#Definition of Application Software

[quatregats]

I will say that while I like LibreOffice very much and am quite pleased with it I do wish it would let me keep documents, presentations, and sheets in separate apps

[the-it-cart]

How To Conduct Effective Logo Design Research

Logo design is an essential element of branding that captures the fundamental nature of a company or an individual in a solitary visual depiction. A proficient logo is more than just a work of art; it is a strategic instrument that communicates a brand’s identity, values, and mission. Even before you start the creative process of logo design, it is important to conduct a comprehensive research and gather sources of inspiration. This initial phase guarantees that the ultimate design connects with the intended audience and distinguishes itself in a competitive market. This blog will examine different strategies and techniques that are generally used for performing efficient logo design research and approaches for collecting inspiration. The step by step strategies for conducting efficient logo design research, its methods for research and collecting inspiration can guide the designers to produce logos that possess both aesthetic appeal and have a significant influence. 

Comprehend The Essence and Identity of The Brand

Before undertaking a logo design job, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of the brand. This entails exploring the brand’s objectives, mission, values, and historical background. A thorough comprehension of the brand will direct the design process and guarantee that the logo precisely mirrors the brand’s identity. To understand the brand, one must actively involve themselves in the company’s goal statement, its narrative, its future vision, brand’s core values and principles. The question should include: Who are the intended customers? What specific feelings should the logo elicit? These basic comprehensions can establish a strong base on which the design can be constructed, guaranteeing that each component of the logo has a specific purpose and is in complete harmony with the brand’s fundamental statement.

Target Audience Analysis

Understanding the target audience is essential when designing a logo that deeply connects with them. Engaging in audience research increases comprehension of the inclinations, cultural subtleties, and curiosities of the intended target audience. Audience research can be done using methods like surveys, focus groups, or social media analysis. The accurate comprehension of the demographic characteristics, including age, gender, income, and lifestyle preferences, facilitates the customization of the logo design to appeal and attract the target audience. For example, the appearance of a logo designed for a government organization will be significantly different from the logo of a children’s toy brand. The objective is to develop a design that effectively communicates with the consumer at an emotional and psychological level. 

Collect Visual Stimuli For Inspiration

Gathering visual stimuli for artistic procedure can encompass a wide range of subjects, including art, architecture, nature, historical monuments, local birds or even the culture. A mood board can be compiled to assist in categorizing various sources of inspiration and igniting fresh concepts. A mood board is a compilation of visuals, including images, colors, textures, and typography, that is intended to bring out the desired aesthetic and emotional response for the logo. This will function as a visual point of reference throughout the design process. The designers can also utilize platforms such as Behance and Pinterest, utilize actual cuts from publications, to gather and organize their sources of inspiration. This visual analysis will aid in discovering recurring motifs and artistic techniques that can be integrated into the logo design, ensuring its distinctiveness and aesthetic appeal.

For more details visit us at How To Conduct Effective Logo Design Research - THE IT CART

[stockexperttrading]

This comprehensive blog from Funded Traders Global covers the Price Action Strategy and mastering market trends for successful trading. It begins by defining the Price Action Strategy, emphasizing its importance in predicting future price movements. The blog explores the components of Price Action, including candlestick patterns, support and resistance levels, and chart patterns. It highlights the benefits of this strategy, such as simplicity, enhanced decision-making, and its applicability to various markets.

The blog outlines key principles of Price Action, including candlestick patterns, support and resistance levels, and trendlines and channels. It then focuses on reading market trends, with an emphasis on identifying trends, assessing their strength, and recognizing trend reversals. The importance of setting clear trading goals and effective risk management is stressed, along with crafting precise entry and exit strategies.

Common mistakes to avoid in trading are discussed, including overtrading, ignoring fundamental analysis, and emotional trading. The blog also provides information on essential tools and resources, including recommended charting software, books, courses, and online trading communities to support traders in their journey.

In conclusion, the blog encourages traders to apply the knowledge gained, practice consistently, and continue their education to become proficient and successful traders. Trading is described as both an art and a science, emphasizing the importance of discipline and adaptability in the ever-evolving world of finance.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

The bill in question is Senate Bill 20. Sponsored by GOP senator Pete Flores, the bill, in its own words, “creates a new state offense for the possession or promotion of obscene material that appears to depict a child younger than 18 years old, regardless of whether the depiction is of an actual child, cartoon or animation, or an image created using an artificial intelligence application or other computer software.” Furthermore, subparagraph c of the bill states: “An offense under this section is a state jail felony,” directing first-time offenders convicted under this law to a minimum of five years in prison, simply for owning or viewing such material. As many responses have pointed out, many popular manga would be banned in Texas if this law is signed into law, which certainly seems like it will at this point. Goblin Slayer is the example many are pointing to, due to the infamous assault scenes of characters by goblins in the early issues.

