Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🎃 👻 8647

Sex, Drugs, & Unix™.
Try democracy, not tyranny!
Be the STFU you wish to see in the world.
A freak of the new atomic world we live in.
Block all Nazis, GOP (same thing), crypto, LLM grifts.
"I have come to tell you that you are free." —Eris

#coffee #scheme #basic #javascript  #objc
#ButlerianJihad
#music #technomagery #gamedev
#retrocomputing #atari
#luanti
#ttrpg #rpg #osr #d100
#scienceFiction #hardsf #fantasy
#atheism #dream #sarcasm #tabs
#pronoun:he/him/program #nobot

Public Key

npub1lwr6ewhchfc8u4k0fupgl4kvr6vm3fu0aqe8e2msj9032ccmqeeqmu38zw

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0hpavhtut5ur72m857q506mxpaxdc5787svnu4dcfzhc4vvdsvuspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsqtgvwn

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1lwr6ewhchfc8u4k0fupgl4kvr6vm3fu0aqe8e2msj9032ccmqeeqmu38zw

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Last Notes

2026-06-14 08:41:09 GMT

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@nprofile…skgk Again, I don't do Swift. I only write Objective-C. And it's incredibly unlikely a lying machine will tell me anything but probabilistic lies.

2026-06-14 08:35:36 GMT

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@nprofile…skgk No, but asking randos on fedi may be just as dumb.

2026-06-14 08:33:17 GMT

I was making a little Mac app wrapper for talking to teletype games. Fucking Xcode.
What does this ViewBridge error mean? I found a few forums where nobody knows, it's just some shit Apple does.
Obvs all my code in this is Objective-C & XIB interface, Swift is C++ with worse syntax, and hilariously not swift.
#xcode #fuckXcode #apple #macos
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/116/747/519/998/692/035/original/574ccbad6064b0b3.jpg

2026-06-03 07:54:27 GMT

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@nprofile…q6qh
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/116/685/095/422/928/628/original/dc4934f5fd42a839.png

2026-06-03 07:38:48 GMT

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@nprofile…q6qh Yes, the choice of not having videos, or installing a bunch of stuff I don't want (but can remove with ports later).

2026-06-03 07:27:51 GMT

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@nprofile…q6qh Or I can do
port install yt-dlp & hit "Yikes" when it lists deps.

2026-06-03 06:30:45 GMT

I miss being able to watch yustub videos, but now they're just stuck in endless ads, or ad-blocker-blocker dialogs.
If they think I'm somehow going to PAY them for this increasing hostility, they're out of their teeny tiny minds.
GEEZ, there's a lot of dependencies for yt-dlp now. Will see if that works, & I can actually watch *A VIDEO*, or if yustub is just dead to me.

2026-05-17 10:12:35 GMT

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@nprofile…l2h8 @nprofile…6w3n @nprofile…2vzh @nprofile…wsge
> Why doesn’t MobileOrg support direct access to org-files#
Answer: MobileOrg is intended to be a useful interface to Org files on iOS, not to allow you to edit Org files with the same power as emacs.
<
> Orgro doesn’t have a concept of “syncing”: <
& so on from what I can see. Lot of viewers, some text editing, but not productive, scripted use of outlines.

2026-05-17 09:18:46 GMT

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@nprofile…wsge @nprofile…l2h8 @nprofile…2vzh @nprofile…6w3n
workflow: https://xkcd.com/1172/
The lack of UI & being stuck in emacs in org-mode, just more not-markdown, is the real workflow killer for me.
As opposed to either portable markdown where you also have to just use text & hack your own tools (I do a lot with sed, awk, or python over md files),
or all UI (but also programmable, tho shortcuts isn't as good as applescript was 10+ years ago):
https://www.omnigroup.com/omnioutliner/

2026-04-30 07:27:56 GMT

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@nprofile…8p63 If you show up somewhere & there's a bathtub with ice in it, run, it's an organ-harvesting network.

