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mwichary's profile
Marcin Wichary
Marcin Wichary
Marcin Wichary
@mwichary

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Marcin Wichary

@mwichary

Writing a book about the history of keyboards: http://aresluna.org/shift-happens  · Design manager @figmadesign · Typographer · Occasional speaker · He/him

San Francisco, Calif.
Joined October 2009

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    1. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 10 Jan 2018
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      Book idea: The guided tour of Unicode: Stories of glyphs, politics, technical challenges, typography and engineering, workarounds and mistakes, world’s languages and alphabets. Let various specific Unicode code points walk you through today’s world.

      3 replies 2 retweets 45 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 10 Jan 2018
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      Book idea: Anthology of day-in-life stories from different chat communities (Unix talk, . SAVED, PLATO, Community Memory, IRC, ICQ, BlackBerry, Slack). Focus on jargon, emergent practices, everyday habits, creative adaptations of the platform.

      3 replies 1 retweet 25 likes
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    3. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 10 Jan 2018
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      (“Book idea” in all of the above is shorthand for something with the right amount of depth and breadth. Could also be a podcast series, a YouTube show, etc.)

      1 reply 0 retweets 11 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 10 Jan 2018
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      Book idea: When typography and engineering intersect. Don Knuth, segmented displays, bitmap fonts, monospace, HTML. Not just history – also stuff practical and useful today, e.g. how font fallback works, or weird Unicode letters. (Arguably the *obvious* book for me to write.)

      4 replies 0 retweets 50 likes
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    5. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 19 Feb 2018
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      Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

      Book idea: One of these:https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/965692060534648832 …

      Marcin Wichary added,

      Marcin Wichary @mwichary
      Imagine the premiere Sony Walkman manual written today, explaining the differences from Spotify rather than from record players. Or an iPod user manual that’s presented as a discourse on record labels, DRM, and piracy. Or a manual to a TV written as a… fictional story.
      Show this thread
      1 reply 0 retweets 15 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 19 Feb 2018
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      Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

      Book idea: A book version of the Museum of File Formats:https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/724323369798131712 …

      Marcin Wichary added,

      Marcin Wichary @mwichary
      Dreamt that @ruffian and I visited Museum of File Formats in Denmark. Who wants to create Museum of File Formats, in Denmark or otherwise?
      4 replies 1 retweet 14 likes
      Show this thread
    7. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 21 Feb 2018
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      Book idea: Beautiful exploded 2.5D diagrams of pinball machines – one machine/spread for each 3–4 years between 1930s and 2000s – explaining the vocabulary, changing technology, new conventions, politics surrounding it. A lot of text around. *Not* just for pinball aficionados.

      4 replies 2 retweets 33 likes
      Show this thread
    8. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 1 Mar 2018
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      Book idea: chasing and explaining trends and fashion in software engineering and design over the last few decades (flat design, cards everywhere, functional programming, JavaScript on the back-end, &c.) as a way to bring these two disciplines closer together.

      2 replies 1 retweet 15 likes
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    9. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 1 Mar 2018
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      Book idea: Flavours of passive-aggressive in different cultures. Not a ha-ha-funny book, but genuinely trying to understand its function and differences as you move around the globe.pic.twitter.com/yTGMyMSAfT

      4 replies 13 retweets 80 likes
      Show this thread
    10. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 29 May 2018
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      Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

      Book idea (inspired by @todrobbins’s comment): Stories of unglamorous tech companies, for example many of those with the logos here. There must be a way to talk not of the companies in the spotlight, or the spectacular failures, but the bit players.https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1001143262680305664 …

      Marcin Wichary added,

      Marcin Wichary @mwichary
      Accidentally stumbled upon this amazing treasure trove of hundreds of beautiful/awful 80s tech logos. It sort of feels like a version of that “Bobson Dugnutt” screen, but those are all real. https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_unitedTechngineersMasterVol2_242068752/1985_Electronic_Engineers_Master_Vol_2#page/n389/mode/2up … pic.twitter.com/nzrajNstcD
      Show this thread
      2 replies 5 retweets 24 likes
      Show this thread
      Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 3 Jun 2018
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      Marcin Wichary Retweeted Eric Fischer

      Book idea: An anthology of experienced programmers showing their early code and commenting on all the things in it that they did wrong. Crucial to the book’s success: Diversity of experiences, backgrounds, projects, eras. Inspired by @enf’s tweet:https://twitter.com/enf/status/1003140750287126528 …

