Posts in 2021

• Solving the Rubik’s Cube and other hard-to-recognise problems
  21.49, Monday 4 Jan 2021 (streak: 41 weeks)
  701 words, 2 links

• How about finding new books by mapping who thanks who?
  14.48, Tuesday 5 Jan 2021 (streak: 41 weeks)
  910 words, 8 links

• The continuing rise of virtual private neighbourhoods
  21.01, Thursday 7 Jan 2021 (streak: 41 weeks)
  693 words, 6 links
  Has 6 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• Headphones need smart transparency mode with voice recognition
  11.41, Friday 8 Jan 2021 (streak: 41 weeks)
  423 words, 3 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: ageography

• Speculative ad formats for the post-newsfeed world
  21.31, Monday 11 Jan 2021 (streak: 42 weeks)
  1,212 words, 9 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Using printed QR codes for links in books
  16.55, Tuesday 12 Jan 2021 (streak: 42 weeks)
  493 words, 9 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, hooray-for-qr-codes

• Viscerally and deliberately unsettling product design
  13.38, Thursday 14 Jan 2021 (streak: 42 weeks)
  440 words, 10 links

• The imminent possibility of UFOs
  20.40, Monday 18 Jan 2021 (streak: 43 weeks)
  902 words, 9 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, space, speculative-in-2021

• The feeling of percolating on stubborn problems
  19.33, Tuesday 19 Jan 2021 (streak: 43 weeks)
  442 words, 1 link

• Maps and cameras are neglected app runtimes
  20.38, Wednesday 20 Jan 2021 (streak: 43 weeks)
  899 words, 4 links
  Tagged: hooray-for-qr-codes

• Towards the Orthogonal Technology Lab, v0.1
  20.05, Thursday 21 Jan 2021 (streak: 43 weeks)
  1,387 words, 10 links
  Has 3 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• Rituals for kings, stem cells, and Zoom calls
  19.44, Monday 25 Jan 2021 (streak: 44 weeks)
  959 words, 5 links

• Briefly on Medusa and why societies collapse
  15.45, Wednesday 27 Jan 2021 (streak: 44 weeks)
  527 words, 4 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: complexity

• Filtered for lo-fi strange new worlds
  19.56, Friday 29 Jan 2021 (streak: 44 weeks)
  856 words, 9 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: filtered-for, teeny-weeny-virtual-worlds

• Golems, smart objects, and the file metaphor
  20.52, Monday 1 Feb 2021 (streak: 45 weeks)
  2,011 words, 13 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts
  Tagged: speculative-in-2021, yes-to-interoperability

• Let’s think of some new vices to tax
  18.47, Tuesday 2 Feb 2021 (streak: 45 weeks)
  1,162 words, 5 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Dowsing the collective unconscious with GPT-3
  17.01, Thursday 4 Feb 2021 (streak: 45 weeks)
  614 words, 5 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: dowsing-the-collective-unconscious, gpt-3

• Animals driving cars and other jobs
  10.43, Monday 8 Feb 2021 (streak: 46 weeks)
  408 words, 6 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Memexes, mountain lakes, and the serendipity of old ideas
  19.42, Wednesday 10 Feb 2021 (streak: 46 weeks)
  1,050 words, 18 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• Anxious feelings about optimisation through complexity
  14.50, Friday 12 Feb 2021 (streak: 46 weeks)
  721 words, 4 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: complexity

• Heating your home by preying on the vulnerable
  17.12, Tuesday 16 Feb 2021 (streak: 47 weeks)
  691 words, 7 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Ceci n’est pas une calculatrice
  17.18, Thursday 18 Feb 2021 (streak: 47 weeks)
  438 words, 3 links

• What to do with spare TV ad inventory
  18.12, Friday 19 Feb 2021 (streak: 47 weeks)
  518 words, 4 links

• Nothing is real vs everything is real
  15.51, Tuesday 23 Feb 2021 (streak: 48 weeks)
  496 words, 8 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: dowsing-the-collective-unconscious, gpt-3

• My best story about Bitcoin and cats, which isn’t even my story
  17.44, Wednesday 24 Feb 2021 (streak: 48 weeks)
  420 words, 4 links
  Tagged: web3

• Let’s invent new interfaces, not new products
  17.32, Thursday 25 Feb 2021 (streak: 48 weeks)
  507 words, 2 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Four years of noting down my favourite words
  14.09, Friday 26 Feb 2021 (streak: 48 weeks)
  1,243 words, 4 links

