Hypertexthero / Linked List / December 2023

Linked List: December 2023

Saturday, 30 December 2023

Poor Charlie’s Almanack ✶

Lively website version of the book about the wit and wisdom of Charles T. Munger.

I’d set the text ragged right instead of justified, and engineer the publishing system so the site is viewable without JavaScript. Other than that, the most beautifully-designed website I’ve seen in 2023.

Focus:
Keep things simple and remember what you set out to do.

  • Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets—and can be lost in a heartbeat.
  • Guard against the effects of hubris and boredom.
  • Don’t overlook the obvious by drowning in minutiae.
  • Be careful to exclude unneeded information or slop: “A small leak can sink a great ship.”
  • Face your big troubles, don’t sweep them under the rug.

I wish Munger and Thomas Picketty would have had some debates. Maybe I’ll ask an A.I. to simulate the two talking about an universal basic income.

Via John Gruber.

Friday, 29 December 2023

Jordan Mechner’s 20 Tips on Making Games (PDF) ✶

My three favorites, especially the paper one:

  1. Draw inspiration from life and primary sources, not just other games and fiction.
  2. Develop personal practices that remind you to step back and see the big picture (engage the right side of your brain).
  3. Work on paper, not just on screens.

I bought Jordan’s English edition of his new book, Replay, which is out in March of 2024. Can’t wait!

Thursday, 28 December 2023

Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks’ Revenge ✶

Fan made cross-platform clone of Lode Runner Online: The Mad Monks’ Revenge, available for Mac, Linux, and Windows.

Wednesday, 27 December 2023

Leave The World Behind ✶

Excellent apocalyptic film about the importance of friends. My favorite movie of 2023.

New Cheer Bit Numbers ✶

There are three new custom bit cheering numbers to make things appear on the stream: 65 - Aeronca Thunder Kiss, 21 - Met Office Solstice, and 93 - The truth is out there, thanks to Futura_Light, RazWasabi, and Sokolas’ choices in the Fall Landing Guesstimator.

Monday, 25 December 2023

Between Rock and Hard Place ✶

Fun GTA Online holiday outing today! Thanks for stopping by the stream!

♫ My Favorite Things ✶

From Kenny Burrell’s album, Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas.

Sunday, 24 December 2023

The Snowman ✶

My favorite animated film, with the original introduction.

Saturday, 23 December 2023

The Personal, Political Art of Board-Game Design ✶

Matthew Hutson writing about board game designer Amabel Holland, in The New Yorker:

Over the next few years, Amabel designed and published about thirty games through various companies. Then, in 2016, she and Mary created their own publisher, Hollandspiele. It’s since published more than seventy games, roughly half designed by Amabel; she is widely considered one of today’s most innovative game designers. Her work, which is part of a larger turn toward complexity in the industry, often tackles historical and social subjects—death, religion, misinformation—using surprising “mechanics,” or building blocks of game play, to immerse players in an experience. “I’m interested in games’ ability to engage with difficult topics,” she told me. “And I’m interested in the way that mechanics can be used to do that.”

Thursday, 21 December 2023

Rambo or Shel LOL ✶

From the archives of about a year ago.

Sunday, 17 December 2023

Around The World Beginning This Week ✶

Thank you to everyone who poured their points into the Begin Around The World flight sim trip community challenge! Special shoutout to IRL pilot/chef/etc RazWasabi and to excellencies Futura_Light and Schippah.

I’m updating simulators and utilities such as the superb SimToolKitPro for the Landing Guesstimator, learning how to use Hands On Throttle and Stick, rudder pedals, and headtracking again, and attempting to get a map system working for the aerotrip, which should start sometime this coming week.

Progress of the trip will be listed here River Raid.!

We Think Too Much and Feel Too Little ✶

Charlie Chaplin’s final speech in The Great Dictator.

♫ True Sorry ✶

Phenomenal performance by Ibrahim Maalouf with many musicians filling the stage.

♫ Body ✶

Beautiful song by Julia Jacklin.

Wisdom ✶

Z333, aka Wisdom, is a female albatross of the species Phoebastria immutabilis, whose return to the refuge of Midway Atoll in the Pacific is watched for every year by ornithologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). They estimate that this animal is the oldest known wild bird.

Wisdom was first tagged at Midway in 1956 when she had just laid eggs. Given that this species doesn’t reach sexual maturity until the age of 5, we can estimate that she is over 70 years old.

An amazing animal.

Friday, 15 December 2023

The Restorative Effect of Drawing ✶

One of the most valuable benefits of learning to draw is the restorative effect of the time spent engaged in drawing. Once you have shifted to the “drawing” state of mind, the verbal brain hemisphere will be quiet while you draw. When the drawing is finished, you will return to your usual verbal state of mind refreshed and rested.

—Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Dominant Eye, p.p. 137–138

Rhythm ✶

We are conscious of the rhythm that pulses through the universe, beginning with the atom and ending with the stars. Rhythm suggests repetition, flow, cycles, waves, and all are related to a unified plan or purpose. The feeling of rhythm in drawing, aside form the abstract, is a “follow-through” in line, just as it is in the movements of various sports. A bowler or golfer, a tennis player, or any other athlete must master the smooth “follow-through” to develop rhythm. Follow your lines through the solid form and watch them become part of a rhythmic plan. When a drawing looks clumsy, the chances are that the trouble lies in its lack of “follow-through.” Clumsiness in action — and in drawing — is lack of rhythm that results in a jerky, uneven, disorganized movement.

