@jmac@masto.nyc
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

jmac

@jmac@masto.nyc

I live in New York. I get paid to write about databases. I don’t get paid to write about other stuff, but I do it anyway.

Tech writer at Google; Two-time nonprofit co-founder; Liker of coffee, cats, open web technologies, et cetera.

Co-admin of https://masto.nyc, and president of Five Borough Fedi Project, the nonprofit that owns it. My posts reflect my own thoughts and opinions, which are not necessarily those of FBFP.

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

jmac, (edited ) to random
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Brother Ricky took it upon himself to give me an absolutely horrifying talk while he was on leave from the Army one Christmas when I must have been 10 or 11. Later Mom caught wind of this and tried to paper over things by getting utterly smashed and going on for a while about how natural and beautiful sex was without offering further details or inviting questions. And that was that! @codinghorror
https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/112589369138809768

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

I normally don't talk about my childhood in spaces like this but it's fresh in my mind because I did just see another boomer-jukebox musical with the in-laws, and it came up in later conversation how my own silent-generation parents were always at least slightly smashed, and so were all their friends, and so were probably many of my friends' parents, because I rather suspect that this was just how that whole demographic got by. 🥃

jmac, (edited )
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Ricky was probably drunk when he gave me the talk too. Anyway between all this and mom's cooking I thought sex, alcohol, and green vegetables were all disgusting horrors until well into my twenties, as I started to move away from my parents and make friends my own age who were able to deprogram me about all these. Separately.

jmac, to random
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Today on my morning constitutional around da city I helped free a little old lady who was stuck inside of a Chase Bank ATM booth, how many XP is that worth

jmac, to random
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My phone reminded me that on this day 11 years ago I took this photograph while either driving or being driven around Austin, Texas. OK! I guess I found this sign mildly funny. I was there for a tech conference.

jmac, (edited )
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I’m going through a rough patch now but it is nothing like what I was going through when I took this photo. I hope I got a few retweets out of whatever snarky comment I had originally attached to this in the summer of 2013; I absolutely needed the energy.

jmac, to music
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Bummed to learn that all Sam Ash stores are closing, and not just the Midtown one I've been buying my equipment at since starting my musical journey last fall.

The fleeting silver lining means some sweet sales as they sweep their inventory clean: https://www.samash.com/sale

jmac, (edited ) to random
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The quietest reason that Helldivers II is a good game: You can replay the tutorial any time you like, with no need to start an entirely new game-file. The option to do so is very discoverable right in the pause-screen menus; that's the only reason I know it's there.

I have often seen requests for an “Over-35 mode" in modern games that re-teaches how to play after a long absence, due to Life. And this did it! Quietly! And that's very good.

jmac, (edited )
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It's gravy that the option is completely diegetic within , where the people you control are cannon fodder who have each attended the same training session moments before being flung into the front lines. So the in-world “explanation" for the option is that you can manually play out your latest doomed recruit getting their training any time you want.

But really, the same option would be most welcome in most any modern video game, diegetic or otherwise!

jmac, (edited )
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Aside: Amy and I enjoy Helldivers as a bleak and violent comedy engine. It's a game about accidentally calling down an orbital strike on your wife after she accidentally fires a bazooka into your back. It is very strange to hear colleagues exchanging optimal strategies for trying to actually do well at it, but I guess you can play that way too if you're into it? Cool! Enjoy!

jmac, to nyc
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Speaking of 🏙️, if you like inline skating around #NYC, or maybe zipping on any geometry of tiny wheels through any urban landscape, consider giving Masto.NYC's own @skatenyc a follow!

"Founded in 1997, the Empire Skate Club of New York is a non-profit organization of inline skaters dedicated to having fun and bringing the New York City inline skating community closer together.”

jmac, to random
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Speaking of Masto.NYC and nonprofits, this one's just between you and me: we've launched a charitable nonprofit based right here in New York to hold, fund, and maintain this here server in the long term.

