Uli Kusterer (Not a kitteh)

Forest creature living in the plains. 💕Empathy, Programming Languages, Drawing. My code parks your car. I make a HyperCard clone at https://mastodon.cloud/@stacksmith

Munich, Heidelberg, Lucerne [Any Pronouns]

#ios #mac #hypercard #retroProgramming #retroComputing #drawing #mastoArt #tv #movies #scifi #fedi22

Blog: https://orangejuiceliberationfront.com
GitHub: https://github.com/uliwitness
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/uliwitness
Old Site: http://zathras.de

Public Key

npub1xk3ygdkx23et20ahjpu6k4jjdjvvumvs2545lqvk4p6332dxr42sdcjq9y

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrtgjyxmr9gu4487meq7dt2efxexxwdkg92260sxt2sagc4xnp64gprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyv8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnndehhyapwwdhkx6tpdskuh9hx

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

relay.snort.social

nostr.wine

Author Public Key

npub1xk3ygdkx23et20ahjpu6k4jjdjvvumvs2545lqvk4p6332dxr42sdcjq9y

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Published at

2026-07-27T13:49:23+02:00

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0 Metadata

Event JSON

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Last Notes

2025-11-02 00:04:07 CET

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0 prefix is octal. One of the worse decisions made in the C syntax. So 010 is 8, which isn't 10, same for 011. The rest should work.

2025-08-05 21:14:15 CEST

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I think there was an option to turn that off somewhere deep in settings? Baffling why such an obscure feature would be on by default, given how likely an accidental trigger with no hint what happens is, but I remember turning something like that off when I first installed it.

2025-07-30 13:41:35 CEST

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How old is that letter?
I remember reading a year or so ago that OpenAI used to have a charitable charter, but after their boss provoked being ousted to then have shareholders insist he be brought back in and then cleaned house, I remember hearing that these rules in the charter would get removed.
I'm presuming they're of the impression that these clauses are still valid, or the removal took its way to wind through some bureaucracy and they're now trying to stop it one last time.

2025-07-29 14:29:59 CEST

Ich hätte echt nicht gedacht, dass das ein ernstgemeinter Thumbnail eines Wetterkanals ist.
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/936/525/330/326/579/original/2481298569d73f11.png

2025-07-29 14:23:58 CEST

Accessibility tip:
If your post is about the funny joke someone posted on SpaceBook, don't make the accessibility discription:
"Screenshot of Spacebook Post"
Put the actual joke in the accessibility description.
The goal of alt-text is to allow non-sighted or low-vision people to understand the post just as a sighted person would.

2025-07-20 15:21:29 CEST

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Jaaaaa!!!
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/885/933/686/849/940/original/4ff1c366e62d14c0.png

2025-07-20 15:14:45 CEST

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😢

2025-07-20 15:07:15 CEST

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Ich glaub Du hast den Podcast-Link vergessen? Da ist nur ein Spotify-Link, aber nirgends was, was Podcast-Programme verarbeiten können (RSS)?

2025-06-08 01:43:55 CEST

Bill Atkinson once gave a talk at AltConf, across from WWDC when it was still in San Francisco.
You could tell he wasn't just smart, he had emotional competency. He built things to help people via computers, but when he was consulting a farmer what Apple II setup he needed, after some consultation told him not to get a computer.
He built PhotoCard, a way to mail postcards from your computer, so you could stay in touch with people. Not a valley tech-bro, but the person they all think they are.

2025-05-31 15:41:18 CEST

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This thread is for you 😀

2025-05-31 15:39:41 CEST

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If you're using thick cardboard (maybe to then glue a printed sheet of paper with the art on it) you can also lightly score the fold lines with a knife, so that they will "tear" a bit on the outside and fold back better. But do not cut through fully!
Of course, if you do that and do *not* glue paper on top (or a large A4 label), then those cuts will be visible on the outside, which you generally don't want.

2025-05-31 15:34:28 CEST

Seeing people over-complicating things: If you want to build your own software box, use this template:
The light blue colored flap on the right gets glued to the left side, the rest you can just fold in by 90° to get a lid at the top and bottom.
For a 2-part box, leave out the dark grey box back and the colored flap on the right, as well as the yellow flaps. Then glue the blue flaps to the top and bottom flaps. You'll want to print two of these, one a tad smaller to fit inside the other.
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/602/702/594/688/000/original/072e5c08db2658ae.png

2025-04-07 18:36:47 CEST

@npub1f30…d2kp Regarding Apple withdrawing from the EU: I think that’ll hurt Apple more than the EU. Their market share in the US seems to be 50-60%, in the EU they are stable at 32%.
The majority of my non-iOS-dev friends have Android. Losing a third of the supply would be noticeable, but if Apple pulled out, do you think Xiaomi & co. would have any trouble picking up the slack, given we have lower import tariffs than the US, and Apple will need less capacity in Chinese factories?

