Over at the Verge, This is How the World’s Most Covetable Cameras Get Made is a delightful photo tour through Hasselblad’s offices in Sweden. At $12,000 just to start with one of their cameras, I don’t anticipate getting one any time soon, but I’ll totally admit they’re lustworthy.
Category: Links
Because Space
Yesterday’s Falcon Heavy launch:
And here’s a stream of a car, in space, in a wide orbit around Earth and Mars for the next billion years:
This is exciting on a lot of levels.
Link: New Coalition for Humane Technology
Over at the New York Times, Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built. The article is mostly a press release for some of the efforts the new Center for Humane Technology is doing, but I wanted to call it out because (as may be clear from some of my recent posts in the past few months) it’s a topic I care about.
Link: Nerdwriter
Via Kottke.org, I’ve been diving into another film analysis Youtube channel that I’ve been really enjoying, called Nerdwriter. Some of the videos I’ve enjoyed, as a sampler:
Link: Immortal Myths About Online Abuse
Anil Dash breaks down some of the most common myths about online abuse. The solutions aren’t always easy, but there are solutions to a lot of it.
We are accountable for the communities we create, and if we want to take credit for the magical moments that happen when people connect with each other online, then we have to take responsibility for the negative experiences that we enable.
Link: Subnormality
In one of the Slacks I’m part of, we were discussing Cracked’s recent decision to pivot back away from video, which led to sharing some favorite videos. One of the videos linked to was an episode of People Watching (fair warning, if you’ve ever dealt with depression and modern dating, this is a goddamn punch in the gut):
That left me floored, and was politely informed that the writer for that also does a rad webcomic called Subnormality, which I proceeded to seek out and devour. It can get a little weird and a little wordy at times, but it’s really, really good. You should check it out sometime.
Link: Geo for Bootstrap
Link: Automation
In the vein of technological art, Andrew Campana built something that generates poetry based on the automated subway announcements of the Japanese train system. Some of the combinations can end up really interesting:
The ceiling is passing through on Platform 26. Please contact us.
The local train is moving on Platform 23. Please take care of yourself.
The express train is listening on Platform 1. Please give it back.
Nintendo Labo
Nintendo’s been doing a lot right with their latest console (the Switch). It’s got a pretty compelling use case, and has become the go-to console for some really fantastic gaming experiences (looking at you, Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey). It also looks like they’ve managed to win over and embrace indie developers, as indicated by a steady stream of titles. I think one of the things they’re getting right (aside from building some amazing games themselves) is an appreciation for play and whimsy, as evidenced by their latest addition to the system: the Labo. Go watch the trailer:
I love pretty much everything about this idea.
What I Use: RSS
I encourage people to subscribe to my site via RSS, when mentioning I have a site on the Facebooks and Twitters and similar. This may seem a little archaic (that is so 2008), but honestly RSS is still one of my go-to solutions for finding worthwhile things to read, watch, or experience.
One of the big reasons you don’t really see RSS mentioned anymore (despite folks actually using it often, without realizing it… looking at you, podcasts) is because Google stupidly shut down Google Reader, which was the de facto standard for reading your feeds. That killed a lot of momentum for its use.
While RSS may be limping along, it’s not dead, and a lot of sites actually do have RSS feeds, still — they just aren’t as prominently noted or advertised or linked anywhere.
Of course, even if you do decide to use RSS, there’s still the hurdle of finding an RSS reader you actually like. A lot of folks go with a web-based option (ala Google Reader), so they can read on whatever device they happen to be on. There’s also some pretty nice apps for sale (for instance, NetNewsWire), if you’re so inclined, and a lot of RSS-adjacent apps (like several web browsers, and even Apple Mail) are available as well. Personally, I use Vienna RSS, which is an open source project made for macOS. I’ve tried a bunch of other apps and methods, and this is the one I keep coming back to (there was a gap where development wasn’t really happening much, so I looked around a fair bit, but regular updates are happening again). It’s fairly fast, robust, and seems to handle a ton of feeds well. If you’re looking for a reader, I’d say it’s worth a try.
I recently went through and cleaned up my RSS feeds, getting rid of dead feeds. I just want to say, to all those bloggers who have continued to post after the blogging fad wore off: I salute you, and I’m still reading.