Posts from November 2018

waxy.org waxy.org
image from waxy.org
YouTube is ending its video annotations feature and Andy has rounded up a collection of some of the most innovative uses. It's a great reminder that people are endlessly inventive with any tools they have available to them. Even though most annotations are an annoying distraction, people did interesting things with them and we lose some of our history when companies remove content. Check them out within the next couple weeks—then they'll be gone.
www.arun.is
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This post by Arun Venkatesan discusses why companies are designing custom—though very similar—typefaces. It's also a quick history of digital typography. [via Tecznts]
densediscovery.com densediscovery.com
image from densediscovery.com
If you work in a pixel-adjacent industry, you'll enjoy this newsletter by Kai Brach who produced Offscreen Magazine. This newsletter recently changed its name from Offscreen but it's the same focus: humane design & developer news. Kai also recently wrote a behind-the-scenes look at producing DD: A look behind Dense Discovery: creating a fully customised weekly newsletter.
Medium Medium | Javascript
image from Medium
The headline is a little alarmist, but this is a great explanation of some bitcoin scam code that someone placed into a popular node package. I agree that building businesses on top of volunteers is not sustainable and I hope the Node community can work on a solution. Reusing community code is a fast way to develop but you trade away some security.
OUPblog OUPblog
They call it Cyber Monday. (But Tuesday's just as wired?) Why do we call anything internet-related cyber-? Oxford University Press describes the etymology as a mashup between cybernetics in the 40s and William Gibson's coinage cyberspace in the 80s. Interesting that it has the connotation of "steering" or "control". And here's some cybermusic for your cyberbackground as you cybershop with your newfound cyberknowledge. I propose we ditch the old fashioned cyber and call it Information Supermonday instead.
Emojipedia Emojipedia
image from Emojipedia
I've things you wouldn't . This article about emoji history on iOS is great. I remember downloading some sketchy app in 2008 just to unlock the hidden emoji keyboard. It's hard to remember how unusual it seemed to see pictures in the keyboard area. Many were hard to decipher and there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to them. The mystery made them compelling. Previous phones had built-in smileys but they weren't in wide use. I think the variety of emoji available made them something special that we're still enjoying incorporating into our language. Apple is missing something about their ambiguity by making emoji hyper-realistic, but they are pretty to look at on their high-resolution screens. I'm glad Emojipedia is keeping this history so past emoji won't be lost like in the .

