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.
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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 likesShow this thread -
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
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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 @mwicharyAccidentally 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/nzrajNstcDShow this thread2 replies 5 retweets 24 likesShow this thread -
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 @enfReplying to @enf @mwichary @Bitterman59A 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 screen2 replies 3 retweets 29 likesShow this thread -
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 likesShow this thread -
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 likesShow this thread -
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,
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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,
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Replying to @mwichary
Wave felt like the future in a way that I haven’t seen a whole lot since. I loved it, but it never got the adoption it deserved
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I am not sure. I felt it got *exactly* the adoption it deserved. It was bold and inventive in a way that was inspiring – but it was also bloated, power-hungry, and rather detached from reality.
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Replying to @mwichary
I guess my use case for it was pretty small, mostly personal communication in small groups. So I didn’t experience that. It would definitely make for a great oral history.
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