Theme selector

Two weeks ago I added dark mode to this website. It was late one night and I was revisiting an article and my eyes were tired, so that was that. It was based solely on system dark mode settings, and I started using some more nice, modern CSS features like light-dark() to tie it…

A brief history of specifiers and protocols

If you’re running JavaScript on a server, how do you import a module? Traditionally, imports looked like this, with CommonJS: const axios = require('axios'); But now they look like this with ECMAScript Modules: import axios from 'axios'; // Or, less often, dynamically: cons…

2025 Year in Review

Well, nearly another year in the books. How did it go? It’s genuinely surprising to me how consistent my reading stays year-over-year. I don’t set reading goals or have a predictable pace, and every year has at least a month in which I’m reading nothing, my momentum gro…

Recently

This’ll be the last Recently in 2025. It’s been a decent year for me, a pretty rough year for the rest of the world. I hope, for everyone, that 2026 sees the reversal of some of the current trends. Watching This video from Daniel Yang, who makes spectacular bikes of his…

Val Town 2023-2025 Retrospective

It’s the end of 2025, which means that I’m closing in on three years at Val Town. I haven’t written much about the company or what it’s really been like. The real story of companies is usually told well after years after the dust has settled. Founders usually tell a hero…

Recently

Hello! Only a day late this time. October was another busy month but it didn’t yield much content. I ran a second half-marathon, this time with much less training, but only finished a few minutes slower than I did earlier this year. Next year I’m thinking about training at a…

Recently

Some meta-commentary on reading: I’ve been trying to read through my enormous queue of articles saved on Instapaper. In general I love reading stuff from the internet but refuse to do it with a computer or a phone: I don’t want all my stuff to glow! So, this led me to an ab…

Satur Daze

It's earlier than it appears. One of my readers tells me another reader (they're social!) told him she liked it when this blog was all long posts, rather than almost-daily sets of tweet-like ones, such as I posted yesterday and the day before.  My original blog was a mix of bo…

Got Over $5,000 in Camera Gear? Check This Out

Hey pros! Listen up! Our photography insurance program is designed to be there when photographers really need it! We’re giving you more than the competition can in different ways! Here’s a little-known fact: the warranty of your camera or lens doesn’t necessarily cover wha…

On AI: Environmental Impact

Earlier in 2025, I started to poke around and experiment with using LLM-based AI. My purposes have largely been educational. While I absorbed the basics of machine learning during my general computer science education, I have never engaged directly with the topic and have not s…

Kodak PIXPRO C1 Review: The Hottest Camera of 2025

Holding the Kodak PIXPRO C1 in my hands is such an internal push and pull in so many different ways. Back in August, we reported on how they're at the top of the compact camera game. And even through October, it was clear they weren't going anywhere. When I power it on, let the…

Pole Vault Pole

Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Christmas

In 2002, Aardman Animations produced a series of short episodes called Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Contraptions. In each episode, Wallace unveils a new invention, which Gromit then has to deal with. For the holiday season, Aardman has packaged a few of these short shorts into…

“The embrace of the unitary executive theory by both the president and...

“The embrace of the unitary executive theory by both the president and the [Supreme Court] has given us the worst of all worlds: an ultrapowerful presidency without an actual president at the helm.”

On reading Proust vs experiencing the world intermediated by screens (even when...

On reading Proust vs experiencing the world intermediated by screens (even when you’re not on one). “Your attention is, on a foundational level, all you have. This is why it feels worse than bad to waste it. It feels annihilating.” 💬 Join the discussion o…

This Week in the IndieWeb

December 12-19, 2025 Recent EventsFrom events.indieweb.org/archive: Homebrew Website Club - Düsseldorf/Germany Thursday, December 18 at 6:00pm DÜSSELDORF, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Xafé im KAP1 BibliothekscaféHomebrew Website Club (HWC) Düsseldorf is an in-person meeting for e…

Love Your Old Camera? Then You’ll Probably Love Our Coverage

In 2025, we’re trying to get to a minimum of 2,000 subscribers as part of our membership program! Capture One is discounted for members! The New Phoblographer membership is now based on our website. Yes, we moved away from the app. It was a bittersweet move — but what we’r…

If you want to see the future of clean energy, you have...

If you want to see the future of clean energy, you have to go to China. They have flying 2-seater taxis, lunch delivery drones, robots that can swap your empty EV battery in 3 minutes, bullet trains, driverless taxis, etc. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org ��…

Inkblot Books via the Public Domain Review. These pre-date use of the...

Inkblot Books via the Public Domain Review. These pre-date use of the inkblot in the Rorschach test. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Time to Why

High Minded Complain about his politics all you like (I have problems too), but dig the weird fact that FCC Chair Brendan Carr likes to climb towers, as did my father (who helped build the George Washington Bridge). As did I too, back in the decade. (My shots from the Mt. Sutro…

“The Global Village Construction Set is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform...

“The Global Village Construction Set is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.” 💬 Join t…

The Best Lenses for Your New Nikon D850

Nikon cameras have been pretty excellent in many ways. The company's mirrorless lineup is inclusive, with models such as the Z9 and the Z6 III offering the opportunity to photograph people of color in low-light conditions. You also have better readout speed and autofocus, thanks…

Light Fantastic

Using thousands of photos taken by NASA astronauts Butch Wilmor and Don Pettit earlier this year from the International Space Station, Seán Doran made this incredible timelapse called Light Fantastic. 21,837 images across 18 time-lapse sequences photographed by NASA astronau…

A report from one of the competitors in a parallel parking championship....

A report from one of the competitors in a parallel parking championship. “You’ve got to get uncomfortably close. Those bumpers are called bumpers for a reason.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Savory Rice Krispies treats? “Savory chicken fat and fried onions push Rice...

Savory Rice Krispies treats? “Savory chicken fat and fried onions push Rice Krispies Treats into gloriously salty-sweet territory.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

In 2023, seismologists detected a “global hum” originating in Greenland that lasted...

In 2023, seismologists detected a “global hum” originating in Greenland that lasted for 9 days. A rockslide triggered a 200m-high tsunami that sloshed back & forth in a fjord every 90 seconds, slamming into the fjord’s walls “like a beating heart”. 💬…