Timeline
Every post and feed across this instance
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I read the PDF report from Mastodon about usability problems and feedback from the community. Imani Joy in the intro:
We were beginning to find our way in terms of creating a development roadmap, but beyond major projects and obvious requirements (based in security, compliance, and grant-based deliverables) it was often unclear which feedback to take action on first.
Imani has done great work on this. But Mastodon development has always felt like a slow-moving open source project to me. What they need is the same energy as a startup.
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How Wildfire Smoke Is Reshaping Childhood ....
How Wildfire Smoke Is Reshaping Childhood. “Repeated smoke events are changing children’s daily routines, limiting opportunities for outdoor play and social interaction and reshaping how many families experience summer.”
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Cities Are Ditching Flock, Immediately Replacing It With Axon License Plate Readers
Rather than get rid of ALPR cameras entirely, many cities and towns are switching to Axon, whose cameras can be mounted to an existing streetlamp, helping them blend into their surroundings. -
This guy hooked his hamster’s wheel up to Strava —...
This guy hooked his hamster’s wheel up to Strava — Mollie is logging 5-6 miles per day.
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Trump Admin Hijacked $21 Billion In Taxpayer Money Earmarked For Internet Access And Then Went Mute
I’ve written a few times now about how the Trump administration hijacked a $42.5 billion broadband investment fund included in the 2021 infrastructure bill, stripped away requirements that the resulting broadband be fairly deployed and affordable, and instead redirected billions of dollars to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in exchange for slower, more expensive satellite […] -
Like a lot of other people, I want to know where Bluesky is headed, and I learned a lot about that in this podcast interview with Bluesky's new CEO, Toni Schneider. We have crossed paths in tech, but this is the first time I've heard him speak at length. They have a business model in mind, sounds something like Substack, which is probably a good idea. Their value is in the many millions of users they have. Highly recommend this podcast if you want to hear the story direct from the CEO.
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Russia-Ukraine War Ground Truth (ft. Analyst Michael Kofman) | Swedish Spies, Iran Pause, AI Fears
Is the Russian military actually losing ground, or adapting faster than Western allies realize? Fresh off a tour of the Ukrainian front lines, Senior Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Michael Kofman delivers a realistic assessment of the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war. Kofman explains why Ukraine is in its strongest position since mid-2023, how Russian military commanders reporting false progress to Putin may lead to a mismatch between goals and means in the war, the strategic implications behind Ukraine’s recent command changes and political shifts in defense procurement, and why it’s critical that NATO learns what it can from Ukrainian force exercises to be prepared to face Russia’s next post-war threat. Sir Richard Dearlove and co-host Kate McCann unpack the latest and most significant news stories in geopolitics: the launch of Sweden’s own civilian intelligence service, whether President Trump’s rhetoric on Iran reflects uncertainty or strategic deception, and the data supporting the skeptical American attitude about AI. In this episode: (02:13) Sweden to Launch Its Own MI6 (06:01) Trump Hyperbole and Iran (09:18) America’s AI Skepticism (12:26) Interview with Michael Kofman (13:10) State of the Ukrainian-Russian Frontlines (15:30) Russian Military Goals vs. Means (19:43) Russia’s False Picture of Success (23:17) Evolution of Warfare on the Frontlines (28:58) Assessment of International Response (33:18) Patriot Missile Licensed Production Timeline (37:02) Changes in Ukrainian Defense Leadership (43:28) Corruption, Procurement, and Funding in Ukraine( 48:58) Russia’s Threat Post-War(54:50) Ukrainian Morale on the Frontlines\(57:18) Defining the Front Line of Fighting (01:00:21) One Decision to Watch (01:02:47) Takeaways, Audience Comments, and Wrap Up Show Notes: The Next Russia Threat: Moscow’s Military Power After Ukraine | Foreign Affairs: www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/next-russia-threat-michael-kofman Hosted by Sir Richard Dearlove (former MI6 Chief) and co-host Kate McCann (Political Editor at Times Radio). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicespdrl.fm -
Where are they now? Gerette Buglion on Writing to Reckon (Part 2)
Gerette Buglion’s back for part two of our catch-up. This one dives deeper into the messy, important work of healing through writing, therapy, and self-trust. She talks about internal consent, knowing when to pause, and why it’s so important for survivors to move slowly when a story starts to light up the nervous system.
We also get into the realities of publishing after cultic abuse, including how predatory dynamics in the writing world can hit old wounds hard, and why it’s crucial to know your allies and keep strong boundaries. Gerette shares how survivor experience can help you spot when something is genuinely off versus when an old trigger is getting activated. She reflects on the value of humor, love, and safe enough relationships in real healing.
