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Leon Mika
Software engineer in Melbourne, Australia.
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  • Always a great feeling when you see a bit of code, and you think to yourself “that’s a bizarre thing to do, who wrote this?” Then you turn on annotations and it turns out that the person who wrote it was you. 🤦

    November 28, 2023 3:30pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • 📺 Dave’s Garage - the Dave Cutler interviews

    You know the feeling when you see a YouTube interview of someone talking about their work, and you’re left feeling “gosh, I wish that person also had a YouTube channel.” This is one of those interviews. Fascinating, if short, discussion from the architect of Windows NT.

    Edit: This YouTube video might be the full interview. Via Michael Tsai.

    November 28, 2023 12:08pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Media

  • 🔗 DOS_deck

    Experience classic games with modern convenience at DOS_deck. With full controller support and a carefully curated game collection, enjoy timeless classics and hidden gems, readily available for instant play in your web browser on devices you already own.

    Filing this away to try later. Also interesting to see they’re using JS-Dos for this, the same thing being used by F5 To Run, which is cool.

    Via Ars Technica.

    November 28, 2023 7:48am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Links

  • Those familiar trails will have to wait a little longer. Got a bit of “bird watching” to do first. 🦜

    Two cockatiels on a table, a yellow one perched by the edge, and a white one perched on some bird play equipment. There are two chairs by the table in shot
    November 27, 2023 9:18am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • Anyone else miss the split-flap displays they had at airports? I mean, screens make much more sense: no mechanical parts, easier to display code-shares, etc. But they don’t come close to a split-flap display in imbuing the feeling of “I’m ready to travel.”

    November 26, 2023 11:56am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • 🎄

    A small Christmas tree, placed next to a window, with the lights on and some ornaments, most of them of birds, one of them a crimson rosella. A lamp is in the background.
    November 26, 2023 9:28am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • Best, First, Favourite

    November 25, 2023 9:17am
    Reading Time: 6 minutes
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Long Form Posts

    On Reconcilable Difference #221, Merlin and John introduced the concept of “Best, First, Favourite”. For a particular category, which would you consider the best (i.e. closest to a perfect representation of that category, in however you define it), which would you recommend someone who’s interested in starting should experience first, and which one is your favourite. I thought it was a fun idea, so I’ve put together a few of my own. Continue reading →

  • Trying a new commute. Getting off a station early and walking a bit along the river. Bumps the walking time from 20 minutes to half an hour, but might be more consistent.

    Concrete path with a metal railing beside a river leading to a bridge with skyscrapers in the background.
    November 24, 2023 8:02am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • There are too many people using power-tools around here. 🙉

    Where:

    • “power-tool” is defined as any powered device that is not a lawnmower, and
    • “too many” is defined as any number greater than zero.
    November 23, 2023 11:29am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • Got an idea for a new feature for Dynamo-Browse. Began working on it this evening, starting with the UI:

    Recorded using VHS.

    November 22, 2023 10:35pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Other Artefacts

  • 🎵 Epic Grandpa, by Izioq

    This has been a bit of an earworm recently, after hearing it in this YouTube video (thank-you to those who credit composers in their videos). I think the Mellotron was the hook for me. Reminds me of Phaedra.

    November 21, 2023 1:04pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Media

  • Manuel Moreale post on ad blockers got me thinking about how Gruber tries to record ads for the Talk Show that people might actually enjoy listening to (it works; I listen to them). Maybe that’s the approach others should take for their ads, rather than try to force readers/watchers to turn their ad blockers off.

    November 21, 2023 6:49am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • Feeling a bit of nostalgia for Half-Life today, given all the talk surrounding its 25th anniversary. It remains one of my favourite games, and one that I remember having a lot of fun modding and building levels for (not that they were any good). Should try and dig those levels up.

