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Michael Newton

@mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy

25 followers 13 following 346 posts

Christian, husband, dad, coder, trainer, speaker, rpg geek, adhd 🌉 bridged from ⁂ bonfire.mavnn.eu/pub/actors/mavnn, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Changed some config and would like a sanity check: if you see this would you mind liking or replying? If it's already been replied to, feel free to ignore

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Well, my latest "Making 2D Game Assets" course at ThinkersMeetup has just finished, which is sad. But the week before, on hearing that the final session was going to be on audio asset creation, Max Bumm decided to take all the visual art techniques from the […] [Original post on bonfire.mavnn.eu]

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VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

The last week of our "Making 2D Game Assets" online course for teens looks at creating audio. Most of the session was spent in the nitty gritty of how to normalize samples from different sources and clean up recordings so things sound good together, but we did also talk about a whole range of […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

If insanity "is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" but the extraordinary is often "just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect"... ...it strikes me that maybe the world needs more insane people with good intentions […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026

Whee! Tomorrow I get to edit an hour long video of me talking! What fun! (yes, yes, this is sarcasm. I've yet to meet any one who enjoys editing videos of themselves...)

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

I'm currently running online sessions on how to create your own 2D art assets for teens, and leading to the following exchange: Student: "Everyone who didn't sign up for this course is missing out on greatness!" Me: _looks silently at the greatness_

Blobby half complete animation of a pixelated stickman not quite walking

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

Ouch. Wondering if it's a good idea to get the flu vaccine with #ChronicFatigue and the current medical guidance seems to be "normally a good idea 'coz if you catch flu with chronic fatigue it's much more likely to kill you - but there's a none zero chance it will cause a huge relapse in all […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

This is far too much fun. Mission Impossible on a traditional Chinese guzheng. No gimmicks or randomness, just a straight up cover, but it sounds fantastic. youtube.com/watch?v=aTX8S2gi...

Reposted by Michael Newton

VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Another fun session teaching Ink yesterday, having a look at the two mirrored twins of short cut syntax: threads (for reusing the same choices in lots of places) and gathers (for quickly adding choices that will only ever be used in one place). One of the students is looking to build a […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

@0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange My Italian wife is sometimes told she speaks very posh English because she naturally defaults to the words with Latin rather than Germanic roots - which is still a class ihdicator in the UK even if the Royals have been more German than French for quite a long time now.

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Through a chain of events that all make sense individually, my son (just gone to uni) has this week been given exercises by one professor on how to write if statements in Python and asked by an other to translate postgraduate research prototyped in Matlab into native code with GPU compute […]

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VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Did you know you can publish your #VisualNovel from VisualInk to be played on Itch, allowing you to build a community or submit it to a game jam? No? That's probably because until now you couldn't. But now you can. We have instructions and everything. #GameDev #InteractiveFiction #GameJam

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Visual Ink | Visual Ink

Reposted by Michael Newton

VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

This week in our #VisualNovel course we looked at using LISTs in #Ink to keep track of what is going on in our game. If you're curious, you can both playthrough and view the Ink script for the example we were working through, using lists to keep track of things like which spells the player has […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 29/09/2026

I have just sent out a Google Form to ask people about when they'd like training on how to use Google Forms. I would say this is Meta Google training, but that would probably involve far too many lawyers.

Reposted by Michael Newton

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

Random question for any teachers out there: I'm going to be delivering some training in a school that uses Google Education on getting the most out of their IT. I know how to use all the individual apps in a business context, but do you have any _teacher/school specific_ tricks or tips you wish […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

Random question for any teachers out there: I'm going to be delivering some training in a school that uses Google Education on getting the most out of their IT. I know how to use all the individual apps in a business context, but do you have any _teacher/school specific_ tricks or tips you wish […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

@brianb@fosstodon.org Thank you!

Reposted by Michael Newton

Indio Gringo ® @paninid.mastodon.world.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

🔥

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

@brianb@fosstodon.org For teachers and students! This is an introduction to Google Workspace for the teaching staff.

