Huffington Post, 1 July 2024:

New York Times, 13 July 2024:

I can’t think of many headlines that aged quicker and aged worse than that Huffington Post one.

“Objectivity is only possible in a vacuum of emotions. But since nature abhors a vacuum, true objectivity is never achievable for human beings.”

I propose this as Fab’s Law of Journalism.

I just made this to visualise some things I’ve been tossing around in my head. Kinda speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

Anybody know any Lua? You might remember Red Alert, the little shmup I’m developing for the PICO-8 fantasy console? Well, I’m getting close to actually having it in a playable state but I’m currently stuck with this one bug I can’t quite fix. You see, I built in this boss enemy that uses a laser beam and something is off with the collision detection for it. I am checking whether this beam intersects with a hitbox on the ship and it works most of the time, but there are edge cases with false positives. Here’s an example where the algorithm thinks the beam intersects with my ship:

The numbers in the screenshot are the top left and bottom right X/Y coordinates of the ship and the origin and end points (X/Y) of the laser beam. I am trying to check if the line of the beam touches the lines of the 2x2 pixel hitbox on the ship sprite. Here’s the relevant collision detection check:

local hitbox={}
hitbox.x=ship_x+2
hitbox.y=ship_y+2
hitbox.colw=2
hitbox.colh=2
if phcol(myen.phorx,myen.phory,myen.phposx,myen.phposy,hitbox) and myen.pht>0 then

function phcol(phx1,phy1,phx2,phy2,obj)
 if linecol(phx1,phy1,phx2,phy2,obj.x,obj.y,obj.x,obj.x+obj.colw) then return true end
 if linecol(phx1,phy1,phx2,phy2,obj.x+obj.colw,obj.y,obj.x+obj.colw,obj.y+obj.colh) then return true end
 if linecol(phx1,phy1,phx2,phy2,obj.x,obj.y,obj.x+obj.colw,obj.y) then return true end
 if linecol(phx1,phy1,phx2,phy2,obj.x,obj.y+obj.colh,obj.x+obj.colw,obj.y+obj.colh) then return true end
 return false
end

function linecol(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3,x4,y4)
 ua=((x4-x3)*(y1-y3)-(y4-y3)*(x1-x3))/((y4-y3)*(x2-x1)-(x4-x3)*(y2-y1))
 ub=((x2-x1)*(y1-y3)- (y2-y1)*(x1-x3))/((y4-y3)*(x2-x1)-(x4-x3)*(y2-y1))
 if ua>=0 and ua<=1 and ub>=0 and ub<=1 then return true end
 return false
end

It works in most cases, but just not in some edge cases like that screenshot. If you have any pointers for me about what is going wrong or how I can fix it, please don’t hesitate to contact me! If you want to see the full code of the game, you can find it here. The relevant code starts in line 281 of the game cartridge file.

“Old Elbe Tunnel”

Nikon Z fc, Nikkor Z DX 16-50 mm ƒ/3.5-6.3 VR (ISO 3200 • 1/125 s • ƒ/5)

“Kurzer Olaf”

“Short Olaf” is the coloquial name inhabitants of Hamburg gave to the abandoned construction project of the Elbtower high-rise, which was a pet project of German Chancellor Olaf Schulz when he was mayor of the city of Hamburg.

Nikon Z fc, Nikkor Z 40 mm ƒ/2 (ISO 400 • 1/125 s • ƒ/5)

I love things that age gracefully. This was a tweet from 9 October 2018:

Got these great vegetable tanned leather gloves from Ondura. I love the pocket knife from them which my parents gave me as a birthday present. Can’t wait how these gloves evolve. They feel absolutely lovely!

This is what these gloves and the knife look like now. I’ve used the knife almost daily and the gloves probably 150 days each year since then.

Needless to say, I can recommend these products. The gloves are called Rider Gloves (tan) and the knife is the Ondura Pocketknife (olive).

I just watched Road House. That’s a fun little movie! It’s nice to see some realistic fighting in a Hollywood production for a change. Gyllenhaal is amazingly ripped and quite charismatic, too. I had no idea. And, of course, Connor McGregor absolutely fucking slaps! This gets a definite recommendation from me.