Cool
One cool tune, one cool thing, one cool quote. Every week.
Music selections are also in this convenient Spotify Playlist.
2024
Week 16
Week 15
Week 14
Week 13
Week 12
Week 11
End of Beginning by Djo
Nova code editor by Panic. The second time this is my coolest thing. Every release has more polish and more thoughtful quality of life features. The git source diff view is so good I can't go back to Visual Studio or any other editor, and the management of remote servers is top-notch. Panic, never stop never stopping.
“The biggest differentiator between a studio that creates a really high-quality game and a studio that doesn’t isn’t the quality of the team, it’s their dev tools. If you can take fifty shots on goal, and you’re a pretty shitty hockey player, and I can only take three shots on goal and I’m Wayne fucking Gretzky, you’re probably going to do better. That’s what tools are. It’s how fast can you iterate, how stable are they, how robust are they, how easy is it as a nontechnical artist to move a thing. It’s the least sexy part of development, yet it’s the single most important factor there ever is, good tools equals better game, always.” ― Senior developer working at Bungie on Destiny.
Week 10
Heat Waves by Glass Animals
The ChatGPT prompt tip "Bro" as your response to a weak answer. Sometimes ChatGPT doesn't want to answer something and gives you a deliberately weak response, this trick immediately makes it try way harder to answer. Even better than the existing prompt trick of telling it you'll pay for a good answer. LLMs are amusingly weird.
“Stale, pale, and male” ― A pithy yet cuttingly accurate explanation of why movie studios resist change, because they're run by the...
Week 9
24 by Jam
BetterDisplay MacOS text rendering on non-retina displays has steadily got worse as they removed sub-pixel rendering in the last few versions. BetterDisplay makes text rendering on non-retina screens significantly better by snapping text closer to pixel boundaries. It can also be configured to make your screen brightness keys apply to all screens simultaneously. Completely worth the small price for the pro version.
“It was like we had all the problems of shooting a movie while simultaneously inventing a completely new kind of movie camera and writing the story for a bunch of actors who weren’t even going to follow the script.” ― A game producer in the book You by Austin Grossman describing the complexity and frustration of creating games
Week 8
Blue Monday by Flunk
Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds Despite it being somewhat of a puff piece that only covers his time as an independent only, I got a lot out of it. It's beautifully shot and put together, and I got a huge number of thought provoking ideas about the creation of games and art, and insight into Death Stranding from it.
“Art isn't meant to please you, it’s meant to inspire you, provoke you, entertain you.” ― Hideo Kojima on games and art in general.
Week 7
The Sound of Silence - CYRIL Remix by Disturbed, CYRIL
Halo Season 2. Even more depth and character development than the first season, this show is surprsingly fun and predictably action packed, but also has enough depth to keep you engaged. Ignore the bro-gamer hate, they're flat out wrong.
“We separate the art from the artist now.” ― My daughter astutely nailing how to handle artists turning hateful...
Week 6
Houdini by Dua Lipa
Lady Mechanika A compelling mystery set in a blend of science fiction, gothic horror, and steampunk. The world building and story match the quality of the visuals, with the exception of volume 2 which felt like a Tomb Raider-esque miss-step.
“Speech not reach.” ― The CEO of Bluesky social network on how they handle content - you can publish anything, but if it's not great in some way it will be downranked making it harder to discover. They won't disallow content, but they also won't promote it.
Week 5
Pure Imagination by Superhuman, Quigley
The Room series of games by Fireproof Games studio. The closest thing we have to a modern Riven.
“Big game studios are incapable of making cozy games and it's their own stupid fault. 100 million dollar games are incapable of being understated and chill. 500 people being worked to death in crunch time are in no position to make a stress relieving game.” ― Extra Punctuation
Week 4
Borderline - Vanic Remix by Tove Styrke, Vanic
Nothing Phone OS 2.0 Walks the fine line of minimalism, futuristic, and yet retro. The first thing to ever seriously tempt me out of the Apple ecosystem.
“If we want users to like our software, we should design it to behave like a likable person.” ― Alan Cooper
Week 3
In My Head by Moonrunner83, King Protea
The Marvels The hate is weird, this is the most fun thing Marvel has done in years. Yes the villain is one note, but the 3 Marvels are a delight and the whole thing is a huge infectiously fun ride. And Kamila Khan continues to be weaponised enthusiasm on screen.
“You can stand tall without standing alone” ― The Marvels
Week 2
One Night/All Night by Justice, Tame Impala
20 year wedding anniversary. Snorkelling with my wife and kids alongside huge turtles in Rarotonga.
“The literal translation of hacker in Spanish is Pirata Informático which literally means Information Pirate.” ― A far more accurate description than the maligned English term.
Week 1
I Believe in You by Kylie Minogue
Gigabit Internet. Fiber to my home delivering 950 Mbps down and 500 Mbps up makes it feel like the entire internet is on my local network. The effect is subtle, but makes your perception of the world smaller and closer.
“You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. It’s logic-based creativity.” ― John Romero
2023