The episode wraps with more on Living Cult Free, including its discussion groups, symposiums, and survivor-centered podcast, plus a vivid dream exchange that lands on themes of predators, intuition, and self-reliance.
Follow Gerette on her website, gerettebuglion.com, or on Facebook or Instagram. Also check out her writing tips at gerettebuglion.com/writingtips and LivingCultFree.com.
Trigger warning: This episode contains frank discussion of cultic abuse, coercive control, trauma recovery, and re-traumatization.
Also…let it be known that:
The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business, individual, anyone or anything. Nobody’s mad at you, just don’t be a culty fuckwad.
Buy the A Little Bit Culty book on Amazon or order a signed copy.
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CREDITS:
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pscrb.fm -
Shopify’s Leaders Are Pushing Right-Wing Politics in Canada w/ Rachel Gilmore
Canada has tech bros too, like Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke who has a new idea to link voting rights to how much income tax you paid. Rachel Gilmore joins Paris Marx to discuss how Canadian tech companies like Shopify are pushing terrible right-wing policy ideas while influencing Mark Carney’s agenda.
Rachel Gilmore is an award-winning independent journalist and creator of the Bubble Pop newsletter.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Kyla Hewson. Support the show on Patreon.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Click here to get your first month of Proton Mail for just $1.
- You can now pre-order Paris’s new book Hyperscale.
- Rachel has written about Tobi Lütke’s most recent awful ideas, including why it matters what the Canadian tech elite say.
- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to be implementing policies for tech oligarchs.
- Press Progress has done reporting on conservative media outlets platforming white nationalists.
- Check out the recent episode Paris did with Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood for a deeper dive on Canada’s AI policies.
pscrb.fm -
Organize Your Life & Home: The Simple System That Gives You More Time, Energy, & Control
This conversation will make your home and your life feel lighter and easier in the first 10 minutes.
Clutter is stealing your time, draining your energy, and you are about to learn the fast and simple way to take back your sanity.
Even better news: You do not need to spend an entire weekend to get organized.
You need a simple system that works for your real (and very busy) life.
Today, Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, the organizing experts behind The Home Edit, are here to help you clear the clutter, take back your space, and make your home feel easier to live in.
They are removing the shame from the entire process.
Clea and Joanna walk Mel through a live, 10-minute clear out of her junk drawer and prove that you can start small, spend zero dollars, and feel an immediate difference.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
-The 4-step method to edit, categorize, contain, and maintain any space
-The 80/20 rule that makes every room or drawer feel organized
-The 3 questions that make it simple to decide what to keep and what to throw out
-The right place to start when your entire home feels overwhelming
-Why you should never start organizing in with your closet
-The one question that stops decision paralysis
-Why your mess keeps coming back
-How to create simple systems your family will follow
-The daily drawer that makes mornings faster and less stressful
This is not an episode about making your home look perfect.
It’s reclaiming your time, your energy, your mental clarity, and your peace.
By the time you finish listening, you’ll know exactly where to begin: one drawer, 10 minutes, and a few simple decisions that will make your life feel so much better.
For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page.
If you liked the episode, check out this one next: Get Back on Track: 5 Evening Habits to Wake Up Focused, Recharged, and in Control
Connect with Mel:
- Order Mel’s product, Pure Genius Protein
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dts.podtrac.com -
Budget Cuts, Apathy Lead To Trump Administration Being Slow Acknowledging Two Cyclosporiasis Deaths
A couple of weeks ago we discussed how the cuts made to HHS and specifically the CDC’s FoodNet tracking platform were making it much harder to track and back trace the source of the country’s current cyclosporiasis outbreak. You’ll have heard about this outbreak in the news by now. It’s the one where you begin […] -
Le blues des maigrichons
Dans le “starter pack” des mecs virils, impossible de passer à côté du culte des muscles. D’Arnold Schwarzenegger à Tibo Inshape, les hommes ultra-barraqués pullulent depuis longtemps dans la pop culture et sont devenus des modèles de beauté. Face à eux, beaucoup d’hommes moqués pour leur minceur rêvent d’un corps plus imposant.
Pourquoi la minceur chez les hommes est-elle associée à la faiblesse ? Quel est le rôle des célébrités et des influenceurs dans l’émergence de cet idéal du corps sculpté ? Les nouvelles figures de maigrichons à la Timothée Chalamet vont-elles enfin changer la donne ? Et comment mieux accepter son corps mince quand on est complexé ?
