Jake Mauer
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jakemauer.bsky.social
Jake Mauer
@jakemauer.bsky.social
140 followers 300 following 320 posts
Fix your hearts or die.
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jakemauer.bsky.social
The king was my JVC KD-SH707 car stereo that supported MP3 CDs, had a motorized faceplate, and an actual volume knob back when seemingly every other deck had up/down buttons for volume. Installed it myself in three cars.
The front faceplate of a JVC KD-SH707 car stereo. It's silver plastic with a black screen with square white pixels.
December 3, 2025 at 3:40 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
My first player came later, a Diamond RioVolt SP100 MP3 CD Player. This thing got me through high school. I used it probably every day.
A Diamond RioVolt portable CD MP3 player that looks VERY late 90's early 2000's in design. Silver plastic, blue accents, semi-organic shaped buttons.
December 3, 2025 at 3:38 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
I was there when my cousin opened his Eiger Labs MPMan F-10, the original MP3 player. Only had a 16 or 32MB Smart Media card and transferred songs over parallel port.
A picture of the Eiger MPMan F-10, the first portable MP3 player available in the United States. It looks like the black box for a deck of cards but with a tiny digital screen like you'd find on a cheap quartz watch and two glossy silver buttons to either side.
December 3, 2025 at 3:34 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
A closeup shot of a Diamond Riō PMP300 MP3 player show it's logo and model number.
December 3, 2025 at 3:30 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Thank you @foone.bsky.social
"Gowron for Klingon High Council" in the style of Zohran for New York City using Foone's creation tool.
November 9, 2025 at 3:21 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
The two spidermans pointing at each other meme
October 27, 2025 at 4:08 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Defending not just AI art but Woody Allen in the same post, impressive.

Going to link to the Oatmeal's post and screenshot Gruber's: theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
A post from Jon Gruber's blog Daring Fireball that begins: Good and thoughtful graphic essay by Matthew Inman, expressing why he dislikes AI-generated art. It’s been widely linked to, largely approvingly. I fundamentally disagree with the premise. Near the start, Inman writes: When I consume AI art, it also evokes a feeling. Good, bad, neutral — whatever. Until I find out that it’s AI art. Then I feel deflated, grossed out, and maybe a little bit bored. This feeling isn’t a choice. I think it very much is a choice. If your opinion of a work art changes after you find out which tools were used to make it, or who the artist is or what they’ve done, you’re no longer judging the art. You’re making a choice not to form your opinion based on the work itself, but rather on something else. If you refuse to watch Woody Allen movies because of his personal life, that’s a choice, but you’re choosing not to watch some of the best movies that have ever been made. The post from Jon Gruber's blog Daring Fireball continues: Stanley Kubrick said, “The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good.” If an image, a song, a poem, or video evokes affection in your heart, and then that affection dissipates when you learn what tools were used to create it, that’s not a test of the work of art itself. To me it’s no different than losing affection for a movie only upon learning that special effects were created digitally, not practically. I think most “AI art” today completely sucks. But not because it was made using AI generation tools. It just sucks period. Good art is being made with AI tools, though, and more — much more — is coming.
October 16, 2025 at 3:05 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
We have this exact one for Hank and it’s mesmerizing.

Obligatory Hank tax:
A brown husky mix dog laying asleep with his head nestled against the armrest of a brown leather couch.
February 4, 2025 at 3:07 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Or this art for Virtuosity, a 1995 movie I had never even heard of. Gorgeous.
Blu Ray box for the movie Virtuosity held by a person's hand. It's a somewhat abstract illustration with angular tubes and a human head made of half filled in green coloring and half white wireframe with VIRTUOSITY spelled vertically bisecting in the middle.
January 1, 2025 at 11:30 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
I had no idea Saul Bass directed a movie! Look at this box art.
Box art for the Blu Ray release of Phase IV held by a person's hand. A white background with black ants. The negative space around the ants creates a skull shape. The title PHASE IV A FILM BY SAUL BASS are set in red in an all caps typeface.
January 1, 2025 at 11:28 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
I have been hunting for this specific sweater since this episode aired and I think I finally found it.
Don Draper played by John Hamm in Mad Men wearing a gray knit shawl sweater and white collared button down shirt holding a glass of presumably scotch to sooth his "hot tooth" as he sits up in bed.
January 1, 2025 at 11:21 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Spent probably 4 hours in total getting my ancient QMK fork to compile again for this guy. Turned out I had accidentally deleted an important line.
A 65% mechanical keyboard, a Massdrop ALT v1 with cream, orange, green, blue, and gray keys. The keycaps are XDA Canvas with runic alphas and micons which have runic symbols instead of the alphabet. The backlight is set to an RGB gradient. They keyboard has a coiled USB cable
January 1, 2025 at 11:10 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Them, listless, staring into the distance: If only there was a way to marry my love of video games and the winter olympics fan-favorite sport of curling...

Me:
A gaming pillow that looks like a large curling puck with a steam deck attached at the handle.
December 23, 2024 at 4:34 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Finally that time of year
Cover art of the album "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by the Vince Guardaldi Trio. A color illustration of Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Linus holding hands in front of a Christmas tree with Snoopy sitting at the top.
December 14, 2024 at 8:24 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Upgrading your phone means getting garbage on your home screen
A screenshot of the icon for Apple's image playground app: an insipid AI generator doe-eyed cat...dog? set inside a blurred gradient bubble
December 12, 2024 at 5:47 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
If you see this post a vampire
Screencap from The Simpsons of Mr. Burns as Dracula.
December 10, 2024 at 4:51 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
The SF Symphony hall still has CRTs in the lobby.
A black 27” 4:3 ratio CRT on a wall mount showing the live feed of the sf symphony stage.
December 3, 2024 at 12:46 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
“Ceasar Rimmer…yes I quite like the sound of that”
A picture of the smug, smeg-headed Arnold J. Rimmer from the tv show Red Dwarf
September 21, 2024 at 4:30 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Screenshot of Hayao Miyazaki saying "I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself."
June 10, 2024 at 6:39 PM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Pondering my Mac Orb
The Susan Kare designed icon of a wristwatch used as the busy cursor in classic versions of Mac OS
February 22, 2024 at 2:55 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
A link that says "Delete my Account" is scary. If I click it, will my account just go poof? What does deletion actually mean? I like how SimpleFin handled this with one more word than you usually see:
A link that says "Maybe delete my account"
February 4, 2024 at 7:11 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
How sure are we that he's not Patrick Gill's father?
An image of Patrick Gill, a white man who resembles Ralf Hütter, with shoulder length hair holding a "Giant Bomb" mug.
January 28, 2024 at 4:36 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Why does the Apple Movies cover art for Blade Runner: The Final Cut look like some generic LA Confidential rip off?
Screenshot of the blade runner final cut art from apple movies that looks like an LA confidential rip off
January 4, 2024 at 5:43 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
Got this incense holder that's meant for cones and couldn't really hold sticks. Nothing 30 minutes with Fusion360 and a 3D printer can't fix.
A circular ceramic incense burner with a smaller concentric circle in the middle. In the very center is a 3mm hole that's too big to hold stick incense, shown here with a stick of incense just outside the hole for scale. A circular ceramic incense holder with a white 3D printed insert in the center holding up a stick of incense.
January 4, 2024 at 3:40 AM
jakemauer.bsky.social
The box art for the Sega Genesis game Jungle Strike featuring an apache helicopter shooting missiles, large explosions and palm trees in the background with the Jungle Strike logo obscuring an F-117 bomber.
January 3, 2024 at 10:09 PM