stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:A nonbinary techie who uses they/them and does various tech stuff.
Peace for Ukraine 🇺🇦
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stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:Personally I think X-Face/Face (my ALL extensions one is at https://stgiga.github.io/stgiga2.xface or https://stgiga.github.io/stgiga2.face and rendered as https://stgiga.github.io/TallFace.gif) e-mail avatar headers should come back, because it's as decentralized as Fedi.
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:@Tooden@aus.social @ernie@writing.exchange @mattl@social.coop
Internet SHOULD be an outright public utility, but at present it isn't, even though communications of a sensitive nature are being relegated to it. I get and support going paperless also for environmental reasons (though trees are renewable, but not all plastics are, and paper and plastic both recycle, some forms of plastic do so better than others, and bioplastic exists, though PLA may still make microplastics, but at least lactic acid is better than forever chemicals), but like with how plastic straws are cherished by people with disabilities in spite of their effects on the environment, people without good access to Internet should be able to do paper and telephone stuff until their areas advance in time.
Not to mention, if you know you will have an outage, workplaces should be willing to do some form of exemption for paperless to be done on paper when there is no help for it and you need to do something during a time where a planned outage is, or if your Internet bill will bounce. Or, say, if you're living out of your car or a shelter, your access to Internet may be spotty. Also this is why van life family channels suck, because their kids will have shittier online school than I already have to deal with, and they can't game like everyone does, not to mention there is no social media privacy. But even then, I met campsite camp hosts who brought a 3G adapter for their computers to their site with the minivan, that site being a State Park before California added WiFi in the late 2010s. I get taking vacations from the web. But at the same time, their existence can fuck over people in the modern work world for the same reason they fuck over people with shit Internet. Also all those software things that require webcams unnecessarily fuck over dialup users. The rural community college in the same district as the one I went to from 2020-2023 has a LOT fewer courses than its siblings because it runs on shitty rural Internet. So all that proctoring and productivity monitoring, and some forms of verification and authentication suddenly become equity issues when dealing with people who literally cannot get good Internet or any good Internet they can get is pricey metered, or even just filtered like school or corporate Internet. Like, those take-home hotspots some places give, IF they work for you. I get security/integrity and all, but they feed into the problem with internet access. Plus the very program my unis did to give certain students technology loaners was slashed. I may not need these, but others DO, and this fund covered poor, disabled, and veteran students. Now these people can't even get dialup, not that it would even be usable given the mandatory 2FA that makes the disability testing center have an outright bone to pick with admin. None of this situation is happy. There are better ways to go about things than cutting funding or cutting dialup. It's straight-up equity fuckovers for the most vulnerable. I know defending dialup in the age of 8K YouTube sounds ridiculous, but it, like it or not, has purposes, and by removing it in the name of technological advances, you're fucking people over. Analog TV under poor reception was still a picture, albeit snowy. Digital ATSC now has cut off SD devices but even before it did, the signal was either working or it wasn't working, no partial signals. So people in areas like mine were completely unable to use anything besides cable or satellite after June 12th, 2009 when the analog shutoff happened. Basically, as of June 12th, 2009, free TV stopped working for us. Then again even AM/FM doesn't reach us here, it's just static. But at least to a point you can hear stuff when driving to us, but I know a digital signal would have a low duty cycle when hitting us. Sometimes the simplest solution IS the best or even only solution. We may be corner cases, but forgetting about us is bad. Oh and why not factor in diversity and inclusion too: My county has a LOT of Native Americans in it, and Natives in the United States earn less. They are disproportionately affected, and yes, they were victims of interracial marriage bans. Now, the Native Americans in my region largely live in a protected area you can't easily develop due to Protected status on the level of payphones still being in use, so they have to use slow Internet. Why shouldn't they be able to go online? Like, basically, at this point, dialup removal is a DEI issue. If you go to the less-rich part of my nearest city, students at the schools there frequently use school hotspots so they don't have to pay extra for online schooling. And I think the reason why POC on the Internet have it worse off can be partially a result of their very Internet access being harder to get, particularly the type that isn't as conducive for hardcore gaming or content creation. If you gave everyone in the United States free high-speed Internet, I wager there would be a LOT more POC content creators, ones who previously could never have afforded the means to show the Internet what they have to bring to society. Internet access, even 56K, IS a DEI issue, and by doing what they're doing, AOL has in fact pulled a DOGE. In the name of "efficiency", they have fucked over the less-fortunate in the United States. It doesn't get more clear-cut than that. If you use AOL, see if you can find stuff like NetZero or Freeola in your region. Many pay-as-you-go dialup places bill to your phone bill based on the length of the call. Also dialup is why many e-mail clients have "Get Mail" in them, and the reason nobody but me combined X-Face types was because it increased call duration.