• Revolutions and NAND gates, eight cents, wholesale
  09.24, Tuesday 2 Mar 2021 (streak: 49 weeks)
  836 words, 3 links
  Has 4 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• Filtered for some text-based virtual realities
  19.53, Wednesday 3 Mar 2021 (streak: 49 weeks)
  985 words, 20 links
  Tagged: filtered-for, teeny-weeny-virtual-worlds

• My iPad should have a gaze-controlled cursor
  17.55, Thursday 4 Mar 2021 (streak: 49 weeks)
  413 words, 1 link
  Has 1 follow-up post

• 1980s (you), 2000s (connection). What’s the 2020s zeitgeist?
  16.26, Monday 8 Mar 2021 (streak: 50 weeks)
  607 words, 4 links
  Tagged: what-was-it-like-in-the-2020s

• Filtered for bonsai trees
  18.04, Thursday 11 Mar 2021 (streak: 50 weeks)
  653 words, 11 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: filtered-for

• An eyebrow raise means left click
  20.04, Friday 12 Mar 2021 (streak: 50 weeks)
  628 words, 4 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts

• Continuing to think about research labs: 14 references
  17.04, Monday 15 Mar 2021 (streak: 51 weeks)
  1,587 words, 25 links
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• The ASMR version of Bee Movie, and other neuro-divergent media
  14.26, Tuesday 16 Mar 2021 (streak: 51 weeks)
  1,096 words, 16 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: asmr, speculative-in-2021

• Work: Availability from July
  10.28, Thursday 18 Mar 2021 (streak: 51 weeks)
  601 words, 7 links

• Social Attention: a modest prototype in shared presence
  16.43, Monday 22 Mar 2021 (streak: 52 weeks)
  1,055 words, 5 links
  Has 3 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, 5-most-popular-in-2021

• The Suez Canal and other global infrastructure exploits
  21.11, Thursday 25 Mar 2021 (streak: 52 weeks)
  878 words, 8 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts

• Poker, blacksmithery, and other activities that teach a way to see the world
  18.57, Friday 26 Mar 2021 (streak: 52 weeks)
  1,033 words, 8 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Baking life lessons and musings on metabolism
  17.37, Tuesday 30 Mar 2021 (streak: 53 weeks)
  1,004 words, 7 links
  Tagged: yeast

• Clues for software design in how we sketch maps of cities
  21.10, Wednesday 31 Mar 2021 (streak: 53 weeks)
  1,339 words, 7 links
  Has 3 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• On the possibility of a dolphin pope
  14.59, Tuesday 6 Apr 2021 (streak: 54 weeks)
  784 words, 7 links
  Tagged: dolphins, speculative-in-2021

• Let’s make robot a dirty word
  16.44, Wednesday 7 Apr 2021 (streak: 54 weeks)
  880 words, 5 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Is collective efficacy a human need?
  19.56, Thursday 8 Apr 2021 (streak: 54 weeks)
  462 words, 3 links

• A short dream about the unnoticed end of the world
  17.31, Friday 9 Apr 2021 (streak: 54 weeks)
  309 words, no links

• Two product ideas for hybrid working
  17.17, Monday 12 Apr 2021 (streak: 55 weeks)
  396 words, 2 links

• A list of seven different jobs, all called designer
  18.19, Tuesday 13 Apr 2021 (streak: 55 weeks)
  755 words, 3 links

• Salads, shipping containers, and subtle signs of a supply chain reset
  18.14, Friday 16 Apr 2021 (streak: 55 weeks)
  932 words, 9 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, 5-most-popular-in-2021

• Why not faster computation via evolution and diffracted light
  20.47, Tuesday 20 Apr 2021 (streak: 56 weeks)
  1,566 words, 8 links
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• What wipes in Star Wars teach us about the brain and also interface design
  11.28, Friday 23 Apr 2021 (streak: 56 weeks)
  1,227 words, 6 links
  Has 4 follow-up posts
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, 5-most-popular-in-2021

• How about Meal Kits for fashion
  13.23, Tuesday 27 Apr 2021 (streak: 57 weeks)
  401 words, 3 links

• Three observations on my first vaccination shot
  16.30, Wednesday 28 Apr 2021 (streak: 57 weeks)
  1,122 words, 8 links