Reposted by Michael Newton

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

TL;DR: if you're consistently extremely low on energy, especially if exercise comes with mental 'fog' or delayed feelings of being drained, do **not** follow medical advice to gradually increase exercise to rebuild capacity until you've read up on #ChronicFatigue and #PEM (post-exertional […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

TL;DR: if you're consistently extremely low on energy, especially if exercise comes with mental 'fog' or delayed feelings of being drained, do **not** follow medical advice to gradually increase exercise to rebuild capacity until you've read up on #ChronicFatigue and #PEM (post-exertional […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Particularly annoying is they could have had the whole lot in about 30 seconds using, you know, git on the git repositories and in a better format for them as well.

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Just finished an emergency shut down of my personal forgejo instance before the server ran out of disk space because, once more, "someone" decided that downloading a zip archive of every commit of every public repo with no rate limiting was a grand idea. Exactly how I wanted to spend Saturday […]

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VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

The fun thing about running the same course more than once is that you get to see how differently the same ideas turn out based on questions asked, how quickly people work, delays from technical issues, skills growing... So now we have multiple orcs and […] [Original post on bonfire.mavnn.eu]

A screenshot of a visual novel with an orc standing in a corridor, a torch lit corridor behind him.

Also a screenshot of a visual novel with an orc standing in a corridor; the corridor is less detailed but the orc has a bit more expression, and better shading

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

I've mentioned Kardi a few times recently, and this is a solid intro mix of some of their recent songs from Mu:con. Unfortunately, the sound engineering isn't great compared to most of the stuff on their own channel. So why I am sharing this particular video on the #fediverse? Because whoever's […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026

Just reminded in the context of this thread that a CS undergrad student ask me for some tutoring in their intro to programming course, and in the second session went "wait - how many programming languages do you know? How many are there? Do I need to know all of them?" […]

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Reposted by Michael Newton

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Here's today's column on the astonishing, ongoing mistreatment of people with #ME/CFS. Please spread it far and wide: the only thing which can break the media's wall of indifference is seeing an article about the issue go viral. Thank you. 1/2 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

theguardian.com

Abandoned, dismissed and gaslighted: there is no excuse for the way ME sufferers have been betrayed | George Monbiot

Changes in guidance and science seem to have little impact on millions of devastated lives. It’s a social crisis playing out behind closed doors, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

17925441732 2.5K

Reposted by Michael Newton

Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 24/09/2026

Ok, fine. Clearly you all won't calm down until I do this, so here it is: the definitive list of who is and is not English in alphabetical order... (1/58,722,468)

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

PSA for couriers: the _only_ upside of #ChronicFatigue is that I **am** at my home when you try and deliver. Could you at least ring the doorbell?

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

To be absolutely clear to all of the various people who follow me that 'the church' has often treated like shit: I do not believe my faith implies you have any less value (let alone less right to exist) than anyone else.

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026

I am a Christian, and I'm not ashamed of it. Even happy to talk about it with people if they're actually interested. But it seems a telling judgement on 'Christianity' (the organised religion as it currently exists in Western culture) that by far the most common gullibility test opener I receive […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

And because I'm in a random music recommendations mood, have a track from Kardi that manages to win my award for "most relaxed groove to ever be performed with enough energy to power a small city". And I'm a sucker for traditional instruments in rock line ups, they always work surprisingly well […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

And because I'm in a random music recommendations mood, have a track from Kardi that manages to win my award for "most relaxed groove to ever be performed with enough energy to power a small city". And I'm a sucker for traditional instruments in rock line ups, they always work surprisingly well […]

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Reposted by Michael Newton

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

I was reminded of this track recently and realised that some of you may not have been blessed of knowing "The Impresario" exists. OCReMix are a community who produce fan covers of music from games, and a lot of it is good - but 13 years ago a bunch of insane geniuses decided to take a scene from […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

