Pointers (Fall 2023)

New year, new old computing stuff.

• Eternal Jukebox will extend the song of your choice indefinitely. There is no observable effect on The Mars Volta.
• Chromostereopsis is an effect you may have seen where red figures on black backgrounds seem to pop out, or strong red and blue contrasting figures seem to leap out from or recede into the image, respectively; this page has some great examples, though it lacks this picture of two brains that has an especially strong effect for me.
• Jenny Odell revisits Emerson’s “Self Reliance,” and asks, in quotation: "…do we or do we not live in a world in which we assist each other?"
• A peek into the lives of the (possibly) fake people sending (definitely) fake texts in Apple marketing materials.
• Given how primitive Atari 2600 games’ graphics were, I never really appreciated the incredible effort required to produce them. You may notice, halfway through the article, that backgrounds are constrained to be symmetrical and yet it’s obvious from the images that Pitfall’s background were not; the reason they’re not is a great design choice on the part of Pitfall’s creator, David Crane.
• MacPaint, but for nail design.
• Smooth McGroove is back, a capella beeps and boops fully intact.
• Charity Majors on why to become a manager: it might just make you a better person.
• On that note, new managers could do worse than to follow this one-page checklist from Patrick Newman.
• And if you want to hire good people, it’s unwise to literally refuse to pay them one dollar more than you offered.