Hiro.Report - 22OCT2023

We're freshly back from an adventure in the woods this weekend. Fall hiking is the best hiking, hands down! We had the chance to attend a lecture with a really entertaining astronomer last night who reminded us all that the Orionid meteor shower is peaking tonight (22OCT23), so if you're fortunate enough to have some clear skies tonight or the next few nights, make sure to go out and do a little stargazing.

On to some fun stuff from this week:

• 👨🏼‍🎨 What aesthetic are you?: Via Kottke, this is an amazing catalog of different modern art and design aesthetics stretching back to the 1960's Hippy Aesthetic and all the way up to some more recent aesthetics that I'd never even heard of before (Blob World?). The catalog includes examples of the aesthetic and notes on when it rose to popularity and declined. Worth poking around.
• 🎨 The Rams Palette: Speaking of Aesthetics, this collection of color palettes featured in the product designs of Dieter Rams is so great. I want to use these colors everywhere now.
• 👨🏽‍💻 RayCast: Everybody has that first handful of apps that they'd download right away on a new computer. Sometime I might write out my full list, but I'll skip straight to #1 with a bullet here-- Raycast. I started using this about a year ago and it's become so essential to many of my workflows for how I use my computer. In short, it's kind of like a quick "everything bar" for your computer; Sort of what Apple's Spotlight is supposed to be but never delivers on. In short, Raycast lets you search your computer, the internet, news, or whatever you want with quick and easy keystrokes that spare you the extra clicks of loading a browser and surfing over to a specific site. You can also set up all sorts of quick actions like converting currency or units, doing an AI query, playing some music, showing you your calendar, automatically launching your next Zoom/Teams/Meet meeting, etc. I even have my lights in my office all hooked into it so I can quickly adjust my lighting for video calls, or reading, or chill in-the-zone work. It sounds overwhelming, but it's really simple and easy to set-up and navigate. If you're intrigued, Matt from A Better Computer put together this great 6 minute video called, "The Non-Nerd's Guide to Raycast."
• 🎸 The Smittens: Courtesy of SC, I was introduced to The Smittens' music this week. Reminiscent at times of Allo Darlin', and at other times of The Magnetic Fields, this is really fun, light hearted and jangly indie rock. A good introduction is [Typing, Texting](Typing, Texting. If you don't like that song, you can skip the rest of their catalog. If you like it, keep going, there's lots more to enjoy.
• 🕹️ Super Mario Bros. Wonder: Nintendo released this week the first new 2D Super Mario Game in over a decade. I got to spend a little time digging in to the first few levels-- holy heck is it great. The graphics look fantastic, and there's tons of innovative new twists on the game, but the classic formula is there in spades. Worth picking up for you Nintendo Switch owners out there.

That's it for this week, be well everyone!