2026-04-12 18:13:20 GMT

Linux now allows AI slop.
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/linux/linux-lays-down-the-law-on-ai-generated-code-yes-to-copilot-no-to-ai-slop-and-humans-take-the-fall-for-mistakes-after-months-of-fierce-debate-torvalds-and-maintainers-come-to-an-agreement
#linux

2026-01-28 19:46:10 GMT

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@nprofile…llgf One suggestion is current exchange rate.

2026-01-28 19:27:08 GMT

Best new programming language idea ever, via IRC #scheme chat:
¢ for comment line
<number>¢ comments this and <number>-1 following lines
$ comments this and 99 following lines.

2026-01-17 02:05:08 GMT

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@nprofile…u76z I mean, Scalzi's Redshirts won a Hugo and Locus. And it's at least as sleazy as Laserblasted, just ripping off a more popular franchise. You might get some votes for originality!
Hugo is Worldcon only, but I guess anyone can vote for Locus?

2025-12-31 14:04:42 GMT

https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/814/553/166/970/081/original/db21ef29f010e7e2.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/814/553/443/912/249/original/02396f0b0782d0fc.jpg

2025-12-31 13:46:43 GMT

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@nprofile…tvnd @nprofile…jg4h A lot of it is pretty clearly pastiche post-Roman dark ages, both Númenor as Ys (and a pun on "Normandy"), Gondor as fallen Rome/Constantinople, abandoned forts like Weathertop. The Rohan use Gallic or Frankish names but are more like Romanized Vandals with long-halls.

2025-12-13 12:26:33 GMT

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@nprofile…43jh Making a franchise flick means there's a guaranteed audience even if it sucks, *and* they keep their "intellectual property" (neither) in their hands for another 95 years.
Making a new thing requires giving a shit and taking risks, which is selected out very early in the career process.

2025-12-11 10:54:15 GMT

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@nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…w3ml @nprofile…9x5z I much prefer Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We", which Orwell at least openly ripped off. Zamyatin was "allowed" by Stalin to leave instead of going into a gulag for writing it, but it destroyed him.
https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/yevgeny-zamyatin/we/gregory-zilboorg
The book is fucking horrific, and D's so cheerful most of the time, right up until that's no longer possible or necessary.
He had glass walls in his apartments. We've put them in our phones & computers!

2025-12-09 06:01:25 GMT

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted!
HAIL ERIS!

2025-12-05 20:53:11 GMT

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@nprofile…wryx Yeah, the second post-Jobs era's just been a shinier metal version of the first post-Jobs era. Goddamned sugar water salesmen in charge.

2025-12-05 20:08:08 GMT

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@nprofile…wryx I said 90s, I mean the entire run of Mac II, LC, Quadras, which were beige boxes more boring and uninspiring that fucking PCs, which was an achievement. I hated Apple's hardware design for a decade until the iMacs.
I was over on the Atari ST, which in color did beige to grey, but had cool designs, and then riced-out black & LED PC cases, and at work had SGI and SUN workstations, which were *awesome*. And what I wanted was NeXTstep, but never could afford.

2025-12-03 22:11:33 GMT

Hooray, the shittiest designer in Apple's history, including whoever thought "BEIGE!" for the '90s, is fucking gone! And to screw up Zuck's shit, even better.
Maybe next OS update, Apple can unfuck their designs! Who says we don't get nice things anymore‽
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/03/apple-alan-dye-joining-meta/
🥳 🎉🎈🎊🎁🍾👯👯‍♀️👯‍♂️👯‍♀️
#apple #alandye

2025-11-28 15:45:09 GMT

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@nprofile…q2w2 COMputer oMniscience and UNity enthusIST, or COMMUNIST.
#paranoia #friendComputer

2025-11-16 09:24:33 GMT

Where in the World is #coffee Sandiego?
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/558/641/664/039/032/original/610cd14838e57396.jpg