We haven't even been winning the culture war for a year and conservatives are already speedrunning ways to lose it again. I shouldn't be surprised by these kinds of self-inflicted Ls, but I am, and they still piss me off.

Censorship is evil and wrong. And this is pure censorship. Expanding the definition of child porn to include fake images of children that don't exist does absolutely nothing to protect real children. It just gives the anti-porn puritans something to ban. Because that's what censorious puritans do. They ban everything they don't like, because fuck freedom, personal choice, and the 1st Amendment, right?

"It's okay when we do it" isn't just the motto of the Democrats. It's an increasingly loud rallying cry from people on the right who, not even a year ago, were rightfully pushing back against the left censoring media that didn't fit their moral standards. And it's what's going to lead us back into our nice, echoey caves once the culture war turns against us and we retreat like we always do.

[sywritesstuff]

If you're like me, you bounce around a bunch of different platforms and applications in the writing process. My hot take is that this is totally fine. No one ever said the writing process is perfectly streamlined! That being said, I've shared some tools I use for different parts of my process. For the most part, I use them consistently for the purposes mentioned below:

→ Miro

I use Miro for my first pass of plot and character arc outlines. Miro is a free software that acts like a digital board, where you can arrange sticky notes and all sorts of features. I prefer using an online board as opposed to a physical one, because I’m constantly reworking my beats and moving things around, and it’s more efficient to do both digitally (in my opinion). I keep my plot outline separate from my character arc outline at the very early stages, because I’m essentially ideating how the two can be married. At the end of the day, I believe the most compelling stories always fall back on character emotions and motivations propelling the plot. Tools like Miro help me map the journey towards that end goal.

→ Notebook

My notebook contains my brain dump. I dedicate a single notebook to a project, and it basically becomes a collection of unfiltered thoughts. I’ll dump character tidbits, sequences for each chapter, feedback from my writing accountability buddy, and questions I want to address in the next iterations of my WIP. This is helpful for me, because I tend to struggle with rapid thoughts, so the notebook helps me focus on the idea itself. Later, I’ll always have the opportunity to categorize them in another platform as I’m writing.

→ Google Docs

In the past, I was writing chapters on Google Docs. This was helpful at the time, because it’s free, it tracks key metrics I care about (mainly word count), and it’s easy to share your work with anyone. But there are some drawbacks. The biggest one for me is having to format everything for a manuscript. This’ll be more relevant later down the line, but sometimes I get really bogged down by little things like spacing and indentation. It really distracts me from focusing on the sentences themselves. After seeing it pop up on Instagram a couple of times, I decided to purchase Scrivener for desktop. It is super functional, and I probably only use like 2% of its max capability right now. But it’s been super helpful for organizing my chapters and scenes, writing out little summary cards, color-coding progress status and POV, bullet pointing margin notes, and most importantly, pre-formatting my WIP as a manuscript. I definitely think Scrivener is worth the long-term investment if you find yourself writing and publishing multiple projects.

→ Scrivener

Even though I’ve transitioned to Scrivener for the actual manuscript, Google Docs still comes in handy for me. Right now, I mainly use it to 1) track feedback and revisions on a chapter-by-chapter basis, and 2) maintain a treatment of my novel. A treatment is essentially a full-length document that details everything that happens in your story from start to finish. They can be as short as 3 pages or as long as 50 pages. I could keep and maintain these documents in Scrivener, but I already had these written out on Docs, so I’m sticking to them. Later down the line, I’ll likely shift over to Google Sheets to track revisions.

What tools do y'all like using? Please feel free to recommend any! Tips on Scrivener are also welcomed!

[celestial-sphere-press]

That National Geographic leather binding for Yellowstone is fucking Gorgeous!!! (Pardon my Language)

How long have you been binding, and what would you recommend to someone who wants to try it for themselves?

hello and thank you so much!! I worked really hard on that one (and no pardon needed haha)!

I started binding in February of 2021, which means in a few months I'll have reached 4 years. It's been an awesome journey!!

