Z Space Blog

It occurred to me recently that I operate my own website, which is a distinct advantage when platforms like Indeed try to silence legitimate and truthful communication from users. Owning your publishing medium gives you a freedom that most others on the Internet don't have. Someone in such a position can communicate freely, without interference from those who would be embarrassed by their communication. There are no voting, reporting, or comment systems that can make their pages disappear.

I already review video games and books on this blog, in addition to my other content; why shouldn't I review employers and businesses I've interacted with? Reputation is a key ingredient to a successful business, and every person has a voice. It's time to use mine. Businesses are not so special that they are immune to the mechanics of sociology.

Mountain Shadow Nursery is a plant tissue culture facility in Littlerock, WA, specializing in propagation/cloning and research.

Here's the review, copy-pasted verbatim as I posted to Indeed. But first, the verdict:

I do not recommend working for this firm, or doing business with them if you are in the agriculture industry.

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I've been asked a few times over the years why I chose to learn C with the colloquially-known "K&R C Bible", and specifically the Category-0 style, coined on USENET back in the day.

For those unfamiliar, I'm talking about The C Programming Language, 2nd Ed., by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the creators of the language. In it are a series of exercises that the reader can work on to build their knowledge of C through actually building something with it. On comp.lang.c, people would share their solutions to exercises in this book. After a while, they coined different categories of solutions, to refer to their robustness and complexity.

Category-0 is solving each exercise using only the knowledge the book gives you, up to that point. In other words, it's to approach it as a complete newbie and see what you can put together using only the stuff you've learned in the book.

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I've spent the past few weeks reflecting on the sort of content that tends to get posted this time of year: retrospectives. Opportunities to review the events of the year, look at what went well, what didn't, what we'll do in the future to be better. Even though companies and other bullshit are joining in the spirit, it's still important to give yourself moments to look back and self-assess your life. A new year is a new opportunity to improve. You don't need a new year to justify it, but it feels right for some people. I kicked a nicotine habit cold-turkey with a New Year's resolution, back in 2005. It can be done.

So, what was 2022 like? Let's try to exclude the grim politics and general state of the world. Life is rough right now. Some countries are at war. Some are dealing with radical extremists. Some are starving or struggling to stabilize their currencies. Others are fighting for basic rights of expression with clothing, or to keep their culture alive in the face of re-education camps. Let's try to find the good stuff.

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Back in 2012, I bought this cute little game called Box Pusher [DSi]. It features gameplay from a 1982 game called Sokoban. In Sokoban, you are a warehouse worker and push boxes around an enclosed area onto target squares. This is the entirety of its gameplay. Think of ye olden Zelda block puzzle, on crack, and you get Sokoban. Box Pusher contains 250 levels worth of this craziness, and features a level editor, in case that's not enough box pushing for you. It was certainly enough for me. But, you don't have to do the work needed to get some Box Pusher solutions; I did it for you!

Box Pusher » Level Data for Solvers

Hook it up to a solver, and you're good to go! Putting this together was a journey.

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Ever since Mark Zuckerburg pitched the Metaverse, the "Web 3.0" buzzword blew up, describing a "Web" that is backed by cryptocurrency-like ledgers. Proof of work, proof of stake, etc. NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are also involved in a scene like this.

What in this picture is an evolution of existing Web technology? How does this enhance the state of hypertext? To me, this is Meta's vision for their next Web product. It is not a new version of an existing, open platform. It has nothing to offer me as a programmer, gamer, writer, or server admin. It seems to be the mixture of NFT scamming, VR, and botnet. It looks like an addiction chamber for whales.

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