Newsletter #2020-05
Another few weeks, another newsletter! I’ve finally updated the subscriber form to look like an actual form, and also done some work under the hood to make writing this newsletter less of a hassle (less templating, more markdown!).
Plus, links now show you the site you’ll be taken too if you click on them!
Read
“The Game Thinks My Companions Are Dead”
A fantastic bug from the world of games development, and the story of how it was found!
Development Environments at Slack
It’s always good to see blog posts about the developer experience at different companies, and to see how they work internally.
Why Server-Side Input Validation Matters
Even if it comes from your frontend, you can’t assume it will be friendly. Case in point, Twitter’s gender field.
Project Lightspeed
Rewriting a gargantuan application takes a proportional amount of engineering effort. Take a look at what was done differently for Facebook Messenger, given an opportunity to shed technical debt.
Turning Over
Page turners matter, despite their inconspicuous role in music performance.
Judges Issue Recommendations Following Midlands Results Mix-Up
A post-mortem courtesy of the brass banding world. After all, human processes are easily fallable. UX specialists eat your heart out!
Watch
Doom Eternal Developers React to 27 Minute Speedrun
IGN’s series on developers reacting to speedruns of their games is great to watch, both for (often broken) gameplay and the accompanying discussion.
Zelda’s Most Iconic Sound Effect
An investigation into what gives the “puzzle solved” jingle its mysterious character, and how it’s been adapted over the years.
Snarky Puppy - Lingus (We Like It Here)
Cory Henry’s keyboard solo is one of my favourite examples of gathering energy over the course of a solo.
Listen
This Is Magnolia - Magnolia
I saw this posted by an artist I follow last week, and I’m loving the instrumentation behind it.
I really like “New Gold Mountain” and the way it mixes a flugelhorn, piano and steel guitar with a healthy dose of distortion.
Journey - Austin Wintory
Journey is one of the earliest games I can recall becoming completely enamoured with. Much like the game itself, the soundtrack has an enourmous amount of character for something so barren.
Hearing “The Road of Trails” brings me right back to 2012, sand-surfing with a faceless companion.
How to Get 75 Gigs of Free Storage in AWS with xssfox
It’s not a platform abuse, it’s just an undocumented feature!