Basically, an always-on, high-bandwidth e-mail system is a fairly-new thing and still isn't universal. NetZero and Freeola have other services besides dial-up Internet, including broadband and e-mail. NetZero is USA and Freeola is UK, and as an American I don't know what other regions have. But to anyone reading Fedi on 56K (people have written lightweight clients that allow this), if you HAVE AOL dialup, consider NetZero or do further research while you still can.
Find a dialup provider that suits your needs. Tell your neighbors, especially elderly ones, as well as anyone from marginalized backgrounds you feel should know, as well as any people you know who are low-income. This is also a time for mutual aid to be factored in if you know that someone you are caring for or caring about is going to be negatively affected by this. Support the people in your orbit who will be harmed by this, and see if you can help them find a solution if you can safely do so. If you can't afford any providers, making a mutual aid request as a stopgap is wise while you are still online. If you do end up hosed, call someone trusted, and explain, and ask them what your options are. Even libraries (other than mine of course), public computers (if you can find any), and coffee shops (if possible, also Starbucks isn't the only cafe with WiFi, also see places like Panera and McDonald's if you're truly desperate and they are nearby. Also if at McDonald's, go for a 24-hour one if needed) would work. Remember, I'm saying this as a recommendation. Your situation may call for other things to be done, and that's OK because you may need more help, or you may be only partially or minorly affected. These are just tips on what to do before September ends. It's the end of old-school AOL. I hadn't known it was still around because I was just fortunate enough to not have dialup. Some of my neighbors still might. Also, if they are elderly, DO check in on them and help them find options. You could save a life or more. The Internet as a research tool as intended can and has saved many lives. If you keep the AOL changes from stranding someone offline, you can potentially prevent a tragedy beyond just job or DEI effects. Never be afraid to do the right thing. Save 56K!
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:@Tooden@aus.social @ernie@writing.exchange @mattl@social.coop
Also, if your financial institution or work or local government branch is trying to go paperless, and you can't, and you can safely tell them without being fired or detained, tell them that you are having problems with accessing the Web and that paper options and/or phone calls, and potentially in-person visits are needed in order to prevent problems. Of course, do ask them if they have any recommendations on how to remain connected. They might be able to give you an option Google didn't disclose. Also, on dial-up, if you want to search stuff up, PLEASE use http://frogfind.com because it simplifies pages, though obviously it ain't perfect. If you can, use a computer running something that won't waste your traffic with telemetry unless there is something at your work or school requiring Win10/Win11 or Macs. Choose the closest dial-up provider possible to avoid excessive long-distance callers, and in the United States, 1-800 numbers are toll-free (excluding providers that bill your phone bill), and 1-9xx numbers are toll calls that cost money even without dialup involved, so if it's asking you to call one of those, it's probably worth seeing if any other options exist. ALSO, be VERY wary of scammers, and tell your fellows about that, especially those who are older. Scammers may be more inclined to pretend to be AOL when someone calls them saying their Web Browser no longer connects. Even if people may not be as affected, tell them that AOL scams may happen regardless of how affected they would be. Unless AOL changes course, scams will likely go on for a while that claim they can prevent it, even though they may not be able to, and almost certainly are capable of guzzling your money via support fees or any of the usual tricks that may or may not work over dialup. Protect those you care about, and support the victims. That's how to respond to this crisis. It's the least you can do in a world where we rely on the Internet for everything, even though we do not all have the needed infrastructure to deal with it. Also, I have a degree in Networking and a Cybersecurity certificate through my first university, so I DO know what I am talking about despite being a college student, and a geeky one at that. Just this last semester at my current university we touched on Circuit Switching as part of the historical air to the class. I brought up a bunch of the points I made here.
If you have any more questions, let me know, and I will see what I can do and if I can answer any of them or point you to somewhere that may be helpful. School IS about to start soon though, and I'm in some tough classes so keep that in mind.