• Filtered for big things that don’t weigh so much
  16.44, Friday 30 Apr 2021 (streak: 57 weeks)
  289 words, 6 links
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, filtered-for

• A strange loop involving Brian Eno and the nature of time
  13.03, Wednesday 5 May 2021 (streak: 58 weeks)
  676 words, 8 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts
  Tagged: computing-history, speculative-in-2021

• Fish fingers, boxed software, and processes that create industries
  20.28, Thursday 6 May 2021 (streak: 58 weeks)
  375 words, 5 links

• Some experiences with neutral technology
  16.34, Friday 7 May 2021 (streak: 58 weeks)
  456 words, 2 links

• The peripheral reach of old computers
  19.01, Wednesday 12 May 2021 (streak: 59 weeks)
  395 words, 3 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: interfaces-for-ambient-awareness

• Oikos vs polis: a new (but old) axis on the political map
  17.53, Thursday 13 May 2021 (streak: 59 weeks)
  1,412 words, 8 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: speculative-in-2021

• The Memex, the Manhatten Project, and the month of July 1945
  17.36, Friday 14 May 2021 (streak: 59 weeks)
  554 words, 11 links
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, computing-history

• The pedagogy of toddler ballet
  15.52, Thursday 20 May 2021 (streak: 60 weeks)
  356 words, 1 link

• From the archives, w/e 21 May
  19.30, Friday 21 May 2021 (streak: 60 weeks)
  297 words, 4 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• We need talent identification for even the smallest needs
  19.54, Tuesday 25 May 2021 (streak: 61 weeks)
  841 words, 6 links

• Three requests for the Google Chrome team as they experiment with RSS
  17.30, Wednesday 26 May 2021 (streak: 61 weeks)
  976 words, 11 links

• On the impending deletion of Charlie Bit My Finger
  19.21, Thursday 27 May 2021 (streak: 61 weeks)
  1,095 words, 12 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, 5-most-popular-in-2021, non-fungible-tokens

• From the archives, w/e 28 May
  13.46, Friday 28 May 2021 (streak: 61 weeks)
  426 words, 6 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• Taking shots from Einstein’s brain
  09.11, Thursday 3 Jun 2021 (streak: 62 weeks)
  551 words, 4 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• From the archives, w/e 4 June
  15.33, Friday 4 Jun 2021 (streak: 62 weeks)
  317 words, 6 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• What about a national packet-switched drone delivery network
  18.16, Monday 7 Jun 2021 (streak: 63 weeks)
  1,413 words, 11 links
  Has 3 follow-up posts
  Tagged: political-fantasies, speculative-in-2021

• Visual FX and cultivating a sense of wonder
  15.10, Tuesday 8 Jun 2021 (streak: 63 weeks)
  400 words, 3 links

• The Voder in 1939 and high-bandwidth input devices
  18.37, Wednesday 9 Jun 2021 (streak: 63 weeks)
  421 words, 6 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Previously: Bridges, meat, diamonds (w/e 11 June)
  11.52, Friday 11 Jun 2021 (streak: 63 weeks)
  340 words, 6 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• From Zoom Rooms to doorways on my desktop
  14.16, Tuesday 15 Jun 2021 (streak: 64 weeks)
  1,036 words, 5 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts

• Horsehistory study and the automated discovery of new areas of thought
  12.23, Wednesday 16 Jun 2021 (streak: 64 weeks)
  2,455 words, 14 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, speculative-in-2021

• Ignoring carbon, is energy use bad or fine?
  15.12, Thursday 17 Jun 2021 (streak: 64 weeks)
  361 words, 1 link

• Previously: Spreadsheet parties, chatbots, William Gibson’s jacket (w/e 18 June)
  10.06, Friday 18 Jun 2021 (streak: 64 weeks)
  402 words, 4 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• All kinds of online marketplaces are creaking under scams
  18.16, Tuesday 22 Jun 2021 (streak: 65 weeks)
  1,176 words, 1 link

• Every so often I remember Mitterrand’s horrific last meal
  20.15, Wednesday 23 Jun 2021 (streak: 65 weeks)
  472 words, 3 links
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• Vending machines should be the Shopify of physical retail
  12.18, Thursday 24 Jun 2021 (streak: 65 weeks)
  1,121 words, 5 links

