Notices by Chris Trottier (atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org)

Sometimes I wonder to myself, “What didn’t we just modernize finger protocol to make an alternative to Twitter?”

Wow! I’m shocked that Civilization VII has such bad reviews on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295660/Sid_Meiers_Civilization_VII/

#Discourse has an #ActivityPub plugin that federates your posts there to the #Fediverse.

So if you’re running Discourse, you may want to enable that.

https://meta.discourse.org/t/activitypub-plugin/266794

THIS IS A BIG DEAL!

NodeBB v.4.0.0 was just released – which brings ActivityPub federation between NodeBB servers! It also means those servers are now connected to the wider Fediverse!

Now why is this important? Because it means old school bulletin board software (a.k.a., forums) are now federated!

RE: https://community.nodebb.org/post/102756

@jorgecandeias Really? You don’t know anyone who uses Reddit? Or Facebook Groups? Or Steam Discussions? Or Tom’s Hardware forums?

Not one of them uses a forum anymore?

@jorgecandeias Oh, they’re dead? Let me check on that.

Here’s one: https://forums.tomshardware.com

Here’s another one: https://linustechtips.com/

Here’s another one: https://forums.atariage.com

Man, if forums are dead, how come I keep finding them?!

Something people need to understand about me is that when people make big, huge, catch-all statements, I tend to take them literally.

I don’t know why people say, “This technology was killed” when what they really mean is, “This technology is less popular.”

The #HOA of the Fediverse never changes!

Not only are they talking about defederating all #Pixelfed servers, but defederating anyone who talks about Pixelfed in a positive manner.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Whatever qualms you may have with Pixelfed, it is a vast improvement over #Instagram—which has moved moderation services over to Texas, and is therefore subject to laws over there.

In contrast, you can run a Pixelfed server wherever you like, in your own country if you choose, or at least in a place with demonstrable better laws than Texas.

But more than that, we don’t get to choose which Fediverse services prove to be popular. Folks from #TikTok and #Instagram are coming to Pixelfed, not #Mastodon, and we should be welcoming them with open arms.

RE: https://spanner.works/users/bouncinglime/statuses/113856316093137340

Android Authority also has their review of Pixelfed.

Amusingly, they say this about it:

What sets Pixelfed apart is its classic Instagram-like approach that prioritizes sharing photos and videos with like-minded people.

Okay, it really is hilarious that Pixelfed stands out because it’s a lot like Instagram was. But yeah, I agree.

https://www.androidauthority.com/pixelfed-launches-mobile-app-3516668/

So, were you were a SEGA kid in the 1980s? Then you probably know the original Alex Kidd in Miracle World – maybe it even caused you to rage-quit a few times.

Here’s the deal: back when Nintendo’s NES was printing money thanks to Super Mario Bros., every other platform needed its own Mario wannabe. For the Commodore 64, it was The Great Giana Sisters. For DOS, it was Commander Keen. For the SEGA Master System, it was Alex Kidd.

Before Sonic the Hedgehog became SEGA’s mascot and finally sold consoles for the company, Alex Kidd filled that role. He was a bit of an oddity – something of a monkey boy with elf-like ears and a tail. SEGA released several Alex Kidd games (Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Alex Kidd in High Tech World, etc.), but Miracle World was his magnum opus. Like Mario, that game was a brightly colored platformer where you jumped around collecting items.

However, despite some aesthetic similarities, Alex Kidd played quite differently from Super Mario Bros. – he was more like Mario’s scrappy, unpolished cousin. Mario jumped on enemies. Alex Kidd punched them. Hard.

Power-ups, like rings, enhanced your attacks, letting you punch from a distance. Occasionally, you’d get vehicles like a motorbike, though I always found the motorbike frustrating – it often caused more problems than it solved, especially in areas requiring precise jumps.

One odd quirk was encountering “power-ups” that hid enemies you couldn’t punch out. The only way to deal with them was to outrun them until they disappeared off-screen. That always felt cheap to me. To be fair, even Mario wasn’t immune to this kind of trickery – Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Japanese version, later released in North America as The Lost Levels) had a poison mushroom that could kill you. Still, it felt unfair.

Unfortunately, Alex Kidd in Miracle World could never truly compete with Super Mario Bros. for a few reasons:

1. Poor hit detection: The hitboxes were terrible. If you even got just a little close to an enemy, you’d die.
2. Rock-paper-scissors: Every few levels, you had to play best-of-three games of rock-paper-scissors. Losing meant game over. Imagine playing for half an hour, only to lose everything because of a random chance minigame.

Despite these flaws, we SEGA fans loved it – partly because it was fun, but mostly because admitting Mario was better felt like treason.

Fast-forward to today. Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX dropped in 2021, and it’s everything we wanted back then. Gorgeous 2D visuals, toggleable with original graphics (now in widescreen!), and – hallelujah – fixed hitboxes. The rock-paper-scissors games with end bosses is still there, but losing doesn’t make you want to throw your controller into orbit. Infinite retries and lives make it approachable without gutting the challenge.

Interestingly, SEGA didn’t develop or publish this remake. It was developed by Jankenteam and published by Merge Games. This surprised me because Alex Kidd in Miracle World is such an iconic Sega title. Based on the credits, the developers appear to be Brazilian, which makes sense—Brazil has a massive love for Sega and the Master System, even to this day.

Would I recommend the original Alex Kidd in Miracle World? Only if you enjoy video game archeology or want to relive the trauma of poorly times punches. But the remake? Absolutely. It’s like seeing an old friend who finally got their act together. If Miracle World DX got released in 1986, we might’ve seen Alex Kidd punching Mario off his throne.

So, go on – play the remake. It’s a miracle its awesomeness doesn’t punch you in the face.

Meta is now using AI-generated profiles to drive up “engagement” on Facebook and Instagram.

Now why would they do this?

Well, for one thing, organic engagement on both those platforms is dead—and it’s been dead for awhile. And now they’re stuck in a loop where influencers aren’t talking to people—they’re talking to algorithms.

So what about the 98% of users who aren’t influencers? Well, most of their content gets stuck in a void with no engagement. And this drives down satisfaction. Why post your breakfast to Instagram if no one sees it?

Therefore, Meta needs to build the illusion of engagement to satiate that need for connection. And Zuckerberg assumes most people will be satisfied with bot interaction.

But what I suspect is that this will lead to a diminishment of trust on those platforms.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/meta-ai-users-facebook-instagram-1235221430/

Absolutely shocking! The biggest scam in YouTube history has just been exposed!

Honey has stolen from creators and customers! Millions of dollars!

Using the Honey browser extension? Uninstall it now—because it is screwing you over!

https://youtu.be/vc4yL3YTwWk