Remote

Matt Wilcox

@mattwilcox@mstdn.social

mastodon 4.7.2

Middle aged white guy trying to become less ignorant over time.

Professional:
I build websites the "traditional" way. I’ve been building them for ~20yrs. Progressive Enhancement, HTML/CSS/JS, and accessible practices will always be core to quality work. Frameworks come and go.

Personal:
If I'm not looking back at my younger self and cringing a little, I stopped growing. I don't want to stop growing, so I've become comfortable with cringing.

1015 Followers

323 Following

50 Posts

Joined April 25, 2022

Pronouns:

He/Him

Website:

https://mattwilcox.net

GitHub:

https://github.com/mattwilcox

Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

There's a world out there where the same AI tooling got here ethically, and was implemented ethically, and is used ethically. And it'd still have a ton of problems, but it'd also still have it's benefits. And *none of us would be worried about it*. Because it's not the tech that's the problem. It's who's running it, and how, and what they're doing with it. What wearies me is looking more broadly, it feels like the west is just crumbling from weakly implemented, exploited, democratic systems.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

How in hell did we ever build mechanical watches.

No. Really.

Look at that.

That's just ridiculous.

https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

I feel like I'm being punched in the gut by the spirit of The Web That Was.

https://appalachia.monster

I can not remember the last time I visited a site that *had its own audio* option.

Where did all our playfulness go? When did the wander and whimsy die?

[edit: why am I not surprised that Safari is shitting the bed for me with increasing lag though?]

appalachia.monster

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

As a counterpoint: there's still plenty of good out there. At core, all people want the same thing - security, comfort, and the same for the people they love. The very few people that don't are *extremely rare* outliers. And it's those things that will always be core to people. It's those things that are foundational. There are a ton of people doing community building, right now. Being selfless. It's just lower down the chain. Our *systems* are the problem. Our *scale* is the problem.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

"Maybe we should stop trying to use AI for all sorts of everything everywhere?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ek3gvdnj3o

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I strongly urge any sci-fi fan to watch it. Almost any fan of good drama would enjoy if they can "get past the silly". B5 is what DS9 stole from. B5 is a precursor to the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. It had a few "dodgy" episodes in the first season where studio execs had to be placated with "but you should be startrek one off episods!" but those pass quickly.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I'm evolved to be chilling with a small group of friends and family, doing a little hunting, mostly going on walks and seeing pretty landscapes and eating off the plants as I go. The most stressful thing is supposed to be seeing a wolf in the distance - there, and gone. Over in a minute, and back to normal. Not... this psychological hellscape we seem to have manufactured for ourselves. Isolated within crowds, everything an uncertainty, little in our control, too much to know and understand.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Most people: "Isn't it stupid how those politicians surround themselves with Yes Men? God they're so stupid. How ignorant! You know nothing, but as long as those yes men say yes you think you're smart - idiot!"

Same people, but AI users: "I asked my Yes Machine and it said I'm very smart and suggested you are wrong!"

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@katemorley “The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legends. Legends fade to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the age that gave it birth comes again”

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

And it'd be easy to say the trite "capitalism" blame. But there aren't any better alternatives. History has tried them all. We haven't got to anything better (and by better I mean more fair) yet. But sure as shit, it's crumbling and dying at the moment, as it's being morphed into something else. In the end, the issue is that all systems are exploitable and all systems lean to concentrated power. It's the rate of it that makes the difference, and how realistic it is to change.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@annaecook@mastodon.social It’s weird and creepy. I am *really* surprised Apple are targeting this use case too. They seem…blissfully unaware of the creepy of it.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Never berate your past self. Do not have regrets that you “could have done better”.

That is wrong, factually. Be kind to yourself.

Your past self *has always* made the best choices they could with the knowledge and circumstances they had at the time.

No one is ever choosing to make a second best option. Everyone is choosing to do what makes most sense right at that moment.

Never berate your past self for not being in better circumstances. Which is the ONLY way they might have done better.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Mastodon It’s not the geography language. It’s the corpo speak. *And* the default American. Last I looked, mastodon is strong EU and less so America. This stuff rings in ways I suspect Americans don’t realise.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

Huh, and I just discovered Vivaldi has an RSS reader built in.

Man I am still sad about Google Reader.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

The iPhone Fold should be the size of an iPhone 5.

Have you held an old iPhone 5 recently?

