This is the aperiodic reminder to follow @zadammac because he's me, but more thought out.
(In all seriousness that's my author account and I'd appreciate your attention paid toward it because as part of this laid off thing I'm kind of trying to make a big push to just... writing and creating for a living.)
Concerned about having your chance to meet with people yanked out from under you by a social media ban?
Get your personal website up and join some webrings.
You will never regret a 1990s-style button exchange.
Book Promotion: Since the tragedy of 1994, Agency Division have weilded their authority over matters arcane with relative impunity. Enforcers like Vidcund Därk, collectively known as the Men in Black, serve a single purpose - the absolute eradicaton of magic and those who would use it. This is not an uncommon goal - a group of rogue arcanists known as the Grey Angels have much the same outcome in mind. When a respected mathematics professor obtains a translated copy of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the hunt is on to determine how he got hold of it. But soon, a bigger crisis unfolds - one that Agency Division can’t keep under wraps.
#readers #bookstodon #dystopia #urbanfantasy #adventure #action #thriller #series #books
RE: https://furry.engineer/@patcharcana/116676312148438814
"But Patch!" the Audience of Convenient Strawmen exclaim, "We already have your #books ! Surely you don't expect us to buy it again!"
Of course not, that'd be silly. But perhaps you might tell your friends who enjoy urban fantasy or journalling RPGs. Perhaps you might post a review on Bookwyrm, Storygraph, Pagebound, or (I seriously doubt this one from Fediversies) Goodreads.
So. This month, I turn 36. I would like to get myself a little present. By which I mean I am going to manipulate you all into buying me a present.
If I sold just 36 copies of any combination of my books, I would outperform the last two years of online sales combined. Hell, I'd come close to beating the all-time in-person sales record. It'd be cool.
It'd be so cool that I've decided if that were to happen, I'm going to take a poll and release the first 36 pages of either Entangling Vines or The Rise.
Self-hosting folks: anyone have any success finding a way to sell digital products from their site without just moving their whole site into someone's ecosystem?
Something like a "point of sale" layer you could apply over your own stuff without having to just up and move into square's property.
I should know enough trans people, autists, and retrocomp geeks to get useful information out of this question.
Tragically, with the current state of web search, this is less a matter of "lazy google" and more of an example of "We have unjustly slain the librarian."
Does anyone have any good resources on computing in the soviet union in the 70s and 80s that isn't just Skala? I'm getting way too obsessive about a writing problem.
I am especially interested in anything where a user interface becomes relevant: ICS workstations, desktop computers, the whole bit.
Could a machine have Mind?
Sure. There's a few different product lines in earth's biosphere that all have Mind and they're just big piles of chaotically-assembled protein nanomachines.
But do these ones? No. That you would ask that demonstrates you don't understand the technologies you are attempting to use.
Boy it's weird to be alive right now as a person who believes a sentient program is probably possible and should be afforded personhood (should it ever arise), but also that none of this shit even comes close to qualifying.
EDIT: I apparently had to add the qualifying parenthetical because merely implying it wasn't clear enough.
Idea for a feature: two lights on all usbC ports. One confirms power connectivity, the other confirms data link.
Hey, me again. Sorry to bother you.
I want to ask you for some help. You see, one of my rabbits is out of sort and needs to go to the vet to have what'll likely be fairly significant surgery. I have no way to pay to make that happen.
I hate to ask, but would you consider buying one of my books?
The Game For Scribes: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/498117/the-game-for-scribes
Sanity Line Novels: https://www.sanityline.net
Arcana Labs Support Page:
https://www.arcanalabs.ca/support.html
I try to do what I can on my salary, but when the salary falls short these here are really my only sidelines.
Thanks for reading.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, NOW I'VE BROKEN A TOOTH?!
Can I have like ONE FUCKING AFTERNOON to relax please?
We really did convince a whole generation of the very most annoying kind of men (let's face it, they're all dudes) that somehow a medium of exchange where every single transaction is found on a massive, indellible public ledger was somehow less traceable than fucking cash, didn't we?
I don't want to have to fuck about too much to make it happen, but it'd be cool to add page breaks to mastodon feeds.
Just a little, nagging, "something" to remind me how much time I'm burning.
Today, a small announcement I didn't really want to make, but felt that I should for transparency reasons.
I can't keep working on PETI. I need a long break from it, and I don't know how long that break will be.
More after the jump:
https://www.arcanalabs.ca/news/tech/peti/labnotes/2025/06/08/shelving-peti.html
Hi there! I'm Patch Arcana, of Arcana Labs.
I'm a writer and multidisciplinary maker from Atlantic Canada. You might remember me from some of my technical projects, like PETI, my mission to fulfill a childhood dream and build a virtual pet. I maintain a website with descriptions of my projects and a blog where I write about the creative process, books I've red recently, and other topics that I find interesting-of-the-moment.
I've already published two books in the Arcane Revolution Trilogy, with a third on the way eventually, though lately I've been more focused on other writing projects.
I used to stream project work fairly regularly, but unfortunately I just don't have the energy to keep up with that anymore.
Lab Website: https://www.arcanalabs.ca
Arcane Revolution: https:///www.sanityline.net
"Worldbuilding" Junk Drawer: https://www.zadammac.ca
I have decided I no longer accept "old and outdated" as an argument against using a tool or technique.
If you can't explain why you don't like it, you clearly don't have the expertise needed to recommend against my plans.
The same people who think that bread is "just" flour, water, salt, and yeast think that coding is "just" putting enough of the right words in the right order that you get the output you want from a terminal.
Unskilled labour was already bullshit the first time it was uttered, but now that you've bought into it, they want to unskill yours too.
There's a common adage in computer science that naming things is the hardest problem in computer science.
And that's not actually true.
It's just the hardest problem.
Well, my bosses have decided that even though I can name about five combinations of any two of our retail clients who outspend the entire USGov contract pile, they're going to bend the knee to the EOs and suspend our DEI board.
I need a new job by monday, and at this point I'm willing to wash dishes to do it. But if you know anyone who needs a Principal or Senior SRE, or could use a python dev for some backend-related purpose, I can be found at: mercenary AT arcanalabs DOT ca