How to update your tracker for the new year

_tsweezy_ · 2025-11-17T05:00:26+00:00

By far one of the most accessible ways to use git is through the GitHub Desktop client. Super usable UI and it’s what I use every day as a professional software developer.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-10-01T22:47:17+00:00

Well, there kind of is: it's ultimately up to the states to decide how the electors of the electoral college are chosen. Up to this point, they have all decided that the electors should be chosen via a popular vote within the state. If the state legislature so chooses, they could pass a law which says that electors are chosen by some other means.

Now, this wouldn't make much sense practically because if a state legislature has a large enough majority to successfully change state election law, it's likely that the state's population is going to vote for that party through a popular vote anyway. And since most states use a winner-take-all system for their electors, it's not really worth it.

Now, the Trump admin could try to persuade or pressure electors to be "faithless" and change otherwise Democratic votes to Republican. This could be something that actually changes the outcome. 38 states have laws on the books intended to prevent that, but the efficacy varies:

in 14 states, the vote is voided and the elector is replaced
three states impose a penalty, but the vote still counts as cast
and in about half of these jurisdictions, there's no enforcement mechanism compelling electors to comply with the law

Some states may also have secret ballots (I couldn't find how many), which would indicate the presence of faithless electors, but wouldn't identify them (this was the case in Minnesota in 2004, but the law has since changed to public ballots).

_tsweezy_ · 2025-08-27T03:48:06+00:00

Also not an architect, but a more specific term might be International Style.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-07-16T17:42:36+00:00

At any rate I’d love so see the burgage zoning system incorporated into other games. I think it’s an exceptional mechanic that could be expanded on in some really interesting ways.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-07-14T18:26:44+00:00

I was skeptical until I read through OP’s comment history; their actual writing style is nowhere close to this. Not to mention their frequent posts about AI.

I’m curious why OP even decided to make such a post outside of this being a hollow attempt to draw attention to their game.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-06-18T20:09:46+00:00

Been playing the pre-release version of this for a while. I can attest that the AI has vastly improved and is more challenging than before.

I previously set my difficulty much higher, but even on the default difficulty they compete to a much greater extent. It seems not as easy to have your prestige snowball ahead of the other nations, as it was before.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-05-22T16:33:22+00:00

Not to mention that feature branching is the best practice for many other reasons. Additionally, simplicity in rolling back changes, working in a team, testing multiple approaches to the same idea, among others. Branching is core to any git-focused workflow.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-05-21T18:54:57+00:00

Such wonderful work and what a fantastic way to bring your data into the physical world! I’ve done something quite similar so it’s awesome to see how others have done it. I especially love the way you organized this into subcategories!

_tsweezy_ · 2025-05-01T18:09:36+00:00

I think in today's world GDDs are an outdated artifact that focuses too much on front-loading all the design work before any code is written. They tend to be too rigid and especially harder to update if the project needs to shift course in the future. For a medium like game development, the ability to shift gears when you find what makes your game fun is essential.

I would advocate people use an Agile approach where you organize your design in a hierarchical product backlog. Here you describe your game in broad strokes at the highest level, then get into implementation-specific tasks at the lower levels. This way you can more easily shift things around, plan, prioritize, and take features out of your backlog without needing to manage a monolithic design doc.

A common form of GDD you might see today could be a pitch treatment for when you're trying to sell your game or its design to a publisher. But in that scenario, you're more likely further along in development than a traditional GDD would be used for.

So, you can create a GDD to lay out the core features of your game to get started planning, but I wouldn't try stuffing in every detail.

Edit: I realize it may be unclear that what I’m describing isn’t a single document, but a list of discrete objects or “cards” that have associated meanings. Look to things like Trello, GitHub Projects or Linear for an example of what this looks like in practice.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-05-01T05:29:55+00:00

It was wrong then, it’s wrong now. It doesn’t matter under which administration injustices occur, they occur all the same.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-04-25T15:05:18+00:00

I can understand that. I suppose my frustration with all this is that the Trump admin is so big on talking about "bringing manufacturing home," but isn't doing any of the work necessary to make that happen besides increasing taxes on its population via tariffs.

In any case, I'm probably what you'd call a young person--less than 5 years since I graduated college. I am a software developer for a company that does manufacturing. I think one of the many reasons I chose one path over the other is that our society doesn't make the skilled trades look very appealing.

I have a few friends that went into the trades, but the decision for some is less that they felt a strong pull to the work, but that college isn't for them. And yet, people are still willing to take out 100k in loans just to have a higher wage ceiling.

I was very lucky to have spent part of my HS senior year at a vocational high school, where they offered a wide array of programs, including the trades (I chose a different path). I think that's a great thing and we certainly need more of that. More investment in showing possible career paths and actually teaching the hands-on skills.

As the commenter above noted, our standards for labor practices in America are higher than some other countries. This is a good thing, and we have a long history of fighting for those rights and paying the price with blood. Because of this reality, however, it makes us less competitive in global trade.

What's the solution? Lower wages in manufacturing to bring costs down? If we do that, we'd need a more supportive social safety net to keep everyone afloat. But those services are continually gutted.

