Tags: 2d

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Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023

Disclosure

You know how when you’re on hold to any customer service line you hear a message that thanks you for calling and claims your call is important to them. The message always includes a disclaimer about calls possibly being recorded “for training purposes.”

Nobody expects that any training is ever actually going to happen—surely we would see some improvement if that kind of iterative feedback loop were actually in place. But we most certainly want to know that a call might be recorded. Recording a call without disclosure would be unethical and illegal.

Consider chatbots.

If you’re having a text-based (or maybe even voice-based) interaction with a customer service representative that doesn’t disclose its output is the result of large language models, that too would be unethical. But, at the present moment in time, it would be perfectly legal.

That needs to change.

I suspect the necessary legislation will pass in Europe first. We’ll see if the USA follows.

In a way, this goes back to my obsession with seamful design. With something as inherently varied as the output of large language models, it’s vital that people have some way of evaluating what they’re told. I believe we should be able to see as much of the plumbing as possible.

The bare minimum amount of transparency is revealing that a machine is in the loop.

This shouldn’t be a controversial take. But I guarantee we’ll see resistance from tech companies trying to sell their “AI” tools as seamless, indistinguishable drop-in replacements for human workers.

Sunday, March 19th, 2023

Checked in at The Bugle Inn. Sunday session 🎶🎻 map

Checked in at The Bugle Inn. Sunday session 🎶🎻

Saturday, February 25th, 2023

Checked in at The Duke of York. Flutetastic session — with Jessica map

Checked in at The Duke of York. Flutetastic session — with Jessica

Tuesday, February 7th, 2023

Checked in at SFJazz Center. Hosting Leading Design. map

Checked in at SFJazz Center. Hosting Leading Design.

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

Checked in at Jolly Brewer. Fiddletastic session — with Jessica map

Checked in at Jolly Brewer. Fiddletastic session — with Jessica

Sunday, January 22nd, 2023

Checked in at Tørstigbar. Drinking Weird Weather by Mikkeller — with Jessica map

Checked in at Tørstigbar. Drinking Weird Weather by Mikkeller — with Jessica

Friday, December 30th, 2022

Words I wrote in 2022

Here’s a highlight reel of some of my blog posts from 2022:

I also published the transcript of my conference talk, In And Out Of Style, a journey through the history of CSS.

Monday, October 24th, 2022

In person

I’ve had the opportunity to gather with my peers a few times over the past couple of months.

There was dConstruct, which I hosted. That was just lovely.

Then a few weeks ago, in spite of train strikes and travel snags, I went to Bristol to give a talk at Web Dev Conf, a really nice gathering.

This past weekend I was in London for State Of The Browser, this time as neither host nor speak, but as an attendee. It was really good!

I noticed something rather lovely. There was enough cross-over in the audiences for these events that I got to see some people more than once. That’s something that used to happen all the time but became very rare over the past two years because of The Situation.

None of the organisers of these events were pretending that Covid has gone away. Each event had different processes in place to mitigate risk. I wrote about the steps I took for dConstruct. For some people, those measures might seem to go too far. For other people, they don’t go far enough. This is a challenge that every in-person event is facing and from what I’ve seen, they’re all doing their level best.

None of these events were particularly large. Attendence was maybe somewhere between 100 and 200 people at each one. I know that there’s still a risk in any kind of indoor gathering but these events feel safer than the really big tech gatherings (like the one in Berlin where I got the ’rona—that was literally tens of thousands of people).

Anyway, all three events were thoroughly enjoyable. Partly that’s because the talks were good, but also because the socialising was really, really nice—all the nicer for being in relatively safe environments.

It’s not exactly an earth-shattering observation to point out that the social side of conferences is just as valuable as the content. But now that so many of us are working remotely, I feel like that aspect of in-person events has become even more important.

Or maybe I’m just appreciating that aspect of in-person events after spending such a long time with screen-mediated interactions only.

