The Stochastic Game

Surprisingly, sometime in the last few months Marvel Comics seems to have joined the list of publishers who do allow downloading (DRM-free?) PDFs of your purchases on Neon Ichiban… huh. I might buy a few digital Marvel comics after all.

LOL wait, that Supergirl bundle isn’t the usual bundle where you get a whole bunch of PDFs or ebooks. It only gives you a redeem code to Neon Ichiban, a digital comics/manga store with deceptive dark UI patterns, and of course no DRM-free download options AFAICT. Fuck this.

I recently complained about how difficult it is to get a digital copy of “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” (and digital comics in general), and… well, there’s a Supergirl Humble Bundle right now with that book! Frankly, bundles have been the only good way to buy digital comics in the last 10 years.

“How AI Is Ruining Education, In One Handy Chart”: shout-out to student 22 who seems to be among the few not cheating with AI, and also worked enough to improve their score in the final! Most of the other students: HAHA, YOU MORONS

“Accessibility in GNOME”: “The reality of tech communities is that they are often ableist and elitist. Probably more so than the average population.” Yep.

“Meta’s Teen Safety Case Just Became a $1.4 Trillion Existential Threat”: this is GREAT. Of course, this being in the US, I would be (pleasantly) surprised if it actually stuck the landing, but it’s still great. If the EU had any backbone, this would happen there too.

This talk about Supergirl’s box office failings, and the competing cuts with different songs and so on, reminds me that I dislike “unchecked James Gunn” movies that look like a loose series of partial music videos edited for viral potential and badly cut into a 5-bullet-point story.

Yesterday’s mail call was the Deluxe Edition of the Classic Traveller boxed set. The main 3 little black books, plus some introduction adventure, and a cool-looking map of the Spinward Marches! Yay, maps!

I’ve been doing a lot of research on Rasputin lately and wow, apparently his eyes were a flaming glow, and he was very nice to Muscovite poultry. He preached the bible like a preacher, was a lover of the Russian Queen, plus something about a cat. So interesting. Still lots more to learn about him.

In honour of Bonnie Tyler passing away, let’s re-watch the “literal version” of Total Eclipse of the Heart!

“And they shouldn’t fence at night, or they’re going to hurt the gymnasts” 🤣🤣