Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🎃 👻 8647

Sex, Drugs, & Unix™.
Try democracy, not tyranny!
Be the STFU you wish to see in the world.
A freak of the new atomic world we live in.
Block all Nazis, GOP (same thing), crypto, LLM grifts.
"I have come to tell you that you are free." —Eris

#coffee #scheme #basic #javascript  #objc
#ButlerianJihad
#music #technomagery #gamedev
#retrocomputing #atari
#luanti
#ttrpg #rpg #osr #d100
#scienceFiction #hardsf #fantasy
#atheism #dream #sarcasm #tabs
#pronoun:he/him/program #nobot

Public Key

npub1lwr6ewhchfc8u4k0fupgl4kvr6vm3fu0aqe8e2msj9032ccmqeeqmu38zw

NIP-05 Address

mdhughes@appdot-net.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs0hpavhtut5ur72m857q506mxpaxdc5787svnu4dcfzhc4vvdsvuspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qwwvy55

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1lwr6ewhchfc8u4k0fupgl4kvr6vm3fu0aqe8e2msj9032ccmqeeqmu38zw

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Last Notes

2026-10-12 21:17:47 UTC

Ben Milton did a long statistical survey of (mostly his channel's) RPG players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOBulasoqdQ
It's occasionally interesting, mostly "yeah obviously if you're sorta OSR-ish".
But then:
Q56. How do you feel about the GM requiring a player's consent before their PC can die?
LOL LMAO BWL OMFG. No. If a PC does something stupid, if they have bad luck, they just die. Mourn if you like, roll up a new one.
The idea that you can deny "rocks fall" is insane.
#ttrpg #osr
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/117/430/001/040/859/781/original/da05da3d8cb6d0fa.gif

2026-08-09 13:14:44 UTC

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@nprofile…pfuj I think Vietnam cured us of ever sending large numbers of non-volunteer troops into a meat grinder again. We'll tolerate some limited police action shit, sure bomb some non-tourism country, murder some sailors, but when it gets into double or triple digit dead Americans, we nope out.
When the going gets tough, we get going.
As long as we have arms industries to supply other murderous countries, we'll be fine. Complicit in crimes, but fine.

2026-06-14 08:41:09 UTC

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@nprofile…skgk Again, I don't do Swift. I only write Objective-C. And it's incredibly unlikely a lying machine will tell me anything but probabilistic lies.

2026-06-14 08:35:36 UTC

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@nprofile…skgk No, but asking randos on fedi may be just as dumb.

2026-06-14 08:33:17 UTC

I was making a little Mac app wrapper for talking to teletype games. Fucking Xcode.
What does this ViewBridge error mean? I found a few forums where nobody knows, it's just some shit Apple does.
Obvs all my code in this is Objective-C & XIB interface, Swift is C++ with worse syntax, and hilariously not swift.
#xcode #fuckXcode #apple #macos
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/116/747/519/998/692/035/original/574ccbad6064b0b3.jpg

2026-06-03 07:54:27 UTC

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@nprofile…q6qh
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/116/685/095/422/928/628/original/dc4934f5fd42a839.png

2026-06-03 07:38:48 UTC

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@nprofile…q6qh Yes, the choice of not having videos, or installing a bunch of stuff I don't want (but can remove with ports later).

2026-06-03 07:27:51 UTC

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@nprofile…q6qh Or I can do
port install yt-dlp & hit "Yikes" when it lists deps.

2026-06-03 06:30:45 UTC

I miss being able to watch yustub videos, but now they're just stuck in endless ads, or ad-blocker-blocker dialogs.
If they think I'm somehow going to PAY them for this increasing hostility, they're out of their teeny tiny minds.
GEEZ, there's a lot of dependencies for yt-dlp now. Will see if that works, & I can actually watch *A VIDEO*, or if yustub is just dead to me.

2026-05-17 10:12:35 UTC

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@nprofile…l2h8 @nprofile…6w3n @nprofile…2vzh @nprofile…wsge
> Why doesn’t MobileOrg support direct access to org-files#
Answer: MobileOrg is intended to be a useful interface to Org files on iOS, not to allow you to edit Org files with the same power as emacs.
<
> Orgro doesn’t have a concept of “syncing”: <
& so on from what I can see. Lot of viewers, some text editing, but not productive, scripted use of outlines.

