@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

mwichary

@mwichary@mastodon.online

Wrote a book about the history of keyboards: https://shifthappens.site · Design director @figma · Typographer · Occasional speaker · Chicagoan in training

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Switched to Panic’s Nova today after another frustrating morning with VS Code and so far it’s been a delight. Faster, feels a lot nicer out of the box, autocomplete is so much tighter, love the little touches everywhere (animating matching braces, showing depth of hierarchy).

I know there are many kinds of different coders out there (I don’t write code daily), but Nova feels so much better to me.

https://nova.app/

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

@mattround Yeah, VS Code feels “programmed,” not “designed.” I can see the appeal of that to some people (especially given the audience), but not to me.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Has anyone written about how textual generative AI feels strangely close to toxic masculinity in some respects? The absolute confidence in everything stated, the lack of understanding of the consequences of getting that confidence wrong for important questions, the semi-gaslighty feeling when it “corrects” itself when you call it out on something. It so often feels like talking to someone one would despise and avoid in “real life.” I’m curious if anyone did some writing on this.

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

@NatureMC Thank you for this. I’m aware of a lot of this, but I am not sure if this is the question of what the models are trained on, or the question of an intrinsic nature of the method itself.

I have not seen a clear answer to that yet, but I’m sure I just need to keep looking. This feels different than the “why is every person imagined by midjourney someone conventionally attractive” problem.

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Thank you to everyone for responding. Some people suggested these two pieces:

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence-automated-mansplaining-machine

https://www.wired.com/story/generative-ai-totally-shameless/

I’ve seen speculation about “this is because the models were trained by white men on data from Reddit and Facebook” but I wonder if this is an issue of the training corpus, or is it just the intrinsic nature of LLMs? Is it possible to create a “hesitant, honest” LLM if you wanted to? I feel naïve asking this way, but that’s the part I don’t fully understand yet.

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

@samueljohnson Yeah, that’s why I didn’t mention mansplaining – that part feels more gaslighty to me. A relationship with truth that’s so loose it doesn’t allow for trust to blossom.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Love that you can quietly harbour a little side “career” that LinkedIn will never know about.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Book idea: Showing PC motherboards every 5 years since 1981 (maybe even earlier?), showing what changed and talking about the changes and what one can learn from them. Same with ISA/PCI cards and other things that went inside the case.

(Inspired by watching this Usagi Electric video: https://youtu.be/Alsv-v9o4yQ?si=83eXjCkQnjc9FrTf)

ben, to technology
@ben@werd.social avatar

"There were times when Sinclair ZX Spectrum games were copied over the radio waves across Slovenia. Radio Študent broadcast screeching, beeping and whining, which we recorded on tape and played a game a few hours later." I love this! https://www.racunalniski-muzej.si/en/40-years-later-a-game-for-the-zx-spectrum-will-be-once-again-broadcast-over-fm-radio/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

@ben We did this in Poland, too. What a wild thing. The original “wifi.”

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Did Facebook Marketplace completely take over what Craigslist once did, or do they coexist? I have some furniture etc. I want to get rid of, but don’t particularly want to create a FB account for this.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

@mihaip Have you ever considered supporting the pre-release Macs? Some info is here: http://toastytech.com/guis/twiggy.html and the links to ROMs etc.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Last place I expected to find the Gorton font.

(You can even spot a routing mistake in the third photo.)

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

An idea while talking to a friend: A photo book of great photographs of Braun electronics, but ugly ones. Give me cracked plastics, missing pieces, frayed cords, usage patterns. Show the machines during their last year of use, not on day one.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

What an absolutely fantastic month for fun, non-pretentious, beautiful typography books!

Here are four that caught my attention. (Hint: each one makes for a great gift for a design-minded person.)

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Toshi Omagari’s “Arcade Game Typography” has a beautiful new edition!

I believe not much changed from the previous two editions (except for a really fun shiny cover), but it is still a delightful and inspiring book about finding typography art and nuance in the least expected of places… and overall a great gift.

https://readonlymemory.com/shop/book/arcade-game-typography-2nd-edition/

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Ellen Lupton’s classic “Thinking With Type” is in its third edition.

This has always been a go-to “first book about typography” and I think the new edition upholds this. It has a lot more woke stuff (this word here is used as a compliment!), talking about inclusive design and non-western typography. Wonderful.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/thinking-with-type-a-critical-guide-for-designers-writers-editors-and-students-3rd-edition-revised-updated-ellen-lupton/20227322

image/jpeg

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Elliot Jay Stocks’s “Universal Principles of Typography” is somewhat similar, although with more of a web slant. It has a great balance of inspiring and pragmatic, and old-school and modern. It’s beautifully typeset, and contains so many great references where you can explore more. I was really impressed by it.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/universal-principles-of-typography-100-key-concepts-for-choosing-and-using-type-elliot-jay-stocks/20241625?ean=9780760383384

image/jpeg

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Lastly, Debbie Berne’s “The design of books” just feels like fun, delightful, and accessible intro to what makes a book a book. (Its spot colour is also orange, and I can’t say no to that.)

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-design-of-books-an-explainer-for-authors-editors-agents-and-other-curious-readers-debbie-berne/20247492

image/jpeg

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

My friend and I went to see Chicago bridges opening to let the boats to the lake this morning…

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Long story short, here’s some bridge Gorton.

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Mastodon does not allow for easy video uploads, so here’s a Vimeo link of another bridge opening up today, including a boat dog living its best life. https://vimeo.com/940159760

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Always fun to take spielbergian photos of people in awe.

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

@splorp You should have seen the one that said EMERGENCY TORQUE.

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

The one previous time I’ve done this was in 2011, and inside a different bridge: State St Bridge. This time, they actually allowed me to hang around during the whole operation and the bridge UI was even better.

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

You know what, I wonder if I asked nicely, whether they would allow me to take photos of all 20 or 30 of the bridge interfaces!

That’d be a pretty bad-ass little photo book.

mwichary, to random
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

Doing something in LaTeX for the first time in my life and I am so NOT impressed!

(Granted, I’m trying to make a poster with images which might not be the main use case, but… what a mess.)

mwichary,
@mwichary@mastodon.online avatar

On my wall now! I feel very proud of this.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • mdbf
  • ngwrru68w68
  • modclub
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • megavids
  • GTA5RPClips
  • tacticalgear
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • osvaldo12
  • everett
  • cubers
  • ethstaker
  • anitta
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • cisconetworking
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •