Archive (Page 3) • Roo's Letter • Buttondown

105: Single brick

December 7, 2012

Hello. BBC Radiophonic Workshop natively in browsers using the new Web Audio API http://webaudio.prototyping.bbc.co.uk/ring-modulator/#demo Ambient sounds to...

104: Slowed down

November 30, 2012

Hello. Masterchef without the cooking “Monica Galetti, making strange faces in cutaway shots” - from the brilliant Meg Pickard...

November 23, 2012

Hello. Random Shopper "buys me things completely at random" (via @jack_franklin) http://randomshopper.tumblr.com/ Bamboo Deminer "every destroyed land mine...

102: Genuinely digital

November 16, 2012

Hello. George Entwistle, speech to BBC staff, 18th September 2012 “…the key task is to understand the stage we’ve reached in the ongoing digital revolution …...

101: Increasingly relativistic

November 9, 2012

Hello. Infinite Gangnam Style Ok, this is honestly the last Gangnam Style link I’ll post here. http://static.echonest.com/InfiniteGangnamStyle/ Game: a...

November 2, 2012

Hello.I've gone back through the archives and selected the best link from each of the 99 letters so far. Enjoy.1. Jonathan Coulton - Make good stuff"Make...

99: Where's Boris?

October 26, 2012

Hello.Shift Run Stop episode 64 In which I read some poetry I wrote when I was 15. Be afraid. http://shiftrunstop.co.uk/2012/10/25/episode-64-leila-and-roo/...

98: Getting silly

October 19, 2012

Hello. I'm getting excited about letter #100, which is going to be a bit different. For now, here's another weekly roundup of links to things you might like....

October 12, 2012

Hello. Standup: Tig Notaro Live ($5) “Tig, by the way, has since undergone a double mastectomy. She is doing well. Her doctors say her chances of survival...

96: Breathing tube

October 5, 2012

Hello. A tech support scammer dials Ars Technica“I assure you, sir, it’s not a scam. You can talk to my manager. I’m calling you from...

95: Buffalo buffalo

September 28, 2012

Hello. Gangham StyleThis video has already had over 300 million views on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 Dissected:...

September 21, 2012

Hello. Long term readers might remember a while ago I linked to a Kickstarter page [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readmatter/matter] to fund Bobbie...

93: Noticeably better

September 14, 2012

Hello. Kotaku: How Video Game Fans Mourn the Death of One of their Own “The best and most generous parts of a community’s nature often show when tragedy...

92: The downside

September 7, 2012

Hello. Hide&Seek Weekender14th, 15th and 16th of September, Southbank Centre, London http://weekender.hideandseek.net Why Jason Bourne is our generation’s...

August 31, 2012

Hello. James Thomas (@thomasj) asked “could you produce a graph of how many people are out of the office for each newsletter?” Yes James. Yes, I could. Here...

90: Without purpose

August 24, 2012

Hello.NYT: It’s not about Assange http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/opinion/why-correa-lets-assange-stay-in-ecuador-embassy.html Here’s what David Allen...

89: From scratch

August 17, 2012

Hello. Double Robotics “the simplest, most elegant way to be somewhere else in the world without flying there” http://www.doublerobotics.com/ Mars Panorama -...

88: Rocker-bogie suspension

August 10, 2012

Hello. This is London now http://london-now.jit.su/ NewStatesman: How Mo Farah rejected the “plastic Brit” charge “Look, mate, this is my country”...

87: Pretty incredible

Hello. Devin LeBlanc: Smackdown on the shore (I bought a radio controlled helicopter this week. I’m not very good (and it’s pretty basic 3 channel coaxial...

86: Olympic vermin

Hello. The Reformation in Lego (via @lexij) http://www.flickr.com/photos/wunztwice/sets/72157622718234028/ Cloud Atlas movie trailer...

Hello. Noisy Typer “A typewriter for your laptop” http://vimeo.com/45668483 (via @JamesWallis) BBC spending: Where does the licence fee go?...

84: Coming true

Hello. Erratum: Last week I asked why the lake was covered in black balls, rather than white ones. Wouldn’t white balls reflect more light, I asked. Alby...

83: Hail Sauron

Hello. Last weekend, I went to BERG’s Little Printer hack day. It was a lot of fun. http://bergcloud.com/2012/07/02/little-printer-hack-day/ NYT: The ‘Busy’...

82: Organic robotoids

Hello. Erratum: I credited someone called ‘Mark O’Neil’ with a link to the Lego Turing Machine last week. I meant, of course, O’Neill with two Ls. Sorry,...

