Sven Dahlstrand Profile Photo

Sven Dahlstrand

I am an aspiring world's best uncle, co-conspirator with Sanna, and curious coder based in Jönköping, Sweden. If you spot someone hiking deep into the forest of Tiveden, that's probably me. 🌲

  • Love Hultén’s creations always put a smile on my face. Here’s TEGEL, a sound sculpture based on biodata. 🪴

    An intricate sculpture, crafted from miniature bricks, that doubles as a synthesizer, exuding an aura of vintage industrial charm. It features an array of buttons and an authentic analog meter. Encased in a glass dome, a tiny tree plant is ingeniously connected to the synthesizer, adding an organic touch to the mechanical marvel.

  • Apple devices will be getting on-device voice cloning later this year, and I’m pretty excited to give it a whirl, even though it’s only available in English for now. Among the Big Five, I have a hunch that Apple might be the one to offer machine learning features in a way that respects our privacy.

    Users can create a Personal Voice by reading along with a randomized set of text prompts to record 15 minutes of audio on iPhone or iPad. … [It] integrates seamlessly with Live Speech so users can speak with their Personal Voice when connecting with loved ones.

  • I just updated my now page! I’m deep into the new Zelda game, almost done with Aurora, still figuring out large language models, and preparing for a party. What are you up to?

    Link stands before a stone ruin amidst a field of golden grass. Trees, their leaves echoing the same autumnal hue, dot the landscape. In the distance, an island appears to be floating in the sky. Link, armed with a shield and an axe, readies for adventure. This is a screenshot from the early stages of Tears of the Kingdom.

  • The release date of Tears of the Kingdom has never been closer and yet so far away. I’m struggling with the urge to just download the leaked version rather than wait for seven more days for my preloaded copy to unlock. 🫠 🎮

    Nintendo Switch with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom preloaded – but not playable.

  • New sci-fi concept album from The Cotton Modules is out today. 🎵 Of course, it comes with a tappable short story because… Robin Sloan. 🥰

    The Deep Space Sloop John Bethel was leaving Earth because culture had stopped.

    It was an age of paranoia and boredom.

    Politics and entertainment ran in a dumb, dark loop — the regurgitations of banal AIs that were, apparently, good enough.

    Album art. Some kind of vessel floating around in space. Probably the deep space sloop John Bethel. It says The Cotton Modules: The Greatest Remaining Hits.

  • Exclusive: unveiling the elusive sight of my foot after a delightful strut through the enchanting Tiveden! 🌲

    I love the woods of Tiveden, which lie just half an hour from our cabin. It’s like entering the world of John Bauer. You expect to see a magical being around every giant stone.

    @sod and I walked for hours and relished the April sun. A fabulous Friday. A great start to the weekend.

    A couple sitting outdoors, sipping coffee from thermos mugs. Only their arms and legs are visible in the frame. The view over a lake is magnificent.

  • So, @sannalund surprised me with a gift-for-no-special-reason the other day (aren’t those the best kind of gifts?): Moonbound by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm. Looks stellar! Can’t wait to read it. 📚

    A gritty illustrated comic book cover, featuring the moon on the bottom and an upside-down astronaut on the top.

  • It’s #FeedReaderFriday again! 🥳 Rachel Simone Weil makes wonderful art like Hello Kitty Land (a Super Mario Bros. ROM-hack) and connectedNES (a Wi-Fi “modem” for the NES). She also curates the FEMICOM Museum. Follow her blog and Mastodon feed (they are RSS too).

    Six years ago, I built a WiFi "modem" and live Twitter feed cartridge for the Nintendo NES. With Twitter's relevance on the decline, what other kind of live text feed would you like to see on the NES? Reply here with your ideas—maybe I'll port one of them to ConnectedNES!

  • It’s Tuesday evening. I just had coffee, emptied my feed reader, and learned that:

  • The 2023 spring issue of the html review is out, and I’m eager to dive into it! 🫨

  • To me, one of the more unbelievable scenes in Tetris is when Henk asks

    This game is programmed in C, yeah?

    gets an affirmative answer, goes on to produce some original 2-bit graphics, and ports Tetris to the Game Boy in like 10 seconds.

    There are C compilers for the Game Boy today, but back then, the games were written in assembly for the Sharp LR35902. Of course, I wasn’t a programmer at Nintendo R&D1 in the 80s – I wish! – but I did have some fun reverse engineering Tetris for Game Boy to get rid of Bullet-Proof Software’s copyright screen. 🤓

    The movie? It was a fun ride. 🍿🕹️

    A frame from the movie Tetris. Henk stares at a prototype Game Boy. The subtitles says: this game is programmed in C, yeah?

