Decaf @decaf@dice.camp

Looks like rumours are starting to circulate that Google is looking for an exit strategy for #Stadia. Apparently it's looking like the servers will just be shut down without the content getting transferred anywhere, the way they did with Google Play Music (shifting content to YouTube).

Definitely worth taking with a grain of salt, but nobody should be surprised when people start getting 30 or 60 day notices.

Today is "Creator Day" on itch.io, so if you've been holding off on buying a #TTRPG there, today's the day when all proceeds of a sale go to the game's seller. Go support some indie RPGs!

I think I just found an apt description of myself inside of a TTRPG for the first time:
from Death in Space:
"NATIVE MACHINE: You can converse with computers as if they were real people. Plug in and find a friend."
All of you I assume are real people, but you live in my computer when I talk to you here... so...
👋 hello all my computer friends 😛

Dawn of the apocalypse: Existential crisis for our species is right here, right now

We've been warned for decades about the death march of climate change. But global elites have done almost nothing

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/26/dawn-of-the-apocalypse-existential-for-our-species-is-right-here-right-now/

#science

Ok, I now have permission to talk about this project in full and in public. I'm working with Alan Kay to build six replicas* of a Xerox PARC Alto display for use in a museum exhibit**. Visitors will see a real Alto and then walk over to one of the replicas to futz with Smalltalk '78***.
Here's a nice writeup of a different project that rejuvenated an actual Alto.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/y-combinators-xerox-alto-restoring-the-legendary-1970s-gui-computer/

Privileged to know one of "Pershing's Own" in my IRL circles. He was my roommate in college and an amazing person, incredible teacher and mentor, and terrific trumpeter. Here's him and the rest with a recent anniversary salute.🎵 🎺 #music #increible

"This is a AI generated zoom based off the RAW NASA James Webb image."

https://twitter.com/528vibes/status/1546665555880558592

NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears

Deep field images of the universe, exoplanet atmospheres, and more to be unveiled.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/06/nasa-teases-extraordinary-images-captured-by-its-webb-telescope/

"What I have seen moved me, as a scientist, as an engineer, and as a human being"

Exoplanet atmospheres!

> This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground

🤯

https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

New Pixelfed account where you can eventually see lots of my #AI #midjourney imagery so this timeline here doesn't get so crowded:
https://deef.link/pics

Thanks for the recommendation @Archiviste_Dragontigre

Today in wacky experiments in #photography: a macro lens on a set of bellows for some extreme magnification.

Too much for anything practical outdoors, it turns out. The tiniest breeze or jiggle throws everything out of focus. This is definitely a setup for carefully stabilized subjects under studio conditions (not least because this setup is so light-hungry).

I’m terrible at math… but if this isn’t one of the coolest RPG math things I’ve ever seen…https://youtu.be/X_DdGRjtwAo #ttrpg #probability #statistics

Self-portrait!
Warning: Eye contact.

i hate the UI trend where the screen is filled with unsafe places to put the cursor. something will pop up or change, or when random non-link surfaces, both underneath the actual buttons or links and not, will load something else because when the cursor was off the the actual link by a couple pixels

i feel like i have to constantly be precisely aware of where the cursor is laying at all time, and i'll often leave it on another monitor to avoid activating something without meaning to

-- freya raccooncat ​

https://lithub.com/repetition-ruins-a-narrative-on-trying-to-create-amid-the-sameness-of-pandemic-parenting/

In the 2020 election, 10 voters in Fresno, California voted for Jesse Ventura for President.

WHO ARE THESE TEN PEOPLE

But writers aren't the adversaries of publishers. Or at least, we shouldn't be. It's a frankly bizarre circumstance when writers take contracts more seriously than the publishers who write them.

Here's the podcast episode:

https://craphound.com/news/2022/06/27/reasonable-agreement-on-the-crapification-of-literary-contracts/

Here's a direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive, they'll host your stuff for free, forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_430/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_430_-_Reasonable_Agreement.mp3

And here's the RSS for my podcast feed:

https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

eof/

Thinking Like a Scientist Will Make You Happier

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili explains how to get out from under the cloud of misinformation.

https://nautil.us/thinking-like-a-scientist-will-make-you-happier-19974/

About The Joy of Science by Jim Al-Khalili https://amzn.to/3btYTqR (affiliate link)

#book #books #science

Anybody got any recommendations for sci-fi or fantasy ebooks where I can just buy direct from the author or publisher DRM free? (preferably as an epub) #ebooks #scifi #fantasy