Laura Kalbag @laura@mastodon.laurakalbag.com

New rules out there for you @better friends. Lots of fixing this time, amazing how fragile big brand websites can be 😬

“At the end of the day, they are not interested in seeing things in their work timeline that make them uncomfortable, or distracts them from what they’re interested in.”

This attitude is endemic in the tech industry.

https://www.platformer.news/p/-what-really-happened-at-basecamp

Now I’m off to sleep for the whole weekend 😴

Last night’s Small is Beautiful livestream is now up on our site with transcript, captions (and new for this week), links!

We started discussing the National Rail greyscale “mourning” accessibility issues and so much more.

https://small-tech.org/videos/small-is-beautiful-09/

Half an hour til the livestream! (See previous toots!)

A less tired person would’ve thought to add a link there. Previous livestreams all up on: https://small-tech.org/videos/

If you miss the livestream, never fear! The video is always available on our site near-instantly, and I try to get a good transcript and captions up within a day or two.

and @aral has also got something very cool and new to share 😊

On today’s livestream (5pm Irish time), we’re going to talk about @better and its impact on both accessibility and privacy, inspired by the National Rail earlier in the week.)

You can join in with us (with headphones and mic!) in the studio too:

https://small-tech.org/events/small-is-beautiful/

Captions are now working! My fault… don’t try to include unescaped code in your captions. Wrote up a bit about how it failed silently on my site: https://laurakalbag.com/notes/

And now the video for last week’s Small is Beautiful, introducing the Svelte Nano Donation component, is up on our site with a transcript.

Captions coming shortly, just trying to work out why Vimeo isn’t showing them correctly…

https://small-tech.org/videos/small-is-beautiful-08/

I’ve added a custom dictionary and yet the auto-transcription can’t ever transcribe mine and @aral’s names correctly.

Why could that possibly be? 🤔

(I do actually know, it’s because our non-English names are too “foreign.” And clearly my non-American accent doesn’t help.)

This week’s Small Is Beautiful livestream will be on “National Rail Fail: lessons to be learned on privacy and accessibility”

How come
@better fixes the National Rail site? What are the wider implications?

Thursday 15th April, 5pm (Irish time) at https://small-tech.org/events/small-is-beautiful/

It’ll be me and @aral this week. Back in separate rooms, I suspect.

Also the first “outing” for the first ever outfit I’ve sewed myself.

Much fun was had, being in the same room, messing with the camera focus, and most importantly, talking about Nano (and why we don’t like most cryptocurrencies) and the design and development decisions behind the component.

https://small-tech.org/events/small-is-beautiful/

In half an hour, @aral and I will be doing a special mini Small is Beautiful live stream to talk about the Nano donation widget Svelte component we’ve made for not-for-profits.

Watch live at:

https://small-tech.org/events/small-is-beautiful/

A bit close to the end of the month for my liking, but new blocking rules are now out!

If you use Better and find any unblocked trackers or issues with sites, please let me know (@ me, @better or email) and I’ll use those reports to make Better better for everyone 😊