@afeinman@wandering.shop
@afeinman@wandering.shop avatar

afeinman

@afeinman@wandering.shop

Obligate infovore; I write fantasy, sci fi, and software. All posts made with 100% recycled electrons, sustainably crafted by artisanal artisans. He*/him/his. Doctor, if you absolutely insist.

Nothing said here should be construed as in any way connected to my daytime employer.

I boost and star freely. Boosts of my stuff are jes' fine. I control follow requests to avoid scrapers and spammers, is not personal.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

afeinman, to random
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In case you missed it or ran out of outrage over the weekend, here's your Monday reminder to complain to your work Slack admin about them scraping content for generative AI.

Don't just opt out. Ask them to threaten to dump Slack for this.

afeinman, to random
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afeinman, to random
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Does anyone know of a payment processor that isn't three fascists in a trenchcoat?

Is there a "peer pay" effort out there? Or should we go back to mailing cash* to our friends?

(* do not mail cash. Problematic in some cases, illegal in others)

afeinman, to random
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I'm just going to say it.

Stop all use of Google Drive immediately. There are many other options for sharing data and files.

The spyware built in is bad enough, but they are also judging what you store there and blocking what they don't like. Your files, not accessible to you.

Stop using Google Drive.
https://sizeriot.com/@aborigen/112436104213633113

futurebird, to random
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How would it feel? What would it say about us? if we remain a nation that builds weapons of war, effective weapons, our best technology— and none of the people cared what purpose they served? they could defend a people violated by invading armies, they could be a tool to sweep a people away and not even our young people full of idealism think it worth questioning. Streets quiet, peaceful, another beautiful spring— and not one willing to listen, imagine the rumble of distant munitions.

afeinman,
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@futurebird During Gulf War 1, I wrote a short poem about exactly this.

The war was sanitized and all we saw was silence, while bombs were dropped to level cities and soldiers were buried in sandy tombs by war dozers.

I think that's when warhawks realized media control meant there wouldn't ever be another Vietnam War, where the battle for domestic mindshare was much fiercer.

afeinman,
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@queenofnewyork @futurebird Yes. We're in the death throes of centralized media.

But we keep having huge backwards steps (like Twitter getting neutralized as a source for useful news and organizing by its purchase, almost certainly for that exact purpose).

(Animals are often quite dangerous when cornered, and powered entities are worse.)

afeinman, to random
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Every company right now:

"Our patented new DuckSmasher 9000 will produce value at a rate never seen before.

Based on the economic theory proven in the legendary paper 'The Golden Goose', we instead use ducks to cut costs.

Preliminary results are promising. We have secured Round B funding with aims of producing actual gold some time in 2035."

afeinman, to UX
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I cannot communicate how much I hate the "long press--to do things" interface pattern.

What does it do? No idea; every control is different.

Is it discoverable? Only in the way the corner of a coffee table is discoverable by your shin.

Is it accessible to folks with motor control issues, or who use screen readers? Also no.

Gah.

afeinman, to random
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Labor without consent--forced labor--we call that slavery.

What about emotional labor without consent?

foone, to random
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the world needs more recreational programming.
like, was this the most optimal or elegant way to code this?

no, but it was the most fun to write.

afeinman,
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@foone I keep meaning to start a YT channel "This Old Code"...because one needs to exist...

afeinman, to random
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"People fought hard when they tried to start charging for the outdoors.

"So instead they're doing their darndest to make the outdoors unbearable."

afeinman, to random
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This morning's writing inspiration from @charliejane:

“I get why people want to share their own writing rules [...]; when you find something that works for you, it’s natural to want to share it with everyone else. [...]

Nevertheless, rulemaking is another way that we internalize our anxieties, and then put them on everyone else. Nobody ever wants to admit how confused we all are.”

from "Never Say You Can't Survive"

afeinman, to random
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Seeing otherwise intelligent people fall for the fantasy that chat bots have a mind...

...feels a lot like watching an animal that sees its reflection and doesn't understand mirrors.

