Linked List: September 2022
Monday, 26 September 2022
- The Sound of All Human Knowledge ✶
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A fun challenge from the Wikimedia Foundation:
We invite you to create a sound that is global, smart, and familiar — a sound that will soon be recognised around the world as The Sound of All Human Knowledge. Your original submission must capture the essence of everything Wikimedia stands for. It should respond to questions like: “What is the sound of discovering something new?” or “What is the sound of trusted information?” or even “What is the sound of winning an argument?”
The winner will receive $2,500 USD and a trip to a recording studio to produce the final sound logo.
Friday, 23 September 2022
- AI-Powered VR Video Games ✶
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James Stanley:
Now put on your VR headset. Connect to your friend who lives on the other side of the world. Give it a world prompt:
I’m a cop, my friend is a robber. I am chasing him through the streets of Chicago at night time. In the rain. If I catch him within 15 minutes I win, otherwise he wins. Also we each have a radar on our wrist that tells us the direction to the other player. Go!
Even with things like Stable Diffusion and Copilot around I think completely computer-generated games are quite a distance away.
The nuances of human beings are difficult enough for us to understand, and these automagical technologies would run into the same problems of comprehension.
But we are living in exciting times indeed, and James’ vision sounds a bit like GTA Laugh Attack, today, at 2pm ET (1800 ZULU)!
Wednesday, 14 September 2022
- IL-2 Lead Engineer Moves to Asobo Studios ✶
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Andrey (An.Petrovich) Solomykin, the lead programmer of the IL-2 Sturmovik flight simulator is moving to Asobo Studios.
I wish all the best to Andrey, and am excited to see what he works on next!
Via StormBirds.
Saturday, 10 September 2022
- Goodbye, Mikhail Gorbachev ✶
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I failed to post a link for another of the great leaders of human beings who passed recently, the courageous Mikhail Gorbachev.
Maciej Cegłowski, writing at HN:
Gorbachev secured his place in history by what he didn’t do. While never endorsing the end of the eastern bloc, he made it clear beginning in the late 1980’s that unlike his predecessors, he would not oppose democratic reforms in Eastern Europe by force. To general astonishment, he kept this promise, and with the regrettable exception of Lithuania this commitment to not repeating the crimes of his predecessors is Gorbachev’s greatest legacy. In 1988 you would have been hard pressed to find anyone who could imagine the mostly peaceful collapse of the Eastern Bloc, but Gorbachev had the moral courage to accept this once unimaginable consequence of his policy and to see it through.
Thursday, 8 September 2022
- Happy Star Trek Day ✶
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Star Trek was first aired on September 8, 1966, so September 8th is Star Trek day! Thank you to TimmyThumb for letting me know!
I first watched the entirety of the original series in a friend’s basement during a hot summer in Tunis, Tunisia, when I was a teenager. An excellent show that touched the lives of many.
Here is an idea for a Star Trek video game that came to mind during today’s stream, focussing on some of the lesser-known crew members, the Redshirts:
Star Trek: Redshirt · Roguelike shooter where as a crew member of the original Enterprise, you are beamed down to “investigate” various dangerous planets, derelict space ships, and so on, and when you inevitably die, you start again from the beginning in different environments with randomized objectives.
If you manage to live to the end of a play-through, you win the game and are promoted to a yellow-attire wearing Lieutenant.
- Goodbye, Elizabeth Windsor ✶
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A person of extraordinary character, integrity, and sense of humor. An exceptional leader of human beings, and probably the greatest diplomat in the history of humankind.
Thursday, 1 September 2022
- Moments On Twitch ✶
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Yesterday I learned via TimmyThumb that streamers can now award viewers moments during the stream.
Viewers need to “claim” moments awarded them within 3 minutes in order to further embellish their digital text-plus-icons avatarial chat nameplates.
It looks like a good idea, though only 5 moments per month seem too few. The feature is currently in beta for selected users and has not materialized on my dashboard so far. If and when it does, I will give it a go.