Garoo

Hi! Do you remember blogs? Well, this used to be one. Now it just serves as an archive for my many Twitter accounts.

14 October

The Programmers’ Credo: we do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they were going to be easy

# 2019/10/14 - 12:59 — original tweet by @Pinboard

I saw these screens in two games and figured they were too similar to be a coincidence. So Apple gave boilerplate code to all Arcade developers and not only does it produce the worst sync UI ever made, it doesn’t even work well.

# 2019/10/14 - 02:26 — published on @ff00aa

13 October

Oh for fuck’s sake I’m gonna buy a Surface Laptop

# 2019/10/13 - 23:15 — published on @ff00aa

@MichaelGalanin:

Money can’t buy you happiness

# 2019/10/13 - 22:48 — original tweet by @MichaelGalanin

Inmost is very good (except for the end, where they gave up on making a game) but it’s really fucking dark, making it an odd choice for Apple Arcade, a service many parents will consider as a cheap baby-sitter and on which they’ll give their children free rein.

# 2019/10/13 - 22:44 — published on @commandergaroo

Inmost (iOS) — 8/10

# 2019/10/13 - 22:34

@benedictevans:

When you aim for ‘Gaudi’ but get ‘Cthulhu rising up from the depths to swallow the building as sacrifice to the elder gods’ [twitter.com]

# 2019/10/13 - 20:35 — original tweet by @benedictevans

I enjoy seeing the LED lights of modern sports cars blink in Top Gear’s slow-motion footage almost as much as Top Gear’s cinematographer does, but I can’t help thinking that long-exposure shots looked better when I was young 👴🏻

# 2019/10/13 - 18:07 — published on @ff00aa

In that case let’s hope it was officially touted to Chinese users as a new ever-so-desirable feature, and not foisted upon them without warning (but what are the odds if it was added in a point release?)

# 2019/10/13 - 17:36 — published on @ff00aa

How crazy is it that this went almost completely unnoticed at the time?

# 2019/10/13 - 17:26 — published on @ff00aa

It’s probably just for users in China, but it doesn’t cost much to disable Fraudulent Website Warning anyway out of principle.

# 2019/10/13 - 17:15 — published on @ff00aa

@matthew_d_green:

Also, can we assume that only users configured in the Mainland China region are having their data sent to Tencent? That warning is pretty damn broad.

# 2019/10/13 - 17:09 — original tweet by @matthew_d_green

@matthew_d_green:

Wait, Apple is sending URLs to Tencent?! [reclaimthenet.org]

# 2019/10/13 - 17:09 — original tweet by @matthew_d_green

I remember when I discovered Fusion 360 and fell in love with its promise. Two years later, they haven’t improved on any of the UI’s pain points and I hate it. But I need it, because it’s the only 3D modeling workflow I can wrap my head around, and I can’t afford Rhino.

# 2019/10/13 - 15:14 — published on @commandergaroo

Hier je me suis préparé un filtre photo noir et blanc pour les tristes mois d’hiver. Aujourd’hui il fait 25° 🤨︎

# 2019/10/13 - 13:39 — published on @garoo

L’article est sur le 11 ouais :) (Le Pro c’est pareil avec le zoom en plus)

# 2019/10/13 - 11:52 — published on @ff00aa

12 October

Art Plunge is worth it just for Mona Lisa

Seeing her up-close in VR — and very well recreated — might be the first time I’ve understood the fascination with her eyes and smile. (I’m incapable of “entering” a painting by my own means.)

# 2019/10/12 - 23:20 — published on @commandergaroo

@stroughtonsmith:

A must-read for prospective Catalyst developers; look at how much thought went into redesigning LookUp for Mac Catalyst, which as a result is one of the nicest Mac-like apps of the launch lineup [medium.com]

# 2019/10/12 - 23:08 — original tweet by @stroughtonsmith

Mais qu’est-ce que je fais de ma vie, moi. On monte une SSII ?

# 2019/10/12 - 22:48 — published on @garoo

Astrologaster (iOS) — 9/10

# 2019/10/12 - 20:46

It took me a bit too long to understand what I was doing, but I loved everything else about Astrologaster

The writing, sharp, funny, acerbic and sometimes delightfully vulgar; the visuals; the voice acting; the songs; the songs! the songs are incredible.

# 2019/10/12 - 20:44 — published on @commandergaroo

Nope not in a mood for a giant spider fuck this.

# 2019/10/12 - 19:26 — published on @commandergaroo

I’m enjoying Inmost, but of course I hate playing it on a touchscreen

I could pair a gamepad to my iPad, but then the 11” screen would be much farther away from me than I like. Yet it’d be weird buying on Steam a game I got ‘for free’ with Apple Arcade.