If you'd like to try it for yourself, I'd recommenda few things!

1) You can 100% try out the basics with near free or cheap materials. People typeset in Word or Google Docs or Pages. You can print on printer paper & use regular sewing thread & scavenge board from old books or notebook backs or do a limp leather binding & use no boards at all. You can make paper pamphlets. Any comments I make following this are about my preferences for best results. The most expensive part that cannot be avoided is printing. On the other hand expenses can wildly escalate if you're committing to it; once you are doing leather it becomes somewhat unavoidably expensive.

2) Check out some tutorials from SeaLemon or DAS Bookbinding on YouTube for the physical construction. SeaLemon is really clear for a beginner starting out, but then I'd move to DAS for better technique (DAS also has a beginner series though). I watched DAS Bookbinding videos for three weeks straight before I was able to start, & while that doesn't maybe work out for everyone I do think it gave me a pretty strong basis of understanding for structural techniques. DAS is *really* good at explaining why he thinks you should do something. The structure of the NatGeo bind is basically DAS's video on a rounded & backed bradel binding (but with leather & sewn on recessed cords). There is some good stuff on Tiktok/IG, but watch short-form videos/reels with caution. They move a little fast and I've seen a couple give instructions that can result in structural flaws (not that this is unique to the form, cross-referencing on instructions from any source is a good practice). They are good for if you're looking for a specific technique (particularly modern decorative ones, like cricut use, edge gilding, HTV application). There are also published books you can buy or maybe request through your library, such as Hollander's Introduction to Bookbinding. Renegade Bookbinding Guild runs a whole bunch of technique-specific in-house zoom classes annually.

3) Look to other fanbinders for tutorials on how to format the text (this is because most pro bookbinders do not do both text design & book creation! it's a pretty unique feature of fanbinding). @renegadeguild has some publically provided resources on our website here and more typesetting tutorials for a whole host of softwares (Affinity Publisher is my choice - one time purchase, fuck you very much Adobe InDesign) located in the discord server. Anyone 18+ can join the Discord. The NatGeo inspired book (text & dust jacket) was created in Affinity Publisher.

4) Join a community of fanbinders! It's really lovely. The space has exploded & there are tons of people to be friends with, trade tips, & cheer each other on. I'm part of @renegadeguild and we do a whole bunch of events throughout the year, and we have an in-person retreat every other year. I've met with over 20 different renegaders so far, in three different countries, and it's been such a blast. Definitely the community helps keep up the motivation. Renegade isn't the only community out there though! There's groups more rooted in IG/tiktok circles that have their own discords, plus a number of FB groups. I do think most people who are comfortable on tumblr enjoy Renegade's vibe.

5) While I learned most of what I do online, some things really benefit from in-person learning. If you want to do leather binding I would really recommend trying to take an in-person class. I did two attempts at a leather binding on my own before I decided to hold off until I'd had at least one in-person class. Leather binding can be extremely frustrating, especially when you can easily end up with a book that looks worse than a cloth binding at your same skill level but for double the cost. Imo this is mostly because the leather specific skills like paring, warp management, and assessing a random piece of leather for bookbinding suitability are all pretty tactile experiences, all of which are difficult to assess through a screen and can result in an unpleasantly bulky/stiff/shapeless book if ignored. For example- while this book of mine is a pretty popular post, I don't enjoy holding it and reading it, especially in contrast to the NatGeo bind. Part of this was the material I chose; part was not being able to adhere to the instructions quite well enough; part was just not knowing enough about what I was doing; part is they're different constructions. This might just be a me thing though; I'm sure others have had success with online only tutorials for leather.

6) I'm not going to get into specific tools bc that could be a whole post, but some things are necessary (printer access), some things are necessary depending on style, some things are "makes life easier but only drop the money if it's stopping you from making books out of frustration", some things are just technique-specific tools. Examples - sewing frames are often brought up but are never necessary unless sewing on cords; cricuts & cutting machines are commonly used in fanbinding circles but I don't have one (& don't intend to atm).

7) Don't be shy to offer the author a copy!! Like other fan activities, fanbinding is part of our fandom community ecosystem. Your fanbinding is in communication with the author's story. Giving a bind to the author is a great way of keeping the ecosystem going. I tend to think of binds as a combo of comment, fic rec, and fan art inspired by the fic.