81: Granular jamming

Hello. I’m sorry to tell you that the longest day of 2012 is now behind us and the nights are now drawing in. Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere of...

80: Uninhabitable wastelands

Hello. The Atlantic: 'Get Ready, Because Voyager I Is This Close to Leaving Our Solar System' “A machine, built here on Earth by the brain- and handiwork of...

79: The musical

Hello. I’m taking a bit of holiday at the moment, which is usually a good time to catch up on hobby projects. This week, I built a LEGO case for my Raspberry...

78: Valve parts

Hello. Andy Cameron was kind, thoughtful and constructive. He was always late but was always forgiven because he made a room better by being in it. I was...

77: Killer robot

Hello. First of all, some advance warning; this will be the last daily newsletter for a while. I’m going to try weekly (every Friday) for the next few weeks,...

Hello. Mike Trinder emailed in after I linked to the Solidoodle sub-$500 3D printer “Aaargh. I hate you. Have ordered one. For work (honestly)” Stephen...

75: Condiment lubricant

Hello. Lots of horrified feedback about yesterday’s ‘skywalking’ video. Paul Annett (aka @nicepaul) points out that they received a $10 fine. “In addition to...

74: Alpha waves

Hello. Leap What fresh sorcery is this? http://leapmotion.com/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57437404-76/leap-motion-3d-hands-free-motion-control-...

Hello. Slow London I made a little video. A quick visual experiment. http://vimeo.com/42421725 Inspired by Trey Ratcliff’s ‘Stuck in Motion’ technique...

72: Chocolate brain

Hello. Wired on the Solidoodle ‘A 3D Printer for Everyone’ http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/05/solidoodle/ (A sub $500 3D printer? Oh yes. I love how...

71: Saddest photo

Hello. Men’s Ugg boots http://m.uggaustralia.co.uk/mens-ugg-uk-classic-short-warm-sheepskin-boots/5800,en_GB,pd.html?dwvar_5800_color=GREY&start=3&cgid=men-...

70: Fairy tales

Hello. Adjective order Why does “little old lady” sound better than “old little lady?” Why does “big girl’s blouse” work, when “girl’s big blouse” doesn’t?...

69: Ruinous diagnosis

Hello. Richard Gingras, head of Google News, on the future of news “The pace of technological change will not abate, and to think of our current time as a...

Hello. Ferment - literature and illustration zine “Ferment is a quarterly non-profit zine combining original creative writing with complementary...

67: Abundant thing

Hello. This video comes in from @alicebartlett, who says “I love the frisson of excitement when they realise they are both WoW players, it makes my stomach...

66: Mostly kind

Hello Yesterday’s Cuusoo news (rejecting the Firefly Serenity set) caused a few responses. I love it when you reply, by the way. Lots of people were just as...

65: Core audience

Hello. If this is LEGO’s real reason for not pursuing the Firefly Serenity set (http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/12902) then it’s a bit of an odd one: “all...

64: Better still

Hello. James Thomas (aka @thomasj) thoughtfully wrote in with a recommendation: “As someone who’s been suckered into the hotel & flight “points” games, I...

62: Loosest attachment

Hello. A beautiful moment of honest political insight from Fox News “Politics is weird. And creepy. And now I know lacks the loosest attachment to anything...

61: Cultural divide

Hello. Happy birthday to Robert Brook. He’s 40 today. Whether you know Robert or not, I strongly encourage you to read his writing. James Governor recently...

60: Accidentally deleted

Hello. Prometheus trailer (Well, that worked for me.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1byZkbNB3Jw Redditors launch ambitious government transparency project...

59: Terrible photos

Hello. I made a thing at the weekend. Would The Voice UK judges have turned around for themselves in Saturday’s live show? Here’s what I think....

58: Zombie experience

Hello.Klouchebag, an excellent new service from Tom Scott “The Standard for Asshattery” http://klouchebag.com/ England & Wales baby names since 1996...

57: Tasty beverage

Hello. Rev Dan Catt (@revdancatt) just announced he’s leaving the Guardian. (Please do not poach him. I want him.) http://revdancatt.com/2012/04/26/im-...

56: Human friendly

Hello. Matt Richardson: Descriptive Camera “instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text description of the scene” (Camera BeagleBone...

55: Innovation constipation

Hello. Opinion: ‘How heated toilet seats cause innovation constipation’ http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/how-heated-toilet-seats-cause-...