Extra Future

Hi, I’m Phil Nelson, a writer, developer, and audio-visual maker of stuff. I have been making stuff online for over 25 years. I run RetroStrange and Set Side B. Good to see you.

Blog Archives

Month: July 2017

  • June Foray, RIP (1917-2017)

    [We have lost a titan. She almost made it to an even 100.][link]

    It’s hard to put into words how big of an effect on my personality Rocky and Bullwinkle had, even though it was cancelled decades before I was born. My mom loved it, and it would come on one of the local stations my grandparents picked up via antenna (no cable tv was even available where they lived in those days) and it’s the first thing I have a memory of laughing at with my mom and my brothers.

    Aside from the Simpsons I don’t think any single bit of popular media was more important to my development as a person.

    [link]: http://www.metafilter.com/168448/June-Foray-RIP-1917-2017 “June Foray, RIP (1917-2017) | MetaFilter”

  • Adobe Announces Plans To Discontinue Flash, Will Stop Supporting Entirely in 2020

    [Ding, dong, the witch is dead][link]:

    >But as open standards like HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly have matured over the past several years, most now provide many of the capabilities and functionalities that plugins pioneered and have become a viable alternative for content on the web. Over time, we’ve seen helper apps evolve to become plugins, and more recently, have seen many of these plugin capabilities get incorporated into open web standards. Today, most browser vendors are integrating capabilities once provided by plugins directly into browsers and deprecating plugins.
    >
    >Given this progress, and in collaboration with several of our technology partners – including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla – Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.

    My own experience with Flash was mostly terrible, and it really did tear your battery life to shreds, but without it we wouldn’t have Homestar Runner, and for that I am thankful.

    [link]: https://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2017/07/adobe-flash-update.html “Flash & The Future of Interactive Content | Adobe”

  • What Happens When You Run Away to Join ISIS, Then Want to Come Home

    [What a story][link]. Somehow I feel like this isn’t the last time we’ll hear it, though:

    >After fleeing to join ISIS in 2016, 16-year-old German Linda Wenzel has been found in Mosul with a baby boy. She says she wants to leave ISIS and come home. But what will happen to her now?

    [link]:https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/evd9en/what-happens-when-you-run-away-to-join-isis-then-want-to-come-home “What Happens When You Run Away to Join ISIS, Then Want to Come Home – Broadly”

  • The Simpsons’ Planet of the Apes Musical: An Oral History

    [I love you, Dr. Zauis][link].

    [link]: http://www.vulture.com/2017/07/the-simpsons-planet-of-the-apes-musical-oral-history-zauis.html “The Simpsons’ Planet of the Apes Musical: An Oral History”

  • Wreddit loves Rassler

    Yesterday [I posted my game, Rassler, to the pro wrestling subreddit /r/SquaredCircle][link]. They love it? It seems like they love it. I don’t know how to handle feedback this positive.

    [link]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6mvz9m/ive_been_working_on_this_8bit_pro_wrestling_rpg/ “/r/SquaredCircle thread”

  • The Bone Mother

    Amazon’s shipping robot has informed me that David Demchuk’s book, [The Bone Mother][pub], has shipped. I’m looking forward to it:

    >Three neighboring villages on the Ukrainian/Romanian border are the final refuge for the last of the mythical creatures of Eastern Europe. Now, on the eve of the war that may eradicate their kind—and with the ruthless Night Police descending upon their sanctuary—they tell their stories and confront their destinies.
    >
    >Eerie and unsettling like the best fairy tales, these incisor-sharp portraits of ghosts, witches, sirens, and seers—and the mortals who live at their side and in their thrall—will chill your marrow and tear at your heart.

    Sounds spooky. [Buy it on Amazon][store].

    [store]: http://amzn.to/2u1a6HU “The Bone Mother by David Demchuk on Amazon.com”
    [pub]: http://chizinepub.com/the-bone-mother/ “The Bone Mother on ChiZine”

  • Latest experiments reveal AI is still terrible at naming paint colors

    Such classics as Bleedwood, Spiced Rope, Bull Cream, Dorky Brown, Drimple, and Dad. [Many more at the link][link].

    [link]: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/new-experiments-reveal-that-ai-are-still-terrible-at-naming-paint-colors/ “Latest experiments reveal AI is still terrible at naming paint colors | Ars Technica”

  • TransProse

    [Creating music from text][link]:

    >Using natural language processing, TransProse reads in text and determines densities of eight different emotions (joy, sadness, anger, disgust, anticipation, surprise, trust, and fear) and two different states (positive or negative) throughout the novel. The musical piece chronologically follows the novel. It uses the emotion density data to determine the tempo, key, notes, octaves, etc. for the piece depending on different rules and parameters.

    via [Steen’s newsletter][steen]. You can buy the [first album of generated music on Bandcamp][music].

    [steen]: https://www.patreon.com/mediapathic “E. Steen Comer on Patreon”
    [link]: http://www.musicfromtext.com “Music From Text”
    [music]: https://transprose.bandcamp.com/album/first-iteration “First Iteration”