2026-05-17 09:18:46 UTC

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@nprofile…wsge @nprofile…l2h8 @nprofile…2vzh @nprofile…6w3n
workflow: https://xkcd.com/1172/
The lack of UI & being stuck in emacs in org-mode, just more not-markdown, is the real workflow killer for me.
As opposed to either portable markdown where you also have to just use text & hack your own tools (I do a lot with sed, awk, or python over md files),
or all UI (but also programmable, tho shortcuts isn't as good as applescript was 10+ years ago):
https://www.omnigroup.com/omnioutliner/

2026-04-30 07:27:56 UTC

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@nprofile…8p63 If you show up somewhere & there's a bathtub with ice in it, run, it's an organ-harvesting network.

2025-10-04 17:29:59 UTC

People making mods or entirely new games for other peoples' proprietary games & platforms* strikes me as so weird & degenerate.
It's trivial to make *YOUR OWN GAME* for any computer, has been since the first home computers in 1974. Yeah you can't make a AAA engine at home, at least not at the start. Try mastering every part of it yourself and you can get there, on your own power.
* (obvs Nintendo is #1, but really anyone. No I don't want to hear your NTDO discourse.)
#videogames #gamedev

2025-10-04 08:57:28 UTC

https://thatsbelievable.com/post/631454184433156096
#books
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/315/056/168/384/033/original/f77498c442223a90.jpg

2025-08-26 07:14:29 UTC

Go looking for my HP-48, oh, right, LCD failed a while ago (fucking late-era HP POS). I can't afford a $300+ SwissMicros. I need a real calculator; pcalc etc requires looking at a screen.
So looking at calculator reviews. And 90% of the yustubs are AI-generated slop. "it is excellent for ah level" (A Levels), is a good giveaway.
Find a Human with poor speaking skills, there's a bug crawling on his countertop, but he's a person. Not many of 'em left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQqtiqBRALs
#calculators

2025-08-22 23:32:23 UTC

And yet again, Spotlight stops working and I have to
sudo mdutil -E /
fuckin, why?

2025-08-21 23:41:33 UTC

Any time I see something from blusskiy or whatever it's called, it's the most deranged corpo-cock-sucking bullshit, or religious mania, or toxic fandom, or all three at once. WTF is going on with them?

2025-08-20 09:38:44 UTC

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@nprofile…qfs6 Is it Synnibar, which "rings with authenticity"?

2025-08-19 21:51:49 UTC

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@nprofile…p9kz I've been using FreeBSD on my servers for >20 years, it's the best thing since sliced bread. ZFS is sweet (on servers, not ideal for desktop), just a ton of nice tools in pkg, great handbook.
On desktop it's a little boring, right now I go with xfce right now and mehest of mehs, but if I go full time on it I'll do something nicer (I hate GNOME and KDE).

2025-08-19 19:26:52 UTC

Yeah, it looks like I'm gonna skip iOS 26, and continue not using a current MacOS. This really might be the end, and it's not a good time for it.
Can ya just quit fucking with the UI, Apple?
Later today gonna think about my move to #FreeBSD.
#apple

2025-08-18 06:15:09 UTC

Article about Gopher's rise & fall, with a clip of Adam Curry wearing a Gopher World Tour shirt!
https://www.minnpost.com/business/2016/08/rise-and-fall-gopher-protocol/
#gopher

2025-08-16 13:55:55 UTC

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@nprofile…h6s5 I got to the You Monster cheev, and I'm gonna put cheevs in my tabletop RPGs just so I can give someone this one someday.

2025-08-16 11:16:02 UTC

I'm a long-time connoisseur of isekai and stupid "adventure system in the real world" things. Dungeon Crawler Carl is not breaking new ground. HOWEVER:
> New achievement! Why aren’t you wearing pants?
You entered the dungeon wearing no pants. Dude. Seriously? Reward: You’ve received a Gold Apparel Box!
<
OK, that's a new cheev.

2025-08-16 04:29:32 UTC

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@nprofile…pqrf I would guess John von Neumann, or Claude Shannon, just on "early creators of computer information theory".
I just resent HDD makers for lying that 10MB = 10,000,000 bytes or so, not 10,485,760.

2025-08-15 03:54:31 UTC

The problem with retrocomputing is sometimes it isn't as retro as you'd like, it shambled on and you're faced with the fact that 40 years have passed and nothing's changed and we're all dying but will be outlived by some fucked-up ASM program written for CP/M.

