good talk(s)

[lifning]

post talks/presentations/essays/etc. you think are worth watching

here's a handful that come to my mind, in no particular order


DOOM (2016): Behind the Music, a GDC presentation by Mick Gordon

Talks about not just his process of making the game's unique sound and the constraints that led to it, but also how promoting psychological safety (vs. fear of failure and rejection) is a must in creative endeavours such as development. (id would later do shady things to him in 2020 with regard to the DOOM Eternal soundtrack. Very disappointing in hindsight, but that's how this fucking industry treats its talent.)


Implicit Surfaces & Independent Research, by Matt Keeter

Begins by delving into the nature of describing objects geometrically and how to compute them efficiently, and eventually drills down low enough to get into register allocation. The end of the talk, while brief, touches on how to stay motivated when doing unstructured/independent projects and research. (I feel like I'm underselling it a bit, it's quite good even if you don't know what an implicit surface or register allocation is going in)


They Became What They Beheld: Medium, Message, Youtubery, a brief essay by Vi Hart

Points out aspects of the process by which creative work on the web becomes so homogeneously corporate by reflecting on the foreword of an insightful book about artists and audiences.


Zonelets, the presentation of a 2020 project by Anodyne developer Marina Kittaka

Reminds us that HTML was designed to be simple enough to be understood by humans -- and that the online socialization models thrust upon us by corporations are not conducive to letting us write things of lasting worth.


A Political History of X11, a conference talk by Keith Packard given at linux.conf.au in January 2020.

Gives a background of how pre-Linux graphics on Unix workstations evolved, and how we got stuck with a Microsoft Windows monopoly instead of a world with mainstream Unix desktops, which turns out to be in part because RMS was an awful representative of the GPL.


On Max Headroom: The Most Misunderstood Joke on TV, an essay by Cameron Byerly

This video essay has the distinction of having a YouTube comment by Max Headroom creator Annabel Jankel herself thanking him for understanding, saying "bullseye." Dissects the satire of late-night talk show hosts and charismatic celebrity worship in general. A few years later, Byerly went on to create KERNEL PANIC, a modern take on the same character concept.


The Future of Programming, a forward-looking 1973 talk given by Bret Victor at the DBX conference in 2013

Touches on various subjects pertaining to the nature of how we think about computers and authoring software for them.


The Art of Warez, a documentary by Kevin Bouton-Scott

Describes how BBS-era piracy gave birth to the ANSI art scene, creating detailed and colorful illustrations within the limited medium of text terminals. The Demoscene has a similar origin story.

[lifning]

AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System, a presentation largely by a young Brian Kernighan

Describes how the UNIX pipeline and philosophy empowers users to solve their own problems by composing existing, simple programs together without having to write new programs outright. This is something those of us who've used UNIX shells for years take for granted by now, but there's something really enjoyable about seeing Bell Labs folks articulate their then-new idea for this paradigm, and seeing how much of it is still very relevant today.

[snow]

AT&T Archives: The UNIX Operating System, a presentation largely by a young Brian Kernighan

Can highly vouch for this one. This was what made the whole UNIX system idea "click" for me when I was in high school. It's so in-depth and yet approachable for those who might not understand the technical aspects.


Somewhat relatedly, while I'm not sure most would consider them talks:

"How I Became a Phone Phreak" series by Evan Doorbell (YouTube playlist)

If you aren't familiar with Evan Doorbell's tape collection, this is probably the best place to start. The story of a "classic" phone phreak getting his start in the circle by way of curiosity in the weirdness of the old Bell System. The "Production Tapes" collection is actually a narrated tour of actual tapes Evan kept from the '70s to today, with this series being the most edited of the bunch.