Mark Bessey

I mostly work on Mac and iOS applications these days, but have a wide range of experience covering <mumble> decades. When I'm not working, I dabble in making music, playing video games, and talking about movies. I love science, art, mythology, science fiction, and chocolate.

Last Notes

2026-04-26 22:41:03 GMT

Some #birds of #australia
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/116/473/411/271/700/978/original/feb12d16fef53a52.png
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/116/473/411/590/906/196/original/acdab1bae0123cc1.png
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/116/473/411/872/403/478/original/b07709c97848412c.png

2025-05-20 06:03:47 GMT

Hello, my lovely #retrogaming #videogame nerds - I have a research question for you:
What video games of the 1970s to 1990s used a virtual-machine architecture to ease porting to the wide variety of home computer systems of the time? I have already found Infocom's Z-machine, and Sierra's AGI, as well as the VM inside Another World. Pointers to other examples, and *especially* to technical descriptions of their internal architecture, would be really appreciated.
#videogames

2025-04-30 15:53:25 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…ae45 huh. I did not know that Pecan Systems ported the p-System to the Amiga. I would totally have been in the market for that back in 1989 or so.
Well, adding that to the list to investigate. I suspect that would have been version IV port...

2025-04-30 00:34:27 GMT

Oh look - it's a new blog post, an introduction to the USCD p-System Editor, *written on* the UCSD Pascal Editor:
https://markbessey.blog/2025/04/29/ucsd-pascal-in-depth/
Yes, this means that my #Rust #psystem utility can successfully copy files off of the emulator disk image, and convert them into Mac-formatted text, from the frankly bizarre format that's native to the text editor.
#retrocomputing #appleii #pascal

2025-04-22 20:37:41 GMT

I was watching the latest season of Black Mirror yesterday, and when I saw that DHL is apparently the official delivery company of dystopian futurism, I thought "yeah , that tracks". I wonder if they actually PAID for product placement, or if they were the only delivery company NOT to pay?

2025-04-15 06:31:50 GMT

I wrote a new blog post:
A blast from the past: The UCSD p-System, Apple Pascal, and a dream of cross-platform compatibility never quite realized.
https://markbessey.blog/2025/04/14/a-blast-from-the-past/
#programming #pascal #retrocomputing

2025-04-02 19:55:24 GMT

- reply

@nprofile…6m2n my version of this would have about 95% overlap. I never use tmux or screen, since I'm nearly always using a GUI terminal emulator. I think I've used cal once or twice. I probably use killall everywhere you'd use pkill. Obviously, "find" is an omission, so I won't count that as a difference.
I use about 1% of awk, but I use it more often than cut, because if I have to remember one weird set of rules, I'll just use it, even if it's overkill.

2025-03-04 21:56:55 GMT

Last week, I told a bunch of people at a storytelling night about the time I came closest to killing myself. I'm still processing the emotional fallout of that, it was raw, and it was hard, but I think it will eventually have been good for me.
And just this week, I found out that a former co-worker's young son committed suicide, after struggling with major depression for most of his short life.
For my fellow #depression sufferers, especially if they're down in the pit RIGHT NOW, I want to say -
I know it feels like nothing is ever going to get better. I know it HURTS in a way you can't even explain to other people. And I know it seems like there is only one way to stop the pain. I see that, and I have lived it, and I acknowledge it. But...
Depression is a LIE. The voice that tells you everything is shit, the gray filter over the beauty of a sunset, the woolen mittens over everything you touch? It's all bullshit. You are not worthless, you are not alone, YOU MATTER (to me).