Inkbox decides everything in computing since sending man to the moon was a bad idea. Even operating systems and programming languages. So, he sets out to write a complete clone of Zaxxon in assembly language with no operating system. He handles display, keyboard and mouse input, and booting the system himself – and walks us through it all.
How does it go? Awesome! Open Source Project on GitHub: https://github.com/InkboxSoftware/spacegamex64/
Sidetrack Adventures drives out into the desert and tells the tale of the now gone Mojave phone booth. Once it was re-discovered, it started a flood of non-stop calls from people all over the world and spawned 2 movies.
The movie Sicario starts out and seems to indicate Kate is the movie’s protagonist. We see the story start through her eyes. But we experience people, operations, and goals that are confusing and often very violent – what is going on? As Film Thought Project points out – it’s because she is NOT the protagonist. This storytelling method is meant to draw us into a familiar story in a very different way. Instead of the classic Hollywood narrative that makes the protagonist the center of the attention, we find out she is brought in almost as a piece of necessary but meaningless equipment so that others can do the things they want. The plan was started long before she was involved. The movie isn’t even sympathetic to our, or her, confusion as the real story unfolds.
This method of following someone who is in the dark to only to later figure out they are minor/unimportant to the real, much bigger story is something I first saw in 90’s era Japanese anime. I remember how many times it unsettled and confused me. American movies almost always follow the plucky young protagonist’s adventure as they grow through the challenges in the story. I think that’s why many people find 80’s and 90’s era Japanese anime so confusing. What’s going on seems arbitrary and things change and twist with no seeming reason.
I remember thinking that besides the bigger story arc it tells, this kind of storytelling mechanism shows you the experience of being a person who is a cog. I think this mirrors the average person’s experience in many highly authoritarian cultures. Many Asian cultures have extremely strong social norms about following and not questioning superiors or orders – even if they cost you your life. Leaders do not ask your opinions or input, invite you to the planning meeting, nor do they bother wasting time to explain themselves or the goals. Your job is to carry your orders and job out at peak efficiency – for good or ill.
Only later do these people even brush elbows with the real people in power when the plan fails or succeeds. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Berserk, Psycho Pass, and many other anime fit this bill. Blade Runner 2049 does this when you find out that K is not the protagonist he imagines himself to be. There’s a sense of disillusionment that hits very different – often leaving the viewer with a sense of powerlessness, confusion, and anxiety. Your life is controlled by forces you don’t have access too.
How Stories Work with Jay Sherer shares how the story works from a writer/director’s perspective. When you see how well these narrative structures and writing are done – you see why most modern movies (superhero movies, cheap series cash grabs on Star Wars, Star Trek, Aliens, and Preditor series for example) are so bad.
Elsa Johnson recently wrote a piece about the fact that nearly 40% of Stanford undergrads claim they have a disability in order to game the system to get extra time on tests, excused absences, and the best housing on campus. The article went viral. But what was more interesting is that response was overwhelmingly POSITIVE from her fellow students for calling it out.
Just enter your address, and this website will help you find your Oregon state and local representatives and senator.
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/FindYourLegislator/districts-initial.html
Where’s that distinctive backbeat come from in the song Jump Around by House of Pain? Samples of Motown of course…
PBS has a good little 2 part documentary on Edgar Allen Poe called “In Search of Edgar Allen Poe” that you can watch for free.
I’ve always been a Poe fan since I found his stories in my elementary school years. The documentary did a decent overview of his life – which was quite a story of struggles and loss in itself.
One of the things I learned was the breadth and accomplishment on his influence in many genres. He is cited as the inventor of not only the horror story, but of the detective story, and science fiction. He also wrote impressive essays on poetry, cryptography, cosmology and even the nature of the music of bells.
At the end of the documentary, there is a list of works that inspired other authors (either directly stated by the author or having obvious influence). I thought it was worth putting them here to record just how influential his work became.
While these changes were measurable, they were unlikely to stand out in blind listening.
In recent testing, audiophiles were unable to tell the difference between audio signals going through a copper cable, a green banana, or even wet mud.
Runescape was one of the first really big, popular online games. Soon, people wrote bot programs to do repetitive tasks for you. Then the game designers started fighting back from the bots.
What came next was the rise of the back and forth arms race with attack and counter-attack that created a lot of early MMORPG memes and cultural touchpoints. Today the arms race has advanced to ill-advised kernel based anti-cheat system and even AI based cheat detection.
Learning how and why these systems developed is an important part of any software engineers toolbag.
Each year on January 16, the town celebrates the traditional Luminarias festival. Purportedly held for five centuries, the origins of the festival trace back to a ritual purification to preserve the health of the horses in the village. Bonfires are lit in the central streets, and horses jump through the flames, with the smoke intended to protect the animals from disease.