Friday Finds for March 9th
Each week I lazily gather up a bunch of links to stuff that I found amusing enough to take the trouble to paste into a blog so all three of my readers can know what I’ve been reading and find themselves mildly amused by the wasted effort. Here are this week’s links.
Tech
Amazon admits Alexa is creepily laughing at people and is working on a fix – The Verge – JESUS CHRIST WHAT? How does a smart speaker assistant thing develop a bug where it RANDOMLY starts laughing at people. How is this even possible? Also, why did they program Alexa to laugh? I’m positive this is just a bug and not an AI achieving sentience and finding our pathetic little lives amusing. I’m positive.
Comcast Found ‘Accidentally’ Blocking Legitimate Sites — Including PayPal and Steam – I am shocked, SHOCKED to learn there is illegal gambling, etc etc.
Maker Pro News: Open Source Startup Mycroft Takes on Amazon Alexa | Make: – interesting. I’ll keep my eye on this.
Web Design
Chrome Music Lab – Song Maker – stuff like this makes me feel like such an amateur.
Introducing the Gutenberg Plugin Compatibility Database – Make WordPress Core – The fact that this needs to exist means Gutenberg is being rushed and should not be in core. By putting this in core, it’s going to break millions of websites. It’s going to do unbelievable amounts of damage to WordPress’s reputation.
GDPR For WordPress And WooCommerce Business Owners – A Starter Guide – GDPR is a huge pain in the ass. But probably a good step for consumers.
Design
7 Design Principles That Are Not up for Debate | NOUPE – That’s debatable.
Misc
Long exposure photo of drones circling mountains makes them look like sci-fi landscapes : woahdude – beautiful and eerie.
Ruptured Subway Tiles Reveal Emerging Figures by Graziano Locatelli | Colossal – gorgeous.
That Time a Wheat Field Grew in Downtown New York – you have to see these images to believe it. Astounding installation artwork. Really speaks to the Kansas in me.
“Even the Stiffest People Can Do the Splits” – this reminds me that I would like to take a no-nonsense yoga class at some point. After losing 50-60 pounds.