🌱 Curated Corner

👾 Digital

Tips for being online

Privacy is not secret, one has nothing to hide doesn’t mean one has nothing to protect. Here are some tips to help you protect your privacy online:

Choosing a browser
Choose a password manager
Emails are basically postcards, encryption is the envelope

Digital Services Playbook

A playbook for digital services from the U.S. government, I find many principles and guidelines useful for general digital project too.

Here’re some highlights from the playbook—key questions to ask while building a digital project as an indie maker.

Understand what people need

Who are your primary users?
What user needs will this service address?
Why does the user want or need this service?
Which people will have the most difficulty with the service?

Address the whole experience, from start to finish

What are the different ways (both online and offline) that people currently accomplish the task the digital service is designed to help with?
Where does this specific project fit into the larger way people currently obtain the service being offered?
What metrics will best indicate how well the service is working for its users?

Make it simple and intuitive

What primary tasks are the user trying to accomplish?
If a user needs help while using the service, how do they go about getting it?

Manage security and privacy through reusable processes

Does the service collect personal information from the user? How is the user notified of this collection?
Does it collect more information than necessary? Could the data be used in ways an average user wouldn’t expect?

Retro technology history

Sony MiniDisc

Sony MiniDisc: The (Not) Forgotten Audio Format That (Never) Failed

MiniDisc - An Appreciatio

Springboard Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone (Full Documentary)

Websites
- Historic Websites Page - Version Museum: A Visual History of Your Favorite Technology
The Internet
- The good old days of the Internet: Internet Artifacts

Data backup options

The 3-2-1 rule:

3 – Keep 3 copies of any important file: 1 primary and 2 backups.
2 – Keep the files on 2 different media types to protect against different types of hazards.
1 – Store 1 copy offsite (e.g., outside your home or business facility).

Read more: Data Backup Options from US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team)

Computer science crash course

High-quality crash courses on major concepts in computer science.

8-bit breadboard computer

A series of comprehensive tutorials by Ben Eater on building an 8-bit computer with breadboards.

👂 Audio

Best sound from a kazoo I’ve ever heard

If you don’t know how a kazoo sounds or looks like, check it here: Kazoo - Wikipedia.

The kazoo from this video sounds like a hybrid of a trumpet and a harmonica, some people say it sounds like a saxophone too.

I’m not sure how much after-processing is in it, but it sounds great to me.

An unusual hack is applied to the kazoo that involves covering one end with tape and using a newspaper-like material for the diaphragm. There are techniques to control the voice as well.

Here’s a video about how it works.

Vinyl records limitations

Some interesting limitations of vinyl records:

Worldwide radio

Live radio from around the world, capturing the vibe of the cities.

Learning synths

Interactive tutorials on basic concepts about synthesizers from Ableton, it answers questions like: what is an “attack”.

👁️ Visual

How cameras and lenses work

Cameras and Lenses – Bartosz Ciechanowski

How drawing helps you think

Our drawings do not have to be pieces of art, if they help us to think and connect with others, they are good enough.

How drawing helps you think by Ralph Ammer

🧠 Experiences

Worldwide virtual tours

Worldwide virtual tour is something that I imagined when Apple Vision Pro was out. Here’s a very promising site, which would be even more fantastic with 3D videos

City Walks Live: Virtual Tours Walking Cities Around the World

Games that sound good

I haven’t played many popular online games, especially on PC, so I’m not sure how these will entertain you, but they certainly did for me.

I suggest playing the games before listening to their music because I believe the music sounds better to those who have played, just like the music from a film reasonates more with people who have watched it. I see games in much the same way as films.

In late 2021, I watched the Netflix series Castlevania, which led me to play Castlevania: Symphony of the Night yet again. The music hit me just as it did the first time—I still can’t believe it was from 1997!

20 years after 1997, a more modern game called Splatoon 2 released, and its music caught my ear. Here’re some videos that showcase it:

According to the pattern, will there be games in 2007 and 2037 for me? :D

10 misconceptions on UX

Virtual museums around the world

Free virtual tours of 2,500+ museums around the world.

The egg

A short story by Andy Weir, and an animated version (8 min) by Kurzgesagt.

🗂️ Everything else

Giving life advice

In 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 20 years old, he wrote a letter to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice.

…

What is truth to one may be disaster to another. I do not see life through your eyes, nor you through mine. If I were to attempt to give you specific advice, it would be too much like the blind leading the blind.

…

From Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience

Sleep training guide

A series of articles to better sleep.

The ten commandments of liberalism

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.

2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.

3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.

4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.

5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.

6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.

7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.

9. Be scrupulously truthful, even If the truth is inconvenient, for it Is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.

10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

From “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell” by “Bertrand Russell”

Don’t be sorry for your English

English isn’t my first language, when I was just starting to communicate in English, I used to apologize for my bad English, even when I was actually doing well. Later on, I find it’s unhelpful to do so—it created an negative self-suggestion and stopped me from expressing confidently. I realized that there’s nothing to be ashamed of, just as an English-speaking person shouldn’t be ashamed of speaking another language imperfectly. Here’s a writing about it that I wish I’d read earlier.

Additional resources for learning English:

When I’m unsure if a certain expression is correct: Netspeak and Ludwig
When I’m unsure how to pronounce someone’s name: Youglish

The global economy in 30 minutes

How the Economic machine works by Ray Dalio