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jmac

@jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy
33 followers 1 following 1.4K posts

Writer, Hacker. Stoic, Erisian. New Yorker. I like coffee, cats, coyotes, and the open web. I run BumpySkies, a free resource for nervous fliers, with turbulence forecasts […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ masto.nyc/@jmac, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 13h
How do you say out loud the “[One brand] X [Another brand]” thing? Do you just say “X”? “Crossed with”? “Collab”, but as a postfix? (Not looking for “I don’t” as an answer, I already have that one.)
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026
I’m in a space that alleges to be the #Boston South Station bus terminal? What the heck? When did all this happen? Where’d the grungy bus terminal of my memories go, the one you had to trudge to in shame through a side alley next the to Regina Pizza, so that you […] [Original post on masto.nyc]
A shiny and quite new looking bus terminal interior.
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
Strange poetry in that hearing a loud male voice saying GOOD MORNING GOOD MORNING on the subway platform could be either someone about to go into their panhandling spiel or a cop waking up a napping panhandler #NYC
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
The :1train: just sat in 86th street for five minutes while the conductor lectured us the whole time about not holding the train doors, which was new to me. And now we’re expressing! Which is fine with me, I’m going to 14th, suckers #NYC
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
RE: mastodon.gamedev.place/@eviltrout/1… I loved Blake Manor, and I also loved Type Help, the free, text-based predecessor to Galley House. This is a nice deal!
mastodon.gamedev.place
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
#TwasThis: Today I turned ten Cobalt-60 half-lives old, according to the Mathaversaries calendar I subscribed to quite a while ago. (Technically, I am subscribed to its predecessor project, Mathematical Anniversaries, which I dimly recall learning of through Making Light, or some place like it.) […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
#TwasThis: While I’ve never owned a dedicated e-reader, Nena Farrell’s Wired preview of the Boox Picco—$100 and apparently no larger than a playing card—piques my interest. jmac.org/notes/2026-09-29-i-am-inte…
jmac.org
I am interested in tiny e-readers suddenly · ’Twas This
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Reposted by jmac
Graham Dunning @grahamdunning.post.lurk.org.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
Out Today! LEAFCUTTER JOHN - WARM GRIT Tape and download. Scratchy ambient drones with field recordings, synths and John's home made gritstone turntables. Tapes are ready to send - check the bandcamp for photos, including the fosted/opaque tapes which look ace. UK postage is cheap. Postage to […]
post.lurk.org
Original post on post.lurk.org
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@blogdiva/117355116… Grim as hell, as is the fact that I rode the A past the same stop about two hours later, unaware of any of this. The subway stops for nothing. #NYC
mastodon.social
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026
#TwasThis: Bicameral Google, again jmac.org/notes/2026-09-29-bicameral…
jmac.org
Bicameral Google, still · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
Boarded #BGR 🛩️ #JFK
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
#TwasThis: Funky old music-room posters jmac.org/notes/2026-09-28-funky-old…
jmac.org
Funky old music-room posters · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
#TwasThis: Reinforcement Porning from Human Feedback (RPHF) jmac.org/notes/2026-09-28-reinforce…
jmac.org
Reinforcement porning from human feedback (RPHF) · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
#TwasThis: The Return of the Warren Sawyer jmac.org/notes/2026-09-27-return-of…
jmac.org
Return of the Warren Sawyer · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026
I appear to be sliding into practical #TTRPG speak where I happily call any kind of game “D&D”—especially if I’m telling a non-player what my afternoon plans are, or the like—but if I’m *specifically* playing literal Dungeons and Dragons™, then I call it “5E”.
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
I am, obviously, trying something new with ’Twas This, my scrappy “notebook” blog, afforded by new ways that I’m using RSS (which I hope I share in more detail later). I wonder if I should hashtag these for polite mute-ability reasons.
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: Get phished, see old friends: jmac.org/notes/2026-09-26-get-phish…
jmac.org
Get phished, see old friends · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: Kinky Tail survives jmac.org/notes/2026-09-26-kinky-tai…
jmac.org
Kinky Tail survives · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: Stacks, a modern Hypercard player jmac.org/notes/2026-09-26-stacks-a-…
jmac.org
Stacks, a modern Hypercard player · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: Every Katamari Thing jmac.org/notes/2026-09-25-every-kat…
jmac.org
Every Katamari thing · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: Australia has no time for this jmac.org/notes/2026-09-25-australia…
jmac.org
Australia has no time for this · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: The toy-making raccoons of Cozumel jmac.org/notes/2026-09-25-the-toy-m…
jmac.org
The toy-making raccoons of Cozumel · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
’Twas This: Rubbercat on Mario Kart Tour jmac.org/notes/2026-09-21-rubbercat…
jmac.org
Rubbercat on Mario Kart Tour · ’Twas This
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
RE: masto.nyc/@jmac/117321658272994609 Thanks to all who responded to this, which was admittedly an unpacking-parental-traumas post triggered by visiting family, though I didn’t realize that until after I posted it. My folks were 100% “They’re people in costumes”, which as good a […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
Personal first: not waiting for an official cancellation from an airline before taking their offer to reseat myself a couple of days into the future, on what I hope will be the other side of the storm du jour. Stay dry, #NYC! I miss you and I’ll see you soon. Meanwhile, if anyone has […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
Boarded #JFK 🛩️ #BGR Time to check in on the fam. I would appreciate the gift of your psychic energies to push the nor’easter out to sea away from Maine this weekend 🌬️
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 20/09/2026
A perfect weekend of two #TTRPG games: 1. In my His Majesty the Worm game, I must shelve hours of prep when a randomly drawn event decrees that a kaiju-scale baby rampages through the city, hunting the players. I hail-mary a connection between this and the ongoing plot while they rapidly switch […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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abadidea @0xabad1dea.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
Daddy’s playing a murder mystery game. Odin has no concept of murder, sin, guilt or malice so he’s quite stumped.
