Fredrik Mårtenson

programming, music, design.

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@gregjoz Apple keynotes were something different when they were live. Sadly, today they resemble this:

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@ThomasDiLeva Solsjäl har alla kvaliteter som krävs för att bli en riktig fotbollshymn! Bra gung, refräng och stämning. Minns remix-tävlingen i början av 00-talet

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@dhh It looks really nice, especially in dark mode. Basecamp has really come a long way since I helped with the Swedish language translations back in the day!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@EdwardafSillen Två danskar med kanonröster och ändå tänkte någon: vi slänger på lite auto tune!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@pikuma Imagine having an SGI for 3D work in the early 90s. I got into 3D modeling around 97 and used various software on Mac. Around 99, though, OpenGL and hardware acceleration became a reality on Mac systems, and it was a huge productivity boost!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@MXRetroDev The soundtrack really stands out in this version!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@Borhammar De gör säkert sitt bästa. Men utan @EdwardafSillen hade man gått vilse i det här spektaklet. Någon måste hålla verkligheten på plats!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@SVG__Collection Isn’t this Lonnie Smith behind Cory Henry at NAMM?
https://t.co/AeDPqM3r8t

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@Diana_Kuegler When jazz became cool!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@ID_AA_Carmack @esrtweet I installed BeOS on a Power Mac in the late 90s. It was fascinating to see how much better it utilized the hardware than Apple’s own operating system before OS X. True multitasking had finally arrived!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

I remember when Rails fully embraced REST. It took some time to understand the benefits, but once I saw how controller actions were structured around those principles, it all started to make sense, especially from an API perspective. REST also felt natural because it aligns so well with the underlying semantics of HTTP and its verbs!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@ATRightMovies Bruce Willis sums it up well with an interesting reflection, these films were simply modern versions of the good old Westerns!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@Remi_Harris @YardbirdArts Inspiring!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@ThatEricAlper Django was one of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century, especially in European jazz music.

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

A couple of years ago, I built a custom CMS for news content with video transcoding and delivery in Rails. It scaled really well with AWS CloudFront, but I remember spending a lot of time building the video generation logic from scratch. This would definitely have saved me some time back then!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@DirtyTesLa This is not safe. We do not want self driving cars to maneuver like idiots on the road. A more laid back approach is much preferred. Think about all the other poor drivers who have to face this and take action to prevent a crash.

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

Imagine a Road Rash for the Sega Mega CD that used this technique for scaling the road and sprites. In reality, we got a straight port of the Mega Drive version, still relying on software scaling, but with improved audio. The market was probably not large enough to justify a full rewrite of the game engine.

Fun trivia: there is a patch for Road Rash CD that offloads the software scaling to the Mega CDs faster 68k CPU, improving the frame rate.

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

I recall reading some time ago that the intro sequence was created using a variety of software tools. Not everything was done in LightWave 3D. They also used a large physical model of the spaceship, filmed with a motion control rig. Some shots in the intro may well be CG, particularly the fast flybys in the distance.

In later seasons, CG models were used more extensively, likely because 3D software advanced rapidly in the mid 1990s. PC and Mac versions of LightWave 3D also made the process more accessible and efficient.

I have never worked with the original Amiga version of LightWave, but its interface was largely carried over to later platforms, retaining much the same structure and workflow.

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

@os_amiga @TheMekon_Venus Lightwave was also used for Star Trek Voyager!

[Fredrik Mårtenson @fredrikmar]

It could only shrink sprites, but it ran at 60 fps. That makes it less suitable for racing games, where large scaled sprites move toward the camera, since the sprites had to be stored at their largest size. Instead, Neo Geo games most often used scaling to zoom the view in and out in fighting games.