Zachary Waldowski
@waldowski.me
Journal app at Apple. I do the best imitation of myself. 🐻
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
🏁TIME 🏁 #GDQueer has raised a total amount of $51,030 for @lambdalegal.org!!!
Thank you to everyone who made GDQueer possible and to everyone who tuned in and donated!!
Remember, you are loved and you are welcome here 💙🏳️🌈
Thank you to everyone who made GDQueer possible and to everyone who tuned in and donated!!
Remember, you are loved and you are welcome here 💙🏳️🌈
November 3, 2025 at 6:15 AM
🏁TIME 🏁 #GDQueer has raised a total amount of $51,030 for @lambdalegal.org!!!
Thank you to everyone who made GDQueer possible and to everyone who tuned in and donated!!
Remember, you are loved and you are welcome here 💙🏳️🌈
Thank you to everyone who made GDQueer possible and to everyone who tuned in and donated!!
Remember, you are loved and you are welcome here 💙🏳️🌈
Starfield captured my imagination for a big chunk of its playtime. But it has no staying power. I remember little of its set-pieces and mostly remember its rote repetitive slop. A dead, empty galaxy full with glassy-eyed cardboard cutouts. It’s not a complete loss but it is justly maligned.
The last fallout game came out in 2018 so Bethesda could focus on shitting out Starfield
November 3, 2025 at 6:20 AM
Starfield captured my imagination for a big chunk of its playtime. But it has no staying power. I remember little of its set-pieces and mostly remember its rote repetitive slop. A dead, empty galaxy full with glassy-eyed cardboard cutouts. It’s not a complete loss but it is justly maligned.
cow tools can heal us
43 years ago today, readers the world over opened their newspapers and gazed upon cow tools for the first time. happy birthday cow tools. you look great.
October 29, 2025 at 4:25 AM
cow tools can heal us
If you don’t protect your trademarks, you don’t get to keep them, no?
I asked Microsoft PR about this—specially the DHS using Halo IP to recruit for ICE—and the company declined to comment.
October 27, 2025 at 8:53 PM
If you don’t protect your trademarks, you don’t get to keep them, no?
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
Great reporting on one of the moments that should have warned us. The Arab Spring saw a moment when we thought tech would liberate people, then like a dream that moment passed. Today Myanmar is sunk deeper than ever in horrors, riven by civil war, while countless people are pressed into slavery.
I wrote about how Facebook (née Meta) destroys everything a while back - based in part on my experiences in the early 2010s as a reporter in Southeast Asia - and each month, each day, they somehow manage to find new ways to become more evil.
little-flying-robots.ghost.io/facebook-des...
little-flying-robots.ghost.io/facebook-des...
Facebook Destroys Everything: Part 1
In Southeast Asia in the early 2010s, I watched as Mark Zuckerberg's creation began to destroy Myanmar. Here's why I'm never using Threads.
little-flying-robots.ghost.io
September 21, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Great reporting on one of the moments that should have warned us. The Arab Spring saw a moment when we thought tech would liberate people, then like a dream that moment passed. Today Myanmar is sunk deeper than ever in horrors, riven by civil war, while countless people are pressed into slavery.
This must be how the Elcor evolved in Mass Effect.
If you're going to send me something written by an LLM then save us all time and resources and just send me your prompt instead. I'll value a text that says "Heartfelt condolence message with reference to a list of events" more, because this way I at least actually know what you were thinking
August 4, 2025 at 2:18 AM
This must be how the Elcor evolved in Mass Effect.
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
TWO MILLION DOLLARS RAISED FOR @doctorswithoutborders.org!!!!!! You ALL made this happen, and now it's TIME FOR MARIO KART WORLD!! 🏎️🍄🌍 #SGDQ2025
July 13, 2025 at 1:03 AM
TWO MILLION DOLLARS RAISED FOR @doctorswithoutborders.org!!!!!! You ALL made this happen, and now it's TIME FOR MARIO KART WORLD!! 🏎️🍄🌍 #SGDQ2025
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
United States *declares independence*
Bluesky 1776: oooh! A strongly worded letter!
Bluesky 1776: oooh! A strongly worded letter!
May 11, 2025 at 11:36 AM
United States *declares independence*
Bluesky 1776: oooh! A strongly worded letter!
Bluesky 1776: oooh! A strongly worded letter!
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
finally a source for all the frankly bizarre claims around LLM water "use"
literally nothing about LLM-related compute uses more water than any other compute activity, focus on Actually Objectionable bits around LLMs like degraded infosphere
literally nothing about LLM-related compute uses more water than any other compute activity, focus on Actually Objectionable bits around LLMs like degraded infosphere
some researchers at uc riverside wrote a paper estimating water use, including indirect use from power generation. they counted hydroelectic water use as "used" water. their worst case assumes Washington State where power is mostly hydroelectric, other pessimistic things. they gave quotes to WAPO
May 9, 2025 at 10:39 PM
finally a source for all the frankly bizarre claims around LLM water "use"
literally nothing about LLM-related compute uses more water than any other compute activity, focus on Actually Objectionable bits around LLMs like degraded infosphere
literally nothing about LLM-related compute uses more water than any other compute activity, focus on Actually Objectionable bits around LLMs like degraded infosphere
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
if you tell Zoomers about the Great Recession, they literally do not believe that 2022 wasn't worse than that
It strikes me as problematic that when you tell zoomers how bad the Bush administration and before were, they literally do not fucking believe you.
