Through Lines 189

The year is winding down and so the only appropriate thing to do is delight in the return of Carrot in a Box from 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, which if you’ve never seen it, is right up there with Taskmaster as the best of British TV. A good primer is this year’s Christmas Special episode though it’s not the same without the late Sean Locke.

• “The reason Tesla hasn’t ‘worked all the bugs out yet’ is that the company is run by people who hold established best practice in ideological contempt, and is defined by a tech-industry culture that fetishizes innovation and regards product quality as a third-order concern.” You're Supposed to be Glad Your Tesla is a Brittle Heap of Junk. Ditto for many (but not all) Silicon Valley companies.
• “There is no point in keeping the practice of hero-worship that merely changes the cast of heroes without confronting the deeper problems.” Very much related to the above: Innovation is Overvalued. Maintenance Often Matters More.
• File under interesting things learned in 2023: The maximum size of a PDF is 381km x 381km (yes, kilometers), roughly half the size of Germany. Toque tip to Kent Hendricks. And more interesting facts and handy trivia knowledge from Jason Kottke as well.
• On the other hand, there are these thoughtful principles for sustainable computing from Pier Dalla Rosa and Zaza Zuilhof. Pier is one of the good ones and I’ve had the good fortune to see him demonstrate this type of thinking first-hand.
• A manifesto for life and art from Ai Weiwei. Humble and wise. And a bonus one on drawing from the inimitable Christophe Niemann.
• Mimeo-screenprinting with a fax machine. Kinda weird but maybe kinda cool too?
• Looks like more people will experience one possible future for AI starting in March.
• Hey, I made a plugin for Kirby that adds a small feature related to SVGs that I was surprised to learn didn’t exist in the core.
• Untangling Threads by Erin Kissane is worth your time. I suspect this will be something we’ll be wrestling with in earnest next year as Meta delves further into federated social media.
• Wilco live on KEXP. A great performance of tracks from their latest LP.

Notable Type Releases

The final (tiny) batch of 2023 and maybe the last in this format. I’ve been debating a different approach for these and was going to wait until Issue 200 to make the change, but maybe I’ll start sooner?

• Bronzo from XO Type revitalizes the 1990s-era work of Rick Valicenti and Mouli Marur with it’s boxy, Asian-inspired forms into a new digital master that still feels innovative and fresh 30 years on.
• Sudz which I think has been out for a little while caught my eye while I was doing some data compilation work and is just a big ball of sudsy fun. It’s also pretty much exactly something I’ve been looking for.