Handling Death Gracefully in Digital Experiences
cloudfour.com
So we’ve been dealing with our fair share of loss lately. And to make matters worse, we’ve encountered applications that handle death poorly and add to our pain.
Links
The Real Computer Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet
tinlizzie.org
But it looks as though the actual revolution will take longer than our optimism suggested, largely because the commercial and educational interests in the old media and modes of thought have frozen personal computing pretty much at the “imitation of paper, recordings, film and TV” level.
So many amazing ideas in this talk by Alan Kay. Ironic that it was given in 2007, the year the iPhone debuted.
Joey Castillo: Comprehensible Open Hardware
patreon.com
So many good nuggets in this quick talk, from teaching users that they don’t have to accept tech that wasn’t made with their best interests at heart, to breaking out castellated submodules, to directions on the silkscreen, to self-documenting circuit boards.
Why NetNewsWire Isn’t Available for Vision Pro
inessential.com
So I want to be careful and go slowly, because if I made it available it would be extremely difficult to reverse the decision and take it away, even with an excellent reason.
Brent, as awesomely considered and thoughtful as ever.
mogenson/lua-macos-app
github.com
A sample GUI Lua REPL, showing how to bundle LuaJIT into a self-contained MacOS app
ntfy.sh | Send push notifications to your phone via PUT/POST
ntfy.sh
ntfy (pronounced notify) is a simple HTTP-based pub-sub notification service. It allows you to send notifications to your phone or desktop via scripts from any computer, and/or using a REST API. It’s infinitely flexible, and 100% free software.
POLY555 Synth
blog.tommy.sh
It’s an analog, 20 note polyphonic, square wave synthesizer based on the 555 timer chip. The enclosure and keys are 3D-printed, its models were programmed in OpenSCAD, and its PCB was designed in Kicad.
I especially like the gallery of abandoned ideas on the path to making this.
How a startup loses its spark
blog.johnqian.com
At a well-run seed stage startup, engineers will often describe the work experience as intoxicating. At a larger company, the best you get is “enjoyable”. Why does this happen? Is it inevitable?
Intoxicating is exactly how I would describe many points in my career, and for many of these reasons. There is such a thrill to work in a tight feedback loop of ideas, implementations, and metrics.
Steve Roberts: Computing Across America
bikepacking.com
Despite not having any footsteps to follow or a guidebook to consult for such an endeavor, Steve dreamed up a plan that would be unthinkable to most people, even today. He spent six months making meticulous arrangements and outfitting a custom recumbent touring bike with a solar-powered Radio Shack Model 100 portable computer that would allow him to keep in touch with his clients and publishers while living on the road full-time.
Computing and Sustainability
100r.co
In Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s book Wind, Sand and Stars, during a mail delivery, his plane crashes in the Sahara desert. There, he encounters a fox and notices that it only eats one berry in each bush. As he was starved, and that the bush was full of fruit, he couldn’t understand why the fox would only take one. This talk is about that fox, who knows better than to eat every berry which could harm both the bush and other desert dwellers.