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:@Tooden@aus.social @ernie@writing.exchange @mattl@social.coop
Remember, there are PLENTY of government communications or even outright bills that go paperless even in regions where doing so requires an Internet connection that isn't the fast speeds you find in certain places. Imagine not being able to get a notice from your county because AOL goes out. You could face legal issues there. Or not being able to contact your boss at McDonald's to tell them you're sick/hurt and am taking medical leave. Imagine not being able to reply to job emails because AOL is gone. No, this shutoff WILL fuck the absolute most desperate and secluded Americans over, even if it sounds like progress eliminating dialup, it's NOT. Take it from me, someone who grew up on painfully-slow Internet. Also a LOT of people born in shitty rural areas DO move out, but a job kerfluffle like this type is just going to make the act of even getting out a LOT harder than it needs to be. No, AOL was absolutely in the wrong to do this, even though the techbros would say otherwise. Legacy technology still has its purposes, and getting rid of legacy tech that isn't dangerous WILL hurt SO many people. I get not using shit like DES. But when you actively try to get rid of something like dialup, it is a different matter entirely. Some dialup ISPs even did stuff like Modem-On-Hold (call waiting to let you pause a download to talk, not to mention Cathode Ray Dude did a video on modem voice chat) with outright Caller ID, and even compress traffic to slow down load times. NetZero for example does this. And you can approach DSL or at least ISDN speeds with this given how bloated web code can get. So 56K is NOT a hard limit with a nice-enough ISP. You could reasonably use the modern bloated web with an ISP that compresses everything before sending it down the line. One that for instance upgrades all GZip server page compression to Brotli. Like, we CAN have HTML5 and dialup, with the right mix. SVG is cool because it is fairly dialup-safe with compression compared to equivalent-quality logos in many raster formats. I mean even gradients are possible. Icon fonts with Zopfli or Brotli work too. But yeah, the idea of heavy page bandwidth didn't have to work this way, but the resourceful like myself and many of New York's impoverished who use landfilled material to build a home inside disused areas with even electricity and media I think is admirable. You can do so much with so little if you have literally no other options. But we shouldn't have to be this way. As President I'd give the whole nation fast Web. I don't want people to have to go through the things I have.
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:@Tooden@aus.social @ernie@writing.exchange @mattl@social.coop
Internet SHOULD be an outright public utility, but at present it isn't, even though communications of a sensitive nature are being relegated to it. I get and support going paperless also for environmental reasons (though trees are renewable, but not all plastics are, and paper and plastic both recycle, some forms of plastic do so better than others, and bioplastic exists, though PLA may still make microplastics, but at least lactic acid is better than forever chemicals), but like with how plastic straws are cherished by people with disabilities in spite of their effects on the environment, people without good access to Internet should be able to do paper and telephone stuff until their areas advance in time.
Not to mention, if you know you will have an outage, workplaces should be willing to do some form of exemption for paperless to be done on paper when there is no help for it and you need to do something during a time where a planned outage is, or if your Internet bill will bounce. Or, say, if you're living out of your car or a shelter, your access to Internet may be spotty. Also this is why van life family channels suck, because their kids will have shittier online school than I already have to deal with, and they can't game like everyone does, not to mention there is no social media privacy. But even then, I met campsite camp hosts who brought a 3G adapter for their computers to their site with the minivan, that site being a State Park before California added WiFi in the late 2010s. I get taking vacations from the web. But at the same time, their existence can fuck over people in the modern work world for the same reason they fuck over people with shit Internet. Also all those software things that require webcams unnecessarily fuck over dialup users. The rural community college in the same district as the one I went to from 2020-2023 has a LOT fewer courses than its siblings because it runs on shitty rural Internet. So all that proctoring and productivity monitoring, and some forms of verification and authentication suddenly become equity issues when dealing with people who literally cannot get good Internet or any good Internet they can get is pricey metered, or even just filtered like school or corporate Internet. Like, those take-home hotspots some places give, IF they work for you. I get security/integrity and all, but they feed into the problem with internet access. Plus the very program my unis did to give certain students technology loaners was slashed. I may not need these, but