Carl Cravens @CarlCravens@mastodon.xyz

One thing I've never understood is why videogame matchmaking is so complicated.
So here's your matchmaking rating (MMR), which is based on a complicated and confusing formula, but we keep that hidden anyway. Then there's your skill rating (SR) which we also hide from you unless you're Diamond level. Then there's your visible Rank. We won't tell you how that relates to SR. SR used to be based on MRR, now it's not.

Next season, we'll redo the whole thing, because we're as confused as you are.

For all the different contact transfer technologies since the Palm Pilot, it's ironic that people just hands over their phone and ask you to enter your number.

Guess we never did figure out how to do that smoothly and securely.

Today I said "close the loop" in total seriousness.

I am such a manager.

My Slack pet peeve:

9:25 Fred: Hello Carl
9:26 Carl: Good morning!
[five minutes pass]
9:31 ... <Fred is typing>

Dang it, have what you need to say typed up _before_ you interrupt someone with your greeting. It's so frustrating sitting and watching that "<typing>", thinking any moment now you're going to hear what they have to say, and you spend five minutes doing nothing but waiting.

So the thing that bugs me about the Amazon delivery driver cameras, that penalize them for following too close, not wearing a seatbelt, etc (and get the situation wrong, such as "distracted driving" when they look at a side mirror, running a stop sign where there was no sign)...

We wouldn't put up with this in an office environment? Can you imagine a future where a camera watches you work in the office and penalizes you for thinking too long, taking bathroom breaks, etc?

achievement get:
Two immediate family members have covid.

My brother was not vaccinated (but I thought he was) and is maybe getting over it, my mother was vaccinated, but has immune disorders and is in poor health, and is now in the hospital, 1200 miles away.

I don't know what to do besides sit here and wait for more information. :|

I need an app that shows me all the games I own on all platforms. More than once I've bought a game on Steam and realized I already owned in on Epic, or Origin, or Humble, or GOG.

When I _do_ remember, it's tedious to double-check each one. Almost feels worth the effort to catalog my non-Steam games in a spreadsheet just so I have one place to look... except then I'd forget to add new games anyway.

Slack is: my phone dinging at me all through lunch.

I need a smarthome that closes all the windows when it gets hotter outside than inside.

You every wonder about how corporate policy grows by:

Some guy writes a policy draft, doesn't actually mark it as "draft", and saves it the document store for others to review. It is never reviewed or approved by anybody.

Some guy leaves the company.

Years later, that policy looks official (because approved policies aren't "signed" or anything), and nobody remembers anything about how it came about.

Now that's the official policy, and it applies to you, even if it's unreasonable.

I want to do a documentary on computer geek culture of the 80's and 90's, around the time businesses were adopting desktop computers.
I'll title it,"They Called Us Wizards". It will be stupidly nostalgic for the days when half the office staff were afraid of their computers.

What's that one weird thing you evangelize when the topic comes up?

Mine is my office chair... over 10 years old, gas cylinder is still strong, foam and fabric look and feel new. This chair was an amazing investment.

Can we do away with the anti-pattern of presenting a huge box that looks like a login, but is "Create Account" with a little tiny link that says, "Already a member? Sign in here."

Can we at least recognize that if I entered my valid credentials in the "Create Account" box you can just log me in.

I really hate it when a business treats the paying customer as a second-rate citizen and crafts their landing page with only potential customers in mind.

In 2018, I subscribed to VRV streaming, which granted me access to Crunchyroll Premium, and I cancelled my Crunchyroll direct account. Every month since, I've gotten an email telling me that my link to Crunchyroll had been completed and now I had Premium access through VRV. Okay, whatever... they just keep triggering that link-succeeded email, so I'll ignore it.
Now those emails have turned into "you are being double-billed, cancel your CR account". But CR hasn't billed me since 2018.