Thomas Michael Semmler

Hi hello yes, I am a Developer focused on #a11y, HTML & CSS. Very queer, radical faerie 🏳️‍🌈. Musician and systemic psychosocial counsellor.

Follow me for *copious* amounts of complaining, especially about JavaScript bros, „husbands and fathers“, and the webs industrialization.

I am a strong enthusiast for the Web Platform, and what it stands for: openness, accessibility, empowerment, de-marginalisation.

I sometimes blog on my website.

Website: https://helloyes.dev
SVG Patterns: https://patterns.helloyes.dev

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Last Notes

2024-08-24 17:17:17

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casting the discourse about diagnostic stigma aside for this

2024-08-24 17:16:53

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I cannot agree or disagree with that because I consider medical doctors to be the inappropriate profession to address psychiatric disorders like ADHD in general.

2024-08-24 10:58:33

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im so sorry for your loss 🫂

2024-08-24 10:50:44

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as a queer person I have learned a few years ago, traversing lots of spaces where community and healing is intended to happen, that only an emphatic yes must be considered consent. Everything else is a no and an expression of boundary. So I consider a clear „no“ to be a compliment.

2024-08-24 10:48:10

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I get what you’re saying but I think it’s commendable to say that. As a counselor I am educated in lots of psychological and psychiatric topics. But I am only an expert for helpful conversation, not interpreting the DSM or the ICD.
What I’m trying to say is that I don’t see anything wrong with defining a boundary like this. Especially in this specific space, the adhd space, where there are lots and lots and lots of people actively attempting to exploit people.

2024-08-24 10:36:09

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2024-08-22 15:11:56

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I won't be doing that one in quite some time though. Doing it just once is enough to get a really accurate measurement for your heart rate zones. And I repeated it a year after, because I implemented really strict zone 2 runs and I wanted to see if it actually _worked_. Now that I know it does, I don't see a reason to repeat it that soon. But in a few years probably!

2024-08-22 15:10:19

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I think that is a spirometry test or a vo2 max test, right?
This one cost me € 190, last year it was just € 160, but inflation, I guess.

2024-08-22 15:07:30

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I hear you. Conversations like these help though, because when I started running I ran all my long runs, meaning 3+ hours up to 24km at a heart rate of 165+. Nowadays I clearly know that this is too much, but I didn't back then. I listened to my body and it felt _fine_. Just because I was so happy with myself for being able to do it. It was only after I suddenly woke up at the hospital with amnesia from fainting after a long run, that I learned, just listening is not enough.

2024-08-22 15:03:35

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that is to say, I don't subjectively experience progress by attending races, not unless there is a lot of training with lots of time in between. The lactate test estimates that what I can maximally achieve for a 5k right now is 29 minutes. Considering that I already run it at 30 minutes, the risk of experiencing failure is much greater.
I run to become more fitter, healthier, to run more and farther and faster. So races are bad reasons for me.

2024-08-22 15:00:46

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I must emphasise that I find little reason to book a race, besides 5ks, which I already run at 30 mins. For anything else I fear I am just too heavy yet.
Simply because I am too slow to run a half in a good time and I already know that I can doo this distance because I've ran it in training several times - and because I most definitely cannot run a full without serious danger to myself.
Races are not good motivators to me, especially when my goals are more capability focussed

2024-08-22 14:57:28

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I honestly find at least the garmin suggestions really weird. It often suggests very, very odd workouts to me. It has never suggested a workout to me that is longer than 01hr 15mins, even though I regularly run close to three hours, really strange.

2024-08-22 14:53:16

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that's what this diagnostic was really helpful for too, to be able to accurately determine my easy effort zone. I've done really strict zone 2 runs for a year now and it has measurably improved my fitness

2024-08-22 13:59:09

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it feels intense but good. It tires my muscles, which usually doesn't happen any more unless I run for longer than 2 hours

2024-08-22 13:58:29

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The specific intent, according to the professional, was to add a polarised training effect. I already ran 5x350 to up to 7x700 intervals before, so he specificy told me to choose very, very very small intervals of 20-30 seconds but instead do an all out effort, not a 75%/80% effort, but a close to maximum effort

2024-08-22 13:56:26

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I made a mistake there, I'll edit it. It's supposed to be "lactate", a functional lactate diagnostic. One runs on a treadmill with increasing intensity and periodically, a tiny drop of blood is taken and its lactate is measured. That way, a correlation between lactate, pace/intensity and heart rate can be established, this is my recent test: https://indieweb.social/@nachtfunke/112767616020454065 - quite insightful!

