jmac

No kings Amy and I plan to march in New York City’s instance of this coming weekend’s No Kings protest. It will be my third march of the year.

Marching in the #NYC iteration of the #NoKings protest on Saturday. If you live in the U.S. and you're able to join, then I hope that you will.

I prepare for marches by making sure I'm ready to walk attentively for a couple of hours. That's about it. I just show up.

fogknife.com/2025-10-15-n...

12 - The family name An investigation into the origins of 'Halstrick', my relatively recent nom-de-jeu.

Please enjoy episode 12 of VENTHUFFER, telling the story of “Halstrick”, the name I've been using for gaming in recent years.

This is the result of one the most profound and personal investigations I've ever performed, and I'd love it if you listened along.

venthuffer.com/2025-05-26-1...

11 - Neon Appreciating the beautiful, unlikely, ongoing work of Jeff Minter and Llamasoft.

Please enjoy issue 11 of my video game audio zine Venthuffer, which is the inevitable Jeff Minter episode, on the occasion of Llamasoft's new remake of "I, Robot”: venthuffer.com/2025-05-12-1...

Asking in legitimate curiosity: Do people on Bluesky generally not use hashtags at all?

It's only recently occurred to me that I very rarely see them, and I've started to edit them out of cross-posts that I'd originally posted on tag-happy Mastodon.

Dear NYC: Do you have any coworking recommendations for solo freelancers?

Currently using my local NYPL branch, and you can’t beat it on price. But I do have a a bit of budget and I’m interested in seeing other options.

10 - Resolution “Good enough for your eyes and mine.” Applying Depression-era thinking to modern hardware upgrade cycles.

In the latest episode of VENTHUFFER i hold forth for twelve minutes about the resolution of the Steam Deck, which is a number I've already forgotten since recording it, and about my ever-evolving attitudes towards console upgrade cycles. venthuffer.com/2025-04-28-1...

9: Extermination Recalling the time when House Flipper forced me to take a hard look at a real-life household crisis brewing behind the refrigerator.

This week on #Venthuffer: That time I played House Flipper during a home-alone week a couple of years ago, and how it forced me to face a really gnarly problem burbling behind the iRL fridge.

venthuffer.com/2025-04-14-9...

(Audio CW for frank talk of creepy-crawlies.)

8: Suspension The Steam Deck has a one-button suspension feature that lets you safely set the console down and immediately turn your full attention to something else, at any time, even in the middle of a game. Even...

Please enjoy a new episode of Venthuffer, my audio zine about the Steam Deck and things adjacent.

This one's about the Deck's one-button suspension feature, why it's one of the best things about the system, and the trouble it got me into. #SteamDeck

venthuffer.com/2025-03-31-8...

7: Cruise On Balatro, and my diminishing personal susceptibility to videogame addiction—even when I invite it in.

After a winter break, I've resumed Venthuffer, my "audio zine" podcast about the #SteamDeck and topics adjacent.

This new episode is about #Balatro, and a cruise ship, and 36 hours until landfall in Victoria. venthuffer.com/2025-03-17-7...

Shout-out to all bar staff this weekend who are gritting their teeth, staring the customer right in the eye, and saying "we call that a boilermaker here, and so will you if you want one"

And shout-out to all who just show the customer the door, by pointing or scruffing

The episode cover art, featuring a photograph of dockside sign in Juneau, Alaska. It is decorated with painted salmon, rendered in the formline style associated with indigenous Pacific Northwest artwork. The titles read 'Venthuffer: A dream of the Steam Deck by Halstrick'.

Episode 7 goes up tomorrow. #SteamDeck

My governors The governors of my respective home and adoptive states show how to stand up to a gangster president.

Wrote something about how the two governors of my respective home and adoptive states are setting an example of standing up to a gangster government. fogknife.com/2025-03-12-m... #Maine #NYC #NewYork #USpol

Season two begins on March 17 Coming in just under the wire of the spring-equinox deadline I set for myself last time, I’m happy to say that Venthuffer season two launches this coming Monday, March 17. Find the first episode that ...

New episodes of Venthuffer, my monologue audio zine about the Steam Deck and topics adjacent, coming this Monday. venthuffer.com/2025-03-12-s...

Jason McIntosh · List of professional writing A list of published work by Jason McIntosh.

Need a deeply experienced writer with a background in both journalism and engineering to document something, cover a technology beat, or engagingly explain complex topics to a wider audience? Talk to me. jmac.org/writing/

I'm still experimenting with my social-media weight, including more experiments with POSSE-style syndication across several websites—Bluesky included.

