Digg.com closed beta rolled out today! The TestFlight and Android alpha came out a few weeks back, it’s nice to have a full on web version now, too.
From the announcement post:
While today’s launch means access for Groundbreakers, in the coming weeks, each of you will be receiving invites to bring new users onto Digg. We’ve made the decision for an invite-based rollout to ensure that the community’s growth is intentional and gives you the ability to curate who gets let into the door at this stage of the product lifecycle.
Awesome that Groundbreakers get some invites to send out. I’ll make a post when I get mine, if anyone want’s one let me know!
I used to watch a lot of Rick and Morty. One of my all-time favorite episodes is the one where a bunch of parasitic aliens get loose from Rick’s lab and he has to quarantine the house so they can’t escape and wreak havoc on the rest of the world.
It would’ve been a shitshow for humanity, because the aliens could shape-shift and insert false memories of themselves into your mind, so you’d never suspect a thing.
One of the most memorable of all these zany characters was Sleepy Gary.
I liked this video. He talks about how Gen Z grew up in a world where no one actually owns anything. From a Kindle library to music, movies/TV shows and even video games, we don’t really own our media anymore. I have exactly four physical games for my Switch and I think two or three for the PS 4. The rest, adding up to a sickening amount of money, are all digital copies that I’m not guaranteed access to forever.
Remember when the internet was still new, and you could spend hours digging through random websites, stumbling on weird little corners full of esoteric info you couldn’t find anywhere else?
Lately, that’s what RomHacking.net has felt like for me. There are tons of mods and hacks that breathe new life into classic console games we’ve all played a million times. I’ve been on an absolute rampage—patching ROMs and loading them onto my Anbernic SP clone nonstop these past few weeks. Here are a few standouts I’ve been hooked on lately.
Really good interview with Kevin Rose on the Digg revamp and making the web more human. Honestly I feel some social web vibes here… Like it’s not really indie I guess but anything to humanize the web is a win for me.
Most of us are here because we’re sick of what social media has turned into over the last couple of decades. A lot of us only ended up on Reddit because Digg went away.
With AI slop taking over more of the web every day, it’s good to know some of the big names in tech are working to preserve a little bit of that old school community vibe from back in the day.
If you read this blog, you know I’m going through an obsession with retro gaming right now. If you’re on the indie web, you’re probably a fan of old tech like RSS. There are plenty of algorithm-driven, much newer, much more high tech alternatives, but RSS is so simple and yet powerful.
I’m still on my Pico 8 kick. It kills me how many hilarious demakes there are for this little fantasy console. You can play all of these right in your browser – you even get touchscreen controls if you’re on a phone or tablet but certain ones like Linecraft and Pico Zombie Garden aren’t really playable without a mouse.
This is a video of my pink toe tarantula, Alucard, going after two crickets. At first I thought he came in too hot and just missed both of them, gave up and went back to his web to sulk.
Then I came back a few minutes later and one of the crickets made its way to the ceiling of the enclosure and started twisting and contorting for a while until he ended up all sprawled out and paralyzed.
Once I finished Blasphemous 2 on the Switch, it was clear that I was smack in the middle of a brand new addiction. An addiction with no real side effects, aside from blind rage when things seem impossible. And the only withdrawal symptoms are intense cravings when I’m busy with meaningless, repetitive every day tasks like holding down a job.
Ever since I picked up my R36S handheld a few months ago, I’ve been obsessed with these Chinese emulator consoles. They’re tiny Linux computers that can run anything from the Atari 2600 up to Nintendo DS and even ports of more modern PC games like Stardew Valley.
Retro games are my jam. Anything with at least 8 bits, a sword, and a dungeon to escape can usually keep me occupied for hours days. Lately, I’ve been going through a Metroidvania kick on the Switch, but yesterday I started playing with my R36S handheld for the first time in a few weeks when I discovered something I never saw coming…
I was surfing different streaming apps last night when I realized Peacock has the entire backlog of Saturday Night Live available to watch. My favorites were always the 90’s stuff, so I started with one that Tom Hanks hosted back in 1992, just a few weeks after the Rodney King riots.
George H-Dubya was still president but Ross Perot and Bill Clinton were campaigning hard right before the elections that November.
Finally just got invited to the new Digg.com “Groundbreakers” group!
I was so stoked when Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht did the reunion show for Diggnation last year. That was wild enough for me; I never thought I’d see the day. They joked about buying back Digg.com and making it an actual social network again but I never thought anything would come of it.
I haven’t had a whole lot of luck finding browsers I like on iPhone. It feels like every single third party browser is just a custom built version of Safari with a new skin and a few new features duct taped on.
