Alex Vranas @Alex@vran.as

✨Hey vis.social✨
I just moved to this instance and I want to say hello!
I'm a creative technologist and love generative stuff of all sorts! I make them into bots ( @beetlesbot ), stickers, fabrics, light installations, pcbs, pen plots or whatever weird idea comes to my mind.

To keep track of my progress, I started a video series ("Work in Progress") to document a bit of behind the scenes stuff of what I do: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSV1FvtNZeQED6m0KWv3JkMzfJ_gfYr0F

Thanks for having me here!

Apropos of nothing…

"Yes, but where are you REALLY from?"

We've all had this question. All of us.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/30/buckingham-palace-aide-resigns-black-guest-traumatised-by-repeated-questioning?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

a reminder that rail workers’ wild demand is simply to get a few paid sick days and *not be penalized* for taking time off for illness… during a pandemic.

Not one of the 33 companies participating in a big trial of a 4-day workweek (with no loss in pay) is returning to a standard 5-day schedule. Productivity went up. Revenue went up. Absenteeism and turnover both went down.

"The benefits are significant."
https://www.livemint.com/companies/people/want-a-four-day-work-week-show-the-results-of-research-to-your-boss-11669783677563.html

“The entire Twitter information security community has moved to Mastodon.” https://theintercept.com/2022/11/29/elon-musk-twitter-andy-ngo-antifascist/

Since Mastodon saw its initial popularity circa 2017, I've noticed that most users and those reporting on it either don't think about the Fediverse as anything more than Mastodon, or treat its history as beginning with Eugen Rochko and the beginning of Mastodon. In fact, Mastodon is the latest in a long line of federated social networks going at least back to Identi.ca, and though I wasn't around for all of it, I find this history pretty interesting. (Thread; boosts welcome!)

Hey, I made a bunch of weird, quarter-scale retrocomputers. This is a thread, so feel free to share.

Or check out the documentation in non-mastodon form:

https://bbenchoff.github.io/pages/BeBox.html

stolen from elsewhere

Meanwhile on Twitter:

#seattle! don’t forget we’ve got a toot-up this weekend! sunday @ 330p in cal anderson park or rachel’s ginger beer depending on weather. boost the heck out of this. <3

Hot-takes on how "bad" fedi is by people who joined a week ago remind me of this seminal piece of deep insight:
https://mashable.com/article/mastodon-wont-survive

> Six reasons Mastodon won't survive

It was published 5.5 years ago (and counting).