    November 20, 2023 4:05pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • Idea For Mainboard Mayhem: A Remote Pickup

    November 19, 2023 9:21pm
    Reading Time: 2 minutes
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Long Form Posts

    Videos

    Devlog

    Screenshots

    Sort of in-between projects at the moment so I’m doing a bit of light stuff on Mainboard Mayhem. I had an idea for a new element: a remote control which, when picked up, will allow the player to toggle walls and tanks using the keyboard, much like the green and blue buttons. I used ChatGGT to come up with some artwork, and it produced something that was pretty decent. Prompt: pixel art of a remote control with a single red button styled like the tiles found in Chips Challange, rotated 45 degrees to the right. Continue reading →

  • Ah, it’s good to be back home, walking familiar trails once again. 😌

    Dirt track going through bush with a kangaroo on the left side of the track facing away from the camera
    November 18, 2023 7:36pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • Walked the Green Corridor, which runs along the old KTM Railway, with a few people from work. Really enjoyed it. Total distance was 17 km, which was a little rough in the tropical weather.

    Walking trail going towards some trees with a sign shaped like a level crossing sign on the right with the label Woodlands.
    November 17, 2023 5:21pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • 🔗 So Many Default Apps

    Seeing everyone blog (yes, actually blog) about their default apps over the last two weeks has been absolutely wonderful. Robb has been doing a fantastic job maintaining an index of these posts, and has now added a network graph showing the links between them. Works great.

    November 17, 2023 10:16am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Links

  • A Few Thoughts On Using iA Presenter

    November 16, 2023 9:51pm
    Reading Time: 4 minutes
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Long Form Posts

    Well the “big presentation” was today, the one I thought would be a good canditate for trying out iA Presenter. And after spending the last couple of weeks preparing for it, I’d thought it would be good time to give my thoughts on how it worked for me. First, I must say that I can appreciate using an app that is opinionated. This is not a drop-in replacement for Keynote1: the app really does try and steer you towards a particular presenting style. Continue reading →

  • Wheels and bridges.

    Singapore Flyer behind a road bridge with support piers shaped like a V.
    November 15, 2023 11:36am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • One thing that thrills me about visiting somewhere new is seeing the little things you can also find at home, such as these pedestrian crossing buttons. They even make the same noises, although the patterns are slightly different.

    A pedestrian crossing button, by a road, with instructions on how to use it listed above.
    November 14, 2023 12:06pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • Morning walk around the southern end of Singapore. Love walking through the green areas of the city. Very quiet and peaceful. Also, the Singapore Flyer is to the east of the Downtown Core, not the south. 🤦‍♂️

    Footpath surrounded by trees, with a branch to the left near the camera. A person is running away from the camera. There's a pidgon preening near the left.
    November 14, 2023 12:02pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • Had the pleasure of taking the ferry to Batam, Indonesia to see how my employer builds hardware. Wow! It’s absolutely amazing. To see something become tangible like that. Certainly difficult to get that feeling in cloud software.

    November 13, 2023 9:48pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika
  • I don’t like these pod coffee machines for a number of reasons. Today’s reason is that it took me 5 minutes to work out how to turn the damn thing on. Guess which one of these is the power button. Hint: it’s not one of the obvious buttons. 🤦‍♂️

    The top of a pod coffee machine, with two illuminated buttons, the power button that looks like a release for the water tank, and the top of the water tank itself
    November 13, 2023 8:35am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • Greetings from Singapore. 🇸🇬

    Singapore skyline at night with some plants slightly covering the foreground.
    November 13, 2023 12:01am
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Photos

  • Resurrecting Untraveller And Finishing The RA-V Mission Posts

    November 12, 2023 4:30pm
    Leon Mika Leon Mika

    Long Form Posts

    It’s been 10 years to the day when I had the opportunity to tour the Pacific as part of my job at the Bureau of Meteorology, the so call “RA-V Missions”. This last month or so, I’ve been writing about them in my journal, trying to get it all down before I forget. I had grand plans of publishing them on a travel blog, which I shelved a couple of months ago. Continue reading →

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