This story was written with the assistance of an AI writing program.
A few months ago I wrote a couple of posts about interesting stories. The original idea was to create a sort of periodic column, with my reading recommendations. Then things happened and I stopped. In the last period I managed to find the time to write; so why not take up this idea? Compared to the first attempt, however, I want to change a few things. The main thing is the day of publication. I’ll use Sunday: according to Medium’s statistics, it’s the least suitable day, the one with the fewest readers. It doesn’t matter, the first two posts haven’t been read by anyone, so I don’t think I’m doing anyone wrong. Secondly, if the first two posts were intended as reading recommendations, I want to use this space as a notebook. A bit like Roberto Tallarita’s index of notable things. I don’t care if it will be a jumbled space, with contradictory things, maybe even old ones.
Oblique Strategies
subtitled Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas
GitHub’s Copilot suggests this description:
Oblique Strategies is a set of 114 cards, each containing a phrase or question that can be used as an inspirational tool for artists, writers, musicians, architects, designers, engineers, managers, and anyone else who needs a little help to overcome a creative block. The cards were created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt in 1975. The cards have been reprinted in numerous editions, and have been translated into numerous languages.
Basically, it’s a deck of cards to use as a source of inspiration. Contains sentences and questions, often absurd and contradictory, to push the mind towards different creative thoughts. I think I’ll get them and try them out. Also because I’d like to try using them as prompts with some automatic imagining system (for example Stable Diffusion, or something like that).
Words and Emotions according to AI
Unless Salvatore Raieli hasn’t already done it :D. Ok, all joking aside, his articles are interesting. He often addresses how AI can interact with the art world, from various angles. I lack artistic training, so I can’t say much. But I like his approach, and his curiosity. In this case, he used an AI model to create images that represent the most beautiful words in the world, and the emotions of human beings.
It is a source of inspiration, for my far more trivial experiments.
Take Pictures in Browser with JavaScript
This article by Parag Mahale was very helpful in developing the first beta of DoCrypt, my web app for sending encrypted messages. And it will come in handy again, when I find the time to implement the ability to send encrypted photos.
How do you make a div “tabbable”?
This StockOverflow question was both very helpful and very distracting. I spent some time trying to figure out a way to switch between UI divs, and then allow you to select an action with the enter key on your keyboard.
Which then turned out to be simply:
on:keydown={(e) => {
console.log(e);
if (e.key === "Enter") {
e.preventDefault();
button.click();
}
}}Why distracting? Well, because then I got it into my head that I can only use the keyboard in the app. I took the time, got wrapped up, and finally deferred full implementation until later. But it was fun.
58 bytes of CSS to look great nearly everywhere
This article by Joey Burzynski explaining how 58 bytes of CSS is enough to get a layout that fits almost any device. It is a simple, elegant and above all versatile solution.
The first version is from April 2019, and although it is now a bit bigger, it is still a good example of how simplicity is (sometimes) the best solution.
Collection of notable things worth knowing
Before finishing, you cannot miss this booklet from 1828 containing a list of interesting things from the world. They range from the pyramids to the story of the shopkeeper who waited 20 years to pay off a tiny debt with a stranger. In short, a bit of everything, like in this post of mine.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.
