Ori had this interesting idea for an umbrella that folds up like origami to fit inside a tiny wand. As someone that tried this style of folding pattern (Miura fold), I personally wondered what material they could be using to consistently get a conical version of this to work. The folding pattern is pretty amazing, but is a little fiddly and prone to crumpling if you don’t apply the collapsing force equally at the edges.
I dug deeper and there was never any real video or even picture of this product – it was all CG rendered versions. The store page also now appears to be down.
Windows Sandbox is a great way to make a very quick Windows sandbox separated from the rest of your system if you want to run programs you might not fully trust but not set up a full VM or Docker container.
Using a GPU with the sandbox is easy, but requires you create a text file and put the following code in it. When done, save the text file as a *.wsb file and then click it so that config is used when running the sandbox.
Want to physically weave your memory into hardware one bit at a time like they did in the 60’s? Core64c sells core memory kits you can build and play with using small Pi devices. They’re super cool, but not super cheap at about $100+ each.
They say that your true character comes out when you are pushed against the wall. Besides Jobs using the legal method of something called ‘multiple listing‘ in which you get on the transplant lists of many states all at once, Steve Job’s doctor, who performed his 2009 liver transplant in Tennessee, then moved into Job’s palatial Tennessee house which had been bought for his recovery just a few months after the operation. This is just one more thread in an interesting chain of activities Jobs did towards the end of his life to secure a transplant.
Ghost of Tsushima has some of the most phenomenal atmospheric rendering of any recent game. One of the biggest elements is big fields of grass. How they did it was fairly well documented in their GDC talk, but SimonDev walks you through making such a system. He also sells courses.
Puy du Fou is an “insane historical theme park with no rides”. They re-create lots of historical spectacles for visitors to enjoy. And they aren’t joking. Chariot races in a Roman circus, viking adventures in real boats, and plays.
This clip is from “Le Dernier Panache”(“The Last Stand”), a spectacular show featuring groundbreaking stage technology. It was created in 2016 at Puy du Fou located outside Nantes France. This play follows the destiny of a French naval officer, a hero of the American Revolutionary War, whose life takes a dramatic turn in 1793 in a final battle for freedom.
Follow the money. I find most political arguments and party rhetoric can easily be debunked by the pesky thing called ‘reality’. One of the best unbiased sources of reality is to follow the money. Money speaks louder than words, more accurately than politicians, and more clearly that all the good/bad intentions ever will.
On the job front, it found that illegal immigration created an almost 1-to-1 increase in local employment and did not measurably affect wages. This is likely due to the fact each new person that showed up needed the equivalent amount of services: food, transportation, and work. The ongoing housing shortage, however, meant that there was a 30% growth in house prices and a 20% growth in rent prices since there was now an increase of demand without increase in supply of homes.
The report said the large increase in unauthorized immigration into the U.S. from early 2021 to early 2024 added roughly “seven million people to the U.S. population, nearly double that of legal immigration.” The white paper said illegal immigration is responsible for “roughly 30% of total employment growth over March 2021 to March 2024.”
The authors of the white paper concluded, “We find that unauthorized immigrant worker flows increased local employment approximately one-for-one, without generating significant declines in local wages during the early 2021 to early 2024 boom period. At the same time, these inflows raised local house prices and rents, with little evidence of increases in housing supply. Thus, while the influx of these immigrant workers acted as a positive supply shock to local labor markets, it acted simultaneously as a demand shock to local housing markets, boosting rents given relatively inelastic short-run housing supply.” The U.S. was also dealing with COVID-19 during much of this time period, which economists at the time said had an impact on employment and housing.
This kind of data gives us proof and evidence instead of rhetoric and simply wishing for certain things to be true when they may not. It debunks the idea that immigrants are likely stealing jobs or driving down wages (though local phenomenon could see these effects). It also tells us the very real problems of housing shortages and zoning laws – problems almost entirely created by political policy, land use laws, and zoning/permitting issues, and not a lack of organizations or companies wanting to build houses.