2024-08-22 13:35:58

I'm gonna block everyone who makes a "Both sides are equally bad" argument from now on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fEkiXtyblk

2024-08-22 13:18:56

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to just go further and faster. I started running two years ago and the most I've run at once was 24km. I've lost lots of weight but there still lots to go. Eventually I wanna run the full marathon distance, but that is a 10 year goal kinda thing for me

2024-08-22 10:45:50

Heyo runners, I am looking for ideas / advice. After my latest lactate diagnostic, I was advised to go all in on polarised training. One of my three running days is usually an interval training, in which I ran at higher intensity for up to 700 meters. Instead, I'm supposed to go all out for 30 seconds.
So now I do 8x for :30, with a "rest" at regular intensity for 01:00 in between each interval. I've been doing that for a month now and I wonder how to progress correctly.
#running

2024-08-21 17:14:50

I love that it is mid August and clothing stores have already stopped selling bathing clothes

2024-08-19 17:52:40

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that is a perfect analogy

2024-08-19 17:11:28

i'm sorry this is such a basic question, but now do I handle plugins that export with module.exports in #eleventy 3.0 ESM?

2024-08-18 11:34:35

woke up with positioning vertigo again. Since my accident last year this has been a constant in my life. I go months without anything and then some weird movements, often happening in my sleep, triggers it again and for a few days I cannot move my head in certain positions without getting immediate, aggressive vertigo accompanied by violent nausea.

2024-08-16 18:38:15

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not just that but it seems that the UI is also downloaded from the web, because every time I access the downloads page when I’m offline it shows me a spinner lol

2024-08-16 14:25:20

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also, I attempted to google anything about the pencil tool but to no surprise, it is entirely ungoogleable

2024-08-16 14:24:41

My #sketch torture continues. I wanna draw smooth and continuous lines with the pencil tool, and it converts them into wobbly harsh lines. I want to draq wobbly and harshly, it converts it into smooth curves.
what even
https://cdn.masto.host/indiewebsocial/media_attachments/files/112/971/680/645/440/777/original/640016fca5b6d2b1.mp4

2024-08-16 14:15:15

Working with #sketch is so finicky and often super illogical. I can drag the icon out and it will, for some god damn reason, retain its size. Which is what I don't want. I want it to resize. I can drag it in its group order, but if I want it to resize, I have to delete it. Which is just so stupid.
https://cdn.masto.host/indiewebsocial/media_attachments/files/112/971/641/192/221/918/original/0a99aebe611954d5.mp4

2024-08-14 19:00:10

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that part

2024-08-14 13:43:36

Today's weather is: Flames, Flames - on the side of my face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raf5JdFecPQ

2024-08-14 11:17:15

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All valid arguments. But I am not sure if trust the authority of a device that is entirely managed by google or apple. I'd rather be able to manage this myself.
Eventually I may adopt, but I find the aggressive push by some companies too fishy right now. That is to say, I distrust it at the moment. I trust a strong password more.
And I do regularly change passwords.

2024-08-14 11:15:05

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> do you blindly trust random websites
I must say I find this quite offensive. Not sure if you intended it to phrase like that. But not-using passkeys must automatically mean that I blindly trust random websites? What?
How about we don't make users responsible for the failures of companies or governance. I already use super secure passwords. If the website exposes my passwords that does not make it my fault, like wtf. Passkeys are still somewhat new and I generally wait to adopt.

2024-08-14 09:15:10

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I don't know what "getting popped" means.
I use 1Password to generate and manage passwords. I use 2FA wherever it is offered to me though.

2024-08-14 09:08:37

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I don't, I see little reason for it

2024-08-13 17:06:06

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This specific nuance that comes so natural to you is entirely erased in the call for global design systems, because the argument that wants designers to not spend time designing these basal interactions is the same argument that will be used to discriminate against people.
"We can't make it accessible, we don't have access to the code there. This just comes out of the library as is."