2025-08-14 23:08:43 UTC

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@nprofile…m2ru @nprofile…3flu One of his claims was that all computing would be done with Xanadu as the front end, which unfortunately thanks to web "apps" and Electron has come true. Monkey paw.

2025-08-14 22:42:13 UTC

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@nprofile…m2ru @nprofile…3flu As I noted a bit ago:
https://mdhughes.tech/2025/04/22/some-of-my-history-of-hypertext/

2025-08-14 15:55:54 UTC

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@nprofile…3flu Lisa had been in a bunch of magazines the year or two before, but nobody could afford one. I'd seen video of Sutherland's Sketch and played with light pens, so figured it was like that.

2025-08-13 17:39:59 UTC

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@nprofile…ae45 The danger of hosting on MShithub isn't "someone will use my open source", it's that A) MS will use your stuff to train their LLMs, which I at least find morally objectionable, and B) MS can just shut you down and mess with your stuff silently, and if that's your only repo you have no way to know, and certainly no way to legally fight it.
Anything I release is under BSD, because "use it, don't sue me", but I still don't want Redmond anywhere near it. Ew.

2025-08-13 14:09:40 UTC

Finally a product that makes sense: Robot Walrus!
https://www.savagechickens.com/2025/08/robot-walrus-4.html
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/021/842/102/848/612/original/8bb3d5fb071be10e.jpg

2025-08-13 06:03:34 UTC

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@nprofile…t764 Yes, does nothing. Turns out it's a Safari specific problem, fixed in later OS that I can't run.

2025-08-13 03:48:29 UTC

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WTFpotomus. I added "<html lang='en'>" to my pages, hoping it'd stop Safari from its stupid "translation available" thing. And it changed my fucking fonts!
It's not Fira Sans/Code, which uses a dot 0 and has open 4.
HARD DRUGS.
Why is this happening? I'm happy to take the lang back off, but I don't know why it did this.
#html
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/019/393/639/735/977/original/e4403ea4acb6fa77.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/019/394/039/609/780/original/ef3332ce56cc82fd.jpg

2025-08-12 12:55:16 UTC

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Forgot to attach:
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
I still need to adjust the "tractor feed paper" to be the exact font size & maybe make holes with CSS? The sound is horrible but it's pass 1, as noted I'll probably get a sample.
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/015/884/174/249/679/original/26e2c91be9d7091b.jpg

2025-08-12 07:32:27 UTC

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Latest addition to
THE CYBER HOLE
https://cyberhole.online/basic/basic.html
is a (virtual) line printer!
LLIST your program to paper, LPRINT funny messages or pictures of Snoopy, and copy them out with a single button. Tear Off to remove the old "paper". It's so easy!
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing

2025-08-12 02:55:53 UTC

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Added a tutorial to TinyBasicWeb
ON THE CYBER HOLE
https://cyberhole.online/basic/
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
I'll start doing some real work with this in a minute. Just easier to bug-fix and docs first. Have a couple thoughts about getting program output in a period-appropriate way: LINE PRINTER!

2025-08-12 00:19:11 UTC

Early #coffee
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/012/910/163/460/004/original/1bac0ecce722387f.jpg

2025-08-11 22:44:21 UTC

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@nprofile…mh3g Black rye, preferably in a big reuben sammich.

2025-08-11 12:31:18 UTC

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You can now paste directly into BASIC with your usual ⌘V or ^V on
THE CYBER HOLE
https://cyberhole.online/basic/
63 ASCII char lines max, please.
However copy only dumps text into console, because it's impossible to predict what'll be hard or easy in JS. Paste looks like more of a security problem! But copy is locked down! I'm gonna try stupid hidden element tricks tomorrow but I've got the post-coffee jitters now and shouldnae code any longer.
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing #javascript #wat

2025-08-11 09:33:50 UTC

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Dirty hack:
Write your BASIC program in your own editor, with top & bottom lines (note ` backticks)
tbw.loadResult(`
10 ?"Hello!"
20 END
`,null,false)
Open your JS console ⌥⌘C in Safari
Paste your stuff in. It's the same as loading from "disk" (network).
I'll get proper paste working after lunch, I hope that's trivial.

