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.
Eventually, gen/AI companies will no longer be able to operate at a loss. At that point, those of you who use these services for your weekend tinkering will no longer be able to afford them. You are not the customer; your employer is. The services don’t need to be cheap — just cheaper than you.
February 19, 2026 at 7:31 AM
Eventually, gen/AI companies will no longer be able to operate at a loss. At that point, those of you who use these services for your weekend tinkering will no longer be able to afford them. You are not the customer; your employer is. The services don’t need to be cheap — just cheaper than you.
Reposted by Tess Snider
As long as you can convince money people that you’re going to corner the market someday, you can get the fat purse to build a full Torment Nexus well before you need to worry about whether the public even wants one. They’re not your real customers, anyway — in the long run, you’re a B2B company.
February 18, 2026 at 12:49 PM
As long as you can convince money people that you’re going to corner the market someday, you can get the fat purse to build a full Torment Nexus well before you need to worry about whether the public even wants one. They’re not your real customers, anyway — in the long run, you’re a B2B company.
This reckless scaling is a threat to both my discipline and industry. "Sorry, no computers for anyone" is not a price I'm willing to pay for whatever benefit you may or may not be getting from this.
WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
Hyperscalers are tearing hard drives out of the hands of manufacturers. Prices are therefore also rising for SSDs.
www.heise.de
February 17, 2026 at 9:28 PM
This reckless scaling is a threat to both my discipline and industry. "Sorry, no computers for anyone" is not a price I'm willing to pay for whatever benefit you may or may not be getting from this.
I find it really weird that this experiment is starting with bricks-and-mortar shops. It would have been so much easier to do it with online shopping, where there are already extensive metrics available on the shopper, and you don't have the nightmare of having to maintain physical tags.
(5/11) Walmart, Whole Foods, and Kohls are switching to electronic shelf labels that can display dynamic prices. Kroger deployed them with Microsoft AI—a setup a 2024 Senate inquiry warned could enable “surge pricing” via facial recognition. (Kroger claims it will only lower prices.)
February 16, 2026 at 5:46 AM
I find it really weird that this experiment is starting with bricks-and-mortar shops. It would have been so much easier to do it with online shopping, where there are already extensive metrics available on the shopper, and you don't have the nightmare of having to maintain physical tags.
In case any of you want to mod that Scott Adams quote (or any others) out of your copy of Space Engineers, @jason.maltzen.org explains how here. I used to work at Dr. Akin's lab, and he's a real space engineer, and highly quotable.
For anyone who wants to hack this out locally (looks like there's just one), it's in Content/Data/Localization/MyTexts.resx (or MyTexts-.resx as keys Quote27Text and Quote27Author. I suggest replacing the text with one of Akin's laws: spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu/akins_laws.h...
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design
spacecraft.ssl.umd.edu
February 10, 2026 at 7:24 AM
In case any of you want to mod that Scott Adams quote (or any others) out of your copy of Space Engineers, @jason.maltzen.org explains how here. I used to work at Dr. Akin's lab, and he's a real space engineer, and highly quotable.
We've seen LLM prompts turn up in novels and other embarrassing places. I'm looking forward to the hilarity of ChatGPT ads turning up where they don't belong.
February 9, 2026 at 3:10 PM
We've seen LLM prompts turn up in novels and other embarrassing places. I'm looking forward to the hilarity of ChatGPT ads turning up where they don't belong.
Someday, I will chill, and stop worrying about making every single double-knot a proper square knot, but today is not that day.
February 9, 2026 at 6:41 AM
Someday, I will chill, and stop worrying about making every single double-knot a proper square knot, but today is not that day.
It's always kind of funny when your game characters are trash-talking, while things are going really badly. It's like, "Hey, don't get too cocky. You don't know how many times you have been saved by my heavy quicksave finger, buddy."
February 7, 2026 at 9:16 AM
It's always kind of funny when your game characters are trash-talking, while things are going really badly. It's like, "Hey, don't get too cocky. You don't know how many times you have been saved by my heavy quicksave finger, buddy."
