 20km to evolve a Feebas last week, but the update insisted he had 0km on his counter … or maybe 3.1km.

After a ridiculous amount chasing through menus, I found the right count. But did it really need to be gone? Maybe so. Because the cost to ‘right’ it might be too high.

How I think the feature replacement went down

Category: Data Architecture, Free Beta Testers, games, Niantic, PokemonGO, User eXperience | Comments Off

December 3

Don’t Format Me, Bro: Turning off Slack’s WYSIWYG

My best guess is that @slackHQ got a lot of flack for their good idea: adding WYSIWYG.

But one thing that makes a good idea a great idea is making sure that your broad user base really wants it, or can easily turn it off.

Earlier today they finally rolled out what would have made it great at release … a way to disable this feature that some hard-core keyboardists abhor.

@Netflix … are you listening?

If you want to copy+paste the instructions to share, here it is in Markdown: (you may need to add your own :hamborger: to your workspace)

 By the way, if the auto format function on Slack is slowing 
you down by breaking your typing stride, close and reopen
(or force refresh) the Slack client, then:

Click the oddly placed :hamborger: (:hamburger:) overflow menu,
then pick *File* > *Preferences…* > *Advanced* > *Format 
messages with markup*

@LorenaB

Category: Data Architecture, DO NOT STARTLE USER, User eXperience | Comments Off

November 23

It’s just a click to the left, then a swipe to the right

Put your thoughts on the disk, then post next night … But it’s the future posts … that really drive me insane … let’s fix the WordPress again!

If anything takes longer than 90 seconds, automate it. While that’s an exaggeration for the rest of the world, I try to adhere to it as best I can. It comes from years of writing technical documentation and automating as much as possible. I want to focus on content, not fiddling with fonts or meddling with layouts.

I want to do this with WordPress, too. Automate the crap out of things, including future links. But I can’t. Despite its size, it’s not really built for people who know what they’re doing … but my research shows no one else knows how to future link, either. And maybe it’s another job for EdgeCase Industries. But … maybe not.

The future may be written, but it doesn’t exist.

Let’s talk about what I mean by “future link”. I write in fits and spurts. Thanks to scheduling, I can write lots of posts in a night and have three weeks worth of posts done and posting without me. Except when it comes to linking my posts together.

Category: Data Architecture, site stuff, User eXperience, Wordpress | Comments Off

September 12

You already changed the password? Sumptuously!

The return rate on these kinds of emails must be pretty splendoriffic given the language used. I used to wonder how much more they’d earn if they’d hire themselves a good copywriter … but I’m also glad they don’t.

But in a world of AI content creation and great deep fakes … some bright hacker might simply need to take a couple of online classes to up their game ….

Category: Google, phishin, security | Comments Off

September 9

Is Smart Wake worth $120 a year to me?

So Fitbit is rolling out both a premium service and Smart Wake this fall; a recent hardware review confirmed that it is finally coming back:

I genuinely would’ve loved to try Fitbit’s upcoming Smart Wake alarm, which will purportedly wake you when you’re in a lighter phase of sleep so you feel more refreshed. However, that’s not rolling out until later this fall.
https://gizmodo.com/the-fitbit-versa-2-is-a-solid-update-that-just-makes-me-1836705570

But I’ve been stuck with a dumb alarm for a few years now. If it’s “free”, I’ll take it … but I’m not sure it’s worth $120 a year. Thanks, Fitbit … sort of …

Note: I currently hold Fitbit stock.

Category: future, hardware | Comments Off

June 28

How many clicks does it take to get to the reset of a GE lightbulb?

The world may never know.

It’s been making the rounds, the handy GE “UPDATED: How to: Reset C by GE Light Bulbs (864,376 views 6/28/19 7:37pm ET)” video. I heard about it in one of my tech writer Slack channels, and just had to see it for myself.

The spectacle of specificity that guides users down the Happy Path of resetting the bulb is something, indeed, to behold.

Once I saw the problem, and GE’s solution, my brain immediately traveled back in time to the early 1990s and a gadget that was as important to my life then as my smart phone is to me now. An omni-gadget that with a few adjustments could solve this bulb’s and other smart device reset issues … just like my little gadget saved my bacon back in the days of plaid flannel and military surplus boots.

Category: fix it already, hardware, security, User eXperience | Comments Off

April 17

Printers May Go Offline At Random

In honor of World Haiku Day ….

Third level is where we solve all of the rest of your problems. First level asks if you turned it off and turned it back on again, Second level helps you reinstall … but Third level gets deep in the code where sometimes things have just gone funky.

Category: Uncategorized | Comments Off