2025-08-11 08:21:29 UTC

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Almost literally hit ENTER and it's finished.
Before tonight, if you ran this it'd get from 99 to 80s, then slow to a dead crawl at the end of the lines.
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/009/145/271/246/337/original/e024eb27828bb061.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/115/009/145/623/496/085/original/494813590fd945c0.jpg

2025-08-11 07:44:52 UTC

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I've been working on optimizing Terminal performance, it used to REALLY lag out on long text printing across lines or scrolling.
Not now! It's too fast to measure! Tho I lost the pulsing cursor, but even if I put that back it'll still be drawing at native speed.
I don't want to write a buffer to make it slow down to some terminal speed, but I kinda ought to. Or add a PAUSE command so you can make fake slowdown.
Also maybe text aligned better on non-Safari?
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing

2025-08-10 09:28:51 UTC

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@nprofile…dzla I played a ton of Behind Jaggi Lines off a BBS, then bought the box copy mostly for the intro scene a year later. The Fractalus remake is excellent, too: https://www.lsdwa.com/projects/fractalus/

2025-08-07 04:44:45 UTC

https://deadline.com/2025/08/titan-sub-implosion-titanic-preventable-1236479390/
> The 335-page report from the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation found that “OceanGate’s failure to follow established engineering protocols for safety, testing, and maintenance of their submersible, was the primary causal factor.” In terms of prevention going forward, the panel called for “improved regulatory oversight, in particular for novel vessel designs and operations.”
<
I disagree. MORE billionaires should get in unsafe subs. No regs. Drown 'em all.

2025-08-07 04:01:46 UTC

Fucking mouse gonna be the only place to get Futurama? 🏴‍☠️ all the things!
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/08/hulus-days-look-numbered-but-theres-reason-for-disney-to-keep-it-around/

2025-08-06 12:22:14 UTC

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@nprofile…vlvm @nprofile…ddfm Right. I don't care if they do. It's no skin off my nose. I'll keep releasing the real thing, on my ridiculous little Cyberhole, and if people figure that out they can get it for free.
Gmail is, of course, closed source, but… it's built on a ton of GPL software. There's probably not a line in it that's not lawsuit-worthy, but nobody's going to do that. You'd have to break into G, get the source, then find a lawyer, then another when he inexplicably blows up, and another…

2025-08-06 12:14:25 UTC

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@nprofile…vlvm @nprofile…ddfm If, tomorrow, Microsoft copies TinyBasicWeb, I'd be annoyed because there's MS next to my stuff, but I still have my code, and so do you, and so does everyone else. It's BSD because it's a *gift*, it's a cool thing I made, not because I will RULE THE WORLD with a Tiny BASIC that can just barely play Hurkle.

2025-08-06 11:19:20 UTC

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@nprofile…vlvm @nprofile…ddfm I don't see any reason to be so selfish. If I'm releasing something, I want people to use it, not go "well, now I'm stuck".
This isn't so obvious it's redundant to even have to say: CORPOS DO NOT CARE about your license. If they want to steal your stuff, they will. They just won't tell you. They'll edit the license. Or use LLM to "vibe code" it into their thing. In the incredibly unlikely case you even know, and sue, they'll crush you before reaching court.

2025-08-06 10:22:44 UTC

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@nprofile…ddfm Readline being under GPL doesn't stop some giant predator, it just annoys the little guy who wants text history without having to rewrite a giant awful curses thing. RMS is the predator here (as in other things).
And it's not new that GPL is useless, the whole v2/v3 thing was because Tivo realized they didn't have to ship their source if you can't compile & run it.

2025-08-06 09:44:13 UTC

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@nprofile…ddfm Corpos already steal copyrighted text & code with LLMs, they don't care about the license at all.
BSD isn't to protect my code from ever being used by a corpo, which I know can't be stopped. It's to make it convenient for other people to use. I care about the teams of ONE or TWO who want something.
I can't use GPL shit, unless I make everything GPL. Or AGPL. Or v2 or v3. Or LGPL. Can I link to the proprietary library I need? NOPE.

2025-08-06 05:21:08 UTC

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TinyBasicWeb: Implemented string comparison, and fixed some input bugs. It's more usable now!
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/980/132/596/023/679/original/5a428fa741812ce0.jpg

2025-08-06 01:15:04 UTC

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@nprofile…g6h7 If you live in a temperate enough climate, you'd really only need a house to sleep and keep a few appliances in. Then just live outside on your nice land.
I live on a mountain that's uninhabitable 6-9 months of the year, so I like my bigger house.

