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.)
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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 …
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Book idea: What he said.https://twitter.com/mwichary/status/1015665349545508864?s=21 …
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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
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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 …)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 …
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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
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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 …
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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
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(I am very, very into the aesthetic of American intercoms and doorbell banks.)pic.twitter.com/W5FbCpuuEp
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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 …
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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
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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 …
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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?)Show this thread -
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.
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