Remote

Shannon Clark

@Rycaut@mastodon.social

mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06

Entrepreneur & Product Manager - looking for new opportunities. Recently moved to Mountain View CA.

Writer. GM (40+ years of ttrpgs) MTG player (former dealer semi-pro player)

3rd generation developer, online since before www (1990-present)

I post on a lot of topics including US politics (registered Democrat) and being a Dad. I try to be a good ally to my family and friends who are LGBTQ+

https://calendly.com/rycaut to schedule meetings with me

570 Followers

885 Following

50 Posts

Joined December 22, 2016

Pronouns:

He/Him

THREADS:

https://www.threads.net/@rycaut

Blog:

https://www.rycaut.com

Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 1mo ago

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@timbray/117207765997753962 The only addition / minor correction I would add to @anildash@me.dm ‘s post is that VC firms also increasingly get their funds from overseas sovereign wealth funds (and who are the LPs funding most VCs these days is if anything more opaque than it has been in the past - it has always less public as private family offices and even many nonprofit foundations don’t always emphasize the portion of their funds allocated to VC firms but it seems more hidden today even as new wrinkles have been happening)

Quoting

Tim Bray 🇨🇦

@timbray@cosocial.ca

VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of Cancer Capital - Anil Dash https://www.anildash.com/2026/09/02/cancer-capital/

Open quoted post

Tim Bray 🇨🇦: "VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of C…" - CoSocial

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@wdjorth@mastodon.online @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org my brother-in-law used to be a professional food critic (column in the NY Times etc) and I went out with him a few times - worst part of his job he said was the places he had to go to multiple times that he wasn't in the end going to review (usually because they were bad - one place seriously messed up the bread basket and then a caprese salad - and we bailed before they could ruin anything else) and the hoops he had to do to keep himself unknown at that time (pre-tiktok era)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@pattykimura@beige.party @inthehands@hachyderm.io I seriously tell people that the best technologists I’ve known have not had CS degrees of any form. Most have had Philosophy degrees (some another social science). Combined with technical skills the combination means they can think deeply about complex issues. Usually can also communicate well and evaluate the edge cases and moral questions a given technology raises But they have also usually just been rock solid developers (though rarely stay individual contributors)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@amydiehl@mstdn.social @mhoye@cosocial.ca I seriously wonder how people read resumes where the name is ambiguous. (Eh very personal interest here - I’ve been misgendered based on my name nearly daily since I was a teenager. I’m a very cis male but daily get people asking if I’m using my wife’s card or being startled when I pick up for Shannon etc. I’ve long wondered if my resume gets penalized by bias like this study shows)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social and what happens if the name isn’t Gender specific (or is assumed to be but actually isn’t) So I’ve known a woman named Michael And I am named Shannon (and misgendered all the time based on my name - decades ago it was amusing as a teen to get offers to apply to all women’s schools but after decades it has gotten really old. When applying for jobs I always wonder if my resume gets read as a woman’s by some even if I put my assumed to be male middle name)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Decades ago I had a very complex set of personalized shell scripts and settings (for my Unix systems I used) and a set of apps and shortcuts I used on my personal machines.

But a very wise mentor pointed out to me that most systems I might touch (at a client’s network or when helping a friend or family member with their devices) wouldn’t have the customizations I was used to. So I would either not be able to help or be far slower and more prone to errors when I did.

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@grimalkina@mastodon.social decades ago after a particularly stressful week (I was part of a team managing the build and code repositories and coding tools/platforms for a massive bank with over 1000 full time programmers in the late 1990’s) my office mate gave me some really great advice which echos your dad’s “Go take a walk by the river” (our office was in downtown Chicago) At the moment it seemed odd but we rarely left the office (lunches were free and brought to our desk) doing so did indeed help calm me

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org ee may also get flowers at the market but only after obtaining the apparently astonishingly good strawberries (we go every week but have never once waited the likely 1 hour or so to actually buy anything from that stand. It’s truly insane. Oh and if they are still there this week we’ll get fresh mulberries. (We moved recently - one attraction of our new neighborhood is the year round weekly farmers market 5 mins walk from our new house. Also measuring things by walking time)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@hozhoogoo@infosec.exchange @wdjorth@mastodon.online @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org nothing so dramatic, the served stale, boring bread. I've tried not to dwell on it so don't remember if it came with boring butter or with nearly flavorless olive oil/balsamic but in any case it was incredibly bad. And then followed by a caprese salad with nearly no flavor. It was remarkable in just how bad they were - not in a "going to get food poisoning" way but just in a bland, flavorless, boring way.

