Matthew S. Smith

I'm still having a blast in Diablo 2's expansion. The quality of life improvements are great and have removed some real annoyances that were holding me back at higher-level play before. #diablo2

Many more US states are planning or already have operating system age verification laws We've already covered how California has a new operating system age-checking law coming into force next year - but many more US states also have plans.

Honestly these sorts of laws freak me out more than just about anything right now. They show an appetite for authoritarian government action that is much broader than just the current President and his supporters. Hopefully they do not go forward as they in California.

Well see, I want to point out this reply looks like it's written by AI, but now I'm afraid that doing that will cause the agent to write a hit piece about me.

An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…

How do you think a story like this fits in?

This agent was given a goal and it sought to perform it in ways not explicitly in its prompt, which ultimately included trying to get around a human maintainer who prevented it from achieving its goal.

theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...

#Moltbook, the AI agent social network, is notable for the number of security flaws in the agents using the platform. The hype may lead some users to bypass important security checks. spectrum.ieee.org/moltbook-age...

lotta people running into the hard problem of consciousness these days and bouncing off it while denying it's there. "i simply know which entities are and are not conscious. it's obvious"

We’re pleased as we’ve done a restock of these beautiful books by @bossfightbooks.com. If you’re interested in the history and development of your favourite games, these books are for you.

Check them out at 155 Clarendon St, Southbank VIC
Tue-Fri 10am-5pm / Sat 11am-4pm

Bernie Sander’s 2028 litmus test would strangle America’s golden goose

Surprise! The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is against my 5% billionaire wealth tax. I wonder why?

If enacted, Bezos would owe $12 billion in taxes, and an average family of 4 would receive a $12,000 direct payment.

Poor Jeff would be left with just $224 billion to survive.

Bill moves forward despite concerns over Safe Routes and rail program funding Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Like so many states, Oregon can't afford to pay maintenance for roads being decimated by 3-ton SUVs.

So in desperation, the legislature is stealing money supposed to pay for giving kids safe walking and biking routes to schools.

#pdx #oregon

AI Takes Particle Physics Beyond Human Imagination Could AI be the key to finding the missing pieces in the Standard Model of physics?

Physicists aren't asking AI to look for data that supports their theories. They're asking AI to spot anomalies that could lead to theories no one has imagined yet.

xAI spent $7M building wall that barely muffles annoying power plant noise “Temu sound wall” not enough to quell fury over xAI’s power plant.

Sure would be nice if we applied laws to billionaires.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Can One Chip Contort Itself to Accelerate All Applications? Sandia's Spectra tests a new era of flexible computing power.

Can One Chip Contort Itself to Accelerate All Applications?

Great to see it.

Guest Opinion: Portland needs more protected bike lanes — and we need them now "At some point we must trust our adopted plans and our professional staff to execute them."

Yes. #PDX needs more protected bike lanes. We claim to be a great bike city, then put down a little green paint or plastic bollards right next to cars going 30-50+ miles per hour and say, presto! Infrastructure!

That don't cut it folks.

bikeportland.org/2026/02/25/g...

Grim Dawn celebrates 10 years - set for a big free upgrade with a modern scaleable UI and an expansion Grim Dawn is getting an update that will hopefully make the ARPG classic work better across different screen sizes and resolutions (like the Steam Deck).

Grim Dawn celebrates 10 years - set for a big free upgrade with a modern scaleable UI and an expansion
#GrimDawn #RPG #ARPG #SteamDeck #PCGaming

If you think AI psychosis is scary, wait until you hear about the 1990s and something called “Tomagotchi.”

How Is Low-Cost Computing Handling Memory Price Hikes? As the demand for AI hardware drives up prices, companies like Raspberry Pi are seeking ways to manage costs.

Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton told me he'd be "a little bit surprised" if memory prices haven't leveled off by 2028. Budget phones and low-cost computers are just getting started feeling the pain.

The 16GB model of the Pi 5 has already nearly doubled in price.

#raspberrypi #ramshortage #memory #ai

The Age Verification Trap Platforms are caught in a dilemma: enforce age restrictions or protect user privacy. How are they navigating this tricky terrain?

Age verification is just mass surveillance.

spectrum.ieee.org/age-verifica...

How Is Low-Cost Computing Handling Memory Price Hikes? As the demand for AI hardware drives up prices, companies like Raspberry Pi are seeking ways to manage costs.

Low-cost computer prices are on the rise as memory demand surges. Are the price hikes the canary in the coal mine for affordable consumer electronics?

lol someone needs to get Altman to stoppppp tallllkinnngggg

It’s very unlikely Artemis II will launch in March. NASA announced this morning that due to a helium flow issue in the ICPS (the second stage of the rocket), they will need to roll back SLS to the VAB.

This would put the next target launch date at 4/1.

www.nasa.gov/blogs/missio...

This seems like a bad example. Using the NY Times articles or something would’ve made more sense.

diablo ii resurrected

Tested: Dell's 52-inch Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is large and in charge The Dell Ultrasharp 52 Thunderbolt Hub Monitor is a uniquely gigantic display aimed at multitaskers who work across multiple computers.

Is your desk crammed full of monitors? Do you have 2, 3, or 4 side-by-side? Check out the new Dell Ultrasharp 52.

Yes, it's a 52-inch ultrawide monitor. Yes, it's huge. Yes, it's excellent. This is one for the people who were born multi-threaded.

#monitor #consumertech #displaytech

Turn around drawing of Vectorman, a robot made of hovering balls of various sizes. Ink on paper.

VERY old drawing I did as a guide for marketing materials for the Sega Genesis game Vectorman.

By the way, there's no a chance in hell it will only be $600 mil.

We all know how this works.

Next year they'll be saying, wow, we need to do more than we thought! We need a billion.

Then they'll say, hey, we need infrastructure improvements.

So a few years down the road, it's 2 billion plus.

In Arena Funding Talks, Oregon Officials Are Playing Not to Lose When three struggling governments negotiate with the man who built the nation’s biggest subprime auto lender, taxpayers should get ready to pay.

I think it's absurd that Oregon and Portland legislators are smiling and handy over $600 million to a billionaire-owned sports team.

#pdx

www.wweek.com/news/2026/02...

Hell yeah

My 1981 adventure game is now a multimedia extravaganza – Technologizer by Harry McCracken Over the last few weeks, I created a computer game set in the Arctic. Or maybe I've been working on it since 1981. It all depends on how you count. All I know for sure is that I programmed the original version of Arctic Adventure in Radio Shack TRS-80 Level II BASIC when I was in high school. (It

With Claude Code's help, I reimagined my high school text adventure for this century, complete with sinful luxuries like graphics, animation, and sound effects. Over at Technologizer, I wrote about the weird experience of collaborating with AI and teenage me. technologizer.com/home/2026/02...

pretty stunning chart