2024-08-13 17:04:36

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and then we have the call for a global design system, with exactly these arguments. "Why should designers cost lots of money to companies to design cards and accordions?". https://shoptalkshow.com/601/

2024-08-13 17:03:06

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absolutely - yet even in this story, there is room for the needs of the context. The moment we decide what is "solved" is the moment we remove the ability to take the needs of context into consideration.
Influencers do not suggest falling back to system UI elements. They do not care about this. They suggest going with a library, not because of quality, but because designers mustn't concern themselves with this. Now what happens when that library fails users?

2024-08-13 16:47:15

Whenever some Design Influencer says that "you don't want designers to redesign toggle switches, right? We've already solved that" I have to think of Tables, Stools, Forks, Light-Switches, Handlebars, Bike-Seats. We've "solved" these, haven't we? Yet somehow people still design new ones.

2024-08-12 16:18:26

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which users do you not care about?

2024-08-12 08:49:27

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here's what it should have done:
Pick the closest weight setting of the font I am choosing if an exact match cannot be found.
If you cannot figure out this, at least it should have prompted me with "the font you're trying to choose does not support the weight you have adjusted" or smth like this, then I would have known immediately what was going on.
Be empathic and understand the situation as much as you can, but if that is not possible, inform users so that they fix it themselves at least.

2024-08-12 08:47:18

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I did eventually find out what the issue here is. And you will never guess it, because that is either bad programming or a lack of basic UX consideration.
The text there is using a variable font and it uses an odd number, 725 for its weight. And because I am attempting to switch to a font that doesn't have that weight, it just won't let me.
If you make a #ui like this, and you don't have it in your brain to do it properly, at least inform users that what they're trying to cannot be done.

2024-08-12 08:42:32

Great, I just wanted to use only one font family anyway. Who needs to switch fonts in a design tool? Nobody!
#sketch
https://cdn.masto.host/indiewebsocial/media_attachments/files/112/947/686/515/932/270/original/123c1df6060701e5.mp4

2024-08-10 09:15:27

Im on a regional train to a hike and the English com goes „on demand stop. Please press the requesht stop button if you wish to get off“
I don’t even know where to start. With the requesht? The get off?
#austria #english

2024-08-09 18:23:30

The Taylor swift concert may have been cancelled but my Grindr is still on fire from all the „visiting“ in vienna
#gay

2024-08-09 16:01:35

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I have and I really dislike it. I'm keeping watch of it but I'm afraid this has some more years to go before it becomes usable. It is without a doubt the best alternative to come, but it's also still really awful. I don't wanna expand on why, but let's just say I spent an hour attempting to do simple things and just wasn't able to.

2024-08-09 15:45:45

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that's it. That part.

2024-08-09 15:42:39

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working as intended, I'm sure you are aware

2024-08-09 15:18:28

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This feels much less like software intended to make UI with and more like old-day photoshop or fireworks. I hate Figma with a passion. It's an evil company and it will not hesitate even a second when it sees an opportunity to extract business value. But it really does better understand how designers think about UI than #sketch. I am really disappointed right now and I honestly regret my purchase.
But I just don't want to pay for a subscription anymore, I just can't.

2024-08-09 15:15:37

I've bought a sketch license and I must say this product has not aged well.
I still cannot group things and just add a background to the group.
I cannot tell an element to expand to its full available constraint width.
I cannot add paddings to groups.
Alignment sometimes just... doesn't work.
Resizing a group is so unbelievably weird. If you have a group and you resize it, it makes it bigger and moves its origin point along as it resizes. Meaning it will slowly _move_ away from its position

2024-08-09 11:19:00

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new pseudoselector dropped

2024-08-08 20:17:59

I can’t believe #umbrellaacademy just casually starts with Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally in the intro

2024-08-07 20:55:29

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omg I am so excited to see you here

2024-08-05 13:24:38

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love this article you shared. This is UX working as intended. We used to call it usability, where we indeed prioritised how usable something was. But when it was rebranded to "user experience", it was sold to companies as to what benefits it could have to companies to focus on usability. Thus user experience is now measured by how it benefits companies, not how usable something is.
UX nowadays means User Exploitation.

