Peter Molyneux continues to re-invent himself. His newest "god game" claims to have the ability to code any game you like, on demand. Just as you'd expect from an omnipotent deity!
Perl, for all its quirkiness, remains my favourite language - even though I've never done any professional work in it, and I took it up long after its glory days. A shame how it plummeted. It feels like "Unix, but as a scripting language!"
I've never been able to love Python, PHP, JS, Ruby or any other dynamic language the same way.
Maybe I would like Raku too, but I wonder if it's worth the effort - the languages are similar, and I already know all the quirks of one. A bit like learning Dutch after German?
Aside from that, I don't want to take responsibility for that which I don't understand. And even if I can read the code generated by a LLM, that's not the same as thinking through a solution or planning a design.
You can't call yourself an "engineer" if you just open Claude or Codex and hit "Y" on the keyboard to every prompt like that dipping flamingo when Homer Simpson took the wfh job (Simpsons predicted it).
Wild shot - but I wonder whether the newly emancipated Last.FM are looking to hire? I've loved the site since I got my old account back in 2024. Recently I created a fun widget maker using its API:
I've found the support email address. It might still be open for support queries. If you send me an email I'll send you what I know. My email address is in my profile.
Get in touch with LFM support, it's good. I hadn't used my LFM since 2011, but I remembered my old email address that was likely used with the account. I emailed support asking them kindly to reset my password to my new email, and they obliged.
I wish Apple Music would support scrobbling to the Last.FM API like Spotify, but to get the ball rolling we'd need someone on the Apple Music team who can nudge it up the list.
Would be nice but it can't be done. I stopped scrobbling in 2011, then found out the site was still alive in 2024, one email to support later and I was back in.
I wanted to import my Spotify listening history from the intervening years, but found that the LFM API limits scrobbles to no earlier than two weeks ago. A shame, because my current listening history is now very skewed between the two "eras".
Looks pretty cool. Reminds me also of Metropolis 1998, which is also going for the isometric style - with a lot more detail, i.e. you can design individual homes and see the lives of "sims" too, something like if SimCity and The Sims were merged.
That spliced in USB hub looks messy. Does a new controller necessitate Xinput? I assume Windows still supports DirectInput, which was used in the past with more complex controllers. I'd recently brought up "JOY.CPL" in Windows 10. It would hinge on whether DirectInput can talk to games that expect Xinput.
I've a Compag Armada E500, and it runs Windows 98 fairly swiftly with its PIII processor and 256MB RAM. I've also a 2009 MacBook and it runs Snow Leopard like a dream, yet with "only" 2GB of RAM. And either of these machines could do nearly anything I ask of a PC today - programming, web browsing, comms, gfx edits, even some gaming, while feeling snapper, with less shite flying in my eyes ("notifications" and their wretched noises) as I work.
Someone will explain to me the business and economic reasons, but that just flies over my caveman brain that asks "why does bashing rock feel slower?"
I got my Steam Deck that month, so pleased to be a part of it. The Deck fills a gap that has been empty in my soul since the PSP was discontinued, and feels like a genuine step forward that makes technology fun again.
It's fully open! It has a KDE desktop that I can access any time! I can shove in any size of SSD I like!
And I'm playing Halo 3... on Linux... on hardware made by Steam. If you spoke that sentence to me in 2009, I'd suggest you ought to be sectioned.