2025-08-04 14:15:25 UTC

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@nprofile…my04 They're not mean, they're just idiots, or so socially crippled it looks the same. And I'm not angry (well, more than usual), just want a cure for this shit.

2025-08-04 13:35:23 UTC

What making any modern/SF game feels like:
#ttrpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/970/749/293/706/549/original/4b2c6419c1da513c.png

2025-08-04 11:49:15 UTC

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@nprofile…98lz @nprofile…pqrf OR: Just write it my own damn self. Learned helplessness is still helplessness.

2025-08-04 06:43:49 UTC

Has there ever been a clinical study of why FLOSS/GNU/Linux people behave like that?
1. Person: Unrelated topic.
2. FLOSS: WELL ACTUALLY
3. Person: Not helpful.
4. FLOSS: WHY NOT? U R MEEN!
The fuck is wrong in their brains? That they think people want unhelpful "answers" and then get upset when you tell them how unhelpful they're being?
Were they not beaten enough as children/adults? Too much? Should we escalate to electric shocks and waterboarding or is there a "talking cure"?
#floss #linux

2025-08-04 03:12:36 UTC

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@nprofile…pqrf Write your own software.
I say my "Other Peoples' Code is the work of the devil" thing, but really it's more about learning & controlling my own environment. OPC solves someone else's problem and will have unfixable rough edges against what I'm doing.
This lesson pisses some people off so badly.

2025-08-03 13:15:18 UTC

Itch.io is getting their shit back together:
https://itch.io/t/5149036/reindexing-adult-nsfw-content

2025-08-02 04:03:43 UTC

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Trying to open a MacAddict CDROM, and macos doesn't open it. I don't know how to make Basilisk II mount a drive, I *think* it's possible? I got lost in the docs.
So trying macintosh.js again, but it exploded itself on the current fucking macos security system. GODDAMN IT APPLE QUIT SUCKING.
So trying a new version…
https://github.com/felixrieseberg/macintosh.js/?tab=readme-ov-file
It loads correctly!
Putting the ISO in ~/macintosh.js works!!!
Audio is jacked 100% and can't be adjusted, but Mac OS 8 control panels were out of control.
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/957/153/721/549/036/original/30bdbc0d11b6540e.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/957/176/919/638/922/original/2fca1bb2092b0192.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/957/177/388/901/356/original/b8a662261d95966b.jpg

2025-08-02 03:15:20 UTC

> A lot of Apple's bright future depends on OpenDoc. Try it yourself. Install the KickStart parts and Cyberdog to get the complete OpenDoc experience.
<
Remember CYBERDOG?
MacAddict magazine:
https://archive.org/details/macaddict?sort=title
Cover discs:
https://archive.org/search?query=macaddict+cd&page=2&sort=title&and%5B%5D=mediatype%3A%22software%22
#macintosh #cyberdog
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/956/984/371/712/869/original/b8edec007eda6bd9.jpg

2025-08-02 00:12:05 UTC

Timmy Apple: "it's difficult to see a world where iPhone's not living in it"
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/08/01/191248/tim-cook-says-its-difficult-to-see-a-world-without-iphones
Steve Ballmer: "We've got our strategy, we've got great Windows Mobile devices in the market today."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
#apple #doomed

2025-08-01 06:50:29 UTC

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@nprofile…a2qx I would never again run Linux, and on Mac I don't even use a custom window manager or quicksilver; Amethyst and such work but I don't need them like I did there.

2025-08-01 05:52:34 UTC

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People complain in my games about the difficulty curve, and sometimes the inventory management, but GOOD FUCK they never played Omega. I made another guy, poked a door, Vlad Tepes ate me.
I HAVEN'T LEFT TOWN YET. I NEED GEAR.
Probably give up for now, 3 stupid deaths is enough for a day, but I'll be back.
I have beat this game, several times, on the Atari ST 20 years ago.
#roguelike

2025-08-01 05:49:42 UTC

Cool Retro Term is amusing, and it's installable with
port install cool-retro-term
https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term
So to try it out, I played some Omega.
http://www.alcyone.com/max/projects/omega/
Nice character! Found the merc guild, got some fried lizard for lunch. Went to the arena, murdered a pencil-necked geek… then forgot about the portcullis and tried lifting it, and died. Fucking cruel game.
#roguelike
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/951/932/018/560/591/original/6ad986a6266819fb.jpg

