To be clear, I wasn’t asked to write this post. I’ve just really been enjoying my time on quxnet so far and I think it’d be fun to see a few more familiar faces there.

You can read more about quxnet on its About page, but if you’ve found your way to my site then I can already almost guarantee that you’d enjoy it. At the time of writing, quxnet has…

• An old-school forum for lots of different topics like computing, media, and art.
• A mail system.
• A feed reader.
• A link aggregator.
• Site access via SSH.
• Image albums.
• Static HTML hosting.
• Custom site themes.
• An 88x31 button creator and gallery.

And there’s probably a feature or two I’ve missed.

Profiles are extremely fun to customize too, in a way that online profiles haven’t been for decades. You can…

• Customize your profile theme.
• Set a status.
• Create custom sections in markdown.
• Upload music.
• Display your current book.
• Show off your image albums and button collection.
• Write docs and log entries.
• Have people sign your guestbook.
• Most importantly of all, subject your visitors to autoplaying MIDI.

Something I appreciate about quxnet’s design is that it all feels very intentional. There’s no push or email notifications by design. It encourages you to build, participate, and be creative. It’s all very refreshing.

The thing I’m liking most so far though is the community. It’s been growing fast with over 750 people now, around 150 more than when I signed up a little over a week ago. So much of online discussion today is doom and gloom, and the quxnet community somehow manages to avoid most of that and instead actually remembers to have fun. It reminds me of why I was ever drawn to online spaces in the first place.

Feel free to say hi if you end up joining! I go by moddedbear there. If registrations are closed whenever you’re reading this, reach out and I might be able to send you an invite.

— JP

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If you want one thing to blame for this post of mine, I suppose it would be Epic Games going “all in” on AI. But really, this is bigger than that and something I’ve been feeling for weeks.

I don’t like preaching like this, but I think you need to understand my thought process for my point to land. Depending on AI in any nontrivial capacity is short-sighted and unsustainable. You’re switching off your critical thought and learning processes and replacing them with a hollow imitation rented to you by a megacorp. In doing this, you give up the opportunity to invest in your own abilities instead.

But let’s say you don’t care about that. You don’t care about developing your own skills, you just want the thing made and you’re using AI to write the code for you. At the end of the day the question of whether the code works is a simple yes or no. It might be an inscrutable mess, but it either works or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, you can probably get to a version that does if you have good tests and a big enough compute budget.

A game is different. There are no tests an AI can run to find out if a game is “good”. There is no correct way to design a game. It takes lots of testing and tweaking, and it all depends on what it is exactly that you’re trying to say and what you want the player to feel.

Games, like any other art, are created with intent. They are created by people with tastes that have been developed over time from lived experience. These are things which an AI model, however large, will never have. Anyone claiming that AI is going to solve or streamline game development is either ignorant or trying to sell you something.

But does a game even need to be “good” to be good? Or any art for that matter? For the past while, I’ve found myself developing a new appreciation for things that are clearly made by a real person. Even the really amateur looking stuff.

In fact, I love noticing the little human imperfections now. They’re evidence that someone cared enough about what they were doing to do it themselves. The world we live in is one where they could have easily typed a few words into a computer to generate some version of what they were going for, more or less. That they didn’t is respectable. It takes some courage to put something you made on display while knowing all of its imperfections. Even if what they made isn’t “good”, they weren’t afraid to put themselves into it and they respected the craft enough to learn it. Even just doing that much is an important statement to be making these days.

Like I said, I’ve been having these kinds of thoughts for weeks. They’re a big part of what’s given me the drive to start work on a new personal game project. It’s not a big project, or anywhere close to that. It might not even be fun to play. Someone else could probably make the same game and do it much better.

But I want to make a thing that someone will notice the rough edges on and maybe get inspired by to make their own thing.

I guess the takeaway I’m going for is that AI is helping me appreciate that things are still worth doing yourself, even when you know they’ll be flawed. You leave a mark on the things that you do and create which an AI could never replace. They leave a mark on you too, and everything you do and create after.

— JP

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The quick version is that I think I picked right with Fastmail. You can find cheaper email hosts out there. I’m sure they’re great too, but I’m really happy with Fastmail’s value considering all I’m getting.

Inbox organization

I ended up starting fresh instead of forwarding my Gmail to my new address. This was definitely the right move for me for reasons I’ll get into.