  • 🔭 Search Space is out of beta! 🥂 New in version 1.0.0:

    • 🎙️ Transcripts can be indexed!
    • 🪚 Post content in search results is truncated at 300 characters.
    • 🗂️ Indexing replies and transcripts are optional.
    • 👋 The greeting text (Welcome to Search Space …) can be edited in the settings.

  • One wikipedian had fun with today’s Did you know … section. 🙃 Love it! Via Molly White.

    Screenshot from Wikipedia. Did you know … that after one of Piet Mondrian’s paintings (shown) was discovered to have been hanging upside down for decades, the museum left it as is? The photo of the painting and the following text is presented upside down by the Wikipedia editor: New York City I (1941), upside down.

  • Remember! There’s no such thing as having too many book-related newsletter subscriptions. If you’re a fan of sci-fi and/or horror, subscribe to Frights, Flights, and Literary Delights. Curated by @sannalund and yours truly.

    Or read our first issue on the web. 📚

    In a fantastical black and white illustration, a person sits on a hill, reading, aided by the moonlight. In the stars above, a hideous, Kaiju-like creature manifests. Is it for real or the reader’s imagination?

  • Stil frame from a movie. A man is looking out a window at the woman next door, looking out her window. They’re having a conversation.

    – I do a nude scene. Do you want to see it?
    – Huh? Did I say yes?
    – You didn’t say anything.
    – I meant yes, my mouth didn’t speak.

    🤩 From the trailer for Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City.

  • I’ve just rolled out a new version of my ✍️ Reply by Email plug-in. Now with email obfuscation to combat email harvesting & keep your inbox safer! 🛡️

    Remember, no solution is 100% foolproof against web scraping spam bots. For best protection, combine with a service like Apple’s Hide My Email!

  • 📚 Great advice from Oliver Burkeman:

    [Treat] your “to read” pile like a river (a stream that flows past you, and from which you pluck a few choice items, here and there) instead of a bucket (which demands that you empty it). After all, you presumably don’t feel overwhelmed by all the unread books in the British Library – and not because there aren’t an overwhelming number of them, but because it never occurred to you that it might be your job to get through them all.

  • For those of you using my 🦄 Magic Preview plug-in in Safari, force clicking the 🔍 Preview link gives you a quick preview of what your post will look like. Works on handheld devices as well, just tap and hold the link to see a preview without opening the page. Like magic! ✨

    A text editor in Safari is partially obscured by a page preview. The preview is a styled version of the text in the text editor.

  • Instead of manually adjusting hundreds of Markdown formatted microblog posts when migrating my blog from Jekyll to Hugo (Micro.blog), I asked ChatGPT to do it for me. How did it go?

    👀 Read How ChatGPT made my migration from Jekyll to Hugo a breeze to find out.

  • Okay, everybody, today is a big day because my bff/gf/wife @sannalund just joined Micro.blog! She’s way cooler, smarter, funnier, and definitely prettier than me, so give her a follow and a warm welcome. 🥳

  • We’re doing wine, pizza, and newslettering again. If you’re at all interested in books – especially in the horror and sci-fi genres – you should stop what you’re doing right now and sign up for Frights, Flights, and Literary Delights. The first issue will arrive tomorrow.

    A hand holding an opened wine bottle. It's totally wrapped in paper, lovingly illustrated with leaves, that also act as the bottle's label. The label reads Villarini Nero d’Avola Sicilia, organic wine.

  • A gpt-3.5-turbo powered poet-clock. Cute idea! Matt goes into some details in his post My new job is AI sommelier and I detect the bouquet of progress.

    An e-ink screen on a shelf with the text: eleven-thirty eight, don't hesitate, Time to savor life, don't be late.

    I made an AI clock for my bookshelves! It composes a new poem every minute using ChatGPT and mysteriously has this enthusiastic vibe which I am totally into

  • Here’s 3 × Game Boy (again):

    A person holds a Game Boy with a camera accessory attached. The screen (acting as a viewfinder) shows a bird chilling in the water.

    Gameboy Camera, a lifestyle choice . . . . . . . . . 😂😂😂

  • Bill Gates on The Age of AI has begun:

    First, we should try to balance fears about the downsides of AI—which are understandable and valid—with its ability to improve people’s lives. …

    Second, market forces won’t naturally produce AI products and services that help the poorest. The opposite is more likely. …

    Finally, we should keep in mind that we’re only at the beginning of what AI can accomplish. Whatever limitations it has today will be gone before we know it. …

    The Age of AI is filled with opportunities and responsibilities.

  • Despite some slippery spots, we had a lovely Sunday stroll at Dumme mosse.

    A foggy winter day, a deserted planked trail goes of into the wetlands.

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