John Carney

I’m an Australia software engineer currently living in the US. My language of choice is Ruby. I’m also a tabletop role playing game fan. Most of my posts are about TTRPGs, with a smattering of coding-related posts. Refer down-thread for a TTRPG starter pack and a coupe of TTRPS feeds I maintain.

Variations on the following have been going on for something like two decades: My father: *initiates conversation* Other person: *responds* My father: i can’t hear you. I haven’t got my hearing aid in.

If you self-host and run PHP on it (which is very likely) you NEED to update it later today, ASAP. A major vulnerability that affects PHP versions since 5 has been found, which allows remote code execution (very bad). You MUST retweet and share with friends who self-host. THIS IS CRITICAL. ⚠️

First it was robots cartwheeling better than me. Now you're telling me snakes can do it, too?! Read about that and more in this edition of @science.org's #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 🐍

The Titanic is a great analogy: a ship that they proclaimed was unsinkable and then because of that they didn't bring lifeboats for anyone except the exceptionally wealthy so a lot of poor people took the brunt of what happened. Anyway.

Due to an internet glitch, I'm joining the SSB afternoon session a few minutes late. This session should be looking at mega constellations. Watch live here: vimeo.com/event/623332...

If only the BBC was run by people who liked the BBC

The question "Is this condition overdiagnosed" is actually asking "Have we found an exceptional case of a medical issue where healthcare is too easy to get?" and the answer to that is always no. There has never, at any point, been a situation where it was too easy to get healthcare.

If you see this, post a vampire that isn’t Dracula.

“Living through a global resurgence of fascism, the difficulty has proved to be not arguing against it, but convincing non-fascists that fascism’s adherents really mean it. That they believe what they are telling us they believe—and they will act accordingly.” www.liberalcurrents.com/fascists-rea...

“Perhaps the most relevant issue is that by releasing this trove of material in this manner, the companies are in the process of destroying the ecosystem that made it possible for this work,” she said." To me, this is the crux. Science is a human, community endeavor. They are destroying science.

rip to one of the coolest software engineers who ever lived

“So what are you going to call this ‘brain gym’ franchise of yours?” “Library”

We already have gyms for our brains, but just like regular gyms, they're no use if, like Andrew, you refuse to show up and do the work.

Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. https://scim.ag/4rTKck8

Hey yeah, friendly reminder that men denying or minimizing the work of women and taking credit for it themselves happens so much we have a NAME for it. (It’s the Matilda Effect.) 2nd fun fact: I’ve written many bios of women in STEM at this point and this is *always a factor in their history*

I'm not sure if y'all saw a CNN report on how the US had almost started WW3 with China based on fabricated information generated by a chatbot, claiming that a Chinese vessel was carrying components of nuclear weapons. That was an "existential threat" to humanity www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Some unintended consequences I suspect the rise of AI agents will create: 1. Restaurants that only take reservations by hand written letter, or more likely, don't take them at all. 2. Gigs where you can only buy tickets in person. 3. Businesses that operate without websites.

On point B, the NASA Exoplanet Archive typically serves ~10-20TB of data per month. In July it jumped to 70TB. In August it jumped to 600TB. So either our user base organically grew *30x* in two months (... unlikely), OR the bots have taken over already.

Reading this I feel compelled to remind everyone that back in the 1970s, respected scientists became convinced telekinesis was real after they met with "psychic" Uri Geller and even published an article in Nature about it. It took a stage magician to debunk them. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/u...

Fat Bear WEEK? Some of us celebrate our voluptuous ursine gods YEAR-ROUND!

'Backpack' declared Alaska's Fat Bear Week winner

I’m sorry, Melissa Clark. That looks delicious, but if I asked you for a vegetarian take on a BLT and you handed me a mushroom burger, I’d feel rather cheated.

May I remind you all that the only successful political use case found for him after he chucked a tanty and left Parliament was being made US Ambassador, where he could hang out in Trump world and finally have the chance to be the smartest political person in a room for the first time in his life.

marvel keep a showrunner for more than 46 minutes challenge

Next time you get publicly mad about a popular channel or account exclusively promoting Dungeons and Dragons you have to say 10 Hail Mary's (you have to publicly promote one of the many excellent shows that exclusively showcase other games). I do actually make the rules, I'm a game designer.

in case you didn't know, deck.blue is currently my main source of income while i'm also getting into photography work here in são paulo, so i really appreciate everyone that's currently subscribed to the patreon; making all this possible if you can't subscribe but want to help, there's a ko-fi too!

“… and I didn’t speak up because I am not a CNN, MS NOW, or Politico journo.”

lol. Different channel, but same clickbait-y “terrifying” slop history MO. Or is it? I mean, Joe sure looks upset. mPerhaps this one is legit? Perhaps we’ll never know — I’m not watching this one to find out.

I would like media to care more about the reality that tech tycoons want to kill people than what they’re imagining about AI wanting to kill people. We have multi-millionaires (with support from billionaires!) calling for ethnic cleansing, a thing that has happened in living memory. Not theoretical!

BREAKIBG: Josie and the Pussycats will no longer be opening for Ed Sheeran.

🔭 Where Your Elements Came From Image Credit: NASA's GSFC, SVS ap260914