2025-11-11 03:53:35 GMT

56 years of Sesame Street! Bastards on the right are threatening to bulldoze them, but they're not gone yet.
https://www.tumblr.com/retropopcult/799861661474357248/sesame-street-premiered-on-november-10th-1969
#sesameStreet
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/529/035/657/603/267/original/88ae1c0885aeb850.mp4

2025-11-08 11:04:26 GMT

Every type of mecha
https://shin-zaibatsu.tumblr.com/post/799620364103729152
Every type of kaiju
https://shin-zaibatsu.tumblr.com/post/799620360015380480/every-type-of-kaiju
Tag your ideal self. I'm Forklift Man, but "knife." is pretty great, too.
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/513/745/976/025/208/original/6e515f9cf8cadc74.png
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/513/746/367/555/782/original/1bc5b9a5d88918ce.png

2025-11-06 09:13:59 GMT

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@nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…7yvh Oh, sure. I'm pretty far on their end of the balancing spectrum, too. My games follow a brutally steep bathtub curve of death until you get good, then a long easy (but don't get careless) bit if you're competent, then endgame death, with a side of flaming death. *I* think that's fun.
And I work that out by either making a spreadsheet, or just doing some math on a calculator to figure out how much HP lost/healed is possible, damage dealt/monsters HP. (or whatever)

2025-11-06 09:08:58 GMT

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@nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…7yvh Shannon had some words about randomness, but I wish I remembered the Game Theory book I read as a yout', it covered 1 to n-player games, weighing results, and figuring probability of each outcome. I *absorbed* it but I've mostly practical intuition for it after 30-ish years.
I use stochastic in the probability theory sense, a series of random values which have a probability space over time, hugely random with one, bell-curved to almost linear with enough values.

2025-11-06 09:03:05 GMT

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@nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…7yvh From the randomly or intentionally placed things in the game.
That's why we scatter weapons, potions, and such around, or have monsters drop loot. Not because we're nice to the player, but that search while avoiding dying, and choosing items that help your play style, is the skill part.
Early game you really risk everything on a fight, because you need what's in or beyond that monster.

2025-11-06 08:58:20 GMT

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@nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…7yvh The buffs. A +0.5 buff makes you 50% more likely (0.5 vs 1.5) to win than lose in a fight. A +1 makes you 100% more. (Of course, you wouldn't actually use a d6 for this, a bell curve like 2d50 giving 2-100, or timing-based reflex games, are better, but quick example).
The first few contacts might kill you. If you make it thru, your choices and a very little "luck" determine the outcome.

2025-11-06 08:48:51 GMT

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@nprofile…7yvh @nprofile…00p2 Anything with more than a few random chance elements is no longer "random", but stochastic, and pretty soon almost completely deterministic.
A game where you roll 1d6: 1-3: Lose, 4-6: Win. Is crap, you won't have any repeated chances so it's 50/50.
If you can roll 1d6: 1: Lose, 2-5: Try again, 6: Win, and use the try agains to explore and find buffs, it becomes skill-based.
#roguelike #gamedev

2025-11-04 18:50:02 GMT

As previously noted about plan9:
#plan9
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/492/923/953/940/893/original/90cc986b54fb2fac.jpg

2025-11-02 23:40:31 GMT

Coming in 2025! The Anti-Sex League and monitoring thru every TV set/computer! We already have that in red states!
https://turnupthestrobe.tumblr.com/post/799139856577134592
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/482/739/531/415/424/original/70cfff9622f5a603.jpg

2025-11-02 23:08:23 GMT

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@nprofile…4q78 Palladium's Chaos Earth, where the cosmic nuclear war magic apocalypse happens and power armor firefighters are a class. There's kind of a lot of medical and rescue skill detail.
I've used it a few times, it's jarring having this high-powered stuff and everyday hero backstory, but it's serious about the story.
https://palladiumbooks.com/shop/futuristic/rifts-chaos-earth-rpg/rifts-chaos-earth-rpg/
#ttrpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/482/598/891/969/686/original/fe8ce9f96e5a38bc.jpg

2025-11-02 02:43:18 GMT

#coffee
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/477/794/836/593/377/original/ed3a953c3551734a.jpeg

2025-10-31 13:50:18 GMT

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@nprofile…tvnd Yeah, I was thinking Buffy, too. I'm sure there's Hellmouths all over, and Slayers generating around them as an immune system.

