Mark Zuckerberg is a sociopath, pass it on.
Notes
The Crown, season 4. An incredible cast let down by lacklustre writing and perfunctory plots too often propped up by lazy exposition. Such a wealth of material available, yet it seems Peter Morgan has lost all interest in this series as it dutifully marches on.
The last #AppleEvent of 2020 was worth watching, if only for the John Hodgman cameo at the end. A reminder perhaps, of when Apple events were far less slick and much more fun.
Back to the 50s for this week’s classic movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. This might just be my favourite period in cinema and this film is an exemplar: crude yet stylish, straightforward yet captivating. They really don’t make ’em like they used to.
An enjoyable Sunday afternoon spent playing tennis with @fofr. Was comprehensively beaten 9-3, but seeing as this was the first time I’ve held a racket since about 1992, think I can live with that scoreline! 🎾
If I’ve got this all set up correctly, this post will be saved to the Internet Archive, thanks to Indiekit’s new syndication feature. 🤞
This year has ended up being bookended by colleagues moving onto “exciting opportunities” at Facebook. I honestly fail to understand how talented, empathetic people can make such a decision given Facebook’s adverse impact on human rights, democracy and information literacy. Fools.
A Guy Walks Into an Apple Store:
“Yes, removing the charging brick from each iPhone box will reduce waste […] But if you expand your view just a bit, you can really see how none of their other marketing backs up this goal, and in fact runs counter to it.”
This week’s film was certainly not a classic – which goes without saying given it stars Gerald Butler and Jay Baruchel. How to Train Your Dragon. What can I say? Vikings are Scottish, apparently.
Another milestone reached in the rollout of our service means another excuse to design a mission patch.
Just took part in a Pitch Perfect like sing-off with a Bulgarian folk choir, and I’m not even joking.
This week’s classic movie: The Prestige. Very much consistent with Nolan’s other work, and bolstered by a star-studded cast – including a typically eccentric David Bowie – but not sure what to make of it. Too clever for its own good, perhaps?
Could only manage 5 minutes of hyperbolic rhetoric before needing to turn the damn thing off. #AppleEvent
“We urge consumers to think about whether they really need to make that purchase on Amazon Prime Day and instead how they can use their money in way that benefits society and the environment.”
Boycott Amazon and support small businesses instead.
Finally, an acquisition I can wholeheartedly endorse. Congratulations, @clearleft!
A bit left field for this week’s classic movie: winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998, Life Is Beautiful. Set in a Nazi concentration camp, this Italian comedy-drama is hard going – the last scene is a real punch to the heart – yet still so much to adore.
This could be the end of everything, so why don’t we go, somewhere only we know? 🎶
This week’s classic movie: Do The Right Thing. A story about racism and police brutality that’s as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. How fucking depressing.
Start ups. It’s all fun and games until you realise you’ve been building a division of Amazon or Google.
This week’s classic movie: Taxi Driver. A slow, plodding story that lacks any depth, overt attempts at being stylish that come across as clumsy, a soundtrack that irritates. Was already disliking this film; its all-too-neat ending pushed me towards outright hatred. Not a fan.
Next in my run of classic movies: Dr. Strangelove. Putting to one side the still worryingly contemporary theme of nuclear armageddon, I very much enjoyed the levity and wit of Peter Sellers’ three main characters. Another film with great titles, too!
Continuing my run of classic movies, just watched Vertigo. Beautiful sets, stylish cinematography, a gripping storyline and delicious Saul Bass titles, what’s not to love!?
My colleague @fofr has written about how we’re keeping a design history to document the decisions and iterations we’re making while building our service. Built with @eleven_ty, of course.
Watched the Eurovision film, with predictable consequences. 🎶 I’m in double trouble tonight…
Finally got round to watching Citizen Kane (available on iPlayer). Easy to see why it’s held in such high esteem; much of its cinematography still feels fresh 80 years later.
I work with the most amazing team of people. And I love them all.
Spent an evening with my colleagues in London and, wow, how I’ve missed them. So lovely to see friends in the flesh again.
On a train. This counts as significant news, these days.
8 years on, Caliban’s Dream remains my favourite piece of music. Beautiful and haunting, it always brings a tear to my eye.
Pretty sure Aegir is the most talented person I know. His latest project is wonderfully unique and beyond incredible.
Oh, you know, just downloading @qwertykate’s published novel. No biggie. 🤯💜
In Uncool Britannia only shoddiness reigns.
Lots of JavaScript libraries and tools are extensible via plugins. This is something I’d like to enable with my own (ExpressJS-based) app, yet I’ve found no examples or tutorials that demonstrate how best to achieve this. Where should I be looking?
Nodding along to this. Competing module systems always left me confused and defeated. Finally, we have an agreed standard that works across the ecosystem… but that gets undermined by those writing and exporting modules using TypeScript. You just can’t win.
Venturing outside, you can almost feel the rate of infection increasing, the second spike almost a given.
Just gave out a large yelp upon learning that @iAWriter now includes support for publishing to websites via Micropub!