Tuesday, August 30th, 2022

Checked in at Dover Castle. Tuesday session 🎶🎻 — with Jessica map

Checked in at Dover Castle. Tuesday session 🎶🎻 — with Jessica

dConstruct update

Not long now until the last ever dConstruct. It’s on Friday of next week, that’s the 9th of September. And there are still a few tickets available if you haven’t got yours yet.

I have got one update to the line-up to report. Sadly, Léonie Watson isn’t going to be able to make it after all. That’s a shame.

But that means there’s room to squeeze in one more brilliant speaker from the vaults of the dConstruct archive.

I’m very pleased to announce that Seb Lee-Delisle will be returning, ten years after his first dConstruct appearance.

Back then he was entertaining us with hardware hacking and programming for fun. That was before he discovered lasers. Now he’s gone laser mad.

Don’t worry though. He’s fully qualified to operate lasers so he’s not going to take anyone’s eye out at dConstruct. Probably.

Monday, August 29th, 2022

Looking down a path surrounded by verdant vegetation.

A walk in the woods.

Wednesday, August 17th, 2022

The schedule for dConstruct 2022

The last ever dConstruct will happen just over three weeks from now, on Friday, September 9th.

That’s right—if you don’t have your ticket for this event, you won’t get another chance. The conference with its eye on the future will become a thing of the past.

dConstruct is going to go out with a bang, a veritable fireworks display of mind bombs. A calligrapher, a writer, a musician, and a nueroscientist will be on the line-up alongside designers and technologists.

Here’s the schedule for the day:

8:30Registration begins
9:50Opening remarks
10:00George Oates
10:30Lauren Beukes
11:00Break
11:30Seb Lester
12:00Daniel Burka
12:30Lunch
14:00Sarah Angliss
14:30Matt Webb
15:00Break
15:30Léonie Watson
16:00Anil Seth
16:30Closing remarks

So the first talk starts at 10am and the last talk finishes at 4:30pm—all very civilised. Then we can all go to the pub.

There isn’t an official after-party but we can collectively nominate a nearby watering hole—the Unbarred taproom perhaps, or maybe The Hare And Hounds or The Joker—they’re all within cat-swinging distance of The Duke Of York’s.

Lunch isn’t provided but there are some excellent options nearby (and you’ll have a good hour and a half for the lunch break so there’s no rush).

The aforementioned Joker has superb hot wings from Lost Boys Chicken (I recommed the Rufio sauce if you like ‘em spicy, otherwise Thuddbutt is a good all ‘rounder).

The nearby Open Market has some excellent food options, including Casa Azul for superb Mexican food, and Kouzina for hearty Greek fare.

And the famous Bardsley’s fish’n’chips is just ‘round the corner too.

So there’ll be plenty of food for the soul to match the food for your brain that’ll be doled up at dConstruct 2022.

Sunday, July 24th, 2022

Checked in at The Bugle Inn. Sunday afternoon session ☘️🎶🎻 map

Checked in at The Bugle Inn. Sunday afternoon session ☘️🎶🎻

Checked in at cafe Rust. Birthday brunch — with Jessica map

Checked in at cafe Rust. Birthday brunch — with Jessica

Friday, July 22nd, 2022

Checked in at Wingrove House. A room with a view. — with Jessica map

Checked in at Wingrove House. A room with a view. — with Jessica

Wednesday, July 13th, 2022

Checked in at Jolly Brewer. Wednesday session map

Checked in at Jolly Brewer. Wednesday session

Friday, July 8th, 2022

map

Checked in at Friels Pub. First session of the day

Wednesday, June 15th, 2022

Checked in at Café am Neuen See. Strolling around the Tiergarten — with Jessica map

Checked in at Café am Neuen See. Strolling around the Tiergarten — with Jessica

Sunday, May 22nd, 2022

Checked in at Haus On The Hill. Sunday roast — with Jessica map

Checked in at Haus On The Hill. Sunday roast — with Jessica

Sunday, May 1st, 2022

map

Checked in at The Bugle Inn. Sunday afternoon session ☘️🎶🎻 — with Jessica