callumprentice

Excellent article but I am always torn when I read inspirational articles like this - it makes perfect sense to me and I love the idea of simple, non-nonsense sites that work well, load quickly and don't rely on the latest browsers to function.

Then I start to wonder if that's just because I'm not smart enough to understand React or whatever the fancy technology of the day is.

Feels like I have a hard understanding threshold that cannot be breached - give me a simple editor like Sublime and ask me to make a web page - even with JavaScript - and it's my happy place. Give me VSCode or Zed, Claude/Copilot/ChatGPT plugins everywhere, React tutorials and my brain goes to mush.

I figured this was some kind of home-grown prosthetic arm whose wearer could, using AI, draw any artwork online, speak ASL, perform minor surgery on themselves and so much more so long as their supply of tokens lasted.

Perhaps a smidge disappointed when I had a look and discovered it wasn't that :)

I made something like this (in the VERY broadest sense) 10 years ago - inspired me to revisit and update both visuals and data (a lot has changed in that time).

https://callumprentice.github.io/apps/global_temperature_cha...

and

https://callumprentice.github.io/apps/climate_temperature_ch...

As someone who do the whole mileage actual thing for many years (millions of Chase and Amex points) but also a family and a full time job - IE 3 seats vs 1 and can’t leave for a trip at the drop of a hat - I’m always astonished by how worthless my miles seem to be.

I’m not convinced it’s all one big scam but a teensie bit hopeful your solution can help. Looking forward to trying. Thank you.

Understood. This was in Manhattan Beach which is expensive for everything but still, that delta is incredible.

Actually, I noticed one near there yesterday on PCH (forget which station) was $6.89999 for the good stuff.

$6.84999 at the Shell station near my gym this morning.

SoCal gas is at least $6.85 a gallon.

Trivial to see the raw GLB files in a Viewer that gives you a bit more control.

https://github.khronos.org/glTF-Sample-Viewer-Release/?model...

Also beautifully done. Love it!

FWIW, I was able to select a Logitech USB webcam on my Mac mini running Sequoia.

So much fun and beautifully implemented.

I wish there was a way to use the output/preview as a virtual camera in Meet, Zoom etc. I could drive my colleagues potty with some of these :)

Thank goodness. My Gmail address is my first name so I typically get many hundreds of spam’s a day which are almost all caught. Dozens in my inbox today so I figured something was up. Glad it’s not that the spam pedlars have suddenly gotten clever.

I've long admired your work online both for its writing quality and incredible insight.

Thank you for sharing all these years.

Agreed! I felt the same way but sitting here with my morning coffee chuckling away. A good start to the day.

https://callumprentice.github.io/apps/flight_stream/index.ht...

Something similar but for flights and in 3D.

12 years old now - might be fun to see what new data is out there - real time perhaps - and have another go

Phenomenal collection but like the parent of this message, I have many similar sites bookmarked but without a good bookmark manager (Chrome), it's hard to add meta data like "I really like this page's JSON formatter" etc.

I might have a go at a making meta-utility site when you enter names, descriptions, tags etc. of a utility and it lists relevant sites.

To the parent's point about a good DOT COM, I have one that might be perfect since I seem incapable of finishing the project I purchased it for decades ago.

Fascinating. Can you share your non-private Zed config? I still have mine from before the switch - I'd like to compare.

I'll try that - thank you.

I tried Zed for a few months but just couldn't get the JavaScript/Python syntax checking and Prettier type reformatting to work reliably. I would poke at it for a few hours, get it working and then mysteriously, a few days later, it'd stop working again.

I switched to VSCode now and whilst that piece of it seems to be much more reliable, I think overall I prefer the "feel" of Zed.

I've bookmarked the article to see if that helps me figure out how to make the settings stick.

I agree with an earlier post that asserted "net worth = assets - liabilities" but I'd like to do better at understanding what that really means.

Some are easy like the size of your bank balance. Others are much harder.

For example, one asset we have is our home and there are many websites out there that tell you how much it's worth but they each vary an awful lot and change dramatically - so much so sometimes that any savings you've made in the same period are eclipsed.

Similarly, the 401k I've been building up for years seems like a decent amount but trying to calculate what it's worth after taxes and therefore how much you'll have to spend each month seems unknowable.

I think the same is true of investment accounts. If we seeded one with $500 and it's now worth $250, it's easy to think your net worth has risen by $250 but it really hasn't when taxes, fees and who knows what else is taken into account.

What a lovely story and a great connection to a post. Thanks for sharing.

Wow - that's incredible. I can't wait to take a look. Thanks for the pointer.

https://callumprentice.github.io/apps/iss_photo_explorer/ind...

My daughter and I made this 10 years ago for the NASA Space Apps Challenge and I notified a whole bunch of folk at NASA but never heard anything back. Laughably amateurish compared to this magnificent work but it was fun to make.

We actually started work on the next version - a tool that lets you mark begin/end photo frames from those incredible fly-bys and save them off as video but it's maybe not worth it now.

I keep meaning to get back to my suite of equirectangular image functions - viewers, editors, authoring etc. and this reminded me to resurrect the Viewer.

https://equinaut.surge.sh/?eqr=https://raw.githubusercontent...

Not quite right I think because the source image issn't 2x1 aspect ratio.

They can look really nice: both in the real world - https://equinaut.surge.sh/?eqr=https://upload.wikimedia.org/...

or

the virtual world: https://equinaut.surge.sh/?eqr=https://live.staticflickr.com...

There is one in the Three.JS example suite with source:

https://threejs.org/examples/webgl_loader_usdz.html

I have a real soft spot for Lisbon and Nazare - hoping to live there one day after I retire.

Lots of similarities with the last city I lived in - San Francisco: Big red suspension bridge that spans the gateway to the ocean (same vendor), cable cars running on impossibly hilly streets, cosmopolitan, diverse LGBTQ+ friendly people, amazing food, nearby vineyards, blossoming tech scene....

Oh wow - thank you. I can't wait to re-read it.

Crocodiles are scary. I remember reading a short story as a young man where a heart surgeon discovered crocs had over centuries, developed a chronic cardiac condition that left them comparatively sluggish and 'weak. He kept operating on them, fixing the problems until a few survived the surgery. As they recovered and grew bigger and stronger, they developed protuberances on their shoulders and a hard pointy plate at the end of their tail. You can see what's coming - they eventually turned into dragons.. They story was told in retrospective, from the safety of underground caves where what was left of humanity lived now..

Always crossed my mind when I see one :)

Nice. I felt the same way - read that book from cover to cover many times.

I could never afford a BBC Micro when that came out and certainly not the Archimedes but I always admired from afar.

Good grief - 64K - what on earth did you do with all that storage :)