We consider Masto.NYC a true and free public service for the people and businesses of the New York metro area, and it's high time to give it the legal structure, support, and stability that it needs to fulfill that.

Official announcement to come when we are all done setting up the money stuff!

jmac, (edited ) to random
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Pause to reflect on the controls of Defender, recognized as totally bananas in 1981, let alone today.

A 2D game where you move your ship up/down/left/right, except:

Moving up and down is easy - that's what the joystick does. But that's all! It’s a one-dimensional lever.

Moving left or right is… less easy. The Thrust button pushes you in the direction you're facing. To turn around, slap Reverse, and your entire POV on the playfield flips around the Y axis. Haha!
https://social.pincade.com.au/@Dozer/112564302485875090

jmac, to VideoGames
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Watching this very good playthrough of Ninja Gaiden on NES, with just enough mistakes to convince me it's not tool-assisted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V822oMzJQSg

One remembers only an ugly, cruel game, but watching this played by an expert is so rewarding. Stunned to rediscover how much of my lifelong mental background-music playlist comes from this game.

jmac, to random
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Getting ready to watch A Beautiful Noise on Broadway because my in-laws were born in 1950 and I love them very much.

jmac, to random
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Resumed after three weeks away. Resorted to a guide for the first time to find the final match and candle, which didn't do what I thought it would do, but its outcome is pleasant enough.

Now I have two reasons to re-scour the whole dang map stem-to-stern…

jmac, (edited ) to random
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Fun mental novelty for children of the 80s: replace every mention of “AI" in advertisements with "oat bran”.

You get e.g “Introducing our new product updates, with hiring tools powered by oat bran.” Delightful nostalgia, and with no loss of meaning.

jmac, to random
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"A closer look, however, would have revealed that individual journalists at BNN published lengthy stories as often as multiple times a minute, writing in generic prose familiar to anyone who has tinkered with the A.I. chatbot ChatGPT.”

An investigative takedown of BNN Breaking, a totally bogus "news source" of GenAI slurry that got a lot of play on my Twitter timeline—and maybe here too—during its brief existence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/technology/bnn-breaking-ai-generated-news.html

jmac, (edited ) to random
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Last night's insomnia bolt:

Oh, “podcast" was coined as a play on “broadcast". Because it's like a broadcast, but you hear it with your iPod. (iPod + Broad)cast. Right? Gotta be.

I always vaguely thought "You're 'casting' this audio from (or perhaps onto?) your (i)Pod”, sure why not. It took 20 years and a particularly gnarly sleepless night to process this one. Good job

jmac, to random
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Whatever happened to the Indie Fund, the game-arts granting organization founded by Jon Blow et al in the height of the circa-2010 indie games boom?

Its homepage is still online, but the dates suggest that it went quiescent for COVID, and never really woke up again: https://indie-fund.com/

jmac, to random
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“Brecht would probably hate video games. Wagner on the other hand would be making, like, Fallout. Actually, I think he'd make Elden Ring. Brecht would be making three-dollar games on itch.io that flash irritating lights in your face while you watch a non-interactive story about trade unions." -- @raygan

jmac, to random
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The wiener dog in Animal Well and the Marx shrine in Indika are two fantastic jokes that happen entirely through setting a mechanical expectation and then subverting it just as you get comfortable with it. Neither one has any kind of “Ahaha... get it?!" wink, like popping an achievement or whatnot. These are two very good moments in two good games which I have coincidentally played in serial order.

jmac, to random
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“Lanyard guys”
https://indieweb.social/@robbercat/112572011736789718

jmac, to random
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Any a you nerds used the GitHub-savvy code review tool suite known as Graphite? https://graphite.dev Would love to hear thoughts about and experiences with it.

(This is a question from me, not my employer, and is unrelated to my day job.)

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Animal Well (2024)
https://botsin.space/@oldroadside/112567817108115992

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