brainbaking/content/post/2023/04/march-2023.md

---
title: "Favorites of March 2023"
date: 2023-04-01T08:30:00+02:00
tags:
  - metapost
---

Last month's favorites got lost in momentum and I simply didn't have the energy to condense them into a metapost. I'm still not sure whether or not these types of posts are actually useful but I do have a few interesting links to share so here goes. Most of February's favorites I could gather are integrated as well.

Previous month: [January 2023](/post/2023/02/january-2023).

## Books I've read

- [Herodotus' Histories](/post/2023/03/how-to-read-herodotus). A fascinating two thousand year old history lesson about then two thousand year old history. I don't know about you, but my mind was blown. It's a bit hard to get into though.
- [Rouw op je dak](https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/nl-BE/p/rouw-op-je-dak-9789020969863) by Jos Brink. A small booklet about grief and how to live with it. It didn't satisfy my needs. I'll be harking back to the real philosophers for the subject.
- [Art as Therapy](http://www.artastherapy.com/) from the School of Life's own Alain de Botton and John Armstrong. This was my second read and it's one of the most important works on art critique I've ever read---even though I haven't read many of them. In 2017, I wrote a short review on GoodReads:

> Insightful and witfully written, Alain again succeeds in triggering ideas and challenging dogmas. I never stopped to think about art the way he sees it and now it's only logical. A very good book, although somewhat complicated sections for non-native English readers like me.

It baffles me that I remembered so little about it, even though I took notes, and even though I wanted to pick it up again because I knew it was an important work for me. Our memory can really be a giant sieve sometimes... I need to think over _Art as Therapy_'s global message, I'm sure it'll get summarized in a blog post sometime soon.

## Games I've played

Surprisingly little, although I tried enjoying a few different ongoing ones, I only managed to finish the following games:

- Pizza Tower, which has an [amazing soundtrack](/post/2023/03/pizza-towers-soundtrack-is-amazing) and is one of the best (and craziest) 2D platformers I've played in years. It's also quite short, which may be an advantage for the contemporary busy person. In short (ha!), very much recommended, and a _Game of the Year_ contender.
- Stuart Gipp put me to trying out a few short Game Boy games. Stuart's [Franchise & Lows](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZEslizS9N8nqi9-5tnod5wUF6TAm1Otn) YouTube videos are hilarious, in which he analyzes retro games of video game franchises like _Asterix_ and _Tiny Toon Adventures_. I bought the two Game Boy carts of the latter. They're [average at best](https://jefklakscodex.com/games/gameboy/tiny-toon-adventures-babs-big-break/). I didn't expect anything else, but had fun regardless.

I did find an interesting YouTube series by Double Fine called _Devs Play_, where, well, developers play older games and comment on the various mechanics. I especially enjoyed this Rayman 2 episode with Michel Ancel, Tim Schafer, and Lee Petty:

{{< youtube l6AgSHT8Ve0 >}}

## Selected (blog) posts

- [How To Use the Internet Printing Protocol](https://istopwg.github.io/ipp/ippguide.html), an extensive guide by Michael R Sweet and Peter Zehler. Fascinating technical stuff. 
- Should I replace Pagefind with [uFuzzy](https://github.com/leeoniya/uFuzzy), a "A tiny, efficient fuzzy search that doesn't suck"? Pagefind's results aren't as great as I want them to be.
- I loved Ruben Schade's [Booking a Hotel in 2023](https://rubenerd.com/booking-a-hotel-in-2023/) enumeration. It's funny (and sad) because it's true?
- Congrats to Phoenix and Elixir, the [most popular programming framework of 2022](https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-webframe-love-dread) according to the yearly Stack Overflow survey.
- Drew DeVault explains why Sourcehut temporarily [blocked the Go module mirror](https://sourcehut.org/blog/2023-01-09-gomodulemirror/). A lot of Go-based drama lately, including the good ol' telemetry discussion. 
- Collin Morris searches for [the least viewed article on Wikipedia](http://colinmorris.github.io/blog/unpopular-wiki-articles).
- Terence Eden explains the concept of [necroposting for blogs](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/1987/12/our-day-out/) (via [Winnie Lim](https://winnielim.org/notes/posting-backdated-posts/)).
- According to qntm, it's [time to stop recommending Clean Code](https://qntm.org/clean). A very thorough analysis on a now impossibly outdated programming handbook. [A Philosophy of Software Design](https://archive.org/details/a-philosophy-of-software-design) is proposed as the alternative.
- One of the oldest blogs on the internet, Kottke, [is 25 years old](https://kottke.org/23/03/kottke-is-25-years-old-today)!
- Cal Newport on [how to read a book while researching](https://calnewport.com/how-i-read-when-researching-a-book/)---with pencil in hand.
- Biko writes about [the sad state of Neocities](https://www.bikobatanari.art/posts/2023/state-of-neocities) and why he ultimately left it.