2025-08-01 04:27:34 UTC

Discussion of USENET on IRC #oldcomputerchallenge got me to thinking about my state of mind circa millennium, say '95-05.
I was spending a LOT of time on USENET, on a couple accounts. ICB, IRC, AOL, ICQ all scroll & beep.
I'd hacked my Linux desktop into something really peculiar, was running mostly Enlightenment (previously IceWM, WindowMaker, briefly KDE but ha ha that shit could go in a dumpster). Everything was automated, floating windows around me.
Warm cozy shell.
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/951/609/291/796/434/original/5d80732e3cfdae48.jpg

2025-08-01 03:45:30 UTC

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Tiny afternoon update, added hurkle.bas so you can now
CHASE THE HURKLE
in the
CYBER HOLE
!!!
https://cyberhole.online/basic/basic.html?run=hurkle.bas
(yes, you can autorun a program from the URL!)
Which was very productive for finding a couple bugs/issues, but 98% worked as designed.
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/951/420/633/083/594/original/40a35bec36b5b7cd.jpg

2025-08-01 01:10:39 UTC

On next week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Fonzie jumps his space-scooter over TWO space-sharks!
#startrek

2025-07-31 08:24:23 UTC

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IT IS DONE! All functionality of TinyBasicWeb Level 1 works!
https://cyberhole.online/basic/basic.html
DIR ""
to see sample programs,
RUN "whatever"
to load & run.
You can make simple INPUT-based games!
There's no arrays yet, so don't get too hype, but for a lot of "prompt and show a thing" programs, it's good enough.
I have some network-related things to do next, so I can start using it for a general-purpose forms UI.
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/946/826/094/513/514/original/cc4aa5d085c0a684.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/946/826/483/864/557/original/023a1dcc8f94a6fb.jpg

2025-07-30 08:52:44 UTC

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"tomorrow" being a vague time period, I did string variables and basic disk commands instead of INPUT (not hard, but paste is going to be a thing, so I'm "eh"). No more test program embedded in the source, it's just a file on disk (I think it's sanitized enough.)
https://cyberhole.online/basic/basic.html?run=test.bas
#cyberhole #basic #retrocomputing
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/941/273/488/085/398/original/374792cdb515c391.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/941/273/941/131/266/original/9f55ccc17ae73f82.jpg

2025-07-28 08:54:14 UTC

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@nprofile…qfs6 Ah, Pegasus #8, which makes sense, I was still doing a lot of T&T then. (I am now, too, but I was then, and sometimes not in the middle bits.)
I suspect the articles are in there, but my Pegasi aren't OCR'd.

2025-07-28 08:38:13 UTC

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@nprofile…qfs6 Back in the day, I saw a review or series of articles in… not Dragon, but maybe Imagine? Different Worlds? Someone else at gaming club had a copy.
It never had the cachet of DragonQuest, for sure.

2025-07-28 08:17:17 UTC

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@nprofile…qfs6 I really like BMG, it's one of the best of the "fix everything in D&D, which no longer leaves any D&D". Same tradition as Arduin and Perrin Conventions/Warlock.
The 2011 update is nicely cleaned up:
http://wunderwood.com/BMG/

2025-07-28 06:06:01 UTC

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Oh, well GOTO, GOSUB, RETURN were trivial. If anyone wants to do some live testing, let me know, message me any program that doesn't work and should (read the spec, it's not "standard BASIC").
I'll do INPUT tomorrow, then it'll be donezo for now! I'm very likely to get bitmap fonts in then, too.
Then I can start moving MysticDungeon.club over. Probably all next month, tho some of them should be REAL fast, some quite hard to untangle from the node shit.
#basic #retrocomputing #cyberhole
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/929/335/919/040/634/original/bc1b5e01da132209.jpg
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/929/336/222/618/978/original/771c509dc1a94f34.jpg

2025-07-28 02:56:07 UTC

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IF and LIST, with nice reformatting.
Might get done with L1 BASIC today!
#basic #retrocomputing #cyberhole
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/928/574/092/965/155/original/44c33cf8aee976e4.jpg

2025-07-27 22:21:16 UTC

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Though like the circus, the library's a dying lifestyle. There may never be another generation of readers, or clowns, at least until after the apocalypse when reading, clowning, and jugging* become the only entertainments.
* (a blood sport. Nobody knows why it's played with the skull of a dog. If you get this reference, you are old and watch weird movies.)

