• rough thoughts on the bear thing

    it was silly to write all of this down but i created this blog today and i’m still editing the layout, so i want more words to work with.

    create a few distinct sounds, for example:

    • cup/table tap
    • cup/table scrape
    • ball/table tap
    • ball/table scrape
    • cup/ball tap

    these examples are unambiguous and easy to perform rapidly by someone keeping the cup in one hand & ball in the other. i’ll refer to each performed sound as a “bit” from here on out.

    for n bits, you have (number of sounds)^n options. with the examples above that’s 5^n, which is plenty.

    so what’s important to convey?

    the shapes are curvy and strange, so it’s easier to share a limited reference table of basic + advanced shapes instead of deriving each part of the bear from scratch. three bits could cover 125 shapes, which is ample for bear and bear-like drawings.

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  • “D30U30: You’re in Canadian Business!”

    A few months ago I was nominated for a dubious “Developer 30 Under 30” award. I attended the first reception to speak with the organizers about representation in Tech, and the impact these lists have on how we (individually and collectively) identify who moves into STEM. I wanted to ensure they took this seriously; specifically, that they wouldn’t promote a toxic status quo. Then this happened: There was a lot of internal discussion about “fairness”, etc. Most was disappointing and unsurprising; some was encouraging. The list got re-ordered, for whatever that’s worth. But if there was any lingering doubt in your mind about industry awards, they are 100% made up and unrepresentative of…

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  • All of which are American dreams

    Title lifted from . The results of the US presidential election last Tuesday shocked me. I checked Twitter to find that my entire feed felt the same. Again. Oops, I created a comfortable echo-chamber for myself. Social news algorithms have been under intense scrutiny over the past week. I wanted to see what other people’s social media bubbles looked like, so I wrote a little shell script1. I’m not interested in building empathy for racists. I am interested in improving my own awareness. This tool displaces me from the narrative I chose and delivers me from opinions I agree with. It’s helped me realize just how powerful a curated social feed can be as a tool of persuasion…

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