8) Paper grain sounds stupid but it IS IMPORTANT! My personal hierarchy of give-a-fuck for grain: Board grain, spine card grain, endpaper grain, cover paper grain, text block grain, book cloth grain. The only thing I personally sometimes ignore is book cloth grain; but many people will not worry too much about text block paper grain.

Gonna stop there for now. If you've got specific questions or want elaboration, feel free to ask. As with all things, YMMV, this is my own opinions/experience and may not apply in all cases. There's a whole lot of different techniques out there, and it's hard to ever say something is wrong, per se - but I think it's important to understand if a method has an outcome you may want to avoid. Prioritize your goals & adapt for them - what's your goal? Longevity, readability, aesthetics? You might make different choices depending on them. My choices influence the techniques I chose to focus on, the tools I buy, and thus the final aesthetic of my binds.

[fight-nights-at-freddys]

About Senate Bill 20 in Texas

(Disclaimer - I'm not a lawyer, so this should all be taken with a grain of salt! This is just a layman's interpretation of the law)

So, if any of y'all have seen the bill that passed Texas Senate this week and are worried about what it means, lemme break it down for you.

TL;DR, the bill claims to target AI depicting minors, but in using vague language, it just reaffirms already-existing obscenity laws at best, and opens the door for harsher laws at worst. Worry more about them taking advantage of it to censor LGBT media, or sexual content in general. Obscenity is subjective and laws surrounding it are bad.

What does it mean?

To quickly explain, the bill targets the "possession or promotion of obscene visual material appearing to depict a child".

The thing that's gotten people up in arms (or celebrating, depending on who you ask) is Sec. 43.235(b), which reads:

"A person commits an offense if the person knowingly possesses, accesses with intent to view, or promotes obscene visual material containing a depiction that appears to be of a child younger than 18 years of age engaging in activities described by Section 43.21(a)(1)(B), regardless of whether the depiction is an image of an actual child, a cartoon or animation, or an image created using an artificial intelligence application or other computer software."

'Obscene' refers to material or a performance "that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest in sex", "depicts or describes: (i) patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sex acts, normal or perverted, actual or stimulated, including sexual intercourse, sodomy, and sexual bestiality; or (ii) patently offensive representations or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, sadism, masochism, lewd exhibition of genitals, the male or female genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal, covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state or a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for stimulation of the human genital organs", and "taken as a whole, lacks serious literary,artistic, political, and scientific value", as defined in Sec. 43.21(a)(1).

Basically, it's pretty difficult to meet those standards when it comes to art, because something having "literary and artistic value", being "patently offensive", or "appeals to the prurient interest in sex" is highly subjective.

The problem is with the vagueness of the words "cartoon or animation", but I believe, based on 18 U.S. Code § 2256(8), (9), and (11), the depiction would have to A) involve the use of a minor (and when I say minor here, I'm talking about real minors, not fiction) engaging in sexually explicit conduct, B) be an image, generated or otherwise that is, or is indistinguishable* from, a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, or C), be created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable** minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

*Indistinguishable meaning that the depiction is such that an ordinary person viewing the depiction is of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. This definition does not apply to depictions that are drawings, cartoons, sculptures, or paintings depicting minors or adults. *Identifiable meaning a person who was a minor at the time the visual depiction was created, adapted,or modified, a person whose image as a minor was used in creating, adapting, or modifying the visual depiction, or a person who is recognizable as an actual person by the person's face, likeness, or other distinguishing characteristic.

And what does all that mean?

The way it reads, if I read it in good faith, is that it's specifically aimed at AI depictions of minors, and because that's so new, it falls into a sort of a grey area of the law at the moment, which is what this is trying to amend. When it refers to cartoons or animations, I believe it's using over-broad words to include cartoonish AI generated images (that, of course, are still generated using images of real children). Though, I'm not positive what the bill means by phrases like "appears to be" or "child" because it doesn't offer definitions for that, so I have to assume we're using the definitions written in federal law.

However, in keeping things vague, probably intentionally, it also serves to make obscene anything it would deem as sexual, offensive, or perverse (not unlike normal obscenity laws...). It may be used to go after lolisho, hentai, porn, any kind of "video nasty", or it'll be used to go after LGBT media under the guise of it "grooming kids".

All that being said, I don't see how it would ever work in practice. Either nothing will ever be done with it, it'll be used only for AI (as it should be), or a helluva lot of media is about to be banned in Texas (and not just lolisho or "problematic" fiction, but shows like South Park, American Dad, Naruto, and Dragon Ball).