See also: Who Created The Original Apple Emoji Set?
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Late Leaves
Maximum Fun Maximum Fun
image from kanopy
On this Podcast Saturday I'd like to recommend another pillar of my podcasting pantheon. Minor television personality John Hodgman is in reality a prolific comedian and author. The conceit of his podcast is that he is a judge that settles the kinds of interpersonal disputes we all have with our friends and family. The show is that, but also a frequently touching reminder to be kind and thoughtful with others. It's part of the Maximum Fun network where you'll find many more great podcasts.
kanopy.com kanopy.com
image from kanopy
Kanopy is a streaming service like Netflix that has a bunch of movies and documentaries that you've probably been meaning to see. It has classic films like L'Avventura and The 400 Blows. But also more recent A24 Films like Moonlight and Lady Bird. And also documentaries like Helvetica and Manufactured Landscapes. Additionally further besides entire runs of Great Courses videos. Also conjointly furthermore some classic PBS and BBC TV series. I was shocked at the depth looking through their catalog. The best part is that you can likely get free access through your library.
Mule Mule
image from Mule
Good morning Newsletter Wednedsay fans! I have been a fan of Mule Design Studio since I lived in California eons ago walking around wearing this provocative shirt they designed. Their monthly-ish newsletter includes a handful of short posts from personal stories to global news. Sure it promotes their upcoming talks and books and events as well, but those things are good and you won't mind. This link is to their blog which I guess you could also subscribe to but this post is about their newsletter which you can sign up for at the very bottom. Your design mind will thank you.
kottke.org kottke.org
If you missed the fallout from the latest revelations about Facebook, Jason Kottke has a good summary. Hiring a PR firm to create fake news to smear critics does transcend merely awful and puts them into the truly evil category. They made it! With all of this pressure to improve, Facebook feels like they're at war, but Josh Marshall asks: Who is Facebook at war with? Gina Bianchini thinks we'll see a renaissance in smaller social media because The Facebook Era is Over. I want to believe! (Maybe we'll all start blogging at LinkedIn instead?)
harelba.github.io
Have you ever been sitting there staring at an Excel spreadsheet thinking, "If I could just run a SQL query I'd have my answer." And then you have to export to CSV, import the thing into MySQL, and waste an hour figuring out why your import is failing. Anyway, this tool solves that particular problem nicely.
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More Fall Magic
youtube.com youtube.com | ChilledCow
image from youtube.com
Sometimes I just assume everyone listens to the same things I do. I feel like this YouTube stream of chill beats to relax/study to by ChilledCow is ubiquitous, but maybe not! I throw this on all the time when I need to relax/study. Lately I've been throwing on a similar playlist on Spotify by Chillhop Music: cozy chillhop beats. It's not just me! Apparently these lofi hip hop streams are a thing.
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Clear Fall Day
99percentinvisible.org 99pi.org
image from 99percentinvisible.org
Podcast Saturday continues with another one of my desert island picks. 99% Invisible is a design podcast that explores the mostly invisible work of planning and design that goes into all the things around us from cities to buildings to everyday objects. It is the Platonic Form of podcasts. Episodes are typically a tight, highly produced 20 minutes with interviews, locations, and music. It is a masterclass in audio storytelling every time. The show's host Roman Mars also started the podcast collective Radiotopia and if you're new to podcasts you won't go wrong browsing through their offerings.
A Whole Lotta Nothing A Whole Lotta Nothing
image from A Whole Lotta Nothing
Matt recently visited the Whitney Plantation, the only slavery museum in the United States. It sounds like a harrowing experience—and one that we should all have so we can understand our nation's history.
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All Them Witches
thecorrespondent.com thecorrespondent.com
image from thecorrespondent.com
The Correspondent is an effort to create a news organization funded by news consumers rather than advertisers. They're raising money Kickstarter-style with a goal of raising 2.5 million in 30 days. They also have a nicely designed site if you're into that sort of thing.
hotpodnews.com hotpodnews.com
Remember podcasts? They're an industry now where people have careers and businesses grow and thrive. Hot Pod tracks this burgeoning industry so you don't have to. I like to pick up suggestions for podcasts I might be interested in, but hearing how companies are investing (or not) in podcasting is also interesting and I don't see this news covered anywhere else. This Newsletter Wednesday was brought to you by Squares...sorry, can't do it.
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Cape Foulweather View
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Cape Foulweather House
astronomy.com astronomy.com
image from astronomy.com
I’m on team space probe though I’m sympathetic to team hubcap. Looking at the path it carved through our solar system it just has to be a drive by.
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Punchbowl Sunset
Medium Medium
image from Medium
I like this framing of the Mastodon vs. All Social Media story. Mastodon doesn't have to supplant Twitter to be a success. If people like me enjoy using it (and I do!) then it's working on some level. Yet every article about Mastodon says, "it has a long way to go to supplant Twitter." When you look at raw number of users, that's true, but do we need massive centralized networks? This recent Mastodon 101 article falls into the same framing trap, but it's a good summary nonetheless: The quest to design an ethical social media platform.
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Newport Sunset
Gimlet Gimlet
image from Gimlet
This is the 2nd Podcast Saturday and I might as well jump straight to my desert island choices. I have been a fan of PJ and Alex since they were an offshoot of On the Media called TLDR back in the aught-fourteens. They report about Internet culture and it's the one podcast I look forward to the most. If you're reading this you've probably heard Reply All and I'm preaching to the choir. But if not, go ahead and dig into their catalog. I have a few favorites: #109 Is Facebook Spying on You?, #78 Very Quickly to the Drill, #102 Long Distance, #96 The Secret Life of Alex Goldman, and #44 Shine On You Crazy Goldman. And the Best Episode (once you're a hardcore fan): #36 Today's the Day. I still remember when & where I was driving when I heard this episode. Is that weird?
YouTube YouTube | Louie Zong
image from YouTube
I really enjoyed this 60 second music lesson about the way chords color a melody. It made me think of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. So if you like this thing you might like that thing too. [via mefi]
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Mirror
Towards Data Science Towards Data Science
image from Towards Data Science
“The data we are shown is not the only data there is.” A good description of a statistical analysis problem and a reminder to think about causes of data not just data you see in front of you. This reminds me of that old zen saying don’t confuse the moon with the finger that points at it.
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Never Sleeping
austinkleon.com austinkleon.com
In focus on this Newsletter Wednesday is Austin Kleon's newsletter. You may remember Austin from his books about creative work like Steal Like an Artist or his latest Keep Going. Each week he shares 'ten things worth sharing' and I always find interesting fuel for thought. I'm also inspired by the personal tone of his writing and it's something I'd like this blog to get closer to as it grows up.
Medium Medium
image from Medium
Dave Pell asks us to vote against hate. Bonus link: Vote for Democrats Everywhere by Brent Simmons. Bonus link 2: Your vote determines the future of others by Sarah Kendzior. Bonus link 3: Why I, a young person, probably won’t vote by Alexandra Petri. Bonus link 4: Nancy. Voters get ice cream.
Freedom to Tinker Freedom to Tinker
With elections on our minds (vote Tuesday!) here's Ed Felton describing a new voting system called E2E-V. I'm not sure I get the nuances of the coin-flip challenge voters but it sounds like a much better system than our current black-box, insecure, privately owned machines. And of course my favorite system is Oregon's statewide mail-in system. I'm sure it's not as secure as end-to-end verifiable cryptography but I think the convenience and ease of understanding how it works means more people participate.

