There is still cool stuff on the internet

This episode we are talking about keeping the internet interesting and making cool things by looking at PagedOut and Itch.io. Also, Allen won’t ever mark you down, Outlaw won’t ever give you up, and Joe took a note to say something about Barbie here but he can’t remember what it was.

The full show notes are available on the website at https://www.codingblocks.net/episode226

Reviews

• Thanks for the reviews!
  • ineverwritereviews1337, ivan.kuchin
• Want to leave us a review? https://www.codingblocks.net/review .

News

• Orlando Code Camp Conference is February 24th (orlandocodecamp.com)
• Wireless mic kit mentioned by Outlaw regarding the Shure system (shure.com)
• New video from Allen: JZ’s tip from last episode – Obsidian Tips for Staying Organized (youtube)

Is Cat 8 Overkill?

• No way!
• Check out AliExpress to save some money (aliexpress.com)
• Note for NAS building / Plex – 11 gen and newer Intels are your friend for transcoding (intel.com)

Merge commits

• Thanks for the tip mikerg!
• Some orgs are banning merge commits on larger repositories
• Should you? (graphite.dev)
• Git Rebase Visualized (atlassian.com)
• Merge Commit Visualized (atlassian.com)

Paged Out – E-Zine

• Paged Out is a free e-zine of interesting and important articles (pagedout.institute)
• Thanks for the tip mikerg!
• Some samples
  • AIleister Cryptley, a GPT-fueled sock puppeteer
    • A fake online persona that will generate content for you using ChatGPT
• Beyond The Illusion – Breaking RSA Encryption
  • Encryption is basically just math – it’s not some magical black box
  • “Never roll your own crypto – it’s a recipe for problems!”
• Keyboard hacking with QMK
• Hardware Serial Cheat Sheet
• BSOD colour change trick
• Cold boot attack on Raspberry Pi
• Can we get some love for the demoscene?
• Best part…each issue comes with a wallpaper!

Fun Project Ideas

• Want to get into gamedev or 3d modeling, or just like making cool stuff with your skills?
• Why not use itch.io as inspiration?
• See other cool games and tools that people make: https://itch.io/tools
• A couple noteworthy tools
  • Kenney shape (itch.io)
    • Turn 2d images into 3d by adding depth
    • Export to several different formats
    • $3.99
  • Asset Forge (itch.io)
    • Assemble simple shapes into more complex ones
    • Stretch and rotate
    • $19.95 US ($39.95 deluxe)
  • Tiled Sprite Map Editor (itch.io)
    • Rich feature set, nice integration with Game Dev Tools
  • Bfxr is a popular tool (which was an elaboration of another tool Sfxr) for generating sound effects (itch.io)
    • Somebody made a js version too, if you can believe that! (jsfxr.me)
    • Beeps, boops, blorps, flames
  • Rexpaint (itch.io)
    • An ASCII Art Editor…you just have to see it
    • Layers, Copy/Paste, Undo/Redo, Palette swaps, Zoom
    • Who needs pixels!?

Resources We Like

• Kenney’s Game Dev Resources (kenney.nl)
• What is the demoscene? (YouTube)

Tip of the Week

• If you subscribe to Audible, don’t forget that they have a lot of “free” content available, such as dramatic space operas and the “Great Courses”
  For example. “How to Listen to and Understand Great Music” is similar to a “Music Appreciation Course” you might take at uni. The author works through history, talking about the evolution of music and culture. It’s 36 hours, and that’s just ONE of the music courses available to you for “free” (once you subscribe) (audible.com)
• Visualize Git is an excellent tool for seeing what really happens when you run git commands (git-school.github.io)
• It’s easy to work with checkboxes in Markdown and Obsidian, it’s just - [ ] Don’t forget the dash or spaces!
• Did you know there is a Visual Studio Code plugin for converting Markdown to Jira markup syntax? (Code)
• Apple, Google, and the major password manager vendors have ways to set up emergency contacts. It’s very important that you have this setup for yourself, and your loved ones. When you need it, you really need it. (google.com)