A few days ago Ruben wrote a quick post about finding a FIGlet in the Internet Archive's HTML code. What's a FIGlet? "FIGlet is a program for making large letters out of ordinary text". ASCII-art, in other words. Curiously, I can't find this in the Internet Archive's sources, I don't know where he saw it... But either way, I think that's a cute idea, so I also put this in my site's sources now. It's a silly little thing, but I like it :) ___ ____ __ __ _ _ ( _ )___ \| \/ | | | |____ / _ \ __) | |\/| | |_| |_ / | (_) / __/| | | | _ |/ / \___/_____|_| |_|_| |_/___| Articles What the Fuck Happened to Nerds How did the tech world go from people like Woz to people like Musk and Altman? What the fuck indeed... Flipping the kill switch: I survived 72 hours without US tech – POLITICO How do you fare when trying to avoid US big tech? Not great: "...I became an outsider within my own team. I had to skip our routine video meetings on Slack and Teams, while missing messages sent over WhatsApp and Signal." (via Ava's blog) Dolly Parton Locked a Secret Song Away in a Box Before Her Death, and There’s Already a Release Date Planned We will get one more song from Dolly on her 100th birthday in 2046. Finally something to look forward to about the future! (via Jake) Software/Services Unplug America - Canadian tech alternatives to bring your data back across the border Tying in with the US tech article from above, here are some Canadian alternatives to US tech... European Alternatives to US & Big Tech Software ...and here's a list of European alternatives. Videos Sonic The Hedgehog Amiga Demo Is Out! - YouTube Reassembler has been working on porting "Sonic the Hedgehog" from the Megadrive to the Amiga for several months, and now the first level is available as a playable demo. If you're interested in the technical details, he documented his approach on his YouTube-channel, starting here. Air Powered Display: 3D Printed Fluidic Multiplexing - YouTube This is really cool - a display where the individual pixels are switched on by creating a vacuum under a membrane. There's so much cool engineering going on in there! Around the Small Web 📼 The Blockbuster Chronicles | Brandon's Journal Brandon chronicles his experience of working at a Blockbuster video rental shop as a teenager in multiple parts. It's a great read! Halloween 2K26 Begins! | Brandon's Journal And if you feel like getting yourself into the Halloween spirit already, Brandon has you covered. A September Theme: 30 Days of Gratitude R.L. Dane has a good blogging theme for this month: gratitude. From experience I know that it isn't easy to find something to be grateful for every day, but it's absolutely worth it. Misc Version Museum: A Visual History of Your Favorite Technology "Version Museum showcases the visual history of popular websites, operating systems, applications, and games that have shaped our lives. Much like walking through a museum in real life, this site focuses on the design changes of historic versions of technology, rather than just the written history behind it." One Day on Rails This is amazing - a visualisation of all train traffic on a random day this summer across central Europe. (Thanks, Matto!) We write code by hand: We use Natural Intelligence to build software. A list of people who still write code using "natural intelligence", the way it's been done since the days of Ada Lovelace. (Thanks again, Matto!)