Wordle is sweeping the world and more - This Geek in Review for 2022-01-21
By goz
If you haven’t heard about Wordle then I’m very impressed that you found this and are actually reading it! The gameplay of Wordle is much like the game Mastermind. Your are given 6 tries to guess a 5 letter word. When you try a word, any letters that are in the solution and in the right place are labeled green. Letters in the solution but in the wrong place are yellow, while letters that aren’t in the solution are grey.
It’s a pretty fun game on its own, and it’s awesome when someone decides to looks behind the curtain. Next up would be to come up with a list of optimum starting words. I wonder if you could look at the word list and come up with a word that would help you out a majority of the time?
My favorite musician this week
I don’t share out new artists that I find very often, but Games We Play is awesome. Their I hope you’re happy is a banger, the last time a song hooked me this quickly was Walk Two Moon’s Shut up and dance. They sound a lot like the late 90s early 00s alternative rock, or, at the time, indie rock. Go give them a listen!
Internet Travels
Geek
- Geico made the Portal ad we never asked for - The Verge
- Dive into the Twitter Time Tunnel (or just hack your url way in) – CogDogBlog
- Remembering faces and names can be improved during sleep
Retro
- Old Vintage Computing Research: prior-art-dept.: OWL Guide, early hypertext, and “replacing” the Web
- Life at 800MHz
- The Computer Chronicles - Build Your Own PC (1992) - YouTube
- Harken back to the late 1990s with this re-creation of the dialup Internet experience | Ars Technica
- The underground network bringing Japan’s arcades to the US | Ars Technica
Technology
- “Aw, screw it”: LAPD cops hunted Pokémon instead of responding to robbery | Ars Technica
- You can no longer call an Uber with your Apple Watch | Ars Technica - Apple needs to up their watchOS game. The great apps are few and far between. I do have two that work really well, Nanogram (a Telegram messaging client) and Nano (a Reddit client).
- Man gets genetically-modified pig heart in world-first transplant - BBC News - I don’t think I would want people to know I had a pig heart, the jokes would be terrible. Especially since I like bacon and pepperoni.
- Teen hacker finds bug that lets him control 25+ Teslas remotely | Ars Technica - Spoiler, it’s limited control. We’re not going to see Fast and the Furious level of remote control, at least, not yet.
- FTC has a “plausible claim” that Facebook is an illegal monopoly, judge says | Ars Technica - Awe now, that would be a shame.
- Dropbox finally supports M1 Macs natively with new beta - The Verge - Now if only Dropbox could have some sensible plans.
- Tesla removes 2022 production date from Cybertruck website - The Verge - That’s too bad, I was hoping to see them on the road soon.
- A Turkish Farmer Tests Out VR Goggles on Cows To Get More Milk
- How a design museum unearthed a treasure trove of classic Slovak games - The Verge - The story behind these games is really awesome.
Pop Culture
Pot Pourri
- PSA: Redownload your Harry Potter e-books from Pottermore before they disappear for good - The Verge - I had forgotten all about Pottermore.
- FDA drops regulations on French dressing : NPR - Who knew that French dressing was regulated? Someday I’ll have to tell the story of when I worked in a factory and ran the machine that created the 12oz Kraft Squeezable Salad Dressing Bottles.