On the whole, though, most of this is already federal, and I wouldn't be any more worried about this than general obscenity laws. At best, it'll help to get rid of AI, and in the worst case scenario, it's a gateway bill for other states to censor fiction/LGBT media, but i'm an optimist, so... Here's hoping that second thing doesn't happen.

[theminecraftbee]

I feel you on the job thing, I’m also looking for jobs in software and the latest job glassdoor sent me was pig farmer??? I think they got there from me viewing a software job with the department for rural affairs and have now decided I want to be a farmer.

Also as a graduate it’s near impossible to find entry level jobs on and of these sites because ‘entry level’ seems to mean anything up to about 5 years experienced based on the jobs adverts I see.

help that's so funny okay glassdoor sure that's. definitely what you were looking for,

anyway i do totally understand, being a new graduate looking for jobs right now is REALLY TOUGH. unfortunately i don't have much advice there; i got really lucky in school and got into an internship before i graduated that then hired me as soon as i got a degree, so most of my actual job market experience is "young professional who does already have one job". the only effective advice i have are that one, linkedin seems to really work in this field and i KNOW that's annoying and unfortunate and i kind of hate it but that is where all the people making hiring decisions seem to hang out, two, look up cost of living salary adjustments at the same time as looking at average salaries because the number you see for a job in, say, LA is actually effectively much less than it looks like it is because you have to live in LA, and three, try looking for jobs that are not remote for your first job not because i think remote work is bad (i personally work best remote) but because remote jobs instantly get like a thousand applicants whereas local jobs are typically a little less flooded.

anyway GOOD LUCK OUT THERE! I KNOW IT'S ROUGH! MAN!

[mylovehasteeth]

if you are sexually active with your long distance s/o…and you guys end up getting one of those app-controlled toys. i would definitely manipulate them into downloading an application — made to control it ‘better’ than the actual app. you could 100% get into their phone if you have the right software that is compatible with their device. this has almost happened to me before but i don’t think it worked for him or maybe he was just pretending.

- 🤍 (iykyk)

^^^ yes!

[projectphoenixsanctuary]

*A blue eyed drone drags in a blood-soaked orange eyed drone wearing glasses, tied up in steel cables* "I'M GONNA BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR OWN ARMS IF YOU DON'T JUST LET ME GO!" "Hey you're the one who asked for this." "I WAS JOKING!" "I wasn't. Plus you're a hazard and I can't constantly monitor you to make sure you won't just eat someone." "I-I'M NOT THAT BAD!" "Literally five minutes after coming back from god knows where and you set off on a murder spree!" "I- THEY- WELL O-ONE OF THEM HAD A BOUNTY!" "You threw him into a woodchipper for your own amusement, plus you aren't a licensed bounty hunter." "I- WELL... CAN WE JUST GO HOME?!" "Nope." *The blue eyed drone sets her down with an application form that reads: "Name & Designation: Penny, P3N-00G011101

Status: Mostly feral, difficult to contain and overall a hazard to most things.

Condition Upon Arrival: Mild mutations and slightly buggy, developed fangs in roof of mouth accompanied by paralytic venom sacs in place of nanite acid, tail replaced with rattlesnake-esque rattle. Software bug causes optical problems, requires glasses.

Known Behaviors: Aggressive, reclusive and timid.

Additional Notes: Crafty and bitey, she can and will attempt to turn anything into a weapon. Has a previous history of substance abuse regarding but not limited to: Alcohol, Magnets, Various Hydrocarbons and Intentional virus uploads. Operating system derived from combat models, finds violence enjoyable and is practically addicted to murder. Do NOT attempt to corner unless absolutely necessary. Gets defensive and somewhat aggressive when called a Lesbian. Lesbian. Experiences frequent nightmares regarding partially deleted/corrupted memories, do NOT attempt to restore them, at this point in time she is practically a different drone and doing so would only cause her harm. Allergic to Hazelnuts. Re-watches the American anime "RWBY" weekly. Contains a patched Solver strain."*

(@p3nny-bakes-cookies)

The desk clerk winces at the amount of rage radiating from the orange drone.

"Oh this one will definitely be going to Brandy."

She takes a moment to read over the form, trying to prepare herself for the inevitable task of putting a collar on this one. After pressing a few buttons on her keyboard, she forces a nervous smile and clasps her hands together as she turns her attention to the blue-eyed drone.

