@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; Co-founder of IFTF, an interactive-fiction nonprofit; Liker of coffee, cats, open web technologies, et cetera. Co-admin of https://masto.nyc.

All views I express in my personal posts are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Five Borough Fedi Project.

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

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Animal Well (2024)
https://botsin.space/@oldroadside/112485713671027040

nocontexttrek, to StarTrek
@nocontexttrek@mastodon.social avatar

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@garretble Worf will remember that.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Tonight's entertainment was STARSHIP TROOPERS. Amy and I have been playing Helldivers together, and it seemed increasingly inexcusable that I hadn't seen this source material, one of Amy's favorite films from the era.

It was OK! I went in thoroughly knowing the joke, so no surprises, really.

I enjoyed the unexpected appearance of the “in the future, ESP is just another everyday technology" trope. You see it a lot in mid-century SF. I suppose it seemed a natural extrapolation, at the time!

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Sometimes I think about the fact that I will never, ever open a shell terminal and see ”Heads up! Here's what's new! Take a tour!! [Skip]" https://digipres.club/@misty/112481913811666838

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@tikitu In a “man, I liked that app, too bad this happened” sense, or a “oh wow, I really like what they’ve done with the place!” one?

brettwitty, to random
@brettwitty@mstdn.social avatar

My creative retreat hasn't gone so well so far because of my family being sick, but I have had a little chance to play Animal Well, which scratches my metroidvania itch. I think I have @jmac to blame/thank for that recommendation.

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@brettwitty It's really good.

vga256, to retrogaming
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

someone local to me is selling a Thayer's Quest arcade cab

i grew up playing a lot of Dragon's Lair as a kid (for a loonie a pop!!) at the local arcade

but i had no idea there were third party developers who made conversion kits for DL cabs. the control panel for this thing is insane 😆

imagine playing a CYOA game on laserdisc.

A player taps a membrane keyboard interface to select multiple choice options for an animated laserdisc game. The game pauses every few seconds to allow the player to make a new choice, which plays a different animation.

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@vga256 It was absolutely impossible to understand the spoken dialog in this game while playing it in the middle of a period arcade.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

A discussion about the unusual cover design for the Traveller RPG—still striking in its tone and its minimalism, decades later—led me to recall and share this timeless banger from @avram.

And only then did I get the joke: Oh, because the ship on the original cover is named “Beowulf”!! OK.

https://wandering.shop/@avram/109809275612064222

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

The discussion was sparked by this blog post on the same topic, which includes the cover design in question. https://knightattheopera.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-best-rpg-cover-of-all-time.html

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@smadin I purchased, read, and enjoyed GURPS Traveller circa 2000, fascinated to see the seeds of the TradeWars BBS games that I played as a teenager. And that's probably still the closest I'll ever get to actually playing it!

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

I saw a person talk about the desire to see "a meeting in a smoke-filled room" happen, which seems like an oddly outdated metaphor... but these things do tend to have legs, don't they.

I wonder how many people know perfectly well what a "smoke-filled room" is, but don't know why it's called that. Like, maybe they think it means that since it's addressing an urgent issue, like a fire, that metaphorical fire is filling the room with smoke?

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

This is a caring, sad feature about a man who became lost and died, first slowly and then with sudden violence, at a homeless encampment in Ithica, New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/nyregion/ithaca-homeless-encampment-thomas-rath.html

I admire the way the writer and photographer thread the story through with "Lost Cat", a mournful graffiti tag found throughout the encampment. It shows up unexpectedly at the end and made my breath catch.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Because of my dog-crazy 11-year-old niece's most recent visit to NYC, I am more aware of the infinite variety in all the dogs I see every time I leave my building. And this provided the activation codes for a new desire to ask their human companions if I can pet my favorites, which I had unwittingly built up from a couple of in-person walks with @brainwane.

We are all just holograms made from all the other nodes who we know. We're nothing but reflections of each other.