My biggest concern moving away from Gmail was my inbox organization. Gmail does a pretty alright job of automatically sorting out promotional emails from notification emails from human-sent emails and so on. It’s the only reason my inbox has remained somewhat manageable over the years despite no effort on my part.

The solution for this that I landed on is subdomain addressing and so far it’s been keeping me even better organized than before. I’ve updated my important accounts with unique or category-based subdomain addresses, then any mail sent to those addresses automatically gets moved to a matching folder without me even having to create any rules.

If I had forwarded my Gmail to the new Fastmail address, organization would have been a whack-a-mole rule creation game.

Going and updating my accounts with a new address was easier than I was expecting. It does help that I’m keeping the Gmail address active as a junk inbox that I still occasionally check though, so I’ve only had to update the accounts that I actually care about. It wasn’t more than ten or so accounts, and I’m getting to the rest gradually as I remember about them.

Multiple domains

Fastmail lets you connect something crazy like 100 domains to your account. That was a nice bonus for me because I was able to add a new address using my blog domain, something I’d been wanting to do for a while anyway.

This is probably a coincidence, but I’ve been getting way more email replies to my posts since I updated my contact page with my new address on my blog domain. I used to have a Proton address I created specifically for email replies listed there. It’s been a fun new motivator for blogging, and it’s also helped me remember to reach out when I read a cool post.

Since I’m talking about custom domains already, here’s something you might want to know if you’re thinking of making a move similar to mine. You’ll probably find your sent emails “greylisted” by your recipients’ email providers if your domain has been freshly registered — regardless of your email host. For example, emails sent from my brand new domain were getting delayed by a few hours when sent to Gmail addresses. Messages from my blog’s domain, which has been around for a while, were getting delivered immediately. It took a day or two for Gmail to fully trust the new domain and remove the delay.

Masked email

This is something I’m using more than I thought I would. You can generate randomized addresses that route to your inbox so you don’t have to share your real address. It’s nice to use for services that you may want to easily block, since you can flip a toggle and start sending all mail received at a masked address to the trash.

It’s been smooth sailing

There’s a bunch of other little things I’m liking about Fastmail too. Their apps are solid. Their documentation is good. I haven’t really found anything not to like yet.

The main thing I want you to take away is that the switch has been much smoother than I expected. If you’re thinking of making a switch too — to anywhere, not just Fastmail — I don’t think you have a whole lot to worry about. Especially if you move to an address on your own domain, then any other moves in the future will be even easier.

— JP

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I started the series all the way back in October 2024. Not long before that, in May, is when I got my first e-reader to try to get into reading a little more seriously. I’ve read plenty of other books since then, but The Expanse has been somewhat of a constant for most of the time I’ve been reading. Now that it’s finished, I can confidently say it’s my favorite series I’ve read so far and if you’re at all interested in sci-fi then you need to read it for yourself.

I won’t make you read my own poorly written synopsis, so here’s just a few quick notes on what I really loved about The Expanse.

The first thing I should mention is the scale and depth of the characters. They’re what make the series. You get to know and love so many of them throughout it, and each one feels unique in so many ways. I already know a lot of them are going to be sticking with me for a while.

I also really enjoyed the series’s approach to space sci-fi concepts. “Realistic” isn’t a word I’d use to describe it — not that it matters — but it feels grounded enough internally that there’s still tension in relatively simple actions. Space travel is a good example. You can’t just push your ship as fast as it’ll go — even if the ship can handle it, your body is an entirely different question. There are risks and ways to manage those risks, and that often leads to some gripping moments. Anyway, all that’s to say that I think The Expanse finds a really compelling balance between hard realism and space magic.

What’s next for me?

I had multiple people highly recommend the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown to me. I’ve already read the first book and loved it. I’m currently about halfway through the second book, Golden Son, with plans to keep going.

The recent trailer for the new Neuromancer TV series has got me wanting to try out the book by William Gibson.

Speaking of books with TV adaptations, I’ve heard good things about the Silo series by Hugh Howey so that’s also on my list.

And I’m sure I’m not done with James S.A. Corey either. There are lots of novellas that take place in The Expanse between the main novels that I want to get to eventually. Plus there’s a new series called The Captive’s War that I want to check out.

So you can see I’ve already got a decent backlog. But if you have any recommendations I’d still love to hear them.

