agys

Thumb + index?

When I switched from Win to Mac 20+ years ago I immediately noticed how much more ergonomic cmd-C was versus ctrl-C… for the latter the thumb has to fold under the palm of hand.

Not even mentioning the general well thought out and more logical key-combinations.

The strangest key for the switch was return for file rename… I now miss it on every other system that hasn't mapped it like this.

What made GRL’s project really unique was the -scale-!

Being able to paint the facade of a 20-story building must have felt ultra powerful.

A couple of years ago I wrote extensive benchmarks on three browser-based rendering techniques: text in the DOM, 2D canvas, and WebGL canvas. The DOM approach is the purest, as it uses a font, and it can achieve very good performance. The only noticeable slowdown at 60 FPS occurs when the character color changes frequently within each line: each new character needs to be wrapped in a span. 2D canvas is a bit more flexible but not necessarily faster. WebGL is obviously the fastest, at 1000+ FPS, and pixel fonts can be rendered ultra-crisp as well.

Below is the DOM test for frequent vertical color changes. Press and hold the cursor over the ASCII output to change the orientation (notice the FPS drop at the top left).

https://play.ertdfgcvb.xyz/#/src/basics/performance_test

Side note: a half an hour call on a commute train (or in public spaces) is considered extremely rude in many parts of the world.

A nice feature to add could be a synchronized transform: when rotating one viewport the other two rotate along (optional).

I went with

https://meltd.ooo/wn

for my little NFT project

LCD 1 (2022) is an ASCII art project on the same display (by Sharp) of the PlayDate.

https://lcd.ertdfgcvb.xyz

Personally I’d love to see a general purpose machine, able to do all works demanded. This kind of vision doesn’t require any imagination: it’s easy to envision a world where you just replace humans by a human-shaped machines with perfect dexterity doing all sort of tasks. Voilà and welcome to the future!

But I still need to see a convincing humanoid doing even the simplest actions like grabbing a soda can from the fridge (from behind the cake), open it, and pour it into a glass and bring it to my desk, possibly in less than 60 minutes. It doesn't matter if it costs 30k if it can’t do anything useful for now. The gap is still too wide and far far away. Hence the missing “proof”.

Delivery robots in the hotels in China have the shape of a bin, not of a maid.

Couldn't agree more. The issue here is that it doesn't feel experimental or innovative at all. It just follows some weak design trends.

It’s not demonstrated yet as we still have to see a robot (humanoid or not) doing mundane tasks in full autonomy, efficiently and convincingly.

It still looks inefficient to have a humanoid robot vacuum a house by using an ergonomic tool designed around the human body.

Designing a non humanoid robot is the way to go. The design of new tools and appliances for hybrid human/robot use will eventually follow: the zip line for the shoe bag required way too much precision work.

The layout of the publication is almost unbearable… Considering that it’s a magazine a bout (graphic-) design I’d say they failed miserably.

The ASCII playground is missing:

https://play.ertdfgcvb.xyz

São Paulo: Cidade Limpa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Limpa

Preview has it too… And it works extremely well.

This is another gem by Amsterdam based Studio Moniker, the guys behind “Radio Garden”.

Some of my favorite projects:

https://studiomoniker.com/projects/radio-garden

https://studiomoniker.com/projects/do-not-touch

https://studiomoniker.com/projects/do-not-draw-a-penis

I buy mostly music on Bandcamp and iTunes/Music is my sole driver for my 30k local song files. It's unfortunate that it has been neglected over so many years. There is a plethora of well known bugs and the sync with iPhone works most of the times, but not always and is in general quite cumbersome. The UI has become ridiculous over time (for example: it features two search/filter fields). It would be an easy mark to simply fix and polish it a bit. Sad.

Ess two is less than less than three, but also a classic.

s2 < <3

It’s a strange feeling to zoom in until the cracks of the paint fill the screen.

Such a shame that it was cancelled!

The three finger drag is an ergonomic marvel, combined with tapping (vs. clicking) and a couple of four finger gestures it’s perfect. I don’t use (or drag around) a mouse since very long; not even when heavily using Photoshop and similar pointer-heavy applications.

The name gives it away :)

It feels very nice on the eyes to have it at a certain distance.

I think I’m absolutely the target audience: I’m a designer, programmer, animator. Crispness at 4k is still quite good at 1m distance from my face. I’d buy it without hesitation if it came much, much larger.

Indeed! The big monitor is about 1m from me, the median a bit below my eyes. The laptop on which I type on sits in-between and the two screens align almost perfectly (optically). This setup works well for me and I feel it’s very ergonomic. That's why I can't go back to tiny (<32") screens anymore.

Too small… I got used to my 4K Philips OLED 42" that I hung directly on the wall in front of my desk (no stand at all)… USB-C cable also charges the MacBook. This size is so good to work with; so much screen estate.

Everything but the Metric System: “The new YASA axial flux motor weighs just 28 pounds, or about the same as a small dog.” :)

I used different types of dithering (ordered, error diffusion) in many of my design projects as a visual language, static or animated, mostly for projects related to tech/computers/blockchain, sometimes combined with ASCII art.

There is a certain warmth (or maybe it’s just nostalgia) of these older techniques that can be harvested and combined with new ideas or new takes.

(Apologies for the Instagram links).

D.Y.O.R.:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH1AjFzi3c6

D.Y.O.R. (printed):

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjfzy23sCOg

Titles:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHITpNYiWtF

Experiment on controlling the amount of dithering:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYO_h9Yh18e/