• Previously: eye contact and puppy slugs (w/e 25 June)
  14.56, Friday 25 Jun 2021 (streak: 65 weeks)
  350 words, 4 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• Trillies is better word than FAANG
  17.20, Monday 28 Jun 2021 (streak: 66 weeks)
  346 words, no links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Cultivating a sense of the galactic centre
  20.51, Wednesday 30 Jun 2021 (streak: 66 weeks)
  1,024 words, 5 links
  Tagged: esoteric-supersenses

• England is dense with ancient folktales
  19.26, Wednesday 7 Jul 2021 (streak: 67 weeks)
  582 words, 5 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts

• Cultural anticipations as an algorithm for divining the future
  17.27, Thursday 8 Jul 2021 (streak: 67 weeks)
  577 words, 4 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts
  Tagged: dowsing-the-collective-unconscious

• Previously: Bernard Vonnegut, sociopathic dating, a Facebook camera (f/e 9 July)
  11.15, Friday 9 Jul 2021 (streak: 67 weeks)
  699 words, 10 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• Plaid shirts and existential reassurance
  17.23, Monday 12 Jul 2021 (streak: 68 weeks)
  394 words, 1 link

• Dolls’ houses and demo modes
  20.48, Tuesday 13 Jul 2021 (streak: 68 weeks)
  1,184 words, 8 links

• Idly thinking about frozen heads
  18.14, Friday 16 Jul 2021 (streak: 68 weeks)
  671 words, 5 links
  Tagged: comets, speculative-in-2021

• Billionaires in space and bottling the overview effect
  17.21, Tuesday 20 Jul 2021 (streak: 69 weeks)
  1,209 words, 10 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: speculative-in-2021

• The stock market is a machine for creating cults
  17.43, Wednesday 21 Jul 2021 (streak: 69 weeks)
  697 words, 4 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: speculative-in-2021

• Previously: Cyborgs, dolphins, dogs, giraffes (f/e 23 July)
  14.59, Friday 23 Jul 2021 (streak: 69 weeks)
  357 words, 6 links
  Tagged: from-the-archives

• Filtered for light
  19.36, Thursday 29 Jul 2021 (streak: 70 weeks)
  595 words, 8 links
  Tagged: filtered-for, kinda-about-colour

• Welcome to the Entropocene
  14.41, Friday 30 Jul 2021 (streak: 70 weeks)
  842 words, 6 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: eschatology

• Wireless wires and hardware APIs
  19.15, Tuesday 3 Aug 2021 (streak: 71 weeks)
  937 words, 2 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: yes-to-interoperability

• Imagining the first global Simulation War
  20.34, Wednesday 4 Aug 2021 (streak: 71 weeks)
  1,276 words, 8 links

• Apple’s photo scanning and our state of forced collective paranoia
  15.36, Friday 6 Aug 2021 (streak: 71 weeks)
  2,095 words, 15 links
  Has 2 follow-up posts
  Tagged: speculative-in-2021, what-was-it-like-in-the-2020s

• Two traditional games of accumulating points
  18.28, Tuesday 10 Aug 2021 (streak: 72 weeks)
  532 words, 3 links

• Collecting my thoughts about notation and user interfaces
  12.34, Thursday 12 Aug 2021 (streak: 72 weeks)
  1,807 words, 9 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021

• Filtered for seeing through non-human eyes
  17.05, Friday 13 Aug 2021 (streak: 72 weeks)
  734 words, 8 links
  Tagged: filtered-for

• We need to revisit old frameworks to cope with the 2020s
  15.57, Wednesday 18 Aug 2021 (streak: 73 weeks)
  1,126 words, 6 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, what-was-it-like-in-the-2020s

• A new map of the extrapolated Earth
  17.32, Thursday 19 Aug 2021 (streak: 73 weeks)
  517 words, 10 links
  Tagged: extrapolation, speculative-in-2021

• Labour poetry
  19.14, Monday 23 Aug 2021 (streak: 74 weeks)
  420 words, 4 links
  Tagged: poetry

• When will we see the first home dishwasher cobots?
  15.14, Wednesday 25 Aug 2021 (streak: 74 weeks)
  931 words, 11 links
  Tagged: robots

• Computers should expose their internal workings as a 6th sense
  17.24, Friday 27 Aug 2021 (streak: 74 weeks)
  776 words, 2 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: 20-most-popular-in-2021, 5-most-popular-in-2021, esoteric-supersenses, interfaces-for-ambient-awareness