others DO, and this fund covered poor, disabled, and veteran students. Now these people can't even get dialup, not that it would even be usable given the mandatory 2FA that makes the disability testing center have an outright bone to pick with admin. None of this situation is happy. There are better ways to go about things than cutting funding or cutting dialup. It's straight-up equity fuckovers for the most vulnerable. I know defending dialup in the age of 8K YouTube sounds ridiculous, but it, like it or not, has purposes, and by removing it in the name of technological advances, you're fucking people over. Analog TV under poor reception was still a picture, albeit snowy. Digital ATSC now has cut off SD devices but even before it did, the signal was either working or it wasn't working, no partial signals. So people in areas like mine were completely unable to use anything besides cable or satellite after June 12th, 2009 when the analog shutoff happened. Basically, as of June 12th, 2009, free TV stopped working for us. Then again even AM/FM doesn't reach us here, it's just static. But at least to a point you can hear stuff when driving to us, but I know a digital signal would have a low duty cycle when hitting us. Sometimes the simplest solution IS the best or even only solution. We may be corner cases, but forgetting about us is bad. Oh and why not factor in diversity and inclusion too: My county has a LOT of Native Americans in it, and Natives in the United States earn less. They are disproportionately affected, and yes, they were victims of interracial marriage bans. Now, the Native Americans in my region largely live in a protected area you can't easily develop due to Protected status on the level of payphones still being in use, so they have to use slow Internet. Why shouldn't they be able to go online? Like, basically, at this point, dialup removal is a DEI issue. If you go to the less-rich part of my nearest city, students at the schools there frequently use school hotspots so they don't have to pay extra for online schooling. And I think the reason why POC on the Internet have it worse off can be partially a result of their very Internet access being harder to get, particularly the type that isn't as conducive for hardcore gaming or content creation. If you gave everyone in the United States free high-speed Internet, I wager there would be a LOT more POC content creators, ones who previously could never have afforded the means to show the Internet what they have to bring to society. Internet access, even 56K, IS a DEI issue, and by doing what they're doing, AOL has in fact pulled a DOGE. In the name of "efficiency", they have fucked over the less-fortunate in the United States. It doesn't get more clear-cut than that. If you use AOL, see if you can find stuff like NetZero or Freeola in your region. Many pay-as-you-go dialup places bill to your phone bill based on the length of the call. Also dialup is why many e-mail clients have "Get Mail" in them, and the reason nobody but me combined X-Face types was because it increased call duration.
Basically, an always-on, high-bandwidth e-mail system is a fairly-new thing and still isn't universal. NetZero and Freeola have other services besides dial-up Internet, including broadband and e-mail. NetZero is USA and Freeola is UK, and as an American I don't know what other regions have. But to anyone reading Fedi on 56K (people have written lightweight clients that allow this), if you HAVE AOL dialup, consider NetZero or do further research while you still can.
Find a dialup provider that suits your needs. Tell your neighbors, especially elderly ones, as well as anyone from marginalized backgrounds you feel should know, as well as any people you know who are low-income. This is also a time for mutual aid to be factored in if you know that someone you are caring for or caring about is going to be negatively affected by this. Support the people in your orbit who will be harmed by this, and see if you can help them find a solution if you can safely do so. If you can't afford any providers, making a mutual aid request as a stopgap is wise while you are still online. If you do end up hosed, call someone trusted, and explain, and ask them what your options are. Even libraries (other than mine of course), public computers (if you can find any), and coffee shops (if possible, also Starbucks isn't the only cafe with WiFi, also see places like Panera and McDonald's if you're truly desperate and they are nearby. Also if at McDonald's, go for a 24-hour one if needed) would work. Remember, I'm saying this as a recommendation. Your situation may call for other things to be done, and that's OK because you may need more help, or you may be only partially or minorly affected. These are just tips on what to do before September ends. It's the end of old-school AOL. I hadn't known it was still around because I was just fortunate enough to not have dialup. Some of my neighbors still might. Also, if they are elderly, DO check in on them and help them find options. You could save a life or more. The Internet as a research tool as intended can and has saved many lives. If you keep the AOL changes from stranding someone offline, you can potentially prevent a tragedy beyond just job or DEI effects. Never be afraid to do the right thing. Save 56K!
