Phil's Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 4
Mono meaning mono and rail which means rail
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Quick Hits
I published a new blog post on OpenCV.org last week, showcasing highlights from the OpenCV Spatial AI Contest and interviewing a couple of the teams. Go have a read
Last week’s guest on OpenCV Weekly Webinar was Zac Builta, who is building a LEGO and OpenCV AI Kit-based bacterial colony scanner. Yes, really. Catch the episode in the archives on YouTube
This week’s guest is Matteo Poggi, another OpenCV Spatial AI Contest participant, who will be telling us all about his team’s project “ScanNERF” which creates “metaverse-ready” scans of real life objects. Register to attend on Zoom
Divergent League Baseball 1999
Divergent League Baseball is my fantasy sports league, started during the first lockdown of the current ongoing pandemic. The way it works is I pick a season from history, in this case 1999. Players buy-in ($10) to be a team manager and make one unrestricted trade at the beginning of the season. Then we simulate the season at a rate of about 1 month per week with full stat tracking, and games streamed in MLB The Show 20 for Playstation 4 (CPU vs CPU). Team owners can trade with each other up to the regular deadline. What crazy scenarios will Divergent League 1999 hold? That’s for you to decide. Sign up to play, and I’ll send an email when the new league is ready… any day now.
RetroStrange Content Drop
We just added 1 film and 1 bit of ephemeral content to RetroStrange TV: The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and Jam Handy presents The All-American Soap Box Derby. They’ll pop up in the regular 24/7 RetroStrange TV feed starting now, viewer-supported and independent as always.
Sticks & Fists: Castle Crashers Remastered (Nintendo Switch)
Last Friday me and John played what I think is a modern classic beat ‘em up: Castle Crashers, the remastered version for Switch. I have a lot of fond memories playing this in my grandma’s basement with my brothers and our friends when it was brand new on Xbox 360. We didn’t get too far. Methinks this calls for reinforcements…
I Can’t Stop Buying Guitars and Guitar Accessories
The above little number is coming home with me, and folks, it’s hard to be upset about it. It’s an Airline model S-65 “Cowboy” or parlor guitar. I wanted a small acoustic to fiddle around with, and this one fit the bill nicely.
These were sold in the Montgomery Ward catalog in the 1960s. Yee-haw.
The Good Links
The Good Links didn’t forget about you, baby.
Yes, Virginia, you can now carry your robot dog around in a little backpack-style baby carrier
A take on one of the dumber Super Bowl ads in a crop full of them: Facebook/Meta Asks: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice To Die?”
A countdown of the best 18 Macs that never existed, based on mockups and sculpts uncovered over the years. This ate up an entire day for me
Vice goes inside the National Sheriffs' Association conference thanks to leaked audio recordings
Today’s college students are being subjected to invasive surveillance at an astonishing rate. Welcome to Surveillance University, where privacy no longer matters
That damn marshmallow test hokum is finally being dismantled
That’s all for this week. I’ll catch you on the flip-flop.
— Phil Nelson
Wizard Tower Gamma, South of Market, San Francisco, California, United States of America, Earth
02.22.2022