"Nothing our team can't handle! Do you have an address that you'd like uh.."

She glances at the paper again.

"Her, to be sent back to? I'll need the contact information."

...oh god, how is she going to neutralize her weapons system without losing an arm?

[the-it-cart]

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[quidam-vir]

The Latin Collaborative & Creative Internet

Welcome to my little reference post! I love all the crowd sourced places and places of creative expression on the Internet. I especially love when small communities, like Latin speakers, come together and do cool things. I want to shout-out some of these Latin-specific projects and places just to spread possibilities for the wide-reaching īnsolitī hominēs around the globe. Grow community resources, express yourself or have something fun to do if you're bored.

1. Software Translations (Launchpad)

Over at launchpad they crowdsource translations for a bunch of open source software. Think of your favorite open source software and chances are it'll be on there and you could help make a Latin version. Applications range from Blender to Chromium to Ubuntu to a Dice Roller or Tetris clone

I have the dream of assembling a team of good Latin translators to complete the translation of Linux Mint and help create the first major operating system entirely in Latin.

2. Victionarium

Love Wiktionary? I know I do. How about Wiktionary in Latin? Create definitions and dictionary entries for Latin words, in Latin. The more it's built up, the better this resource would be for learning new words.

Helping add Latin words or forms to the English Wiktionary is also helpful, sed scīlicet the Latin one needs in more.

3. Vicipaedia

Another Wikimedia project, who could've guessed? The Latin Wikipedia, Vicipaedia, is another great resource and one that could use more contributors. If you are knowledgeable, willing to learn, and good at Latin writing, try it out!

4. LibriVox

Are you one of the few that enjoy and are confident speaking Latin? Even if you're not, practice makes perfect! LibriVox is well known for a host of free audiobooks, and this includes ones in Latin. They could certainly use more volunteers for the language, no matter which pronunciation system or cadence you prefer.

Places with a 'Latin' Post Setting

There are a few places you can write or post where you specifically can mark a post as being in Latin, and filter accordingly. Any I run across will be put below

1. AO3

Not a huge surprise—unlike the 99 currently existing Latin fics.

2. BlueSky

The Twitter clone from a while back has a language search and select with Latin (and some other old languages too)

If anyone has anymore places/projects to add, subtus narrā mihi!

[botgal]

CA Internet Bills Status as of 7/17/2024

I had wanted to wait to make this post until all of the bills updated texts had been uploaded to the usual sites, but it appears what whoever's supposed to be updating AB 3080 has been lagging, so I'll just go with what I have for now. It'll be long as I'll be looking at their statuses and analyzing their updated texts so I'll put it under a cut for now.

A reminder that California's legislature is currently on recess and will be until August 5th. So no immediately imminent bills at this exact moments. But please read below the cut to get more information on the deadlines coming up.

When I last posted, all three of the bills had gone into review in their respective committees and sadly all of them passed out.

AB 3080: 11 Aye - 0 Nay

AB 1949: 11 Aye - 0 Nay

SB 976: 7 Aye - 4 No Vote

All three bills have been amended during their time in committees.

Ab 3080

AB 3080 was amended and passed from committee as amended, it is now available for a floor vote. This is the only one of the three bills where its amended text hasn't been posted anywhere I can find. However, in the analysis of the July 3rd meeting, there were acknowledgements made that not only is there no effective and safe way to verify age to view online content, but also that the existence of VPNs can circumvent any attempts to region lock sites designated as "adult" (the definition as it stands still appears to be limited to commercial websites where more than 1/3 of their content annually is sexually explicit). And that the methods to implement such a thing on commercial and non-commercial websites alike can be prohibitively expensive. So the author of the bill agreed to amendments in the bill as such according to the analysis:

"In response to the concerns of opposition, the author has agreed to amendments that allow a less restrictive means to suffice in meeting the obligation of the bill, mitigating the impact on protected speech and expression. The amendments provide that “reasonable steps” includes the business implementing a system that includes metadata or response headers identifying the product as sexually explicit to parental control software, embedded hardware applications, and other similar services designed to block, filter, monitor or otherwise prevent a minor’s access to inappropriate online content, or that blocks users designated as minors by the operating system of the device used to access the website. It also limits enforcement of this new cause of action to the Attorney General and requires the Attorney General to promulgate regulations to provide better direction for reasonable steps to verify age in addition to those listed."