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:@2something@transfem.social The explicit doujinshi sector is VERY big on writing saucy manga about trying to fix the birth rate in Japan no matter the ethical cost. I wish I was joking
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:@2something@transfem.social Like, seriously, the stuff can be QUITE objectionable, like, to levels that are beyond any form of coherence. Honestly, I'm surprised a LOT of translators aren't traumatized by what people pay them to translate due to their subject matter. And most of the people commissioning this shit are of course either anonymous or using a throwaway handle, at least from what I've heard about. And yes, some of the relevant shit is about fixing the birthrate through means that ain't exactly ethical or even for that matter sensible. Best hope is voluntary benefit programs, and well, the worst is just quite sick and wrong. Take your pick of reasons why.
The pronatalists out there are thus not people to engage with if you at all value rational thought, tact, and common sense.
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:I'm in the middle of a phone upgrade and as such I can't work on SF2s right now, and university beckons soon, so my apologies for ANOTHER summer of delay, but that foolish renovation and being stuck with privacy-invading likely-bigots completely fucked shit up, and I'll be talking with my friends about the mess that this summer was, and try to find non-math time to do my shit. It's a circus.
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:Well, Unicode approved some Unicode 18 characters, and in the time since I last checked, some more characters were put in the "future version" stuff. So the whole "if less than X are added, one more bump is possible" may not happen unless some get delayed. So my original forecast may or may not change. I'll keep y'xll posted on how it goes for UnifontEX.
stgiga (they/them) :polygender_verify:For those not in the know, I hold a few niche world records.
https://stgiga.github.io/stgiga2.xface and https://stgiga.github.io/stgiga2.face and its render https://stgiga.github.io/TallFace.gif are my record-setting most-complex X-Face (and Face) header, a format used in the 1990s and 2000s to store a picture in the MIME headers of e-mails. I'm most likely the only person who mixed modes because some considered too-large sizes to be a nuisance. So it's an impressive but BAD record that at best only applies today if Fedi or Discourse add X-Face-el and Face support as options for avatars or banners if using beyond-48x48, called "multi".
I also hold the record for most-complex VTF spray in Source 1 games, at https://stgiga.github.io/gigaware/shinymew.vtf which uses ALL features. It's HD (512x512), it is animated (3 frames), distance-fading (all 5 levels contain a unique 3-frame animation, and the invisible 16x16 mipmap is populated), and it has a transparent background. And it just clears the 512KiB limit of Source 1 sprays by the thinnest of margins. It is the most complex possible spray, and I think I'm the first person to FULLY max out the VTF format in terms of features. I even made Mew's cry plus the shiny sound into a sound spray for what it's worth. Of course, the spray is a Shiny Mew, a Pokemon that itself is a rare trophy. I own one due to an RNG project I started on ProjectPokemon in 2017, and this Mew is also 6x31IV. So I guess I hold another record. Also last night I on DeviantArt's 25th anniversary gave myself ALL 25 year badges by realizing how they were awarded. And these are just some of many badges, some of them more-or-less being obtainable due to site glitches. I don't know if I hold the DA record but I have WAY too many badges. By adding these 25 badges in a way nobody else figured out, I probably have a MUCH more niche DeviantArt account than I already did. Or at least notable for finding a glitch in DA's 25th Anniversary celebration, which is very funny. I DID share with people how to do it. It may have not been a glitch given people who had gone through multiple accounts via stuff like forgetting how to log in to their old one or such. But I wager I'm the only person to have deliberately obtained ALL 25 badges just because it was possible. Everyone after PST had already gone to bed by the time I did shit. And like with getting the DreamUp badges for lulz, I ironically did NOT machine-generate stuff. The DreamUp was done via 8x16+16x16 pixel art, meanwhile the 25 badges were obtained via the entire render history of my VRChat avatar plus some more-random art shit on my HDD, none of which was AI.
Also I have some badges for contests like the Baseball one which Team didn't post, and I also have another secret badge that wasn't fully announced. I am also one of the few people to get the 2017 anniversary badge after 2017, because DA had accidentally let it be available before Eclipse force. I didn't get the 2010 one because I didn't have a machine with IE and Flash until after DA went Eclipse, but the 25th badges are a good compromise. Due to uni getting Valentine's Day badges before the current system of them being award-based wasn't possible or I couldn't do it or such. But I have multiple other heart-shaped badges so it's fine, not to mention I dislike pink and my love life has been a mess.
Ah well, I'm a record-holder in the most niche possible ways, even SF2s and TTFs.