I was reminded of this track recently and realised that some of you may not have been blessed of knowing "The Impresario" exists. OCReMix are a community who produce fan covers of music from games, and a lot of it is good - but 13 years ago a bunch of insane geniuses decided to take a scene from […]

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Reposted by Michael Newton

Bruce Lawson ✅ ♫ ♿ ✌️♂️✊ @brucelawson.vivaldi.net.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Had a Lord Nelson breakfast, to fortify myself for a day getting up to speed on the pesky Continentals' EU Kids Act. Techbros turned social media evil by using algorithms to monetize human connection. EU policy ppl are THINKING OF THE CHILDREN, so Techbros can continue milking the rest of us […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

I have absolutely failed people from technical interviews for how they (didn't) respond to and respect my female co-interviewer. I have also seen candidates who looked good on paper crash and burn when interviewed by an all female panel as they were apparently incapable of treating them as […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange It's a bit of a bummer that "vulnerable people who really need protecting" and "deeply unpopular people who don't like consequences" are helped by almost exactly the same feature sets 😞

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

Whelp. Turns out if you accidentally install the wrong version of Bonfire, realize, switch to the version you meant to run but forget to reverse the database migrations first... you can get into a situation where it starts recursively generating multiple access control rules on every incoming […]

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VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026

New term, new Bob the orc! He's a little surprised a human has come into his cafe, but that's not going to stop him offering a professional service. First lesson of our #gamedev courses for teenagers (regardless of which skillset they focus on): start with […] [Original post on bonfire.mavnn.eu]

Bob the whacked together orc asks the player what they want to order.

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

@clarfonthey@toot.cat Unfortunately I don't know the difference as a fixed number; the level inbetween has a max-width set (and desired by the user) so the difference between its width and the "ancestor" depends on current viewport width. I was hoping there was some cunning way to infer it in […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

Random #css question time, in the hope someone can save me from hours of experimentation! I'm styling html I don't control, and I want to make a descendent element as wide as an indirect ancestor. Basically, there's "ancestor" (unknown width, not full viewport) > "some layers of divs" (narrower […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026

nThis starts tomorrow, last chance to contact me if you're interested. #InteractiveFiction bonfire.mavnn.eu/pub/objects...

Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

@Bonfire@bonfire.cafe Hello! Quick question: I've upgraded from 1.0.5 to 1.0.7 and all my feeds are suddenly very slow (almost all loads time out, even with a single user active). Federation is fine. Any suggestions on trouble shooting what may have gone wrong in the upgrade? All migrations […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

Okay folks! Next week I'm starting online 5 week courses for 11+ year olds on writing #InteractiveFiction and creating 2D art assets for #GameDev. These courses are good! They are not expensive! I've run them a few times now, so they're reasonably polished! I've just had a generous offer […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

Okay folks! Next week I'm starting online 5 week courses for 11+ year olds on writing #InteractiveFiction and creating 2D art assets for #GameDev. These courses are good! They are not expensive! I've run them a few times now, so they're reasonably polished! I've just had a generous offer […]

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Reposted by Michael Newton

VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

Sneak peak for a new feature that doesn't have full instructions and UI yet: publish your VisualInk #VisualNovel to itch.io so that you can share it, take part in game jams, and build a community (with visualink.mavnn.eu/ doing all the hosting work for you). It looks a bit like this […]

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VisualInk @visualink.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Just released a massive set of changes to VisualInk (a straight forward online #VisualNovel builder) which... you shouldn't really notice at all? The site should feel faster, but mostly these changes contain some security updates and make it much easier to add new features and do maintenance […]

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Michael Newton @mavnn.bonfire.mavnn.eu.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026

Different bits of @VisualInk work best with very different storage patterns so I finally bit the bullet and wrote my own data access layer with... #sql. Did I get object mapping for free? No, I had to hand craft some code there. Does the new version have less storage overhead, safer migrations […]

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