Fiona Charles

@fionaccharles.bsky.social

726 Followers 429 Following

Workshop designer/facilitator, keynote speaker, gardener, dog lover, choral singer, and (recovering) software test/quality consultant. Still interested, engaged, and sometimes enraged with tech.

A dark grey standard poodle reclining carelessly against large throw cushions on a navy blue sofa, displaying elegant long legs and nose.
Sign in a restaurant window shows a hanging grilled duck, with the label: ‘$35 PECKING DUCK’.
The Zanzibar strip club in downtown Toronto, festooned with gaudy neon sign and random stars. 2 all-caps notices: 1 proclaiming ‘75 topless bottomless vixens 12pm to 4am’ & the other inviting ‘soccer fans! come score with our girls’.
Early tips of snowdrop stems, with the white flower bud tightly encased in green leaves, poking through grainy snow. through grainy
Black (actually dark grey) standard poodle curled tightly on a plush mid-grey dog bed, ignoring a pink ball in the foreground.
Aqua-tinted ice shards heaped by wind and waves against the snowy shore. Dark rocks placed to protect the walking path, poking through snow. The grey lake appears frozen, though there is open water to the right. The sky above the thin dark line of Wolfe Island is leaden: deep grey with pale clouds.
Lake Ontario dark blue against the white, snowy shoreline, with a paler blue sky above.
A silvery white moth, edged in brown.
A tiny not-very-hairy native bee, with pollen sacs clearly visible and transparent wings, feeds from a deep orange and yellow nasturtium flower.
A native bee, dusted with pollen, nuzzling the deep orangey-yellow centre of a pale pink dahlia.
A garden with a brown wooden fence, fallen leaves, and a rusted iron peacock on a table. The pale blue sky above filled with golden branches of black walnut leaves lit by the sun.
Half-litre jar of dried tomato slices, gold in colour, tinged with deep pink.
Handsome brown spider with a large dark-coloured abdomen with 2 black spots, positioned in the centre of a classic (though with a few breaks) spider web over a red brick wall.
An assortment of Nordic-inspired objects laid out on a table, with a glimpse of Bayeux Tapestry behind. There are 2 posters. 1 advertises rune readings at $25 per; the other a free workshop introduction to heathenism workshop put on by the Kingston Heathens and something called Seidr Secrets.
As humans in society, we can’t afford to ignore tech’s potential harms Debunk AI snake oil Resist surveillance Don’t antropomorphize tech Call out fake “science”
People jumping into deep water from a concrete pier.
A list of 10+1 Commandments for Ethical Techies 1. Understand your basic professional obligations. 2. Know your specific legal and contractual obligations and those governing your software and project. 3. Know your own ethical bottom line. 4. Understand whose interests your work serves. 5. Know the harms your software could do. 6. Maintain critical awareness of your whole work situation. 7. Be good at saying “no”. 8. Be good at speaking truth to power. 9. Know your escalation path. 10. Know your own tolerance for personal and career risk. 11. Document your concerns!
Large turtle with central ridge down her shell, basking in the sun on a log over a water lily-strewn river.
A sad-faced dark grey standard poodle with her curly coat spotted with prickly burrs.
Pic shows a large black & white bird with magnificently fierce-looking beak and talons, perching on a light.
Pic shows a bright red beetle with black spots, black legs, and long black antennae standing on and chewing a green milkweed leaf.
Pic of a sign attached to a supermarket checkout counter, saying, “Leave with a smile, we’ll handle the check-out for you”.
House plants in front of a window with an iced-over screen.
Lake Ontario solidly iced over. Weak pink light under deep grey clouds.
A sign showing a skirted figure with what could be a vertical support at the end of each arm, and the text “Ambulant toilet”.
Display of XMas figures under an arch with a disproportionately huge Darth Vader next to it, raising a candy-cane striped staff that could be a light sabre.
Screen pop up says “Ooops: VLC media player just crashed. Would you like to send a bug report to the developers team?” The response buttons show “Oui” and “Non”.
Wooden picket fence crudely painted with the inscription “THE EARTH IS LAT”
Street animals salvaging lights and ornaments to decorate a few evergreen beaches in the snow.