Pour en parler, Tal Madesta reçoit Guillaume Vallet, chercheur en économie politique du genre à l’Université Grenoble Alpes et auteur de La fabrique du muscle (2022, Éds. L’échappée).
Profitez d'une remise exclusive de 15 % sur les forfaits de données Saily ! Utilisez le code TABLE lors du paiement. Téléchargez l'application Saily ou rendez-vous sur https://saily.com/tableToutes les références citées dans l'émission sont disponibles sur le site : https://www.binge.audio/podcast/les-couilles-sur-la-table/le-blues-des-maigrichons/
CRÉDITS : Les Couilles sur la table est un podcast créé par Victoire Tuaillon produit par Binge (URBANIA AUDIO). Cet entretien a été préparé, mené et monté par Tal Madesta, enregistré le 13 juillet dans le studio de podcasts d’Urbania Audio (Paris 10e). Supervision éditoriale et incarnation : Naomi Titti. Réalisation et mixage : Octave Bothier. Responsable des productions éditoriales : Charlotte Baix. Assistante de production et d’édition : Aude Miquel. Rédacteur en chef : Thomas Rozec. Direction de production : Albane Fily. Responsable administrative et financière : Adrienne Marino. Responsable sponsoring : Betty-Maeva Wendling. Musique originale : Théo Boulenger. Identité graphique : Camille Bernard (Upian). Composition identité sonore : Jean-Benoît Dunckel. Voix identité sonore : Bonnie El Bokeili. Direction de contenu : Sophie Marchand. Binge est une marque URBANIA.
Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
audio.audiomeans.fr -
Derek Sivers on the benefits of a daily diary (or blog)
“Years from now you might be looking back, wondering if you were as happy or as sad as you remember during this time. […] We so often make big decisions in life based on predictions of how we think we’ll feel in the future, or what we’ll want. Your past self is your best indicator of how you actually felt in similar situations. So it helps to have an accurate picture of your past. […] You can’t trust distant memories. But you can trust your daily diary. It’s the best indicator to your future self (and maybe descendants) of what was really going on in your life at this time.”
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Bonus: Abdul El-Sayed Wins in Michigan feat. Bernie Sanders
Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan's democratic Senate nomination, defeating Rep. Haley Stevens by one point after a heated campaign about the future of the Democratic party.
Jon and Dan sit down for a bonus pod to talk about how El-Sayed overcame $60+ million in outside spending against him, make sense of the closer-than-expected results, and to preview the general election message against Mike Rogers, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee.
Then, Senator Bernie Sanders, who endorsed El-Sayd's campaign on the day of its launch, talks to Jon about the future of the progressive movement.
Hate listening to ads? Become a Friends of the Pod subscriber for ad-free episodes of Pod Save America, Pod Save the World, Lovett or Leave It, Runaway Country, Offline with Jon Favreau, and more—plus exclusive content, including bonus episodes of Pod Save America. Subscribe now at crooked.com/friends, on Apple Podcasts, or through the Pod Save America YouTube channel.
You can also request a transcript by emailing transcripts@crooked.com. Include the podcast name, episode title, and air date. Please allow 48 hours for delivery.
clrtpod.com -
How much of my boss's job can AI do?
Six months after trying to automate myself, I gave Claude Fable 5 a bigger job: replacing Casey -
“Any information system of sufficient complexity will inevitably become infected with viruses — viruses generated from within itself.” — Snow Crash
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Anthropic’s New AI Model Can Identify More Software Bugs Than Ever. Microsoft Is Struggling To Fix Them Fast Enough.
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. On an afternoon in mid-May, dozens of Microsoft engineers and their managers gathered online and in a conference room at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters to discuss Project Glasswing. The tech giant was racing to fix weaknesses in its code that a new AI model known […] -
📝 2026-08-05 22:52: I have a habit of giving all our pets nicknames, there's many of them for...
I have a habit of giving all our pets nicknames, there's many of them for each of our dogs. We've Nelly for 4 days and already I have:
Nells Bells
Nelly Bean
Nelly Furtado
Man Eater (after the song)
Nelly the ElephantIt's anyone's guess which will stick. Our other dogs, Tia and Sid, are t-bone and squid (short for Sqidley) respectively. 🤷🏼♂️
Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️
You can reply to this post by email, or leave a comment.
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Trying to parse the significance of Jeff Dean leaving Google after 26 years, and Demis Hassabis stepping into a new role as chairman of DeepMind. Is this a shakeup, or just that everyone is ready for a change? Sounds more amicable than the usual AI executive reshuffling.