# 2019/10/12 - 16:39 — published on @commandergaroo

@JuddApatow:

Apple Told Some Apple TV+ Show Developers Not To Anger China- hey and don’t mention that Turkey is bad. We sell a lot of watches there. And don’t mention Saudi Arabia murdering journalists- they love the iMac and don’t mention Russia—big iPad market. [buzzfeednews.com]

# 2019/10/12 - 16:33 — original tweet by @JuddApatow

Digital Photography Review: “iPhone 11’s Portrait Mode sets a high bar for the Pixel 4”

As much as I’ve hated the very idea of portrait mode, I must admit that these test shots all look really good.

# 2019/10/12 - 15:18 — published on @ff00aa

The Good Place 4x03 — 9/10

# 2019/10/12 - 15:09

@atlasobscura:

In Japan, the practice of folding chopstick wrappers into figurines is particularly widespread. So much so that six years ago, Yuki Tatsumi began collecting the little origami sculptures left behind, and now has around 15,000. [trib.al]

# 2019/10/12 - 10:36 — original tweet by @atlasobscura

@random_walker:

My university just announced that it’s dumping Blackboard, and there was much rejoicing. Why is Blackboard universally reviled? There’s a standard story of why “enterprise software” sucks. If you’ll bear with me, I think this is best appreciated by talking about… baby clothes!

# 2019/10/12 - 01:14 — original tweet by @random_walker

Everyone complained about Reminders but no one mentioned that upgrading my phone to iOS 13 would make Shortcuts unavailable on my old device suck on iOS 12. Goddammit, Apple.

# 2019/10/12 - 00:50 — published on @garoocomplains

11 October

@SamuelHayat:

Le suprémacisme blanc tue, encore et encore. Ce n’est pas la seule idéologie à provoquer des attentats meurtriers ces dernières années. Mais c’est la seule à se voir accorder la possibilité de développer son discours sur toutes les plateformes, y compris la télévision, sans souci

# 2019/10/11 - 14:38 — original tweet by @SamuelHayat

10 October

The fun continues…

# 2019/10/10 - 23:16 — published on @ff00aa

I just love that Apple Pay now fails half the time on my iPhone because Apple didn’t bother to test on non-Face ID phones beyond “yup it runs.”

# 2019/10/10 - 21:41 — published on @garoocomplains

@sannewman:

Remember: A billionaire is just a billion dollars that has taken possession of a human body and is using it for purposes of murder.

# 2019/10/10 - 20:47 — original tweet by @sannewman

@roseveleth:

It’s wild to me that there aren’t more non-local reporters working on the PGE story — this is a perfect example of the future. Climate change + privatization & capitalism = millions of people without power, likely leading to serious danger to the most marginalized folks.

# 2019/10/10 - 20:45 — original tweet by @roseveleth

This is very cool and I’m sorry for any hypothetical user of Uniconsole who might be disappointed that I’ll never implement such a UI

# 2019/10/10 - 20:41 — published on @ff00aa

@jasonimms:

Ummmm Untitled Goose Game model on Thingiverse, with a magnet in the beak HELLO

[thingiverse.com]

# 2019/10/10 - 19:57 — original tweet by @jasonimms

The Great C (PC) — 6/10

The random jump cuts in Comfort mode are really distracting — but even the beautiful slow pans in Cinematic mode are a really bad use of VR. If you want to make a movie, make a movie.

# 2019/10/10 - 17:39

Funny, I’d never realized the obvious parallel between dynamic compression in pop music of the last thirty years and the more recent obsession for local contrast enhancement in photography (the pseudo-HDR effect, of which I suspect Deep Fusion is guilty)

# 2019/10/10 - 16:24 — published on @ff00aa

@danielpunkass:

Apple could have engineered their way out of this conundrum, the same way they engineered their way out of being liable for sharing private user data. Embracing some kind of user-facing side-loading solution would diminish the impact of Apple’s own authoritative power over users. [twitter.com]

# 2019/10/10 - 14:35 — original tweet by @danielpunkass

Mon pote le pigeon passe tellement de temps depuis quinze jours à me mater de la rembarde qu’il n’a même pas bougé quand j’ai ouvert la fenêtre

# 2019/10/10 - 14:32 — published on @garoo

@YseultCeirw:

• Is the cause of the mass extinction event we’re currently experiencing, and that 95% of people are completely unaware of or outright deny.

