Libby is a nice way to browse the San Francisco Public Library‘s collection of eBooks and audiobooks. It has a lot of rough edges. It makes up for it with the send-to-Kindle feature so I can read borrowed books on a proper screen.
Author: Zac West
How Apple explains audio session prioritization, from Activating an Audio Session:
I did not expect a comic when I clicked on the documentation link.
In Apple’s latest The Rock x Siri advertisement you can hear the Wilhelm Scream at 2m43s. After the episode of Twenty Thousand Hertz about its backstory, it’s hard not to find it everywhere.
Age of Swords comes out next week, but that didn’t stop this Barnes & Noble from putting it out early. If I were willing to go non-digital I’d be reading it right now.
I’m looking forward to Iron Gold. It’s the fourth book of the Red Rising series which explores distant future humans splintered into sub-groups with one dominant over the solar system.
Personal names around the world explains the complication of names. The biggest take away: ask users for their full name and short name. Don’t try and parse out first names or separate first and last into separate fields.
Butterick’s Practical Typography has recommendations and pointers about laying out and writing copy. The ranking of system fonts is especially useful. Love the dislike of title case in headings.
Vault 11 in the game Fallout: New Vegas contains an interesting experiment: how would people react if an authority tells them to sacrifice one of their own? Oxhorn examines the vault and draws parallels to the Milgram experiment. Excellent worldbuilding.
I’ve been listening to The History of English Podcast. It’s not easy to binge but it’s a mainstay in my weekly podcast rotation. I’m currently around the fall of the Roman Empire. It’s fascinating that our alphabet has bounced between cultures but with only minor changes.