The thing that kills me about middle and lower middle class MAGA people is that it’s literally no different than thinking they’re the one guy who the stripper really fell head over heels for while they were throwing handfuls of $5’s at her.
I really need to start paying attention to the devs behind the games I play.
I started Sea of Stars, from Sabotage Studio, a while back and it’s one of the best classic style RPGs I’ve ever played.
Then I got kinda sidetracked and found a new obsession with Metroidvanias like Blasphemous and Aggelos for a while.
I kept thinking man, Sea of Stars has such great artwork and mechanics, I wish these guys would make a Metroidvania.
I started smoking cigarettes when I was about 16 years old. My dad started when he was eight. His dad probably came out of the womb with an unfiltered Pall Mall hanging out of his mouth.
Annnd looking at Deltarune: Chapters 1 & 2 after I finish Sea of Stars. I think there’s a new chapter coming out sometime this year?
Definitely lots of good 90s style games coming out in the last few years!
Sea of Stars is like a mix between Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG but it’s definitely not a ripoff of anything. Super cool story line and beautiful pixel art.
Aggelos is a Metroidvania that reminds me of Zelda 2: Link’s Adventure and shares sidescroller RPG elements from two underrated classics - Dragon View and Actraiser. My absolute favorite thing about it is that your character actually changes appearance when you unlock each new sword and armor. The super technical maneuvers and combos you need to use are fucking infuriating at times but it’s becoming one of my all time favorites.
Dusk is reminiscent of all the classic shooters like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem/Shadow Warrior, Rise of the Triad, etc. Definitely brings a lot of its own mechanics and style to the table but it feels super nostalgic if you used to play old school shooters.
I’m always looking for modern retro stuff that looks good on the OLED Switch! Let me know if you have any suggestions 😋
I haven’t posted a whole heck of a lot about my pinktoe tarantula since I got it.
I’ve been working six days a week for what feels like an eternity, but I finally got a couple days off and I was able to hang out with the little guy for a bit.
I mist the enclosure with a spray bottle every couple of days and he cant resist drinking water off of the screen.
I regret that I haven’t traveled much so far. I’ve never been outside the United States. Hell, I’ve never even been to a blue state before. That didn’t even dawn on me until I started thinking about it just now.
There is so much awesome culture around the world but for most Americans, we act like this is the only place you ever need to be. Rootin' tootin', cowboy hat wearin', gun shootin', in god we trust ‘Merica.
I’m not religious, but I have to believe some kind of karma exists out there. Even if it’s just the consequences of a few billionaires' shitty actions.
Even the most gullible, brainwashed conservatives will eventually have to realize how bad they’re being fucked by their daddy in chief. You can only suck up to a bully so much before you realize it’s not benefiting you in any way anymore.
Or maybe they’re all just masochists, I don’t know.
I’m a huge fan of RSS. It gives you complete control over how you get the news. It’s a perpetually updated stream of information hand-curated by you. It’s a neat little hobby coming up with the ultimate personalized news feed. No two are alike.
Lately, it’s been pretty depressing opening up my reader. Of course there are always indie blogs and other websites that post about non-political stuff or niche topics.
I love that people are migrating from TikTok to Red Note in droves. Our oligarchy is banning TikTok under the guise of national security; never mind the fact that any American reading this post is likely doing so on a device manufactured in China.
Never mind the fact that SHEIN and Temu are both Chinese apps that collect the same data as TikTok but no one cares because there’s no actual threat.
I resubscribed to Kagi recently, only this time on the Ultimate plan with The Assistant.
I swore off of them for a while after the little bit of drama about integrating Brave Search, but who really gives a shit, you know? You gotta pick your battles. Separate the art from the artist.
I’ve been fighting this respiratory bug for the last month. It almost completely cleared up for about a week, then it came back full force. I decided I was going to urgent care today but they’re closed.
Still had a great Xmas and managed to get pretty hammered for New Year’s Eve last night while watching Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen with my better half <3
We have a lot of terrible shit ahead of us after Jan 20th but I’m still optimistic about 2025. They say it’s always darkest before the dawn.
I hope everyone’s having a good day off today and I wish you all a happy 2025 🎉
I was jamming to The Selecter this morning and it got me thinking…
Bands from the 80’s and earlier are a different breed than the pop stars of today. One obvious thing is the whole debate between analog vs digital recordings, vinyl vs cd’s and other digital formats.
This might sound kinda silly but I think 2025 is the year of arthropods for me. I’ve always been squeamish around creepy crawly things but now I have this pet tarantula and a newfound obsession with raw honey.
This morning we went out to a local garden center in search of a concrete goose for the porch. But then we got there and they were closed for the holidays still, so we ended up stopping by some random flea market on the way back.