It is *far* nicer as an object than any iPhone since. It’s just small.

I think given today’s tech; with a fold; you could redo that chassis without the compromise of a small screen.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Can you imagine if we had some free source of energy that could supply the whole nation and was impossible to blockade or restrict?

Can you imagine if that was also cheaper than all other fuels? With current tech?

It’s almost as though renewable energy is a matter of national security; and its constant derision by fossil fuel industries was entirely about their loss of profit if we switched.

Can you imagine if we’d actually built the infra instead of get cucked by big business?

Imagine!

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Huh. We got some Babylon 5 enjoyers over here in Mastodon I see.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

RE: @Mastodon@mastodon.social

What is happening?

"Product"? "Fall"?

Oh this makes me feel bad about this platform.

The value to me in Mastodon is it is/was just like the old web: not corporate, not American defaults. Not chasing go-fast for the sake of growth or whatever. It is/was people doing things because it was the right thing to do, and fun.

I loath seeing corporate language and ideology invade these spaces. I've seen what it leads to.

mastodon.social

Mastodon: "You heard it here first: Mastodon 5.0 (eta Oct-De…" - Mastodon

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@sarajw@front-end.social "10x" isn't supposed to mean 10x the effort to get to the same place, Claude.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

What possible protections would work if there were legally mandated "proof of ages" companies had to keep - along with all the tracking info they already keep - and then one bad politician in one bad party got into power? What are they then able to do with that data? At this rate: feed it to AI, to tag people they don't like. Risky people. People to "dissuade". Every politician thinks the worst won't happen. Hitler's & Trumps happen anyway. Don't give the next maniac a data mine to use.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@sarajw@front-end.social Glad to hear you’re in a better place with it now :) It’s not always easy. The odd thing for me is realising that even the assholes I see are doing their best. Which doesn’t stop them being assholes or me being angry at them - but does make me re-frame my own gut reaction of“attack the asshole” to “what’s making being an asshole the best choice they have right now?”. Because if I can work that out I can more effectively change/engage/impact them.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

It's too late in my timezone for me to watch live - but Matt Mercer (Critical Role) is running a one-shot game of Daggerheart in an hour and a half to raise money for Make a Wish.

Players are Ironmouse, Connor (as Bubi), AiCandii, Kairyu Crocodile (better known as Jaiden Animations), and Tim Downie.

It'll be live here: https://twitch.tv/ironmouse

4pm PT

Please consider watching to support the cause, and donating if you vibe with it.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

“I have a good rebuttal to that opinion”

…

“But fuck it, I can not be bothered”

-2026

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@anarodrigues Aww, bless 😆

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@sinituulia@eldritch.cafe *stares at three bottles of vitamins on my bedside cabinet that have been there, invisible, for many weeks, until right now* shiiiiiiiii

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

I miss TV like this, sort of. You can get similar on YouTube if you're lucky.

But the idea of "your local ironmonger" ... boy how times have changed in 40yrs or so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev8qMqLnu_w&t=50s

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@arcadiagt5@mstdn.social To me it's just "old out of touch man doesn't listen to advisors, because he fired all his competent advisors" Battleships? Aircraft carriers? In 2026? Bitch it's all about drones. Far cheaper, far more effective. A ship? Sinkable in one good hit and billions of $ down the pisser. He's thinking like the Brits did right before Aircraft carriers made almost our whole navy obsolete inside a decade. The tools have changed. Why not build a nice wooden sail ship as well @quixoticgeek@social.v.st

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

I'm not sure SoupyTime likes being called Subie Time, YouTube AI.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

And now I discover Layna Lazaar used to work at Weta Workshop?

These people are so cool.

Michi: Fashion designer with pieces worn by movie stars.
Layna: Weta Workshop
Froggy: CG artist on multiple movies
Mouse: trained coloratura opera singer
Geega: lots of varied and high up tech stuff
EllieMinibot: robotics engineer
Matara; speaks 4 languages fluently
Starlight Daryl: Composer for orchestras
Bubi (ok, Connor); Welsh voice actor

etc etc etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlmCGsqluxo

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@saramg “Magical”

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@db Call me crazy, but The Guardian seems *just a little* shifty with JS like this... PS: glad to see the article content. This is what needs to happen. AI is just whitewashing of responsibility, and it needs to stop. This is the only way that'll happen.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Michi drops the whimsy and gets real to talk about suicidal ideation as part of thanking everyone during her 2yr anniversary stream. Mouse in chat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlCOxMA1R0E