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Astronomers have measured the size of the largest galaxy...
Astronomers have measured the size of the largest galaxy: it’s 1.7 million light years across (17x the diameter of the Milky Way) and contains ~3.4 trillion solar masses in stars.
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RSS.chat now supports WebSub. This means that posts on RSS.chat will appear instantly in compatible feed reader apps.
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Tragic reporting from Bloomberg about how safer TikTok algorithms were withheld from some users so TikTok could A/B test engagement:
Chase’s account was stuck in a so-called filter bubble, an online echo chamber that pumped out repetitive content the algorithm predicted he’d want to watch. There he received an “onslaught” of suicide and self-harm content, according to the document.
If you accidentally create a harmful product, that's one thing. It can be fixed to prevent future harm. But if you have the fix and refuse to deploy it widely, to me that's inexcusable.
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Election Day in an Unsettled Country
Kate and Josh talk Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan victory, big progressive ballot wins and more in this post-primary day special.
To watch this episode on video, go to our YouTube page.
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Good news that the iPhone announcement will likely be an in-person live event. It’s past time. And it’ll be a more personable way to introduce John Ternus.
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“ In this video , I’ll take you from farm to...
“In this video, I’ll take you from farm to factory to show you how chocolate is made, and at the end, we’ll use all the chocolate you’ll see in this video to attempt the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest chocolate bar.”
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Trump’s War On Journalists Also Includes Targeting A Freelance NYT Contributor
Donald Trump took possession of a $400 million “gift” plane from the Qatari government earlier this year. Trump claimed it was a coup for taxpayers and a boon for America, even as he made it clear this was all about him. According to Trump, no plane was more luxurious than this graft-y replacement for the […] -
One-shotting a Raccoon Heist game using Claude Fable 5
Back in 2022 I tweeted screenshots of a game concept generated by GPT-3 and some concept "art" created using DALL-E. Today, on the fourth anniversary of that tweet, I decided to see if Claude Fable 5 (running in Claude Code for web) could build the entire game from the content of that tweet. It did a pretty good job of it!
You can play the game here. Here's the GitHub repo, and a short video demo:
Your browser does not support HTML5 video.
How I built this
This is the August 5th, 2022 tweet:
My GPT-3 prompt back then was:
Write a detailed product description of a computer game where a team of raccoons go on heists.This was in the text completion days, where you asked GPT-3 to complete the rest of the text. It completed:
In "Raccoon Heist", you and your team of thieving raccoons are tasked with pulling off a series of daring heists. From robbing banks to stealing priceless art, no job is too big or too small for your furry crew. You'll need to use your wits and your skills to avoid the police and make a clean getaway with the loot. With exciting gameplay and a charming cast of characters, "Raccoon Heist" is the perfect game for anyone looking for a light-hearted caper.
My prompt to DALL-E was short:
Screenshot from a video game where a team of raccoons go on a heistToday's experiment: can I dump those screenshots into Fable 5 with a prompt telling it to write a game, then leave it to its own devices and get a working game at the end?
Setting Claude Code for web up to use GitHub Pages
A frustrating thing about Claude Code for web is that it can be hard to test what it's working on while it's still working.
I've been using GitHub Pages to work around that limitation, and found it to work really well.
Here's my process:
- Create a new repository for the project at https://github.com/new - this can be public or private, the trick works equally well for both.
- Start a Claude Code for web session, in the Claude iPhone or Desktop apps or in the browser at https://claude.ai/code
- Tell Claude what to work on, and encourage it to commit an
index.htmlpage as quickly as possible. This will create a branch with a name likeclaude/3d-raccoon-heist-game-50n293 - Navigate to the Settings -> Pages area for the repository (
github.com/simonw/raccoon-heist/settings/pagesin my case), select "Deploy from a branch", pick the branch name, and hit Save.
That's all it takes! Within about 30 seconds of each push the latest content will be visible at
yourname.github.io/your-repo/.If you do this with a private repo, anyone who can guess the name of the repo will be able to view the published content. I don't worry much about this myself.
The Fable 5 prompt
Here's the prompt I gave Fable 5 (written in the notes app on my phone - this entire project was conducted on mobile). I accompanied it with the two images from the original tweet.
