Dispatches From The Internets


Científicos del CSIC desarrollan un perro robótico capaz de

I have mixed emotions about this move to repurpose the utterly terrifying Boston Dynamics robots as service robots, but there are some upsides too.

  • Pro: No waste to clean up & dispose of
  • Pro: Can be used by people with allergies
  • Pro: Has no mouth, will never bite
  • Pro: People are less likely to try to pet/distract your service robot
  • Pro: Can likely be trained (or sensor-enabled) to recognize more objects and scenarios than a dog can (or at least the specific breeds we employ as service animals)
  • Pro: Would be of service for someone’s lifetime (and beyond) if maintained properly
  • Pro: Knowledge & personality (if there is one) can be migrated to a new robot if the current one breaks
  • Questionable: Potentially less costly to own, assuming power & maintenance is less than the US$1000-2000/yr it costs to own the average dog
  • Con: Far more expensive upfront
  • Con: Unlikely to be a companion in nearly the same way (though robots with personality is something folks are working on)
  • Con: Not warm or furry

303 Creative LLC v. Elenis is Incredibly Problematic

Pop art style illustration of a white woman holding her hand up to say stop.

Before I get into this, let me start with this preface: I am not a legal expert by any means. I never even watched Law & Order. That said, I am keenly interested in the law and how it relates to bias and discrimination, particularly if that intersects with technology, especially the web. Which brings me to the subject at hand: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. I tweeted about this case, which is currently before the Supreme Court of the United States, the other day, but felt like I owed it a lengthier—and perhaps more enduring—discussion. So here goes…





Do you really understand CSS radial-gradients?

This is an amazingly deep dive into the world of radial gradients in CSS. It includes a ton of practical examples and a thorough dissection of the syntax and what you can do with them.

🤯


A National Day of Mourning

If you live in the U.S., please take the time to learn the real history of Thanksgiving, rather than clinging to the B.S. we were taught in school. This week’s episode of Native Opinion is a good place to begin that journey.


GOV.UK to examine Google and Microsoft tools in bid to ‘significantly improve’ search

This is awesome to see. GOV.UK is going to be replacing their search functionality. The contract is estimated to be worth £900,000. The kicker’s below:

Work to replace GOV.UK’s search infrastructure is due to begin in early next year, with the initial phase of the project dedicated to identifying and evaluating products. Such assessments will be focus on “functional and non-functional requirements, based around user needs [and] include accessibility requirements… and progressive enhancement”.


JavaScript

When we old timers bemoan developers’ overreliance on JavaScript, we are coming at it from the perspective of folks who were building for the web before JavaScript was a server-side thing.

Some of us remember the early attempts at bringing JS to the server too. Remember Jaxer? JsExt? Rhino? Fun times.