jhilden

jhilden, 24 days ago to random

Phones should have a language-agnostic input option where you get to choose supported character sets. It could be combined with a multi-lingual spell check that learns the languages you type in.

I don’t necessarily want to switch to the Icelandic keyboard to type an occasional place name correctly.

jhilden, 7 days ago (edited 18 hours ago) to random

It is funny how Gary Larson went from a niche cartoon that you would find on mostly biology people’s noticeboards to widely popular meme fodder. He was in the 2020s back in the 1990s? Or the nerds took over? Or… both?

Maybe specifically a false memory, but I think I asked dad to explain Cow Tools. Some other Larson cartoons for sure.

jhilden, 23 days ago to random

Miele appreciation post:
I thought our over 15 year old washing machine had broken down, as it would get stuck on the final emptying phase. Cleaning the pump didn’t help. Was going to call the first repair ever for the machine, but had not gotten around to it.

Well, now I cleaned the drain a few months later and turns out it was blocked with gunk, which triggered some safety threshold in the pump. So instead of being broken, it was working as designed!

jhilden, 28 days ago to GraphicDesign

So, Danish illustrator and graphic designer Preben Dahlstrøm, a true master of the illustrated field guide in the 1970s: I’m trying to find some biographical information on him – but I have nothing more than that he might have been born in Odense in 1917 and died in the 1990s.

Anyone with access to older Danish newspapers? Maybe there was an obituary?
https://www2.statsbiblioteket.dk/mediestream/search/Preben%20Dahlstr%C3%B8m/date/1920-01-01%2C

#graphicDesign #infographics #history

jhilden, 19 days ago to random

Trying to make a Win III projection centered on the Pacific.

Is there any good way to deal with this rendering problem in QGIS, when shapes are split by the projection but then drawn as connected across the map?

#GisChat #QGIS

jhilden, 8 days ago to random

Observation on visual culture, sparked by re-reading Lem’s Solaris:
The novel is full of vivid and disturbing imagery relating to the ocean (which both films alas mostly sideline), yet there seems to be very little visual art online inspired by it, apart from the movie posters and book covers.

I’m arguing that most of what could be termed ”fan art” is heavily reliant on some pre-existing iconic imagery. This also directly feeds into AI art. No Solaris storyboard by H.R. Giger, no fan art.

jhilden, 6 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to CrystalsHashtags

Very odd InDesign/PDF bug:

Font rendering incorrectly in an interactive PDF, but only in Chrome.

Previous PDFs exported from the same file render correctly. Only obvious difference is that the faulty file is PDF version 1.7. and the other 1.5.

You can’t choose the PDF version in Interactive PDF export. However, this was fixed simply by re-saving the PDF in Acrobat (no need to change version). So something tiny is broken in InDesign’s 1.7 pipeline and not in Acrobat’s. #InDesign #typography

jhilden, 15 days ago to random

Empirically confirmed that an unopened jar of Turkish yoghurt can keep for 12+ hours in room temperature and stay good for another 7 days in the fridge after that.

jhilden, 25 days ago to random

Must be some sign of aging that I nowadays have zero patience with this sort of "speculative design” exercises.

jhilden, 21 days ago to random

Congratulating myself for doing a Smart Thing when buying an Optoma projector with lower rez, but powerful light and high contrast some 14 years ago.

Useful for party visuals, created with some 1930s cartoons from Archive.org and a free trial of synesthesia VJ software 😅

Wonky 1930s ”rubber arm” animations go with basically any music.

jhilden, 20 days ago to random

A very bothersome thing about the ”no smartphones under 16” movement is, along with the imo misleading virtual-real world dichotomy, is how it ignores the independency and agency of children. Kids learn to drive cars earlier in some places. #HuiputCreativeFestival

jhilden, 29 days ago to sustainability

Interesting article, but with some issues (carbon fibre cargo bikes may exist, but I have never encountered one). Clearly a subject that needs more research, esp. on systemic impacts: ebikes are known to actually replace car use.
An important thing to tackle would be regulation for standards and interoperability, especially with eBike systems.
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-bicycles-sustainable-again/

#sustainability #cycling

jhilden, 24 days ago to random

Colleague’s immediate reaction:
Looks like a mobile composter.
She’s not wrong, but still pretty nice to see a Finnish-made cargo bike. This is not a consumer product, rather an utility vehicle.
https://oucabikes.com/

jhilden, 19 days ago to random

Well, generally had great fun cameoing in the design world as part of the
#HuiputCreativeFestival
despite the mild annoyance at the prevalent ”Fox mindset” (see: The Hedgehog and the Fox). Our PechaKucha about information design was well received. Cannot otherwise be arsed to publish a detailed critique now 😅

jhilden, 26 days ago to random

Beware the fake Minard! Funny and also serves as a note of caution.

Was looking for a portrait of Charles Joseph Minard and found the leftmost picture.
It gives a source, a blog featuring the same image, but no further attribution.
I was suspicious since Rendgren's definitive Minard book has no portrait.

Quick reverse image search turns up Charles, Baron Dupin in the Wellcome collection.
So somehow he got turned into Minard, based on his first name?

https://wellcomecollection.org/search/images?query=u9tgfrau#p523fzwp

jhilden, 5 days ago to random

Unfair / biology:
Me and my partner at the same time in the allotment garden, both wearing T-shirt and shorts.
I get tens of bites on my legs from mosquitoes, gnats and midges, that itch for days. She gets one tiny little red spot.

jhilden, 5 days ago to random

🏳️‍🌈

jhilden, 5 days ago to random

New factoid. F1 cars are ridiculously un-aerodynamic (some sleek modern production EV:s get a Cd of 0.22):

"Interestingly, modern F1cars are reported to have Cd values of about 0.85 with corresponding CdA[m2] values near 1.2.1. These values are approximately triple of those for the modern road car, and only a bit higher then typical bus."

https://www.formula1-dictionary.net/drag.html