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Building in public 👉 github repo / changelog

Month: January 2011

Fonts In Use

See examples of Fonts In Use. The site takes a look at various web and print sources, and examines which typefaces are used. You can also narrow the results down to a specific font and see samples of it in action. File this one away for inspiration.

Growing up with aging tech

Question: What are the Windows A: and B: drives used for? It’s the type of thing that makes you feel like an old nerd. It reminded me of one of my teaching experiences late last year — one of the kids was looking at the title page of his planner (which contains all of the school’s contact information), and proceeded to ask me what a fax was. In a somewhat related note, both my father and brother say that faxing is still widely ingrained within the medical profession, and seemingly the legal profession as well.

Rushdie’s digital archives

During the past thirty years, writers have shifted from typewriters or pen and paper to word processors, adding a new layer of complexity to the tradition of archiving their work. Emory obtained Salman Rushdie’s archives, including notebooks, photographs, manuscripts, and a number of old computers. In The Author’s Desktop, Emory Magazine details the effort put into preserving his work for both academics and the general public. Rushdie’s archives were relatively easy to access, but others can prove much more difficult:

A particular challenge, she says, is that technology may have moved beyond the hardware or software artifacts in an author’s archive. For example, working parts may be difficult to find for a broken, early model computer, disks might be unable to be read, programs the author used might be outdated (think eight-track tapes without an eight-track tape player).

It’s not just hardware, software formats change too. The team had to do a lot of file conversions to make the documents available on modern systems. The files will probably need to be upgraded again and again. We could end up with the modern version of the transcription errors that occurred as scribes copied out manuscripts.

Rosetta Type

Rosetta is a new independent type foundry created by David Březina, José Scaglione and Veronika Burian. They are focused on creating multi-script typefaces that are technically sound and aesthetically pleasing.

One of the main objectives of the foundry is to create a retail library of high-quality typefaces that are respectful of the traditions and cultural background behind each of the supported scripts. Rosetta actively promotes team-work and collaboration between designers, consultants and language specialists.

Our tired FOI system

Canada’s freedom of information system is a little bit outdated.

The authors criticized Canada FOI law as an antiquated system that generally prevents citizens from filing requests electronically and compels them to submit paper cheques to cover fees. Under the Access to Information Act, any resident of Canada can request government-controlled information, such as a bureaucrat’s expense claims or a minister’s briefing notes, for an initial $5 fee. The application is subject to a range of exemptions.

Paper, cheques… seriously? I’m sure we can do better.