— JP

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Before I explain, you have to understand something. This thing was dead dead. Completely unresponsive to any and all input, including the recovery key combos. I let it sit on the charger for a good long while. No change. I took it off the charger for another good long while. No change.

Making it Apple’s problem

Apple will do a free diagnostic if you take your device into a store. I may as well, right? Just before leaving, I double checked the laptop again so I wouldn’t accidentally look stupid bringing in a working device for diagnostics. Still dead, as expected.

We get to the store, check in with a support person, explain the problem, and open the laptop for them. Obviously it immediately lights up and goes straight to the login screen. So much for double checking it beforehand.

Best guess

They ran a diagnostic anyway since we were there. Everything came back 100% which is a lie because I know for a fact the battery at least has seen far better days. So there’s still no great leads on what killed it in the first place.

My current best guess is something to do with the aging battery. There’s a chance I’ll replace it myself. A small one, since — and I’m not exaggerating — you have to take apart the entire MacBook to do a battery replacement. Not to mention I’d be doing all that based on a hunch, crossing my fingers that it doesn’t decide to randomly die again.

In any case, we’ve been considering replacing the whole thing with a Linux laptop anyway. This MacBook really shows its age on recent versions of MacOS. It’s also the second one we’ve had die in this weird way, so we’re done with Macs.

What to replace it with?

Framework, maybe? They’re considerably more expensive than comparable models from other companies, but simply reading a battery replacement guide for the MacBook has already started to radicalize me. Paying a premium for easy repairs and upgrades might not be a bad idea.

I’m considering Lenovo as well. Some of their models are way cheaper, comparably specced, and at least appear not to be actively hostile to repairs. Their higher end models are apparently quite repairable from what I’ve recently learned, and I’m wondering if they would be a better value than Framework.

I’m super open to recommendations here if you’ve got them. You can get in touch at the bottom of the page.

— JP

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But that’s a story for another day once I have a chance to dig more into it. The main thing is that we were down a computer and my wife still needed something to get work done on. I decided to test out an idea.

We have a Steam Deck we both use a lot. I booted it into its desktop mode, connected it to a laptop dock with a display and peripherals, and that was pretty much all there was to it. It may as well have been any other ordinary computer that you could get real work done on.

I love that this is possible, but it’s a little lame that it feels special. With as many devices and gadgets that we have, so many of them are held back by seemingly arbitrary limitations. Why shouldn’t I be able to use my game console as a desktop PC? Or my phone for that matter? Or my car? My fridge? If everything is a computer, why is hardly anything something I can actually use as a computer?

I’m joking of course. But only a little.

— JP

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I go to check my email in Gmail’s web UI. I see a few new messages regarding feedback on a project I’m working on. I click through to read one of them and the first thing I’m greeted with is a message summary I didn’t ask for generated by a language model.

I focus the message box to draft a reply, but there’s already one there. It was also generated by the language model. I delete it, replacing it with my own.

Afterward, I go to compose a new message. A colorful animation steals my focus for a second highlighting a new “help me write” button. I ignore it and move on to filling in the recipients and subject line.

I focus the message body area and underneath my cursor appears the message “Press / for Help me write”. Again, I ignore it and begin writing.

A few moments later, I start a new paragraph and pause. There’s a new message under my cursor now: “Tab to improve”. What I’ve written so far isn’t up to Gmail’s standards, it seems.

What message are you trying to send?

Look, I’m pretty pragmatic when it comes to generative AI features in software. I see very little wrong with including an optional AI writing assistant for those who want it.

But when you nag and nag, when you summarize my messages and write my replies without my asking, when you repeatedly interrupt me to beg and plead that I rewrite my drafts, you’re sending the wrong message.

The message you’re sending is that you think I’m not capable of reading and writing my own emails. That the people I’m exchanging messages with don’t deserve my time and energy. That I’m doing something wrong by not outsourcing my communication skills to a token prediction machine.

I’ve looked into it. Some of these features can be turned off. Others can’t. Or if they can, it means also turning off useful long-standing features like automatic thread categorization. I have very little doubt that this is intentional, that the unsolicited summaries and auto replies are a means of artificially inflating the usage metrics for the language model features.

I think we’re all used to user-hostile software these days, but this is the first time I’ve experienced software that feels like it’s actively trying to be disrespectful. Sure, I could switch to a different mail client and never see any of these language model features, but my experience these past months has left such a bad taste that all I’m looking for now is a clean break.

