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Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDLXI

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    Monday Links from the Bench vol. CDLXI

    Now time is back to normal, you can claim to be using your extra hour if ClientCo wants to know why you're reading this lot instead of working
    • Mold Eats World - The world is mouldy and getting mouldier, but is that really a problem? "By the 1990s, Joan Bennett was an expert on molds and a professor of molecular biology at Tulane University in New Orleans. She considered herself a skeptic of the idea that mold in homes and offices was making people sick… She just didn’t know how it would be possible to get sick from mold—until her own house became a petri dish."

    • How to build a Moon base - "On a pit of artificial lunar dust covering more than 1,000 square metres, Maurer and other scientists will be attached to crane-and-pulley systems that allow them to leap as if experiencing the Moon’s weaker gravity, and work under adjustable lamps that simulate lighting at different lunar sites." No mention of purple wigs

    • Flight Club - Continuing the simulated space flight theme, this remarkably detailed simulation builder by Declan Murphy will keep you occupied for a long time. Also, if you know anybody who's hiring: "I'm a self-taught software engineer from Dublin, Ireland, and I'm looking for remote work. I have degrees in Theoretical Physics and High Performance Computing (no, I don't like The Big Bang Theory) and I have an extremely broad skillset… So: if you are hiring remote software engineers or know anyone who is, please get in touch or send them here."

    • The queen is back - Return of the wonderful Simone Giertz, whose "tulipty robots" you may remember having seen here before pouring beer badly, and who had brain surgery to remove a large tumour earlier this year: "Even when faced with the reality of extensive brain surgery, she joked about alarming total strangers. Once the neurologist determined that she ‘wasn’t dying, at least that night,’ she took home a ‘whole bundle’ of scans of her brain because the hospital accidentally printed too many."

    • The Story Behind an Unbelievable Photograph - This photograph, to be precise: ”I was surprised at how much I discovered about the photo, which at first glance I thought might be a fake. But the story of who took the photograph and how he managed to get the shot is a good one.”


    • Why Kodak Died and Fujifilm Thrived: A Tale of Two Film Companies - "The Kodak moment is gone, but today Fujifilm thrives after a massive reorganization. Here is a detailed analysis based on firsthand accounts from top executives and factual financial data to understand how and why the destinies of two similar companies went in opposite directions."

    • Driving the uncanny valley: Forza Horizon 4 is befuddlingly British - John Walker on the cognitive dissonance he experienced playing a driving game set in a recognisably British landscape: ”Living in the UK, the vast, vast majority of the media I consume is from the US. And nearly always has been… [Forza Horizon 4] is normal, except it’s not normal that it’s normal, so this doesn’t feel at all normal, and does that mean what I see as normal for being not normal is just regular normal for all normal Americans playing nearly all normal games? Is… is the world of fiction significantly less fictional for Americans, in ways they can never know they are experiencing?”

    • River Editor: Water Simulation in Real-Time - Ubisoft’s Jean-Philippe Grenier explains, in great detail, the techniques he has developed for simulating flowing water: "The method needs to operate on 9 float components (so far 16F per component seems to be enough). To make it worst, I’m currently using a ping/pong scheme which means twice the amount of data. For example, if running the simulation on a 2d grid that’s 256×128, then it’s (256x128pixels) x (9 components) x (16 bits) x (2 for ping/ponging).”

    • Noel’s House Party – First & Last - Stuart Millard revisits the first and last episodes of the Partridgian 1990s show: ”Though nobody watching today would ever guess such a mess could have lasted beyond a single episode, House Party‘s reign of terror ran for eight demented years… In 1994, a franchised Blobby, running amok during a promotional event at an ice rink, broke a bystander’s nose by smashing their face through a trophy case. The resulting lawsuit, and a separate incident where a Blobby was punched by an angry father after destroying a child’s birthday cake, caused the BBC to ban outside use of rogue Blobbies for public appearances.”

    • 100 Websites That Shaped the Internet as We Know It - "Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s first proposal to CERN outlining what he originally called the “WorldWideWeb” (one word)… Below you’ll find our somewhat arbitrary idea of the virtual destinations that mattered most.” Obligatory warning: DO NOT FOLLOW THE GOATSE LINK IF YOU’RE AT WORK, OR AT HOME, OR JUST IF YOU HAVE ANY SENTIENCE WHATSOEVER Instead, remember how the fail whale’s appearance used to allow us to squeeze a few minutes of work into the day while Twitter propped their servers back up



    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    Loved the Noel House Party one.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by DoctorStrangelove
      Good selection.

      I even managed to remember some of the 100 websites.
      Yeah same. I was around when most of them started up so some good memories in there. No mention of Lings Cars though

      Although an interesting story, the title of the Lightning Crash get's my goat though. 'The Story Behind an Unbelievable Photograph' sounds more like standard clickbait trash. I hate anything with titles like that.

      Couple of the links blocked at the clients though. More than usual so have to have a look at home later. I deffo want to check the Water in Real Time link. I bet it's going to go straight over my head (geddit?!?) but an interesting read. I like the stuff like that.
      'CUK forum personality of 2011 - Winner - Yes really!!!!

      Comment


        #4
        I would definitely have included this today, had I known about it in time: Doin’ The Mash - "The history of the world’s favorite Halloween carol, Bobby ‘Boris' Pickett’s 'The Monster Mash.' Here’s how a song about dead creatures came to life."

        Comment


          #5
          Anything about my hero Mr Blobby get a thumbs up from me....

          Comment

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