2025-07-27 22:19:00 UTC

I would 100% abandon my life to join a band of travelling librarians. Much less scary than clowns.
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/927/512/131/205/099/original/dc53ffdca8a757d2.jpg

2025-07-27 02:11:50 UTC

Amazing resource, all the SPI games in nicely scanned PDFs!
https://spigames.net/rules_downloads.htm
Universe is good but very bland, but Creature that Ate Sheboygan!!! Dallas (almost an RPG)! The "Intro to Adventure Gaming" has Creatures that Ate New York, and Tower of Azann, which was a good map-builder thing.
#ttrpg #ttwargame

2025-07-26 02:34:56 UTC

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@nprofile…zzkp When you go on a romantic cruise but can't let it get out, you use fake names.

2025-07-25 11:22:31 UTC

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Is now running on the
CYBER HOLE
https://cyberhole.online
So maybe go see if it does anything catastrophic.
You can roll dice!
As noted in the spec, all math has to be parenthesized, left-to-right only. % can be used to make integers. I'll eventually write a little "U CAN LERN BASIC" type book with examples.
IF, GOTO, GOSUB, RETURN tomorrow, I expect, then I'm basically done!
(also should've updated version # to 0.3, since it does something new)
#basic #retrocomputing #cyberhole
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/913/594/291/084/552/original/c75c61564104a76d.jpg

2025-07-25 09:55:50 UTC

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MATHEMATICAL, DUDE!
#basic #retrocomputing #theAnswer #toLifeTheUniverseAndEverything #42
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/913/261/487/055/990/original/17ef49f248949780.jpg

2025-07-25 01:26:53 UTC

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@nprofile…6k0x I said then, and stand by it now:
The average quality of music in the world doubled the day Kurt took care of his headache problem.
Sympathy to those so tasteless they liked his work.

2025-07-23 02:20:56 UTC

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I now have Gopher working again in my
CYBER HOLE
gopher://cyberhole.online:70/1/
If you don't already have a preferred Gopher client, try Lynx
https://lynx.invisible-island.net
or Lagrange
https://github.com/skyjake/lagrange
#gopher #cyberhole

2025-07-22 02:56:00 UTC

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@nprofile…j6um @nprofile…s06p What Vim plugins do you work with, if any?

2025-07-22 02:54:51 UTC

Very subtle trap, GM.
https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/page-13-2025
#ttrpg #goblins #comic
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/894/614/863/580/001/original/9a426e0fca624bd1.jpg

2025-07-22 01:34:46 UTC

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@nprofile…4ejq All my yout' in the '80s, both MTV and Night Flight*, later some VH1. By late '90s all of it was gone.
* (there is a new web/app NF, and it's OK, but kinda janky, it wasn't worth my $5/mo)

2025-07-22 01:28:12 UTC

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@nprofile…y496 Future (probably non-Human) archaeologists are gonna love us all being 100% preserved.

2025-07-22 01:21:05 UTC

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@nprofile…y496 There have been studies that show any beverage is just as (within some %) hydrating as water. The old idea that coffee, etc. are not hydrating is false.
BUT, you should still use some water so your body isn't entirely composed of sugar and yellow dye.

2025-07-21 15:28:06 UTC

Me: Normal thing.
Lunatic: Then do improbable thing on site.com!
Me: No, I solve it the simple way.
Lunatic: You are trolling!
Me: <plonk>
Fucking hell what is wrong in people's brains?

2025-07-21 06:48:53 UTC

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"You can't play evil" is also very stupid, but like I get that some people play with kids. Tho I was playing evil PCs when I was 10 or 12 or whatever, as soon as I'd read some real swords & sorcery.
But you can't play Karl Edward Wagner's Kane, or Elric, or Thieves World, without evil PCs. Lots of others, too. Arguably Conan's at best Chaotic Neutral, and edges into Chaotic Evil much of the time.
#ttrpg #osr #dnd

2025-07-21 06:44:30 UTC

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@nprofile…4aqs You know we have these things in browsers called "bookmarks", which let you remember a URL for later? They're real new, somewhere around 1992-3.

