Posts in "Notes"

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

This post is just a test to see if we can abuse the newly introduced 600 characters limit for quotes, without actually, you know, quoting anything. Maybe we can! As I write this, I don’t know, and I have to keep typing to reach the 600-character limit. If you, dear reader, can read this post in its full glory on the Micro.blog timeline, it means I’ve succeeded. Let’s celebrate that:

🎉🥳

You might wonder how this tiny trick is achieved? I’m glad you asked! There’s this saying that a screenshot is worth more than a thousand words (or is it 600 characters?), so without further ado, here it comes:

Screenshot of Micro.blog’s new post view, with the content of this very post in the text area. The text begins with an opening span element with the class attribute set to: less-than sign blockquote.

My new Micro.blog plug-in is a minimal, no-frills post editor. But it has one pretty magical feature: live previews!

See it in action below, try it on my blog, or look up 🦄 Magic Preview in the plug-in directory. ⚠️ Read the important notice there before installing. Have fun!

Today I completed another task on the study to-do list: installing the ceiling light. Thirteen individual glass globes had to be attached one by one – tedious, but worthwhile! 💡

A ceiling lamp with 13 opal colored glass globes in combination with black metal light fixture. Gives an impression of an upside down snow lantern.

It’s #FeedReaderFriday already! Firstly, if you haven’t explored Maggie’s digital garden yet, now is the time. Yes, right now. 😊 And then, add the feed to your reader to never miss one of her visual essays (about anthropology, design, and programming). You won’t regret it!

Om du gillar böcker och befinner dig i närheten av Jönköping ska du så klart besöka SmåLit i morgon. Föreläsningar, författarsamtal, bokmässa och massa annat kul för bokmalar och läslöss. 📚

Där, vid ett av åttio bord kommer du hitta Sanna (och undertecknad) krängandes Sveriges kanske just nu bästa skräcknoveller. 👻 Vi ses!

Books and potted plants are slowly but surely finding their way back into the study. Along with one of @veronique’s original drawings. 🥰 Check out her lovely creations over at veronique.ink.

Shelves filled with books and a plant. There’s also a framed ink drawing. Abstract but resembling something organic, fungi-like. A network of connected mushrooms from outer space, maybe?

AI is increasingly used to generate spam content. Spambots explores what would happen if, instead, machine learning was used to empower a group of robotic Spam cans to tell their tales.

I love how Neil Mendoza’s cute spambots tirelessly remix Huxley’s work. Via Lynn Cherny.

An anthropomorphized can of SPAM typing away at a tiny, four-button keyboard.

End-of-day update! The famous last 20 % still remains, but the room is definitely closer to being finished now than 8 hours ago. I love how cozy it is! 🥰

A cozy room with Xanadu green walls, one are mostly occupied with cube shaped cabinets in different sizes. Someone have started filling the shelves with books, but there are still a lot of ones. A large, comfortable-looking armchair invites you to relax and maybe read some.

The study is coming along nicely! 💚 We’re getting help from a pro, and I appreciate the fact that I’m not drilling holes in the wall myself. 😅

A messy room filled with power tools and other equipment. One of the walls is partly filled with cube-formed cabinets. Two cabinets are still on the floor, ready to be mounted.

On this misty winter morning, I stumbled upon a lonely buoy on the frozen lake Viken. I think it’s longing for spring, yearning to be free once again. Or maybe it’s just me.

A misty, cold view over a frozen lake. Trees partly covered in snow. In the foreground, a lonely red buoy is stuck in the ice.

A week or so before Christmas, we traditionally go to the square to pick out a julgran (Christmas tree). This year, Sanna found the perfect one in less than 30 seconds! It’s a stunning spruce, now fully lit and decorated. 🎄

Closeup of a Christmas tree, with electric candlelights and ornaments. There are also a couple of tiny birds (fake) sitting on sprigs.

Simone Giertz on comfort building:

So I woke up this morning feeling really overwhelmed and sad for no good reason, so I’m treating myself to a day of wearing sweatpants and refurbishing this old fire alarm.

A woman sits at a desk, painting the letters of an old fire alarm. There’s a dog in her lap following the paintbrush’s motions.

Today we made caramel candy. 🤤 Wrapping them all kept me busy for a while.

Chopped up pieces of caramel candy, laying on baking paper. There’s also a glass jar with wrapped candies and wrapping paper.

Sitemap for dahlstrand.net