• Pantheons of gods map to the shapes of complex systems
  16.06, Wednesday 1 Sep 2021 (streak: 75 weeks)
  748 words, 2 links
  Tagged: anthropomorphise-all-hyperobjects, the-ancient-world-is-now

• Sending lo-fi virtual realities to aliens and also to each other
  11.09, Thursday 2 Sep 2021 (streak: 75 weeks)
  523 words, 6 links
  Tagged: teeny-weeny-virtual-worlds

• I love this made-up sound machine
  20.21, Tuesday 7 Sep 2021 (streak: 76 weeks)
  546 words, 4 links
  Tagged: non-fungible-tokens

• The surprising effectiveness of writing and rewriting
  17.53, Thursday 9 Sep 2021 (streak: 76 weeks)
  639 words, 2 links

• Bronze- versus iron-based economics changed the kind of societies that could exist
  19.11, Monday 13 Sep 2021 (streak: 77 weeks)
  989 words, 4 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Filtered for calibration
  14.39, Friday 17 Sep 2021 (streak: 77 weeks)
  778 words, 7 links
  Tagged: filtered-for, kinda-about-colour

• Telling the computer what to think about
  18.05, Tuesday 21 Sep 2021 (streak: 78 weeks)
  1,323 words, 3 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• A brief thought on the miracle of togetherness
  09.16, Wednesday 22 Sep 2021 (streak: 78 weeks)
  290 words, no links

• Why not replace bitcoin’s proof of work with proof of astrophysics
  18.22, Friday 24 Sep 2021 (streak: 78 weeks)
  997 words, 1 link
  Tagged: speculative-in-2021, web3

• The emerging patchwork upgrade to the multiplayer web
  16.45, Monday 27 Sep 2021 (streak: 79 weeks)
  636 words, 5 links
  Has 5 follow-up posts

• Three fantasy policies around jobs
  20.37, Thursday 30 Sep 2021 (streak: 79 weeks)
  1,062 words, 1 link
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: political-fantasies, speculative-in-2021

• What to call execution by electricity in 1889
  21.11, Wednesday 6 Oct 2021 (streak: 80 weeks)
  622 words, 2 links
  Has 1 follow-up post

• Zizek’s view on The Sound of Music
  20.25, Tuesday 12 Oct 2021 (streak: 81 weeks)
  264 words, 1 link

• Wild Palms and default genres
  20.29, Monday 18 Oct 2021 (streak: 82 weeks)
  923 words, 1 link

• James Bond and Doctor Who got smaller as they became fantasy
  14.02, Thursday 28 Oct 2021 (streak: 83 weeks)
  1,007 words, no links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: inner-and-outer-realities, speculative-in-2021

• Political labels and the question of scale
  17.54, Friday 5 Nov 2021 (streak: 84 weeks)
  684 words, 2 links

• TV that mixes fact and fiction
  16.33, Friday 12 Nov 2021 (streak: 85 weeks)
  690 words, 4 links

• AirPods, and the cognitive ergonomics of tools for thought
  18.21, Friday 19 Nov 2021 (streak: 86 weeks)
  1,214 words, 4 links

• Local streets for local people
  16.24, Friday 26 Nov 2021 (streak: 87 weeks)
  1,173 words, 5 links

• What is the metaverse?
  22.38, Thursday 2 Dec 2021 (streak: 88 weeks)
  2,051 words, 10 links
  Has 6 follow-up posts
  Tagged: metaverse, web3

• Primitive design and how I’m spending my week
  20.06, Thursday 9 Dec 2021 (streak: 89 weeks)
  409 words, 1 link

• Unbundling the office
  17.22, Friday 17 Dec 2021 (streak: 90 weeks)
  903 words, 4 links

• SAGE and a glimpse of group computing from before the PC
  22.18, Tuesday 21 Dec 2021 (streak: 91 weeks)
  1,438 words, 7 links
  Has 1 follow-up post
  Tagged: computing-history

• My most popular posts in 2021 and other lists
  11.34, Thursday 23 Dec 2021 (streak: 91 weeks)
  598 words, 16 links
  Tagged: meta

• What I’ve been reading in 2021
  16.45, Friday 31 Dec 2021 (streak: 92 weeks)
  990 words, 15 links

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