Odin the Newfie looking especially bulky as he intently looks at daddy intently looking at his computer
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
Realizing that because of the cultures I've been in contact with since 200X, I've been at least dimly aware of what is today being called the Harry Potter Fanfic AI Sex Cult for many years without stopping and thinking that haha wow it sure would seem pretty weird if more people found out about […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
I am back home in my filthy, beautiful city. I couldn’t be happier. Yesterday I dined with grim joy upon haggis in chili jam to celebrate the Riding of the Marches but today I lurched out of the airport taxi and straight into Mimi’s on Broadway for a small cheese pizza and a spinach roll. #NYC […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
Boarded 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #EDI 🛩️ #JFK 🇺🇸
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
Tomorrow is our last full day in #Edinburgh, and we're gonna spend it chilling in the city center. (I may hit a couple of the free national museums.) Thank you so much to all who recommended sights and activities! The Fediverse really came through for this one. The most unexpectedly personal […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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Martin Rundkvist @mrundkvist.archaeo.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
A Swedish guy in Jakarta organises an RPG group there with locals. It's a new gaming scene with its own ideas: not white, not Christian, few European traditions. And several of the participants are blogging about their games! […]
archaeo.social
Original post on archaeo.social
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jesse jarnow @bourgwick.heads.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
for some reason, the #nyc tower records has come up a few times this week & it really all feels like a dream now, just the scale & sprawl, especially when tower books opened, too (plus, of course, other music across the street).
interior of nyc tower records
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Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק @aarbrk.mstdn.mx.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
“Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master” by David Kushner and Koren Shadmi. A dual biography covering a few years' rivalry between Nolan Bushnell and Ralph Baer during the 1970s, including fantasy gaming encounters between the two. There are a few charming moments, but […] [Original post on mstdn.mx]
Page from "Easy to Learn" in which Bushnell and Alcorn discover that their barroom Pong machine is full of quarters.
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@lashman/1172532670… I’m super interested in games and software toys that let you mess around or learn using a real musical-instrument input. I expect that even the best ones must have relatively modest sales-ceiling because of the double-filter of hardware […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
This is how long I have lived in #NYC: On vacation, I turn on the shower and then go back to my computer and doop-de-doo for ten minutes to pass the time, until Amy says "You know, the water was hot ten minutes ago.”
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abadidea @0xabad1dea.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026
Oh, right, new school year. University students: the secret to success is GO THE FUCK TO BED, GO THE FUCK TO CLASS, DO YOUR FUCKING HOMEWORK and to get HELP AND SUPPORT from people who want you to succeed if you find yourself neglecting any of these, and there are many more such people than you […]
infosec.exchange
Original post on infosec.exchange
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026
Day four of #Edinburgh vacation, now on the train to a #Glasgow day trip. One of the advertising slogans for the local intercity rail is “Work, play, stare at sheep” and I like this very much.
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026
Boarded 🇺🇸 #JFK 🛩️ #EDI 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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Ozzie D, NP-hard :bikepump: :vegan: @ozdreaming.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
Tampopo was a donburi and udon shop in the Porter Square Exchange's "Little Tokyo" food hall; it closed over the summer, after over three decades serving food in the building (which is owned by Lesley Uni). Kotaro, a former staff member, created a memorial website on which he has saved a few of […]
infosec.exchange
Original post on infosec.exchange
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026
The person across the courtyard opposite my bedroom leans out their window and does Bong Enjoying about as often as I make coffee, I reckon. That's fine in itself but I gotta say that one of us is a lot quieter about our habit. I would need to be like SLURRRPPP, AAAHHHHH after every sip in order […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026
RE: myke.social/@imyke/1172012663482313… Oh! I'm excited to listen to this. This was all happened when I was 20ish, which is to say when I was an absolutely insufferable technology partisan, willing to fight and die and bleed six colors for the Only Computer. I would very much like to […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@NoveltyBot/1171923… I’ve seen this one blip by a couple times and it just now landed that it’s goofing on the archaeo-idiom “without even a pot to piss in”, which I know by way of my parents. There, see, invest a dime and now at least nobody can say that […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026
#NYC how do we feel about this sign that just appeared in the upper west side
A vacant storefront in the upper west side with a newly installed sign that says V C E O L W V B E O T Y if you read it left to right. Alternate letters are in alternate colors.
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Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸 @evan.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026
You guys I have been playing SO MANY video games and I still can't get to Xbox zero
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026
Dear #Edinburgh, I'm visiting your city (and country) for the first time starting this Friday. My partner has filled about half our ten days up with a loch/castle/distillery tour-loop on repeat, which is fine, that is the way of her people and I respect it. I however am interested in plugging […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@fandompost/1171754… I owned the original What The—?! issue with this cover, which had the additional gag of the break-time Hulk here saying "Union rules, don't you know.” I was too young to understand the joke at the time and when I retroactively got it […]
masto.nyc
Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026
Metatoot: Some time ago @thejaymo, who makes a career out of describing the souls of online worlds that resist easy definition, asked in sincerity what us tooters *do* here. I took it as a challenge to answer the question for myself, and have been working on it since. Right now my posts are […]
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Original post on masto.nyc
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jmac @jmac.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026
Thunder rattling the windows just as the weekday is getting going is the best thunder. Unironically love it #NYC
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