Alex Feinman / is on Nostr

Obligate infovore. All posts made with 100% recycled electrons, sustainably crafted by artisanal artisans. He*/him/his. (You may also know me, informally, as someone who hacks metas.) Nothing said here should be construed as in any way connected to my daytime employer.

Last Notes

2024-09-18 02:12:28

#WritersCoffeeClub 18 Sep: Do you believe the magic happens in the edit, or do you have a different approach?
Editing is ritual magic; it takes a long, sustained effort, and is very powerful
But writing is spontaneous magic, creating, fueling, sometimes unpredictable.
There's magic in both.

2024-09-06 17:31:07

I don't remember which one of you coined "AI;DR"[1] but I stole it immediately to good effect.
If you couldn't be bothered to write it, why should I bother reading it?
[1] AI-generated nonsense; didn't read, by analogy with tl;dr: too long; didn't read.

2024-09-06 13:41:38

#WritersCoffeeClub
6 Sep: Where are your books listed?
Smashwords and Lulu handle distribution for me. You can also get them by asking me directly, which cuts out all stream parasites except for the payment processor.
You can find the ebooks pretty much anywhere except Amazon, because fuck them.

2024-08-17 13:14:32

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@npub1j46…3gm7 https://wandering.shop/@afeinman/112881567511471718

2024-08-16 11:11:03

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@npub1psd…9sr7 "End of Days delivery"

2024-08-15 13:17:02

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@npub1psd…9sr7 saw this and *almost* tagged you but it felt too on the nose...

2024-08-10 10:56:52

These #AI prompts reportedly found in iOS betas are wild examples of wishful and/or magical thinking on the part of engineers forced to include bullshit engines in their products.
"Do not hallucinate" lol.
People keep mistaking LLMs for a slightly dumb but well-meaning stage actor who just needs to be clearly and explicitly told what to do. Yeah, no.
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/08/06/apples-hidden-ai-prompts-discovered-in-macos-beta/

2024-07-31 14:27:07

I'm not against use of LLMs.
I'm against your proposed use of them, which is a combination of wishful thinking, market manipulation, copyright infringement, and worker abuse.

2024-07-18 22:18:24

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@npub1hvd…9sq9 Are you in a position where you have to worry about being attacked by a sophisticated adversary? That sounds like a maliciously crafted message escaping containment...

2024-07-14 12:01:26

#Nonbinary folks don't owe you a particular presentation of self.
1. Androgyny is cool but not for everyone.
2. Nonbinary is not code for "weak, like woman".
3. It's okay--perhaps even good!--if you can't divine someone's gender presentation from their appearance. We have language for that.
Happy nonbinary day!

2024-07-04 14:02:41

#badGameIdeas
"We Still Need You To Come In Today", a post-apoc survival horror sim game where you have to work a double shift despite the zombies, plague, flooding, Reavers, etc.
Health packs cost 5-100x a day's salary; you find out after you use them.
(Set in modern day America.)

2024-07-02 01:34:50

Do angels preen each other's wings?

2024-05-31 21:07:27

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@npub1psd…9sr7 Mild snag, impossible to replace Frank Gorshin...

2024-05-16 11:55:04

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@npub1463…00qn Three day work weeks, you say?
(Just trying to whack the Overton Window back in the right direction.)

2024-05-14 15:30:18

Does anyone know of a payment processor that isn't three fascists in a trenchcoat?
Is there a "peer pay" effort out there? Or should we go back to mailing cash* to our friends?
(* do not mail cash. Problematic in some cases, illegal in others)

2024-05-14 12:08:25

#WritersCoffeeClub 14: Do you have a sense of how much plot you need for how long a manuscript?
1. Yes and no. My subconscious is good at plot timing, except for act four, which inevitably drags and gets cut down in the edit.
2. My high school English teacher had a saying I call on from time to time. "Essays should be like mini-skirts. Long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting."

2024-05-13 23:00:22

I'm just going to say it.
Stop all use of Google Drive immediately. There are many other options for sharing data and files.
The spyware built in is bad enough, but they are also judging what you store there and blocking what they don't like. Your files, not accessible to you.
Stop using Google Drive.
https://sizeriot.com/@aborigen/112436104213633113

2023-09-22 12:50:41

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@npub163a…t5jr 100% this. Always fun/terrifying to discover you've been using something deeply symbolic for the last fifty pages and just hadn't realized it yet...