AI Black Mirror
The AI Black Mirror YouTube channel has some real nightmare fuel videos. The All Purpose Everything Sauce ad demonstrates what a hard time AI has with understanding how people eat.
MiSTer FPGA retro gaming setup
MiSTer is an open source project that recreates classic computers, video game consoles, and arcade machines using modern FPGA hardware. It can emulate arcade systems (Neo Geo, etc), home consoles (NES, Gameboy, Atari 26/52/7800, NeoGeo, SNES, Vectrex) and even home computers like the Apple II/Mac/IBM PC.
It will run you about $350-500 – or even more if you want add-ons. It also requires some complex setup; but it can generate some of the best emulation of retro gaming systems.
A review of gameplay:
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Wacom leaves Portland
In 2016, Wacom moved from their Vancouver offices and opened their Pearl office and Wacom Experience center. At the time, they joined an influx of technology businesses opening Portland offices when the city became a destination for software startups and large tech companies based elsewhere.
Sadly, Portland’s tech scene began fading several years ago. Some of the city’s most prominent companies were sold and many tech companies moved out of Portland during the pandemic when riots and new taxes stressed businesses. In 2024, Portland now has the highest commercial vacancy rate, over 30%, of all major US cities.
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A review of cryptocurrency games
Make your own video card!
Ben Eater decided to build his own VGA video card. Well, technically it’s more of a display adapter/controller since the card doesn’t provide any rendering or accelerate the image buffer generation portion – but it’s still a pretty fun watch.
This is pretty much how computer graphics started. Someone built a display controller. Then others added some helper hardware to speed up the buffer fills, then blitting, then rendering, AI upscaling/noise reduction, and now full on AI rendering. What a wild technology ride – but it was this early stuff that really got me excited about technology. You could create and build all of this kind of amazing stuff yourself.
Playing full length movies – on an Atari 2600
Play full-length movies on a 2600? Turns out it is possible with the MovieCart 2600 sold on Tindie. Plays at 80×192 with sound; but wow – it’s actually watchable.
Visit the Deetz Beetlejuice house
As part of the Airbnb’s Icons series, you can now visit the old Beetlejuice Maitland’s house.
Sign up for an opportunity to visit the house this November.
Outer Limits and The Terminator
Did you know that Harlan Ellison sued and won both an out of court settlement and now appears in the credits of later prints of the 1984 Schwarzenegger movie The Terminator?
The 1964 Outer Limits episode ‘Soldier’ was written by Harlan Ellison and was loosely adapted from his 1957 short story ‘Soldier from Tomorrow‘. The similarities were so close that a settlement was reached despite James Cameron who disagreed with the ruling.
Give the original a watch and see just how close (and far) they were.
John Deere’s farming technology reaches far
John Deere seems to be embracing new farming technology at a pace that is putting it’s competitors to shame.
John Deere recently announced a partnership with Corteva Agriscience to combine farm equipment with data-drive seed, fungicides/herbicides/etc recommendations.
They also announced their 2024 startup collaborators – and it gives us a hint as to what other technologies they are looking into. It’s pretty clear they’re looking at everything from farming/agricultural equipment advances, business management, electric charging, freight, and job site management.
- Constellr – a company measuring land surface temperature and water from its own satellites at unprecedented accuracy levels to enable insights for a more sustainable future.
- Geminos – an artificial intelligence company empowering businesses to understand and leverage causality for enhanced decision-making.
- SB Quantum – a quantum sensing company focused on navigation based on a novel quantum magnetometer.
- Fermata Energy – a leader in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) bidirectional charging platform technology.
- goFlux – a Brazil based logistics company focused on digital solutions to connect the ecosystem for freight transactions.
- Cloudscape Labs – a production management software company focused on providing job site visibility across the construction team to help meet production, cost, and safety targets.
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A reading appropriate for election season
Beloved:
Remind them to be under the control of magistrates and authorities,
to be obedient, to be open to every good enterprise.
They are to slander no one, to be peaceable, considerate,
exercising all graciousness toward everyone.
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded,
slaves to various desires and pleasures,
living in malice and envy,
hateful ourselves and hating one another.But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Life is a journey of learning who God is and building a relationship with Him. One of the most difficult concepts Christians must wrap their minds around, and probably one of the least sought modern virtues, is how God loves obedience. Jesus, God himself, cast all of his powers aside to become a helpless child – and was obedient to his created mother and father.
The election, current public discourse and political climate have been contentious – putting it mildly. The early Christians were often living under political regimes that persecuted, arrested, and killed them. Yet, here we read that Christians were taught to be obedient to authority. Even Jesus, when being falsely tried, convicted, and killed – was still obedient to authority of the chief priests and Roman authorities. Even when He could have used the power of the crowds to have stopped it, walked away from Jerusalem, or talked his way out of a death sentence.
Instead, we are to act with peace and act graciously towards everyone and be open to every good enterprise. Even bad situations have opportunities for good – look for them! We too were (or are) just as full of evil and shackled by our passions so we do not to slander anyone – but speak always at peace and be considerate to all.
Obedience is a difficult thing – but I think it teaches us a lot of powerful lessons. For one, I think it shows God’s power to turn evil into good. It reminds us that it’s not our efforts that are important, but living in the presence of God in our actions that is most important. It’s when we do not seek to change things through our own actions that God can demonstrate His power through us. Even the seemingly pointless death of Jesus, killed like a common criminal, has turned into the means of salvation for the whole world.
So, step away from the toxic social media. Turn off the doom-filled TV and news feeds. Instead, be Christ in the world – and be the light of hope in the midst of the darkness.