@craiggrannell@mastodon.social
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craiggrannell

@craiggrannell@mastodon.social

#Writer for hire. Mostly #tech, #Apple, #games, #retrogaming, design. Smashes out words for #Wired, #Stuff, TapSmart and others. Writes #DailyRetroGame here on Mastodon. He/him. GF/DF. Likes #Lego and Mini #Schnauzers. Email: hello at craiggrannell dot com // https://linktr.ee/craiggrannell

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craiggrannell, to random
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“Thousands in Devon no longer have to boil drinking water, says supplier”

That’s quite the headline, in the UK. It’s amazing how our water quality has gone from being really very good to absolute shite (or, in the case of open water, literal shite) since leaving the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/18/thousands-in-brixham-devon-no-longer-have-to-boil-drinking-water-cryptosporidium

craiggrannell, to random
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Weeknote: 18 May 2024 – AI(EEEEE) edition

🤖 Google AI will help you but could kill the open web
🍎 What I want to see at WWDC24
👾 RetroArch for iPhone and reporting on emulation
🖼️ Samsung’s tablet ad isn’t great either
🌐 Best iPhone browsers
🧱 Upcoming Lego sets

https://reverttosaved.com/2024/05/18/weeknote-18-may-2024-aieeeee-edition/

craiggrannell, to random
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Cheery column time! Why Google AI will help you – but kill the web as we know it • https://www.stuff.tv/features/why-google-ai-will-help-you-but-kill-the-web-as-we-know-it/

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

I see Apple Insider since ran a story on this. They should have got eBay’s PR team in the mix. And then also asked why eBay is allowing such auctions and dismissing anyone who flags them with AI replies. (I didn’t have that with this one, but I did with a recent expensive comics auction that broke eBay’s own terms in multiple ways and where the seller didn’t have the goods. I just hope that one didn’t sell too.)

From: @cabel
https://social.panic.com/@cabel/112452865865688143

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Oof. It’s all going to come tumbling down. The sad thing is that while Internet Archive without doubt overreached multiple times and breached IP law countless times, it’s also doing great work in keeping media alive that would otherwise be gone, not least web pages via Wayback.

From: @torrentfreak
https://defcon.social/@torrentfreak/112452832740609952

craiggrannell, to random
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Some will doubtless see gimmickry here. But this subtle effect surely has potential benefits, in providing another visual cue regarding a tool that doesn’t exist in reality, including its orientation. Previously, just the mark was previewed. Now, the shape of the tool can be seen. It’d be interesting to hear from digital artists whether they find this useful.

From: @snazzyq
https://www.threads.net/@snazzyq/post/C7CpmYevMwf

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

If anyone needed another reason to dislike
Adobe…

From: @altstore
https://fosstodon.org/@altstore/112457898141250024

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

This kind of crap hits home because I remember the years of stress after Brexit, in working out what we’d do as a family. When time and time again, my Icelandic wife fell through the cracks. The thousands we spent on legal fees. (Our lawyer was ace though.) The bureaucracy. The local library displaying Mein Kampf prominently next to where foreigners had to supply biometric data. The almost performative cruelty of the system. The absurd twists of the knife from the Home Office. Tear it all down.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@aldriq Indeed. Labour is petrified of losing the nativist vote. I imagine it will be less performative than the Tories, but that doesn’t mean it will be any better.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@rowan_johnson I hope she gets through the system OK. And, yes, Brits have no idea. The number of times I heard “just get her a passport, then” as if all you had to do was complete and mail a form.

craiggrannell, to random
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The only thing I disagree with in this news is the notion the government should make an exception for this man. And that’s because he’s been in the UK for 40 years. Anyone who’s been here for even a fraction of that should at the very least have ILR. No pissing around. No exorbitant fees. Just a right to reside. Again, at the very least.

That this man will be in his 80s before this cruel, ridiculous govt would allow him permanent residency is sick.

From: @HeatherMJ
https://mastodon.social/@HeatherMJ/112449372340401578

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

So Mastodon is very much Team Coots over Team Geese. Not sure when that info will come in handy, but it’s there now.

craiggrannell, to random
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Me: Hey. I’d like to cover your app, but I need a plain uncropped full-size screen grab.

PR: Sure! Thanks! Here is our press kit!

Press kit: You should just probably not open me.

Me: What?

Press kit: Really. Just pretend I don’t exist.

Me: opens press kit

Grabs: are all cropped and useless

Me: FFS.