## Other random links

- Did you know that CLang optimizes an infinite for loop in C(++)? That's why [C isn't fun](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/10wur63/isnt_c_fun/). 
- [MuffinTerm](https://muffinterm.app/) is a terminal crafted for the BBS experience for Mac (via [The Byte Cellar](https://bytecellar.com/2023/01/25/muffinterm-a-great-new-terminal-emulator-for-iphone-ipad-and-mac/)).
- Something for next Christmas: [24 pull requests](https://24pullrequests.com/).
- [Sloth](https://sveinbjorn.org/sloth) is a native Mac app that shows open files and sockets.
- If you're up for a programming challenge, try [Proton Hackers](https://protohackers.com/) to get started with TCP server programming.
- Zophar's domain houses soundtrack rips of old Game Boy games, such as the ear worm [Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle](https://www.zophar.net/music/gameboy-gbs/bugs-bunny-crazy-castle-the).
- In case you love old desktop screenshots just as much as I do, you need to visit https://guidebookgallery.org/.
- The GameCube hacks continue to expand with this [SD card-enabled Memory Card](https://8bitmods.com/memcard-pro-gc-for-gamecube-smoke-black/). It's expensive but cool. 
- Go's ecosystem also continues to expand. If you like writing config in Go, you probably already use Dagger for your CI/CD needs, and perhaps [Magefiles](https://magefile.org/magefiles/) instead of Makefiles?
metapost march, update closed/open source post 2023-03-29 10:41:27 +02:00			`---`
			`title: "Favorites of March 2023"`
			`date: 2023-04-01T08:30:00+02:00`
			`tags:`
			`- metapost`
			`---`

			`Last month's favorites got lost in momentum and I simply didn't have the energy to condense them into a metapost. I'm still not sure whether or not these types of posts are actually useful but I do have a few interesting links to share so here goes. Most of February's favorites I could gather are integrated as well.`

			`Previous month: [January 2023](/post/2023/02/january-2023).`

			`## Books I've read`

			`- [Herodotus' Histories](/post/2023/03/how-to-read-herodotus). A fascinating two thousand year old history lesson about then two thousand year old history. I don't know about you, but my mind was blown. It's a bit hard to get into though.`
			`- [Rouw op je dak](https://www.standaardboekhandel.be/nl-BE/p/rouw-op-je-dak-9789020969863) by Jos Brink. A small booklet about grief and how to live with it. It didn't satisfy my needs. I'll be harking back to the real philosophers for the subject.`
			`- [Art as Therapy](http://www.artastherapy.com/) from the School of Life's own Alain de Botton and John Armstrong. This was my second read and it's one of the most important works on art critique I've ever read---even though I haven't read many of them. In 2017, I wrote a short review on GoodReads:`

			`> Insightful and witfully written, Alain again succeeds in triggering ideas and challenging dogmas. I never stopped to think about art the way he sees it and now it's only logical. A very good book, although somewhat complicated sections for non-native English readers like me.`

			`It baffles me that I remembered so little about it, even though I took notes, and even though I wanted to pick it up again because I knew it was an important work for me. Our memory can really be a giant sieve sometimes... I need to think over _Art as Therapy_'s global message, I'm sure it'll get summarized in a blog post sometime soon.`

			`## Games I've played`

			`Surprisingly little, although I tried enjoying a few different ongoing ones, I only managed to finish the following games:`

			`- Pizza Tower, which has an [amazing soundtrack](/post/2023/03/pizza-towers-soundtrack-is-amazing) and is one of the best (and craziest) 2D platformers I've played in years. It's also quite short, which may be an advantage for the contemporary busy person. In short (ha!), very much recommended, and a _Game of the Year_ contender.`
			- Stuart Gipp put me to trying out a few short Game Boy games. Stuart's [Franchise & Lows](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZEslizS9N8nqi9-5tnod5wUF6TAm1Otn) YouTube videos are hilarious, in which he analyzes retro games of video game franchises like _Asterix_ and _Tiny Toon Adventures_. I bought the two Game Boy carts of the latter. They're [average at best](https://jefklakscodex.com/games/gameboy/tiny-toon-adventures-babs-big-break/). I didn't expect anything else, but had fun regardless.