2025-07-21 06:43:28 UTC

I watched a few minutes of a guy's "20 rules for D&D" yustub, and he starts with "you can't play evil", and "no online dice rollers", which are both pretty dumb.
But then "roll 4d6 keep 3". No. No cowards in RPGs. You roll 3d6 down the line, play what you fucking roll. You wuss. How is it any kind of "adventure" or "victory" to use a magic superhero with everything maxxed out to "win"? Heroism comes from taking an average guy with maybe one good thing, and being mighty anyway.
#ttrpg #osr #dnd

2025-07-21 06:26:50 UTC

Is there anything more satisfying than when you reach the head of a webcomic archive, and can add it to your RSS feeds, and it *HAS ONE*‽ It is the best.

2025-07-20 10:27:19 UTC

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IN THE CYBER HOLE
https://cyberhole.online/
TinyBasicWeb now has objects instead of just a stack of JS strings (you won't see all this junk in non-debug), and I can assign & use variables! (can't operate on them yet) If I had GOTO you could be dangerous.
Protip: In the spec I tell you:
Keyboard: F-keys change state. F1: Command, F2: Run/Resume, F3: Memo, F4: Input.
#basic #retrocomputing #cyberhole
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/885/060/184/578/385/original/f1f452a7636b4e02.jpg

2025-07-17 16:21:35 UTC

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@nprofile…zhqt A good modern-day RPG, not supernatural or all guns or GURPS.
BTRC's CORPS is about the only contender, and it's mostly guns. Basic Roleplay has a strong implication you'll use magic superpowers or something.
90% of literature & movies is not fantasy or SF, but it's almost impossible to play that.
(Every time I talk about this, I get 100 miss-the-point answers of "play this thing with magic" or "why would you play with no magic‽")
#ttrpg

2025-07-17 11:10:29 UTC

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First complete program run! WOO!
#basic #retrocomputing #oldcomputerchallenge #cyberhole
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/868/250/360/308/371/original/fae9f4ed90f2e9e1.jpg

2025-07-17 08:09:17 UTC

Web dev protip:
console.log("foo: ", p);
displays p in console as a live object. If it updates, every console entry of it updates.
console.log("foo: "+JSON.stringify(p) );
dumps the current state to console so you can figure out what changed over time.
In related news, my little BASIC parser now parses at least a couple tokens correctly (the colon lines are parsed tokens)
#webdev #protip #javascript
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/867/546/050/296/613/original/fba3da05555fcfb1.jpg

2025-07-16 16:11:55 UTC

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@nprofile…8vnl Also COBOL is in no sense dead, it probably has more working programmers today than any "living" languages except C (C++), Java (C#), JS, Python, PHP.
And if LISP is alive, so is BASIC, we have programming jams for BASIC & LISP, not for APL or SNOBOL (one of my favorite stupid dead languages).

2025-07-16 01:27:22 UTC

40 years of Dirty Pair!!! July 15, 1985. Until just last year, I'd only seen the OVAs subtitled, the series had no subtitles and I refused to watch dubs (Anime Club, that's why. Fuck you, poseur!)
But now I have them with subtitles and have watched the whole series again! Wow that made a lot more sense!
#anime #dirtypair
https://cdn.masto.host/appdotnet/media_attachments/files/114/860/302/765/184/880/original/7a12b4aea168ea54.mp4

2025-07-15 10:37:14 UTC

Old Computer Challenge
https://mdhughes.tech/2025/07/15/old-computer-challenge/
So a few weeks back, prompted by the hosting provider for MysticDungeonClub no longer supporting FreeBSD so I need to move rather post-haste, I bought a new domain, with the ~worst~ BEST name I've ever come up with, I fear that I have now peaked and nothing will ever top this:
Cyberhole.online
A hole for cybering in, as one does. It's like Mel's
#BASIC #Cyberhole #OldComputerChallenge #retrocomputing

2025-07-14 05:32:00 UTC

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I might need to bust out POVRAY, to make a proper logo for the CYBERHOLE. Like Mel's Hole, but wireframe green.

2025-07-14 05:21:58 UTC

Remember when I said I had the ~worst~ BEST new domain?
OK, very minimal setup, for my new
CYBER HOLE.
It is a hole in which I cyber. Feel like that's pretty self-explanatory.
https://cyberhole.online
#cyberhole