A new parent leave story told in tweets. Maybe I should have just signed up for letterboxd or whatever the kids are using these days. Post by @alexcash@mastodon.social View on Mastodon Post by @alexcash@mastodon.social View on Mastodon Post by @alexcash@mastodon.social View on Mastodon Post by @alexcash@mastodon.social View on Mastodon Post by @alexcash@mastodon.social View on Mastodon Post by…
I was recently very lucky to be able to publicly associate my name with a tangible form of my work . It’s an opportunity that comes infrequently in my profession. We rely on machines to create things that are perfectly similar - 3D printing, injection molding, computer aided milling, and more. To manufacture at scale, widgets must be exactly interchangable. We’ve spent the better part of 200 years…
I don’t typically write about my 9-to-5, but I had to make an exception to share this video. It’s a technical presentation I gave at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference for Apple. I’m very proud of it. If you’re not an application developer you’ll probably find it pretty dry. But it’s a cool look at some what I’ve spent the last few years doing.
Late last year, I moved back to the midwest from California. There are upsides like being near family, and downsides like pretty crummy weather. One benefit: We’ve been able to afford a much larger house, which I can fill with more stuff. One thing I’ve wanted for a long time is a CRT television set to play old games on. I’m inclined to say it’s because I think the image is objectively better so…
I’ve always wanted to do a podcast. It’s not as easy as it sounds. For one, my area of greatest interest is technology. It’s hard to talk about that without creating conflict of interest wtih an employer. For another, it’s a commitment and commitments are hard. Not just for yourself, but for everyone involved. As much as I like the sound of my own voice, I don’t think anyone else would appreciate…
Long time no see. In 2020 my son was born! That’s been an immense pleasure and my primary focus. I mostly haven’t been online, but I did start a podcast in 2022 called Bat Lessons . You should check that out. Over the holidays I’ve been working to simplify this site way the heck down. My hope is that if it’s easier to post, I’ll do so. Stay tuned for occasional thoughts and writings. Don’t tell…
Comic book characters have made an indelible mark on me. The legacy of comics permeate our culture and populate some of my earliest memories. Episodes of Adam West’s Batman on a wood cabinet CRT television in my grandparents living room. An Incredible Hulk vinyl record picked up at a garage sale. A copy of Superman 3 on VHS. A pay per view rental of Batman and Robin on a family vacation. From…
It’s hard to say much more about Super Mario Odyssey than has already been said. A game of it’s cultural significance comes seldom and ink is liberally spilled. In that light I’ll keep it short and focus on extra perspective I can bring to the table. I very much enjoyed this game. In many ways it is the truest spiritual successor to Super Mario 64 , a game which defined my childhood. It inherits…
I’ve been playing BoxBoy! (3DS, 2015) in little hunks for the last month. It’s a $5 digital only title develped by HAL Labratory of Super Smash Brothers fame. The game showed up on my radar when it’s sequel “Bye Bye BoxBoy” was announced earlier this year. While covering it several of the gaming podcasts I listen to went out of their way to sing the original’s praises, so I decided to give it a…
In for a treat this time. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii, 2010) I played the original at launch 10 years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but then went to college and missed this release completely. It’s hard to articulate but this sequel felt so very right. Familiar; not tired. Bright & jubilant; not saccharin. Something new around every corner, in the best possible way. Galaxy 1 & 2 are probably the…
This time for the videogame backlog we have a new release! Splatoon 2 (Switch, 2017) 15 hours of gameplay, roughly split between campaign and multiplayer. Campaign has neat ideas & challenges but attempts at variety make pacing poor. Zip through the best content, slog through some of the worst. Art is charming if repetitive. Sound will probably click as cute for some but podcasts were a must for…
Ok, this ones a little embarrassing but here it goes. Pokémon X (3DS, 2013) The good: stunning environments. Both artwork and engine give a sense of place and scale impressive for a handheld. The bad: everything else. Despite having the exact same core gameplay loop as 20 years ago it still took ~23 hours. New music is forgettable. Old music is nostalgic for a while but loops for hours. Attempt at…
The first post in my videogame backlog series. I’ll post here when I beat a game I’ve been meaning to get to. All screenshots are my own. Today is “The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds” for the Nintendo 3DS, relased in 2013. There are other really great screenshots, but you know. Spoilers. A+ musical score. Above average story for Zelda. Nostalgia to the max. ~16 hours play time. Will…
Starting tomorrow, and for the next week, I live out of this motorcycle. It contains everything I need. Food. Shelter. Clothing. It wasn’t really meant for a journey such as this, but I am confident that it will rise to the task. I’ll be using the original global positioning system to orienteer accross the country. Through the Great Basin Desert. A quick stop off in Ogden, Utah. Yellowstone…
Yesterday, I made a post enouraging people to consider going to WWDC, along with some tips on ways that you could save money doing so. I received lots of positive feedback, and I heard from a few that they were going to register because of it. That’s awesome! I also got some good advice from other bay area natives on twitter. On food budget: @alexcash @caseyliss What about free food in WWDC…
If you’re a developer for Apple platforms, you’ve undoubtedly seen some of the discussion over the last few days about the cost of WWDC. With each year popularity of the conference increases and so too does demand for tickets. Apple announces the conference later and later, leaving less time for planning. Manton Reece encourages us to not give up on WWDC and think of other creative ways to save…
Just over a year ago, I started hacking in my spare time on a little game. Nights and weekends when I got a wild hair, I’d sit in front of a glowing screen until the sun came up. I wrote a lot of code. I threw a lot of code away. I learned a lot about rendering, and real time systems. The effort and time that went into it may not be immediately evident. It’s a simple game with a simple premise.…
Yesterday I made a screen recording for a friend, explaining how to do a few technical tasks. I was listening to Recess, Skrillex’s latest album, while I worked. Occasionally I had to download a large file, or compile some source code, and I would get up and walk away from the computer. In order to keep the videos digestible I later dropped them into iMovie and created a few time lapse effects in…
As promised, this is the follow-up to talk about the Robotics competition I attended. If you missed last weeks post it explains the problem, which helps a bit, and is much more upbeat. I suggest reading it first. I wish I had a good story to tell you but I don’t. So, I’ll just show you what happened. Words can’t really do justice to how disappointing this experience was, but if you look at our…
I’m in my Senior year at Graceland University , and this year I’m president of our ACM chapter . Each year we travel to several different conferences, and for the last several years we have been traveling to the Midwest Instruction and Computing Symposium or MICS . Part of the conference each year is a Robotics competition. In 2011, about 26 teams of 2-3 students worked on a problem that involved…