Over at The Atlantic, James Hamblin suggests having an “amazing hour” before bed, devoid of screentime, to aid in getting a good night’s sleep. Some ways to use that time might include:
I should try this. But I probably won’t.
Fascinating video from Chris Bratt at Eurogamer, laying out the evidence that Nintendo might’ve used an online ROM for the Wii Virtual Console version of Super Mario Bros.
I appreciated Bratt’s broader point: Copyright holders are often worse than fans at preserving their IP (I know for me personally, I don’t even have archival episodes of some of my old podcasts, thus proving his point). Companies should respect this and act accordingly
After watching xXx: The Return of Xander cage last night, I tweeted this:
Movies that fail the Bechdel test:
– OG STAR WARS trilogy
– LOTR Trilogy
– THE AVENGERSMovies that pass:
– xXx: THE RETURN OF XANDER CAGE— David Chen (@davechensky) January 19, 2017
I’ve seen a few people respond to this tweet by saying, “See! The Bechdel Test is meaningless!” Meanwhile, I have the opposite reaction: I’m disappointed that a lot of our greatest, most beloved films don’t have two women ever interact with each other in a meaningful way outside of the context of their relationship with men (if they have two women interacting at all).
The Bechdel Test is not a great test of a movie’s quality, but I think about it a lot and bring it up frequently because it is very difficult to think of a movie that doesn’t pass the inverse version of that test (i.e. two men talk, it’s not about a woman, etc.). The reason the Bechdel Test exists is because a huge percentage of movies we see don’t pass it. When that is no longer the norm, I’ll be happy to stop thinking about the Test.
For more thoughts on xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, see my Periscope with Matt Lynch. (Also, thanks to Lindsey Romain for pointing out that maybe The Two Towers does kinda pass?)
Very interesting behind-the-scenes piece by Harry McCracken for Fast Company, on Slack’s new Threads feature:
Threads aren’t just a major new Slack feature. They’re also a case study in how its designers approach product development. The company has never operated under the guiding principle that Mark Zuckerberg once famously summed up as “move fast and break things.” Instead, it has thrived in part because it aspires to offer tools that feel fully baked from the get-go. Its fit and finish resemble those of the slickest consumer apps, in a world in which many business-centric tools still don’t feel like they were designed for use by human beings.
Even by Slack standards, threaded conversations got extra TLC, because their impact is so great and so many people had been asking for them for so long. “Threads are so close to the heart of what Slack is that they might be an escalated case,” says Joshua Goldenberg, head of design.
The key decisions: Allowing threads to only be one reply deep, and placing them on the right-hand “flex pane.”
The fixed-lens X100F (“F” stands for “fourth,” as it’s the fourth X100 series camera, in case you were wondering) carries over many of the features of its predecessor, including the clever and innovative three-mode hybrid electronic and optical viewfinder. It maintains the 23mm f/2 lens and basic overall design from the earlier X100 cameras, but gains the integrated shutter speed and ISO dial and rear joystick from the X-Pro2. Fujifilm says it also redesigned the controls of the X100F to all be accessible from the right side, to better enable one-handed shooting with the camera. […]
The interchangeable lens X-T20 replaces the excellent X-T10 from 2015 and provides the same image quality as the more expensive X-series cameras while costing under $1,000. It, too, has the new 24-megapixel X-Trans III CMOS sensor and X-Processor Pro and has the new autofocus system used in the X100F, plus new continuous autofocusing settings. The X-T20 can also shoot video in 4K resolution, up from the 1080p output of its predecessor.
The Fujifilm X-T2 is one of my favorite cameras of all time. If I didn’t already own one, then the X-T20 — which looks like it’ll be a smaller version of the X-T2 — would certainly be something I’d want for my camera bag.
The Camera Store TV (one of my favorite YouTube channels) has a really great rundown of these devices:
As for the Fuji X100F, it succeeds another one of my favorite cameras of all time. I may want to pick one up when it drops in price. PetaPixel has a great review of it.
YouTube user Homer Thompson has taken a tape recording that YouTube user William Forsche made while watching Star Wars in the theater in 1977 and synced it up with the on-screen action they were observing.
The result is…not too different than what you’d hear from modern day audiences. But there is something pure about it — these people are likely seeing this story for the very first time.
Scott Shane profiles Cameron Harris for The New York Times:
In a raucous election year defined by made-up stories, Mr. Harris was a home-grown, self-taught practitioner, a boutique operator with no ties to Russian spy agencies or Macedonian fabrication factories. As Mr. Trump takes office this week, the beneficiary of at least a modest electoral boost from a flood of fakery, Mr. Harris and his ersatz-news website, ChristianTimesNewspaper.com, make for an illuminating tale.
Harris rode the wave of fake news’ popularity on social media to significant revenue, creating a website that was at one point valued at over $100K. Unlike Jestin Coler, another well-profiled fake newser who helped propagate many anti-Hillary Clinton stories, Harris is actually a Trump supporter.
In 2016, fake election news had a significant presence on social media, generating significantly more engagement than news from mainstream outlets.
While misleading websites exist on both the right and left, analyses have shown that those on the right can be misleading at a higher rate.