I spent the past three days fighting with import of some data which was malformed, but neither the exporter nor the importer did any type verification, so there was nothing to suggest what the problem was. Why in 2026 do we still have to suffer with shoddy engineering like this? STATIC TYPING NOW

Vassal 3.7.23 is released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

Got some keys cut a few weeks ago, because we changed the lock. They were not three for the price of one, but were guaranteed for a lifetime's use. And you can't have one, you know, the other two. I think this will pop into my head any time I get keys, for the rest of my life.

Vassal 3.7.22 is released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

Closed the book on a job I've effectively had for 16 years today. Starting a new thing in the morning.

This has never been a problem for the US Army before... such as when dozens of men died of the flu on the troop ship my grandfather took to France in 1918.

Vassal 3.7.21 is released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

Wrote my first check in 11 months today. At this rate, I wonder if checks go out of use before I have to order new checks.

How frequently does the "Ill" in Ill Communication get misread as the Roman numeral for 3 due to sans-serif fonts?

I make open source software because I want: - agency - correctness - transparency - trustworthiness - longevity-by-replicability - collective self-sovereignty

FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

Have these people never read/watched any sci-fi or fantasy? The answer to "Can I borrow your body to act in the corporeal world?" should always be "no". arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/i...

When I work, I create the thing in my mind and then move it from my mind to the world. It's been like this for me my whole life. This is extremely inconvenient when I have a task for which I just cannot envision the result.

Vassal 3.7.20 is released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

inspired by CLAUDE.md, I’ve started putting markdown files named after coworkers into work code repos so I can remind them to stop doing shit to the codebase that annoys me for some reason they’re all mad at me now, which means ill be adding commands to JEREMY.md for an attitude adjustment

Worth a read. Exploring outcomes isn't much use if not followed up.

It's like setting up shadow IT infrastructure because the real IT infrastructure is so bad...

I thought there was no punishment too severe for ICE goons, but I have to draw the line at Workday.

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

The thing about America today is that if you just describe what is happening objectively and unemotionally you sound hysterical and partisan and what you have to remind people is that the reason for that is not you, it's the people doing the things you are describing

A lot of good businesses are closing on Friday to participate in the ICE Out General Strike. But make sure to support these places on the other days. A lost Friday is a tough thing for a restaurant or bar. Also use this as a barometer for the types of businesses you want to support.

This is a thing that once broken won't be possible to repair. We have a president who doesn't take the idea of obligation seriously. Republicans could stop him.

This is day eight waiting in the hospital for my father to be able to go home. <deep breath>

On a related note, we could use some Wide Awakes about now.

I dunno, but with each day that passes the NRA loses more and more ground in their “you have to watch your kids die in mass shootings at school so we can protect you if the government goes rogue” argument 🤷‍♂️

WSJ investigation: In the past 6 months ICE agents have fired at vehicles 13 times, leading to: * 8 people shot * 5 of which were U.S. citizens * 2 died * no victims drew a weapon The playbook: Agents box in a vehicle, block attempts to flee, then fire www.wsj.com/us-news/vide...

The guy across the waiting room from me is swearing at his laptop, which is how I know he's a software developer.

Discord wants to know how you feel about AI. Go tell them: discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

BREAKING: The Hennepin County District Attorney's office says they have jurisdiction to charge the ICE agent involved in the fatal Minneapolis shooting.

Vassal 3.7.19 released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

A+++ would civilization again.

tmw you are looking in git stash at something that you punted on but you did not leave a comment in the stash about why. It's like leaving a huge stone pillar amidst a ruined city which has the inscription "IT WAS A BAD IDEA". What was a bad idea, ancient me? Please TELL ME.

I made a PR to a Rust lib for S3 which fixes a bad range check. (S3 ranges are closed, but the assertion in the functions is for a half-open range.) There is an AI summary of my PR. My PR changes three bytes, and the AI summary still manages to be wrong about what it does: github.com/durch/rust-s...

Surveying what's left to do on the Vassal module library as I take a break for lunch: I count 8 open issues that will get attention before I shift over to V4 demos. The other 13 I'm not likely to work on in the next few months.

Vassal 3.7.18 is released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

I have newfound sympathy for anyone at sea for days at a time. Our overnight ferry plowed into a gale force headwind for the whole trip. I thought I'd been on rough crossings before and they didn't bother me... I was wrong. I still feel out of sorts and haven't been on the ship for five hours.

Vassal 3.7.17 is released: forum.vassalengine.org/t/vassal-3-7...

Why in Prince's funky name did they make Math.round() in JavaScript round all halves toward +∞? I'll bet Math.round(-0.5) == 0 has caused people to waste thousands of hours trying to figure out why simple arithmetic doesn't work as expected.

We're most of the way there with the Vassal server maintenance. You should find that everything save the forum is working again. We're working through a problem with the forum presently. It should be back later today.

The Vassal server will be down for maintenance tomorrow, 12 September, starting around 10:00 UTC and running until we're finished, which we expect to be in the afternoon sometime. forum.vassalengine.org/t/server-dow...

We finished correcting project pages following the Vassal module library conversion. That was a massive boulder to push to the top of the hill. Thank you to everyone who helped with this. Now we're chipping away at the remaining unimplemented parts of the module library...

I have a recurring Monday night event and for two consecutive weeks I've encountered a deranged man covered in blood on my way there.

Continuing to correct project pages following the Vassal module library conversion. 46 pages which need splitting, 478 orphaned files yet to be reunited with their projects. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a static finite list, so we'll eventually reach the end...

This is everything I love about the Upper Midwest. It's like Prairie Home Companion meets Cannibal Corpse.

PSA: If you complain about something and you get the attention of a person who can help you, ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS SO THEY CAN HELP YOU.

Still correcting project pages following the Vassal module library conversion... 55 remaining on the list which need splitting, 538 orphaned files yet to be reunited with their pages. If you're a module maintainer and you haven't checked your project pages, yet, please do so!

Complete the Five Year Plan in four years.

This lawyer should have moved for a bad court thingy.

I realized just now what political appointees in the Trump Administration remind me of: It's the advisors in Civilization I that you have when you're a despotism in the modern era.