J. Martin

February 13, 2022

Notes From the Software Wastelands

Two years ago, we expected virtual collaboration and teaching tools to bloom. Now it’s 2022. For reasons I can’t fathom, there are people who stick with Adobe “Welcome to the Real Virtual” Connect, where “real virtual” probably means that you no longer have to upload almost everything before you can share it. Then there’s MS Teams, about which my first impression hasn’t changed a bit. Last week, 70 people had to be shoveled from Teams to Zoom as the presenter was on Mac and Teams can’t share Keynote presentations. Days later, an invited guest couldn’t read or answer written questions because Teams refused him chat access. (Also, dismissing the essay-length memorandum “Your status message is showing in chat and channels when people message or @mention you. Change status.” every fucking time got old fast.) Then, Discord. It’s fine, but when you hit 25 participants, everybody has to shut down their cameras to allow more people to join. (Premium doesn’t change that.) Which leaves Zoom. Technically viable, yes, but usability hasn’t improved a bit. Why does it hide your audience when you put up a share? Why on earth would you want to stare at your own presentation all the time instead of monitoring reactions? Why is there no option in the premium version to arrange and save your screen configuration? So after the pandemic (provided it ever ends), we’re apparently stuck with two options—crawl back into our offices or surrender to the grim wastelands of atrocious software forever.

Annoyances notwithstanding, I got creative work done last week. I’m full sails ahead with the outline for my follow-up novel and could be through with it by the end of this week. Also, I wrote a post at my Voidpunk blog on The Gernsback Future (hint: it’s not a good future) and a linked-list entry at my secret level just drafts on The End of America’s Army (I might write a bit more about it soon on my primary blog.)

Then, I uploaded a new album on Flickr, Tōkyō IV: Shibuya (10 images), and a Chengde Police Station edit on Glass. Plus, as usual, new entries on my Instagram accounts betweendrafts and voidpunkverse with commentary.

Oh, and last week, I forgot to mention that I had finished playing Last Stop: Station 66—which, sadly, I can’t recommend. I played two more indie games since: Where the Goats Are and The Stillness of the Wind, the latter a successor/bigger-budget-remake of the former. Now, Where the Goats Are was more or less created by a solo developer with very rudimentary mechanics (and one or two bugs). It’s one hour playing time; it’s pay-what-you-want, and it’s the one I recommend. It’s sad, uncanny at times, and beautiful. You should try it!

Finally, for your entertainment, I picked this hilarious “Cats Are too Brave” compilation and two illustrious find-&-replace mythic creatures, the “dawizard” and the “particitrousers.”

Cheers
J.