My latest newsletter is out:

→ Steam is Back, Baby!

I’ve just published today’s issue of my newsletter dealing with The Twitter Files and the anti-AI protests over at ArtStation. It will eventually find its way onto this blog, like all issues of The Sleepy Fox. But if you want to read it now, head over to Substack:

→ The Orange Man Haunts Us to This Day

Did you know that there is a cursed colour in the Kodak ProPhoto RGB colour space? Someone took a stunning picture that includes this cursed colour in a single pixel and if you set that as your wallpaper on Android devices made by Google or Samsung before an August 2020 security update got applied, it would brick your phone. How cool is that?

Here’s a writeup of how it works. Thanks to @mcc for telling me about this; I totally missed this story when it originally broke.

After a partly unplanned two week hiatus, I’ve just released the latest episode of my podcast. It’s the first in what will be a series about what might be the tech story of 2022.

→ The Private Citizen 135: The Twitter Files, Part 1

In a first episode about the Twitter Files disclosures, we look at how Twitter, at the behest of intelligence agencies, catalogued people’s speech and selectively silenced some of them. And then lied about it.

Writing Time Seebär

“First Snow”

First snow of the year in downtown Düsseldorf
iPhone 7, back camera 3.99mm f/1.8 (ISO 100 • 1/4 s • f/1.8)

Sadly, this week was a complete loss for me as far as work was concerned. I’ve been in bed with a cold since Monday. It’s been incredibly persistent. I’m guessing part of the problem is that I haven’t had a cold in a few years, so now my body seems to be at a complete loss of what to do. I could hardly move, much less think, most of the week. I’m now slowly getting back to normal and can at least write, hence I’ve covered the recent Twitter Files disclosures in my newsletter. But since my voice is still shot, podcasting is out of the question for now. I will resume working on The Private Citizen as soon as my voice is back to normal. Thank you for being patient with me here!

I’m a bit under the weather today, so there will be no daily newsletter. If you haven’t read yesterday’s issue yet, it might be worth reading that instead.

I had planned to stream some Darktide with Jonathan tonight, but I don’t think I’m up for it. Sorry about that. I’ll hopefully be back to producing content tomorrow, even though things might be slower for a few days.

I think I am in love…

This is absolutely fascinating. A rare recording of Hitler’s normal speaking voice: Hitler’s secretly recorded conversation in Finland.

Marshal Mannerheim, celebrating his 75th birthday on 4 June, 1942, received a surprise visit by Adolf Hitler. Thor Damen, a sound engineer working for the Finnish Broadcasting Company, tossed a microphone on the parcel shelf of the ceremonial carriage, allowing for the two men’s conversation to be covertly recorded.

For the work on my novel, I’ve been researching breathable gas mixtures for saturation diving.

• Saturation diving
• Argox
• Hydrox
• Hydreliox
• Trimix
• Theoretical considerations on the ultimate depth that could be reached by saturation human divers; Abraini, Risso et al.
• Probing the Limits of Human Deep Diving; Bennett, Elliott et al.

“An expressionist oil painting of the great Bitcoin disaster of 2022”

Fabian A. Scherschel × DALL·E

Deadlyslob, a stand-up dude from some godforsaken place somewhere in Canada, is one of my favourite streamers. I’ve been watching him a lot, originally for his Escape from Tarkov content. In the last few weeks, he’s played an amazing Bannerlord campaign with a character called Wyseal. He’s now bringing the story to YouTube. Do yourself a favour and watch this series! It’s amazing. Better storytelling than House of the Dragon. I’m serious.

World of Warships launched an update today that includes a number of graphics improvements like better wave physics for more realistic ship wakes, dynamic reflections on surfaces and the simulation of wetness on ship hulls. They’ve also improved some map textures and seem to have made the water prettier in general. It’s quite stunning. Here are some impressions of what Scharnhorst looks like out at sea in the new game version: