Akkoma - Notes by Axbom (Page 119)

Per Axbom Akkoma

World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on March 21 in recognition of the uniqueness of the triplication of the 21st chromosome.

The theme this year is “With Us, Not For Us”. Many organisations exclude people with Down syndrome from taking part in their work. They take decisions For them not With them.

Here are some links that I appreciate:

A short film by actors with Down Syndrome on how Trisomy 21 occurs.
Actor and Mencap ambassador George Webster dispels five myths about Down’s Syndrome
Frank Stephens’ speech at the UN in 2018: I am a man with Down Syndrome and my life is worth living
The last children of Down Syndrome (very powerful and emotional long read)

And today is the day to wear socks that get people talking.

To share this with people who are not on Mastodon or social media you can link to my blog post: https://axbom.com/wdsd-2023/

Picture of the socks on my feet. They are striped, colorful and do not match. One sock has Captain America on it. This is a common way of raising awareness of Down Syndrome.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma reply

@EndlessMason Haha, that would be the dream. 😂

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

Humanity will never again get back the time spent on reading posts entirely made up by language models, much of it with fabulated content that is just not based in any fact or reason.

Time spent consuming concocted content will amount to hundreds of thousands of centuries of human time in the next few years. And we will continue to use huge amounts of energy to produce enormous amounts of incomprehension to keep us occupied.

We don’t have to wait for technological singularity to morph our reality. We just need enough futile content to dilute all knowledge and decision-making ability.

I added this text to my blog as well… for posterity. And for the chatbots.

https://axbom.com/chatbot-pollution/

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

AI responsibility in a hyped-up world

I’ve translated my long text about AI into English and just published it.

I go into

The dangers of calling it AI
How manufacturers deliberately mislead
Design decisions that reveal intent
Lack of accountability
Inadequate consumer protection

Also, there’s a clip from Frankenstein (1931), an Anakin/Padmé 4-panel meme, a snake-oil salesman ad, a mention of the new TV-series Hello Tomorrow and an abacus next to Deep Thought (yes, the computer).

This is a 20-minute read. Unless you subscribe to my podcast Carefully and listen to me read it, out by the end of the week.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@JackDeeth

Fair point 😁 But I do see people post valuable reflections there in article format. I just wish they realised how sad that makes me 😅

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

A moment of silence for all the LinkedIn "blog posts" that will inevitably disappear into the void at some future point in time.

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@jt_rebelo

I use maildrop.cc for many of these situations :)

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

"You need to register to keep reading.
It’s still free to read – this is not a paywall"

I'm growing tired of this wording. Yes, it is a paywall - the only difference is the type of currency you are paying with. If it wasn't a paywall there would be no wall at all.

You are paying with cognitive effort, time and often a very obscure management of personal information.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@kev

Akkoma. I find it superior to Mastodon in ease of use and responsiveness. One thing is how it shows threads as hiearchical (who responds to who) but also loads and shows all replies. Mastodon does a really poor job of loading replies when there are several from different people, or even indicating that there are more replies you may want to see.

I can make lists without necessarily following the people on the list (don’t think Mastodon can do this).

Fun fact: it has “quote posts” but I never use them.

It also has a built-in search that actually works quite well to find stuff that has passed through my server. I’ve sometimes used it to find posts that I know I’ve seen but forgotten to bookmark,

I left Mastodon because it was becoming too bloated and memory-heavy but stayed with Akkoma because it is clean and fun to use.

@m was the one who pointed me to it and perhaps has more to say. Sometimes I forget about benefits I’ve become accustomed to.

oh yeah, I’ve escaped the Mastodon character limit and this didn’t have to be a clunky reply in the form of 2-3 posts.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@Ibex Haha, it did occur to me to build something like that, but of course there are already several plugins that can do it for you.

Such as this one:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/word-changer/jjaeodeafkbbimejiboehejbdgpebjcd?hl=en

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@mjjzf

So true! 😂

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

gAMeChaNgeR

I don’t know if it will help you, but my day got a bit better every time I was able to replace ChatGPT with Bumfuzzle and AI with Argle-bargle.

In today’s headlines:

- Voice system used to verify identity by Centrelink can be fooled by Argle-bargle
- Microsoft details how Argle-bargle will change its Office apps
- Chinese tech firm Baidu unveils Argle-bargle chatbot to rival Bumfuzzle
- In January, Bumfuzzle failed the bar. In March Bumfuzzle-4 exceeds the nationwide student average
- New Open Argle-bargle and Google platforms up the ante on race for supremacy in Argle-bargle.
- UK to invest £900m in supercomputer in bid to build Brit-Bumfuzzle.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@alyssapanetta

Thank you so much Alyssa!! Everyone was very enamored with your talk, hence the wish to really make sure they got the understanding of this concept right as well.