      Marcin Wichary added,

      Eric Fischer @enf
      Replying to @enf @mwichary @Bitterman59
      A few months ago I typed in most of the program, as the only surviving evidence of what I had learned about programming by that time. https://github.com/ericfischer/learning-to-program/blob/master/1984-science-fair-reading-speed/sciencefair.txt … It's as bad as you would expect from a fifth-grader. I spent most of the code on sound and animation for the title screen
      1:12 PM - 3 Jun 2018
      • 3 Retweets
      • 29 Likes
      • Aaron Brown Raghav Agrawal Lisa Hyphen Hirsch (Moot, Meritless, & Dangerous) Rishad #splicebeta 10 GOTO 10 Brendan Schlagel Wolfgang Jung PCIe stop and scream Pockets and Sedition
      2 replies 3 retweets 29 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 8 Jun 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted

          Book idea: The design of ports. MagSafe, Atari’s serial, headphone jack, Centronics, SCART. Going beyond functionality and specs. The stories, the emotions, the beauty, the horror. Inspired by @craigmod’s tweet: https://twitter.com/craigmod/status/1005318657558265856?s=21 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          This Tweet is unavailable.
          7 replies 17 retweets 91 likes
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        3. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 8 Jun 2018
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          👆🏻Examples: Anyone still remember the DVI hardware virus story? It blew my mind: https://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/09/24/dvi/ … Or the Commodore 64 “lick your finger and touch the joystick port to continue”:https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/4424/how-did-the-rub-joystick-port-to-continue-in-the-creatures-2-infinite-lives-ch/4437 …

          3 replies 5 retweets 49 likes
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        4. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 15 Jun 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Yoz Grahame

          When I proposed starting A Bug’s Life series at Backchannel, I imagined it could one day turn into a book – but I didn’t know how to find human, entertaining, teachable computer bug stories. Recently, someone did an amazing job soliciting these:https://twitter.com/yoz/status/1006636464350695424?s=21 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          The Second Life updater downloaded the updater.exe, ran it with no validation. One day it got a 404. On Win32 if you try to run an EXE, Windows checks if it's a valid format (PE). If it's not it assumes that it's a COM: 16 bit x86 instructions, no header, no validation. The 404 page, read as x86 bytecode, opened the LPT DOS device and wrote garbage into it. On Windows, this would freak out and break cheap printers.
          Yoz Grahame @yoz
          I'm fascinated by bizarre bug stories. This one, retold by @ferlatte, happened in the mid-2000s. The chain of decisions that made this possible could make a book-sized history of computing. But if you only take one lesson: please, validate your inputs. pic.twitter.com/EfHDaOsrmX
          1 reply 1 retweet 13 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 16 Jun 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Jonathan Shariat

          Book idea: The oral history of Google Wave and its failure, also talking about the history of email, chat, collaboration – all the areas Wave was trying to improve. Interviews with people who worked on it, but also observers. Inspired by:https://twitter.com/DesignUXUI/status/1007779286088994816 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Jonathan Shariat @DesignUXUI
          Can we bring back Google Wave, please? pic.twitter.com/MjchIHohSz
          4 replies 6 retweets 49 likes
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        6. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 7 Jul 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

          Book idea: What he said.https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1015665349545508864?s=21 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Marcin Wichary @mwichary
          I want a pop-up book explaining web now. /cc @craigmod
          Show this thread
          2 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 15 Jul 2018
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          Book idea: The history of tech from the perspective of a shirt pocket. (Inspired by https://twitter.com/Sierra_OffLine/status/1018595347369791489 …)pic.twitter.com/7ogA82Sa5u

          6 replies 40 retweets 147 likes
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        8. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 15 Jul 2018
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          (A few more interesting ones I found.)pic.twitter.com/psEmo2NEW8

          4 replies 3 retweets 28 likes
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        9. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 21 Jul 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Chris Labarthe

          Book idea: User interfaces for various modes of transportation: cars, trains, planes, buses. Not just pretty pictures, but also principles of operation, good stories, and – most importantly? – hacks and conventions. (Inspired by: https://twitter.com/chris_labarthe/status/1020534582406393856 …)

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Chris Labarthe @chris_labarthe
          Replying to @mwichary
          Ok, now I want a series: “Marcin Drives UIs” ... do the cable car next!
          6 replies 2 retweets 22 likes
          Show this thread
        10. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 21 Jul 2018
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          (Here’s an example of a San Francisco Muni bus with some interesting foot UI, but also a rogue cardboard extension of the most important switch.)pic.twitter.com/RKej4dNKe0

          1 reply 0 retweets 19 likes
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        11. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 21 Jul 2018
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          (And here’s some hand labeling on a control panel of a movable bridge in Chicago. Imagine all these with annotations, explanations, and stories!)pic.twitter.com/fcrIXc52H2

