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Sam Machkovech

@samred.com

1.5K followers 400 following 1.3K posts

Currently: ??. Recently: NYT, Polygon, The Stranger, Game Developer, Games Radar. Previously: Ars, American Airlines, The Atlantic. Clips + contact info: https://samred.com. He/him, from Seattle.

samred.com.

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · Nov 10

I've dreamed my entire career of writing an article like this. New in today's @nytimes.com: My profile of Tetris creator (and Seattle-area resident) Alexey Pajitnov, on the games, attempts, and failures he's worked on in the 40-year shadow of his most famous game. (Upshot: He's still designing.)

After the Triumph of Tetris, an Unsolved Puzzle

Alexey Pajitnov, who created the ubiquitous game in 1984, opens up about his failed projects and his desire to design another hit.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Sam Machkovech

Garth Marenghi's Catbus @hayao.lol · 18h

democrats pretend winning elections is this Herculean task when all they have to do is follow the blueprint of the guy who won so hard they changed the rule to "you can only be president for 8 years"

logo, acting spoopy @logophobe.bsky.social · 1d

Step 1: disband ICE
Step 2: give ICE's entire bloated budget to the IRS
Step 3: record white collar crime task force kicking in penthouse doors and macing unresisting billionaires
Step 4: one hundred years of Dem reign

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 11h

hi from a very blue "Greenlake" in Seattle

shore of a lake surrounded by blue, cloudless sky

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 12h

I'm going to make 50 quazillion dollars by pitching a Netflix series about how teenagers used landlines. White pages, school phone number directories, crank calls, dial-up interruptions. Coming summer 2026, the new viral sensation TV series "Busy Signal"

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 14h

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
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I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 1d

this is the same event in which current Seattle mayor Bruce Harrell suggested creating a video wall in the city, on which people could talk to an AI version of Martin Luther King Jr and ask it what he ate for breakfast

for the love of Cal I need some local TV stations to air the stuff he is saying

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 1d

in Seattle, a mayoral candidate couldn't attend a debate because she was sick, which elicited THIS response from the event's host:

"She [@wilsonforseattle.bsky.social] said that she's not feeling well. She wants me to to pass on her apologies, which I am not."

what in the fucking fuck?

Erica C. Barnett @ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 1d

This is still a VERY rough transcript, so forgive omissions and grammatical errors, but better than the original.

Made it special for you freaks who like to read long quotes. ;)
publicola.com/wp-content/u...

publicola.com

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 1d

just saw my first "protect girls sports" placard for a school board election. I assume this means funding their coaching staffs, their materials budgets, their facilities access, and their expansion into more sports options for girls

hang on, I'm getting an update in my earpiece

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 1d

If you don't use Insta (I don't blame you), the same speaker, Laura Marquez-Garrett, goes into further depth in this YT video. Not as sound-bitey, but if you're a parent, listen to this whole thing while you go on a walk sometime. You need to know what's being dumped haphazardly into kids' lives rn.

An Alarming Threat to Kids: AI Chatbots (with Laura Marquez-Garrett)

YouTube video by Scrolling 2 Death

www.youtube.com

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 1d

Can't find a non-Insta version of this speech, but parents should watch it. TLDR: "AI" works by assuming a bias based on the question asked, then shovels bias-favoring BS. Which is *dangerous* with kids. Same thing happens when kids' questions are racist, misogynist, about self-harm, or worse.

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

the absolute wildness of an ELECTED MAYOR detailing his dream of asking AI Martin Luther King Jr what he ATE FOR BREAKFAST I honestly am not sure if *this* is the afterlife and I didn't make it to the good place

Erica C. Barnett @ericacbarnett.bsky.social · 2d

The comment I posted earlier, where Harrell said one "cool" idea would be a 10-foot wall with an AI version of MLK you could talk to, was part of a longer spiel about "art," meaning—as far as I could discern—AI art. I'm gonna post some of that quote below.

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

in line with every other 2025 Harrell appearance, this blathering flurry of his words in no way suggests Harrell wants to take accountability for Seattle's existing woes or has a serious interest in average voters' lives, which sure is a helluva reelection strategy

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

you are fun to hang out with at a gay bar and I hope that happens again someday, sorry about your illness doldrum. I prescribe sleep, popcorn with fresh melted butter, chocolate, or all of the above

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

...I posted this before I saw that tape was still on the ceiling, I meant the roll of tape, don't mind me

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

good that you left the blue tape in there for all visitors to see and marvel at lol

Reposted by Sam Machkovech

Brett Hamil @bretthamil.bsky.social · 2d

This cartoon is from Oct 2022. These two clowns are now begging the president to invade the city they've based their careers on slandering (neither of them actually live here). What a world.

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

(You appear to be engaging thoughtfully. But that NYT op-ed leans on abusive-relationship-survival hallmarks of pretending that an abuser's violence deserves benefit of the doubt. A sickness that is far too common on op-ed boards to coddle, instead of challenge, readers who made the wrong '24 call.)

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

Mamdani's campaign reminds me of candidates in Seattle who've pushed for reform, only to be stymied by centrist city councils. But Mamdani's version is better, because he's not suggesting he'll bend to an imaginary center. THAT is what he's doing right: giving up that early-'00s Dem delusion.

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

I hate this op-ed. Standard NYT nonsense of a false equivalency between policy that a mayor cannot immediately enact but create public pressure for other officials (ie mass transit funding) and Trump's bad-ideas-sold-as-good (ie hardline anti-globalism as a viable economic solution).

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 2d

If you'd like to know my political views, here's one: standing fellow citizens up to humanize them and give them personhood. That's a political choice, as much as dehumanizing is. If you pick the latter, you have chosen violence, and I pity you and pray for you. Great statements here.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 2d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 3d

Tron Ares (2025)

men in neon-green goggles shower themselves in champagne

text reads "MARINERS ADVANCE TO ALCS / FIRST APPEARANCE SINCE 2001"

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 3d

oh I know! I wanted to metaphor it for the good people

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 3d

imagine a single League match lasting 140 minutes and both sides being equal the entire time, tonight was wild on a baseball basis

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 3d

this may honestly be my ghost writing these skeets

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 3d

I needed this many minutes after tonight's sports to stop cheering and breathe in. Wow. That was one of the best baseball games I've ever watched. 15 wild innings. Great sports. Congrats to my city's Mariners!

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Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 4d

some Seattle animals

black and brown dog sits in front of mural of a bird and sasquatch painted on a wooden fence

Sam Machkovech @samred.com · 4d

in that case, hit those amazing-looking fried corn fritters