Links: technology

Tom Fishburne's cartoon sums it up. / via Sidebar

I saw that Kevin Vognar was playing UFO 50 and grumbled it was only (currently) available on Steam. Kevin shared that Whisky uses Apple's Game Porting Toolkit to allow for such things, along with making many games available on macOS,

I haven't been following CES announcements, but this little cat with a fan that hooks on a mug or set beside a bowl to cool off contents feels like a standout use of technology.

This long read by Rosie Spinks bundles anxieties of *waving arms around* and weaves viewpoints I found sturdy and helpful.

"...unlike so many promises that tech has failed to deliver, e-bikes are genuinely worthy..." Robin Rendle on e-bikes and a future we deserve.

I've been working through this long read by Ed Zitron and taking pause while nodding furiously. This is a distillation of concepts he's been putting forth for some time about the tech industry’s pursuit of growth at all costs. The most deceptive patterns and practices has led to a degradation of user experience with dire consequences. Heavy stuff, but important to note so we can plant new approaches.

CNC'd from a solid block of aluminum, this is one striking (and pricey) number, but it I mean, LOOK AT IT!

Thanks to Brand New I stumbled into the comment section of Pentagram's post about Paula Scher's work for performance.gov that used AI for illustrative icons. My curiousity has not resolved this rapid transformation of the design/illustration industry. It is happening and there are many angles to understanding — not just the creation of images, but how we receive them.

I fawn over everything I see from Smith & Diction, and this new look for an nutrition assistant co is right up there. What really struck me though was the use of AI for image assets using Visual Electric and some tight prompts that were folded into the identity guidelines and the app itself.

There's not much info on the website, but this demo video has lots of vibe! The Orchid is the brainchild of musician Kevin Parker, best known for Tame Impala, and co-founder Ignacio Germade.

A live demo by Mark Simonson of early font editors on a Macintosh Plus. The sort of cozy I like to feed algorithms to soothe my soul and prevent me from buying old computers on eBay. / via Luke Dorny

Admission: I don't really understand what HDR displays are all about. I think they make brighter bits brighter and darker bits darker? Anyway, Chase McCoy shares a bit behind a method for using this technology in illustrations as seen on Rest of World. I checked it out on my phone and it is indeed quite neat!

The Steve Jobs Archive just posted a talk from 1983 by Steve and it encapsulates his vision of computing before it moved into our homes and lives. The preface is long and full video is at the bottom of the page and worth the hour. / via email, but reminded by this summary on Michael Tsai's blog.

This little tidbit from Cabel Sasser elicited a "whoa" from me, a little and extremely nerdy whoa. Related: The unlikely origin story of Google Analytics

Wendy showed me this app and how she's been using it to organize trips and it looked really smart. Forward travel emails and it will intelligently organize a trip folio that is shareable with area recommendations.

Wandering around Lean Rada's website and finding so many delightful projects. I quite dig this halftone effect, but zoom out and explore all the other stuff, code, art, and music.

As seen on the internet, this tablet has a monochromatic screen with an extra good refresh rate that works in daylight (with a soft warm glow at night.) Runs Android so there are some apps, but not overkill. I share this link mostly because the website is GORGEOUS, with the best use of shadows. (Also adding to my unneeded list but geez it looks pretty)

This is the fastest I have ever downloaded, installed and fired up an application. Five stars. I will buy all the coffees to support this.

I shared a smaller set of these badges years ago and couldn't find the link. Found this other collection with 4540 classic 88x31 buttons from the 1990s, 2000s, and today in GIF format. Do not hotlink. A trove by Phillip, The Cyber Vanguard

I'm looking for a simple WYSIWYG HTML editor for the Mac and this old page for the iLife '09 showed up in the search results. (It's still active on Apple's server for now and the video still works!)

Ben Werdmuller made a tool to make sharing to social media easier. He just released updates that include a new icon and Wordpress Plugin. It favors the Fediverse, but the bones are solid. / via Jon Hicks' post about the icon (which is quite lovely).

This short video (on Threads) shows off how the new Apple Pro Pencil shows a shadow of the tool you're using as it approaches the iPad screen. It's hard to explain and kind of whoa.

Jack Cheng (normally* a writer), made an iOS app to superquickly capture notes that are then stored as text files you can fiddle with however you like. I love the hyper-focused solve. * I don't know why this makes me smile, yet it does. I light up whenever I see Jack's name — part of that is because I don't know which facet will appear.

Seen many links to this piece by Molly White that the good ol' days of the web are not gone at all. "...we have tools in our arsenal: the memories of once was, and the creativity of far more people than ever before..." It really is easier than ever to carve out a home online.

I often struggle with tone and what to include on the alternate text to include for accessibility when sharing photos. This is a nice approach that I can wrap my head around. / via Jeremy Keith

"AI-Powered Photos App for the Decentralized Web" (or to run locally!). I'm very interested in the search features that allow discovery by place, color, people, things, etc. Have not tried yet, but I'm gathering tidbits! / via Erin Sparling

On this site, optimized gloriously for the big screen (non-mobile), Michele Giorgi and team showcase the restoration of an original era Macintosh. / thanks Kay

Katie Mansfield illustrates the power of social media to find new ways to play a sad trombone louder.