Dogs already know this.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

I think of this every time I wake my MacBook up from a furious sleep, its fans blasting full-speed to render Apple's default screen saver of a fully animated drone flight over Californian vineyards, in order to get back to my screenful of tiled xterms.

https://merveilles.town/@lrhodes/112464257491011844

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@havn @randomgeek In all honestly I was describing my last work laptop, an Intel MacBook from 2021 which I happily got to upgrade to an M-something last month.

My personal computer is an M1 of the same vintage and it's the best computer I've ever owned!

None of which disagrees with the original post. :)

jmac, (edited ) to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

I just bought Indika and I can't wait to play it. Sunday morning drowsiness is probably not the right headspace for it, from what little I know of it.

The cover art alone sold me on it!

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Beyond the startling graphical design, I am really moved by how this cover centers a feeling of stoicism, rather than the typical game-cover emotions of whimsy, fear, or general badassery. It's so unusual!

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

“This is how Google’s search result sausage is made: Real people like me make it.” Toni Allen, secretary of the Alphabet Workers , writes about working as a contracted “rater” for Google. https://fortune.com/2024/05/03/google-search-raters-wages-benefits-contractors-tech-ai-employment/

Toni is among many laborers who perform high-speed, human-powered fact checking on AI-generated search results—and, thanks to recent legal maneuvering on the part of our mutual bosses, now receives an hourly rate that is less than California minimum wage.

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Stories like Toni's remind me why tech workers need to organize, and reinforces my intent to be a dues-paying AWU member for as long as I'm with the company.

No matter the direction that Google accelerates its business into during these weird times, it will never outrace the basic responsibility of treating all of its workers with the same level of fairness and respect—and that includes contract labor.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

I know one word in cat-language, and I'll practice it when Twila seems antsy, pacing around. I hunker down on the ground yoga-style in a sort of Child's Pose, and Twila wanders over to flop on her side in front of me. She doesn't expect any further attention when she does this; she just interprets my action as "Let's flop down on the floor and be chill together", and does so. And we'll stay there together for a minute and she does seem to dig it.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Got to the credits screen of in about 12 hours of play-time. What a lovely game. Strong recommend for a tightly intentional and deeply mysterious puzzle platformer.

It feels like the slightly younger sibling of Tunic. Tunic took the decade-old lessons of Fez and went in one direction with them, and Animal Well showed another path some 18 months later.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Had my first professional massage in a long time, and I wonder if it’s the first since I had my year of medical stuff. Quite possibly!

It brought to mind again Seneca’s thoughts on how the veteran soldier knows how to surrender their body to the surgeon when needed, sending their mind somewhere else, and coming to re-inhabit their carcass when it’s ready.

I thought of this parable a lot, every time my bed was wheeled out of the prep room. It was nice to have a much more pleasant reason today.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

A week in, it occurs to me which elder-days video game that pleasantly reminds me of, amidst all the much newer work it draws from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBF7lBZWGw

mightyspaceman, to random
@mightyspaceman@aus.social avatar

Is it actually possible to tell someone that something was a joke without sounding condescending?

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@mightyspaceman If they’re upset or about to do something misguided because they didn’t understand the jokeness, it’s worth explaining. Otherwise, maybe not.

jmac, to random
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

I think might be the first game where all of the following are true:

• I am 100% sure I would love it right away.
• I can afford to buy it immediately.
• I already own the best system to play it on (Steam Deck).
• I refuse to allow myself to buy it.
• I do not know when I will let myself buy it.

I see all the jokes and memes about addictive it is, and the fact its trailer does a slow zoom-in on a number going up with fireworks, and I can already feel the rush and the crash of it all.

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@tullyhansen My partner ended up buying it! It's in the house with me right now!! I still haven't played it!!! (Glad you're enjoying it though..)

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • ethstaker
  • khanakhh
  • rosin
  • Youngstown
  • everett
  • slotface
  • ngwrru68w68
  • mdbf
  • GTA5RPClips
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • provamag3
  • cisconetworking
  • cubers
  • Leos
  • InstantRegret
  • Durango
  • tacticalgear
  • tester
  • osvaldo12
  • normalnudes
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • megavids
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •