@cdarwin@c.im2025-08-02 04:18:57
The Trump administration may have just axed the IRS Direct File program.
During a summit earlier this week, IRS Commissioner Billy Long said the free tax filing service is “gone,”
adding that “big beautiful Billy wiped that out
https://news.bloombe…
@Mediagazer@mstdn.social2025-08-01 17:03:33
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announces that it is shutting down following the loss of federal funding (CPB)
https://cpb.org/pressroom/Corporation-Public-Broadcasting-Addresses-Operations-Following-Loss-Federal-Funding…
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-10-02 10:55:31
Day 9: Eniko Fox
Edit: added a store link for Kitsune Tails.
We're back to videogames, and with another author who's on the fediverse: @…
Fox has developed a few games, but the one that I've played and love is Kitsune Tails. It's a sapphic romance take on Super Mario Bros. 3, and (critically for a platformer) it's got very crisp controls and runs smoothly. I think one thing a lot of indie platforms devs struggle with is getting those fundamentals right, because on the technical side they require very challenging things like optimization of your code and extremely careful input handling that go beyond the basic skills necessary to put together a game. From following her on Twitter and now the Fediverse, it's clear that Fox is a deeply competent programmer, and her games reflect that. Beyond the fundamentals, Kitsune Tails has a very sweet plot with a very cool twist in the middle, and without spoilers, that twist made both the levels and gameplay very difficult to design, but Fox rose to that challenge and put together a wonderful game. Particularly past the plot twist (but in subtle ways before it) Fox is able to build beyond SMB3 mechanics in ways that gracefully complement the original, and the movement in the game ends up being difficult but extremely satisfying, with an excellent skill/speed response allowing for both slower, easier approaches that work for a range of players and high-skill extremely-fast options for those who want to push themselves.
There have been plenty of people I follow with indie game projects that are kinda meh in the end, and I'll still boost them without much comment if they're decent. Fox' work is actually amazing, which is why if you've followed me for a while you'll know I tend to mention it periodically, and which is why she makes this list of authors I respect.
You can buy Kitsune Tails here: #20AuthorsNoMen
@paulwermer@sfba.social2025-10-01 18:37:41
@PaulWermer@sfba.social2025-10-01 18:37:41
@memeorandum@universeodon.com2025-10-01 00:45:51
The Mainstream Media Is Catastrophically Failing To Meet The Moment (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/30/the-mainstream-media-is-catastrophically-failing-to-meet-the-moment/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250930/p167#a250930p167
@servelan@newsie.social2025-07-02 16:08:46
Calling out Israel is not “fuelling anti-Semitism” | Digital Series | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/quotable/2025/7/2/calling-out-israel-is-not-fuelling-anti#flips-6375173960112:0
@dhuyvetter@mastodon.social2025-10-01 14:45:11
The US Mainstream Media Is Catastrophically Failing To Meet The Moment
Techdirt wrote about Trump’s extraordinary admission that he was basing military deployment decisions on old Fox News footage and lies from his advisors. But there’s an even more damning story here: how that revelation almost never saw the light of day because of journalistic cowardice.
@inthehands@hachyderm.io2025-10-01 00:41:27
Here’s the lightning sketch of Paul’s Treatise Against Efficiency that I’ve never written:
1. Efficiency is asymptotically inefficient: as costs approach zero, the cost of further reducing them approaches infinity.
2. Efficiency prioritizes the measurable over the difficult-to-measure.
3. Efficiency prioritizes what those in power see (or imagine) over on-the-ground reality.
4. Following from 2 and 3, efficiency reduces the amount and quality of information flowing into a human system.
5. Efficiency foments institutional inflexibility.
6. By removing slack, efficiency causes small failures to cascade more readily and increases the risk of catastrophic failure.
7. Following rom 4, 5, and 6, efficiency trades small costs for massive risks: from failures, from missed opportunities, and from inability to adjust.
8. Efficiency, when pushed, strangles the emergent phenomena that in the long term create all new things of value.
9. Thus, although it can be a by-product of evolution, efficiency as a goal in itself strangles evolution.
10. Efficiency as a goal strangles joy.
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-02 04:30:30