2025-10-31 13:44:19 GMT

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@nprofile…tvnd X-Files outright states that other than Mulder & Scully, governments are complicit with the monsters.
There's often organizations on par with the star monster hunters in other shows, just not a lot, so they have big "service regions" which lets you have a new setting every week, too.
Some like Haven had something specifically wrong with that town/people.

2025-10-30 07:20:28 GMT

The fate of all old proprietary software:
https://tidbits.com/2025/10/25/nisus-writer-schrodingers-word-processor/
The fate of old open-source software is it gets rewritten by idiot children armed with LLMs to have 1/10 the functionality and 10x the bugs, every 5 years.
So, pick your failure mode.

2025-10-29 23:57:53 GMT

If you were hoping to play #minecraft but Microsoft prevents it, try the better version:
https://www.luanti.org
Load the VoxeLibre game for a MC-like experience:
https://content.luanti.org/packages/Wuzzy/mineclone2/
Or Asuna for a weirder one:
https://content.luanti.org/packages/EmptyStar/asuna/
#minecraft #luanti #minetest #asuna #voxelibre

2025-10-29 01:34:06 GMT

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@nprofile…00p2 @nprofile…7yvh But "Little Black Bag" and The Marching Morons directly inspired Idiocracy. The "doctor" in Idiocracy is basically the LBB user. Deskilling because everyone has to "work" but all work has been made pointless.

2025-10-21 04:11:09 GMT

The other thing about this AWS situation, is I'm sure I'm not responsible and anyway statute of limitations, but I did hack on the thing that became AWS 20 years ago. I was hired as a Java dev but also ended up writing maybe 10 thousand LOC of Perl/Mason and Bash scripts.
I have never since deployed anything to AWS and I really really recommend hosting your thing somewhere else, as if you need the advice after today.

2025-10-19 12:38:15 GMT

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@nprofile…pklh
"Maybe the aliens will be our friends!"
<ray gun>
(not that the billionaires who launched that are our friends, either.)

2025-10-16 03:21:29 GMT

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@nprofile…pklh And previously, Scots, but by dumb teenage Humans instead of equally dumb LLM:
https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/26/scots_wikipedia_fake/
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/scots-wikipedia-articles-vandalism

2025-10-04 08:57:28 GMT

https://thatsbelievable.com/post/631454184433156096
#books
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/315/056/168/384/033/original/f77498c442223a90.jpg

2025-10-04 07:06:48 GMT

One of the best things about fediverse is we don't have a CEO.
There's Gargamel, and we all think he's a dumbass, even the fools who use his personal badly-run servers. If you don't want to use his software, you can switch to gotosocial or a few other server types entirely, and it still works.
No gods, kings, or CEOs.

2025-09-30 05:29:37 GMT

Follow, like, and subscribe for my other hot takes!
- All our politicians are shit.
- Billionaires are shit.
- Old media & computers are better than new, and all sequels and reboots are shit.
- All programming languages suck, except Scheme and maybe JS & BASIC. <complains for hours about the fucking R6-R8RS fiasco, the terrible morons editing it, how no two impls work halfway similar, and my tech stacks are toxic dumpster fires rejected by the Superfund as unfixable>

2025-09-06 13:37:08 GMT

LB: WTF new Black Company book‽ GIMME. GIMME NOW.
#darkfantasy #books #blackcompany
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/157/601/004/745/490/original/38b34471c2f30766.jpg

2025-08-28 13:43:35 GMT

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@nprofile…xaqe All whimsy died with Steve.

