It’s good news from two of my favorite projects: Marginalia Search and the Ladybird browser project got a bunch of funding this month. There’s still hope for the open web!
I just put up my Super Game Boy 2 for sale. I love how the translucent blue shell exposes the PCB. As a kid growing up in the 90s, a fair share of my electronics and toys looked like this. Do you remember the clear craze? 👻
Tiny Awards is my kind of award. 🥰 Looking forward to the finalist reveal next week. Voting opens June 22.
Tiny Awards is a small prize awarded by an equally-small selection committee of online makers to the website which we feel best embodies the idea of a small, playful and heartfelt web.
The award will take the form of an actual, physical trophy and a small cash prize thanks to ZINE, and will almost certainly result in literally no additional accolades or fame or fortune whatsoever.
I can confirm the following statement is true, those strawberries were tasty. 😋
Well, hello! The yummiest strawberries I’ve ever tasted.
I love how Jack just shoved a Seiko NH38 into an old Apple Watch. Repurposing ftw!
macOS Sonoma features I look forward to:
- Safari web apps & profiles
- Sorting groceries into categories in Reminders
- Support for linking between Notes
Amazing. 🤯
Protovision, I’ve got you now! David’s room from 1983 Wargames. Scratch built 1:12 scale model.
It was inevitable. I’ve orbited around @neauoire@merveilles.town’s Uxn project for a while, knowing I would fall down the rabbit hole sooner or later. Today, I wrote my first lines of Uxntal, probably not my last. Uxn is an ecosystem (assembler, emulator, etc.) around a little fantasy computer.
Thanks to Veronique and Manu for letting me know about CtrI-ZINE. I plan to catch up on all four issues from the hammock this summer.
[T]hese are the stories and entries of those who love the Web. … We want “what’s best” for us. The Netizens at-large. Be it a digital native, a mobile-first upbringing, oldcore BBS’ers from the last century, or those who will get help with their homework from AI. It (the Web) is BY and FOR us - let’s do our damnedest to have it serve us well!
Love Hultén’s creations always put a smile on my face. Here’s TEGEL, a sound sculpture based on biodata. 🪴
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?
Then
Jotted down from my home in Jönköping.
👰🏻♂️ Next weekend, I’m getting married! Well, that’s not entirely true. Sanna and I were actually married last year, but we’ve been celebrating multiple times. In just seven days, we’re hosting a party at Villa Strömsfors for our closest family members. I can’t wait!
📚 I’m nearing the end of the sci-fi novel Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. There’s a passage in it where one character has a conversation with the starship’s AI, and it reminds me a lot of interacting with large language models. I’m really enjoying it so far.
🤖 As for LLMs… I’m continuing to explore them and I see both potential and risks. Ted Chiang recently pondered the question of how we can ensure AI benefits everyone, not just capitalists, in his piece Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?
🧝♀️ The new Zelda adventure, Tears of the Kingdom, was released this past Friday, and I stayed up just to wait for the game to unlock. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this one, feeling like a kid counting down the days until Christmas. Now that it’s finally here, my Switch is going to get a serious workout in the coming weeks!
(This page is inspired by Derek Sivers’s now page idea. You should make one, too.)
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. 🫠 🎮
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.
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.
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. 📚
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:
- Evan published what might be the last everything we know about Zelda: TotK before the release. Just a month away!
- BigRig built the world’s biggest Nintendo 3DS.
- While Nathan exploited a regular-sized DSi.
The 2023 spring issue of the html review is out, and I’m eager to dive into it! 🫨