kat
@katbamkapow.bsky.social
over-explainer for fame & fortune, analog enthusiast, 9-5 academic. informatics PhD (computer/networking histories, LGBTQ+ activism, STS & HIV/AIDS). you might know me from video games once: uc irvine now: u of michigan 💾🌿💽 kb.place 💽🌿💾
Since I hear it is almost time to start thinking about the fall semester (I know! whisper it!) I wrote you an article to help you think about what you are actually hoping to do with your in-class digital assignments and what their futures will be www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Against cultural heritage wastelands
The twin scholarly booms of the 2010s, digital humanities and public humanities, introduced a relatively accessbile suite of platforms for managing digital and digitised content. Sudden interest in...
tandfonline.com
new blog post: blog.vbuckenham.com/announcing-t...
Announcing: Tools for Creativity at the School For Poetic Computation
I'm running a class for the School of Poetic Computation! It's about making creative tools. Nick Murray is going to be my assistant teacher. Applications are open til Monday 10th August! Let me expl...
blog.vbuckenham.com
academics..... is it time to prepare your syllabus for the autumn?? might i recommend.... me!! if you teach histories of computing or the intersections of queer life and computing, you might like these
research thread! i study queer histories of computing -- how LGBTQ+ people seize the means of connection & computation to build community and keep each other safe. here are a few pieces that might interest you:
i guess i just have to come to terms with the fact that jimmy wales says wikeepedia and i say wik-uh-pedia and we're just a little different, he and i
Open curator position at the Computer History Museum. computerhistory.org/jobs/curator/
Curator
Details Classification: Exempt, Regular, Fulltime Location: Mountain View, CA The Computer History Museum (CHM) is the world’s leading institution exploring the history and ongoing impact of computing...
computerhistory.org
The U.S. government has charged Samuel Tunick with allegedly typing in a passcode to wipe his phone before officers could search it. “I hope people understand that the charges against me are meant to intimidate people,” he said.
‘The Government Hopes To Set a Precedent’: An Interview With the Man Charged for Allegedly Wiping His GrapheneOS Phone
The U.S. government has charged Samuel Tunick with allegedly typing in a passcode to wipe his phone before officers could search it. “I hope people understand that the charges against me are meant to...
404media.co
I'll be presenting at Save the Games on Thursday! Come hear me talk about our triage strategy for processing assets for our digital archive
Save the Games. July 29 and 30. Rochester, NY. Worried about our all-digital future? Want to know how researchers interact with game history? What the challenges that game studios are facing? All that and more, just weeks away. www.museumofplay.org/save-the-gam...
what is your favourite physical deckbuilding game? LCGs and ECGs included, but i'd especially like to hear about small & contained one-box experiences!
just opened this a few seconds ago after leaving a meeting to find rep. boebert asking the director of the smithsonian about whether the museum of american history will cover the history of abortions to "bring justice" to "babies that were killed" and if she doesn't she is "undoing" american history
I know there's lots going on today but this is worth following. The hearing just started: www.c-span.org/event/house-...
"Could a brick feel pain?" "What if the electric drill has object permanence?" "Mightn't vacuum cleaners have a concept of zero?" this is how these headlines sound.
No. Very clearly no. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
when a coauthor or colleague needs something by a particular deadline prior to article submission: i will do anything for you repeated reminder from journal to approve my copy edits and need to sign a license for this single author anything: i pretend i do not see it
“Strip away the semantics, and the simple facts are these: Meta has designed and built a face-recognition system, at one point placed it on millions of phones, and appears to be seriously thinking about enabling it, and a prominent executive has sung its praises on a very public platform.”
NEW: Meta keeps saying shifty and evasive things about the face recognition technology that @dmehro.bsky.social and @dell.bsky.social reported it embedded in its Meta AI app for use with its smart glasses, so @couts.bsky.social has helpfully clarified what’s going on here:
The library being "the last real third space" isn't a reason to keep adding new responsibilities to the library; it is a reason to create more third spaces.
thinking about how digital record keeping is a story of access, control, and power as i catch up on this story in the guardian, about a secret UNRWA mission to smuggle at-risk archival documents out of palestine: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
The secret mission to rescue the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive
Millions of documents chronicling generations of trauma saved from Gaza and East Jerusalem in 10-month Unrwa operation
theguardian.com
📢 Once more for the people in the back: - Most [more than 95%] of archives have not been digitized. - Most of humanity's knowledge and memory is *not* reachable by LLMs. - Believing that AI can provid you with comprehensive, definitive, "intelligent" results is folly.
Giving myself a headache in the archives
Let's talk about how Diskette makes money and stays true to our values and our artists in this capitalist hellscape.
Printing Money: The Economics of Small Press
We’re obviously in a really strange time for the arts in general: you’ve got a crap economy, everything costs more money, arts funding has dried up, and nobody has a job. This of course sounds absolut...
diskettepress.com
and now we just wait for hercule poirot to murder the united states national team one by one
Wonderwall as a victory song in the Azteca feels like a microaggression
i found it really difficult to read for pleasure after my phd (i have always enjoyed one-star thrillers & romance novels tho, much like how leading up to the diss finish line i could only watch old episodes of thundercats & stare at a wall) but im REALLY digging silvia moreno garcia's silver nitrate
LIS/comm/media studies, Sociology, English, and other information-studies-aligned faculty: are you curious about how library workers are responding to AI? do you need an award-winning, open access discourse analysis on your syllabus? look no further!
In “Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library,” I examine LIS as in need of a values-realignment, asking readers to refuse the technosolutionism we are so often offered in place of human-centered possibilities, like taking racism, climate change, and labor rights seriously doi.org/10.1353/lib....
Statement from VGHF director Frank Cifaldi on the discontinuation of physical PlayStation media, and the closure of the PS3 and PSP digital storefronts.
The World Cup should employ a team of commentator Historians who describe the historical relations and tensions between the two countries over the course of the match.