2025-08-28 11:54:45 GMT

https://xkcd.com/3134/
I believe quantum wave functions only collapse when a pop science writer writes about the event, thereby spreading knowledge of the event beyond the local horizon of the laser. It back-propagates thru time so it seems like you saw it work. In medieval times the double-slit experiment didn't work, largely because they didn't have lasers or pop science writers yet!
(I joke because doing the experiment seriously weirded me out and still does.)
#science

2025-08-28 10:01:43 GMT

So I put on some more Justified. And the fucking hillbilly trailer trash crime spree shit brings up Feelings, because 2400 miles away from this, half o' my people were not any better.
"GET IN THE HOUSE!" "I HOPE YOU GET CANCER!" "I ALREADY HAD IT AND I HAD HIM MOVE OUTTA THE HOUSE."
#justified
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/105/801/792/755/081/original/1d39a46a851f8c3f.jpg

2025-08-28 07:24:39 GMT

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Amusingly, there's a drug addiction Very Special Episode in this book.
It's amusing because A) every '80s show had one, and B) Pokemans is fucking crack, but less pleasing.
I remember when it came out, little pre-teen crackheads would be on street corners surrounded by crack bottls^W^W pokemans wrappers, muttering gibberish at each other with their little paper crack pipes.
I was nauseated by it then, and I'm 10x less tolerant of it now that I know it's CIA shit.

2025-08-28 07:10:24 GMT

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This entire book 6, Eye of the Bedlam Bride, is a pokemans CCG thing, and I hate it. It's boring, stupid, the "game in a game" thing is tedious. Half the time they seem to be staring at cards, which is lame IRL when you're just playing one level of game.
There's like, 1/4 of the time they manage to be in the actual game, or metagame politicking, and that's fun again. The assassin's guild is HA HA. The rest is so phoned in, and I regret being here.
#DungeonCrawlerCarl

2025-08-28 05:31:15 GMT

There's Star Wars branding on my can of Coke. And alas a picture of Hayden fuckface pretending he's Anakin, whining about sand.
For no sane reason, I camera the QR code, and it takes me to a screen that demands my age, apparently I have to be 18+ to use this thing‽
It's supposedly going to make a "hologram" character. Takes forever to load. But now it wants camera, microphone, buncha stuff. Nah. It doesn't work on desktop.
Some marketing fuck musta worked real hard on this, and failed.

2025-08-26 13:58:46 GMT

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ESO was actually worse than I describe. I just remembered I had 10/14 characters as mules, each with 200/200 inventory or close to it, parked at banks (later, in a house with a banker NPC).
But that was for stuff I rarely needed, like recipes & training gear to equip a new character, or weird one-particular-raid sets.

2025-08-26 13:46:52 GMT

Every character I run has a problem with pack-ratting inventory.
Then I remember every videogame, where I have a problem with pack-ratting inventory. Particular shout-out to ESO, where I usually had 190/200 pack, 500/500 bank, 8 storage chests 120/120, and entire houses reserved for spare furniture/building mats. Just in case.
Then I look at my filesystem, where I have a problem with pack-ratting files. Buy bigger drives!
IRL house isn't quite at hoarder level yet.

2025-08-26 07:46:12 GMT

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@nprofile…h4yv I watched a bunch of CC's videos which made me want the SwissMicro, but that'll have to wait.

2025-08-26 07:14:29 GMT

Go looking for my HP-48, oh, right, LCD failed a while ago (fucking late-era HP POS). I can't afford a $300+ SwissMicros. I need a real calculator; pcalc etc requires looking at a screen.
So looking at calculator reviews. And 90% of the yustubs are AI-generated slop. "it is excellent for ah level" (A Levels), is a good giveaway.
Find a Human with poor speaking skills, there's a bug crawling on his countertop, but he's a person. Not many of 'em left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQqtiqBRALs
#calculators

2025-08-26 06:05:47 GMT

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Placed my final order at https://sciplus.com
$40 of mostly little tools, notebooks, safety goggles. As I shopped, a few things went out of stock.
My first order with them must've been 1990? Collin (RIP) ordered a bunch of beakers & pipes to make a MASH-style dorm room still (nothing from it was ever drinkable…), and the catalog was so amazing. I just got little lamps, circuit parts, and some hand exercise balls. Probably one order every year or five since?
#sciplus

2025-08-26 04:01:44 GMT

This anti-science fucking timeline pisses me off so much.

