things

s18e05 · 28 March 2024

Babel Notices; Our Scientists Recommend We Research Fusion Power; An Unusually Diverse and Complex Technology Estate; Neurodevelopmental Disorders

This issue weaves together reflections on language accessibility, infrastructure fragility, and the gap between good intentions and actual implementation in technology. The author discusses "Babel Notices" (those multilingual legal disclaimers), the urgent need for fusion power as AI's energy demands explode, and a candid British Library report on how chronic underinvestment leaves critical institutions vulnerable—a problem echoing across the entire arts and academic sector. Throughout runs a thread of skepticism about shortcuts and appearance-of-compliance: accessibility overlays that make executives *feel* like they've solved accessibility without real institutional ownership, much like how third-party services promise to check boxes rather than drive genuine change.

1,137 words · 6 min read · 24 links · canonical link · JSON

0.0 Context Setting

Thursday, 28 March, 2024 in Portland Oregon where it is grey and probably raining, but not raining too hard, a kind of listless rain, without too much heart in it because it knows and you know that when you have to do something every day, every single day, then some days you don’t have to put everything in to it, you just need to show up and nod, or in this case, sprinkle some water, and you have an unspoken agreement that that’s enough and that’s okay.

For my shame, I finally got around to reading Octavia E. Butler for the first time and finished her Lilith’s Brood trilogy the other day. And fuck me if that wasn’t... well, saying “all the things” feels like it would be dishonoring such a tremendous writer.

0.1 Events: Hallway Track, and Pulling the Cord

Hallway Track is still on hiatus.

Pulling the Cord, my plain-speaking guide to stopping traditional technology procurement, before it leaves the station, is having its next test on Wednesday, 10 April, 2024 at 11am PT.

If you wanted to come to the first one and missed it, this is your chance.

I’ve had great feedback from the first cohort; some that validated hunches, and some that very helpfully brought up new issues and needs.

Changes I’m making for this test include:

  • Making clearer the specific context and situation in which the talk example is used

  • Pulling out what can be said as an external consultant and translating that to what can be said by a civil servant

  • Showing how tools of persuasion in the talk example can be used at different stages, or contexts, like RFP development or more informal settings

So: that’s Wednesday 10 April, 11am PT, with 15 spaces at a ~90% testing discount to gather feedback.

1.0 Some Things That Caught My Attention

1.1 Babel Notices

A Babel Notice[1] is the notice Americans might have seen that tells you that the incomprehensible, complicated, stressful language you just received in the post or in a PDF, is also available in another language. I just love the name for this. Now I’m thinking about Rosetta Notices and more.

1.2 Our Scientists Recommend We Research Fusion Power

When I read reports like AI Will Suck Up 500% More Power in UK in 10 Years, Grid CEO Says[2] I suddenly have the feeling like I need to make sure I achieve the Fusion Power[3] advancement in Civilization II and then have to spam better power generation all over the place.

1.3 An Unusually Diverse and Complex Technology Estate

Via The Register[4], the British Library’s report[5] (PDF) into the devastating cyber-attack [sic, forever, because “cyber”] sustained on 28 October last year. What caught my attention about this report is how candid it is and how it doesn’t pull any punches. What makes me sad about this report is that even given its exposure of chronic underinvestment and lack of attention paid to infrastructure that is now obviously critical to the function and the point of the British Library’s existence, the ability of executive management to concentrate and follow-through on its recommendations. Never mind getting the money for it (ha!) but that point of following through. The other thing about this report is that it’s representative of pretty much the entire academic and arts sector, I bet. So that might help some people.

1.4 Neurodevelopmental Disorders

In 2020, accessiBe launched the third version of their... accessibility-as-a-service, er service? I saw it recently because some site I was on had their accessibility bug and I tried to get rid of it. What caught my attention was a toggle for an ADHD Friendly Profile:

ADHD Friendly Profile - this profile significantly reduces distractions and noise, to help people with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders [sic] browse, read, and focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.[6]

My emphasis on the neurodeveopmental disorder description there.

It’s interesting! I wonder if it works! One thing I did notice, and had no idea whether it was a bug or not, was a filter on the page changing the color profile of all the images. Which, I thought was a bit weird for a site where you were looking at pictures of things you might buy.

accessiBe itself has been criticized for making it easy for operators to think they’ve checked off accessibility requirements which is true. But to do accessibility properly also requires ownership, and a third party service with good marketing can often gloss over the ownership part and say “yeah, you can totally “do accessibility” by just paying a monthly fee. That isn’t good! But it is also a something? Somethings can also be good but also less good! How complicated. Another way to think about this, I suppose, is that accessiBe is an assistive technology for executives to help them deal with accessibility requirements and feel better about themselves. Sorry, that last bit was mean.

1.5 And finally,

Here is a List of Train Songs[7], because I accidentally found that Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, and Ben Stiller performed Midnight Train to Georgia with Gladys Knight[8] as part of the promotion of acclaimed documentary Tropic Thunder, back in 2008.

OK, that’s it for today. How are you doing? How have you been?

Best,

Dan

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  1. Babel notice Definition | Law Insider (archive.is) ↩︎

  2. AI Will Suck Up 500% More Power in UK in 10 Years, Grid CEO Says | Data Center Knowledge | News and analysis for the data center industry (archive.is), via Bloomberg, DataCenter Knowledge, 27 March, 2024 ↩︎

  3. Fusion Power (Civ2) | Civilization Wiki | Fandom (archive.is) ↩︎

  4. British Library’s legacy IT blamed for lengthy rebuild • The Register (archive.is), Connor Jones, The Register, 11 March, 2024 ↩︎

  5. Learning Lessons from the Cyber-Attack; British Library cyber incident review, British Library, 8 March, 2024 ↩︎

  6. Announcing the all-new accessiBe 3.0! - accessiBe (archive.is) ↩︎

  7. List of train songs - Wikipedia (archive.is) ↩︎

  8. Gladys Knight and The Pips: Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black and Ben Stiller - YouTube (archive.is) ↩︎