This is a very real holiday weekend list for me, as I used the extra free time on this Labor Day weekend to dig back into some of them. You get some music making, some electronics making, and some a taste of my love of film. Hope my American and Canadian friends are having a great Labor Day weekend.
Reads
- Tongariro Crossing: Travel is one hobby I never have enough time for. I did this hike in 2004 with my sister. It was AMAZING. I want to do it again once my kids are a little older. The taller volcano was used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies (thus connecting this entry to the theme of these posts. 😉 Honestly, NZ just came up in convo yesterday, and I love this hike too much not to share it)
- MPE: MIDI Polyphonic Expression Explained: The MIDI protocol most music equipment uses hasn’t changed much in practical terms for decades. MPE is a pretty signfiicant change for the protocol, enabling more ways of controlling the sound of your instruments. If you’ve seen something like a ROLI Lightpad Block at, say, an Apple Store, MPE is one reason it can allow so many different gestures to affect the sound.
- The rise and rise of A24, a champion of storytelling on screen: Whether it’s unusual movies like Everything Everywhere All At Once or quirky films like Spring Breakers, or more serious fare like Room or Euphoria, I’m finding A24 in the opening credits of more and more film and tv I love.
- Twitter Whistleblowing Report Actually Seems To Confirm Twitter’s Legal Argument, While Pretending To Support Musk’s: I just really feel bad for all the folks I know at Twitter who have to deal with man-child temper tantrums and then this, on top of everything else.
Game Things
- Google for Games Reports 2022: Really interesting survey-based analysis of game trends. Contrasting the mobile and pc/console reports is worthwhile.
- Google’s 2022 PC & Console Insights Report: Diversity and inclusion are key for global success: People want games that speak to them, that allow them to form bonds, and are in their language.
- 25 years ago, Catan became an American hit by beating Monopoly at its own cruel game: Any discussion of in-game resource modeling probably includes a reference to this board game, which millions of people have enjoyed over the years. 32 million copies so far - have you played it?
Code & Tools
- What is Hydra?: Interesting idea to create a wallet-of-wallets for Solana. The common thread in the use cases seem to be around allowing communities to share in the royalties for various transactions.
- Status Hero: I actually helped build a product similar to this at a prior startup. I haven’t found a perfect tool for async team updates. Slack is too noisy, and encourages it. Something like this seems useful, though this one also feels a little pricey.
Cool Projects
- Pi Powered Musical Robot (with cowbell): Cool little project. Admire the love that went into getting this working.
- iPod-style ESPHome Remote: Apparently, click-dial controllers similar to the iPod wheels are easily available now… Very cool little build. Might be a good Christmas-time project.
- Black Widow Batons + Backpack: I’m not a cosplayer at all, but this build looks really well done, and all printable on the relative simple and small bed of an Ender 3.