Rich Tabor goes over the new bits of Wordpress 6.5 with concise descriptions and animated clips of the features in action. This approach would be super nice for any software update. No carousels, no pop-ups. Just a single column of clarity!

Once you swat away all the Fast Company pop-ups and wang-dangles, there's a lovely little video with Susan Kare going over the original Macintosh.

Insight into the hidden ecosystem of autonomous chatbots and data scrapers crawling across the web and Robots.txt snippets to dissuade them. Been struggling to find a resource like this until now! / via Jeff Triplett

Discovery app for new music releases, music videos, events, and news from your favorite artists and record labels by Marcos Tanaka. Because finding new releases on Apple Music and Spotify is abysmal. / thanks for the rec to Paul Carroll!

I recently came across an email that I needed to set up authentication for a domain and for the life of me I can't find it now. But I remember thinking, I will loop back right after I learn how to do this. Chris Shiflett shares an approach.

Transform any old website with a list of links (articles) into an RSS Feed. Handy! / via Chuck Grimmett

Little macOS utility that puts a message up in your toolbar. / via Email is Good

Buttondown is offering migration for Tinyletter users as that service is sunsetting. I sent exactly one email newsletter using Tinyletter to my tiny handful of subscribers, but maybe this will inspire revisiting the idea of a newsletter, even if it’s just a summary of the month to complement the firehose of daily journaling.

I'm just going to include my alt text here “A synthesizer of some sort that has a fluid display. Can't tell if it is real or not!” / via Waxy

Ivan Miranda built a clock that uses marbles to display the time. It’s cool as heck. / via Clive Thompson’s Linkfest

Pre-release software that is very intriguing. Create metadata for photos outside of clouds with lock-in (Google Photos, Apple Photos). Location, faces and object data are stored in the photo file metadata. / via Dense Discovery #264

I was chatting with Grace and lamenting the lack of good news sources and she mentioned Rest of World which captures tech stories from everywhere around the world outside of the West. I wish every news website was this cleanly designed.

Not the most exciting of topics, but it’s becoming very clear that scams are ramping up with AI tools. I was reading how a faked voice fooled a single person at Retool in a phishing attack. I'm telling friends and family to be extra alert. Seth has a great checklist to consider.

Chrome extension to bring ChatGPT to a webpage by the minds at Fictive Kin / via Inspired By

These calculations are handy outside of code! (Had to verify the plural of radius) / via Cameron Moll

Andy Baio provides quick blurbs about all the entries in the running for this inaugural little thing to showcase small websites with big hearts.

I first read about the search engine Kagi on Daring Fireball and started using it (and eventually subscribing) since. Garret Dimon offers a look at why it’s better.

The largest LED screen in the world is also a sphere. Fittingly in Vegas. It looks bonkers.

An amusing use for artificial intelligence

There are so many neato things about visionOS. One I’m most excited about is removing the boundaries of interfaces to be more transparent and a part of the environment with less cruft. May it trickle down across all the OSes and computing experiences!

Stephan Ango’s optimistic thoughts on sensory computing paired with the just announced Apple Vision Pro.

Swipe through favorite websites or shake for random fun. This looks like an extra fun way to browser the web. / via Daring Fireball

Arc just leapfrogged every browser with Boost, a way to customize how websites look and ”zap” features you don't like.

MSCHF exploits a dumb government loophole that allows for robocalls as long as a human initiates them. Now you can help raise money and awareness to lobby against them by firing up a ton of spam calls.

Merlin Bird ID is free app by Cornell Lab that can identify birds by sound. Noah Kalina said (on a non-bird app that doesn’t allow deep links) “It will change your life and how you experience the natural world.”

Or any sort of diagram for that matter. Tom Critchlow shares an option that uses Figma, SVGs and CSS. I had no idea this was possible — this opens up so many doors!

The bad news: Amazon is shutting down the excellent DPReview, a favorite website to learn about digital cameras. The good news: Folks are making an archive that in some ways, is better! / via Tom Watson

Figma has tight animations to show off new features. Dig. And yay for hanging punctuation among oodles of other improvements.

David Hilowitz explores the 70’s toy electronic instrument from Mattel and speaks to the creator. We had one of these growing up and it was indeed a bit magical. / via Chuck Jordan

His post describes a new app for group chat, built on privacy and fortified with (deep breath) A.I. So good he’s on board and makes a compelling case as to why.

Actually, it already is. This video is a fine use of twenty minutes and as JP says, “makes me feel a bit more optimistic about the future.”

David Friedman missed the funny pages. So he used ChatGPT to work through coding up a tool to select and deliver the dailies through a page generated by RSS feeds. One of the best uses of AI I’ve seen yet.