Pete Clark 🍻 @pete@mymicro.blog

New music 🎶
The final EP in the Japan series paints Tokyo from multiple angles. Pre-order (download, cassette) and stream preview track Caravan Tokyo.
- https://sitenonsite.bandcamp.com/
- https://open.spotify.com/artist/60XUzekaf4jZLinu2R6Gf3
- https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/site-nonsite/1619454460
- https://soundcloud.com/sitenonsite

The snark at #php in US-developer circles never ceases to amaze me.

It’s like people somehow remember their php3 experiments when they were 12 or something and feel the need to show that they are somehow above that.

Nah dude not only is php a decent programming language, but it’s also a language that allows you to have a working site whatever your experience level, which is why 12 year olds have loved it throughout the ages, and that’s fucking amazing in its own right.

The Atari brand is fascinating. Over the past 51 years, it’s been in so many hands that you practically need a flowchart to understand it.

But here goes. I’m giving it the old college try.

The original Atari only existed for 4 years, between 1972-76.

One year after Atari’s existence, it created a Japanese subsidiary called Atari Japan. Deemed a failure, a little company called Namco bought Atari Japan – becoming one of the first Japanese video game companies ever.

In 1976, the original Atari was sold to Warner Communications. This coincided with Atari reaching its commercial peak with the Atari 2600, 5200, and 8-bit family of computers.

But then the video game crash of 1983 happened, and Warner Communications no longer wanted Atari. But rather than spinning out Atari as one company, they split it in two.

The “home” division was sold to Jack Tramiel, previous CEO of Commodore who was out for revenge against his old company. This Atari became known as Atari Corporation.

The “arcade” division became known as Atari Games.

At this point, two different trees of Atari came to exist.

Atari Corporation continued to make home consoles and computers. They released the Atari ST, Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, and Atari Jaguar. As well, they published several well known classic games. They were also the rights holders for several 2600, 5200 and 8-bit computer games.

After the Jaguar failed, Atari Corporation tried to pivot to the PC gaming market as a publisher, but the Tramiel family wanted out of the business. So in 1996 they merged with a hard disk drive manufacturer called JTS.

Two years later, in 1998, this version of Atari was sold to Hasbro Interactive.

In 2001, Hasbro Interactive was sold to French video game publisher Infogrames, and Infogrames renamed itself as Atari SA. For awhile, this version of Atari was one of the largest video game publishers in the world.

In 2008, this version of Atari entered a joint venture with Bandai Namco (remember Namco?). One year later, several assets were outright sold to Bandai Namco.

Then in 2014, Atari SA went bankrupt. Due to this, the started selling off even more assets including Deerhunter, Battlezone, Star Control and others.

Miraculously Atari SA still exists and now makes 2600-inspired consoles, republishes old games, also publishes the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, sells NFTs, and is trying to get into the hotel business(?!)

Atari Games is the other Atari, and you can make the case it’s the most “real” Atari since the original Atari was all about arcade cabinets. This version of Atari became known for several classic arcade games such as Gauntlet, Paperboy, Marble Madness, Hard Drivin’, and Primal Rage.

Warner Communications spun out Atari Games as a joint venture between themselves and Namco, with Namco owning 60% of Atari Games.

But Namco got bored of Atari Games, so they sold a 20% stake in the company to Atari Games employees. As a result, Atari Games was owned 40% by Warner Communications, 40% by Namco, and 20% by employees. Since no one owned a controlling stake in Atari Games, it effectively became an independent company.

Atari Games noticed that the Nintendo Entertainment System was getting popular. But unable to enter the home market under the trade name “Atari”, they created a brand to publish games to home consoles. This brand was Tengen. And Tengen became known for a well known fight with Nintendo – that’s a different rabbit trail, though.

In 1989, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc, becoming Time Warner. At this point, Time Warner decided they wanted a controlling stake in Atari Games, so they acquired it. Because of this, Tengen became Time Warner Interactive.

In 1994, Atari Games, Tengen, and Time Warner were all consolidated under the Time Warner Interactive Banner.

One year later, Time Warner decided they didn’t want to be in the video game business anymore. So they sold Atari Games to WMS Industries, the parent company behind Williams, Bally, and Midway.