2025-03-10 19:43:06 CET

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Do you have more detail? What are you reading?
From what I can see, vector::data() was in the language since C++98 and seems to imply that there must be a way to get a contiguous version: https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/container/vector/data
It says "returns the underlying storage" and at least on this page, the example assumes it is contiguous. Admittedly, that site is close to the spec, but the examples might not be.

2025-02-23 05:44:00 CET

Hello second un-announced internet outage of the month on a Sunday and therefore the day I‘m planning to stream.
And the outage reporting site is down and says it‘ll be back on Monday.

2025-02-17 17:21:49 CET

Little-known #macOS Finder trick:
You can right-click rename multiple files and e.g. replace parts of the names with other text, or even do more complex changes.
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/020/141/926/679/490/original/17764ee104eebdb8.png
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/020/142/178/297/627/original/2eb95ea417ae2cbd.png
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/020/142/423/769/448/original/77fdcc0dd4d9fb92.png
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/114/020/142/684/157/892/original/c0c4a7ce631db9a3.png

2025-01-29 02:11:32 CET

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Those are awesome! One question: Any chance of getting an “I know HyperCard” sticker with either an opaque forehead and nose, or completely transparent where the white areas are?

2025-01-27 07:47:56 CET

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I saw that there was sample code in there for the translator interface, but had assumed the French part was just an example use case and not fleshed out. Guess this moves up on my reading list.

2025-01-26 16:40:48 CET

Anyone out there have the HyperTalk Script Language Guide/HyperCard manual in French, and can tell me whether their copy shows HyperTalk scripts themselves translated to French, or whether all the actual scripts are English and just the explanations have been translated?

2025-01-10 21:17:07 CET

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Oh, BTW -- the xDraw sources are on GitHub: https://github.com/uliwitness/xDraw/
Sadly, it seems I didn’t realize how the mask works, so it only changes the data bits. But one could easily add a DrawToMask function like the existing DrawToCard function in https://github.com/uliwitness/xDraw/blob/main/xDraw%202%20XCMD/xDraw.c, which just uses maskBits instead of dataBits, and then you could freely edit both layers.
I’d make the change myself, but I don’t have a working copy of CodeWarrior right now.

2025-01-10 21:00:08 CET

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BTW, HyperCard *does* support more than one bit. It internally uses a separate mask in addition to the bitmap for the black pixels. Which is how you can set the fill pattern to all-white and paint an opaque circle etc.

2024-12-31 16:29:03 CET

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Is that a breastfeeding dress? Left side looks like you can pull it down (like the right side is)?

2024-12-08 14:19:50 CET

If you have a kid who knows how to tie a knot and you're trying to teach it to tie a bow with the “bunny runs around the tree” method, stop now!
Instead, just teach it to do the same as a double knot, but loop the laces the second time, so you can pull it back out.
That's *all* a bow is!

2024-12-05 18:20:02 CET

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I swear I wasn't nostalgic for System 7 way too early in MacOS 8 already 😅
https://github.com/uliwitness/UlisWorldWDEF
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/113/601/360/618/856/652/original/55513ff79a1e8b03.png

2024-12-04 17:30:15 CET

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I wish there was a halfway point between System 7 and MacOS 8 graphic design. Still as flat and simple as 7, but with subtly beveled pushbuttons and other B/W controls and menus, and with the greying-out of background windows and accent colors to make the front window more apparent. Like 3rd party apps did.
Under the hood: Also proper multitasking and memory protection, Quickdraw with bezier paths and transparency, and I wouldn’t mind having AppKit either.

2024-12-03 22:29:05 CET

Bloody bastards who removed the headphone jack so I can‘t play audio on my phone while charging…!

2024-11-30 13:24:34 CET

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But given how simple *all* games were back then, not sure anyone considered that an issue yet, that might just be looking at E.T. from today's POV.
Like, as an E.T.-themed mobile game, the same mechanics would probably even work, if billed not as "E.T. the game" but as "E.T.: On the Run" or so?
(I'm a bit hazy on what the exactl gameplay actually was)

2024-11-30 13:22:06 CET

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😅
I don't know how budgets worked back then (I think that was basically a one-person team on E.T.? Or 1 person per job, like sound, code, graphics?) and whether the movie studios were already aware how much money was in licenses and charged accordingly, so can't REALLY say.
But they had to pay *something* for the license., which could'a gone into something else.
I guess it's also a second point: Changing a movie so much for the game it isn't satisfying for fans anymore?