2025-08-26 00:21:01 GMT

#coffee
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/092/197/364/193/582/original/f4e64ab0fccd6027.jpg

2025-08-26 00:14:27 GMT

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This magazine has everything! Good timing on a lazy sunny day.
#retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/092/167/869/908/024/original/513d2e96223207fe.jpg

2025-08-26 00:07:59 GMT

♫ Standin' on the corner
Suitcase in my hand
Jack is in his corset, Jane is in her vest
And me, I'm in a rock 'n' roll band ♫
https://music.apple.com/us/song/sweet-jane/1050415253
#music

2025-08-25 23:33:38 GMT

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Under the Hacker's Hat
https://archive.org/details/profiles_v1n4_feb_84/page/30/mode/2up
> So I resolved to overcome my awe long enough to find out what goes on in the mind of the programmer. After quizzingthehackersIcouldcorner,I scoured book stores and libraries for enlightenment. In the end, I found evidence that successful programmers do think differently. And, while their skills are undoubtedly impressive, their methods are within reach of the determined “prenovice.”
<
#retrocomputing #hacker
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/092/010/372/268/485/original/bb5876ed4bbeb226.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/092/010/791/798/965/original/082ce14f8cd46938.jpg

2025-08-25 23:28:24 GMT

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@nprofile…2t3n Calculator holster. For fast access to an HP-35.

2025-08-25 23:18:17 GMT

Whoah! Anne McCaffrey!
#retrocomputing #ScienceFiction #pern
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/091/951/865/020/073/original/e8e89b16c578707e.png

2025-08-25 23:13:40 GMT

Hey, nerd, you want some… software‽ Demo disk's free.
https://archive.org/details/PROFILES_Volume_1_Number_5_1984-03_Kaypro_Corp_US
#retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/091/930/313/943/070/original/71bdfd4b103e29a4.jpg

2025-08-25 08:37:27 GMT

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I will need to add player/missile graphics*, and I gotta think about the API for that a bit, anyway.
Like, how do collisions work? Does it test against characters or pixel colors or only other P/M?†
* ("sprites" but I'm old and back in the day Sprite was a soft drink, multi-layer bitmaps were player/missiles)
† (no I don't need advice, I've got old graphics books‡ to read)
‡ (in the fore-fore times of the 1900s, we read printed material to learnΩ things)
Ω (learn… you wouldn't get it)

2025-08-25 08:28:19 GMT

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Testing out tilemap characters in Terminal:
This is actually the text
ȁȃȅ GP:1234567890
āāĂĂĀĂāāĂĀāāāāĀĂĂĂāĂĂĂĂĂāĂāĀāā
(etc) @ for the little guy.
I remapped the digits but not letters, this tilemap doesn't have a full font.
I really wish the old code I linked a minute ago had a full game already. I don't want to write content in JS anymore, just infrastructure like this, and then code it in whatever. Guess I should get back to adding to BASIC.
#cyberhole #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/088/420/287/287/657/original/7df2c9dcd2b84bd2.png

2025-08-25 03:42:34 GMT

Code Name: Early Bird VS The Worm
https://www.tumblr.com/falseknees/792578859225743360/mecharobin
#kaiju #mecha
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/087/315/469/979/812/original/5a4debf4377e4b2d.jpg

2025-08-25 03:05:17 GMT

Looking thru old folders to move over, and I find this. It looks OK, moves a little herky-jerky, but doesn't really do anything. 60% of a game at best.
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/087/183/751/366/836/original/372b4fc4f866521d.png

