jmac

jmac, 3 months ago to random

Running your own services on the public internet can bring years—maybe even a lifetime—of joy, purpose, and connection. It also requires continuous attention and care, at least a little bit every day, even when you don't feel like it.

I believe in the #IndieWeb philosophy that encourages folks to explore the option of owning their own digital resources, but I wonder if we under-emphasize how it's more like adopting a puppy than like getting into woodworking. #mastoadmin

https://infosec.exchange/@jerry/111960061005061691

jmac, 3 months ago to random

My summary of an ad-hoc meeting of Fediverse admins held earlier this week to discuss last weekend's #spam crisis. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zo0GMIis_4KGLDRqfTH_pOE3p5zb86-KwSlrpNvHJ0Y/edit?usp=sharing #mastoadmin #fediadmin Includes links to investigations into what on earth that was all about, as well as ongoing mitigation efforts from the global fedi community.

jmac, 4 months ago to random

Among the other uses of employees: You can regularly burn handfuls of them like incense on the altar. The scent pleases the gods. #layoffs https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/19/business/stock-market-record.html

jmac, 2 months ago to random

In 1992, American country megastar Tammy Wynette lent her vocals to a hit electronic dance track by the Discordian-infused lunatics of The KLF. She applies her complete and most sincere talent to lines like “They're justified, and they're ancient, and they drive an ice cream van”, and she also stars in its amazing video, which I'm not sure I saw before today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP5oHL3zBDg

#StandByTheJAMs #HailEris

jmac, 7 months ago to random

If you know someone at Microsoft who would be interested in the grand opportunity for #InteractiveFiction preservation that today's merger has—as a side effect!—granted the company, please get in touch with me, @zarfeblong, or another @IFTF person. (I stepped down from IFTF leadership earlier this year, but I'm still active within it.)

Here is Zarf's plea to Microsoft to do the right thing with its newly (if perhaps accidentally) acquired Infocom IP: https://blog.zarfhome.com/2023/10/microsoft-consumes-activision

jmac, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

In "Running Up that Hill", Kate Bush wants to:

jmac, 3 months ago to random

Actually feel happy with how this #spam crisis has been playing out. Fedi was knocked off-balance for a few days, then pulled together rapidly with shared information that admins can apply quickly.

This has been an important resilience test for a young but increasingly visible and truly federated social media network. it's just as well that the cause was spillover from some dumbasses having a discord fight. The incident feels like a vaccine against far more dangerous future attacks. #mastoadmin

jmac, 3 months ago to random

Whew! Some #spam flurries blowing around thick right now.

Remember, keeping Fedi clean is a team effort: report every spam post you see, and forward it to the spammer's own server. Most Mastodon clients let you do all this with a click or two!

Server admins like me really do appreciate all reports, even when it's just sweeping up some garbage like this.

jmac, 5 months ago to Health

My New Year's gift to you is a writeup of what I learned after having four colonoscopies last year. I’ll be honest, I mostly just got good at preparing for colonoscopies.

But this might be of interest to you, especially if you're over 45 and you're looking for new and exciting New Year's resolutions to make.

https://fogknife.com/2023-12-31-my-colonoscopy-strategies.html #Health #colonoscopy

jmac, 6 months ago to random

It’s okay not to have strong feelings about current events that do not directly affect you.

mogwai_poet, 1 month ago to random

You may have seen the Balatro Discourse, which consists of people looking at a screenshot of code that it straightforward and getting angry that it's not more complicated.

I'd just like to posit here that a straightforward solution is an excellent default and you should have a really solid argument for the advantages of a complicated solution before you choose it.

jmac, 8 months ago to VideoGames

Join @dougo and I Friday night at 8 PM Eastern as we play “The Little Match Girl 2: Annus Evertens”, a text adventure game by @rcveeder! #InteractiveFiction #VideoGames

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qFJ-RAmljE

jmac, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to Steamdeck

Finished Chants of Sennaar. Such a lovely experience that ran me around a dozen hours. It was my wind-down game after a hard day of touristing, all last week.

As @laurajnash noted on the latest @shortgame, it projects an unflagging mood of hope and positivity. The hero is a brave mender of fractured societies, not a vanquisher. The game is no less compelling for it. I love the light that it casts.

It's on all platforms; I played on #SteamDeck, where it runs great. #VideoGames #AdventureGames

jmac, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to VideoGames

Every time I see the full title "Return of the Obra Dinn" I think "Whoa, there's a sequel to Obra Dinn?!" #VideoGames #AdventureGames

jmac, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

I'm happy to see https://mastoart.social/ come online! Coincidentally with my recent sigh about rare artists here…

Its About page states that it is actively moderated, and server-blocks bad actors, but defederates from whole servers only in extreme cases. This positions it distinctly from a certain well-known art-focused server that has earned a reputation of enthusiastic defederation. That certainly works for some, but it makes others feel alienated.

And this is Mastodon working as it should!

jmac, 5 months ago to random

All I want for Christmas is for you to recommend some comics I can load onto my iPad to see me through 11 hours of air travel tomorrow.

jmac, 7 months ago to random

I did the thing! I urge my fellow Americans to please join me in exercising our regular civic duty today, even if your ballot is boring. Every community—yours and mine, too—needs regular small nudges to stay on track. Take a few minutes today and be that nudger, please!

jmac, 3 months ago to random

I forgot who I heard it from (was it you?) but I like this piece of advice for folks who are aunts/uncles/mentors/whatever to modern younguns:

The kids you know are not interested in treating you like you're one of them. This is because you're not one of them.

Here's what you can be for them, uniquely: a grown-up who they can trust not to be weird about whatever it is they do share with you. Aim for that.

jmac, 8 months ago to random

If you’re backing away from X—or have cut it from your life completely—take a moment to de-authorize it from all your game consoles and Discord accounts and smart fridges and such. A small act of cleansing that feels good.

jmac, 4 months ago to random

I expected to see this in the iOS health app after my most recent birthday, and I was not disappointed. By selfishly refusing to die, I have gone from Borderline to Above Average in my cardio fitness through no additional effort, nice. #aging

jmac, 3 months ago to random

Seeing cool indie art on Mastodon is sufficiently rare that I have bought just about every single even mildly interesting comix zine I see hawked in the fediverse over the past year. If I notice a link to your weird zine here then at least one dingaling in NYC will order it probably.

jmac, 10 days ago to random

I had the pleasure of helping test this new strange work directed and edited by @rcveeder. It is a quilt of small parser-IF games by many individual authors stitched together at the edges, with the player (and their inventory!) able to traverse freely between them, making one large space to explore. #InteractiveFiction
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@nilsf/112524852506128389

jmac, 30 days ago (edited 30 days ago) to random

Good mail day: Got my copy of "The Paradox" by @elainemwill

990000, 5 days ago to nyc

Visiting the museum of natural history makes me wish public parks had T-rex or Allosaurus, or some other similar dinosaur skeletons on permanent display so kids and just people in general can study them casually and frequently. I know it would be a maintenance nightmare, but it would be so cool.

#Dinosaurs #NYC #AMNH

jmac, 4 months ago to random

Writing some #Perl for the first time in years.

This is where I am:

• Mojolicious, subroutine signatures, and “->@*" deferencing syntax: ✅

• Honey, no, it's “\n”, not “/n”: ❌