Press kit: I did warn you.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

ALSO! Tiny fuzzy coots. The one near its parent in this shot was all I HAVE WINGS. None of its siblings were, but this one was all FLAP FLAP FLAPPY FLAP. Very cute.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Also: baby geeses!

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@Thorsten_Guenther Yeah, I know. But geeses is much cuter. And they are adorable little things.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Frontloading happy things today, which means even if crap happens later, up until now was at least good:

  1. Went for a walk in the sun with my wife
  2. An editor gave me an extension on an article, to remove some horrible deadline pressure
  3. My upcoming list had a duplicated piece, and so my imminent deadlines dropped by around a sixth in about two minutes today
  4. Managed to outline my column in a way that seems to work pretty well

Please stay good, Friday!

cabel, to random
@cabel@panic.com avatar

🌟 Last week, an intriguing auction hit eBay — the badge of Apple Employee No. 10. There was just one small problem — it was a total forgery.

Enjoy: https://cabel.com/2024/05/16/the-forged-apple-employee-badge/

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@cabel Thing is, I bet if you’d flagged this with eBay, it would have just sent you an AI-created reply saying everything was just fine.

Maybe a news source will pick this up to embarrass eBay into stopping the auction or refunding the buyer.

rileytestut, to random
@rileytestut@mastodon.social avatar

Forcing myself to use Stage Manager with my new iPad, and I’m really struggling to create a mental model of how to use it. I feel like windows should be added to the current stage by default, but am I just using it wrong?

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@rileytestut I always just wanted the original system but for it to work fully on external displays (ie responsive design). Stage Manager to me always felt weird. It wastes so much space. It’s awkward. It’s fiddly – nothing like eg Moom to quickly move windows where I want them. It feels designed to minimise app numbers due to RAM limitations then, but that seems pointless now. And I wonder whether it was initially an attempt to unify iPad and the Mac – a punt to replace Finder.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

The sentiment of the Samsung ad is in the right place. And despite being cynical, it has more soul and humanity than Apple’s ad.

But.

The Android ecosystem isn’t even close to the iPad one, when it comes to creative apps. It’s notable that Samsung’s ad only shows a bit of sheet music on the screen, and only very briefly. And that the guitarist isn’t really even using the tablet. Kind of sums up Android tablets, really.

https://mastodon.social/@davemark/112450668541431302

Jayenkai, to random
@Jayenkai@mastodon.social avatar

But.. Does it Migraine..

I managed 2 before the migraine started.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@Jayenkai From the choc or the coconut? I used to love those things but they didn’t love me and so I stopped eating them.

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Google translate between Icelandic and English has gone from 75% useful, 25% laughable nonsense to mostly unusable in the space of a year. You used to be able to use it effectively as a dictionary. Enter a single word and you'd get the most common dictionary translation

Now, half the time you'll just get nonsense.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@baldur Icelandic appears to be a forgotten language. It’s notable that Duolingo still doesn’t cover it – although that’s perhaps for the best, given its shift towards AI and automation.

It’s a bit sad that mini-G is learning Spanish and now German in Duolingo, and French at school, but we haven’t yet found a suitable means of getting Icelandic into her head, in self-learning times. (Drops was OK for vocab, but that’s all it does – nothing more.)

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@baldur Might be good if she knows at least some passable Icelandic by the time we have to reapply for her Icelandic citizenship. (Which I will never stop being dumfounded that this is something we will have to do.)

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Two things more reporting should do regarding emulators:

  1. Make it clear they are not always straightforward to use. Many people seem to assume Delta will be Spotify for old Nintendo games when it’s more like VLC. RetroArch is… let’s say not an app with the best UX.

  2. Explain that, yes, these old games aren’t like new games. I just saw one person grumbling that old PlayStation games are a bit rubbish and not something they’d want to spend time with. OK… maybe emulation isn’t for you then.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@marksemczyszyn It also assumes that everything is a constant evolution for the better, which I don’t believe is the case. There is plenty of music that this 10, 20, 50 or 100+ years old that is still amazing. And that’s the case for classic games. Most of them aren’t great, to be fair. But I’d still happily have a Robotron cab in this house, if 1) that was remotely viable, and 2) I had a hope of maintaining the thing.

craiggrannell, to retrogaming
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

So which game was first into RetroArch on my iPhone? Well, it had to be one by @llamasoft_ox, didn’t it?

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@8johnr8 @apt Yep. Apple TV is not a great system for games, although it could be. I ended up booting an old Mac mini (2012 Intel) into Batocera via a USB stick. Way better than anything currently on Apple TV.

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