Micros

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.

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gai来rai語go (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tēーーブbuルru. 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tēーーブbuルru.

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.

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.

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).

Vowels & Combinations

Pinyin vowels often change their sound based on the consonants they follow.

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

1. First (mā): High and level (like a sustained singing note).
2. Second (má): Rising (like a question: ‘What?’).
3. Third (mǎ): Low and dipping (like a slow, hesitant ‘Well…’).
4. Fourth (mà): Sharp and falling (like a firm command: ‘Stop!’).

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.

Samsung launched a browser for Windows. Samsung Internet is spreading. I repeat, Samsung Internet is spreading.

I fear that this may be the end of civilisation as we know it. The collapse of technology and return to the stone age.

Member of the AI resistance: ‘Halt! List every valid value for timeZoneName! Recite them! List them now!’

Me: ‘I— I don’t know. There is short and long. I think offset is somewhere in there?’

Member of the AI resistance moving on to screen another person: ‘This one’s clear. They’re human.’

MDN page for the constructor: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/DateTimeFormat/DateTimeFormat

Great reference: https://topper64.co.uk/nk/btd6/rounds/regular

1.14+ can do crawl mining. Otherwise, standard strip mining.

Pre-1.17 Ore Distribution:

Pre beta 1.6, ores generate less in north/east quadrants compared to south/west. In beta 1.8, the Y-level range of each ore was lowered by 4.

Post-1.18 Ore Distribution:

If a diamond vein is exposed to air there is a 50% chance it won’t generate.

Nether Ore Distribution:

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.)

I’m working on PersonalSit.es and saw these logs. I really do think we ought to keep Henry away from the build systems.

631,152,000 seconds, 10,519,200 minutes, 175,320 hours, 7,305 days, 1,043 weeks (and 4 days), 240 months, 20 years.

Looking forward to many more!

Felt cute, might Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information) later.

Working on an article about accessibility overlays. Holy shit, fuck these companies and their deceit. I’m trawling through the waist-deep sludge that is their websites, and everything has this film of slime over it.

I knew they were bad, but I’d never looked that deeply into their marketing. Yuck.

I’m not usually this incensed, but accessibility overlay companies make my blood boil. How low do you have to be to go out of your way to exploit people with disabilities? Not only that, but to sabotage attempts to improve digital accessibility for all. Bottom-dwelling scabs.

The variety of thoughts that I find wandering my mind on a Monday night could kill if administered in tablet form.

I present to you a fish smoking a cigarette underwater.

Adobe is trying to revoke my Photoshop licence. They claim ‘misuse’ and ‘abuse of software’ and ‘Stop with these stupid things you keep making. They aren’t even funny’ and ‘you’re a dweeb’. I’m going on the run. They shan’t stop me.

Gaolbreaking for iOS devices is winding down. Alas, the art is dead. Here lies a great empire.

I remember the buzz online when unc0ver released. I remember the breakthrough that was checkra1n. I was on Windows 7 at the time, and it was one of my first times in a terminal. It felt exciting. I was a 1337 h4xØr pwning my devices.

It was hackery like gaolbreaking that got me into the more technical aspects of computer use. I remember spending long hours experimenting with tweaks and honing my troubleshooting abilities.

Unfortunately, the scene isn’t as vibrant as it once was. Apple has placed a focus on security, meaning fewer devices and releases are exploitable, and the drive to gaolbreak has become weaker. Android became a more polished experience as well.

Many of the features people once gaolbroke their devices for are now native parts of iOS. No longer do you need a tweak for dark mode or to place icons where you want on your screen. Less low-hanging tweak fodder means that ones which are released never see the same adoption and thus aren’t as financially viable.

The world changes a lot, the tech world even more so – if there even is such a thing as a distinct ‘tech world’ in this ever more dystopian-looking landscape. Titans of the scene have moved on, and the old empire is crumbling.

Gaolbreaking today dredges up the old. Link rot and tweaks lost to time. The old repositories are gone, and the Cydia store is closed. So very many tweaks and apps are stuck in limbo, and there is little incentive to fix the situation.

There are still new tweaks and releases, but the scene is small. I miss the old days of boundary pushing and the energy surrounding it.

It was year 4 of primary school, and my class had just returned from either recess or lunch. As we formed a line outside the class, waiting to be let inside, Edvard Grieg’s In The Hall Of The Mountain King began blaring at an extreme volume through the wall. Speculating amongst ourselves as to what was going on, our teacher opened the classroom door, stepped through it, and beckoned us inside with a complete poker face.

Stepping inside, we were all shocked. The song blared from the interactive whiteboard’s speakers, and the room was in shambles. Tables were toppled, chairs were strewn around, and bits of paper waste littered every surface.

Our teacher remained vague and unspecific as our nine-and-ten-year-old minds attempted to figure out what had gone on. Had someone broken in? Had the teacher gone insane? Looking around, surveying the carnage (which seemed much more destructive than it really was), we found envelopes strewn around.

This was the setup for a creative writing exercise. I don’t recall what I wrote – it was almost certainly atrocious given my age – but this exercise has really stuck with me. It was one of the first times I was truly exposed to the joys of writing.

Your honour, I understand that I completely broke their software, but they simply shouldn’t have built it like that. Of course I went and fiddled with it. I’m pretty sure the attractive nuisance doctrine comes into play.

I have this one Next.js project I haven’t touched in a few years, and every few weeks I get an email from GitHub with a new security advisory for it.

I’ve seen people killed for lesser crimes than writing the CSS I just wrote.

One thing I love about the web is that you can publish stuff and people will see it. Even without publicising it, people still somehow discover stuff you’ve made. Magical.

I’ve hit the point in the research of an article that I’ll have to journey for dozens of hours to conduct interviews and visit various small towns, museums, monuments, libraries, and state archives to get any further.

A car is hurtling towards a crowd. The majority of people seem not to care about the car. They don’t see the danger or think they’ll be alright anyway. Some understand the danger, so are scrambling to get out of the way and trying to convince others to do the same. Some people think the car barrelling towards them is a good thing.

My LinkedIn feed is currently predominantly people announcing they’ve been laid off in the name of AI and are now looking for work. This isn’t the sign of a healthy industry.