My first job out of college, I had to wear suits. They weren't paying me enough for that, so I was always skirting the edge of the dress code. Nobody knows you're not wearing pantyhose, if your boots are tall enough.
February 7, 2026 at 7:27 AM
My first job out of college, I had to wear suits. They weren't paying me enough for that, so I was always skirting the edge of the dress code. Nobody knows you're not wearing pantyhose, if your boots are tall enough.
This is an interesting specimen of "AI" equivocation I found in the wild (Yahoo Finance). The benefits or drawbacks of a given AI application or deployment are largely irrelevant to other uses. There's no "at the same time," to be had here. These are different animals.
February 7, 2026 at 6:50 AM
This is an interesting specimen of "AI" equivocation I found in the wild (Yahoo Finance). The benefits or drawbacks of a given AI application or deployment are largely irrelevant to other uses. There's no "at the same time," to be had here. These are different animals.
Reposted by Tess Snider
One of the reasons I so greatly dislike the “can men and women be friends?” nonsense (yes, full stop, shut up) is that it casts suspicion on people with opposite-sex friends instead of where it more often belongs: on people with no opposite-sex friends.
Anyway, yeah. The overwhelming impression one gets from so many of these emails is that a lot of them are guys who have never had a real, serious friendship with a woman in their lives.
Which sucks for them, but also sucks for every woman who has to deal with them, ever.
Which sucks for them, but also sucks for every woman who has to deal with them, ever.
February 5, 2026 at 6:47 PM
One of the reasons I so greatly dislike the “can men and women be friends?” nonsense (yes, full stop, shut up) is that it casts suspicion on people with opposite-sex friends instead of where it more often belongs: on people with no opposite-sex friends.
AI execs keep giving advice that young programmers should focus on AI instead of doing internships, etc. this is abominable advice, for many reasons. I’m going to focus on two:
February 5, 2026 at 1:08 AM
AI execs keep giving advice that young programmers should focus on AI instead of doing internships, etc. this is abominable advice, for many reasons. I’m going to focus on two:
We're watching a Bond movie, and we're like, "You know these guys are all in the Epstein files."
February 1, 2026 at 4:22 AM
We're watching a Bond movie, and we're like, "You know these guys are all in the Epstein files."
Reposted by Tess Snider
As always, I love our built-in bug reporting in our game and when users send in reports, especially when multiple players each send in reports from a multiplayer game so I see the state from multiple views. Today's saved what could have been weeks tracking down a bug and turned it into 10 minutes.
February 1, 2026 at 12:57 AM
As always, I love our built-in bug reporting in our game and when users send in reports, especially when multiple players each send in reports from a multiplayer game so I see the state from multiple views. Today's saved what could have been weeks tracking down a bug and turned it into 10 minutes.
Tell me five classes you took in college.
Computer Architecture
Celtic Mythology
Archaeoastronomy
Elements of Painting
Cosmology and Cosmogeny
Computer Architecture
Celtic Mythology
Archaeoastronomy
Elements of Painting
Cosmology and Cosmogeny
tell me five classes you took in college
Computer Aided Design
Applied maths
Ethics for Engineers (ONE. Lecture)
Statistics
Regular math
(I’m having more trouble remembering individual class names than I expected)
Computer Aided Design
Applied maths
Ethics for Engineers (ONE. Lecture)
Statistics
Regular math
(I’m having more trouble remembering individual class names than I expected)
tell me five classes you took in college
Introduction to Classical Mythology
Consumer Behaviour
Intermediate Accounting I
Animation Drawing II
Storyboard Design
(I did a business degree and then went to animation school afterwards)
Introduction to Classical Mythology
Consumer Behaviour
Intermediate Accounting I
Animation Drawing II
Storyboard Design
(I did a business degree and then went to animation school afterwards)
January 31, 2026 at 1:55 AM
Tell me five classes you took in college.
