The Best Of The Internets

Having worked in the D&I space within Microsoft for a few years now, it’s great to see the things we’ve been discussing internally making it out into the world.

It all goes hand-in-hand:

1. Screen in for diverse perspectives during the interview process.
2. Foster inclusive teams that value and promote people for not only their productive capacity, but also their unique experiences & perspectives.
3. Empower everyone to influence product/service design.
4. Release products that serve everyone because those products were created by people who share lived experiences with everyone.

We talk a lot about needing to improve the ethics of our supply chains when it comes to mineral extraction and factory conditions, but we need protections for knowledge workers too!

I have mixed emotions about this move to repurpose the utterly terrifying Boston Dynamics robots as service robots, but there are some upsides too.

• Pro: No waste to clean up & dispose of
• Pro: Can be used by people with allergies
• Pro: Has no mouth, will never bite
• Pro: People are less likely to try to pet/distract your service robot
• Pro: Can likely be trained (or sensor-enabled) to recognize more objects and scenarios than a dog can (or at least the specific breeds we employ as service animals)
• Pro: Would be of service for someone’s lifetime (and beyond) if maintained properly
• Pro: Knowledge & personality (if there is one) can be migrated to a new robot if the current one breaks
• Questionable: Potentially less costly to own, assuming power & maintenance is less than the US$1000-2000/yr it costs to own the average dog
• Con: Far more expensive upfront
• Con: Unlikely to be a companion in nearly the same way (though robots with personality is something folks are working on)
• Con: Not warm or furry

My latest article is a part of the HTMHell Advent Calendar and takes you through all the ins and outs of form controls used to enable people to choose one option from many: select, input[type=radio], and input[list].

Amazingly deep article on CSS blend modes. Incredible work from Ana Tudor.

If you were a fan of quantity queries, you’re going to love being able to style a parent element based on how many children it has. Awesome post from Bramus!

This is an amazingly deep dive into the world of radial gradients in CSS. It includes a ton of practical examples and a thorough dissection of the syntax and what you can do with them.

🤯

If you live in the U.S., please take the time to learn the real history of Thanksgiving, rather than clinging to the B.S. we were taught in school. This week’s episode of Native Opinion is a good place to begin that journey.

This is awesome to see. GOV.UK is going to be replacing their search functionality. The contract is estimated to be worth £900,000. The kicker’s below:

Work to replace GOV.UK’s search infrastructure is due to begin in early next year, with the initial phase of the project dedicated to identifying and evaluating products. Such assessments will be focus on “functional and non-functional requirements, based around user needs [and] include accessibility requirements… and progressive enhancement”.