2024-08-05 10:44:32

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these are not concerns for the way that most companies do design systems & component libraries. Components and design systems are not done to ensure better quality, they exist to sell the promise of scalability.
The premise is that you can define once and delivery everywhere from a single point of origin and a streamlined pipeline. That is what constitutes a properly working design system. Nowhere is quality or accessibility a marker of success or failure in this promise.

2024-08-05 10:01:14

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and you can even see this narrative in the language that design ops (etc.) uses. Design System components are consumed.

2024-08-05 09:59:43

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these primitives are often still packaged so that a relationship between the code and the developers can be established, that makes them "consume" the provided code. Developers must be downgraded to consumers because they mustn't be able to make certain decisions.
Not because they are unable, but because they are workers who must execute a managers will primarily.

2024-08-04 21:48:20

Note to myself: yes you will regret subway

2024-08-04 19:55:37

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but then again I am also severely disillusioned with this industry and have become very cynical.

2024-08-04 19:54:50

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I usually find a company is behind such somewhat illogically emergent behavior. When people cannot provide actual reasons, it often means that they’ve adopted it from some tech influencer, usually working for a company capitalizing on whatever business case this artificially creates

2024-08-01 15:41:20

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This topic endlessly fascinates me, because in my opinion, I don't see any reason for repeating myself, when I have the power to avoid it. So I prefer concatenation. But I also heavily rely on BEM and my inner speech that reasons about these things is not "Here I am selecting 'my class thing'", instead it goes "Here I am selecting 'thing' of 'my class'". Does that make sense?
"thing" is an element of "my-class". Concatenation more congruently documents this relationship, imho.

2024-08-01 11:31:06

I am a bit at the end of my rope here. In an #svg element I have another nested svg element. This nested svg element contains a text-element. I am attempting to calculate whether the <text> exceeds its direct parent <svg>, as its contents are changing with user input.
But the problem is that with the growing <text> element, the direct <svg> parent is also growing, regardless of viewbox or width/height or overflow attributes.
But I need it to not grow. What do I do?
#svg #javascript #webdev

2024-08-01 09:29:46

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see in my case, I am getting old, but in your case it may be a sign of stress? 🤣

2024-08-01 09:10:51

There is at least one blogger in my RSS feed who keeps titling their posts with these super pretentious titles that look like they were generated with an AI. They always go like "{concepts} are {thing}". or "{noun}".
After rolling my eyes for over a year at this I finally decided to just unfollow.

2024-08-01 09:06:08

I can't believe it's August already.

2024-07-31 15:15:38

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oh that is fascinating, you may find this also interesting @npub1dgj…m5xf
Thank you for the share! My brain could never come up with stuff like this

2024-07-31 14:59:46

I am facing a somewhat new challenge, which is that I am attempting to calculate a font-sizes with javascript, that will make sure that a user-provided text will always fit a box.
As in, if I just type a single character, it is supposed to be as large as possible and if I type a lot, it is supposed to be as small as necessary to still fit the whole text.
Haven't done something like this before tbh.
#webdev #javascript #css

2024-07-31 09:36:46

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I am not sure if this is a brand-specific issue. It seems more to do with the fact that this is an NTFS SSD, which I just always forget it s a world of pain on MacOS

2024-07-31 09:17:44

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This is really bringing the windows experience to Mac OS. I already had to restart my system 5 times and I can still not use this stupid external SSD

2024-07-31 08:57:14

I bought an external SSD to store some business files and I am losing my shit. Why do I have to install 4 pieces of software, one of which will force me to access the kernel settings just to use a fucking external hard drive?
These products should come with a warning label: Forces you to sacrifice a rare rainbow elven child before use.
What is even happening

2024-07-10 14:57:56

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a Genki Dama!

2024-07-10 14:56:46

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or, today in don’t buy shoes that require software 😅 but obviously you are right.

2024-07-02 16:33:55

isn't it nice that only now, two days after ascending & descending 1300 meters, I remember that I have compression socks that probably would have helped with my sore calves?
I mean the hike was worth it, but my goddess, I couldn't even walk down stairs yesterday lol. I could walk them up, but down? No.
#hiking