Techieness

ALT Text Notions

by Deanne · Oct 27, 2023

~~Thoughts about the use, deployment and narrative possibilties of the <ALT > tag.~~

Too formal.

What I’ve been thinking about is the space between nefarious corporate activity which aims to deploy AI to learn all it can from people based inputs of the ALT text (thinking here only for images) and the tenderness implied in conversation that can occur if an ALT tag is used with intention. Incorporates care / delicacy / humour / narrative — in short if all ALT tags were written by poets, although I bet I’d be picky about the type of poets^***2B, then that might open the possibility for the task surpass the density of description.

This post is in DRAFT format.

My favourite part so far is the ALT attribute text I wrote for Lady Day.

A close up shot of Billie Holiday singing the blues. The lights must be hot. Her face has a sheen. Her lips are red. I never noticed she painted her eyebrows.A screenshot of a YouTube video.

One for My Baby

You’d never know it
But, buddy, I’m kind of a poet
And I’ve got a lot of things to say
And when I am gloomy
You simply gotta listen to me
Until it’s talked away

What is the ALT tag?
History
My early web 1.0 uses and interest in
The ALT agenda — bots and whatnots
LEGIT concerns
ALT nanny or ALT friendly

ONE: Le ALT Tag: Official Wiki: “The alt attribute is the HTML attribute used in HTML and XHTML documents to specify alternative text (alt text) that is to be displayed in place of an element that cannot be rendered.“

That’s the official version. It’s generally referred to as an alt tag, and most folks consider it in the context providing a brief description for images, to convey meaning, for the purposes of those who are using screenreaders to navigate.

TWO: History of the Alt Attribute or Tag

Misuse, abuse, narrative….

THREE: My personal early web (1.0?) uses and interest in the deployment of the alt tag.

At the time (late 1999 and early 2000s¹ )

++++++++

Notes:

Yup I was messing around with netart when I might have been otherwise engaged in making a fortune.
***B The version sung by Billie Holiday is my favourite.

Vacillate Oscillate Swing

by Deanne · Apr 29, 2019

Bumped into a situation recently — or should I say the Universe presented me with the opportunity; — which has me going back and forth, vacillating between knowing what to do, not knowing what to do, and basically being stuck in analysis paralysis.

This indecisive moment is familiar – is it the more largely the territory of introverts?

What happened is I met someone by chance. She’s a lovely person. A creative entrepreneur like moi. And in the course of chatting, I found out her website doesn’t work. … I ostensibly still “do websites”. I put that in quotation marks as, well, back in the day it meant something specific. Now it can mean anything from being a developer banging out a specific piece of code to fix the unruly widget that refuses to cooperate, to a Mad-Men style agency filling in all the blanks – and promising the SEO nirvana that will make your business bloom so splendidly it will outshine the sun.

I’m mixing metaphors, but they do that too when they talk Marketspeak.

Her issue is something that as soon as she mentioned, my brain was immediately leaping into action and trying to solve. And sure enough, I did solve it (partially) .

My quandry is this. Do I just email the gal and give her the information “for free” (I didn’t disclose I was anywhere near the tech field – call it introversion, call it caution); do I “pitch” my services at a modest fee (through our convo I found out how much she paid for her original site (hint, not very much); or do I write a blog article outlining the steps to solve her issue. They involve a degree of technical knowledge and patience, and familiarity with certain tools.

It made me realize, I’m still struggling with pricing. WTF? And although one year (was it 2016?) I chose VALUE as my word of the year, it hasn’t hooked deeply into my soul or geek brain yet.

And now I’ve spent 25 minutes typing out this stream of consciousness all because I’m afraid to ask for what I’m worth. Or is it afraid to hear a NO?

Vacillation, oscillation. Swinging back and forth until the pendulum stops and a clear path is shown.

My First Block

by Deanne · Mar 13, 2019

This is one of those nonsense, test posts. Since upgrading to Gutenberg, it’s time to check out those pesky blocks in a safe environment. So far, I’m not thrilled with the way it handles HTML. Other than that, it seems, on the surface, much easier for clients (aka non techies) to update content and “design” it. Generally a good thing.

Ceci n’est pas un bloc. Ceci est un bloc.