iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Toaster

Sargoth (discursively endogenous feliform) @longersky.com · 07/09/2025

The famous sociologist slash rhetorical scholar Kenneth Burke once posited that self-help book fill a function by making you feel like you are doing the thing, without necessarily leading to you actually doing the thing. I sense that this notion, formulated in the 60s, might be relevant again

123079

Toaster @toaster.codes · 23h

Systems which don’t use standard numeric dice (e.g. Genesys, Blades in the Dark) and split attack/damage rolls are another kettle of fish. Less relevant for videogame design though.

020

Toaster @toaster.codes · 23h

It just changes the granularity of bonuses. +1 on a d6 is equivalent to +2 on a d12. Personally, I’m not keen on systems using anything numeric dice other than d6 and d10, as they’re the ones people have best statistical intuition for (plus d% of course but you don’t use those for damage).

100

Toaster @toaster.codes · 23h

More proof that Westcountry cider is the real stuff. It only kills you in ways you *expect* (alcohol poisoning).

010

Reposted by Toaster

Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

you will encounter more opportunities in life to change the batteries on a smoke alarm than you will to run into a burning building and no one gives a shit you changed those batteries but it is still very important and why are you waiting on a burning building, know what i’m saying, it’s a metaphor

03544745

Reposted by Toaster

Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward

11129423577

Reposted by Toaster

Will Sebag-Montefiore @wsebag.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Far Right's response to RAF Fairford (whilst I make poached eggs) Let me know if you'd like to see more of me cooking whilst talking about politics I am REALLY good at one of those things

2377

Reposted by Toaster

Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

With alt text. I yelled

INTRODUCTION

The equities here could not be more one-sided. Defendants admit that they
provide a service without fully knowing how it works.

This is not just any service. It is one that Defendants themselves concede poses an existential risk to the continued
survival of humankind.

Defendants claim they cannot stop barreling forward with their potentially civilization-ending endeavors unless they are forced to do so by the
government. They have asked the government to tie them to the mast.

Plaintiff brings good news to the Defendants: The Florida Attorney General is answering your
cry for help with a motion to enjoin you from harming Floridians with your reckless, unacceptably risky product.

1297123

Reposted by Toaster

Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I have separated the art from the artist and am now whipping the art to stiff peaks, after which I will gently fold it into the artist before baking at 350 til golden and puffed

3444681071

Reposted by Toaster

In Medias Malone @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

As a professor, most of what I do is log in to things

461417192

Reposted by Toaster

Foucault's Pudendum @kaitave.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I love humor that transcends language

016943

Reposted by Toaster

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 29/09/2026

So far the only retort from the AI boosters appears to be “2025 doesn’t matter” and I’m not kidding

25858110

Toaster @toaster.codes · 29/09/2026

1d6+14 is more predictable, so players will take fewer risks. You’ll always kill a 15hp foe in one hit, but never a 20hp one. 1d6x5 is more swingy, so players will take bigger risks. You’ll only kill the 15hp foe 2/3 of the time, but you’ll kill the 20hp one 1/2 the time.

110

Toaster @toaster.codes · 29/09/2026

E.g. smaller dice produce smaller ranges with higher chances for extremes, but can be hard to scale well. 1d6x5 and 1d6+14 both average 17.5 damage with a 1/6 chance of max damage, but play v. differently - especially if you have armour as damage reduction.

120

Toaster @toaster.codes · 29/09/2026

How large do you *want* the chance to be? What do you want the damage range to be? How do you want damage to scale with progression? The goals determine the mechanics.

110

Toaster @toaster.codes · 29/09/2026

Also why IMO sum value dicepools shouldn’t go above 5ish dice, as they become too predictable. At some point you’ve effectively got a flat value with lots of admin.

0110

Toaster @toaster.codes · 29/09/2026

It’s a shame as it’s spectacularly good in so many ways, but the upgrades are underwhelming. Most skills have something interesting at the end, at least.

010

Reposted by Toaster

Dr. Nick Posegay @nposegay.northsky.social · 28/09/2026

Not that it counts for much now but Rafah had been inhabited for over 3000 years and appears in the book of Maccabees. Now it's just gone.

03621

Toaster @toaster.codes · 28/09/2026

If you’re from the UK they clearly seem like a caricature, but the Americans are oblivious to it.

130

Toaster @toaster.codes · 28/09/2026

Yeah, absolutely. Had the same sort of thoughts visiting Yale, which is full of buildings that are *supposed* to look like ones from Oxford, but (aside from being unsettlingly pristine) are 2-3x the scale. Like, they would have been impossible to build in the era they pretend to be from.

140

Toaster @toaster.codes · 28/09/2026

Just remember the rhyme! Masked by the sea, you’re alright by me, Masked by the planes, we’ll clap you in chains.

03212

Toaster @toaster.codes · 28/09/2026

Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters does pretty well by having attacks always hit, with the die roll being whether you crit. Feels less like a thing you ‘should’ be able to rely on.

020

Reposted by Toaster

John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Sorry, I saw your message, but I also saw nineteen other phone alerts that same minute. My brain evolved to evade predators. I will not improve.

232770

Reposted by Toaster

James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Think it's important to grasp that when people like Ovenden use phrases like "rapidly medicalised layabouts" they get a little thrill like they're daring to break taboos, but actually they're repeating the tiresome but orthodox belief of their coterie. (Cf his treatment of Diane Abbott.)

312230

Reposted by Toaster

Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 27/09/2026

Transphobia is genuinely an elite fixation that is much less popular than most politicians and media outlets would have you believe.

