Link tags: union

React, Electron, and LLMs have a common purpose: the labour arbitrage theory of dev tool popularity – Baldur Bjarnason

An insightful and incisive appraisal of technology adoption. This truth hits hard:

React and the component model standardises the software developer and reduces their individual bargaining power excluding them from a proportional share in the gains. Its popularity among executives and management is entirely down to the fact that it helps them erase the various specialities – CSS, accessibility, standard JavaScript in the browser, to name a few – from the job market. Those specialities might still exist in practice – as ad hoc and informal requirements during teamwork – but, as far as employment is concerned, they’re such a small part of the overall developer job market that they might as well be extinct.

Facing reality, whether it’s about Apple or the EU, is a core requirement for good management – Baldur Bjarnason

The EU is not the FCC. I wish every American tech pundit would read and digest this explainer before writing their thinkpieces.

It’s very common for US punditry to completely misunderstand the EU and analyse it as if it were a US political entity – imagining that its actions are driven by the same political and social dynamics as a protectionist industry within the US.

Apple backs off killing web apps, but the fight continues - Open Web Advocacy

Hallelujah! Apple have backed down on their petulant plan to sabatoge homescreen apps.

I’m very grateful to the Open Web Advocacy group for standing up to this bullying.

Home Screen Advantage - Infrequently Noted

This is exactly what it looks like: a single-fingered salute to the web and web developers.

Read Alex’s thorough explanation of the current situation and then sign this open letter.

Cupertino’s not just trying to vandalise PWAs and critical re-engagement features for Safari; it’s working to prevent any browser from ever offering them on iOS. If Apple succeeds in the next two weeks, it will cement a future in which the mobile web will never be permitted to grow beyond marketing pages for native apps.

Also, remember this and don’t fall for it:

Apple apparently hopes it can convince users to blame regulators for its own choices.

Manton Reece - Apple is twisting the truth

When it benefits Apple, they take the DMA requirements much further than intended. When it doesn’t benefit them, they lean back on the “integrity” of iOS and barely comply at all.

A holy communion | daverupert.com

You and I are partaking in something magical.

Pluralistic: Tech workers and gig workers need each other (13 Jan 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Ever wondered why you’re always being encouraged to download the app?

But zero percent of app users have installed an ad-blocker, because they don’t exist, because you’d go to prison if you made one. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to add an ad-blocker to it.

You Deserve a Tech Union, A Book Apart

Coming soon—Ethan’s next book is exactly what the tech industry needs right now.

Tech workers—designers, engineers, writers, and many others—have learned that when they stand together, they’re poised to build a better version of the tech industry.

Office politics: A working letter

Here’s the thing: we need politics in the workplace. Politics—that is, the act of negotiating our relationships and obligations to each other—is critical to the work of building and sustaining democracy. And the workplace isn’t separate from democracy—it is democracy. It is as much a part of the democratic system as a neighborhood association or a town council, as a library or youth center or food bank. By the very nature of the outsized role that work plays in our lives, it’s where most of us have the potential to make the biggest impact on how we—and our families and communities—live.

Mandy, as always, hits the nail on the head.

When we talk about politics belonging outside the workplace, we reduce democracy to an extracurricular instead of a core part of our lives. Democracy cannot be sustained by annual visits to the ballot box—it isn’t something we have, it’s something we practice. Like all things that require practice, if you don’t practice it often, you lose it.

The World-Wide Work. — Ethan Marcotte

Here’s the transcript of Ethan’s magnificent closing talk from New Adventures. I’m pretty sure this is the best conference talk I’ve ever had the honour of seeing.

Design’s Lost Generation – Mike Monteiro – Medium

Mike pours his heart out on Ev’s blog.

I’m not entirely sure if I agree with him about licensing or certification for designers (and developers?), but I absolutely 100% agree on the need for unionisation.

We need to be held accountable for our actions. We’ve been moving fast. We’ve been breaking things. Sometimes on purpose. Sometimes out of ignorance. The effects are the same. The things we’re building are bigger than they used to be, and have more reach. The moment to slow down is here. Because what we’re breaking is too important and too precious. Much of it is irreplaceable.

Body of Christ Tastes Like Ass of Christ!

A new take on an old classic: how to make communion wafers zingier.

CUPE > Canadian Union of Public Employees

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