onfocus

I am just never going to make my giant email newsletter list post and I have another one to recommend. If you're interested in the history of computing, keyboards, or the ways people interact with machines you should follow Marcin Wichary's progress on his book Shift Happens. Yesterday's update was a love letter to the KPH Radio Station in Marin County, CA which preserves decades of keyboards devoted to maritime communication: A time machine behind the cypress trees. And to catch up with Wichary's obsession you can't go wrong with Matt Haughey's interview with him on Hobby Horse: Marcin Wichary quit his job for his love of keyboards.

I keep meaning to write a long post about email newsletters, how I manage them in Gmail, and which ones I subscribe to. Instead I'll just recommend one newsletter that has been fantastic lately: Casey Newton's The Interface. If you're interested in how our Internet ecosystem works (or doesn't work) you'll enjoy it.

Woke up with an odd mix of You Got What I Need and La Vie En Rose going through my head thanks to Jean & John & Jessie & Hari. (They should make one of those shirts.) They closed down XOXO Day 3 (9?) with some hard-hitting deconstruction of Biz Markie lyrics. The lies needed to be exposed.



Here are some other quick thoughts I took away from Day 2 (12?):

• Open Mike Eagle talked about complexity in art (among much more) and his thoughts about people being complex and needing art that speaks to that spoke to me.
• The Reductress headlines were hilarious and are a way of finding a voice for things people aren't talking about.
• Ravine is a fun cooperative game where everyone is working together against the game rather than competing against each other. It has some fun mechanics that I haven't seen in other games. It's not turn-based but it's also not complete chaos. Great balance!
• I'm a big fan of the Criminal podcast so it was great to see Phoebe Judge and put a face with her voice. I wasn't sure how they'd be able to do a documentary episode live, but it worked well by mixing live narration with recorded interviews and adding some visual illustration.

Heading home now so I won't make it to XOXO Day 15, but it was amazing fuel for thought as usual. I also realize I need to make an effort to see my geographically distributed friends in real life—they are amazing too.