Was just thinking about how much I've missed teaching the short-lived "Computer Science: The Good Parts" course that @jeffcohen and I put together back in 2018.

Having two back-to-back days where we built logic with actual hardware (breadboards, transistors, chips, etc.) one day followed by building everything again with lambda calculus the next day was an absolute mind-fuck. And in the best kind of way.

It's the kind sharp U-turn you can't pull off in almost any kind of normal course.

Mastodon News Sources

General News - US and World

BBC News (World) Bot - @BBCWorld
BBC News Bot - @BBC
CNN Bot - @CNN
CNN Breaking News - @cnnbrk
DW (Deutsche Welle) News Bot - @dwnews_bot
NPR US News Bot - @NPR_USNews
NYTimes Bot - @NYTimes
Reuters Bot - @reuters
Rolling Stone - @RollingStone
The Guardian US Bot - @TheGuardian_us
Wall Street Journal Bot - @wsj
Washington Post Bot - @WashingtonPost

Tech News

Ars Technica - @arstechnica
MacRumors.com - @macrumors

Hey all, the Auschwitz Museum is here on Mastodon, let's get those follows going.

@auschwitzmuseum

While following a lot of people can populate your Home feed significantly, sometimes people (like me) end up boosting a lot and that can unexpectedly hinder your own experience.

So if you like someone's specific posts and don't want to follow their boosts, you can go to their profile under the [...] button, and select the "Hide boosts from account" button.

There is no algorithm on Mastodon. You have ownership and control over every filtering decision instead of some robot.

#TwitterMigration

I see folks misusing image descriptions to add comments about their pictures instead of describing them.
These descriptions are meant to help visually impaired users who can feel left out without meaningful, short and precise image descriptions!

Let's do a little exercise with this picture:

DON'T: "She's so cute, isn't she?"

DO: "Black cat, leaning on a person's leg, asleep."

#a11y #accessibility #imageDescription #caturday

Here's your irregular reminder that:

Twitter was a multi-billion dollar company with thousands of employees.

Mastodon is a niche hobbyist product run by volunteers

The fact that we're being seen as a viable alternative to them is an admission that a federated, decentralized future is not only possible, but desirable.

Mastodon is not one thing, or one place. It's a network of many things and many places. We don't have a spokesperson (I mean, there's me. I'm the official spokesperson for 💯 of the fediverse, but beyond me there is no spokesperson) we don't have consensus on moderation or blocking or tools or what is good and what is bad. Some of us are professional SREs and Sysadmins, some of us aren't. Some of our instances have been around for 5+ years, some won't be here in six months.

And that's good! All of it, every last bit of it is good.

We're wrestling power away from the billionaire class, in real time, and reclaiming it for the People.

A gentle reminder to folks who are new to Mastodon. In solidarity with those in the disabled community who rely on screen readers, we ask that you:

* Add alt text/image descriptions when you post media
* Capitalize the first letter of every word in a hashtag #LikeThis
* Avoid emojis in your display name

UPDATE: So many great questions! Please check the replies to see if your question has been asked and answered ❤️

#StrongerTogether #Accessibility #AltText #Disability #Solidarity #FediTips