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Issue 35

Illusions on the Web: The stroboscopic effect. Venmo is frightening. 🐵

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BizzaroDevs
Aug 21, 2018

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🗺️ BRILLIANT MAPS AND CSS MASTERS OF ILLUSION

Heya,

This week I learned a lot:
Always check your privacy settings. Especially if you're a drug dealer.
Your privacy settings include your hair and makeup.
Robots and AI are working together to suck the fun out of everything.
But, cool code snippets ease the pain.


🕸️ The Cool Side of the Web

Illusions on the Web: The stroboscopic effect.

😍

Part of a series which attempts to re-create optical illusions on the web. This article covers the zoetrope and It Is Spectacular.

danielcwilson.com  


Venmo is frightening. 🐵

For Our American Friends
We don't have Venmo, so I had no idea about this project. But dayum.
Did you know that Venmo's API is available for anyone with the link? This developer collected data from 207,984,218 transactions in 2017. All with names and photos.
A lot of people buying Gorilla Cookie on Venmo. 🚬

publicbydefault.fyi  


A project combining fashion and camouflage to undermine face recognition technology.

Style Tips For Reclaiming Privacy
It's weird because I feel like 80s sci-fi representations kind of predicted fashions like this. An interesting project on the intersection of privacy and fashion.

cvdazzle.com  


What is one man worth to advertisers? 💵

Interesting Article
I've wondered about similar things in the past, in particular with ad-supported apps like Overcast. I feel like a jerk for staying ad-supported now, it's barely a step up from pirate.

gizmodo.com  


A map of alternative music. 🗺️

Happy Mappy
Very, very nice image which I have been poring over this week. I'm not sure if font size represents artistic value, popular appeal, or what. I mention it because Pearl Jam is classified as a small font band, whereas The Strokes are a large font band.
Still, cool as heck.

wired.com  


A bunch of cool maps showing the early days of the internet.

A Simpler Time
Going back to a time when you could actually map the internet. There are a few maps with the highlight being the original nodes in December 1969. They stretched all the way from UCLA, UCSB, to...Utah.

atlasobscura.com  


🤖 Robots et. al.

Searching for the appropriate collective noun for robots. 🤖🤖

Don't Give Them A Name
There's only 13 at the moment, but there's already a few strong candidates.

all-sorts.org  


The most insidious form of prop comedy ever: robot standup.

This is officially the moment when we realize the robot thing has gone too far.

nytimes.com  


This robot uses AI to find Waldo, thereby ruining Where’s Waldo. 🆘

Is Nothing Sacred
I can see the trajectory:
Year #2: Robot uses AI to help drivers "Red light ahead you should slow down."
Year #3: Robot uses AI to review movies "You'll be really surprised when Darth Vadar is revealed as Luke's father."

theverge.com  


Children are easily peer pressured by robots. 🚬

The Kids Aren't Alright
It's going to be a tough ride for millennials.
First, previous generations warmed the planet and blew through resources like Scrooge McDuck.
Second, the following generation can be manipulated by robots to do anything.

vice.com  


⚒️ Tools and Resources

Amazing sparks effect.

Boy's Got Skills
I think it is a table saw, right? Very impressive work on the sparks and speed control.
I've wasted my life.

codepen.io  


Color contrast checker. 🎨

Accessibility Helpers
A very easy way to check the contrast of your colors according to the WCAG standards.

webaim.org  


Some very cool menu animations for...menus.

It's The Little Things
It doesn't matter if you like Xs or arrows, we all agree this is cool UI.

codepen.io  


Vine Squids is an interactive and colorful pen with a touch of the ocean. 🦑

Time Waster
I could spend hours playing around with this one. Just like being in control of a lava lamp (a childhood dream of mine).

codepen.io  


👩‍💻 Misc Tech

The first popsicle that won’t melt. 🍧

Just In Time For Autumn
I clicked because I was wondering why the military wanted to give soldiers popsicles that wouldn't melt. I'm not very bright.

fastcompany.com  


This company embeds microchips in its employees, and they love it. 💊

Chorus We Love It
The idea is that it becomes easier to get into the office, log on, and buy food and drinks in the cafeteria.
Fringe benefit: if an employee is microchipped the return-to-owner rate is 20 times higher than if the employee is not microchipped.
Dem's good odds.

technologyreview.com  


🙃 Backwards talking dreams - Fun stuff

Human Bingo

Kill Some Time In The Mall
I wasn't sure if the humans were the balls, the cards, or the numbers. I'm relieved and disappointed.

isaaclyman.com  


ENHANCE.COMPUTER is a voice controlled game for Chrome. 🎤

Minority Report Meets 80s UI
You're given an image, and a time limit. Use your voice to enhance the image and find the code.
Find the code, prevent the crime.
A great way to pretend you are an 80s crime buster.
Unless you are an actual 80s crime buster, in which case, it's a good way to stay on your game.

enhance.computer  


Outro

The Where's Waldo robot on Twitter would be a big user of RT. We only do genuine retweets on Twitter.

The Where's Waldo robot would mark messages from its parents, if it could, as spam. We believe in forwarding emails to our loved ones, so feel free.

If you're not at all like the Where's Waldo robot, then why don't you join us.

Ride like the wind,

Chris.


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Issue 142
☠️ A leading AI researcher just said AI is going to kill us all. “Helo, I em a welthy prins end dis iz not spam.” Humans will achieve immortality by…
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Issue 150
🦹⚖️ Cybercriminal sentenced for running a $19 million identity theft site. NexGen 7T MRI: a leap in brain imaging resolution. The island nation of…
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Issue 147
🤖📈 Insights on the state of generative AI from McKinsey. How the Cold War shaped modern tech and why it matters. Mobile game funds anti-military…
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