Firehose

I still consider the elytra a recent addition to Minecraft, but the update that introduced them is now a decade old.

Oof.

I’m used to mean people on the net, but I have never faced spiteful vitriol on the level of anti-AI folk.

I think I’m fairly reasonable in my assessments of generative AI, yet I’ve still received a number of death threats, rape threats, and doxx attempts. Really vicious and hostile to extents I’ve never before been exposed to.

Adobe published valid product keys for a range of Macromedia products on Windows and Macintosh when they disabled the activation servers on December 15th, 2012.

They are all accessible in an archive of Adobe’s site here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210314181449/https://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/macromedia-legacy-activation-error.html

It has product keys for Captivate 1.0, Contribute 2.0, Contribute 3.0, FlashPaper 2.0, Director MX 2004, Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks MX 2004, Flash MX 2004, Freehand MX, and Macromedia Studio MX 2004. Setting Windows’s Compatibility Mode to ‘Windows XP (Service Pack 2)’ seems to be the sweet spot if using a contemporary version of Windows.

Nothing like opening Bluesky to see NSFW furry artwork featuring the new Stoat icon/mascot I designed.

Lovely to see that rule 34 of the internet is alive and well…

It really irks me when people call themselves ‘refugees’ when switching digital platforms.

Have some tact. You didn’t flee a war zone; you switched apps.

Just got an email boasting ‘increased development velocity achieved by bypassing testing procedures.’

Everything I’ve learnt about Mr Blobby has been under duress.

Day was going pretty well until Rod Serling came through the door and began monologuing a blow-by-blow of the horrors about to befall me.

I’ve been smashing out 12+ hour days to handle the new user influx at Stoat over the past week. I’m absolutely knackered. Gonna take a bit of a break.

To everyone who has tried to contact me about something, I’m sorry for my tardiness. I’m not trying to ignore you; I’m merely lacking the mental bandwidth to respond right now.

Using Stoat and looking for a quality dice bot for your tabletop RPG needs?

Today I developed and launched AutoDice, a convenient little bot that does one thing and does it well. Already in use on a couple of servers.

https://automod.vale.rocks/blog/introducing-autodice

Launching new branding is always a tad stressful. Will people like it? Will they reject the new in favour of the old?

However, the launch of the new Stoat icon I designed has been a resounding success. People love the new icon!

They love it so much, in fact, that since launching yesterday it has already been named ‘Toast’ by the community. 🍞

Thousands of people have liked the announcements of the new icon across social media, and many more have reached out to me personally to express their fondness.

Already I’ve seen fan art of the new logo across a few platforms, and it really is wonderful to see everyone embrace it so openly.

As a huge fan of Rooster Teeth and Red vs Blue, it is beyond belief to hear Stoat being discussed by Ashley and Burnie Burns at the 20 minute mark here.

Completely unreal.

https://roosterteeth.com/watch/morning-somewhere-2026-02-11

Are you on Stoat and finding AutoMod isn’t enough for you? You want— no, you need more? Well, fret no longer. AutoFeeds is here!

AutoFeeds allows subscribing to syndication feeds and getting notified of new posts directly in your server.

https://automod.vale.rocks/blog/introducing-autofeeds

I’ve got over 1000 followers now on Bluesky. I’m not sure what you’re all doing here, but I’m glad to have you.

In our moderation panel over at Stoat, we have a button to deploy bees.

We don’t want to have to deploy bees, but sometimes that is the only viable option. Releasing bees as a moderation action is always a difficult call to make, but sometimes bees are the only tool for the job.

We have strict policies in place regarding bee usage. As it is, of course, a destructive action, we do also have a confirmation modal to avoid accidental bee deployments.

I very much enjoy that you can identify if a writer has read the works of Hunter S Thompson simply by reading their prose.

According to my site’s analytics, someone navigated to my portfolio after reading my analysis of the year 2000 musical epic That’s How I Beat Shaq.

Solemnly staring at my computer screen in silence, trying to regain my composure after realising I’ve just been editing the SASS output, not the source files.

I don’t know why, but z-index always has to be the last declaration in a CSS rule. Anywhere else just feels wrong.

I wield the English language with the accuracy and precision of a sawn-off shotgun at 30 paces.

Carefully cutting down my JavaScript, optimising my CSS, minimising my HTML, configuring preloads, tweaking caching, and manually shrinking images to hit a good balance of size and compression, then opening a new tab to be hit by a megacorp’s 40MB hero video.

To all fleeing from Firefox due to their tone-deaf AI fumblings, please don’t move to a Chromium-based browser.

Diversity in browser engines is critical for an open web. We must avoid a monopoly at all costs.

Nobody ask Ford, Coke, or IBM what they were doing in the 1940s, and nobody ask Apple, Google, or Microsoft what they are doing in the 2020s.

Wading into my GitHub notifications with a loaded gun, a half dozen grenades, and a Molotov.

My driver evidently isn’t a logical properties guy as he gave me a weird look when I told him to turn inline-start at the lights.

People watch me start designing APIs with the same abject look of horror one might exhibit when they see their uncle meandering his way across the room to the karaoke mic after several beers.

A dystopian new addition I unfortunately felt it prudent to implement on TechConf.Directory.