2025-08-25 01:52:22 GMT

#coffee
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/086/898/482/521/053/original/4801dbae1154877c.mp4

2025-08-24 22:42:47 GMT

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@nprofile…9d9n I kinda do that anytime I get software to work at all.
The Switch was pretty amazing, esp Animal Crossing New Horizons, at a scary time there was suddenly this perfect little world.
Getting Chicken Scheme, and then Chez Scheme, to run SDL2 so I can write useful stuff in a nice language, was VERY big.

2025-08-24 13:17:58 GMT

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@nprofile…xy93 WE ALL ENJOY [relevant topics or hobbies] JONATHAN

2025-08-24 12:04:11 GMT

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If you let a bard in your party, you're gonna have to do a dance-off ballet party for a post-vampiric dinosaur. And also there's a lot of negatives.
#dungeonCrawlerCarl

2025-08-24 11:59:09 GMT

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@nprofile…ewpr There's a mini-essay in Cryptonomicon, which might've been written by reading my brain. Various forms of it are the only cereal I like.

2025-08-24 09:43:46 GMT

♫ Here I am in silence looking 'round without a clue
I find myself alone again, all alone with you
I can see behind your eyes the things that I don't know
If you hide away from me, how can our love grow? ♫
https://music.apple.com/us/song/whats-on-your-mind-pure-energy/1604621828
#music

2025-08-24 09:32:13 GMT

It's neat/frightening how I can look at some 35-year-old code, and *smell* the Jolt Cola, Cap'n Crunch, CostCo stir-fry, tortillas, & salsa I subsisted on. Hear the Atari ST keyclick as I worked on it, in STeVIe.
Maybe later there'd be some paintball, or game night, or a date with the girl I was trying to get with, or the other I was getting with.
… It's too early, but I'm gonna grab a beer.

2025-08-24 09:20:12 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um Right. Most terrains are 1-2 tiles high. But they have properties, like can you walk behind the tree tops, or behind a house roof and find a hidden chest there. If you have stacks of stuff, it gets fussier, and the GUI is harder to make usable. I've never poked a mon, dunno how complex their maps are.
I always end up back at just writing a program describing a map. I have one map file format that I wrote in '90-ish for my BBS doorgame (Mystic Dungeon is very like it).

2025-08-24 09:08:07 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um I have map tile selection in Arrokoth, and then you can use that to do edit commands, but I expect to mostly write from a text file with my scripting system.
A proper graphics editor wouldn't be hard, but you have to make a tile palette, and form fields for updating characters, and I wasn't up for all that.
I'm not a fan of the Windows-ness, but RPGMaker was the big fat gorilla of the space:
https://www.rpgmakerweb.com/products/rpg-maker-vx

2025-08-24 09:01:41 GMT

I mostly don't drink coffee on the weekend, so I can taper off a bit between incapacitating hyperactive fits and unconsciousness. But boy do I jones for it.

2025-08-24 08:42:32 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um The USE-TILE-SHEET is false right now because mcclim didn't clip patterns right (or I didn't know how).
load-bitmap is in Arrokoth.lisp

2025-08-24 08:37:11 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um When I get around to working on it again, I'll make an asdf and split the files up correctly. Right now tile code is like from one comment divider to another, and then you only
(draw-pattern* pane (load-bitmap tile) (pointx spos) (pointy spos))

2025-08-24 08:30:29 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um Yeah, basically a list structure per grid, identified by symbol.
Files are in img.zip, so you can expand in place.

2025-08-24 08:28:19 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um I should move it off gitlab, because I can't use it from lynx, and it has an ugly login.

2025-08-24 08:21:41 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um Also if you go into my Arrokoth repo, you can grab the split-out tiles and rendering code, and use that to put sprites instead of just TE ST. The tiles are from Kenney's CC-0 free stuff.