Build this 3D game, for the browser.This repo is configured to serve static files so make sure there is an index.html that loads everything else.Make sure it is mobile-friendly (touch controls, works well on small screens).You have an OpenAI API key and access to their image generation model APIs, use that for textures to use with your 3D models. Docs here: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/image-generation - use gpt-image-2Work independently - do not ask me to make any further design decisions. Make sure the game is fun, a little surprising, has good raccoon heist vibes, and is visually pleasing.Commit and push as often as possible so I can preview your work - start with an index.html that presents a title screen, then build from there.Append to a notes.md file as you work, including your changes to that as part of every commit.I didn't make any technology choices. I assumed (correctly) that it would probably use Three.js based on previous experiments.
Giving Claude access to an OpenAI key turns out to work really well for filling in gaps in its capabilities - in this case we needed some way to generate images to use as textures. Fable is very good at prompting image generators!
I said "Work independently - do not ask me to make any further design decisions" because I wanted to see if it could produce a full, working game without any further input from me.
I also said "Commit and push as often as possible so I can preview your work". When you use Claude Code in the Claude iPhone app you give it a GitHub repository and it works in a branch. Telling it to "push as often as possible" means commits start landing in that branch straight away.
I like asking for
notes.mdas a bit of added flavor - here's that finished file, and the entry it made when it added the dog:New escalation: from night 3 the yards get a patrolling guard dog — a low-poly brown hound with a spiked red collar and a wagging tail. It wanders between random spots, and within 12 units it catches your scent and tracks you by smell (line of sight is irrelevant — it's all nose, shown by a 👃 over its head and barking). It gives up if you open a 17-unit gap. Getting caught messages are now source-specific: guard / headlights / hound. Verified wander → track → caught with an automated test.
Reviewing the transcript
You can access the Claude Code shared session, and I also used my claude-code-transcripts tool to export my own HTML version which you can find here.
Fable started with an index page, vendored a copy of Three.js, then wrote its own gen_textures.py script (copy here).
It generated the textures and spot-checked them to make sure they looked OK. The metal.jpg file it generated for the trash can looks like this, though I don't think it was applied exactly right in the game itself:
Then it built out the first basic version of the game, then decided to "smoke-test in the pre-installed Chromium" using Playwright. This meant it could take screenshots of its own work and eyeball them. It did that for both desktop and mobile widths of the page, then noticed that the raccoon was invisible at mobile widths, so it fixed that:
The raccoon, dumpster hideout, and both crew raccoons are now perfectly visible on mobile. Committing this critical fix.
It decided to generate a title screen, which it did using this gen_title.py script. Here's the
gpt-image-2prompt it used for that:Video game key art, low-poly 3D render style, moody nighttime scene: a cute low-poly raccoon wearing a tiny black burglar mask sneaking on its hind legs carrying a glowing gold coin, next to a tipped-over metal trash can, suburban house with warm glowing windows in the background, deep blue night, full moon, fireflies, cinematic rim lighting, charming heist caper mood. No text, no words, no logos.And the resulting image (which Claude thought was "gorgeous") - though I note that when it's shown on desktop it gets cropped to just the top third without the raccoon!
Then my favorite change: it added the dog:
export function makeDog() { const g = new THREE.Group(); const BROWN = 0x8a6440, DARK = 0x5e4128; const body = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.42, 10, 8), M(BROWN)); body.scale.set(0.9, 0.8, 1.5); body.position.y = 0.55; body.castShadow = true; g.add(body); const head = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.3, 10, 8), M(BROWN)); head.position.set(0, 0.85, 0.62); g.add(head); const snout = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.16, 8, 6), M(DARK)); snout.scale.set(0.9, 0.7, 1.3); snout.position.set(0, 0.76, 0.9); g.add(snout); const nose = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.06, 6, 6), M(BLACK)); nose.position.set(0, 0.78, 1.08); g.add(nose); for (const s of [-1, 1]) { const ear = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.12, 6, 6), M(DARK)); ear.scale.set(0.7, 1.3, 0.5); ear.position.set(0.2 * s, 1.08, 0.55); g.add(ear); const eye = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.05, 6, 6), M(0x1a1a1a, { emissive: 0x331111 })); eye.position.set(0.13 * s, 0.92, 0.86); g.add(eye); } const tail = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.CylinderGeometry(0.05, 0.09, 0.5, 6), M(DARK)); tail.position.set(0, 0.8, -0.62); tail.rotation.x = 0.8; g.add(tail); // spiked collar const collar = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.TorusGeometry(0.22, 0.05, 6, 12), M(0xc0392b)); collar.position.set(0, 0.78, 0.5); collar.rotation.x = Math.PI / 2.4; g.add(collar); const legGeo = new THREE.CylinderGeometry(0.07, 0.09, 0.34, 6); const legs = []; for (const [x, z] of [[-0.22, 0.35], [0.22, 0.35], [-0.22, -0.35], [0.22, -0.35]]) { const leg = new THREE.Mesh(legGeo, M(DARK)); leg.position.set(x, 0.17, z); g.add(leg); legs.push(leg); } let phase = Math.random() * 10; return { group: g, animate(dt, speed) { phase += dt * (3 + speed * 10); const amp = Math.min(0.6, 0.1 + speed * 0.6); legs[0].rotation.x = Math.sin(phase) * amp; legs[3].rotation.x = Math.sin(phase) * amp; legs[1].rotation.x = -Math.sin(phase) * amp; legs[2].rotation.x = -Math.sin(phase) * amp; tail.rotation.z = Math.sin(phase * 1.5) * 0.4; body.position.y = 0.55 + Math.abs(Math.sin(phase)) * 0.04 * (0.3 + speed); }, }; }
And did a round of testing on it using Playwright, including another screenshot.