          2 replies 0 retweets 15 likes
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        12. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 8 Aug 2018
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          Book idea: Older PR photos of computers/technology with modern observers giving context or lamenting the inaccuracies. For example, Christmas lights (sic) installed in the Univac console for TV in 1952 so it looked more interesting. (Inspired by https://twitter.com/therealfitz/status/1027201872510308353 ….)pic.twitter.com/VwvFnMWwzJ

          2 replies 2 retweets 18 likes
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        13. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 10 Oct 2018
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          Book idea: no-signal states, error states, start- and end-of-program states… throughout ages. Coffee table book, probably? But with context and stories.pic.twitter.com/NDFgTxEkIN

          5 replies 17 retweets 88 likes
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        14. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 9 Nov 2018
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          Book idea: A collection of transit map that tell stories they don’t intend to. (For example, my uncle has this Berlin subway map on his wall and it’s easy to tell it’s from before 1991.)pic.twitter.com/qDGmy4hanL

          2 replies 2 retweets 24 likes
          Show this thread
        15. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 9 Dec 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

          Book idea: A collection of screenshots of various internal tools (at companies) never seen by public and a discussion about what they’re for, how they work, their peculiarities, shortcuts they take, etc. E.g.https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1071629359839031296 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Marcin Wichary @mwichary
          View San Francisco subway the way people on the inside view it. “Although not originally intended for the public, once the URL became known, Muni decided to continue to allow public access to the site.” http://sfmunicentral.com/  pic.twitter.com/blIKFtL5mc
          Show this thread
          4 replies 6 retweets 56 likes
          Show this thread
        16. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 20 Dec 2018
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          Book idea: A timeline of examples of anthropomorphized computers, each with context about why it was done, what was it trying to accomplish, what was people’s perception of machines at any given time.pic.twitter.com/7UcPJi2WlO

          4 replies 2 retweets 20 likes
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        17. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 30 Dec 2018
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

          Book idea: This thread, as a recursive book. History of tech through its words. You start with a word derived from old technology (e.g. “dialing”), and explain it. That definition uses words derived from *older* technologies, and you have to do it again.https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1079608499083059200 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Marcin Wichary @mwichary
          I wonder sometimes what would be the oldest extant word based on technology no longer in use. Taping an interview? Dialing someone? https://twitter.com/hels/status/679059633949011970 …
          Show this thread
          3 replies 3 retweets 20 likes
          Show this thread
        18. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 19 Jan 2019
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          Book idea: Intercoms across time and space. Their evolution, adaptation, meaning in different countries, and esthetic. Tons of photos, but also some stories.pic.twitter.com/SyP4190qbM

          3 replies 1 retweet 42 likes
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        19. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 19 Jan 2019
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          (I am very, very into the aesthetic of American intercoms and doorbell banks.)pic.twitter.com/W5FbCpuuEp

          8 replies 1 retweet 40 likes
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        20. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 2 May 2019
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

          Book idea: Photographic appreciation of little devices and helpers like this one; small, highly specific tools that appear to solve very particular problems in various industries. (Each one with a short story/explanation by someone from that industry.)https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1124199670320787456 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Marcin Wichary @mwichary
          Say hello to the Ultra-Force numbering device. It seems like a regular rotary stamp. You can rotate the digits to whatever number you want by hand if you want to. But that extruded typeset numero is not a weird accident. pic.twitter.com/fAabIoKnCj
          Show this thread
          2 replies 2 retweets 19 likes
          Show this thread
        21. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 19 Jul 2019
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          Book idea: A collection of ads like these (do they have a name?), with necessary context and explanation what happened since.pic.twitter.com/AUSpXzXHJV

          5 replies 2 retweets 20 likes
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        22. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 11 Sep 2019
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          Marcin Wichary Retweeted Marcin Wichary

          Book idea: The history of traffic signs throughout the world – the culture, the typography, the differences, the quirks. Photos interspersed with various traffic manual standards pages.https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1171835327691948032?s=21 …

          Marcin Wichary added,

          Marcin Wichary @mwichary
          New dream: International Museum of Traffic Signs. pic.twitter.com/JlF38fqRwK
          Show this thread
          4 replies 0 retweets 10 likes
          Show this thread
        23. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 25 Dec 2019
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          Book idea: A celebration of (human) languages – a journey through quirks/delights/exceptions of various languages written and spoken today. Casual, not academic. To give perspective and open minds. (Please tell me this book already exists, @arikaokrent?)

          3 replies 0 retweets 9 likes
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        24. Marcin Wichary‏ @mwichary 25 Dec 2019
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          For example, the Dutch write “2 t/m 8,” which stands for “tot en met,” or “up to and including.” It’s kind of like a smarter range hyphen – so useful to avoid confusion, and you see it everywhere.

          3 replies 1 retweet 11 likes
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        25. End of conversation

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