afeinman

afeinman, 4 days ago to random

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, 8 days ago to UX

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. #ux #accessibility #badInterfaceNoCookie

afeinman, 13 days ago to random

Labor without consent--forced labor--we call that slavery.

What about emotional labor without consent?

foone, 16 days ago to random

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, 16 days ago to random

"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, 21 days ago to random

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, 22 days ago to random

Seeing otherwise intelligent people fall for the fantasy that #GenAI 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.

arzi, 25 days ago to gamedev

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?

#gamedev #rpg

cstross, 28 days ago to random

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

cstross, 1 month ago to random

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, 1 month ago to writing

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, 2 months ago to random

#ICYMI (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, 2 months ago to random

Super clear road signs in #CambridgeMA...

afeinman, 2 months ago to random

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

afeinman, 2 months ago to random

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, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

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, 2 months ago to writing

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

#writing

afeinman, 3 months ago to random

Is there a payment processor that isn't three facists in a trenchcoat?

Or should I just give up on collecting money?

afeinman, 4 months ago to cyberpunk

I was honestly expecting more light-up clothing by now.

If we're forced to live in a hellish #cyberpunk dystopia why isn't it the stylish one?

VeroniqueB99, 4 months ago to random

jrdepriest, 5 months ago to KbinByNight

I have a very "shot in the dark" ask about my favorite Tarot card deck.

Have you heard of the Mage The Ascension Tarot?
I bought a deck in 1995 when it came out. I still have it and it is my favorite deck. It's been my deck of choice since I bought it. I even preferred it over my Rider-Waite-Smith deck and, when I went through my hyper-Christian blow-back phase, it's the one deck I couldn't bring myself to toss out.

Bad news: I damaged two of the cards while doing a reading. I dropped them and tried to catch them with my legs which creased them down the middle. They are now both unusable in readings because they stand out.

I am aware that you can order reprints from places like DriveThruRPG but those are slightly different cards on different cardstock. The original designs were lost in a fire, I think, so these are more like scanned reprints.

Does anyone, anywhere have the original deck or just the two cards I damaged and would be willing to sell them to me?

I only included a photo of the back of one of the cards since the crease is the same on both of them.

I know it's a bit silly to be so enamored of a novelty deck like this, but I played a lot of World of Darkness mostly Vampire and Mage with a bit of Werewolf. I had the book for Changeling and the supplement for Mummy, but we didn't play them much. A friend of mine had Wraith but we never got into that at all.
I still have all my books downstairs actually, mostly 1st editions save for Vampire which is 2nd edition now.

#MageTheAscension #MageTheAscensionTarot #OWOD #OldWorldOfDarkness #WorldOfDarkness #WhiteWolf #VampireTheMasquerade #Tarot #Pagan #Divination

The back of one of the cards showing a very visible crease running from the top to the bottom. The back of the card is a deep purple color with gold sigils representing the Mage Traditions from Old World of Darkness in a circle. There is also a gold border around the edge.

afeinman, 5 months ago to random

Petition to call algorithms "alga", so we can talk about toxic algae blooms.