// walk near the dog await page.evaluate(() => { const d = window.__rh.dog; window.__rh.teleport(d.x + 6, d.z); }); await page.waitForTimeout(2000); info = await page.evaluate(() => JSON.stringify({ dog: window.__rh.dog, state: window.__rh.state, player: window.__rh.debug().player })); console.log('after approach:', info); await page.waitForTimeout(3000); info = await page.evaluate(() => JSON.stringify({ dog: window.__rh.dog, state: window.__rh.state })); console.log('after chase:', info); await page.screenshot({ path: __dirname + '/shot-dog.png' });
It made a few more tweaks, then declared itself done:
Raccoon Heist is built, tested, and pushed — 7 commits on
claude/3d-raccoon-heist-game-50n293, all verified with automated Playwright playthroughs on desktop, portrait-phone, and landscape-phone viewports.The game: You're a masked raccoon sneaking out of your crew's dumpster hideout into a moonlit cul-de-sac. Grab coins, gems, rings, donuts, and fish (they visibly stack on your back and slow you down), then waddle home and bank them before dawn. Each night raises the goal and the heat: night 1 has one flashlight-sweeping guard, night 2 has two, night 3 adds a scent-tracking hound that ignores line-of-sight entirely. A police cruiser sweeps the street with headlights, homeowners randomly peek out of windows, a seagull periodically dive-bombs your unclaimed loot, pizza slices trigger a 6-second speed FRENZY, and a rare golden TV is worth 120 points if you can haul its weight home. Win ranks: TRASH PANDA ⭐ → CAT BURGLAR ⭐⭐ → MASTER OF DISGUISE ⭐⭐⭐, with your best run saved to localStorage.
How it's built: Vendored Three.js (no CDN), procedural low-poly characters, and a procedural WebAudio soundtrack (sneaky walking-bass jazz plus all sound effects — zero audio files). All seven ground/wall textures and the title-screen hero art were generated with gpt-image-2 and committed as static assets, so the deployed game makes no API calls. Mobile gets a dynamic touch joystick (appears wherever you touch) plus a DASH button; desktop uses WASD/arrows and Space.
Testing caught two real bugs worth mentioning: the canvas rendered at 2× size on any real phone (a
cssTextassignment was wiping Three.js's inline sizing — desktop DPR-1 tests masked it completely), and the win screen's star-rating div inherited the title screen's full-screen.starsCSS and silently swallowed every tap on the "next night" button. Both are fixed and regression-tested, along with pickup, banking, chase/caught, dawn, night progression, and lose/retry flows.notes.mdhas the full build log. The game is live on the branch — just serve the repo root and openindex.html.Is the game any good?
It's an impressive starting point, but it's not a good game.
You move your raccoon around a yard collecting items - donuts, fish, gold coins, jewels - while avoiding guards with flashlights and, in later levels, a dog. You have a limited carrying capacity, and once that's full you need to drop stuff off at the dumpster. If you pick up a pizza slice you get a temporary speed boost.
There are no team mechanics at all - there are two other static raccoons next to the dumpster but they're purely decoration.
It gets slightly more challenging as the levels progress - the dog introduced in level 3 is the most interesting new mechanic - but it's very, very easy to beat. It's also pretty boring - each night has a fixed duration and you can collect all of the items and then have nothing else to do while waiting for the dawn.
I was impressed by the implementation. It's fully 3D, there are trash cans, the flashlight illumination cones are fun, and it has a reasonably coherent visual style. It works on mobile. The music ("a procedural WebAudio soundtrack (sneaky walking-bass jazz plus all sound effects — zero audio files)" according to Claude) is simple but feels about right.