# 2019/10/10 - 14:19 — original tweet by @YseultCeirw

@YseultCeirw:

• naturally occurring, yet has a scent incomparable to any other natural substance

• pitch black liquid

• kills anything it touches

• using it to make anything kills everything it DOESN’T touch, but very slowly

• inexplicably addictive to the money-poisoned

# 2019/10/10 - 14:19 — original tweet by @YseultCeirw

@YseultCeirw:

Fairly certain that crude oil is a genuine eldritch horror.

• lied in wait in the Earth’s crust for literally millions of years

• made from the dead bodies of creatures nobody in recorded history has ever seen alive

• almost immediately granted us advanced technology

# 2019/10/10 - 14:19 — original tweet by @YseultCeirw

ThE fReE mArkEt wIlL sOrT iT aLL oUt 🤪︎

# 2019/10/10 - 09:28 — published on @garoo

@BuffTuffKRuff:

Like, to such a degree that when I was in school for writing they would give us a guide list of things that were and weren’t allowed in movies in China so we could write treatments that could be saleable there and therefore allow us to survive financially as movie writers

# 2019/10/10 - 02:20 — original tweet by @BuffTuffKRuff

@SanbornVR:

Woooo #VR

# 2019/10/10 - 02:19 — original tweet by @SanbornVR

9 October

“The Obvious UI Is Often the Best UI”

The good side of Google’s obsession with usage metrics: a bunch of useful stats you can whip out at your next UI design meeting.

# 2019/10/09 - 22:28 — published on @ff00aa

There hasn’t been much buzz about the single-player campaign of Red Dead Redemption 2. Should I just wait until it’s finally half-price in a 2022 Steam sale if I don’t intend to spend much time in the online mode?

# 2019/10/09 - 21:04 — published on @commandergaroo

@deanputney:

Huge news. I found a new subreddit: [reddit.com]

# 2019/10/09 - 16:57 — original tweet by @deanputney

@ff00aa:

I just happened upon a Half-Life 2 screenshot and suddenly realized why playing with an iPhone 11’s ultra-wide camera in the store felt so trippy: with the fisheye distortion magicked away in post-processing, the phone turns reality into a first-person game.

# 2019/10/09 - 11:18 — original tweet by @ff00aa

# 2019/10/09 - 11:17 — published on @ff00aa

8 October

Honestly didn’t expect to be approved with these release notes. I guess I left them suitably vague. Or too vague.

# 2019/10/08 - 21:32 — published on @ff00aa

@Nevin_Thompson:

Man arrested for stalking, attacking female Japanese “idol” performer says he found out where she lived by examining reflection of her surroundings on her eyeball in photos of her posted online. [twitter.com]

# 2019/10/08 - 21:20 — original tweet by @Nevin_Thompson

@tapbot_paul:

If you thought only Apple had been making some crazy OS choices lately…

[medium.com]

# 2019/10/08 - 21:20 — original tweet by @tapbot_paul

The haptic controllers definitely sound cool

But how on earth do you decide to make a worldwide announcement for a release next year with just “it has an SSD and new controllers”?

# 2019/10/08 - 14:34 — published on @commandergaroo

“Be excited for Playstation 5! It has haptic controllers!” is an… interesting way to go about it 🤨

# 2019/10/08 - 14:29 — published on @commandergaroo

@Rainmaker1973:

Artist Reuben Wu blurs the lines between photography and art in his unique images. Wu captures remote locations and rugged landscapes using lighted drones to create geometric shapes in the air, accenting the natural surroundings [buff.ly]

# 2019/10/08 - 10:50 — original tweet by @Rainmaker1973

@tylerhall:

macOS 10.15 Vista

[tyler.io]

# 2019/10/08 - 00:42 — original tweet by @tylerhall

“Because everything is better with lasers”

# 2019/10/08 - 00:37 — published on @ff00aa

6 October

Thought I’d be rusty after a summer away from Beat Saber but I posted high scores on most of the songs I played tonight. Never had so few tracking errors—did something change? Game logic? The Oculus framework? Or did my controllers just need a break?

# 2019/10/06 - 22:04 — published on @commandergaroo

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) — 4/10

# 2019/10/06 - 18:10

@R_DeCastelnau:

Grandiose.

# 2019/10/06 - 13:05 — original tweet by @R_DeCastelnau

Chaque matin à onze heures : j’aurais pas dû prendre du café, j’ai sommeil mais je ne peux pas me rendormir.

Chaque matin suivant à dix heures : ça va, j’ai pas sommeil ce matin, je peux prendre du café.

# 2019/10/06 - 11:27 — published on @garoo

@pdwn:

Quelques vérités sur les pervers narcissiques dans ce fil ⤵︎ [twitter.com]

# 2019/10/06 - 10:23 — original tweet by @pdwn