			`I did find an interesting YouTube series by Double Fine called _Devs Play_, where, well, developers play older games and comment on the various mechanics. I especially enjoyed this Rayman 2 episode with Michel Ancel, Tim Schafer, and Lee Petty:`

			`{{< youtube l6AgSHT8Ve0 >}}`

			`## Selected (blog) posts`

			`- [How To Use the Internet Printing Protocol](https://istopwg.github.io/ipp/ippguide.html), an extensive guide by Michael R Sweet and Peter Zehler. Fascinating technical stuff.`
			`- Should I replace Pagefind with [uFuzzy](https://github.com/leeoniya/uFuzzy), a "A tiny, efficient fuzzy search that doesn't suck"? Pagefind's results aren't as great as I want them to be.`
			`- I loved Ruben Schade's [Booking a Hotel in 2023](https://rubenerd.com/booking-a-hotel-in-2023/) enumeration. It's funny (and sad) because it's true?`
			`- Congrats to Phoenix and Elixir, the [most popular programming framework of 2022](https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-webframe-love-dread) according to the yearly Stack Overflow survey.`
			`- Drew DeVault explains why Sourcehut temporarily [blocked the Go module mirror](https://sourcehut.org/blog/2023-01-09-gomodulemirror/). A lot of Go-based drama lately, including the good ol' telemetry discussion.`
			`- Collin Morris searches for [the least viewed article on Wikipedia](http://colinmorris.github.io/blog/unpopular-wiki-articles).`
			`- Terence Eden explains the concept of [necroposting for blogs](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/1987/12/our-day-out/) (via [Winnie Lim](https://winnielim.org/notes/posting-backdated-posts/)).`
			`- According to qntm, it's [time to stop recommending Clean Code](https://qntm.org/clean). A very thorough analysis on a now impossibly outdated programming handbook. [A Philosophy of Software Design](https://archive.org/details/a-philosophy-of-software-design) is proposed as the alternative.`
			`- One of the oldest blogs on the internet, Kottke, [is 25 years old](https://kottke.org/23/03/kottke-is-25-years-old-today)!`
			`- Cal Newport on [how to read a book while researching](https://calnewport.com/how-i-read-when-researching-a-book/)---with pencil in hand.`
			`- Biko writes about [the sad state of Neocities](https://www.bikobatanari.art/posts/2023/state-of-neocities) and why he ultimately left it.`

			`## Other random links`

			`- Did you know that CLang optimizes an infinite for loop in C(++)? That's why [C isn't fun](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/10wur63/isnt_c_fun/).`
			`- [MuffinTerm](https://muffinterm.app/) is a terminal crafted for the BBS experience for Mac (via [The Byte Cellar](https://bytecellar.com/2023/01/25/muffinterm-a-great-new-terminal-emulator-for-iphone-ipad-and-mac/)).`
			`- Something for next Christmas: [24 pull requests](https://24pullrequests.com/).`
			`- [Sloth](https://sveinbjorn.org/sloth) is a native Mac app that shows open files and sockets.`
			`- If you're up for a programming challenge, try [Proton Hackers](https://protohackers.com/) to get started with TCP server programming.`
			`- Zophar's domain houses soundtrack rips of old Game Boy games, such as the ear worm [Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle](https://www.zophar.net/music/gameboy-gbs/bugs-bunny-crazy-castle-the).`
			`- In case you love old desktop screenshots just as much as I do, you need to visit https://guidebookgallery.org/.`
			`- The GameCube hacks continue to expand with this [SD card-enabled Memory Card](https://8bitmods.com/memcard-pro-gc-for-gamecube-smoke-black/). It's expensive but cool.`
			`- Go's ecosystem also continues to expand. If you like writing config in Go, you probably already use Dagger for your CI/CD needs, and perhaps [Magefiles](https://magefile.org/magefiles/) instead of Makefiles?`