2024-11-30 12:54:08 CET

Making a movie game is harder by definition: A good chunk of your budget is just used to pay for the license.
Also, when you're making a new game, you can massage the story to fit the game-play mechanics. In a licensed game, you are restrained by the movie's already-established world.
Even game sequels have the advantage that the world was already designed *for a game in the same genre*.
#gameDevelopment

2024-11-21 13:58:08 CET

https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/113/521/058/440/661/787/original/d7a4604fae909cd8.jpeg

2024-11-05 10:54:31 CET

https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/113/429/739/490/793/598/original/b75b6ae0e71a54c5.png

2024-10-26 16:24:28 CEST

Short reminder: Tonight, Europe switches from DST back to regular time. The US will not switch until *next* weekend.
So check your calendars whether regular appointments have suddenly moved. Everything scheduled in European time will be 1 hour later for US folks, everything scheduled in US time will be one hour earlier for Europe folks.
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/113/374/177/910/626/870/original/b4fbb5b82288ee49.png

2024-09-15 16:52:33 CEST

Watch me stream Mass Effect: Andromeda! https://www.twitch.tv/uliwitness

2024-09-15 14:28:24 CEST

If you love old games (Asteroids, Space Invaders) or bullet heaven/hell games, or games that look nostalgic and old, I recommend “Utopia Must Fall”.
Feels like the game that was on the Vectrex in an AU.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2849680/Utopia_Must_Fall/
#retroGaming

2024-09-14 16:12:55 CEST

The secret easter egg in Quest for Glory that was only in the Mac version:
https://www.benshoof.org/blog/quest-for-glory-i-macintosh-easter-egg
#retroGaming #sierra #questForGlory

2024-08-21 18:56:04 CEST

TIL: The country code MY is for Malaysia, but the language code MY is for Burmese, one of the languages spoken in Myanmar ... ?

2024-08-18 17:03:12 CEST

Watch me stream Mass Effect: Andromeda! https://www.twitch.tv/uliwitness

2024-08-18 15:12:17 CEST

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I can’t get it to show that middle pane though, all I can get it to do is show two panes, and then when I choose one side, it overwrites the other side with that, making it impossible to tell which was the original on either side.
What I want is what FileMerge gives when you make its window larger: You can specify 4 files: ancestor, left, right and destination. And then FileMerge shows me the merged result in a separate pane, so I can see both before states + result.
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/112/983/194/649/345/016/original/04e0b997e18a8dc2.png

2024-08-18 14:45:05 CEST

I must be dense ... how do I get @npub1gsm…j0pw to do a three-way merge?
I have three files: foo_ancestor.c, foo_descendant1.c and foo_descendant2.c, I can drag them on Kaleidoscope, and they show up at the top of the compare window. One as “A”, one as “B”, and one as nothing. But I can’t find no way to get it to show the 3 pane 3-way-merge UI you get when a Git client opens it.

2024-08-15 11:47:10 CEST

Oh thank goodness! @npub1gsm…j0pw supports more than just Unix line endings! I was afraid I'd have to pre-convert every file in this giant merge to fix the differing line endings. (Sadly, Fork's built-in merge doesn’t do old-style Mac line endings, so I get "all file contents were deleted and replaced with the new ones”)

2024-08-07 22:34:00 CEST

TIL that in Swift
enum Foo: Double {
case foo = 1.0
case bar
}
does not work (and produces a really confusing error message about RawRepresentable conformance), but
enum Foo: Double {
case foo = 1
case bar
}
does.

2022-12-06 16:41:11 CET

BTW — I love all kinds of Science Fiction, so if you love #StarTrek, #StarWars, #Stargate, #Babylon5, #Farscape, #Firefly, #SpaceAboveAndBeyond, #TheExpanse, #Fringe, #Westworld, #Roswell, #Dune etc. we can probably find something to chat about here.
Also love #RayBradbury, #GordonDickson …
I also like Marvel and urban fantasy, so if you enjoyed #ForeverKnight, #Legacies, #MoonLight, #KindredTheEmbraced, #TheDresdenFiles, #Haven, #TheFountain, #MotherlandFortSalem etc., say hi 🥰

2022-11-13 17:22:06 CET

Given the account move means my posts are gone, time for a second #introduction
I'm Uli, an iOS and macOS programmer by trade for a large car manufacturer. In the past I have ported several large apps from Carbon to Cocoa.
I'm a big fan of #HyperCard and am working on a HyperCard clone named @npub1qqq…6rm7 in my spare time.
I also like retro-programming on Macs under System 7, and recently on a lark ported AppKit to it too (https://github.com/uliwitness/AppKitForClassic).
https://assets.chaos.social/media_attachments/files/109/337/385/686/042/774/original/a4f35af3cf9d4be9.png