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@octothorpe@mastodon.online @lisamelton@mastodon.social as part of my dinner tonight I took the rest of an apple I had added some pieces of to my salad and ate it with some creamy peanut butter that I added some maple cream (Trader Joes for the double win here) Very good. I’m over 50 so this is fine for part of my dinner… That’s my claim at least.

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@gunchleoc@mastodon.scot @timnitGebru@dair-community.social @jonny@neuromatch.social it’s a good thing to track. My favorite success metric is a two parter. We release Friday evening to production .,,. And the whole team has dinner at home. (Meaning code pushes to production have become stable and routine that no one has to babysit them and no one has to stay late to resolve failures and problems) It means both that the dev/test environments are solid & that as a team our processes are working to mean we don’t suddenly release crashes

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@drahardja I have accounts that are, by themselves, older than what various age verification schemes attempt to prove - but that doesn't seem to qualify as verification... (for that matter I was one of the first 1000 users of LinkedIn but my account there isn't "verified" even though they have almost literally as much data as they could about anyone for my account ) verification schemes are as you note largely for other purposes than claimed)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

In my campaign familiars and animal companions when dismissed would retain all their abilities and powers and memories. Mechanically I’ve thought about ways fo make them functionally similar to PCs with ways to level up in the future (they might lose their telepathic bond with their former master - but perhaps retain the ability to establish with others) while this idea might be a fun and perhaps run for humor one-shot at a convention. I also think it could be a really fun long campaign #ttrpg

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Where the players peel back some hidden layers of whatever game world the campaign is set on (likely Golarion if Pathfinder or the Realms if 5.5e though in both cases and likely earlier than is typical I’d take the campaign plane hopping. I’d give them not only the abilities of a familiar or companion but also various abilities that would unlock as they leveled up with some perhaps requiring finding/obtaining certain key items (like a spellbook or arcane focus) #ttrpg

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org apparently mothers day is when Trader Joe’s sells the most flowers each year. (More even than valentines day apparently) I’ve kinda cheated this year - bought LEGO flowers for my son to give my wife, bought preserved roses in her favorite color from a small stand at the local farmers market (complete with a small vase to display them) and tomorrow morning we will go to the farmers market while she sleeps - though to get strawberries from the stand with an average 25 person line always

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@corbden@defcon.social @gnomon@mastodon.social it’s also the case that there were some powerful forces that could and did push back against tech company excesses that existed back then but seem perhaps to not be as common today. Some of these aren’t as well known or public. For example I once attended in the 00’s as a guest a meeting of CIO’s for law firms where they taked openly as peers about vendors especially any who were pushing vaporware. Not public but such channels of customers pushed back on keeping tech honest

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@LordWoolamaloo@mastodon.scot @cstross@wandering.shop there is a common myth that I have heard lots of people say that crossing buttons don’t actually do anything (This is demonstratebly false in many places - but people I think have internalized that they don’t actually do anything and/or that touching such things is gross - even though here at least many work if you just wave at them)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mhoye@cosocial.ca @inquiline@assemblag.es @mayintoronto@beige.party @amydiehl@mstdn.social and it is actually condensed and made worse by both the equalizing effect of the biased sources being weighed equally or possibly even having more examples in the training data than less biased ones. And the perception (inaccurate but common and ingrained) that algorithms/computers are less biased and more authoritative than humans - even when they are demonstrably not and have randomness forced into them (LLMs don’t even always give the same outputs)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mcc @cwebber @maxleibman it is part of a trend to shift jobs from direct employees to people who work for someone else (and thus don’t get equity, bonuses, career paths or benefits). It’s all a continuum from offshoring/outsourcing to gig work to now “AI” where the fantasy of these bros and their investors is the workerless business which has no workers it has to pay or care about. It’s all a fantasy driven in part by an obsession about revenues per worker and ignoring any purpose investor $

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@RickiTarr@beige.party I remember being exposed to lots of cuisines from a very early age. Both in the foods we cooked at home and when we dined out. I learned to use chopsticks at a Chinese restaurant when I was 3 and my mom was in the hospital giving birth to my sister. And from a young age we went out for lots of different styles of food especially when traveling. And I got exposed to my Jewish side from family tales of how hard it was to find bagels in Virginia in the 1970’s

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@RickiTarr@beige.party I was lucky that my dad and my mom both were excellent cooks - my mom did a lot of the cooking (my dad traveled extensively for his work - which was literally designing food manufacturing processes - he had a PhD in chemical engineering and literally wrote textbooks on stuff like making orange juice) my dad grilled but was also comfortable cooking up meals in the kitchen - lots of one pan meals in the cast iron. But our family joke was you could (and would) have salad for dessert