In 1998, the video game assets of WMS Industries were spun off into a new entity called Midway Games which gained control of Atari Games.

One year later, in 1999, Atari Games was renamed Midway Games West.

Shockingly, Midway Games West continued to exist until Midway Games went bankrupt in 2009. At which point, Midway Games West (a.k.a., Atari Games) was sold to Warner Brothers Interactive, who decided to re-enter the video game market. So now Atari Games is owned by Time Warner again.

So with all this intrigue, who is the “real” Atari? I would say three companies can reasonably claim the Atari lineage:

1- Atari SA: they own the rights to Atari consoles and computers as well as several computer games, and still use the Atari brand

2- Time Warner: they own the rights to Atari Games

3- Bandai Namco: they acquired Atari Japan as well as several Atari assets over a period of many decades

Atari and its brand are complex and more interesting than I could have imagined.

A gentle reminder that there's a water hole in #Namibia with a 24/7 #webcam and it is awesome.

At home, we call it #GazelleTV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydYDqZQpim8

Thanks to team @abookapart, I’m pleased to announce that the entirety of JavaScript for Web Designers is available to read for free at https://javascript-for-web-designers.abookapart.com/

It’s a little older now—more `var` than `let` in there, for sure—but the fundamentals are still every bit as strong as the day it was released.

One of the saddest parts about the reality of a web community that is centered around tools like React is building things in a progressive enhanced simpler way is just not taught to anyone.

This is the real, human cost of mass surveillance of everyone's private digital communications.

If we actually care about keeping people safe, we need more end-to-end encryption not less.

I have some availability for new design projects. My folio needs an update but includes an overview of my services.

Primarily, I help clients find new perspectives through broad research and exploration, rapid ideation and bold direction.

https://colly.com/work

✏️ I have availability for illustration projects of all sizes (and personal commissions) starting from early August. Please get in touch if interested—I'd also appreciate a recommendation if you know someone else looking for an illustrator. Here's a peek at my work! http://www.hellogeri.com

If you have #dyslexia , do alternative fonts in apps help with the reading experience?

If yes, are Atkinson Hyperlegible or OpenDyslexic useful fonts to use with #Tusky? Are there others (that are freely redistributable).

The attached screenshots show what this would look like.

Please boost for reach.

I have a friend who is... very unique. You know the type - the guy who always brings the out of genre movie that is just extra. Or he'll come to the meetup typing on his phone and you find out he's researching some obscure subject.

I love him, he's brilliant. His children are amazing, his wife is way hotter than him. This guy has a great life, be glad for him.

So he sent me this link... and I've been staring at it since yesterday and it just keeps delivering.

https://floor796.com/

I've found so many stories here. Star Trek, Aladdin, Spongebob, the little mermaid... they're all there.

This is view source on the Threads homepage. Modern front end development is beyond satire at this point. In desktop Firefox with out-of-the-box uBlock Origin, it renders a completely black page.

At some point, people will rediscover the unfashionable idea that plain old HTML is pretty good if your goal is publishing bits of text on the internet. Maybe after that, if they want to make it look nice, they could look into these exciting new Cascading Style Sheets we hear so much about.

I deleted every Facebook account a couple of years ago (FB, Insta, WhatsApp) and try never to go backwards, so it’s not like I was going to join Threads anyway.

But the day-one reports of a timeline full of influencer nonsense, Brand™ garbage and harassment are not exactly a compelling ad for the service.

📼 People say self-documenting code is not possible. This is not true. Not only is it possible but it is recommended, in all cases. Let me explain, in this video.

(warning: contains some flickering images)

https://briefs.video/videos/what-is-self-documenting-code/

“Put on ice.”
July 19, 2000 - July 03, 2001
Available for just 349 days, the Apple G4 Cube was discontinued less than a year after its release, selling less than 150,000 units.

The English language is weird.

Here’s a poem called ‘Neither Rhyme nor Reason’.

Accessibility specialists, if there was one part of ARIA that you wish web developers would use more, because it brings a net user experience improvement, what would it be?

(can be a role, property or state)