I’ll pass everything on to the “audience”. They’re watching a full day of talks tomorrow as well.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@kazarnowicz

Ah yes, Mastodon interprets Akkoma a bit strangely and makes tags into links (if they become before other links). But thanks for the heads up. I'l try and remember to not add tags without other links in the page 😅

@kazarnowicz When I myself click that tag I get a tag search on my own instance and all posts with the tag "axecon" from others as well. Don't know why Mastodon does this with posts from Akkoma or Pleroma, but it's a known bug.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

Watching Axe-con all day with lots of wonderful people in the accessibility space. Best work day in a long time. Feels like I've been away from reality forever.

https://www.deque.com/axe-con/

#accessibility #a11y #axecon

Insight: HTML email still doing a bad job of accessibility. Zooming in HTML emails works poorly at best. Work on you newsletters everyone, and test them in several clients.

#axecon

Insight: When people are subjected to an overwhelming cognitive load they often have to take long breaks before being able to continue with the task they are doing on your website. These effects are very real and strenuous for a lot of people.

#axecon

Alyssa Panetta's 3 big tips for reducing cognitive load.

1. Semantic HTML and Familiar Layout Patterns
- Maximize germane, minimize extraneous
- Use clear headings

2. Use modern CSS and make your site flexible
- Amazing new flexibility with minimal code

3. Say it twice
- Increases chances of users understanding what you mean
- (my comment: known in communication science as increasing redundancy)
- add motion to grab attention (CSS transforms/transitions)

Article tip:
Modern CSS Upgrades To Improve Accessibility, by Stephanie Eckles:
https://moderncss.dev/modern-css-upgrades-to-improve-accessibility/

And remember: Accessibility overlays are bad!

Read more about Alyssa's talk:
https://www.deque.com/axe-con/speakers/alyssa-panetta/

@alyssapanetta on the Fediverse.

#axecon

@alyssapanetta

Top insight from @alyssapanetta, which I always assumed but hadn't seen hard data for:

The word "Menu" as a button outperforms having a button with a hamburger menu alongside the word "Menu".

The hamburger menu detracts from, rather than improves, usability.

Thank you Alyssa. Great talk! (we are a gang of 40 people watching selected #axecon talks together)

@alyssapanetta

A lot of people seemed to get a bit stuck on the concept of "Maximize germane, minimize extraneous" that you had in your talk.

The words/concepts were unfamiliar for a Swedish audience and we struggled to find an easy translation. Have you expanded on this in text somewhere?

#axecon

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

“ Australian employer, business tech and research groups have formed an alliance to tackle responsible AI by developing best practice guidance, tools and training for Australian companies using the high-risk technology.

It will offer Australian businesses support with guidance and training on the fundamental challenges of AI like data bias and unknown or unforeseen outcomes so business users build explainability, fairness and accountability into Australian AI systems.”

https://www.inkl.com/a/wawlRjIaBbV

#AIEthics #ResponsibleAI

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@Beantin

Yes, instead of making stuff to inflate our own sense of self-worth.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

It's confusing to me that designers are excited about building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) using ChatGPT and manage to look past the purpose of the interface they themselves are building.

With the power of chatbots why would people need an interface for buying tickets if they can tell a chatbot to buy tickets for them?

The GUI is in many cases an obstacle to goal completion. It's rarely a goal in itself.

If you see a chat tool as a better tool than the interface of your design software, why would you assume that the same reasoning does not apply to the interfaces you yourself build? They should also become obsolete.

Welcome to the future. 😛

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Per Axbom Akkoma

I'm being interviewed about AI and Human rights later today, a follow-up on my talk at Raoul Wallenberg Institute a little over a year ago.

It will be in Swedish, and I think I just thought of the perfect explanatory model. In Sweden we ALL watch the same cartoons every year on Christmas eve (don't ask). One of them is Mickey's Trailer, where Mickey, Donald and Goofy are on a camping trip in a high-tech trailer.

In the revelation scene they all convene at the breakfast table in the still moving trailer, and as they are devouring their food Mickey suddenly asks "Hey, who's driving?!" To which Goofy responds "Why, I'm driving!"

It takes him a while to realise he isn't and in a fit of panic he rushes back to the out-of-control car, inadvertently unhitching the trailer, which then comes crashing down the mountain road with Mickey and Donald still inside, Goofy of course completely oblivious to what's going on.

There you have it. That's the dilemma of AI today, summed up in this question: "Who's driving?"

Oh yeah, if you're curious: you can also watch, or read the full transcript of, my AI and Humans Rights talk from January 2022, which was in English.

https://axbom.com/aihr/

The AI dilemma explained by the cartoon short Mickey's Trailer.

Panel 1: Mickey Mouse asking angrily

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

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@mensrea

Good example. I know the entire African continent is host to at least 2,000 languages.

And there's the input limitations of keyboards. Thinking of the Ndélélé alphabet for example.

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

Tagged: Akkoma