The compassion and community in the vTuber space is so insanely high.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

That's some great roleplay from Mouse and Connor actually, lol!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m3g0-XGlP0

(Mouse IRL adores Cinnomaroll. Connor has bought her hundreds over the years. Connor is playing Bubi. The back-and-forth between "Connor" and "Bubi" is genius. This is a snippet from a charity event where they play some DnD)

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Once again I am enraged by Mona 7 and it forcing markdown as i write. No. Fuck off. I do not want you “formatting” my in-progress writing. You ARE WRONG, and I can’t fix it in this UI. Because you mangle it every time I write it.

⁃ This is not what I typed. I typed a hyphen and a space. Stop making “lists” that I have not wanted to be lists. Stop adjusting my raw typing.

It’s been months. Still broken.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

YouTube, please, how many times do I have to mark “not interested” in any video even touching on Anginete du dick-nose band? Please stop suggesting it. Please. It’s as bad as punk.

I want my music artists to concentrate on *doing music* and not some other performative bullshit. I have zero interest in musicians that aren’t first and foremost *trying to do music*. I give zero shits about irony, or politics, or visual art, as the “main driver” in *music*.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@amber I am very sorry. I wish I could banish it from my YouTube feed also.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

Love waking up from a dream where there was someone in my room and I knew it, but couldn’t force myself to wake up to catch them despite trying hard, feeling like I was paralysed. And that room was my bedroom from 20yrs ago.

Love it. Not stressful and disorientating at all.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

https://www.twitch.tv/bajiru_EN

She's live, opened with a song she *just wrote* in 20min, and proceeded to make chat cry with it.

The woman is pure unfiltered soul expressed as music. It's insane.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

- Mouse sings during the cyclethon, raising money for the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
- There have been 5 years of cyclethon's; the last three, she's tried not to repeat any songs, and to do a song for every 5k donated.
- These are all the times she sang La Camisa Negra live during the cycling; but synced together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNyDwhxt2lI

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Bajiru is practicing Rachmaninoff, 'Vocalise' Op. 34 No.14.

She's heard it a handful of times, it's a request to cover from Lesage.

She has no formal training. She knows no music theory.

She's sitting on her chair, with her leg up, while singing this.

She's **so good** that after a few minutes of practice listening and imitating, her VOD gets muted because her isolated practice vocal seems to have hit a DRM content match.

This woman is *insanely* skilled.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2749889542?t=6h2m6s

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

And my pre-RICG solution is still there in the archive... https://adaptive-images.com

Man. Memories.

we need a W3C backed mark-up level solution for when we need to supply semantically different content at different resolutions, not just re-scaled versions of the same content, as Adaptive Images does

adaptive-images.com

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@afilina @Mastodon It’s used everywhere, and it’s used here because it’s the right word. But the people that use it are largely top-down corpo people. This isn’t about one word. This is about overall tone and patterns. And the mismatch between that and the space Mastodon is. I would hope that they want to know when they come off totally wrong for the space they’re in.

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

What is this creepy ass toxic shit advert?
Why can I not block it?
Why am I seeing it?

If it’s not this it’s the weird as fuck AI tai-chi shit with the “my father is old but could he benefit Mr Obviously AI over-buff instructor man with long hair?”

Who *falls for* this absolute ass?

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 2mo ago

Yesterday I went for a walk with family. The nice pub we could've had lunch at? Closed for the day. After, I drove a few miles to the old chinese takeaway, to treat myself. It is closed for holidays.

Today I went to my fav coffee shop. It's closed until Wednesday. I thought I'd try a different one. Also Cclosed today.

This evening I thought I'd try the chinese up the road... it's closed until Thursday.

The *hell* is going on?!

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Matt Wilcox @mattwilcox@mstdn.social

· 5mo ago

The onions. So many onion cutters. Such great people.

Watch as antidote to the news. Feel good about humanity for a bit; watch this.

Connor and his friends have now raised a total of $5.5 million for the Immune Deficiency Foundation in the last few years.

Mouse has seen it go from literally "a support group of maybe 200 people, total. There was no info about CVID for me to find at the time, it was terrifying" to this.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2753119594?t=5h18m35s

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