Newsletter #2020-06
I bet you thought these things only came out once a month, hey? Nope! Have another May newsletter!
There’s a bit of everything this time. Database woes, video games and Icelandic experimental rock!
Read
DeepLinks and ScrollAnchor
Cloudflare has a great way of directing users to pages/areas on their dashboard from plain URLs.
From 15,000 Database Connections to Under 100: DigitalOcean’s Tale of Tech Debt
Large-scale architecture overhauls always make for good reading. You know it’s juicy when you read “database” and “message queue” in the same sentence!
Look at These Explosions
A dive into the logic used to parallelise an explosion animation.
Intermittent Periods of Increased Latency and Request Timeouts
Incidents aren’t fun to deal with, but it’s a good sign when a quality post-mortem follows. There’s a lot to be learned in the moment, and after the fact as well.
If Keybase Can Do It
If you’re interested in seeing what can be automated on macOS, then check out how I mimicked Keybase’s filesharing feature!
Watch
How Scrolling Textures Gave Super Mario Galaxy 2 Its Charm
It seems fitting to share this investigation into a visual effect from Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the game’s 10th anniversay.
The Quiet Sadness of Mario Galaxy
There’s beauty in the void of space.
Listen
Ágaetis byrjun - Sigur Rós
Listening to Sigur Rós makes me want to travel to Iceland again. One day I’ll return.
Plastic Beach - Gorillaz
This is the Gorillaz album I find myself coming back to most often. I enjoy it as a whole, and particularly love Bobby Womack’s features (“Stylo” and “Cloud of Unknowing”).
Play
A Short Hike
If you’ve got some spare change lying around for a game you can play on your laptop/desktop, there’s nothing I can recommend more than this adorable exploration game.
I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in this world, wandering and gliding around.