As a finished game project, it's mediocre. As a starting point from a single prompt I think it's very impressive.
I've vibe coded up quite a few games now. They've all been deeply disappointing from a gameplay perspective - it turns out designing games that are fun remains a uniquely human trait, and one which requires significantly more skill and experience than either Claude or I can bring to bear.
That said, I thoroughly recommend tinkering with game development projects as a way to explore the capabilities of agents. It's a fun, low-risk way to try out new things. If you stick at it long enough you might even produce something that's worth playing!
Update 7th August 2026: I posed the same prompt to OpenAI Codex Desktop running GPT-5.6 Sol Ultra and got a significantly better result - GPT-5.6 Sol picked up on the importance of the squad of raccoons going on a heist, and built a game where you must rescue your two crewmates in a museum and then stack on top of them to steal the Golden Sardine.
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💬 Life is defined by change, chance, and choice.
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The Computer That Helped Win World War II . “…it...
The Computer That Helped Win World War II. “…it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the fascination of a Colossus at work: its sheer bulk and apparent complexity; the fantastic speed of thin paper tape round the glittering pulleys…”
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WebSub support for RSS.chat
Previously we were only able to notify via rssCloud.
Now we also support WebSub because there are also a fair number of feed readers that only use WebSub.
We're using Andrew Shell's rsscloud.io as our WebSub hub, as we have for a long time with rssCloud.
Andrew please help us figure out if this is working correctly.
The source is in the repo, along with a worknote.
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WebSub support in RSS.chat
Previously we were only able to notify via rssCloud.
Now we also support WebSub because there are also a fair number of feed readers that only use WebSub.
We're using Andrew Shell's rsscloud.io as our WebSub hub, as we have for a long time with rssCloud.
Andrew please help us figure out if this is working correctly.
The source is in the repo, along with a worknote.
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Micro.blog mission, short recap
Micro.blog is often confused with systems like Mastodon or Twitter. They are really very different. Those platforms connect your writing to people. Micro.blog connects it to the web.
The community is amazing too. I'm as committed as ever to the idea that small, open platforms can focus on safety. But what separates the platform from everything else is its open web principles. Every feature — from conversations to cross-posting — exists first to support writing on the web. Making blogs better and your presence on the web better.
Some people prefer the engagement they get on Mastodon or Instagram or whatever other social platform. That's okay. It's a big world and you should use whatever best suits you. And I'll remain clear-eyed about what we're doing and what we're not doing.
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Ninth Circuit: Your AI Agent Can’t Violate Hacking Law. But You Might.
The rise of AI is bringing a bunch of fascinating legal questions that are harder to answer than many expect. The latest one: who is liable if an agentic system running on its own hacks someone? That’s the question a bunch of people have been asking this past week in the wake of multiple stories […] -
Daily Deal: The Ultimate Python & Artificial Intelligence Bundle
The Ultimate Python and Artificial Intelligence Bundle has 9 courses to help you take your Python and AI knowledge to the next level. You’ll learn about data pre-processing and visualization, artificial neural networks, how to use the Keras framework, and more. It’s on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated […] -
How to Store Ebooks in Instagram Reels and Other Covert Data Storage Tricks
Do you remember the video I posted last summer of YouTuber Benn Jordan where he “uploaded a picture of a bird to a bird and then downloaded the bird picture from the bird”? So cool. Jordan is back with more data encoding tricks in his latest video, There Are Files Stored in This Video (or: How To Hide Shit In Media).
Here’s his intro, which sounds completely bonkers but he demonstrates everything he says he’s going to:
This video is a very deep dive on all of the different ways that you can covertly send and receive data. I’m going to show you how to secretly store encrypted files in music that sounds completely normal to the human ear. I even made a little web app where somebody could paste a link to a Spotify song and it unlocks a completely secret separate audio stream. I’m going to show you how you can send and receive encrypted messages via ultrasound with no cell service or Wi-Fi required by turning your phone into a modem. We’re going to be exploiting Meta’s copyright protection to store ebooks inside Instagram videos. And I’m going to show you how I stored, hosted, and shared malware inside of a harmless Facebook photo of my [dog].
This is a pretty dense video and, I’m going to be honest, some of it went right over my head. But it is also genuinely mind-blowing and makes me want to watch a Sneakers-esque hackers movie where the characters do things like:
So if you ever want to send someone a selfie over PA system in a place with no Wi-Fi or cell service, I guess we’ve made that possible today.