So it appears that the bill may allow more websites instead to mark themselves or certain portions of their content as adult in order to be properly vetted by in-device content filters and parental controls that can be set by the device operators (or their parents in the case of minors), rather than a method that would require users to provide identification.

It's eased up quite a bit since its initial incarnation. But it's still better safe than sorry with this kind of bill, so Californians let's still push the state senators to veto this bill completely.

Organizations in support of this bill:

Organizations in opposition to this bill:

AB 1949

AB 1949 was amended and passed from committee as amended, and is currently referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

This one has also seen some fairly positive changes during this committee analysis as can be seen in the latest version of the bill. The latest version has removed any indications towards age verification. As well as it having changed several of its details. The bill only comes into effect and prevents the sale of data if the website has actual knowledge of the users' age, and that there shall be an option for the user to transmit a signal that they are under 18 for this purpose. Which again should help the argument against strict age verification barriers due to advertising purposes.

"a business shall not use or disclose the personal information of a consumer if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 18 years of age, unless the consumer, in the case of a consumer at least 13 years of age and less than 18 years of age, or the consumer’s parent or guardian, in the case of a consumer less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the use or disclosure of the consumer’s personal information."

"A business shall treat a consumer as under 18 years of age if the consumer, through a platform, technology, or mechanism, transmits a signal indicating that the consumer is less than 18 years of age."

But, once again, it is best to still work against this bill and prevent its passing at all in case it there's push to use it as a stepping stone for any bills which may further push an age verification agenda.

Organizations in support of this bill:

Organizations in opposition of this bill:

SB 976

This bill passed with amendments and is currently referred to the California Assembly Appropriations Committee. Unfortunately no major changes have been made. Only an amendment clarifying that any parental controls are only meant to limit access to "addictive feeds" and limit access to school hours, not any of the content. As this function still requires a "verified adult parent to a minor", this still holds open the door to potential future age verification dangers. As it still states that an application may choose to withhold services to minors altogether, and explicitly leaves open the possibility to allow provisions for age "assurance". So we definitely want to strike this one down if we can.

Organizations in support of this bill:

Organizations in opposition to this bill:

As of this moment, the California Legislature is out on recess until August 5.

The Senate Appropriations Committee (AB 1949) is set to meet on August 5, no word on whether it will be heard that day or on the next set hearing, August 12. So if you wish to send a position letter to the committee it would be best to do so a week before that date, so by July 29. Just to be safe.

No word on when the Assembly Appropriations Committee is set to meet, but the deadline for fiscal committees to pass bills through is August 16, so I expect that SB 976 will be heard before that day at least.

And AB 3080 is set to go to the senate floor rather than be seen by another committee before being read. No word on when the next bill readings will be on the assembly floor after it's reconvened August 5th, but I'll keep an ear to the ground for that.

The last day for each house to pass their bills for the year will be August 31st. So any bills we can stop before then are halted for good for the year.

And for any bills that do slip through, the last day for the governor to sign, let pass without signing, or veto bills is September 30th. So even if the bills pass from the floor to his desk, there's still time to send him messages to urge him to oppose any that slip through.

Thank you for your time, both in reading this and in taking the time to help us fight these bills.

[meanbossart]

Some art-advice asks I've been meaning to reply to!

I use Clip Studio Paint Pro, though I'm not sure what tips I could give just in general. Just experiment with new things often, draw as much as your lifestyle allows, watch how other people do their work but try to avoid "Dont do THIS thing ever" type lessons and tutorials. Use as much reference as you'd like and take your time! To this day a simple sketch can still take me several hours to do depending on what it is.

Thank you so much!!! I didn't do any kind of formal art schooling but I've always been inclined towards arts and crafts, and started taking drawing semi seriously when I was about 17 (I'm 27 now). I draw a lot of inspiration from western comics and my favorite artists are jason shawn alexander and sean murphy.

Oh I'm so flattered to hear my stuff's inspired you to take up drawing again, I have a bunch of little crafty hobbies but art is by far the most fulfilling one to me - largely because you're constantly learning and improving.

You're definitely onto something already, I am constantly looking at other people's art (even If it isn't a style I would want to emulate) and analyzing how the pieces come together to create the final product. In my opinion this is pretty much the best way you can go about learning besides real-life reference drawing. You can even take something into your software of choice/print it out and trace it (just to yourself, of course) to get a sense of hand-motion and line use.

