hey-paris

This weekly links post features several articles including how the world's oldest company survived nearly 1,500 years, an explanation of how banking works, a DIY air conditioner repair story, and a piece about the Oregon Trail game.

This weekly links post includes five articles: NASA's Voyager 1 thruster swap, a scientist declaring the Great Barrier Reef's death blow, benefits of special interests in autism, building an NFC movie library for kids, and the PIXHELL attack leaking data from air-gapped computers.

Level Up Tasmania 2024 is a celebration of the local game development industry running from September 27-29 in Hobart. The event will showcase over 30 Tasmanian-made games at PW1, with free tickets available.

The author was re-elected as President of Tasmanian Game Makers for the third consecutive year. They plan to work with the new committee to advance Tasmania's video game industry, launch a games incubator, and assist with the Level Up program.

The TasICT Creative Technologies event in Hobart featured speakers from Procreate, Handbuilt Creative, Screen Tasmania, Secret Lab, and Yarn Spinner. The event aimed to strengthen connections between Tasmania's technology and creative technology industries.

The author attended the South Australian Game Exhibition 2025, a weekend expo and mini-conference with game showcases and awards. They noted the positive community atmosphere and camaraderie within South Australia's games industry, as well as the variety of games on display.

Jon from Secret Lab and Yarn Spinner will present a talk at GDC 2025 about how the indie game DREDGE uses Yarn Spinner for narrative. The session will explore building narrative with open source tools.

The post shares several links including articles about declining doctoral degree enrollments, negative correlations between AI tool usage and critical thinking, and issues with AI-generated code quality. It also includes a link about residential networking over telephone systems.

This weekly links post shares three articles: a humorous study about kebab quality near train stations, a piece on blogging in the AI age, and a story about SQL injection in court systems with a related email data incident.

The author explains why their game development tool Yarn Spinner is not implementing generative AI features, despite frequent inquiries about it. They acknowledge the current AI hype but are taking a different approach regarding creative processes.

The article argues that AI in creative work has fundamental problems beyond output quality, including significant environmental costs from training and querying large language models. It questions increasing carbon footprints when human writers remain capable.

The author argues that the tech industry's focus on integrating AI like ChatGPT into games is a distraction from what actually makes game characters work effectively. They believe this trend misses the fundamental elements that create compelling narrative experiences in gaming.

Eleanor prepares for her final storytime session at the library after 23 years, arranging her worn storybooks as children watch a new booth being installed in her corner. She announces they'll start with "The Cloud Sailor" for Amy's birthday.

Yarn Spinner has released a Mass Effect 2 Save Importer that allows users to access all player decisions from the game directly within Yarn. The tool imports complete save data from what the announcement calls "the most important game of all time."

Wise has frozen over $60,000 AUD from a company that had used their services for about five years. The company was asked to provide additional ownership documentation in early April 2025, which they considered reasonable for a financial institution.

The /dev/world and X World conferences are returning to Melbourne in September 2025, with the call for proposals now open. X World focuses on Apple platform users, while both events will be hosted at Seek HQ.

The $88 million MethaneSAT satellite, backed by Jeff Bezos, has stopped communicating after just over a year in orbit. Before going silent, it revealed that US oil and gas producers emit methane at over four times the rate they report to the EPA.

Tasmania risks losing its competitive advantage by adopting AI, which contradicts the state's successful focus on authenticity and premium quality over efficiency and standardization. The article argues that embracing AI could transform Tasmanian businesses from premium producers into generic commodity suppliers.

Over 17,000 games were removed from Itch.io due to pressure from an Australian activist group and payment processors like Mastercard. While the campaign aimed to combat media glorifying sexual violence, critics argue it sets a dangerous precedent for financial coercion over online creative content.

The article discusses space news from August 2025, including what the author described as the most valuable 14 seconds in Australian aerospace history and the 40th anniversary of what they called the most expensive corporate rivalry in orbit.

Commonwealth Bank staff used ChatGPT to find contact information for a customer, resulting in the bank accidentally disclosing personal information of one customer to another. The incident occurred when staff used unauthenticated access to the consumer ChatGPT platform to obtain phone numbers.

President Trump announced the relocation of US Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama, reversing a previous Biden administration decision. The move involves a $1 billion economic impact affecting 1,400 jobs and America's space defense capabilities.

The 76th International Astronautical Congress concluded in Sydney this month, attracting thousands of attendees from around the world. The event focused on the theme "Sustainable Space: Resilient Earth" as the largest global gathering of space professionals.

Australia plans to ban social media accounts for anyone under 16 starting in December, requiring platforms like Instagram and TikTok to remove minors. The government says this aims to protect children from online harm, but critics warn the approach could create privacy issues and may not effectively achieve its goals.

China's Chang'e-6 mission made history by returning the first samples from the lunar far side in June 2024. The mission required a relay satellite for communication since radio signals cannot pass through the moon.

Australia's world-first ban on social media for children under 16 takes effect on December 10, 2025, but implementation details remain unclear. The law imposes fines up to $50 million on platforms that fail to keep out underage users, though only 25% of Australians believe it will actually work.

The article examines the Australian Public Service's AI adoption culture, contrasting it with official government announcements. It analyzes Commonwealth AI governance failures in practice.

Japanese researchers exposed moss spores to space conditions outside the International Space Station for 283 days. The moss survived direct vacuum, extreme cosmic radiation, and temperature swings that would kill most organisms.

A user's Apple ID was locked after purchasing a gift card from a major retailer, effectively disabling all associated Apple services and devices. Apple's Executive Relations team is now investigating the issue after media coverage brought attention to the situation.

Yarn Spinner 3.1 was released on December 3, 2025, featuring asynchronous operations, improved error handling, and enhanced customization options for the dialogue system framework.