"Cubist", or as the old-timers call it, "the Management insisted that this thing must work on MSIE 6, and we didn't have the budget to make it work on anything else"
Site that lets you build a contact info page, such as a list of links to various social media pages (some even not operated by Meta). As I recall it was originally made because Instagram only lets you have one link on your profile. Incidentally, Instagram doesn't like them very much and has banned it before.
I've found them useful for very broad level stuff (e.g. asking "I'm trying to do X in programming language Y, are there any libraries for that and can you give me an example"). Copilot has been good at giving me broad guesses at why my stuff isn't working.
But you have to be very careful with any code they spit out. And they sometimes suggest some really stupid stuff. (Don't know how to set up a C/C++ build environment for some library on Windows? Don't worry, the AI is even more confused than you are.)
What do you like most about BookWyrm? Which features do you use most frequently?
Been using BookWyrm for a few months. I add books to my shelves and track reading progress, mostly.
I loved it when I realised that it just lets me add all random books and edit data from the get-go. The service may not have all of the books I have, but I can just add them.
Are there any features or interactions that you find frustrating or unintuitive?
What features do you think are missing or could be improved?
BookWyrm absolutely needs far better abilities to split/merge/consolidate author and book information and do more of the Librarian Stuff. The current system of "you can bring in data and stuff just sits there on its own" is nice if you want to manage a personal library and track individual book progress, but a well-maintained book database is an entirely different beast, and pretty much mandatory for enabling more social stuff.
Also, the ability to import book information from sources is nice, but could use some more integration to a whole lot of other places. I really loved LibraryThing's integration to bazillion different library services.
One minor quibble I have about BookWyrm is that there's still the notion of "shelves" and that one book can be on one shelf and different editions of one book don't count. This is good for casual use - "oh yeah I read this one" - but it's not enough for true book nerdery. I may have a physical, ebook and audiobook edition of one work in multiple languages and the UI doesn't show me that yes, I own/have borrowed these exact editions and I have reading activity on this and that and that one.
On that note, yeah, should also have some kind of labeling system for individual editions, along the lines of "I own a copy of this and I've stored this in the closet" vs "Borrowed this off the library" vs "I had this one, before the drama queen of an author removed it from Kindle".
How do you feel about the interface (design, readability, navigation)?
It was a little bit confusing at first, but once I got over the initial weirdness I realised it wasn't that much harder to use than, say, Goodreads. I don't really have much complaints at this point. It's good at what it does.
Do you mainly use BookWyrm on a mobile device or on a computer? And why?
Book nerdery is a big girl thing so I use computer for this. The mobile UI is adequate but could use a dedicated app.
Do you also use other platforms (e.g., Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing)? If yes, what makes you prefer one over the other?
I used LibraryThing long ago, and Goodreads more recently, both with librarian privileges (i.e. ability to edit data, which BookWyrm gives you from the get-go). I think Goodreads is pretty good at what it does, but it did have some mild jank, and of course, I always got the impression that I was doing unpaid labour for Bezos. So I think I'll go with BookWyrm in the long run, thanks.
People also don't type in proper punctuation because our keyboards are stuck in the olden times and most online forum and social media platforms are same old garbage what comes to typography.
I'm an amateur writer, I love it when word processors replace straight quotes (") with proper double quotes based on the language (“like this”, ”kuten näin”, «comme ça») and instead of minus (-) you get actual real dashes—as one does. But good luck implementing this on social media. Even blogware handles this pretty badly, the only way to get proper punctuation is to write the post in a word processor.
At this point point, people who speak English as second language usually go "awww, how cute, the native speakers really think this is the biggest controversy of English orthography."
Good point. "Downloadable Content" is therefore a bit redundant, is it not? (also "expansion pack" sounds exciting, and "downloadable content" sounds like corpo slop, as the kids say these days)
Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. And it wasn't "DLC" because it was a physical disc. We need to bring back the term "expansion pack" to avoid ambiguity.
I like to solve everyday problems through programming. My primary way of doing it is just Python on Windows right now, but Linux does make programming languages a bit easier to access. (And most of the stuff I write would easily run on Linux too.)
Every time I go "damn, this is more complicated/boring than it needs to be and the manual handling is so unnecessary, I wish I could automate this", I start making a script.
For example, I'm an amateur photographer, so I have scripts for dealing with photos. One is a photo importer/backup tool, because I didn't trust the importers in the apps to do it right (Adobe trauma). I'm writing scripts for report purposes. One script I wrote puts all of the photos I have on the map.
Yeah, Randy, I find a way to make it happen, it's called Xbox sale. That’s how I bought Borderlands 3. Which I haven't played yet. And don't get me wrong, Randy, Borderlands 2 is one of the most fun games I've played, I'm definitely a real fan! I'm definitely a video game enthusiast, I have a ginormous backlog on both Xbox and Steam.
Long ago I was exploring some MUD, and it was the usual fantasy game experience. But one area was basically a weird dimension representing the server itself. Instead of monsters it had zombie processes you could kill. And child processes looking at you sadly. Trying to kill them was one of those "top 10 video game moments that made you feel like a total monster" things.
I've seen Americans start explaining how the geography in Spaghetti Westerns doesn't make sense, so we in Europe have to go "oh, but you see, the film doesn't take place in real America, it takes place in America of myth and legend."
The technology side of generative AI is fine. It's interesting and promising technology.
The business side sucks and the AI companies just the latest continuation of the tech grift. Trying to squeeze as much money from latest hyped tech, laws or social or environmental impact be damned.
We need legislation to catch up. We also need society to be able to catch up. We can't let the AI bros continue to foist more "helpful tools" on us, grab the money, and then just watch as it turns out to be damaging in unpredictable ways.
I'm in Finland, in my 40s. I don't remember much. I think in the early teens we did have lessons in school about sex and reproductive biology. What I do remember is the "real" sex education stuff around 15-16 years of age, that was part of the health education classes, because, well, I think it got inadvertently weird. The physical education / health education teacher we had was retiring that year. To no one's surprise, the stuff in the textbook was left for us to read on our own. Because "ummm I don't think I need to cover this, uhhh heh heh, ummm, you kids probably already know about this". And everyone was, like, thank God we were spared of that.
Rose @ umbraroze @slrpnk.net Posts 5Comments 221Joined 2 yr. ago
"Cubist", or as the old-timers call it, "the Management insisted that this thing must work on MSIE 6, and we didn't have the budget to make it work on anything else"