As a beginner I think there's no shame at all in taking heavy inspiration from your favorite artists, as long as you aren't straight up copying things and calling them your own. Your personal style Is likely to come out naturally, with time. That's very much how I started myself!

Also, just be patient with yourself, try to have realistic goals for your skill level while simultaneously being proud of everything you do. Even if you absolutely despise a drawing, you still drew something! And even if it doesn't feel that way you most definitely learned from it. Use learning tools and tutorials to whatever point you feel comfortable with but don't get stuck on people's arbitrary rules - unless we're talking about something tangible like real-life application of traditional art tools, things like anatomy, perspective and light are to be referenced from - but It's not the goal to emulate them 100% unless you ARE going for hyperrealism. As someone who uses a ton of reference these days, I can tell you first-hand that I often find myself straying from it on purpose to make a piece look more interesting.

Lastly, draw things you enjoy! Don't let anyone else dictate what you SHOULD be doing and don't fall into the trappings of wanting to stick to one specific style, process, or subject matter.

Good luck!!!

LOL thank you so much for your very evocative compliments! I haven't ever done a timelapse, not that I remember at least. I'm not sure how they work but I do so much of "I'm gonna try this thing 5 different ways and then decide what I like" that I'm not sure how comprehensive that would be LOL

I could put together a process showcase or something though, I feel like that might be better even, since I get to explain a little of what I'm doing through text and display how I use reference. Something to consider!

[x-other-souled-x]

No. Nope.

Using language that systems may also use in a medical setting to describe their expereinces and go through treatment is not appropriation. Full stop.

There is no culture being exploited, unless you want to argue that the medical-industrial complex is a closed culture somehow.

Which I have definitely seen posts saying something dangerously close to this, and I urge you to not base your entire sense of self on the guys making money off of you. Even if they're helping, there's intentional siphoning of money from poor patients.

Secondly, language is a tool used to communicate. Words exist as "bodies" to a concept, and sometimes this concept is interpreted a little differently from person to person. There are a lot of words that mean several different things depending on the context. The most important thing is the setting which they're used in. A good ammount of medical terms are also words that are used by laymen in other contexts, meaning something different.

A system is a group of interrelated parts working together as a whole.

An Operating System (OS) is a system of code and software that tells the hardware what to do in order to make your computer run. There's agricultural systems, government systems, the solar system itself. Are these things appropriating the medical-industrial complex by existing as parts that make one whole thing work?

And before anyone splits hairs about this, I am not equating human life to computers or the government. These are examples of things that are literally defined AS SYSTEMS. The main takeaway you should be having here is that system is a broad term with many many applications outside of the medical-industrial complex. That one institution does not own the word nor the concept of being multiple parts (headmates/alters/whatever) working together.

The concept still exists and system still is a word outside of a medical context.

In other words, people would have eventually came to the conclusion of calling themselves systems regardless of if it was used in a medical context or not. It's not hard to put 2 and 2 together, to see parallels in concepts and expereinces and decide those words work just fine. Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

This is a post online, made by a trauma-formed system. I'm not going to have the time and foresight to cover every little nuance, and I don't care to be pedantic and pick apart small case instances. At the end of the day, this does not actually matter to how I live my life, how I get therapy, how we as a system have to work together. Endos using terms that are also used in a medical setting (but also used outside of medical settings) is not harmful to me in any way. And quite frankly, I think anti-endo witchunting has done more damage to us as a system trying to figure out how to navigate life than any endo friendly post has. I'm not arguing semantics, I'm going to go live my life and go outside and do my job and pay my bills like everyone else.

All this discourse around stealing terms and what you can and can't call yourself is so seriously unimportant in the grand scheme of things. You all sound so comfy and privileged to be worried about something so trivial as a word or three that is used in multiple contexts accross human language.

[corrupter16]

Here's some of my favorite art I made with my KinitoPET oc named Aden! He's part of an AU where if he were an actual application/software, he'd just be your little laptop companion!(Definitely wouldn't be looking around in your files to gather information about you, eh heh...)

Since this is an AU, he is being shipped with my version of Kinito! BUT, you can also ship Aden with a different KinitoPET character (oc for example), so go wild! And for the love of god, don't draw anything NSFW with him in it😭. You can draw him in suggestive artwork, just make sure it ain't too over the top.

Also, if you do decide to make fanart of him, don't be afraid to ping me! I'd love to see what you guys create! Just be patient with me as I have anxiety issues, which cause me to have a hard time communicating with new people I meet online.