Links #54

I’m so behind on posting these links (these are all from a month ago). Also, I’m going back to posting fewer at a time.

ooh.directory, a new blog directory by Phil Gyford. Nice way to find blogs. It has an RSS feed for new additions, too.

Ian Sample on a potential new universal flu vaccine. I hope this works out.

Tom M on things he wished he knew when learning C. Ah, C. (My first two languages were BASIC and Pascal, but then for a fairly long time my main languages were C and C++. Haven’t used either in years, though, other than during my master’s.)

Colima, container runtimes with minimal setup.

Ben Abbott on five positive developments in the global energy system this year.

Geoff Graham on color contrast issues in Apple Messages, on the green SMS bubbles. Yes.

Dioramas created from Van Gogh art, using AI-generated depth maps. Very cool.

Carol Ann’s Paper Quill Seascape piece, made with Midjourney.

Markos Kay’s process video for his Creature Perch piece using Midjourney and Stable Diffusion. (I’ll add here that the ethics of the training sets for these aren’t great, especially for the artists whose works were taken without permission. Hoping that gets better.)

Google’s Infinite Nature paper on generating 3D flythroughs from still photos. Slowed down a lot, this would make for a nice screensaver or decorative display. Reminds me a bit of those eight-hour train ride videos on YouTube, too.