@movq@www.uninformativ.de That’s a great effect! 👍

For this week’s (slightly late) #caturday, I’d like to introduce our 4th and final feline resident, the old boy we call Bugsy. He’s been with us for 8 years, and we think he’s 13-14 years old (but he’s not saying).

He used to sound a bit like a cartoon gangster (hence the name), but as the years have passed, he started to sound more like late-stage William Hickey (Uncle Lewis from Christmas Vacation).

He’s our sweet little old man, and he is loved.

@prologic@twtxt.net Fair point, and I don’t plan on doing it myself.

But I also understand raging against the broken social contract(s). It’s like using Iocaine or zip-bombs against the scrapers. I don’t do it, but I understand why someone would feel justified in doing so.

🎶 “Forget” - Fluorescent Pea Pod

@prologic@twtxt.net Productive? Maybe not, but it would certainly serve as a social signal…

Well, that might work… https://codeberg.org/awful-systems/AAA-NO-SLOP.md 🤣

It’s been a week, so… Arcade Time!

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Related reading (if you’re interested): Let’s Talk about LLMs by James Bennett

First, it quotes the DORA report on the “State of AI-assisted Software Development”:

The research reveals a critical truth: AI’s primary role in software development is that of an amplifier. It magnifies the strengths of high-performing organizations and the dysfunctions of struggling ones.

At the end, it quotes the late Fred Books:

The first step toward the management of disease was replacement of demon theories and humours theories by the germ theory. That very step, the beginning of hope, in itself dashed all hopes of magical solutions. It told workers that progress would be made stepwise, at great effort, and that a persistent, unremitting care would have to be paid to a discipline of cleanliness. So it is with software engineering today.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Wow, I’m sorry to hear about that. Permanent emergency mode sucks, I’ve been there, and it always felt like drowning.

Fortunately, at my current job, we’ve been given time to keep our technical debt from overtaking the project. Unfortunately, we’ve been forced to use AI (mostly in the form of GitHub Copilot). Of course, now that the tokens cost more than a developer’s salary, they’ve been rethinking that position somewhat. 😁

In my experience, you are 100% correct - even in the best case, AI is a force multiplier. If the code is clean, it can speed you up. But if the code is a mess, it’ll just multiply the mess.

Played some games, boosted some toots, tweaked some code… now it’s time for bed.

@prologic@twtxt.net @bender@twtxt.net Thanks! Yeah, it already supports Twt Hash via twtxt-lib (both v1 and v2, when the time is right), plus most of the other features (multiline, user-agent, and metadata), and I’m working on (re-)implementing threading, mentions, and hash filtering (to make conversations easier to follow).

Here’s a current snapshot of my local version, in case anyone is interested:

Apologies to anyone who’s seen an uptick in twtxt pings from me today… I’ve been working on shoe-horning my twtxt reader (TwtStrm) into my editor (TwtKpr, aka the express-twtkpr npm library), and it kind ran amok a few times. So again, sorry - I’ve added a minimum 10-minute cool-down period between pulls which should help (I hope 🙂).

@bender@twtxt.net Thank you, we think so too.

I’m glad you like it!

Last minute entry for #caturday (at least in this time zone)…

This is Shadow. He’s an incredibly sweet boy who likes long walks (on your shoulder), loving on his puppies, and laying in his bowl(s).

Last minute entry for #caturday (at least in this time zone)…

This is Shadow. He’s an incredibly sweet boy who likes long walks (on your shoulder), loving on his puppies, and laying in his bowl(s).

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org It’s OK, it’s still WIP. You’re just helping make it more robust. 😁

@arne@uplegger.eu I’m similar… I use “I” most of the time (mostly in planning or trying to focus, ex: “I’m going to do X, then Y”), but I also use “you” when fussing at myself for my perceived faults or mistakes (that’s my “lizard brain”, we don’t get along so well because he’s kind of a jerk).

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org

LOL! You broke my link parser. 😄

I’m thrilled to be the 10,082nd 👻 on BackerKit for “First in Fright: The FANGORIA Compendium”!

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Just call me Little Eric {first_name}}. 😁

After I’m gone, and the years have passed, I hope people will remember me not just as a man, but as a hoopy frood who really knew where his towel was.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Great find! Other than a couple of games I bought over the years, my 5.25” disks were always dark grey / black.

And 3.5” disks were another matter entirely… 😄

It looks like someone forgot to check their email template… 😁

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Congrats, that’s no small feat!

The blogosphere will never die!! 🤘

I went 1-for-2 again at Magic today, winning the first game with my (mostly standard) Fallout “Hail, Caesar” deck by creating a swarm of soldiers and slapping people across the face with them (LOL!), before quitting the 2nd game for lack of time after my board got wiped (I mean, I might have lucked into something eventually, but it was getting late, so I dropped out).

I hope to play more regularly going into the summer, but who knows.

@prologic@twtxt.net Wow, thanks everyone for the kind words! 😊

In answer to @movq@www.uninformativ.de and @bender@twtxt.net: I’m sorry, it’s just the default camera app on my Samsung Galaxy S23 phone with the “Portrait” mode turned on. It’s a trick I learned from my wife, who used to work for a dog daycare and took pics of doggos for their FB page. It works well for humans, too. 😁

I really dig #caturday on the Fediverse, so I thought I would start doing it here as well.

For this week, I’d like to introduce my spirit animal, Bowie.

May his supreme laziness (and fuzzy-chunky-monkey cuteness) serve as an inspiration to you, too.

Reached a new high score on “River Raid” on the Atari800 emulator.