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@RickiTarr@beige.party not as a bad thing - we made massive salads in a salad bowl from the 1970’s (this was the 1970’s/1980’s) and would all have multiple servings. Favorite meals included my mom’s cabbage soup, a dish we called “hamburger mixed in thing” which was ground beef + whatever leftovers + frozen veggies we had - might be some salsa tossed in, might be some leftover pasta whatever. It was quick and yummy. We also made a very white version of “curry” (served with coconut and raisins)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@mttaggart @lisamelton this is especially the case for Google shopping which half the time for the stuff I’m searching shows links to sites that no longer have the item linked in stock, have it for a different price or don’t even show the item in question on the site at all anymore. And Google shopping has seemingly no concept of editions - showing results for say a print on demand version of an old book alongside 150 year old 1st editions of the same work (it isn’t just Google eBay also)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mhoye@cosocial.ca @amydiehl@mstdn.social indeed I think that’s great but also hard once the process starts - I suspect however that most companies don’t do that work (and these days many use AI filters that likely have unknown biases to filter most applications before a human even sees them.) It’s definitely a good idea if as a company you actually want to hire the best people and get past your own inevitable biases in that process. Hiring has been pretty broken however for a long time

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@RickiTarr@beige.party I was lucky to grow up with a family that shopped at farmers markets whenever they were around (which in the 1980’s wasn’t as common as today) and we literally would go to grocery stores when traveling as a family. My dad famously took my mom out for sushi for their first date (in Berkeley in the 1960’s - to be clear neither were a hippie. My mom was more of a beat and my dad was a grad student at Berkeley in the 1960’s - famously went to a Jefferson Airplane concert in a suit and tie

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@RickiTarr@beige.party but both my mom and dad mostly cooked without a lot of recipes. We had a lot of cookbooks but they had lots of favorites they could make without reference. And many of the books we used most often were books like the amazing Flavor Principle Cookbook which taught mostly how to get various flavors/cuisines and wasn’t about specific recipes. (I buy every used copy I find and gift it - fantastic cookbook). My mom made amazing merengues and did more baking than my dad

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@oddhack@mstdn.social @LordWoolamaloo@mastodon.scot @cstross@wandering.shop my point is that the claim that it is universally true may explain why some people don’t even try them at crossings (even the ones where they do in fact work). That’s the myth part. And it is indeed not helped by cities that install placebo (or broken and not repaired)crossing buttons that do not in fact impact the timing of the pedestrian signals

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

taxes should be so simple that the government calculates what it thinks you owe them and tells you (likely far in advance of it being owed) and it is only in rare / unusual cases that you need to do much more - eliminate all the misc credits, all the misc deductions, make it far simpler and use mostly paperwork already filed with the government to calculate it. Only needing additional details in unusual cases (like you worked for someone who didn't actually file paperwork correctly)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I don't mind paying taxes (I pay a lot of them) but I do think the immense industry that has arisen around avoiding taxes and/or maximizing tax benefits is obscene - as are the many ways for corporations (and individuals) to appear to have zero or negative income while by most measures they have massive cash flows and asset growth. And there shouldn't be the massive industry around tax preparation that exists here in the US (where many people spend tax prep than they owe in taxes)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Apparently to create a new Google account (which I need to do to access a google group that I was added to with an email that isn’t associated with any google account) you have to have a cell phone capable of sending sms messages.

That I do isn’t an issue - but that so much is then gated and dependent on you having access to a cell phone seems problematic. Yes most people today have one but not everyone (my child for example though a tween does not have a phone and won’t for a many years)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Random thought that occurred to me earlier today - I’d love it if books sold in translation included a way to read the original text as well. In physical print obviously this is a layout challenge - and doubles the likely size of the work.

But digitally imagine if every book sold had an option to see the original text. Perhaps with a variety of formatting options (including the correct pagination for works where that matters

I think manga have at times had this. Or something like it.

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Anyone else in the Bay Area interested in exploring some retro tech ideas for kids (and adults) classes and activities?

Starting with the following idea - typing classes (after school/weekends during the school year, camps during some breaks and summertime - with more than just typing)

Where people learn typing using actual typewriters and mechanical keyboards attached to somewhat retro computers. Not internet based games. And perhaps linked to other activities like making zines and artworks

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io but since we have it - I'll vote accordingly. Would I much prefer rank choice or something similar - yes. Is that likely here in CA? Nope. or at least not anytime soon. Until then keeping CA in the firmly blue camp is really important - not least because I'm a taxpayer, homeowner, and parent here and I shudder to think what a mess we could be in for if a MAGA GOP candidate wins in the fall. And no it's not great.

