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In search of a digital town square
Ever since an infantile fascist billionaire (hereafter, the IFB) decided to turn Twitter over to the racially hostile anti-science set, folks who previously used that network daily to discuss and...
View ArticleGet it right.
“Led” is the past tense of “lead.” L.E.D. Not L.E.A.D. Example: “Fran, who leads the group, led the meeting.” When professional publications get the small stuff wrong, it makes us less trusting about...
View ArticleJust add water.
Quick, before everyone else thinks of it. Set the word “SUCCESSION” in Engravers Gothic and export it to a transparent PNG. Download photos of confederate general Mitch McConnell and Republican Johns...
View ArticleR.I.Pete
It’s a year and one day since you died. At times, I feel your presence. I listen to your music every day. I miss you. The post R.I.Pete appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
View Article“Where the people are”
It’s nearly twenty years ago, now, children. Facebook had only recently burst the bounds of Harvard Yard. Twitter had just slipped the bonds of the digital underground. But web geeks like me still saw...
View ArticleNew music from the beyond
Happy heavenly birthday to my dear, deceased, devil brother Pete Zeldman. Today, 5 March 2024, to celebrate Pete’s life… Lost in Sound Records is releasing an album of solo drums, Enigma, which will...
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Open-source moderation
Bluesky introduces open-source, collaborative moderation for federated social media websites: Bluesky was created to put users and communities in control of their social spaces online. The first...
View ArticleDeath of a father
“187” is a gorgeously lensed, strongly acted Samuel L. Jackson thriller, notable for its sun-dazzled Los Angeles setting, complex morality, and breakthrough trip-hop soundtrack. It would likely have...
View ArticleHeal an ailing web
On the occasion of the web’s 35th anniversary, its inventor had this to say: 5 years ago, when the web turned 30, I called out some of the dysfunction caused by the web being dominated by the...
View ArticleCAPTCHA excludes disabled web users
What’s widely used, no longer particularly effective, and makes web content inaccessible to many people with disabilities? It’s our old friend CAPTCHA! In a group note dated 16 December 2021, the W3C...
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AI Roundup: The Bad, the Ugly, and the Pretty Cool
Ay, ay, AI! Hype, fear, and strongly voiced opinions—the traditional currency of internet conversation—are unequal to this moment, where the Fate of Everything dangles from a single gossamer thread....
View ArticleThe Valley of Hidden Sorrows
I have this friend. A mountain of unexpected medical debt buried his family at the start of last year. At the same time, the closing of his business stuck him with six figures of personal debt....
View ArticleOur Lady of Perpetual Profit
Corporations that take investors make an impossible promise to increase profits forever. Accordingly, they hire MBAs whose role is to juggle numbers to create ongoing, short-term profit. This juggling...
View ArticleThe More Things Change… (or: What’s in a Job Title?)
I’m not a “[full-stack] developer,” regardless of what my last job title says. I’m not even a front-end developer, thanks to the JavaScript–industrial complex. I’m a front-of-the-front-end developer,...
View ArticleMy Glamorous Life: Roman Holiday
While honeymooning in Rome, we spotted an Italian translation of my second book in the display window of a quaint old shop two blocks from the Colosseum. The ancient amphitheatre was our destination;...
View ArticleAkismet means never having to say you’re sorry
The wizards behind AI have been busy lately providing meaningful employment for digital nonpersons. One of the hottest jobs for non-humans is crafting and deploying website guestbook spam. This...
View ArticleFor love of pixels
Sure, watches that tell you when you’re walking unsteadily and pocket computer phones that show you the closest pizzeria are swell, but were you around for ResEdit? That humble yet supremely capable...
View ArticleBoth Sides, No
There’s no situation so awful our news media can’t make it worse. In a cowardly, doomed, and deeply misguided effort to appear “balanced” during an emergency that requires plain speaking, our news...
View ArticleDon’t bring venture capital to a knife fight
Contrary to what Imran, Ken, and I’m sure many others at Humane believe, the iPhone didn’t begin with their work in the 2000’s on Project Purple. It began in 1976 with the Apple computer, and the...
View ArticleThis Web of Ours, Revisited
ONE MONTH and 24 years ago, in “Where Have All the Designers Gone?” (my HTMHell design column for Adobe of March 20, 2000), I discussed the deepening rift between aesthetically focused web designers...
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