November 26, 2023

Hiro.Report - 26NOV2023

Hiro.Report - 26NOV2023

I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone. Hopefully everyone got to enjoy a little too much food with people they really love, and reflect on a few blessings from the year so far. And, speaking of gratitude and giving thanks, let me not skip over this chance to be a bit of a cornball by saying, "Thank You, Dear Reader." I genuinely appreciate you taking a little time to read these notes each week.

Let's jump in to some fun stuff:

•  Indie App Sale: In case you're in the market for some great iOS and Mac Apps, the good folks at Indie App Sales have ~300 great apps cataloged that are running Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday sales. Worth a perusal. Also, keep an eye on Indie App Santa, a great little advent calendar that features discounts and giveaways of fun apps each day through December.
• 🏰 Weird Medieval Guys: Subtitled, "How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times," this book captures some of the great, strange little critters and figures from illuminated Medieval manuscripts-- frogs playing instruments, lions writing manuscripts and so on. I'm eager to get my hands on a copy. It reminds me of a medieval twist on YOKAI, an amazing book my wife gave me earlier this year that collects antique Japanese manuscripts documenting traditional folk monsters.
• 🥁 Teenage Engineering K.O. II: Teenage Engineering makes some of the most drool worthy looking tech being made right now. Imagine a mash up of Scandinavian design, Dieter Rams, and midnight in Akihabara. The K.O. II is a sampler, sequencer, and composer, and although I have no musical skills whatsoever, I really want one. As usual, The Verge has a great write-up on it.
• 📺 Max Headroom Hack: Wednesday this week was the 36th anniversary of the Max Headroom Signal Hijacking- an epic (and epically weird) early hacking incident in which someone managed to override the signal for the evening news in Chicago to broadcast a silly performance of themself spouting some non sequiturs while wearing a Max Headroom costume on live T.V. Despite an extensive investigation and the statute of limitations long having expired, no one has ever stepped forward to claim the hack and it's never been solved. I've always been fascinated by this early cyberpunk-like incident, and it was fun to revisit it this week.
• 🎸 Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: I linked to the trailer for this a few weeks back and it finally came out this last week. We're a few episodes in and really enjoying it! Verrrry niche, but if you're possibly in to a super quirky mash up of comics, rock 'n roll, anime, and retro video games all set in Toronto, it's worth a watch.

That's it for this week. I'll leave you with the best joke I read this week, via @Ten on Mastodon, "NASA is launching a mission to say sorry to all the aliens...They are calling it Apollo G."