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@gatesvp@mstdn.ca in 5.5e with spirits I might also offer some flexibility to players when they die and return - that perhaps they can assume other forms (ie within the limits of the spell to some extent) But I’ll probably settle on a slightly more complex set of options - to get around some of the many limitations on familiars and other summoned spirits in 5/5.5e editions of the game. I’d like the players to have characters who can improve over time with new stuff they can unlock in feh campaign note

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange @VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social parody. Though hard to tell these days but the “Braking Mews” and “Live from Epstein Island” are solid clues…

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io I agree. But I'm also going to be very very very pragmatic in my voting in the upcoming "primary" - which ever Democratic candidate who is leading in the polls is almost certainly going to get my vote - even if the polls have Becerra and Streyer on top. I really want the fall election to be two Democratic candidates who can then run on who will do a better job. What I don't want is any GOP candidate on the ballot in the fall Am I happy? No but not a fan of the jungle primary

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jwz@mastodon.social @xgranade@wandering.shop for me it is the "will this app I open or this notification" mean that my music (or my podcasts) get randomly paused that is so infuriating these days - especially if I have plugged in my device and am listening via headphones or a speaker and am not actually in front of the device. Closely followed by the randomness of the duration remaining view of stuff like podcasts - which often show one set of seconds remaining - then suddenly decide to play a few mins of ads. *sigh*

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I have long kept such a list in Google Maps (via their "saved" locations feature - I haven't been consistent in how I have categorized such places - so its a bit of a mess - but I have 100's of places around the world saved in that way - in the hope that I'm reminded to check them out when nearby (assuming it is still there when I am there) But I'd love to have an alternative - that is part of an app I already use NOT something I have to remember to check / keep updated

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

As well as stuff like:

not losing any passkeys for sites/apps
maintaining my signal and other encrypted services
keeping my messages logs
not losing any files (books for example) I’ve downloaded directly to my phone

I have something like 300 apps on my phone so will review them but want to migrate them to the new phone and then edit which I continue to use

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nikink@aus.social @kaffando@mastodon.social most fun - find a teenager or college student who is a fan/collector themselves and partner with them to photograph and sell the items - part of that being to figure out the best markets to use (online and in person). That’s likely the best way if he doesn’t want to sell them himself. If he has a child in his life (his own or a niece or nephew or a friend’s kid(s) who are Star Wars fans it could also be a magnificent gift. Worth checking the values first so all are aware

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

generic advice for MOST businesses for their emails and website.

Do not ask your SIGNED IN CUSTOMERS to sign up for your mailing list - in the email FROM YOU that you just sent them. Or to signup for your mailing list for a 20% new customer discount (or whatever your offer is) WHEN THEY ARE LOGGED IN to their account of many many years with you.

I see this all the time - like daily. It isn't a deal breaker but it is friction and makes long time customers feel a bit less favorably

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@gatesvp@mstdn.ca yes and I think the stakes would have to be different that just “can we all live/become crazy powerful” but could still be really fun as a GM and I hope for the players. Reminds me of my favorite build for an NPC antagonist in Pathfinder 1e - the Feysworn prestige class which is fairly easy to enter and results in an NPC who serves an eldest and gets raised (or reincarnated) on the First World whenever they die. So the PCs can’t just kill this NPC (and it isn’t just dm plot armor)

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@newstik@social.heise.de hmm yeah I’ll have to remember how many authenticator apps I use and see if I have to manually do anything to move to the new device. I don’t think I’m using eSIMs. But good advice about nitrifying signal contacts.

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

it is possible that in the mobile app there is a way to save a place but I wish it also existed in the web browser implementation as well. Use case - just read about a small garden in NYC in the East Village that has a treehouse and looks like an amazing little oasis in the urban fabric of the city - a place I haven't seen in any of my (many) past visits. So I wanted to save it while I was thinking about it as a place to visit in the future in the hope that on a future visit I'll be reminded

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Shannon Clark @Rycaut@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@jwz@mastodon.social @xgranade@wandering.shop I'm actually not sure if it is the podcast app from Apple or the servers for various podcasts that are inserting ads into podcasts -but a lot of podcasts I listen to these days have dropped in audio ads and not entirely sure where the insertions are happening - I think it may be via the podcast app itself (and may be why you can no longer make a playlist mixing podcasts and music Years ago I used to do that - craft playlists mixing new (to me) music w favorite podcasts to work to

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