@benfry@information.garden
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benfry

@benfry@information.garden

Founder of https://fathom.info, co-founder of https://processing.org, lecturer at https://mit.edu.

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benfry, to random
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Love this: decompiling N64 games to C, then recompiling for newer systems and misc upgrades (resolution changes, quality improvements).

(Not automatic, not entirely new but just so freaking cool.)

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/05/how-to-port-any-n64-game-to-the-pc-in-record-time/

benfry,
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And going quite a bit deeper, this amazing writeup on doing similar with the NES. Not sure how I missed this one when it was first posted: https://andrewkelley.me/post/jamulator.html

benfry, to random
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I love the phrase “Golden Age of User Hostility” for how it perfectly summarizes our current era in technology.

(Though I probably also like it because “era” suggests that this will come to a close, rather than just continue as our new, unfortunately calibrated, normal. Which is a framing that's probably more optimistic than I feel about it, but here's to hoping.)

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/04/roku-tv-ads-patent/678041/

benfry, to random
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🧡

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/

stroughtonsmith, to random
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One of the big Qs from pundits before the DMA was ‘what are all these 'great' apps we're missing out on because of Apple's App Store restrictions, and do they even exist?’.

Mere days after a major App Store rules change, @delta (which has been denied for years), is the top app on the App Store.

For every Delta, there are a thousand great apps that were simply never started because they would never fly. Dreams that never left the whiteboard, market segments that were never given chance to exist

benfry,
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@stroughtonsmith As someone who has built tools like that (processing.org), it drives me insane that it's not possible for a third party to really build something like Playgrounds. Such an incredible waste.

And having used the Mac since the original 128K, I've watched how Apple's dev tools have always been outdone by third parties (Lightspeed C vs MPW, later Metrowerks, etc…) and it's frustrating that they lock down their platform this way.

(Interface Builder, as inherited from NeXT was briefly an exception, but it's long since outlived its usefulness.)

benfry, to random
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Interesting piece on C++ safety: https://herbsutter.com/2024/03/11/safety-in-context/

A discussion of more explicitly following (enforcing?) known best practices that could radically reduce (90-98%) issues in the language memory safety space in particular.

“The immediate problem is that it’s Too Easy By Default™ to write security and safety vulnerabilities in C++ that would have been caught by stricter enforcement of known rules for type, bounds, initialization, and lifetime language safety”

I'm always interested in this sort of thing as a way to take a sprawling language like C++, reduce it to the good parts, and focus on a “right” way to do things in the service of simplifying how you (and collaborators) build and maintain a project.

benfry, to random
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Sigourney Weaver, Prompt Engineer

video/mp4

benfry, to random
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Happy π day! https://benfry.com/pi/

NanoRaptor, to random
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The more you look the stressier the lab gets

benfry,
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@NanoRaptor https://www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/warnings-affixed-to-laboratory-doors-at-the-massachusetts-institute-of-technology

benfry, to random
@benfry@information.garden avatar

Regarding that last post… “All of Us” is a great project that’s been doing the tedious work of improving the diversity of genomic data used by scientists, and it’s awesome to see them making real progress.

Here's the Nature article with their update: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06957-x

While I've not had experience working with them, or with the data—yet—it sounds like they're focused on all the right things, for instance improving data access for other researchers. The Nature article touts a registration turnaround time that averages 29 hours. Incredible! Even for client work where people are paying us to work with their data the median for data delivery is more like 29 days than 29 hours.

benfry,
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@allartburns very cool!

benfry, to random
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It's been a while since I lived just around the corner in East Cambridge, but it's still sad to see Courthouse Fish Market closing: https://dadadrummer.substack.com/p/self-checkout

benfry,
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@mrshll All is not lost!

benfry, to random
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Ian Bogost's review of the Apple Vision Pro sounds about exactly right:

“The Apple Vision Pro Is Spectacular and Sad”
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/02/apple-vision-pro-headset-review/677347/

benfry, to random
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Tom Dowdy, SimpleText (TeachText), in a story about the old Apple: https://www.engineersneedart.com/blog/dowdy/dowdy.html

(via https://mastodon.social/@mjtsai/111880545032423525)

benfry,
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@d The icon has always driven me a little nuts, but… it says dowdy upside-down! so I'm thinking that makes it worth it.

benfry, to random
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Do I even want to fix the bug that created this?

No. No, I do not.

Drwave, to random
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Rewatching Pulp Fiction - a real masterpiece.

Unfortunately paused at the worst part of the movie - Quentin Tarantino acting opposite Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta…

benfry,
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@Drwave Same—just watched it recently after getting the 4K disc, which is just gorgeous. The Tarantino part is so unfortunate—I could swear I could see the actors (particularly Travolta) cringing uncomfortably (if ever so subtly) during his performance. What an amazing time capsule of 1994 too.

chris, to random

My ten year prediction for the Vision Pro is that, among other things, it becomes an alternate "TV for live events": sports, theater, etc. Anything designed to be experienced in person instead of fundamentally conceived as a rectangular video.

Events-as-rectangular-video will still have a dominant presence but events-as-experienced-from-a-seat will now have a streaming option.

benfry,
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@chris This makes more sense than the “spreadsheets for your face” or “Instagram in your eyes!” that seems to be the stunted near-term direction we'll be seeing…

benfry,
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@chris No doubt! Just so weird to see it in the marketing materials of the company encouraging you to purchase their new $3500+ piece of the future. The spreadsheet image goes beyond the “early films were blocked out and staged just like plays that were recorded by a camera or two” thing and feels downright dystopian. Even as someone who spends all day looking at data, the idea of having that image looming so large in my field of view…

benfry, to random
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Our end of year wrap-up for Fathom: https://fathom.info/notebook/231220

We haven't been great about posting regularly about what the ten of us have been up to, but Ellory did a nice write-up to close out 2023.

Seeing it all in one place also helps with the “why do I feel this tired on the first day of vacation?” question.

Lucky to have this fun crew to work with.

AxiDraw plotter creating one of our holiday cards depicting a snowflake, layering multiple metallic and non-metallic inks together for depth.

benfry, to random
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This… should not be turned on by default in Dropbox.

(And even less so in a paid account? What the…?)

benfry, to random
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Almost just fainted.

36 years later, it is now possible to not mangle your data by default.

benfry, to random
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Asked Paul for help with a sign for the display in our downstairs lobby at our office in Boston. First iteration just came back.

benfry, to random
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“Let’s say you have six-year-old twins. They both write you a birthday card. One uses A.I., the other one doesn’t. The A.I. art will be “better.” It won’t have typos, it will display great calligraphy and a perfect drawing. And still, I would throw it straight into the garbage and keep the human-made one. For me, art is about human intent. If a larger audience agrees, creators will be fine; otherwise, we’re doomed.”

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2023-11-20

benfry,
@benfry@information.garden avatar

@textfiles Oh, totally agree! (And it's what i do with my own kids whose stuff I can barely throw out regardless.) It's a quote from the linked interview—not clear enough?

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