I like to think I know a lot, but given how much there is to know I’m certain I actually know very little. I’m so privileged that the front-end community is such an open place willing to share and distribute knowledge freely.
I look forward to learning so much more.
One of my ‘rules’ is to not make notes in design files. It forces me to make fresh judgements every time, which helps me re-evaluate my work more objectively.
Living in a Commonwealth country, I get a lot of exposure to the British royal family. I despise the fact that a royal family has any power in the modern age. I entirely fail to see how a monarchy is any less authoritarian than a dictatorship. Leaders should be democratically elected based on their virtues, not because of arbitrary factors such as being born into a specific family.
I feel sometimes we collectively fail to appreciate how underpowered computers of the past were. Especially when it comes to game consoles.
Component
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
Nintendo Wii
CPU
3.2 GHz PowerPC (3 symmetrical cores)
3.2 GHz Cell (1 main core + 7 sub-processors)
729 MHz PowerPC (Single core)
GPU
500 MHz ATI Custom (Xenos)
550 MHz (Reality Synthesiser)
243 MHz ATI (Hollywood)
RAM
512MB GDDR3 (Unified. Shared by CPU/GPU)
512 MB Total (256MB System / 256MB Video)
88 MB Total (24MB Internal / 64MB External)
Specs of 7th generation home consoles.
This level of performance was in pursuit of a lower price point, and games only managed to be as impressive as they were because they could target fixed hardware. Optimisations could be made for specific resolutions, processors, GPUs, and provided system-specific APIs, which isn’t possible with the wide array of configurations seen in general-purpose computers, even if many personal computers had rivalling hardware.
There are some fantastic edits of films by dedicated fans which take the same source media in different aspect ratios from different releases (VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, widescreen, open mattes, scans, etc) and combine them to present the most comprehensive picture. Unfortunately because they don’t overlap perfectly, corners can be left lacking visual content, as represented by the orange below:
This has traditionally been addressed with ambient lighting fills, which are gradients based on the available image, but this can look jarring – it is just a blurry approximation after all.
I think filling these voids with generative outpainting is a good application of generative AI. It doesn’t detract from the art due to being confined to the very corners, and it allows the art to be more fully appreciated by reducing distraction. This is in contrast to AI conversions from 4:3 to 16:9, which I feel introduce significant alterations to the framing and context surrounding the content.
Japanese is full of 外来語 (loanwords), especially from English. A lot of these words end up sounding like English terms with a Japanese accent.
For example, ‘table’ translates to テーブル. The reason for the pronunciation change is that Japanese has a strict moraic structure where most consonants must be followed by a vowel, which here introduces a ‘u’ (though in most dialects it is a devocalised vowel). Additionally, Japanese has a single liquid phoneme, rather than distinct /r/ and /l/ sounds, so the English /l/ sound becomes a Japanese /r/ sound. Thus, テーブル.
Some people misinterpret adoption of a Japanese accent for pronunciation as insensitive, but the language’s phonetic structure necessitates use of Japanese phonology. Words adopted into Japanese are transcribed into Katakana – the original versions are incorrect in Japanese. Using the native Japanese rhythm ensures the word is recognisable and flows naturally within the sentence.
It's All Just Trees With Web Origami
A treatise on the triumphs of tree-based transformations.
Thoughts on the wonderful Web Origami project, which can be used as a static site generator but is also capable of very much more. It can be used in the shell to handle all sorts of data transformations and interactions, making it a valuable part of any developer's toolbox.
I don’t think enough people really talk about the fact that our prime minister here in Australia went swimming one day and then just disappeared. Genuinely just vanished then got replaced.
Nobody really knows what happened to him, though we did later name a swimming pool after him and there are many theories.
‘Look Tony, what are the odds of a prime minister being drowned or taken by a shark?’
— Harold Holt, prime minister of Australia, who presumably drowned.
China's extremely developed and ginormous gaming industry and how it has been shaped by regulations and restrictions to become a growing international powerhouse. Covering restrictions, alternate Chinese versions, censorship, internet cafés, e-sports and a great deal more.
I’m unsure what I did to piss them off, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to the delinquent who sent me ‘Fuck You’ without further elaboration via every single public communication channel of mine they could find.
> Post about how bad accessibility overlays are on LinkedIn > Get message notification > ‘I saw your recent post, but our overlay is different. Check it out!’
