Dave &quot;The Knave&quot; White

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

If that's the case, Yale should ask for their degree back.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

JD Vance says of the Middle East that it's "a region of the world made up of countries whose name I couldn't even pronounce"

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

@order-of-the-jackalope.com

Earlier this series I mentioned that Laurence Oliphant wrote two novels, romans-à-clef about his time with the Brotherhood of the New Life. Well, now's your chance to hear me read excerpts featuring the sensational character find of 1865, Mr. A.T. Wog! order-of-the-jackalope.com/live-the-life

order-of-the-jackalope.comLive the Life [excerpts from Laurence Oliphant's "Piccadilly"]Introducing the sensational character find of 1865: Mr. Appollonius T. Wog.

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

Chocolate Snobs

@chocolatesnobs.bsky.social

We've been seriously slacking about posting updates here... but with National Chocolate Day and Halloween coming up this week, I wanted to draw your attention to this excellent seasonal bar we just rated! sites.libsyn.com/626020/13-ma...

sites.libsyn.comChocolate Snobs: #13: Mast Store Provisioners Appalachian Campfire S'MoresThis week gives us both National Chocolate Day and Halloween, so the Chocolate Snobs wanted to do something special. Unfortunately, your fancy chocolate makers tend to steer clear of Halloween-y items...

Rebuttal.

This post is unavailable.

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

WebDesignMuseum

@webdesignmuseum.org

On October 13, 1994, The Mosaic Communications Corporation launched, under the name Mosaic Netscape 0.9, the first one in a series of browsers, called Netscape Navigator.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)

Oh look, it's Little Alec Thorne

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

@doctorow.pluralistic.net

There are many ways in which every billionaire is a policy failure, but the most corrosive and destructive way in which billionaires are policy failures is this: billionaires, despite being unelected and unaccountable, possess the power to control - and ruin - millions of peoples' lives.

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

Odd This Day

@oddthisday.bsky.social

Today is the 64th anniversary of the London premiere of Dr. No, so it’s time for the story of the theft of not one but two portraits of the Duke of Wellington—because Goya’s portrait of him had been nicked from the National Gallery the previous summer, just 19 days after it went on display

My wife is back at the hospital for the second time in two weeks. It should be fine, this was planned, she's tough as nails, the surgery is simple. But they are holding her overnight and I hate that. Every time I think of her in a hospital bed it makes me think about the bad times and I want to cry.

Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast

I hate it when a song with a terrible message is super-catchy. In this case, Hank Williams Jr.'s "If the South Woulda Won."

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

@irhottakes.bsky.social

18 Sept

It’s very simple. A reality TV host became dictator because he turned down a role for Sharknado 4 and that’s why the king of outer space, who cheats at Diablo, got to kill Africa. Now the economy is controlled by a sex cult that has something to do with Harry Potter fanfic because of robots.

19 Sept

Parapraxis of the Day: "the Considerate States of America"

19 Sept

I am used to off-kilter depictions of gangs and toughs in my pop culture, but this men's adventure novel has a New Wave gang in it and I just can't. Like legit some scuzzy Human League fans running wild.

17 Sept

Had a dental cleaning and a haircut today. My head will never feel this fresh again.

16 Sept

MY CONSCIOUS: I have a very early appointment tomorrow, so let's go to bed early and set a bunch of extra alarms. MY SUBCONSCIOUS: Better idea, why don't we just not sleep at all.

13 Sept

Just saw a job listing for a "semi-senior" developer, whatever the hell that is. Can't wait for the day when director is an entry-level position.

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)

8 Sept

Hey Reddit, enshittifying the mobile experience is not going to get me to install your dumb app. Just ask Instagram how that went for them. If your app offers no advantages over the web site, I am not using the app. Ever.

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

@doctorow.pluralistic.net

7 Sept

"If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They'd sit in their studies and say to themselves, 'What would I do if I were a horse?'" -Ely Devons

7 Sept

...do the people who pick pop songs for commercials just not listen to the lyrics anymore?

1 Sept

Hey Google. No one wants the tab controls broken out of the address bar on mobile. Find somewhere else to put the Gemini button. Preferably the trash.

27 Aug

If bacon SPAM has bacon in it, and Korean BBQ SAM has Korean BBQ in it...

Been thinking more about DAVE THE DIVER and I think the real problem with the game is that it doesn't know what game it is. There are two games running in parallel.

In HADES, you grow reagents to brew potions which then unlock more options for dungeon runs / sexy fun time. This takes almost no effort, and while it also ceases to be meaningful after a while that doesn't come until pretty late in the game.

This all leads me to believe that the real problem with DAVE THE DIVER is that the developers couldn't make up their mind about what kind of game it was. You wind up with two different games bumping into each other but never quite resolving their differences or playing off them in a meaningful way.

Been thinking more about DAVE THE DIVER and I think the real problem with the game is that it doesn't know what game it is. There are two games running in parallel.

Compare that to say, HADES II, which also gives you a ton of stuff to do and unlock, but all of that feeds back into the two main systems, i.e., fighting through a dungeon and getting horny for ancient Greeks.

Both DAVE and HADES have farming systems. In DAVE you grow veggies which allows you to make different dishes and earn more money. This is labor-intensive; crops take several days to grow and require a lot of manual labor. This is also pointless; the reward is money which is never a big issue.

