Tess Snider
@malkyne.com
Fairy codemother. Free-range veteran game programmer and underground programming teacher. Co-owner of indie game studio Hidden Achievement.
Pinned
Tess Snider
@malkyne.com
· Apr 3
Never attribute to artificial incompetence that which is adequately explained by natural incompetence.
I don't know how to stress this enough: For the love of cats, DO NOT use chatbots to get information that already has well-established and trustworthy sources. Don't be lazy; go to the damn source. Especially when a mistake could literally cost you your life.
in today's news (well October), don't take swimming advice from chatgpt www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-n...
Restaurant boss saves two people's lives after desperately shouting stop
He ran out of the restaurant and warned the pair to turn back
www.walesonline.co.uk
December 28, 2025 at 10:22 AM
I don't know how to stress this enough: For the love of cats, DO NOT use chatbots to get information that already has well-established and trustworthy sources. Don't be lazy; go to the damn source. Especially when a mistake could literally cost you your life.
I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. They're just a way to procrastinate. If you really had resolve, you'd just DO the thing, instead of waiting for a magical calendar date to smack you in the face with a limp promise.
December 26, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. They're just a way to procrastinate. If you really had resolve, you'd just DO the thing, instead of waiting for a magical calendar date to smack you in the face with a limp promise.
One of the weirdest things about aging is when your eyebrows start getting deranged. They get longer and more chaotic, and you may even get a rogue strand that doesn't know when to chill out and stop growing.
December 26, 2025 at 8:22 PM
One of the weirdest things about aging is when your eyebrows start getting deranged. They get longer and more chaotic, and you may even get a rogue strand that doesn't know when to chill out and stop growing.
Make a Bond movie casual
Leafraker
Leafraker
Make a Bond movie causal
Dr No Worries.
Dr No Worries.
Make a Bond movie causal
Diamonds aren’t forever.
Maybe a week or two.
Tops
Diamonds aren’t forever.
Maybe a week or two.
Tops
December 26, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Make a Bond movie casual
Leafraker
Leafraker
I am practicing my longstanding Christmas tradition of lolling about in my pajamas for half the day, but noon fast approaches, and alas, I do actually need to do some cooking. I have pears to poach in wine and spices, and that chuck ain't gonna roast itself.
December 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM
I am practicing my longstanding Christmas tradition of lolling about in my pajamas for half the day, but noon fast approaches, and alas, I do actually need to do some cooking. I have pears to poach in wine and spices, and that chuck ain't gonna roast itself.
This is true. There was indeed that one time a past employer accidentally printed "Senior Systems Program" on my business cards, but I assure you that I do have flesh, blood, and other trappings of humanity, both savory and unsavory.
The digital version of our Dresden Files Coop Card Game was designed by humans, illustrated by humans, 100% coded by humans, and is supported by humans.
We wouldn't have it any other way.
We wouldn't have it any other way.
At least my game based on the same IP I was *trying* to watch and was foiled by Apple's AI-based support doesn't have AI for support. If you contact support, you probably just get *me*. And it's on sale on Steam for the winter sale: store.steampowered.com/app/661280/D...
December 25, 2025 at 5:35 PM
This is true. There was indeed that one time a past employer accidentally printed "Senior Systems Program" on my business cards, but I assure you that I do have flesh, blood, and other trappings of humanity, both savory and unsavory.
One of the problems with how we look at pantheons of gods is that what we see today is flattening thousands of years worth of fragmented material.
December 25, 2025 at 5:03 PM
One of the problems with how we look at pantheons of gods is that what we see today is flattening thousands of years worth of fragmented material.
Kind of marveling at how the bishop at the start of "The Prophecy" (1995) sounds like he's never actually been to a Catholic mass in his entire life. There's a very specific sort of elocution that you hear in Catholic church, and he clearly doesn't know how to emulate that.
December 25, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Kind of marveling at how the bishop at the start of "The Prophecy" (1995) sounds like he's never actually been to a Catholic mass in his entire life. There's a very specific sort of elocution that you hear in Catholic church, and he clearly doesn't know how to emulate that.
As someone with ADHD, I thank my lucky stars that autopay exists. It didn't when I was younger, and boy did my credit rating improve after it came along.
