John Spahr

Hey, folks! I have a quick post for today. About a year ago, I wrote a proof-of-concept (purely) JavaScript web app modeled after the classic mobile game Talking Tom . It utilized the standard JavaScript speech recognition and synthesis libraries to achieve this. I finally got around to finishing it up, and I'm pleased with the result. Browser compatibility is a little iffy, but it's beyond my control. It's a very simple little project, and I've released it over on GitHub  for all of you to check out. Have fun! Make Ron say some cursed stuff. My "amazing" character design for our boy Ron 😂

To answer the first part of the title, they sure did! HP released several Photosmart-branded digital cameras in the 2000s, and I happened to be given one of them. Specifically, it's an HP Photosmart E327. It features a resolution of 5 megapixels, has a fixed-focus f3.5 lens, and lacks any optical zoom whatsoever. It's ridiculously basic, slow to shutter, and its video quality is abysmal. In other words, it's the ultimate terrible digital camera for lo-fi pictures. Seriously, just look at some of these shots. They definitely have that digicam aesthetic that so many people are into these days. So, who was the generous donor of this camera? My buddy and future roommate Porter! Major thanks to him, as I don't exactly have money to spend on old digicams, no matter how much I wish I did. Plus, we were able to collaborate on these photos, which was a lot of fun. Definitely a nice gift. Anyway, due to vehicular struggles I'll discuss later, we decided to go on a ~45 mile b