A few days late, again, but here it is: First Crack’s release notes for November, 2019. Again in October, like in September, I spent most of my dev time on an Instapaper-like read later service. I use it every day, and plan to release it. I did get a couple things done, though; once again, I did not neglect First Crack entirely.
Bitsplitting has been and remains my single favorite interview podcast. One hundred episodes of Hypercritical exposed me to fields of knowledge I otherwise would never have come across, but it took a different kind of show to really acquaint me with the internet’s favorite critic. Although I would not go so far as to presume to know John Siracusa, Bitsplitting gave me wonderful insight into the man behind the curtain not only for Hypercritical, but many other podcasts as well. This hiatus will serve as a great opportunity for new listeners to catch up on the first season before Daniel Jalkut picks back up again, hopefully in the near future. Go check it out; I promise you won’t be disappointed.
In a day and age before ubiquitous personal drones roamed the skies, capturing incredible footage of active volcanoes, for example, filmmakers had no choice but to climb into planes and film those breathtaking views themselves. Harrison Sanborn found some of this footage in his father’s archives, digitized the film, and turned the result into a neat three minute video on Vimeo.
There’s a certain quality to this footage that newer, digital-first recordings courtesy or our aerial robotic minions just don’t have. Perhaps its “the celluloid warmth of the colors”, as Nick Milanes suggests in Gear Patrol’s article covering the video. Regardless of what it is, I just hope that we don’t lose it. There is always something to be said for taking the hard route, and the quality of the end-product when doing so, over that of the easier, increasingly mechanized approach.