—Andrew Loomis, Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth, p. 137.

Thursday, 14 December 2023

♫ Blade Runner Blues ✶

By Vangelis, for the Blade Runner soundtrack, 1982.

The Universe or Nothing ✶

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together - surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.

—Carl Sagan, Cosmos (01980).

Tuesday, 12 December 2023

Walk and Talk ✶

Walking, so good for us, hunter-gatherers.

Some suggestions loosely based on Derek’s criteria:

  • Via Francigena from Viterbo to Rome is around 110km. The food more than makes up for it.
  • Northern California, anywhere where there are Redwoods. Be ready to camp or find kind-hearted hippies.
  • Northwest Michigan and the Upper Peninsula in spring/summer.
  • Sidi Bou Said/Carthage to Bizerte, Tunisia.
  • Recreio dos Bandeirantes to Praia de Araçatiba, Ilha Grande, Brazil.
  • The last 100km of the Santiago de Compostela trail is beautiful.
  • Anywhere to anywhere else. Just go.
Tang Ping - Lying Flat ✶

Tang ping (Chinese: 躺平; lit. ’lying flat’) is a Chinese slang neologism that describes a personal rejection of societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve, such as in the 996 working hour system, which is often regarded as a rat race with ever diminishing returns. Tang ping means choosing to “lie down flat and get over the beatings” via a low-desire, more indifferent attitude towards life.

Tang ping can be considered as the Chinese equivalent of the American hippie counter-culture movement.

Animation vs. Physics ✶

Moving animated film about physics with Interstellar and Cosmos The Edge of Forever vibes.

Sunday, 10 December 2023

Doom at 30 ✶

John Romero has a Twitch channel where he plays and makes and talks. Today he’ll be chatting with some guy called John Carmack.

Saturday, 9 December 2023

Handyman ✶

But the vast majority of what I know in my work has come from continuously saying “yes” to jobs I’ve never done before – I decided I could figure them out by being careful.

High ✶

New emote for the stream:

High! :hypert23High

Friday, 8 December 2023

♫ Now And Then ✶

A new song by The Beatles 💌

Wednesday, 6 December 2023

Hands On with DeepMind Gemini ✶

The Star Trek ship computer gets closer every day. Or does it?

Music From Outer Space ✶

Old-school website about do-it-yourself sound synthesizers.

Monday, 4 December 2023

Snood ✶

I’d completely forgotten about this Macintosh puzzle game. On Steam, for both Mac and Windows.

APOD: Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano ✶

Beautiful video of the setting moon made with a telescopic lens over at Astronomy Picture of the Day.

The video is not time-lapse — this was really how fast the Moon was setting.

Sunday, 3 December 2023

Exquisite Balance and Beautiful Curves ✶

A Star Wars fan video about the Millennium Falcon and kitbashing, and a reminder it’s a good idea to document the process of creating things.

Saturday, 2 December 2023

Generation Zero RC Toy Car Not Working ✶

Update: Verifying the game files fixed the problem for me and the RC Toy Car lures now work!

Thanks to Avalanche Studios support for the suggestion.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Go to your Steam Library.
  2. Right-click Generation Zero and select Properties.
  3. Go to the Installed Files tab and click “Verify integrity of game files”.

I recently started a new Generation Zero playthrough with a new character on a new world after purchasing all the non-cosmetic DLCs.

When I place an RC Toy Car lure from Tactical Equipment Pack 2, it remains on the ground and doesn’t do anything.

Is there something I need to do to activate it?

If it is a bug, is there a workaround?

Thanks!

Friday, 1 December 2023

♫ Before and After, Pt. 1 ✶

Sometimes buried by hits, these are songs from my life 1966–2022, newly recorded, in a music montage with no beginnings or endings.
Love Earth,
Be well,
Neil

Tldraw ✶

Good open source in-browser collaborative drawing board.

Features I’d like to help drawing maps for our ongoing Valheim mapless playthrough:

  • Paint bucket for filling shapes with solid color, patterns, and textures.
  • A color picker like this one or that one.
Thief: The Black Parade ✶

An unofficial expansion for Thief just appeared before us:

So, what awaits you in this campaign?

  • 10 huge, open-ended and meticulously crafted missions with varied themes packed with content.
  • A brand new protagonist thrown into a dark, intricately woven story of crime and conspiracies.
  • 4 new tools happily supplied by the undermarket, at a price.
  • Many tweaks to the AI to make the game a bit more challenging but still fair.
  • A brand new “banter” system where AIs greet each other during their rounds and nightly life.
  • 28 voiced characters totaling roughly 1,800 new lines of dialogue.
  • 30 minutes of gorgeous hand-drawn briefings and cutscenes.
  • Brand new AI motions making the denizens of The City look more alive.
  • Full English subtitles.

Here’s the moving-images-set-to-sound preview.

Dundreary Regina Station Wagon ✶

This 1960s faux wood side-panelled icon appears to be the star of Pacific Drive.

Will it be present in GTA 6’s first trailer next Tuesday?