Mike McHargue

YouTube video by FortNine What is the "Greedy Algorithm" and Why is it So Dangerous?

If you know, you know.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eTN...

In a sea of excellent quote posts, yours takes the cake. Bravo.

We have our problems! A sustained, public/private partnership working hard to prevent affordable housing being near the top of the list. But we aren't lawless. We aren't "overrun."

I wouldn't trade the people of LA for anything. Moving here was the best decision my family has ever made.

I'm proud to live here, and grateful for the rich, beautiful culture that comes from having so many first and second generation immigrants (and not just from Mexico!) as neighbors.

If you haven't been here, don't pretend you understand our city from clips seen on the news.

He's from Tallahassee!

How You Can Protect Democracy 29 concrete actions you can take right now to protect democracy.

As credible reports emerge that judges in the USA are being arrested, our republic is in danger. We must all protect the freedom that comes with democratic participation.

It can feel overwhelming, and it's hard to know where to begin. Start here.

protectdemocracy.org/how-to-prote...

PowerBook Duo in a Duo Dock is a flex.

Thank you, Kendrick Lamar.

It's hard being casual when my favorite bra is in your dresser.

Awesome. I'm placing my order right now.

In Making Enemies, I discuss:

- size, number, and level of challenge
- monster habitats
- monster motivations
- monsters as metaphors
- monsters and magic
- the monstrous anatomy possessed by real-world organisms
- how to customize monsters for your own TTRPG adventuring party to confront

The cover of Making Enemies: A huge, pearlescent arthropod bursts out of a subterranean crevice and drives one of its large barbed claws through a dwarf fighter's abdomen. Another dwarf cowers in fear.

In The Monsters Know What They’re Doing and MOAR! Monsters Know What They’re Doing, I reverse-engineered hundreds of #DnD monsters to help DMs plan their combat encounters.

Now, in Making Enemies (Oct. 7), I explore everything that goes into creating #TTRPG monsters from the ground up. #booksky

He got home and went right to my office to lie down. They are the best people.

🤮

That feeling of melancholy when your dog is at the groomer instead of laying on the floor of your office.

Image Playground (released today) as part of Apple Intelligence is hilariously bad, even by the standards of generative AI.

Shared docs is legitimately hard to do with zero knowledge encryption, so I have empathy here.

All--and I mean all--my personal and professional data is stored on cloud providers that offer zero knowledge encryption.

So few services offer it. I have passed over a number of interesting apps/web services lately because "encrypted at rest," means nothing if the host has the keys.

😗

A M A Z I N G ! ! !

I'm as well as I have ever been. :)

The Bluesky money is generally coming from right leaning libertarians with significant crypto holdings. 🤷‍♂️

Quite the encapsulation of human history.

Also, bad actors can flood the zone with shitposts and harassment to a degree even good moderation tools have difficulty managing. Social media gave us Black Lives Matter and Me Too, while also facilitating the rightward lurch of Gen Z men.

Advocates can do vital organizing work, and raise awareness around topics that society ignores. Yet, that advocacy often saps time and energy from other forms of action that drive a deeper impact.

It's tough because you make real friends along a different set of commonalities than in-person friendships, which is very valuable. But, those relationships are also neurologically "thin."

The interaction models drive compulsive behavior loops.

It gets worse, sadly. Also, damn it's good to see you.

tl;dr I remain deeply skeptical of social media when controlled by companies, and mildly skeptical of social media as an interaction model in society.

It's interesting seeing Blue Sky get traction with so many folks where Mastodon failed. The centralization here is an unarguably superior experienced.

The centralized ownership (and its composition) makes me think this could turn out to be at least as bad as Twitter over time.

How have you been, Cortland?