Given a social media user's username, how do you get a picture of their avatar? I always used avatars.io - but sadly that service has bitten the dust. So I've switched to unavatar. It's dead easy to use. https://unavatar.now.sh/twitter/edent will return @edent's avatar. You can use GitHub, Facebook, Gravatar, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, SoundCloud, and a couple of other providers. Simple…
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I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. I've never played a dating simulator before. I'd heard of them, and their weird parodies like Hatoful Boyfriend, but this is my first time playing one. And, I'm delighted to say, Arcade Spirits is delightful. The game looks gorgeous, the voice acting is top notch, and the sound …
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We're exactly halfway through 2020. Fuck. It feels like I've spent two-thousand-and-twenty days living through the year 2020. I know how lucky I am to be employed and to be shacked up with a loving spouse. I'm festooned with privilege, but it's emotionally tough. Liz and I have spent the best part of four months without leaving our home. We have a small garden, and enough exercise equipment at …
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A few weeks ago, I picked up 20 NFC tags. But what to do with them? I know, let's make something impractical! I had this gorgeous Barret Biggers - Link Blot poster which had lain in a drawer for far too long. So I turned it into an Amiibo. Nestled in the corner, sandwiched between the print and the glass, is an NTAG215 chip. Using the open source TagMo app for Android, I've written the…
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I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. I like puzzle games, and Minit has a unique twist. You only have 60 seconds to complete each action. But, before we get onto the review, here's how to get it running on Linux. Linux Download the minit_linux.zip file to your Downloads directory. Download…
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DO NOT PUT WIFI DEVICES UP YOUR BUM! OR ANYONE ELSE'S BUM! Right, with that disclaimer out of the way, here's my review of the DDENDOCAM Snake Camera - a 2 metre long, endoscope style camera. People send me the weirdest stuff to review! Video Here's me investigating my sink drain. Aren't you glad you read my blog, eh?…
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I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. The thing about EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER is that it is EXTREME. And it is so EXTREME that it feels a little like a tweenager shouting about how bad-ass they are. The story aesthetic is gorgeous. Brilliant mix of cartoon and ASCII art. I'm not good with controls. I found…
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I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. How many people have you killed in a video game? Thousands? At least. But how many funerals have you performed in game? Hardly any. It's hard to describe A Mortician's Tale as a game. It is a lovely experience where you play a new employee of a funeral home. The game is,…
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I was working in the mobile phone industry just as smartphones were taking off. I saw the Palm Pilot rise and fall. I witnessed NEC and Sagem and a host of companies launch smartphones and then disappear. But the greatest tragedy of them all was Nokia and their Symbian Operating System. (Actually, Symbian's ownership and relationship with Nokia is complex. But let's gloss over that for now.) …
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I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. Night in the Woods is a cute looking indie game, with one fatal flaw. Nothing happens in it. I gave the game an hour or so, and all I did was walk left and right and click next in the dialogue. There are a few dialogue options, but that doesn't alter the course of the game. I…
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A few months ago, UK supermarket Tesco released some flesh-toned sticking plasters. Whose flesh though? In this case, Tesco had them in a range of colours and shades. Because people come in all sorts of flavours. Naturally, some people (mostly old white dudes) were angry about this. Because they're angry about everything. Here's my "favourite" response: "normal coloured plaster". What is…
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I'm playing through the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. You can follow along with all my game reviews. This is the delightful indie game A Short Hike. I don't play many video games, because I find them arbitrary and confusing. They also go on far too long. But "Hike" is the perfect length. I completed it within 2 hours (I think - more on that later). Which, considering I paid $10 …
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