∞ VIPKid Matches Students in China with North American Instructors
Peter Elstrom and David Ramli reporting for Bloomberg:
Today, Mi is 33 and founder of a startup that aims to give Chinese kids the kind of education American children receive in top U.S. schools. Called VIPKid, the company matches Chinese students aged five to 12 with predominantly North American instructors to study English, math, science and other subjects. Classes take place online, typically for two or three 25-minute sessions each week.
Ignore the clickbait title, that's a very worth reading report.
Hornworm Eating Tomatoes
A timelapse recorded on 2016-09-24 at our backyard.
Wildcat Trail at Monument Valley
Summary
Great view of the Monument Valley, even though the trail is on the edge of the valley.
Numbers
Time: 2016-11-26, 1.8 hours
Distance: 6.5 km (4 miles)
Route
See this Google Map for more details.
Photos
∞ Visual Studio Code 1.8
Microsoft released Visual Studio Code 1.8.0 today. The most exciting news for me is this:
On macOS, we are now drawing our own custom title instead of the native one to allow for the theme color to be picked up.
That means it now looks terrific with the Atom One Dark theme:
Harding Icefield Trail at Kenai Fjords National Park
Summary
This is the longest and most elevated hike I have done so far. It's very cold during the later half of the trail, which is mostly covered by snow. The visibility also turns lower and lower when you reach the top. And, there are many wild lives (and vegetation!) throughout the trail.
A Mountain Goat on the Edge of a Cliff
There is a small shelter near the top. You can, and definitely should, take a break and have some food inside. We had our instant noodle "cooked" with cold water. You would think it tastes like garbage, but after you hiked in such conditions, that's the best reward!
Harding Icefield Shelter
Numbers
Time: 2016.08.12, 8.7 hours.
Distance: 14.0 km (8.7 miles).
Elevation: 900 m (2960 ft).
Route
See this Google Map for more details. You can also see the map on nps.gov.
Photos
∞ The Last Unity 5 Release Will be 5.6
From the Unity blog:
We’ve just announced availability of the Unity 5.6 beta, and we are planning to release 5.6 in March 2017. We can confirm now that 5.6 will be the last version in the Unity 5 cycle.
What’s next in 2017
After Unity 5.6, we will introduce a new version numbering system starting with the 2017.x cycle for all releases in 2017. We’ve made this change to clearly mark the end of the Unity 5 cycle, and align with our release cadence. With Unity 2017 we will continue shipping new versions regularly, to ensure a steady stream of new tech and improvements. We think a date-based version numbering system better reflects this approach to ship and iterate faster. For the context on this approach, check out Joachim’s blog post from earlier this year.
I wondered why Unity hadn't changed their versioning story since the pricing model change in May. Now, they decided to use the year number.
I understand that this is probably for users who want to stop subscribing at certain point and keep the current version. But this is not a great strategy. If you hope the majority would use the latest, just make the number meaningless.
∞ Radio Garden
You can explore live radios around the global on the Radio Garden:
By bringing distant voices close, radio connects people and places. Radio Garden allows listeners to explore processes of broadcasting and hearing identities across the entire globe. From its very beginning, radio signals have crossed borders. Radio makers and listeners have imagined both connecting with distant cultures, as well as re-connecting with people from ‘home’ from thousands of miles away – or using local community radio to make and enrich new homes.
Go and check out this impressive service on radio.garden.
Super Mario Run Podcast
Apple has released a new podcast Super Mario Run, interviewing Shigeru Miyamoto:
Join the video game designer and creator famously known for Super Mario Bros. and other iconic Nintendo games for an insightful chat on the making of Super Mario Run. He'll be in conversation with TV personality Katie Linendoll to share the importance of fun and the inspiration behind the gameplay.
Not sure this is a one time thing, or there will be future episodes.
∞ Apple Fixes MacBook Pro Battery Life By Removing Time Estimate
Marco on the macOS time-remaining indicator:
Well, I’ve always found the time-remaining indicator pretty accurate. Just last night, I brought my 100%-charged laptop to the couch to order some nuts and browse the web for a while, and it reported about 5 hours remaining. After just over an hour, the battery was down to 77%, and it estimated that I had about 4 hours remaining.
Although I don't find the indicator accurate, my reaction to this change in macOS 10.12.2 is the same here.
Sure, it is not real remaining time. But that's an estimation. That has always been an estimation. That is a very useful estimation. Bring it back, Apple!
Root Glacier Trail at Kennicott
Summary
You can walk on the glacier. Hiking shoes would work if it is not raining, although it is certainly difficult.
Numbers
Time: 2016-08-09, 1.7 hours.
Distance: 4.2 km (2.6 miles).
Route
The record is actually only half of the hike that day. We started at Kennicott but I only started recording when we were back from the glacier.
See this Google Map for more details.
Photos