Flickr of Destruction

Last April, photo sharing service SmugMug purchased photo sharing service Flickr and I was optimistic: Flickr of Hope. I still am, but Flickr's tension between being a public good and a private company is hitting the fan (so to speak) after they announced that they will delete photos from free accounts that have more than 1,000 photos: Why we’re changing Flickr free accounts.

I have 1,433 photos at Flickr and I'm not paying for a pro account so 433 photos will disappear in January. I'm not a pro member for many of the same reasons Brian Sawyer writes about here: So Long, Flickr, and Thanks for All the Photos. (Brian edited the Flickr Hacks book I co-wrote in 2006.) At one time I shared all of my photos online at Flickr but I don't use the service today. I downloaded those photos long ago, but I still think it's valuable to leave them in their original context. They're not important historic documents that need to be preserved but maybe the Flickr archives as a whole do count as an important historic document?

Alt copyright framework Creative Commons thinks so: CC Working with Flickr to Protect the Commons. They say, "Flickr is one of the most important platforms to host and share CC licensed works on the web, and over 400 million of the photos there are CC licensed – representing over a quarter of all CC licensed works on the web." Flickr's new policy could remove a good number of those but I haven't seen any estimates.

Flickr is in a difficult position. As a private company they can't store an infinite number of photos for free indefinitely. That's traditionally the role of institutions like The Library of Congress but does the LOC care about millions of personal snapshots? Maybe the Internet Archive could take them on, but I can imagine it would strain their resources as well.

I hope Creative Commons can help Flickr find a home for those photos. If not a new home, maybe a grant of some kind to help with the costs to preserve our collective history.
CBC.ca
image from cbc.ca
Welcome to podcast Saturday! (Also a thing.) NXIVM is (was?) a multi-level marketing self-help system (cult?) that recently imploded. Its senior officers are now waiting for their trials. This podcast tells the story of one senior member who left (escaped?) before the end. I hesitate to recommend this podcast because it requires some serious psychic energy to stay involved. There are descriptions of physical and mental abuse and it gets to be too much at times. Plus it's one of those crime podcasts where you're not sure the protagonist is a protagonist. It is seven episodes of a riveting, difficult story.
medium.com Medium
image from medium.com
Here's another great article by linguist George Lakoff about our current media environment. It's frustrating to see the same dynamics play out over and over again. It's like seeing legacy code in action while lives depend on refactoring. Two other folks I tune into for analysis of the media are Ezra Klein and Jay Rosen and they recently had a conversation about what's happening now. Also also, don't miss Klein's article about Enemy of the People. And after you digest all of that important garbage, a reminder from Warren Ellis: You can tune your Internet connection until it is useful and fun.
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Sun and Leaves
ifixit.org ifixit.org
image from ifixit.org
This is such a great mystery and investigation that I don't want to spoil it with too many details. We try to keep our phones out of water but we should also try to keep them away from "large concentrations of small-molecule gas".