Heya,
This week, some great animations from the classic '507 Mechanical Movements'. You don't need to be an engineer to enjoy them, I promise. I also stumbled across a glorious animation of circles which just about made my week.
If you are a developer looking to level up your game, then writing is a good (highly marketable) skill to have. The article is aimed at engineers but the advice and tips are good for anyone who needs to communicate as part of their professional life.
Also, be sure to check out the webcam air guitar. We live in glorious times.
Enjoy,
Chris.
Bizarro Devs
🕸️ The Cool Side of the Web
Codex Atlanticus is the largest, online, collection of Da Vinci's art and writings. 🎨
codex-atlanticus.it
🤖 Robots et. al.
A deep neural network is trained to create a face based on an audio file of someone speaking.
The generated images are slightly odd because of the blurred background which makes them feel like an oracle in a weird sci-fi movie. However, let's just celebrate the fact that AI is not great at everything. On the other hand, there is no human working in a job matching faces to voices. So, AI is only bad at the jobs that don't exist.
If you take a look at Glitch you can see the fashion designing AI from MIT. It worked on the classic LBD to come up with something new. I don't really have much of an eye for fashion but I'd say it doesn't look too bad. Would I wear it? Definitely but the appearance of the dress is irrelevant to my answer.
The MIT guys who created Glitch argue for human-AI collaboration as a path towards higher creativity; I see this realized with Uibot which creates an infinite number of UI designs. This could be a great way to get inspired, find a different leaping off point, or just shake loose a block.
github.io
⚒️ Tools and Resources
Webcam Air Guitar: Get SOME!
A great pen made with Tensorflow and Posenet to play musical notes based on where your hands would be on a guitar.
codepen.io
🕷️ Design & Development Arena
Undervalued software engineering skills: writing well. ✍️
A good argument for why developers should also take time to practice writing words. The tips, suggestions, and rationale will help anyone level up their writing game in no time.
I wrote 'practice' as 'practive' three times when writing this snippet, so what the hell do I know.
pragmaticengineer.com
Should chatbots replace forms on mobile?
As much of a marketing question as a dev or design question, but it is a good introduction to chatbots and how to design them for maximum effect.
smashingmagazine.com
The University of Helsinki is offering their full-stack development course online. Gratis! 😍
fullstackopen.com
🥇 World of WordPress
Shameless plug. We launched an update to our theme Neve. Did the oft-requested Header and Footer Builder make the cut? 🏗️
themeisle.com
A model for WordPress accessibility that really looks easy to implement.
IKEA recently showed how easily Open Source can adapt to a11y with their furniture adjustments. Adrian Roselli puts forward a simple plan that could get WordPress back on track.
adrianroselli.com
Outro
Done and dusted for another week.
If you have links, then share them with me on Twitter.
If you know someone who loves air guitar and you are tired of hearing them make the "nnrrrrr" noises, then forward them this email and subtly get them to stop.
We take new signups every day on the page. Join the band.
Until next Thursday,
Chris
Bizarro Devs