Computer Architecture
Celtic Mythology
Archaeoastronomy
Elements of Painting
Cosmology and Cosmogeny
Computer Architecture
Celtic Mythology
Archaeoastronomy
Elements of Painting
Cosmology and Cosmogeny
This unnatural rhythmic bobbing, coupled with bizarrely exaggerated mouth movement, is a really common tell in AI videos. Try moving your mouth like that for a few seconds, and see what it feels like. It's utterly exhausting, isn't it?
January 30, 2026 at 7:42 AM
This unnatural rhythmic bobbing, coupled with bizarrely exaggerated mouth movement, is a really common tell in AI videos. Try moving your mouth like that for a few seconds, and see what it feels like. It's utterly exhausting, isn't it?
Me, a moment ago: I don't think I have an NVME in my older small box here, but I do in my smaller old box.
January 29, 2026 at 4:42 AM
Me, a moment ago: I don't think I have an NVME in my older small box here, but I do in my smaller old box.
Today, my Win11 dev machine has suddenly decided, for no apparent reason, to open Notepad when I hit PrintScreen. I normally use this key for calling out to an alternate screenshot application. Does anyone have a clue why this might be happening?
January 28, 2026 at 8:46 PM
Today, my Win11 dev machine has suddenly decided, for no apparent reason, to open Notepad when I hit PrintScreen. I normally use this key for calling out to an alternate screenshot application. Does anyone have a clue why this might be happening?
What mythologies did your schools have, when you were growing up? Strawberry milk? Hidden rooms? Swimming pools? Teacher scandals?
January 28, 2026 at 7:15 PM
What mythologies did your schools have, when you were growing up? Strawberry milk? Hidden rooms? Swimming pools? Teacher scandals?
I've occasionally fantasized about making a website to catalog canceled games, with a writeup, and a sampling of any publicly revealed art/concepts that were available.
a delayed game is eventually good but a canceled game that never comes out and had cool promotional material will be good forever
January 27, 2026 at 11:22 PM
I've occasionally fantasized about making a website to catalog canceled games, with a writeup, and a sampling of any publicly revealed art/concepts that were available.
Reinforce execution discipline? Ubisoft suits, it's OK to just say you want to focus on shipping some titles. You don't need a goofy euphemism for this. Talking like this is a good way to convince everyone that you're the problem.
January 24, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Reinforce execution discipline? Ubisoft suits, it's OK to just say you want to focus on shipping some titles. You don't need a goofy euphemism for this. Talking like this is a good way to convince everyone that you're the problem.
In the US, back in the early 00s, there was a revolution in how political parties collected and shared potential donor/volunteer data. Now, we need a revolution in how they collect and share lists of people who will become actively hostile if they continue to be relentlessly spammed.
January 23, 2026 at 1:08 AM
In the US, back in the early 00s, there was a revolution in how political parties collected and shared potential donor/volunteer data. Now, we need a revolution in how they collect and share lists of people who will become actively hostile if they continue to be relentlessly spammed.
Most of us Gen Xers saw this on videotape on smallish, fuzzy NTSC (640x480) or PAL (720 x 576) CRT TV screens, so it would have been hard to make out details like that.
Wait. Wait. What.
I don't often use the phrase "mind blown," but this video did just that.
www.instagram.com/reel/DTVyOE0...
I don't often use the phrase "mind blown," but this video did just that.
www.instagram.com/reel/DTVyOE0...
January 21, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Most of us Gen Xers saw this on videotape on smallish, fuzzy NTSC (640x480) or PAL (720 x 576) CRT TV screens, so it would have been hard to make out details like that.
It’s completely maddening that he thinks they have social permission to lose, when they never asked for it, in the first place.
Delicious to me
January 21, 2026 at 9:36 PM
It’s completely maddening that he thinks they have social permission to lose, when they never asked for it, in the first place.
The story of Brett Dadig is a great example of why chatbots are terrible life coaches. If ChatGPT had been a good life coach, it would have, for instance, told him that most women don't appreciate being pursued in these environments.
January 19, 2026 at 11:26 PM
The story of Brett Dadig is a great example of why chatbots are terrible life coaches. If ChatGPT had been a good life coach, it would have, for instance, told him that most women don't appreciate being pursued in these environments.