The ACA was cool because before the ACA you could hit your lifetime maximum before you were a month old and be denied insurance for the rest of your life and after the ACA that’s illegal.
March 23, 2025 at 5:54 PM
if you tell Zoomers about the Great Recession, they literally do not believe that 2022 wasn't worse than that
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
It really is that simple
February 16, 2025 at 7:41 PM
It really is that simple
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
keep coming back to this essay from @quinnae.com on how social media allows us to demand a world that reflects our id back at ourselves
sometimes that means power fantasies--but equally it can mean self-justifying frenzies of fear and terror
www.liberalcurrents.com/meta-mirror-...
sometimes that means power fantasies--but equally it can mean self-justifying frenzies of fear and terror
www.liberalcurrents.com/meta-mirror-...
February 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
keep coming back to this essay from @quinnae.com on how social media allows us to demand a world that reflects our id back at ourselves
sometimes that means power fantasies--but equally it can mean self-justifying frenzies of fear and terror
www.liberalcurrents.com/meta-mirror-...
sometimes that means power fantasies--but equally it can mean self-justifying frenzies of fear and terror
www.liberalcurrents.com/meta-mirror-...
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...
End of Term Web Archive – Preserving the Transition of a Nation | Internet Archive Blogs
blog.archive.org
February 1, 2025 at 12:58 AM
The Internet Archive has to date downloaded 500 terabytes of US government websites, which it crawls at the end of every presidential term. The whole archive is fully searchable. This effort's housed by a donation-funded nonprofit, not a branch of the US government. blog.archive.org/2024/05/08/e...
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
🚨 PSA: If you are trans, do NOT mail in your passport to attempt to change your gender marker. The State Department is currently collecting them unchanged and will not give a public timeline for returning them. You could be without a passport indefinitely.
January 25, 2025 at 6:46 AM
🚨 PSA: If you are trans, do NOT mail in your passport to attempt to change your gender marker. The State Department is currently collecting them unchanged and will not give a public timeline for returning them. You could be without a passport indefinitely.
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
Lots of people who think everything is a huge own goal by democrats think a bipartisan veto proof bill to make an app that helps argue everything is a huge own goal by democrats divest is a huge own goal by democrats. Very surprising.
January 19, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Lots of people who think everything is a huge own goal by democrats think a bipartisan veto proof bill to make an app that helps argue everything is a huge own goal by democrats divest is a huge own goal by democrats. Very surprising.
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
I've seen the future and it's stupider than you can possibly imagine.
January 19, 2025 at 3:59 AM
I've seen the future and it's stupider than you can possibly imagine.
It’s that angry millennial commenter voice that tickles me. “But what do I know?” Not much, correct! Thanks for playing.
January 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
It’s that angry millennial commenter voice that tickles me. “But what do I know?” Not much, correct! Thanks for playing.
Engagement-chasing disguised as well-meaning conversation starters can stay on Threads, or preferably nowhere.
Maybe that one is too self-referential. Who’s to say?
Maybe that one is too self-referential. Who’s to say?
i don't want to hear your most boomer complaint. what's your most millennial complaint?
January 16, 2025 at 2:13 AM
Engagement-chasing disguised as well-meaning conversation starters can stay on Threads, or preferably nowhere.
Maybe that one is too self-referential. Who’s to say?
Maybe that one is too self-referential. Who’s to say?
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
Just incredible things from the VLC folks
January 11, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Just incredible things from the VLC folks
- Speedrunning as an activity is the closest thing we have right now to the bad-art/heart-enriching/utopian pastimes like in Star Trek
- Linking streaming to acts of service and charity is transcendent, a model of help and hope to young nerdy types
- Linking streaming to acts of service and charity is transcendent, a model of help and hope to young nerdy types
How can you not be romantic about speedrunning?
January 12, 2025 at 12:35 AM
- Speedrunning as an activity is the closest thing we have right now to the bad-art/heart-enriching/utopian pastimes like in Star Trek
- Linking streaming to acts of service and charity is transcendent, a model of help and hope to young nerdy types
- Linking streaming to acts of service and charity is transcendent, a model of help and hope to young nerdy types
Reposted by Zachary Waldowski
I have noticed that people who "just want to burn it all down" get very upset when the things they care about also burn.
November 24, 2024 at 5:55 PM
I have noticed that people who "just want to burn it all down" get very upset when the things they care about also burn.