102009541

Reposted by Toaster

Mark Watson @watsoncomedian.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I know it's late in his career but I'd like to see Tom Jones release a follow-up song called 'It IS Unusual', which focuses on rare but documented phenomena like Halley's Comet.

1923926

Toaster @toaster.codes · 27/09/2026

Amazing they’re touting their ‘symbolic victory’ over Reform. Don’t celebrate your defeat of the far right when fascist paramilitaries are seizing national infrastructure.

040

Reposted by Toaster

Ruth! @ruthholliday.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

“The tribunal found a clear pattern of the university trying to shut down complaints made by Wyn in a bid to protect itself from reputational damage” If preventing reputational damage is Cambridge’s aim, it’s not doing very well atm. thetab.com/2026/09/07/c...

thetab.com

Cambridge professor wins tribunal after exposing alleged staff bullying

Wyn Evans, a professor of astrophysics, told the tribunal in June that he had witnessed a 'bad history of misogyny' within the Institute of Astronomy

13115

Toaster @toaster.codes · 27/09/2026

It’s also very annoying that we were finally starting to move the needle on code quality and now researchers are being told to vibe-code everything to churn out more papers.

1110

Toaster @toaster.codes · 26/09/2026

It’s daft because the ‘hacks’ all seem to be down to poor cybersecurity colliding with better tools to automate basic “admin/password123” shit on every site. So targets agree the hacks are super-dangerous and stop there, as an investigation’d prove they’re lazy idiots.

000

Toaster @toaster.codes · 26/09/2026

If anything it’s because it’s the point where you could no longer handwave toxicity away with “Oh ignore it, it’s just online”. Even though GamerGate etc had long proven it had a real-world impact.

020

Toaster @toaster.codes · 26/09/2026

Was it the fingerprinting things? At Paris Eurostar, so many Brits (like me) heading home were stumped by the “I have a visa”/“I have a residence permit”/“Other” options they had staff constantly shouting “Other”. How did they ship without “I am a citizen”???

000

Reposted by Toaster

Brainmage.itch.io @brainmage.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In 2018 I wrote an hour-long comedy show about mental health, toxic masculinity, and how close the world has come to nuclear war. I think those things share a LOT of traits. Running through the show was the story of Stanislav Petrov, who saved the world on this day in 1983 youtu.be/kU9_3bOe_8I

youtu.be

Guy Kelly's Letter of Last Resort - Full Show

YouTube video by Guy Kelly

05319

Toaster @toaster.codes · 26/09/2026

I think that’s a bit of a stretch. It was a very timeworn “cultists want to open portal to hell, the chosen one must stop them” plot.

010

Reposted by Toaster

Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you think "employee needs to consume fluids to function" is a dealbreaker for your business, I have *terrible* news for you about AI...

1406

Reposted by Toaster

Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Reminder that in Canada upon becoming an engineer you get an iron ring made of a collapsed bridge, purposely designed to be uncomfortable, to remind you that your ethics demand you give a fuck even about the boring grudgework of such as double-checking your math. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ring

en.wikipedia.org

Iron Ring - Wikipedia

2073062278

Reposted by Toaster

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Australian Institute of Marine Science This timelapse captures just over two years of coral growth, between May 2011 and August 2013, in the central Great Barrier Reef. The footage was taken by our fixed underwater camera at AIMS' weather station at Davies Reef. linktr.ee/AustInstitut...

22959272

Reposted by Toaster

Turing Police Andúnië Branch 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The reason we should actually crack down hard on racist agitators, and yes, using the force of the state, with the courts, and the police, and power, is not because it can cure racists from being racist. I don't know what can. I don't care! You shouldn't be allowed to say and do these things

67912

Reposted by Toaster

Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 24/09/2026

guys please stop falling for this, this is not “rogue AI” it’s “environments with lax cybersecurity controls”

431651428

Toaster @toaster.codes · 24/09/2026

“We’ve accidentally created a living weapon! This proves we *are* actually super geniuses like we said and also that the military should give us lots of money”

010

Toaster @toaster.codes · 24/09/2026

Latest @edzitron.com newsletter reckons there’s $100-200bn of GPUs just sat in warehouses, they don’t have datacentres for yet. It’s so, so stupid they inflated our prices to buy studf they can’t even use.

030

Reposted by Toaster

Victoria Rose Richards @aerialembroidery.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

80 hours of embroidery! This aerial landscape is directly inspired by Dartmoor and I'd say I have another 30-ish hours to go? I'm now starting to fill in the fields for the sheep, the tor area will be done last as I'm still deciding whether I want a slope or not 😅 I hope you like it! #art

An embroidery hoop containing a sewn aerial-view landscape. It depicts a moorland scene in a range of green shades, about 70% completed.

1714513662

Reposted by Toaster

Josh Sawyer @jesawyer.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Naming my cat Rich but beating people with a tire iron if they don’t pronounce the ch as a Xhosa aspirated click consonant.

1233021

Reposted by Toaster

Bart⚓️ @bartgonnissen.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The Facial Expressions of Tethys by artist Julius von Bismarck. A suspended high-sea buoy that moves in real time. Sensors on a twin buoy out in the Atlantic Ocean send live satellite data to motors inside the museum. This makes the indoor buoy copy the exact, real-time movements of the ocean waves.

10380962798

Toaster @toaster.codes · 23/09/2026

Argh. In academia too we spent *ages* pushing for better training, producing quality sustainable software not just disposable junk, and just as the tide was starting to turn we get this rush of “you don’t need to learn to code, get AI to do it so you can churn out more papers!”

020

Reposted by Toaster

~daniel_barker~ @daniel-barker.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I would argue that paying people cash to attack refugees is, in some ways, actually not very Christian at all.

1216