GPU Shader art
Kishimisu walks you through the fascinating realm of writing programmable shader art and offers helpful insights and guidance to assist you to make your own creations.
Retro Japanese vending machines
The Sagamihara Used Tire Mart and Vending Machine Corner in Kanagawa, Japan has an amazing collection of very old vending machines. The staff maintains them and even cooks the meals for them. See old mechanical hot and cold serve coffee/tea machines, hamburgers, potstickers, squeezed orange juice, candied apples, Kodak film vending machine, ice cream machines, an ultra rare hot curry machine that worked before microwave technology, popcorn machines, machines with old nixie tube displays, and some old pachinko and video game machines.
Here we go – AI reimagines Aliens as a Wes Anderson movie
AI Fungi used generative AI technology to simulate what a Wes Anderson’s version of the classic sci-fi/horror flick Aliens might look like. He injects Tilda Swinton in the role of Ripley as well as some other recognizable regulars on Anderson’s movies and the Nostromo getting a colorful upgrade.
Yes, AI can do this today. Imagine in a few years from now…
Now live properly
“Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Or, what about this:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 6:6
Aurelius is not at all far from Christian thought when you translate the wording. What Aurelius would call living ‘improperly’ would be what Christians called ‘sin’. What would ‘living properly’ look like to Aurelius? He would likely have been pretty close to the Greek philosophy of living virtuously. Something that required a well developed understanding and the self control to pursue the good while rejecting bad.
For the Christian, living ‘properly’ would be living as Christ taught – a life of love, service to others before self, and radical conversion of heart and mind. In the case of the Christian though, you do not need to do this alone. By forming a relationship with Christ over time, He takes upon himself the pain of your sins, paying for them with his own sacrifice, and then leads you to live a new life in grace and conversion via his teaching – with forgiveness when you fail. For the Christian, living a new life is not something you do alone. You have a companion always there to pick you up, find forgiveness, and start anew on the path to conversion which leads to true happiness for all eternity; as well as other travelers along the same path leading to the same truth.
Dukes of Hazard – Star Wars style
A really funny mashup of Dukes of Hazard and Star Wars.
Green Chilis in Oregon
Los Roast is a great local supplier of New Mexican green chilis. A La Machina makes these really awesome green chili propane grilling machines.
AI Jesus
We started with the AI based show about nothing, then AI Spongebob. Now we have a live streaming AI Jesus. The video, audio, and what he says is all generated by AI. What’s surprising is that it accepts a lot of different questions – and often answers them with a higher degree of accuracy than I would have thought (though I would certainly NOT take any of your religious formation from the AI version).
I think it’s more revealing the kinds of questions people ask. While some are clearly humor others are quite serious and reveal the depth of things people are struggling with.
I guess it’s only slightly better than when some Lutherans let chatGPT run an entire service with a sermon.
Stair Quest!
Do you love the gorgeous CGA/EGA graphics of classic Sierra adventure games like King’s Quest? Do you miss the madness inducing moon logic puzzles? But above all, do you LOVE the frustrating Sierra trope of dying on the most simple staircases?
Relive that pixel-perfect, madness inducing, ‘adventure’ going up and down stairs that will kill you with the slightest misstep with Stair Quest!
Here’s a guy that went through the pain:
With a collective gasp
How did the WWDC audience react to the $3499 price tag of the Apple Vision Pro? It wasn’t the usual gasp of wonder, but it was a collective gasp. 🙂
Drawing on an acrylic lightbox
RCLifeOn created a 2D drawing lightbox from an old 3D printer, a marker, and some LED lights to draw patterns on acrylic. Even more interesting, he did it live on Twitch.
Like many creators, they’re finding a tremendous amount of free software to complete projects without needing to invest long hours developing their own software. They’re creating increasingly more amazing stuff from off the shelf parts.
Some of his software tools:
- Autodesk Fusion 360 for drawing up the 3D parts he needed
- Sandify is an open source java package that creates patterns/paths for robots to draw in sand (continuous lines without lifting, etc)