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To save a keyboard, pt. 2
What am I typing this on This is that rare story where a Twitter disagreement led to something amazing.In May last year, someone tweeted a photo of a rare, specialized, 50-key keyboard:A few people...
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When keyboards were desks
I felt a little bad for the few weeks of delay in sending the previous newsletter, so here’s an extra edition. Just like with the jokes issue, there’s no story here – just a stroll through two folders...
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To save a keyboard, pt. 3
I don’t know how this works in other museums, but at the Computer History Museum in California, a decade ago, the front-of-house volunteer ladder had three steps.The first one was being a greeter –...
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As close as possible to real surfing
It makes perfect sense that the awkward term WYSIWYG– “what you see is what you get” – came into prominence only during the era of computers. For typewriters, what you saw was never not, with the paper...
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Greatest hits 2016–2019
It’s hard for me to explain how I feel about Twitter. On one hand, there is the abuse, the Nazis, and Jack Dorsey’s almost legendary indolence. When it doesn’t chip away at your attention, Twitter...
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Dear Cynthia
Sometime in 2019, I fell in love with a photo in a way I’ve never known before:What grasped me here? Many things. The grittiness. The composition. The angular shapes of the key punch machine juxtaposed...
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A tale of three skeuomorphs
The 1983 Apple Lisa wastebasket – the first trashcan in GUI historyYou’ve always been a bit suspicious of the trashcan on your computer’s imaginary desk top, and I’m here to tell you why. I know what...
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The last interview
Every Saturday at 8am, a certain ritual takes place. All my snoozed book-related emails resurface that time, my inbox lighting up with dozens of reminders. I respond to a few that need responding, poke...
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In the land of the lounge lizards
I open the door, exit the bar, and walk outside onto the sidewalk in a surprisingly straight line. It’s a nice, warm night. I hear muffled music coming from the inside, and the buzzing of the blinking...
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How I learned to hate InDesign
Quick updates first: I am aiming to release the book in 2022. There are still many unknowns, but people who know the printing process better than I am tell me this is doable. (I still have to go to to...
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The worst keyboard ever made
I’m writing this newsletter under duress. The last issue, one I sent just a week ago, arrived in spam folders for most people owing to a glitch in Revue – and I really wanted you to know about the...
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Moiré no more
I learned a thing long time ago, and it was: Once you print something, you can’t get it back.On the surface, this statement doesn’t make any sense. Scanners are cheap, and in 2021 some digital cameras...
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“Something magical happened to me today.”
What’s going on with the bookThere’s no easy way to put this.The book is ready to go. The writing, proofreading, typesetting are completely done, and photography’s incredibly close. The campaign video...
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The modifiers vs. the keepers
Throughout the history of keyboards, a battle has been fought by two opposing camps.On one side, there were keyboards with the modifier keys – the Shifts, the Controls, the Commands. They appeared in...
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The trip to Spain: The good parts
All of the linked photos are compressed, but they come in the original 42-megapixel resolution from my current camera. Yes, megapixel wars were and are stupid. But trust me, these are the *good*...
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The soul of an old solenoid
There are some exciting new developments on the printer/paper front. If things go well, I’ll have something to announce next time! Please keep your fingers crossed.Have you ever seen a pinball machine...
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Some good news
I finally have some good news to share. We† found the right paper and the printer that knows what to do with it, and have all the verbal agreements we need. Things can go haywire still, but this is the...
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The trip to Spain: The bad parts
In the chronology of my Spanish trip going haywire, the hard drive dying came on May 5, after me getting COVID and after the cat sitter locked herself out of my apartment, but before an airline kicked...
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A man walks into a progress bar
I’ve printed many versions of the book before using print on demand, but what arrived last week feels so much more important. It’s the first test from the actual printer in Maine I’m going to...
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The monkey lives
Happy New Year!The website for the book is ready at shifthappens.site. I’m really excited about it:you can see what the book is going to look like exactlyyou can learn so much more about what’s...
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Kickstarter launches in a week + Launch livestream details
The Kickstarter for the book will launch on Tuesday, February 7, at 9am Pacific! I will send another email before so you won’t miss it, but you can also bookmark the Kickstarter page (although at this...
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The Kickstarter for Shift Happens is live!
KickstarterI just pressed the Enter key at the right place, and the Kickstarter for my book went live.I hope you find it valuable and entertaining, and enticing enough to click on one of the tiers and...
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The big things and the small things from the last two days
If you backed the book, you have seen some – but not nearly all – of this in my first (!) backer update.The campaign updateThe Kickstarter campaign was funded within the first two hours, and at this...
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The cursed universes of Dana Sibera
The Kickstarter for Shift Happens still has 10 days to go.Please help us get to $700,000 and unlock a free nice colorful third-volume for everyone by backing and spreading the word!And now for...
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Two days until the end of the Kickstarter campaign!
Hello, friends!I’m finding Kickstarter kind of funny, because it separates milestones in strange ways. A successful Kickstarter is better than a failed one, of course, but a Kickstarter being finished...
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A to-do list of to-do lists
The dream state of writing a book is the flow state. It’s romantic, this idea that the skies part and perfect words and metaphors and connections flow straight into your fingertips at the pace ideal...
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Cover story, pt. 1
The book will start shipping soon! If you have lost track of Kickstarter updates, please supply or verify your address by following these instructions.If you are not a Kickstarter backer or later...
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Cover story, pt. 2
As the book is nearing its delivery, please check out the cute mini game I made out of the book’s slipcase. Click or tap to open Shift Happens Cover StoriesAlso, the book got a nice write-up in Ars...
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The worst thing about writing a book is that one day you’ll be done
A few sentences of dialogue from a 1968 sci-fi book changed the way I look at writing.The book is called Tales of Pirx the Pilot and written by someone who’d become my favourite author – Stanisław...
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One more prototype
Since the book will soon be delivered to about half the people who ordered it, with many to follow in the next weeks, I thought I’ll start sharing a few of the “making of” posts I had been thinking...
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