🫥
Also, pro tip, if you’re trying to shill your overlay and prove that you’re different, don’t use the term ‘handicapped’.
Even pro-er tip: Just stop with the accessibility overlays. There is something seriously wrong with you if you think exploiting or jeopardising people with disabilities is an opportunity to make a quick buck.
Chinese pronunciations are not intuitive for English speakers. The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, also known as Hanyu Pinyin or just pīnyīn, is a romanised version of Chinese that uses Latin letters in ways that don’t match typical English usage.
This cheat sheet is not comprehensive but does cover the basics and many common pitfalls.
Consonants
The primary hurdle is the distinction between the J, Q, X sounds (tongue forward/down) and the Zh, Ch, Sh sounds (tongue curled back).
Pinyin
Sounds Like…
Examples / Notes
C
Ts
Like the end of ‘cats’.
Z
Dz
Like the end of ‘suds’.
J
Jee
Like ‘edge’.
Q
Chee
A sharp, aspirated ‘ch’ .
X
Shee
A soft ‘sh’ with the tongue behind the lower teeth.
Zh
J
Tongue curled back, like the ‘j’ in ‘judge’.
Ch
Ch
Tongue curled back, like ‘church’.
Sh
Sh
Tongue curled back, like ‘shore’.
R
R / Zh
Not a rolled ‘r’. Buzzy, like the ‘s’ in ‘pleasure’.
Vowels & Combinations
Pinyin vowels often change their sound based on the consonants they follow.
Pinyin
Sounds Like…
Examples / Notes
-i (after zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s)
(Buzzing)
A ‘hollow’ vowel; a buzzy extension of the consonant.
-i (after others)
Ee
Like ‘see’.
e
Uh
Like the ‘u’ in ‘but’ or the ‘a’ in ‘about’.
-ou
Oh
Like ‘no’ or ‘tone’.
-ao
Ow
Like ‘how’ or ‘now’.
-ian
Ee-en
Often mispronounced, but is closer to ‘yen’.
-ü
(Pursed Ee)
Make an ‘ee’ sound while rounding your lips into a tight ‘O’.
Common Pitfalls
The Hidden ‘ü’: When the ü sound follows J, Q, X, or Y, the umlaut is dropped. Even if written as Ju, it is pronounced like Jü.
The ‘ui’ Shortcut: Pinyin -ui is shorthand for -uei. Therefore, Hui sounds more like ‘Hway’ than ‘Hoo-ee’.
Unvoiced Consonants: In Pinyin, B, D, and G are ‘unvoiced’. This means B sounds closer to a soft English P, and D sounds closer to a soft English T.
The Four Tones
First (mā): High and level (like a sustained singing note).
Second (má): Rising (like a question: ‘What?’).
Third (mǎ): Low and dipping (like a slow, hesitant ‘Well…’).
Fourth (mà): Sharp and falling (like a firm command: ‘Stop!’).
China’s Parallel Web Behind the Wall
So much for the 'World Wide' Web.
The unique web and internet of China, largely cut off from the rest of the world by the Great Firewall, yet not completely isolated. The climate and history that shaped the censorship and regulations which formed China's domestic internet, which operates largely independently of the interconnected global network known by many. Looking at topics subject to censorship, different services used, culture, and the growing impact of artificial intelligence.
CSS Naked Day MISUNDERSTOOD (gone wrong) (just got out of GAOL!!??!) 😵🤯👮♂️
‘You need to understand that Sam can never be trusted. He is a sociopath. He would do anything.’ — Aaron Swartz, who was federally charged while trying to make information free, talking about Sam Altman, who would go on to co-found the company OpenAI, which harvests information en masse with no repercussions.
Beyond the Square and Under the Rug
Nothing happened in China during the spring and summer of 1989.
The Tiananmen Square protests and massacre that occurred on June 4th, 1989, with emphasis on the context surrounding the event and the Chinese government's aggressive censorship. Also clearing of misconceptions surrounding Tank Man.
It is an open secret in Australia that Kmart sells a coffee grinder perfect for grinding bud, and the reviews from stoners on the Kmart website are appropriately fantastic.
(In store, this grinder is one of the few products with an anti-theft tag strapped to it.)
Accessibility overlays are poor solutions to accessibility issues and in the majority of cases, inflict more problems than they solve. They don't provide legal protection and overall harm the usability of websites. They should not be used and must be avoided, with focus instead being placed on addressing the core problems.
