Copy & Paste the Real World into Cyberspace

A very clever and impressive tech demo by Cyril Diagne allows you to copy & paste objects from your real-world surroundings into Photoshop using your smartphone:

4/10 – Cut & paste your surroundings to Photoshop

Code: https://t.co/cVddH3u3ik

Book: @HOLOmagazine
Garment: SS17 by @thekarentopacio
Type: Sainte Colombe by @MinetYoann @ProductionType
Technical Insights: ↓#ML #AR #AI #AIUX #Adobe #Photoshop pic.twitter.com/LkTBe0t0rF

— Cyril Diagne (@cyrildiagne) May 3, 2020

The code is available on GitHub and it’s probably worth pointing out that BASNet, the machine learning smarts responsible for object recognition, are available on GitHub as well.

Recommended Reading: A year without conferences? How the coronavirus pandemic could change research

I just read and enjoyed this:

This is shaping up to be an unusual year — it might even be the year scientists stop going to conferences.

Read “A year without conferences? How the coronavirus pandemic could change research”

Recommended Reading: What the Death of iTunes Says About Our Digital Habits

I just read and enjoyed this:

The abandonment of iTunes heralded a broader shift in how Americans are assumed to approach their digital lives. You could call it the victory of Gmail. When it debuted in 2004, Google’s email software offered Americans a revolutionary new way of thinking about their digital footprint: Don’t.

Read “What the Death of iTunes Says About Our Digital Habits”

Previously: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

Recommended Reading: Computer Files Are Going Extinct

I just read and enjoyed this:

I love files. I love renaming them, moving them, sorting them, changing how they’re displayed in a folder, backing them up, uploading them to the internet, restoring them, copying them, and hey, even defragging them.

There are some good observations on how development has changed as well:

Years ago websites were made of files; now they are made of dependencies.

The other day, I came across a website I’d written over two decades ago. I double-clicked the file, and it opened and ran perfectly. Then I tried to run a website I’d written 18 months ago and found I couldn’t run it without firing up a web server, and when I ran NPM install, one or two of those 65,000 files had issues that meant node failed to install them and the website didn’t run. When I did get it working, it needed a database. And then it relied on some third-party APIs and there was an issue with CORS because I hadn’t whitelisted localhost.

Larry Tesler passed away

A very sad loss. Read John Markoff’s obituary for the New York Times here.

Most of the press is highlighting the invention of cut/copy/paste as his greatest contribution, while others are highlighting his passionate aversion against modes, but when I hear the name Larry Tesler, I’ll always think first of his law of the conservation of complexity.

 

Virtual Reality Apartment in Oculus Quest

Pretty neat. A great example of how VR and AR connect.

Recommended Reading: How ‘dark patterns’ influence travel bookings

I just read and enjoyed this:

If you’ve wondered whether there were actually 30 people trying to book the same flight as you, you’re not alone. As Chris Baraniuk finds, the numbers may not be all they seem.Ophir Harpaz just wanted to get a good deal on a flight to London.

Read “How ‘dark patterns’ influence travel bookings”

Recommended Reading: The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics of the Internet

I just read and enjoyed this:

Even the cheesiest, most cloyingly overearnest romance movies lack the pathos of the pop-up notifications you get when you cancel an online subscription.

Read “The Endless, Invisible Persuasion Tactics of the Internet”

Recommended Reading: The 84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the decade in tech

I just read and enjoyed this:

The world never changes quite the way you expect. But at The Verge, we’ve had a front-row seat while technology has permeated every aspect of our lives over the past decade. Some of the resulting moments — and gadgets — arguably defined the decade and the world we live in now.

But others we ate up with popcorn in hand, marveling at just how incredibly hard they flopped.

Read “The 84 biggest flops, fails, and dead dreams of the decade in tech”

I would have ranked Google+ much, much higher, at least in the top 10, probably in the top 3, even though it arguably achieved its primary purpose: unifying Google’s account management.

How to open items in the enclosing folder directly from a Spotlight search in macOS

You can also hold down Command and double-click the item in the results list. Holding down Command by itself reveals the path to the file or folder without opening the enclosing folder.

Thanks Macworld!

There have been many occasions were this would have been useful, but I didn’t know until now. That Spotlight doesn’t show the path to the file by default is completely baffling to me.