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mwichary

@mwichary@mastodon.online

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

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mwichary , an Random Englisch
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This week at Config I gave a talk about pixel fonts that I think turned out really well.

It’s called “In defense of an old pixel,” and I don’t think I ever worked harder on a talk before. Check it out here! (25 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDI8ubVZi7w

mwichary , an Random Englisch
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The hotel security was curious why I’m taking photos of hidden stairwell placards.

“This engraving font is named Gorton and is well over 100 years old! It was originally made for camera lenses in the U.K. It’s everywhere around you, usually in places like these.”

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mwichary , an Random Englisch
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Love that you can quietly harbour a little side “career” that LinkedIn will never know about.

mwichary , an Random Englisch
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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)

foone , an Random Englisch
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We need a different word for "old computer parts" and "parts for old computers". People use "retro" for both.

Like a Packard Bell 486 is the former: it was made in the 90s.

And a PicoGUS is the later: it's an ISA card that can be used in computers from the 90s, but it was made recently.

mwichary ,
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@foone Someone tried to coin “newtro,” but it’s not working.

foone , an Random Englisch
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Here's an interesting "keyboard" for sale on aliexpress: It's a deconstructed keyboard matrix!
You can just plug in arcade buttons or whatever to each pair of pins.

mwichary ,
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@foone Oh, shit. That is very cool.

mwichary , an Random Englisch
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What would you consider as the most recognizable bitmap fonts in tech history?

I’m imagining stuff like:

  • the arcade/Atari font
  • Chicago (Mac, then iPod)
  • VCR/video equipment fonts
  • Minecraft font
  • IBM PC fonts (MDA, VGA, stuff like that)
  • perhaps System font from Windows 3.x
  • Commodore 64, just because of the sheer popularity of the machine

What am I missing?

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mwichary , an Random Englisch
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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 OP ,
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Of course got wind in my sails right after I complained!

I want a canvas print of all the photos that people sent me of my book.

I thought I’d try something new (LaTeX) although of course I already made a strange concoction where most of the .tex file is generated by node.js.

mwichary OP ,
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Starting to feel good about this! Had to figure out pixel orientation in photos (portrait photos in cameras are still laid out horizontally, with just a flag to rotate them in software), and also programmatically lay it out tens of thousands of times to find the most optimal configuration.

This is a screenshot of a 680MB PDF where each image is in the original resolution.

385 great photos! Will wait a few more weeks.

mwichary OP ,
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396 photos! I think I will order the print when I get to 400. It might also help narrow the spaces in a few rows.

(I changed the aspect ratio from square to portrait because I think it feels a bit more refined.)

mwichary OP ,
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Oh, I forgot I could grab two pics from @zhenpixels’s beautifully photographed essay of the book’s preview, published back over a year ago! I think this was the first time someone who wasn’t me took deliberate photos of the book in any way.

This preview post is still so great: https://arun.is/blog/shift-happens-preview/

So, 398!

mwichary OP ,
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411 photos locked in, and the canvas file has been submitted to the printer! I’ll post the final result here.

Loved seeing my little machine wargame for an hour trying to find the ideal layout with the smallest amount of extra gaps/rivers.

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

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