2025-08-24 08:16:25 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um As usual toobnix chat doesn't work for me. I'm trying to make an account but as noted, SDF.

2025-08-24 06:34:45 GMT

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@nprofile…wp4d That's what dungeon levelling is for. On the first level, you get a taste of treasure and danger. And that increases sometimes exponentially as you go deeper. Greed pulls you down until you go further than you can survive. But you'd be a fool to stop at 1st level.
There's a similar genre of alien puzzle rooms in SF, where every room is more difficult but there's more knowledge or tech to be gained (Alastair Reynolds' "Diamond Dogs" is a good example).

2025-08-24 03:51:31 GMT

♫ Our so-called leaders speak
With words, they try to jail you
They subjugate the meek
But it's the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world ♫
https://music.apple.com/us/song/spirits-in-the-material-world-remastered-2003/1440754951
#music

2025-08-23 13:36:54 GMT

Suffering is measured in the number of computers you have to deal with.
Networking exponentially increases that number, and the amount of suffering.
Smash the control machine (routers or printers), tear out the cat6 cable which rules you!
#ButlerianJihad

2025-08-23 13:33:52 GMT

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@nprofile…q5wq Tho as usual, I appreciate that you write this IT stuff, but I can't read it because I don't want to backslide into a filthy degenerate drunken bastard sysadmin lifestyle.
Write more orks.

2025-08-23 13:22:15 GMT

I wish sdf stuff stayed up a little more reliably. I'd go look for the donate page, but it's hosted on sdf.

2025-08-23 09:51:44 GMT

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@nprofile…edua Yeah, the new one looks like that, too, but misses the sky ribbon. Teela's hero boyfriend thinks he's walking to the arch, not UP.

2025-08-23 07:17:19 GMT

I'm most accustomed to the Don Davis cover for Del Rey, it's SO perfect, hints but makes you think about it, from the ground view.
The original Ballantine is neat but gives away too much.
https://70sscifiart.tumblr.com/post/792641146187890688
#scienceFiction #books
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/076/846/072/212/261/original/47e04d2d300ce72a.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/076/846/514/876/378/original/d2e1064e19ffd540.jpg

2025-08-23 05:35:29 GMT

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Ported Haunted Halloween
PUMPKININ UP THE CYBER HOLE
https://cyberhole.online
Which revealed some really stupid bugs in how I did fg/bg colors, so everything's been touched.
I need to get on replacing some chars with bitmaps, because it's not as cool as the ATASCII font with little running dude figures. Eh.
#cyberhole #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/076/442/892/442/585/original/534abd207de20137.png
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/076/443/537/018/556/original/942aa48a8e3bacff.png
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/076/448/521/021/687/original/68059c8bd6d12d67.png

2025-08-23 01:13:56 GMT

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@nprofile…j6um Tho mostly game AI isn't much "AI", other than A* algorithm. A few games use some agent logic, but most are just a pile of ad-hoc rules.

2025-08-23 00:53:50 GMT

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@nprofile…063f When VRV partnered/bought them, Crunchy went to shit. So that's like a decade now. Sony's not been any better. 🏴‍☠️ every day.

2025-08-22 23:32:23 GMT

And yet again, Spotlight stops working and I have to
sudo mdutil -E /
fuckin, why?

2025-08-22 23:24:09 GMT

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Maybe it's a radioactive space banana.

2025-08-22 23:23:22 GMT

#coffee
I dunno if I like this picture. Obviously a crescent Moon is not transparent! It's just dark outside the little slice reflecting sunlight.
But also if you put the Moon in your cup, it'd kill everyone with tides so like, what?
Also I guess it's a teacup, but whatever.
http://gregmorteditions.com/sunmoonstars_disp.html
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/074/971/068/562/554/original/d1eaed5e765f337d.jpg

2025-08-22 23:00:37 GMT

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@nprofile…824q I use applescript for that stuff a lot. tell application "whatever" set window's position to wahtever