If you want to play around with any of the stuff in the video, Jordan coded a bunch of demos and tools and put them up on his website.
I also ran across this recently: a system that can transfer data at 190 KB/s between two phones by pointing the camera of one phone at a QR video.
Tags: audio · Benn Jordan · remix · video
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I had missed that mastodon.cloud is shutting down. While its active user base has been shrinking, it still has a lot of total users and millions of posts. There's still no way to migrate posts between Mastodon servers. (Mastodon posts → Micro.blog and some other fediverse servers works.)
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Lidar and other discoveries continue to show that the...
Lidar and other discoveries continue to show that the Amazon rainforest was home to a “sprawling ancient civilization much bigger than researchers expected” (possibly up to 3 million people around 100-300 CE).
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Trump’s Mass Detention Policy Shut Down By Two Appeals Courts On The Same Day
The Trump administration has been shut down more than 10,000 times by federal courts over its novel interpretation of the law — one it claims allows it to indefinitely detain migrants without giving them a bond hearing. Some of those 10,000 adverse decisions have been significant, with implications that stretch far beyond single cases or […] -
Heading On Out…
Hey folks. I just wanted to hop in here quickly to let a cat out of a bag: I am in the midst of moving. Not going to get into the wheres, whys, and hows right now; there’s a bigger post coming at some point about all of that. I’m excited and anxious about the transition (it’s a pretty big one), but it’s been taking up a lot of time, energy, and bandwidth that I would usually be putting into KDO.
The move is happening in early Sept, and I’m probably going to be taking some time off between now and then (timing tbd) to get everything packed & organized, spend time with family & friends before I go, and generally not run myself completely into the ground. Thanks for your patience & understanding; I’m excited to get back to focusing on the site in mid-Sept. ✌️
Tags: Jason Kottke · kottke.org
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Added a river to I ♥ RSS: https://iheartrss.com/river
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This is an old list but still interesting: the 12 most...
This is an old list but still interesting: the 12 most linguistically influential American movies since 1980. If you were compiling a list of linguistically influential movies since 2000, what would be on it?
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all the bootstrap things, i love watching this boot up! Still digging :-) etc. Thanks Dave and all the developers and testers
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Staying Human
It’s not so much staying alive, it’s staying human that’s important. What counts is that we don’t betray each other.” -- George Orwell
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Tressie McMillan Cottom’s reading list for fighting back...
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s reading list for fighting back against Big Tech. “Put simply, there is too much money, some of it too untraceable, giving a small group of unelected people too much power over the people.”
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Cops Used Flock to Track a Man Across State Lines to Create Pretext to Search His Car for Weed
"The vehicle travels to Michigan frequently which is a known source state for marijuana as it is legal there," a probable cause justification reads. -
A Beautiful Hand-Drawn Map Of The British Isles during the First War of Scottish Independence
Map created by reddit user Fiff02 The map above shows what British Isles looked like during the First War of Scottish Independence (1296 – 1328). According to the map author: “The First War of Scottish Independence (1296–1328) was the conflict between Scotland and England over the independence of the Scottish kingdom. The crisis arose after […] -
Podcast: This Man Might Go to Prison for Wiping His Phone
The case of Samuel Tunick allegedly wiping a phone before DHS could search it; inside an AI-powered TIkTok Shop; and Google Earth's dumb AI tool. -
Emily Wilson takes another crack at a critique of...
Emily Wilson takes another crack at a critique of Nolan’s “visually stunning, emotionally empty” Odyssey. “Verbally, we are told that people matter; visually, we are shown that they do not.”
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Feeds that block my VPS IP and how i get them anyway
My reader runs on a cheap VPS. Most feeds work fine there. But a few keep giving me 403. Reddit .rss, Tumblr, and sometimes YouTube. Same urls opens fine from my laptop at home, so it is the datacenter IP getting blocked, not the feed.
What helps me: - set a real User-Agent, not the default from the http library - slow the polling, one time per 30 min instead of every 5 - route only these domains through a residental proxy
For reddit the format is reddit.com/r/rss/.rss or reddit.com/user/name/.rss. Youtube is youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=ID.
I keep a small allowlist for proxy, rest stay direct. Tumblr still flaky even with this. If someone found better way i want to hear.
submitted by /u/ajay9452
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Apple's ‘Private Relay’ Is Exposing Users’ Real IP Addresses
Researchers found a group of issues that mean Private Relay isn't actually protecting users' real IP addresses. 404 Media verified the issues do expose IP addresses.