December 25, 2025 at 2:11 AM
As someone with ADHD, I thank my lucky stars that autopay exists. It didn't when I was younger, and boy did my credit rating improve after it came along.
I had a weird dream that was basically “Mask of the Red Rose” [Failbetter], except I was stuck turning all my investigative work in to Bari Weiss.
December 24, 2025 at 5:22 PM
I had a weird dream that was basically “Mask of the Red Rose” [Failbetter], except I was stuck turning all my investigative work in to Bari Weiss.
This flattening is terrible. Even if you establish a strict no-gen-AI policy, it's still entirely possible that one person on your team violates the policy, and you don't notice in time, or can't easily fish the bad assets out of thousands of good ones. That's nothing like going all-in on slop.
I'm just saying: the track record has historically been Not Good with accounts devoted entirely to directing Anger At Sin, particularly in how they tend to flatten every instance into the worst possible example of said Sin
December 24, 2025 at 4:30 PM
This flattening is terrible. Even if you establish a strict no-gen-AI policy, it's still entirely possible that one person on your team violates the policy, and you don't notice in time, or can't easily fish the bad assets out of thousands of good ones. That's nothing like going all-in on slop.
Almost every 3D game discovers about 75% of the way through production that there's some flower or bush or decoration that has more polys than just about the entire rest of the scene it's in.
Threads like these, I am reminded of how Cities Skylines 2 was apparently supposed to be rendering every Cim’s teeth.
Or that one flowerpot in FFXIV with more polygons than a player character
Or that one flowerpot in FFXIV with more polygons than a player character
December 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Almost every 3D game discovers about 75% of the way through production that there's some flower or bush or decoration that has more polys than just about the entire rest of the scene it's in.
The new US ship class is apparently based on the Coast Guard's National Security Cutter. I'm not very familiar with this vessel, but I would not be surprised if the new class ends up up facing a similar fate to the Constellation class.
news.usni.org/2025/12/19/s...
news.usni.org/2025/12/19/s...
SECNAV: New Frigate will be Based on National Security Cutter, First FF(X) to be Built at Ingalls - USNI News
This post has been updated with a rendering of the proposed FF(X) design. The U.S. Coast Guard Legend-class will serve as the basis of a new Navy frigate program, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and...
news.usni.org
December 23, 2025 at 4:35 PM
The new US ship class is apparently based on the Coast Guard's National Security Cutter. I'm not very familiar with this vessel, but I would not be surprised if the new class ends up up facing a similar fate to the Constellation class.
news.usni.org/2025/12/19/s...
news.usni.org/2025/12/19/s...
Reposted by Tess Snider
But I can see you
Your bronze helm shining in the sun
And there's Gilgamesh with scale armor on, baby
And I can tell you and Enkidu will still be strong
After the boys of Sumer have gone
Your bronze helm shining in the sun
And there's Gilgamesh with scale armor on, baby
And I can tell you and Enkidu will still be strong
After the boys of Sumer have gone
December 22, 2025 at 5:01 PM
But I can see you
Your bronze helm shining in the sun
And there's Gilgamesh with scale armor on, baby
And I can tell you and Enkidu will still be strong
After the boys of Sumer have gone
Your bronze helm shining in the sun
And there's Gilgamesh with scale armor on, baby
And I can tell you and Enkidu will still be strong
After the boys of Sumer have gone
That "artist's" rendering of a ship may be the worst artist's rendering of a naval vessel I've ever seen in my entire life, and I killed a completely bizarre amount of time in a naval research library, in my teens.
December 23, 2025 at 1:47 AM
That "artist's" rendering of a ship may be the worst artist's rendering of a naval vessel I've ever seen in my entire life, and I killed a completely bizarre amount of time in a naval research library, in my teens.
Never confuse best practices with premature optimization.
As a programmer, your daily habits, in the aggregate, matter. They accumulate. Bad habits raise the ceiling of diminishing returns, when optimizing. When you've got a million little things that need improving, you can't do it.
As a programmer, your daily habits, in the aggregate, matter. They accumulate. Bad habits raise the ceiling of diminishing returns, when optimizing. When you've got a million little things that need improving, you can't do it.
December 19, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Never confuse best practices with premature optimization.
As a programmer, your daily habits, in the aggregate, matter. They accumulate. Bad habits raise the ceiling of diminishing returns, when optimizing. When you've got a million little things that need improving, you can't do it.