A 16 year breakup

I’ve had my Gmail account for 16 years. It’s by far my oldest internet account that I still use. Or used to use. I’ve already started the long process of moving away.

This time I’m doing things the right way by connecting my own domain to a mail host. I’m currently with Fastmail since they were by far the most popular option when I asked for suggestions on the fediverse. I’m still early on in the trial period, but so far first impressions are great. It seems really flexible, and after connecting multiple domains and setting up a few aliases I’m starting to wish I had tried it sooner.

I haven’t settled on whether or not I should import my Gmail data. I’ll almost surely import my contacts, but there’s something nice about starting fresh as far as everything else goes. I’m interested in what other people in a similar position have done.

Congrats to Google, really. They’ve done a decent job at keeping Gmail stable over the many years I’ve used it. Which is why even I am impressed by how quickly they were able to get me to pack up and leave.

— JP

Update: Read more about my switch to Fastmail

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Each week, Hyde interviews another blogger to get their opinions on five different topics and answer a few other questions. This week it was vinyl, Kobo, Keychron keyboards, Ray-Ban AI glasses, and cupcakes.

Over/Under #64 with another bear: ModdedBear

— JP

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I played it on Steam Deck with the PC port Ship of Harkinian which is hands down the best way to play it these days. It’s extremely customizable (almost dauntingly so) so you can really tune the game to your liking and modernize it a bit.

Some of my favorite features:

• Unlocked framerate and resolution
• Modern camera controls
• Use of the d-pad for extra item slots

My thoughts on the game

Not that I was at all old enough to play it when it came out, but you can clearly tell even today that Ocarina of Time was a very ambitious game. Overall, I think it delivered and it’s easy to see why it was incredibly influential.

There are some enemy and quest designs that show their age a bit, but that’s pretty standard for the era. The worst example I can think of is (spoilers for a 28 year old game incoming) when first entering the Spirit Temple, the game strongly hints that you need to time travel to come back as a child. So I warped straight to the Temple of Time to do that, thinking that I could use the Gerudo membership card I just earned to have the guards let me through. Nope. I had to look up a walkthrough to learn that what I should have done is exit the Spirit Temple normally to trigger the cutscene where the Spirit Temple’s warp song is learned.

But like I was saying, needing an occasional walkthrough is something that more or less comes with the territory of playing 30 year old games. I don’t hold that against Ocarina of Time too much, especially since some elements have aged incredibly well all things considered.

The combat, while a bit simple by today’s standards, is one of the parts of Ocarina of Time that I think has aged the best. Modern enhancements like high framerates and manual camera controls definitely help here, but you can tell there’s a solid underlying system even without them. Most of the bosses and stronger enemies were genuinely fun to fight, and it’s easy to see where Ocarina of Time’s combat has influenced so many of today’s titles.

I’ll just say that it’s easy to see why this game still gets talked about even today. It’s definitely deserving of its status as a classic.

Next on my radar

When I think of The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess is the game that always comes to my mind. I put a ton of time into it growing up and there’s just something I love about its mechanics, world design, and characters.

So I’m super excited that there’s not one, but two ongoing projects porting it to modern platforms! The one that I’m most closely watching is Dusk. It appears to have a larger team behind it and be slightly farther along in development, though I could be wrong on both fronts since there’s not a ton of public information on either of these projects yet. The other project is Courage Reborn which also looks promising.

Based on posts in the Dusk Discord, videos from testers with access, and my own speculation, I won’t be surprised if Dusk gets an initial release sometime in the next few months. You can bet I’ll be setting it up as soon as it’s available. For all the time I spent playing Twilight Princess I never did quite roll credits on it. Looking forward to correcting that.

— JP

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It uses a community voting system similar to sites like Reddit, Hacker News, or Bear Blog. Signing up is super easy since you just log in with a Fediverse account (with read-only permissions).

I think it’s an interesting alternative to other blog aggregators which typically only show you the most recent posts. You can also sort by new posts in Bubbles, but the ranked view seems like it’ll be nice for making sure I didn’t miss anything good from the past few days.

I’ve added the Bubbles widget to the bottom of my blog posts. You should be able to see the current vote count of this post after Bubbles refreshes and imports it!

Lastly, I’ve also reorganized my bookmarks page and added a dedicated section for places to discover new blogs. Check it out!

— JP

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