There's no "there" there, got it? It's just spitting back a funhouse mirror of what everyone else said.

afeinman,
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@tshirtman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room

afeinman,
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@tshirtman An understanding of the world is a nice start, but has little to do with having a mind.

arzi, to gamedev
@arzi@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Random design idea:

Let's assume a turn-based RPG, single character.

You have a pool of x dice at your disposal, each one already rolled to a result. Every time you'd normally roll a die, you choose one die and use the result. A new die is rolled to replace it.

To prevent hanging on to good rolls for too long, or just never using the bad ones, dice slowly "heat" and if they remain in the pool for too long, explode and cause adverse effects.

Do you think this could work?

afeinman,
@afeinman@wandering.shop avatar

@arzi The Castle Falkenstein has a similar system, except using cards instead of dice. Players like knowing what their luck will be, but you only ever have a hand of 4 cards, and the GM controls when they refresh. So it mostly works out.

The suits do different things, but that just encourages creativity. ("Guess I will have to seduce that law clerk instead of pickpocketing him!")

cstross, to random
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"Measure twice and cut once—throats, that is" (variation on an old proverb, per one of the villains of my current WIP).

afeinman,
@afeinman@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross I fear the opponent who needs throat cut twice!

cstross, to random
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Of course, if the service K9 is a bomb-sniffing dog or a drug squad animal you probably want to run very fast in the opposite direction ...
https://mastodonapp.uk/@MarkHoltom/112042127632430226

afeinman,
@afeinman@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross "An ordnance tech at a dead run outranks everyone.

This applies to canine techs, too."

afeinman, to writing
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Looking for cover artist referrals (boosts welcome). Pay is $600 USD for a novel cover.

What I want:
Mr. Maybe and Dr. Don't is a non-traditional MG fantasy, with swords and magic and unusual woodland magical critters that need some art design. Whimsical without being farcical.

(In an ideal world the artist would also contribute some interior art, e.g. b/w frontispiece and/or chapter images. Price negotiable for that.) #amPublishing #WritersCoffeeClub #writing #artist

markmccaughrean, to random
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social avatar

(as I did), this is an excellent op-ed by @cstross on the politically & ideologically-loaded background of the cult of unfettered tech optimism & its billionaire bros.

As Charlie says, science fiction is fundamentally just entertainment & often highly derivative, not the philosophical blueprint for the future of humankind.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tech-billionaires-need-to-stop-trying-to-make-the-science-fiction-they-grew-up-on-real/

afeinman,
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@AntonPNym @cstross @hannu_ikonen @markmccaughrean Missing the point of moral lessons in Starship Troopers or Torment Nexes reminds me of those colorblind-checking dot pictures.

Some folks can't see them and that tells you something important about them.

afeinman, to random
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Super clear road signs in ...

afeinman, to random
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"When I was your age ALL ads were unskippable! This is why we invented microwave popcorn!"

afeinman, to random
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I love humans. Someone upscaled the old Flash (1990) show to make it watchable on modern machines.

This is why things should go out of copyright. It's not like the rights owners did this. Some enthusiast did.

(I'm sure it will be terrible. I also hope they do Misfits of Science next.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojEXWcebjnk

futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

It annoys me how people talk about using social media like it's a vice. And a female-coded one at that.

"Spend less time on social media" is trotted out a virtuous in the same way that "not eating a pint of ice cream" is.

Imagine if in the early days of movable type, there were people going around saying "don't read pamphlets, they are full of misinformation"

Social media is the primary way news is disseminated. It is superseding newspapers and TV as the primary vector of mass media. 1/

afeinman,
@afeinman@wandering.shop avatar

@futurebird

Reminds me of a common frustration, which I think you've posted about before...

Abstinence is so often prescribed as the solution to a perceived vice. Just don't do it! Eat less! Don't Do Drugs! Problem solved.

It absolves the speaker and reveals a piss-off attitude. "That is your individual problem. If you can't even take my simple advice, you moron, ..."

And it flattens away the systemic or situational pressures which make the advice useless.

afeinman, to writing
@afeinman@wandering.shop avatar

Who called it a "portal" fantasy when "plot hole" was right there?

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