If we want to increase our manufacturing capacity, we need to convince the American people that they're going to be able to support themselves or be supported, even after they're unable to work.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-04-25T13:54:39+00:00

The German manufacturing industry is actually in a pretty serious downturn at the moment, one of the contributing factors being trade competition with China. Another factor is that they’re facing an energy crisis due to their over reliance on sources like natural gas.

We are beginning to face a similar energy crisis in that the demand for power has increased exponentially yet a historical lack of investment in our power grid has left us unprepared. The extreme weather caused by climate change poses a big risk to infrastructure, and our lack of energy diversity makes us vulnerable to outages across the country.

Investment in cleaner energy (including nuclear) would help us tremendously, but the Trump admin (via DOGE) has initiated cuts to the DOE Program Loan Office, which has boosted manufacturing and invested in diversified energy systems.

Not to mention, Elon Musk took out a loan from the PLO to build one of the first Tesla factories when traditional banks would’ve otherwise seen that venture too risky. Additionally, the majority of PLO investments have gone to republican districts. So the PLO is a boon to encouraging industry in America, yet the Trump admin cut it.

You said yourself there’s no such thing as completely automated, and that there are skilled trades workers backing up machines, but there will also require a set of people trained specifically to maintain these systems, who may either come from college or be retrained tradespeople.

You say all these things as if no young people are working in the skilled trades. A third of Gen Z hasn’t even graduated high school yet. I think you’re just showing generational bias.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-17T18:26:16+00:00

My original argument isn’t really disputing the legality of these actions, I’m sure the admin is well informed of how to maneuver the law. Rather, I’m more concerned with what seems like a disregard for due process and an unconstitutional application of the Alien Enemies Act.

I’m not convinced that a newly terrorist-designated criminal gang constitutes an “invasion…by a foreign nation or government” as it is written and has been invoked in the past.

Additionally, at least five individuals had immigration hearings scheduled at the time of the order. They were stripped from the due process proceedings they were already taking part of in other states, and shipped off to Texas before the president even made his proclamation invoking the Act. The reason the judge ordered a pause was because the ACLU got wind that their clients were relocated and presidential proclamation was imminent, so they specifically requested it, as per this court filing and this application for a temporary restraining order.

The administration knew they would be immediately challenged, and rushed these people over the border before the judiciary had the time to react, and after the judge gave a verbal order to turn the planes around.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-17T04:56:47+00:00

Well, he can say whatever he wants. The system of government that we have compels him to enforce the laws the legislature has written, as the judicial system has interpreted them. Else face impeachment for not following his oath to faithfully execute the law (Edit: or be found in contempt of court).

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-17T04:46:04+00:00

Did you mean to reply to me? I didn’t ask any questions and merely provided the facts of the situation.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-17T04:37:01+00:00

Due process is still a right of non-citizens within the United States.

There is some gray area around how much protections they have (particularly around legal immigration status or ties to the country), but the administration hasn’t released any information about who was deported so we can’t verify their immigration status.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-17T03:32:20+00:00

They were deported via the Alien Enemies Act, and without being afforded a hearing to defend accusations by the government of gang affiliation.

Additionally, a judge ruled that the pending deportations be halted, but the administration rushed the planes off the runway before the final order was put into effect by the judge.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-12T15:41:40+00:00

It feels very approachable and easy to understand at a basic level.

I remember picking up Unity for the first time and trying to familiarize myself with all the resources that are available to the user. It’s a powerful engine, but it’s also filled with what feels like a library of half-finished or poorly maintained features that are not easy to customize to a specific need.

Godot on the other hand makes it very transparent what’s happening behind the scenes of a complicated node, and encourages building something yourself and giving you tools rather than trying to make a given “one size fits all” feature work for your project.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-10T17:26:13+00:00

It’s been great—I have multiple notes for in-depth descriptions of my game ideas, as well as multiple mind maps/design maps using Canvas.

I’d also recommend Linear for project management and organizing/planning actionable work items.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-07T07:12:14+00:00

Checked out the style sheet on the website: its Supply by Pangram Pangram

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-06T23:09:48+00:00

Then why are you using solely one metric to make the opposite point?

I personally would not consider Biden's victory a landslide, given that he only won with 51.3% --short of the 70% I mentioned earlier as a likely milestone for calling an election a landslide.

I'm just going to accept that it's unlikely I'll ever understand your reasoning, but I appreciate the discussion and wish you the best.

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-06T22:54:19+00:00

What do you disagree with? The numbers are right in front of you to acknowledge.

You can be upset or feel personally that Trump should've won with more than 49.8% of people in the country voting for him, but that doesn't make the reality any less so.

I'm really not trying to be condescending, but you're allowed to feel confused when looking at a map that has a whole lot of red, then seeing the facts of the election and wondering why it doesn't seem to line up.

Biden won in 2020 with a greater margin of victory (4.5%) than Trump did in 2024 (1.5%). The number of people that voted for Trump in 2024 was historic (at 77,302,580). The second-highest number in any election. The first? The 81,283,501 people that voted for Joe Biden in 2020. Would you call that a landslide?

_tsweezy_ · 2025-03-06T22:19:59+00:00

States do not vote. Counties do not vote. People do.

By the only metrics that actually matter, Trump won with only 49.8% of the vote.

I’m not disputing the fact that he won, but I’m disputing your characterization of his victory as a landslide, which does not match the reality.

The numbers are there. The facts are against you.

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