@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
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I find these photos of a GWB-era mass protest at Columbia fascinating for one subtle reason: None of these protesters are wearing masks or otherwise obscuring their identities in any way.

This change in the way that protests are conducted in the U.S. feels like the least foreseeable side effect of the COVID pandemic.
https://mastodon.art/@jennylam/112373961712380437

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Been thinking about this more after the Times ran a feature on this topic, just today. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/nyregion/college-campus-protests-anonymity.html

jmac, to random
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Oh no, my old NCR-flag T-shirt just changed from a somewhat in-jokey game reference to an extremely non-obscure TV reference, didn’t it. Boo

jmac,
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@dougo Who says I didn’t

foxandcity, to random
@foxandcity@urbanists.social avatar

Was doing some cleaning, and well...

...file these under "things I can't believe that I forgot I own."

Going in my office, for sure

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@Patrickoldhiker @foxandcity Whoah!! I made a guess as to what these were before checking out the replies, and boom.

beanclock, to random
@beanclock@jorts.horse avatar

people in iran speak farsi

people closer to you speak nearsi

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@beanclock 🎶And Iran, Iran’s so far away-y-y…

jmac, to random
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Was reminiscing about a show I caught last year with a friend while she was in town. Her commentary today on this photo, and specifically the S-class photo-bombing happening behind us: "We were NPCs in that man's life.”

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

An impressive doozy of an unwinnable situation, if I don't say so myself.

• Yes, that's the final boss with three HP left, and my ship's cannon lined up with its weak point.
• Yes, that's me holding 10 identical non-attack cards, each of which adds a copy of itself to your hand when you play it.
• Yes, each such card has the "This stays in your hand if not played" modification on it.
• Yes, there is a 10-card hand limit.

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@dougo On-theme! And so's this, really; "Worm" is in the deck of the “hacker"-themed crew member, who I guess I deliberately infecting the ship's computer to gain temporary shielding, or something. Which works pretty great in a shorter fight!

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

Max seems like the weakest of the crew, with the weirdest deck, but he's so much fun to play when paired with the Tiderunner. His cards that pop off other cards based on their hand position also make the ship go sliding everywhere, and you can really turn that chaos to your advantage! On the other hand... this. #CobaltCore

genehack, to random
@genehack@dementedandsadbut.social avatar

Office re-organization complete! Really wish I’d remembered to take “before” pictures, but:

Looking to the right from the desks, we have file cabinet, book cases, and miscellaneous storage.
In the corner opposite the desks, there’s a little book for reading, gaming, napping, etc.
Looking back at the entry door, more storage, water cooler

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@genehack Neuromancer!!

ComicContext, to random
@ComicContext@mstdn.social avatar
jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@ComicContext Man, just log off and touch grass, Supes

jmac, to random
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Today’s the first day of the year when I need to say “No, hot. Yes. hot, right,” to the barista. ☕️

jmac, to nyc
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I lived in Newport, RI for a few years in the 2010s. A small city with a lot of residential wealth, it has a gorgeous and very well funded public library. I would visit it several times every week, and especially enjoyed browsing its wide shelves of new and recommended fiction and nonfiction, regularly rotated by a staff with excellent and diverse tastes.

I'd love to visit public more. Is there a branch you know of that offers something like this?

jmac, to random
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Discovered a while ago that online D&D sessions are a great time to practice piano, if you can get your audio set up so as not to bother anyone else. I find this combination to work well:

• Wear AirPods, in "transparent” mode
• Use laptop speakers for Discord audio out
• Use AirPods for Discord audio in

The AirPod mics in my ears are sufficiently far from the keyboard that Discord filters out the horrible piano noises.

Side effect: I better understand the appeal of knitting.

jmac, to nyc
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Love this 50-year-old, five-minute documentary about apartment-dwelling New Yorkers coping with their roachy roommates. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/23/opinion/roaches-new-york-city.html

swiftyshq, to random
@swiftyshq@wetdry.world avatar

i painted over an older canvas of mine yesterday; the original painting is one i did circa... 2015? 2016? and i got tired of looking at the ketchup-and-mustard grass and stagnant patterns in the clouds.

i think it reflects a bit of my personal growth as a person, too, with how vibrant and alive the colors are in the new one.

#mastoart

a close up (low quality) of the painting. the grass is patchy and dry-looking. the piece feels like it could rain any moment, with tense, humid air. the brushwork is slightly mediocre.
a large, vibrant green field. the grass has stylized wavy brush strokes. the trees are now green, and flourishing, with pale, wavy, overcast skies overhead. the palette has shifted from warm and tense to cool and relaxed.

jmac,
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@swiftyshq Insofar as it's my place to say: an upgrade on every front.

jmac, to Steamdeck
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Invited to play some Left 4 Dead with friends last night. Complex nostalgia: I was back in Boston the last time I played it. That was on Xbox 360, and I’m unsurprised to see that it plays great on #SteamDeck today.

It’s as fun as ever, with very minor mechanical nits. The aspects that felt most dated were philosophical.

First, the easiest skill level is called "Easy”, and beyond it being Rather Hard Actually, a modern game would pick a less dismissive description for it. 🧵#videogames

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

To fully enjoy this experience I had to really embrace the nostalgia to the point of mentally time-traveling a little, back to the earliest years of the Obama administration, when it felt like something terrible in the culture had been averted, and it was fine to regularly indulge in lurid, sociopathic fantasies like the one L4D offers.

I had a great time. Ended the session energized, happy, and also naggingly aware of how deeply fucked up it felt in ways that it didn't in 2010.

jmac,
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@mogwai_poet This feels apt to me.

jmac, to nyc
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Through some bizarre atmospheric fluke, #NYC is looking ahead at more than a week of spring-appropriate temperatures. (Yes, Monday, I see you there.)

jmac, to random
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Shower thought: “Oh, ‘Somebody wiped under a dock, and there they saw a rock’ probably means that they crashed their surfboard under the dock, not that they happened to be toweling off there.”

But now, having toweled off myself, I see that genius.com says the lyric is “Somebody went under a dock”. Really? That's so much weaker than my understanding.

mhoye, to random
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Absolutely losing my mind over this question, about how there are so many good answers but also no good answers at all.

https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina/112329440755518358

What language would you choose, if you wanted to show somebody the joy, elegance or beauty of computing?

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@mhoye For maximum joy while flinging elegance over the falls, I have to suggest Inform 7.

passerine, to random
@passerine@peoplemaking.games avatar

I'm trying a new thing where every time I catch myself imagining a worst-case scenario, I then have to imagine a best-case scenario. It's very effective! Didn't take long to get in the habit, and it's really helped me realize it's all just stories. Highly recommended strategy.

jmac,
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@passerine It’s all just stories!

jmac, to random
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Literally nobody in a 3,000-person work chat liked my story about how walking past a nearby burger bar when its window is shuttered makes me say "We're closed now!!" in a weird voice because I'm remembering a 1983 TV ad for the video game Burgertime, so I'm telling you instead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjJ0Tl3WENQ

jmac,
@jmac@masto.nyc avatar

@imalcolm They were really big burgers tho

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