But for the time being, if my contributions here feel a bit write-only, that's why.

I'm otherwise feeling pretty Bluesky-shy right now. This place is absolutely "Twitter 2", which is fine! Twitter didn't deserve what happened to it, and I'm glad to see a viable successor here.

But also this place is poisonous for my mental health, exactly as Twitter would have been during Trump 2.

Hi Bluesky friends,

I've set up @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy, which is a bridged version of my Mastodon account. If you're interested in my day-to-day posts and links and such, then give it a follow!

What’s this? I spent last night reviving my old “notes blog”, intended for posts that feel too light for my main blog, but don’t feel quite appropriate for writing directly on social media, either. I started it as...

What’s this? · 'Twas this: jmac.org/notes/2025-0...

I wrote an article for @lwndotnet.bsky.social about the major ways that Memcached has evolved since its launch more than 20 years ago: lwn.net/SubscriberLi... #Linux #FOSS

ACK, boomer I wish there was an ACK symbol in the Unicode emoji set, for slapping a “I receive and comprehend your message” reaction on a text. “👍” implies more assent or agreement than I necessarily want, and “🆗...

ACK, boomer: jmac.org/notes/2025-0...

It’s a coup, and they are soldiers The band of semi-anonymous young software engineers doing Elon Musk’s bidding in Washington are soldiers recruited into a murderous stike team that is directly and violently assaulting the federal gov...

New Fogknife post: It's a coup, and they are soldiers. fogknife.com/2025-02-04-i...

The bare minimum I will not stand aside and let my neighbors come to harm from a corrupted government.

New Fogknife post: The bare minimum fogknife.com/2025-02-02-t...

Ten years of Fogknife An acknowledgment of this blog's tenth birthday, with some discussion of current tooling, and where I've been putting my writing-energy these days.

Gave a nod to my personal blog turning 10: fogknife.com/2024-12-31-t...

And updated my Now page for the winter: jmac.org/now/

Nuclear War Yes, the dog dies. So do the pandas.

“It has been the solemn burden of we Gen Xers to tell the generations after ours how lucky they have it, growing up without this terror. But a thing I learned from Annie Jacobsen's crushingly grim 2024 book _Nuclear War_ is that my cohort can set this burden down."

fogknife.com/2024-12-19-n...

Jason McIntosh · Tech writing portfolio A portfolio of tech writing samples by Jason McIntosh.

❧ I am available for hire as a technical writer.

In recent years I've documented technologies ranging from open-source programming languages to FAANG-run enterprise services.

I'm particularly interested in writing for open-source projects or for nonprofit organizations.

jmac.org/tech-writing...

6: Ouroboros On UFO 50 and ever-flowering cycles of the simplest game designs.

This week's issue of Venthuffer, my short audio zine about the Steam Deck, is about UFO 50, the cyclical nature of art, and snakes. Give it a listen! #UFO50 #SteamDeck #podcasts #VideoGames venthuffer.com/2024-11-24-6...
masto.nyc/@jmac/113543...

5: Permadeath Appreciating Caves of Qud as a gymnasium for Stoicism.

This week on Venthuffer: the psychic scar I still carry from the time I lost my best traditional-roguelike character in an eyeblink, and how contemplating this loss might improve my real life. #CavesOfQud #Stoicism #Roguelike #Podcasts venthuffer.com/2024-11-17-5...

4: Introduction Examining the origins and motivations of this audio project, four episodes in.

It's a new episode of Venthuffer, my audio zine about the #SteamDeck. I reward myself for getting past the first-three-episode hump by recording a series introduction. I describe it as self-indulgent, but if we're being honest it's no more so than every other episode. venthuffer.com/2024-11-10-4...

Mods Letting my friends expand my gaming horizons through consensual rule-breaking.

This week on VENTHUFFER, I talk about my initial exploration of the modern landscape of PC-game modding via #SteamDeck. Some games have friendly modding interfaces built in; others require you to fire up a command line and lower a welder's mask. venthuffer.com/2024-11-03-m...

Podcasts, I’m on podcasts I’ve either shown up on or straight-ahead launched a number of podcasts in and around the video-gamey space over the past year. Here is what they are!

A roundup of the podcasts I've appeared on in 2024. Which is to say, three of them, including the one I myself launched. But you should go listen to all of them! I'm in there talking about nail painting, comic books, and the psychosexual subtexts of super nintendo games. fogknife.com/2024-10-30-p...