Overall, a most productive night. 😁

Looking back on an old project, while keeping an eye to its future…

@tftp@tilde.town Greetings and salutations! 👋

@bender@twtxt.net Thanks!

I’m pleased to announce that express-twtkpr (my ExpressJS library for hosting, editing, and posting to a twtxt.txt file) continues to crawl towards a full release with another (pre-alpha) update published to NPM. This update includes a whole new plugin system, and even a (little) more documentation. Check it out, if you dare (and use it at your own risk): https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-twtkpr

And speaking of plugins, here’s where the fun’s at: announcing express-twtkpr-core-plugins, a set of 3 plugins for your TwtKpr install: emojiButton, uploadButton, and postToMastodon. Like express-twtkpr, this set of plugins is still in pre-alpha, and lacks documentation, examples, tests, installation flexibility, or polish (so also use them at your own risk). Other than that, they work great: https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-twtkpr-core-plugins

Stay tuned for more! 🤘

@bender@twtxt.net I sound like I’m dumping on the game, but it really is alot of fun, especially with the right people. It’s just a whole different beast from D&D.

@bender@twtxt.net Apologies, I’m still working through some layout issues with TwtStrm and frequently miss mentions…

Magic: the Gathering does not use a Game Master (although professional referees are often used in sanctioned events). While the game has alot of thematic crossover with with D&D (or fantasy games in general), the system is much more of an abstract, card-dueling system involving things like “the stack” and insanely specific rules on card timing and interactions.

Like, we joke about “I’m sending my army of (goblins / elves / angels / whatever) at you,” but that’s about as far into the “role-playing” element most magic games get in my experience (and most of the “official” competitive games I’ve played at my FLGS were even more abstract and less thematic, although it’s been years since I played in one of those).

Agog to be the 2,644th backer 😎 on BackerKit Crowdfunding for Old-School Essentials Demonic Grimoire! https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/exalted-funeral/old-school-essentials-demonic-grimoire

My first game of Magic ended with a truly EPIC TURN yesterday…

It was a 5-player game, and I was running my (unpublished) Superfriends deck (mostly Planeswalkers and counter manipulators). After some ups and downs, I was able to pop the ultimate abilities on a handful of PWs all on a single turn, pumping my Bioessence Hydra to 110/110 (!) before tapping it twice to kill 2 opponents, and then following that by destroying all of the lands of a 3rd opponent and stealing all of the creatures from the 4th, at which point the survivors decided to quit. As I said, EPIC TURN!

Game 2 ran long, so I dropped out. But that first game…

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I’m glad you found it useful. :)

@klaxzy@klaxzy.net Thanks for that. I couldn’t agree more.

I won our only game of Magic for this week with my (yet-to-be published) “Bolas Triumphant” deck: 5 players over 3 hours, including 4 board wipes (one of which came from my Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh), and I even got to cast Omniscience via a Fae of Wishes. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I had a good time. 😁

Also, this really speaks to me (or maybe it speaks for me): https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/04/just-let-me-compute-in-peace/

“There is sauerkraut in my lederhosen.”

@bender@twtxt.net You got me there. Mine is mildly passive-aggressive, but ultimately supportive. Yours sounds… less helpful. 😀

Message on my watch this morning: “Last week’s goals slipped away. No worries, this week is yours!”

Thanks, watch. Where would I be without you?

TIL that SSH actually stands for Secure Snake Home, a massively multiplayer snake game playable via the SSH protocol: ssh snakes.run

Of course, no one else was online when I was playing, so…

I went 1 for 2 at Magic this week… Temmet made a good showing the first game before being overwhelmed by an infinite number of Wylls (aka Fred Durst, on account of all his “rollin’, rollin’, rollin’!”). As a result, I unleashed Chatterfang on the group for the second game, and he lead his squirrel army to victory once again. Good times!

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org That’s crazy! If you don’t mind me asking, what browser are you using when you see this?

@bender@twtxt.net Glad to hear it, I’ve neglected a Safari test thus far.

Thank you both for checking.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org For reasons I can’t fully explain, we have a bunch of courses in the area, most in public parks (they integrate nicely since they can be built with the existing landscape, only adding some yellow baskets, concrete starting pads, and maybe signs).

In my experience, the main difference between a disc golfer and a frisbee thrower is that the disc golfer will often have a bag full of different shapes of discs (including drivers of varying ranges and/or putters). Even in my small bag, I’ve got some long range drivers (a Beast, a Cheetah, a Valkyrie, and a Wraith), my aforementioned MRV (Mid-Range Vector), an ultralight Aero (which feels similar to a “standard” frisbee), and 2 “rubber” putters (softer plastic, less “bouncy”).

@bender@twtxt.net Thanks, and you are correct: MRV stands for Mid-Range Vector (I think) as it is a stable mid-range driver (it says so on the disc):

@falsifian@www.falsifian.org Congrats! That’s no small feat.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org Thanks (again) for the heads-up!. I’m not sure why you were seeing black text, but I just pushed a new version of the library (v0.10.1) with some updated colors in the demo’s themes (which should hopefully address the contrast issues).

The dark mode was an aesthetic choice by a designer with a strong preference for dark mode (and who thought the maroon looked better as a background color), but in the interest of being supportive of my audience, I added a localstorage-backed memory to the theme toggle (so when you turn it to light mode, it should remember for future visits).

For the first time in years, I managed to get out and throw a round of disc golf. Had a good time playing Vietnam Veterans Park in Kannapolis, throwing +10 over 9 holes, with my only par being thanks to a 40’ “putt” with my MRV. And the weather was perfect.

I hope to play another round soon.