As a programmer, your daily habits, in the aggregate, matter. They accumulate. Bad habits raise the ceiling of diminishing returns, when optimizing. When you've got a million little things that need improving, you can't do it.
Now there's a conversation starter.
ok, i'll bite. what IS caves of qud, actually. should i play this.
December 18, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Now there's a conversation starter.
This is why you'll find comp-sci nerds getting pedantic about the hazards of using "AI" both as a marketing term for gen-AI products, and also as a target of anger. It does actually cause people to freak out about perfectly reasonable, ethical AI uses, as some people did with this.
i hate that AI is such a buzzword these days because it's all linear algebra soup and sometimes the soup is actually extremely good. GFS's reduced accuracy in previous events (hurricane sandy, notably) from computational limitations has cost lives. 99.7% reduction with comparable accuracy is insane.
December 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
This is why you'll find comp-sci nerds getting pedantic about the hazards of using "AI" both as a marketing term for gen-AI products, and also as a target of anger. It does actually cause people to freak out about perfectly reasonable, ethical AI uses, as some people did with this.
Both Alienware and the new Five Nights at Freddies are doing the same exact ad thing on Twitch where they pretend that they're doing a normal ad for something else, but periodically interrupt it with deep modified voice, and it's just incredibly annoying and tired.
December 14, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Both Alienware and the new Five Nights at Freddies are doing the same exact ad thing on Twitch where they pretend that they're doing a normal ad for something else, but periodically interrupt it with deep modified voice, and it's just incredibly annoying and tired.
My brother just put the Steam page up for his upcoming game. It's an indie af story-heavy VN/RPG, if that's your jam.
store.steampowered.com/app/4236230/...
store.steampowered.com/app/4236230/...
Forgotten Faiths on Steam
The story of a merchant house in a world on the mend. Their leader sifts through the ashes of history for lost secrets. Embark on expeditions to support the house and search for lost artifacts. A mix...
store.steampowered.com
December 14, 2025 at 12:24 AM
My brother just put the Steam page up for his upcoming game. It's an indie af story-heavy VN/RPG, if that's your jam.
store.steampowered.com/app/4236230/...
store.steampowered.com/app/4236230/...
Every time I see some US Congressperson talking about how they're running out of time, and enhanced ACA subsidies expire at the end of the year, I'm like, "OUR DEADLINE IS MONDAY. We have to pick our plans NOW. Our decisions are going to be locked in before you asshats get around to even voting."
December 13, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Every time I see some US Congressperson talking about how they're running out of time, and enhanced ACA subsidies expire at the end of the year, I'm like, "OUR DEADLINE IS MONDAY. We have to pick our plans NOW. Our decisions are going to be locked in before you asshats get around to even voting."
[faceplants into her 92% omnom]
medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12...
medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12...
Key chemical in dark chocolate may slow down aging
A chemical found in dark chocolate could slow the rate of biological aging. Research from King's College London has found that the chemical theobromine, a common plant compound that comes from cocoa, ...
medicalxpress.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:26 PM
[faceplants into her 92% omnom]
medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12...
medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12...
We're spending trillions of dollars in a pitched arms race against China to create the best industrial grade bullshit generator.
"But," you ask, "what's wrong with human-made bullshit?"
Well, son, we need bullshit on-demand, at scale. It's critical for our economy and national security!
"But," you ask, "what's wrong with human-made bullshit?"
Well, son, we need bullshit on-demand, at scale. It's critical for our economy and national security!
December 11, 2025 at 3:45 AM
We're spending trillions of dollars in a pitched arms race against China to create the best industrial grade bullshit generator.
"But," you ask, "what's wrong with human-made bullshit?"
Well, son, we need bullshit on-demand, at scale. It's critical for our economy and national security!
"But," you ask, "what's wrong with human-made bullshit?"
Well, son, we need bullshit on-demand, at scale. It's critical for our economy and national security!
For the vast majority of people on ACA plans, our needs are simply for health coverage that doesn't suck, and an HCA account with $1000 is not going to "empower" us to "choose" this in the current market.
December 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
For the vast majority of people on ACA plans, our needs are simply for health coverage that doesn't suck, and an HCA account with $1000 is not going to "empower" us to "choose" this in the current market.