Been thinking more about DAVE THE DIVER and I think the real problem with the game is that it doesn't know what game it is. There are two games running in parallel.

The problem is most of the game systems feed back into the B plot, i.e., the sushi restaurant. There's even a vocal group of players who think the mer-people stuff is an annoying distraction from that.

There are few systems that feed back into the A plot, and a whole bunch of other systems (photography, card collecting, ecological research) that don't have a connection to either plot. In the end, what you wind up is a game where there's a lot of stuff to do but most of that stuff is pointless.

Been thinking more about DAVE THE DIVER and I think the real problem with the game is that it doesn't know what game it is. There are two games running in parallel.

(SPOILERS) One game is running a successful sushi restaurant. The other game is helping a bunch of hapless mer-people solve all their problems. The mer-people stuff is the A plot. Completing those quests gets you all the major achievements and rolls the end credits.

It always slightly disappoints me to hear developers who I otherwise respect imply that a feature that shipped in the last year with no safe fallback is safe to use. Especially with reports showing that users are holding on to devices longer and longer.

Hell, until I upgraded last year my personal desktop was SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD and still worked fine for 90% of what I needed to do. I only upgraded because they stopped releasing versions of Firefox that would run on the chipset!

So yeah, it's great that paint-order is a thing now. But that still doesn't mean it's ready for wide deployment.

It's the privilege of being on or near the edge, I suppose, but do try to remember the folks who can't upgrade on a regular schedule for whatever reason. I'm not saying you should bend over backwards and still support IE, but maybe try to remember there are five year old smartphones out there.

19 Aug

I have said it before, I have said it again, I will shout it to the heavens until I am hoarse: literally no one cares that you put something in a box and printed a shipping label. It doesn't count as "shipped" until it's actually left your warehouse. I am starting to think we need a law about this.

order-of-the-jackalope.comThe Ancient and Esoteric Order of the ChocolopeTopics too nerdy for one podcast, and too chocolatey for the other. Today we ask"How much chocolate is in your chocolate?"

17 Aug

Oh. Hey, look, it's another podcast featuring me! Because like the late great Myron Cope, I have a face made for radio and a voice made for print.

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope@order-of-the-jackalope.com

For the last few weeks #7 and I have been doing a podcast where we rate chocolate. So this week I'm doing a crossover with @chocolatesnobs.bsky.social ! order-of-the-jackalope.com/how-much-cho...

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

The Exorsims

@theisb.bsky.social

15 Aug

We is risen indeed.

Apocrypals@apocrypals.bsky.social

hey apocrypals.libsyn.com/118-the-mous...

apocrypals.libsyn.comApocrypals: 118: The Mouse Shall Not Lie Down With The Book (Psalms, Part 1)Verily I say unto you, Theophiloi, that this generation shall not pass til the return of Apocrypals be fulfilled. And here we are, back in action after a lengthy, dissociative absence with the first p...

14 Aug

In the last week ZipRecruiter has suggested I should apply for jobs as a dance instructor, architect, and Ukranian translator. For my own sanity I have decided to stop thinking "this service is terrible" and start thinking "this service is just recognizing my limitless potential."

13 Aug

Benjamin Stevenson has officially run out of ideas. @lukeoneil47.bsky.social

@chocolatesnobs.bsky.social

12 Aug

White House press briefings used to serve a purpose but these days they are purely political theater. A serious news organization would not bother with them.

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

Chocolate Snobs

10 Aug

In this episode we ask the hard-hitting question: is one of Britain's premier craft chocolatiers secretly working for SPECTRE? sites.libsyn.com/626020/3-wil...

sites.libsyn.comChocolate Snobs: #3: Willie's Cacao San Agustin GoldThe Chocolate Snobs ask: Is Willie Harcourt-Cooze a James Bond villain? Because his biography sure makes him sound like one. That hasn't stopped us from sampling the

10 Aug

Decided to lose some weight this year so I am doing the Taylor Farms lettuce cleanse

The Ancient and Esoteric Order of the Jackalope

7 Aug

NGL, this worries me a little.

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

@order-of-the-jackalope.com

3 Aug

Hey! It's been a few months, but we're back! In the 1940s, while trying to rebut Freud, psychoanalyst Immanuel Velikovsky decided the reason ancient history didn't make any sense was simple: it was all the fault of the planet Venus. order-of-the-jackalope.com/no-heretic-h...

Dave "The Knave" White reposted

Chocolate Snobs

@chocolatesnobs.bsky.social

3 Aug

Last week we reviewed the least amount of chocolate you can have and legally be called chocolate. This week it's the other end of the spectrum. sites.libsyn.com/626020/2-ven...

sites.libsyn.comChocolate Snobs: #2: Venchi 100% Dark BlendFor their second outing, the Chocolate Snobs try to tackle something a bit darker (and maybe too dark): The . 

1 Aug

My "Curtains for Zoosha" moment is reading job listings outside of my field. Must have 5+ years hands-experience with DONK and FRUZ. Familiarity with GLOOMP stack preferred. SHART clearance required.

31 July

The 10-Story Detective didn't take many cases -- most of them were beneath him.

Pulp Covers@pulpcovers.com

P.S.–Bullet Will Follow https://pulpcovers.com/p-s-bullet-will-follow/ Covers, 10 Story Detective, Allen Gustav Anderson, Magazine, Mystery