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@[email protected] @[email protected] ​That was really helpful!

Unfortunately, since then I've mainly seen it used as an excuse for loud voices to drown out the quiet ("well, if I can't state this opinion forcefully it's not a real conversation") or to justify a lack of due diligence/research ("well, I have a gut feel so I'll just go for that strongly until someone else does the work to point out why it's a really stupid idea - but it was weakly held so I don't need to feel any guilt!")

@[email protected] @[email protected] I have some history with this phrase...

It was first explained to me in the context of being a Brit working in a US company for the first time, where my new manager mentioned that I was putting forward good ideas in a tone that to Americans sounded like I didn't believe in them. His comment was that it was better to state an opinion clearly and without excessive caveats and let it stand and fall on its merits, being willing to give way if you were convinced by the feedback that it wasn't the best option.​

@[email protected] The wonders of technology never cease.​

A one hour writing jam later, and the adventures of the GSV Badly Sketched are now longer, more dramatic, and in places a bit less finished.

But great fun was had by all, and several of the course members are now planning their own full games to make!

Check out the updated version here to see what four young teens with keyboards can make of a shipboard disaster in an hour: visualink.mavnn.eu/published...

After a discussion on here recently about chat services allowing your local nicknames to override people's display names, I was amused this morning to see "Admin Mum deleted this message" in a chatroom where my mum happens to be a moderator but isn't just for our family.

Apart from a moment of double take, it also struck me as the kind of super hero the world needs sometimes. "Admin Mum; overcoming bureaucracy for a better world!"

My Ink support in CodeMirror is now in its own project separate from @VisualInk , meaning it can be easily used in other JavaScript projects.

Github Repo: github.com/mavnn/codemirror-...

NPM package: npmjs.com/package/@mavnn/cod...

Still to come: grammar aware autocomplete

#interactivefiction

@[email protected] the scary thing about this framing is that it rather highlights the fact that security issues don't tend to have (short term) cash flow implications, while downtime incidents do.

@[email protected] ​(context for any readers who aren't aware: even private health insurance in the UK is enormously cheaper than US health insurance, even before you get to the NHS part)

@[email protected] ​The first time I worked remotely for a US company and had a conversation with my colleagues about why all the job ads focused on health insurance so much was quite a eye opener...

@[email protected] (UK perspective) ​I think there's a couple of things in play there. In the short term, the NHS is going through a historically rough patch at the moment and has been for a while, so that tends to get more focus internally than comparing it to external systems.

The other is that most Brits don't really have a good handle on how the US system works - you can find some videos of people asking Brits on the street about, for example, the cost of giving birth in the US and they have no idea.

I suspect that it will soon become a marker of my age that I have a feeling of great satisfaction and immense relief every time I center something with CSS correctly.

@[email protected] ​I did too until a blond friend of mind took objection, which... with hindsight I get actually.

I now tend to have moments of being away with the fairies instead, on the basis that I haven't yet met any fairies to offend with the saying and I'm not sure they'd find being distracting offensive anyway!

@[email protected] Oh, right; from the direction of the conversation I'd thought you wanted something to automate​ that process rather than requiring a manual action on either end.

So... yeah. Reading fail 😁 . That said, I still think it might be a snazzy extra feature, especially in those situations where you're not sure at point of contact reception what an appropriate nickname might be!

@[email protected] ​Or, you know, maybe I've just failed at basic reading comprehension in which case I'll leave you to it! It's been known to happen...

@[email protected] ​I think I'm trying to solve the same issue? If José and José are both in your contacts, and neither have assigned a picture or surname, at the moment you're a bit stuffed telling who is who. But your contact list knows they're different, so there must be some unique identifier under the hood.

I was wondering if in the absence of a user chosen picture you could generate an image from that unique identifier to allow you to see which José is which.

​

@[email protected] @[email protected] ​I was more thinking something like the console library that generates an ascii art for an ssh host when it asks you if you trust it, given it's much easier to see if the image is the same than eyeballing 20+ character hash.

Let me see if I can track one down to link to, my mind is blanking on names at the moment.

@[email protected] @[email protected] ​There's a few ways of generating abstract patterns from hashes; would that give a way of adding something visually distinctive without requiring user effort or giving away any identifiable info?

Many are the people I have confused over the years by proclaiming "red warrior needs food badly" as I grab something to eat. None of them displayed the classical education and fine tradition you have instilled in your family @[email protected] ​

@[email protected] ​to be fair, I suspect with a sufficiently loose interpretation of 'translation' nearly every good mentor who's ever lived including many parents have said that.

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] the Welsh have a good few centuries on that ​en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisted... (depending if we assume competitive implies adverserial)