Based on what I hear about the Unreal Fest keynote, I think y’all can guess why I was laid off from Epic with a thousand other people a couple months ago: I had been yelling “NOOO FUCK GEN-AI FUCK THE METAVERSE” for more than a year internally 😅

eBay is really weird and inscrutable: it prevents me from sending offers to people watching my items on sale, without telling me why. The documentation simply says it depends on “multiple factors” or whatever. Ugh. Anyway, if you want some TTRPG stuff, I’ve got a few.

Lots of good reasons why banning social media for teens is misguided, but the argument that “teens need online spaces” feels dishonest to me. If kids move away from corporation-managed spaces to niche forums that are self-managed/moderated, that’s a win in my book.

“Carney government is ‘shredding’ environmental rules and ‘misleading’ Canadians: former advisors”: I get that Carney wants to move fast and bolster Canadian industries but hey, funny how it’s always about bolstering the polluting and destructive ones. He’s not even trying.

We’ve made straightforward things like “rewarding business investors based on the other investors their recruit” illegal in most countries. Surely we can also make “non-chronological social media algorithms” illegal too? It would solve so many problems.

I ditched most of Amazon’s stuff a couple years ago, including my Kindle which I replaced with a Kobo. But I have noticed a few months ago that Kobo seems to use more and more Adobe DRM bullshit. Apparently that causes problems for book authors. Piracy and jailbreaking are still the best user-experience.

Let’s go back to forums, web rings, and janky chat rooms.

I added an appendix to my recent Dragonbane review, since a couple of people were surprised at how much of a generous gamemaster I am with heroic abilities… hear that, my dear players? I’m an overly generous gamemaster! I have proof! Stop asking for more XP!

Drawing with a view.

The trailer for “Whalefall” reminds you that the odds of being swallowed alive by a whale are technically not zero. This is another great occurrence of taking a common folk-tale/biblical trope and doing a horror movie out of it. A whole movie inside a whale’s belly… sounds fun!