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Feminism: Birth Control, and Abortion - A rant in 2 parts.

Posted by mikeg on
Politics

 There is currently a hashtag on Twitter - #MaleProverbs - and I would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to read it, for it is indeed filled with great truth and stories of epic douchebaggery. If you recognize yourself in some of these tweets then take note, for you may in fact be a douchebag.

There is however one that bothers the everloving fuck out of me, and about which I am going to rant for the remainder of this blog post:
@LunaGemme: "-Any opinion on birth control & abortion- #maleproverbs"

Come for the lead, stay for the rant, but you'll have to click through.

Continue reading "Feminism: Birth Control, and Abortion - A rant in 2 parts."

Stop Doing Internet Wrong!

Posted by mikeg on

 Scott Hansleman recently posted a great piece on how people Do Internet Wrong - one which I heartily recommend everyone read because really you're all still making a mess of it.

We agree on 8 out of his 9 points:

  • Redirecting a deep desktop link to a mobile home page is BAD AND WRONG
    If I grab my iPhone and go to http://www.example.com/store/shinywidget I damn well want the page about shiny widgets.
    Please don't redirect me to http://m.example.com/ with your crappy designed-for-a-mid-1990s-Blackberry "Mobile site" home page.
    • Corollary: If I'm using a modern smart phone don't EVER send me to your crappy designed-for-a-mid-1990s-Blackberry "Mobile site"!
       
  • Crippling your site and trying to force me to download your "Mobile App" is STUPID.
    Again, I'm using a modern smartphone. The web page looks great and loads fast.
    Your app? It SUCKS. It takes 5 seconds to load (splash screens are the work of Satan), crashes all the time, and it's harder to navigate than the website. Plus I know my way around the website - I use it EVERY DAY on my desktop and I just want to check that one item quick on my phone.
    Let's not make this hard, OK?
    (Every website out there that uses "TapTalk"? I'm looking at you right now and I'm NOT smiling.)

  • Giant interstitial ads make me not want to use your site anymore
    Scott called out Forbes on this (and they're a MAJOR offender - I cringe every time I want to read a Forbes article), but so many sites do this.
    • Corollary: Modal ads that pop up after 30 seconds are even worse!
    • Corollary: Interstitial or Modal ads that play obnoxious sounds merit the death penalty.
       
  • Only being able to click the checkbox, not the label? Why do you hate me?!
    Do some of these web developers know how small checboxes are on modern monitors? In Safari they're actually decent-sized, but the label is still so much bigger and easier to stick my mouse over and click on.
    (CMS and "web application in a box" vendors - If your form labels aren't clickable you best be fixing that shit!)

  • Breaking Links Is Bad
    Nuff said? Yeah - I think so too.
     
  • "Click the flag that represents your language"?
    How about you just auto-detect it you lazy shit. Seriously.
    • Corollary: GeoIP has been a thing for over a decade. Please don't make me tell you what country I'm in. (But DO let me override it if you get it wrong)
       
  • I'm giving you my zip code. Can't you figure out my state?
    Here's a hint: YOU CAN AND IT'S REALLY EASY. Lazy shits.
     
  • Using width and height to make the browser resize images is WRONG
    I'll allow a little fudge-factor here - you can scale down by 10% and I won't hate you.
    If you're taking a 6 megapixel image and trying to scale it down to a 3-inch-by-3-inch box on your web page? No. Not acceptable. You can resize that on the server and not waste all my bandwidth, ThankYouVeryMuch.
    By the way you're the one paying for this bandwidth - your users on consumer cable modems and FiOS can suck as much data as they want for a flat fee, but when you get featured on reddit and a million people are downloading that 4-meg JPEG image of your cat you better believe your ISP is gonna be charging you for all the extra transfer.

     

 

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Dear Congress...

Posted by mikeg on
Politics

 Dear Congres,

Stop.

Seriously, just FUCKING STOP.
I read this one today and just couldn't believe it guys:

 

A bipartisan group of senators will introduce legislation to stop the FAA from closing any control towers to meet its sequester cut requirements. "The Protect Our Skies Act, which is co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 18 Senators, would prohibit the Department of Transportation (DOT) from closing any air traffic control towers, including those that are operated by the FAA," says a news release issued by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla), one of the bill's sponsors.

So, basically in your infinite stupidity you all went ahead and created a law that imposes budget cuts so draconian that they say it's inconcievable that it woud ever be allowed to go into effect, then when you pull the trigger on this massive bazooka pointed at the nation's head and realize essential services are getting cut as a result your answer (rather than doing something sane like passing a reasonable budget) is to start legislating agencies into an impossible situation: Cut your budget, but don't cut any of the services you provide.
 
Frankly I'm not a huge fan of the tower closings (a bunch of towers at fields I would like to visit would be going away under the FAA's plan, and I think it would turn the airspace over Connecticut into a marvelous knot), but I'd rather the FAA make those cuts rather than wiping out more center and approach controller positions, eliminating maintenance inspectors, or countless other options with potentially more devastating safety implications than closing 150 towers.
 
So my dear esteemed congresscritters, I would like to know two things:
  1. Exactly what economics program did you all flunk out of?
     
  2. Exactly when did you all become experts on the national airpsace system?
 
You all seem to be laboring under the misguided assumption that you can cut a budget without cutting services.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the FAA is a service agency, and those services are (a) essential, and (b) provided by people.  If you want them to cut their budget they're going to have to cut the least essential of those services, and that - I'm sorry to say - pretty much means "Towers". The other option is to make deeper cuts to approach control and centers, which at least in my little corner of the airspace system are already working above capacity.
 
You also seem to think you know better than the FAA how to run the nation's airspace. First you stomp your feet like petulant children and DEMAND that the FAA integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) into the airspace, now you pitch a hissy and try to micromanage the way they deal with this budget crisis you idiots created.
 
Frankly - you're full of it, and messing with things you don't understand, so PLEASE just fucking STOP - you're making it worse!
 
Just sit on your hands and resist the urge to try to legislate anything until your term is up and we can replace you with something more useful (like perhaps a stuffed wombat.
 
No love,
 
Me.

 

Political Correctness, Sensitivity, and Censorship in the Information Age

Posted by mikeg on

 

So anyone who knows me knows that I hate censorship in any form.  I'm the guy that wears the "I Read Banned Books" shirt, and considers it to be a required reading list (yeah I'm still working my way through it myself).

So you can imagine I was just a little bit miffed when I found out that @violetblue's talk at BSides SF was apparently cancelled because it offended someone's delicate sensibilities (particularly since they can't have possibly known the content of said talk as it HADN'T BEEN GIVEN YET). I was even a little miffed at @BSidesSF for basically caving to PC-Pressure (unjustly as it turns out, so I'm glad I didn't lay into them), but I just quietly commented on the WTFery of such censorship and moved on...
...until tonight when I read @violetblue's blog post on what went down.

I beg of you, please go read that blog post before you read mine. Violet Blue took the time to compose a sound, well-reasoned retort to the folks that quashed her talk. What I'm presenting here is a seething ball of anti-censorship politically-incorrect fuck-the-world unmitigated rage.
Update: Please also read The Ada Initiative's side of the story as well (thanks to Rob for pointing it out, I didn't find it in my 30 seconds of Googling). The Ada Initiative has done some very good things, and they do raise many valid points. I don't think censorship was (or is) their intent, it's just an unfortunate side effect of cultural hypersensitivity surrounding certain issues...

 

I fully expect this blog entry will piss some people off.  Frankly I don't care. Try not to get any wharrgarbl on me if you feel the need to respond. 

 

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