This Week in the IndieWeb

May 16-23, 2025 Recent EventsFrom events.indieweb.org/archive: Homebrew Website Club - Düsseldorf/Germany Thursday, May 22 at 6:00pm DÜSSELDORF, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Düsseldorf city librariesHomebrew Website Club (HWC) Düsseldorf is an in-person meeting for everybody who i…

Multiplayer AI chat and conversational turn-taking: sharing what we learnt

I subscribe to ChatGPT and I subscribe to Claude and I chat with both AIs a ton – but why can’t I invite a friend into the chatroom with me? Or multiple chatbots even! One that’s a great coder and another that’s more creative, with identity so I know automatically who…

I Don’t Think You Understand How Big the Latest Profoto Announcement Is

Just yesterday, Profoto announced a major upgrade in compatibility with Sony cameras. The announcement focuses on the Sony a9 III, the first camera primarily meant for still photography with a global shutter unit. Obviously, it's designed for professional photographers, sports,…

For They Shall Inherit

It’s Friday and so we’ll end the week with a pair of poems. Good Bones by Maggie Smith: Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll…

A new offering from Swiss hotels: Bees & Friends. “We’re welcoming bees,...

A new offering from Swiss hotels: Bees & Friends. “We’re welcoming bees, butterflies, insects and hedgehogs with their own charming little homes, nestled right next to our hotels.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Now on public display for the first time, at MoMA: a collection...

Now on public display for the first time, at MoMA: a collection of watercolor drawings of flowers by Hilma af Klint. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Want a Sweet Discount? Become a Member Today

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're offering you now is even better. Don't worry -- if you had a membership, we won't be leaving you behi…

Apple TV+ and filmmaker Rebecca Miller are doing a five-part documentary about...

Apple TV+ and filmmaker Rebecca Miller are doing a five-part documentary about director Martin Scorsese. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Problem with My City Is That It’s a City. “I moved...

The Problem with My City Is That It’s a City. “I moved to this city as a wide-eyed twenty-year-old, ready to take on the world with energetic abandon. Now, I’m no longer twenty years old. Something really has changed with this city.” 💬 Join the discussi…

Drafting

“Today, faced with a president who seemingly has no concern for constitutional...

“Today, faced with a president who seemingly has no concern for constitutional limitations, the carefully crafted restrictions of the Constitution appear to be unenforceable; the courts are ineffective, and Congress doesn’t seem to care.”

dmitriid is being grumpy

dmitriid: I propose a new design term: "total design failure". Definition: when every single person in the chain responsible for shipping a product looks at objectively horrendous design decisions and goes: yup, this looks good to me, release this. Designers, developers, produc…

Nikon Beats Sony and Canon in an Unlikely Way

Nikon, Sony, and Canon are the biggest manufacturers, often competing on varied fronts. From launching the best full-frame cameras to having the most sales, the trio is often not too far away from one another. Per a new report by BCN+R, one of the three companies has finally won…

Will the Nikon Z9 II Be A Major Upgrade?

The Nikon Z9 changed the face of the company when it was launched in 2022. The camera offered some exceptional innovations, such as the first professional camera for photographers without a physical shutter. It had various tracking functions, including 3D tracking. It also bring…

Leica Users, An Interesting Chinese Lens Is on the Way for M-Mount

Chinese third-party lens manufacturers have proved that they can do well. Companies like Viltrox, Thypoch, Light Lens Lab, Loawa, 7Artisans, and more have worked to build great lenses that are affordable and also create nice images. For instance, Laowa 20mm f4 Zero-D Shift, Vilt…

5 Best Selling Film Cameras on Amazon Right Now

With the onset of digital, there were many who found the technology just not pure enough. However, with time, film became expensive, and buying a digital camera made far more sense. Yet, there have still been pockets of groups that continue to invest in film cameras, for reasons…

Old school food blogger Adam Roberts has a new novel out this...

Old school food blogger Adam Roberts has a new novel out this week called Food Person in which “a young and socially awkward writer takes a job ghostwriting the cookbook for a famous (and famously chaotic) Hollywood starlet”. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke…

The Quilters

The Quilters (trailer) is a short documentary about a group of men in a Missouri prison who spend 40 hours a week making birthday quilts for foster kids and kids with disabilities. The Quilters follows the daily lives of several quilters inside the sewing room at South Centra…

Conservationists are planting giant sequoia trees in Detroit. “We’re planting the forest...

Conservationists are planting giant sequoia trees in Detroit. “We’re planting the forest of the future. Diversity is the answer. There are so many natives that aren’t happy here anymore. We have to look at what trees are thriving.” 💬 Join the discussion…

The Tragedy of Prevention: No One Knows When They Don’t Die

In a recent Vlogbrothers video and in his newsletter, Hank Green talked about how we don’t take enough notice of the things that quietly keep us alive, healthy, and safe. The tragedy of prevention goes like this: The most effective way to save lives (prevention) is the leas…

Meet the New American Refugees Fleeing Across State Lines for Safety. They...

Meet the New American Refugees Fleeing Across State Lines for Safety. They include a history teacher harassed for pledging to “teach the truth”, a doctor specializing in high-risk pregnancies, and a family w/ a trans teen. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.or…

Where is the courage and morality of our political leaders? “Corruption and...

Where is the courage and morality of our political leaders? “Corruption and greed have eroded morality in public life. Powerful people who do what is right are in short supply.”

RETO Unveils a One-of-a-Kind Point-and-Shoot Film Camera

The world of film photography allows you to experience the medium in a whole new manner. The ability to make images and then see them develop in the dark room is what makes the whole practice so enticing. While 35mm film photography has been quite popular for professionals, we h…

Pipelinefunk Gon’ Give It to You

In this video, musician Armin Küpper performs a saxophone duet with the echo of his past self by playing near the end of a large pipe. That’s pretty cool. And it’s also a learning opportunity! Hey wait, come back…you haven’t finished your bowl of physics yet: What yo…

PBS executives forced the makers of an Art Spiegelman documentary to cut...

PBS executives forced the makers of an Art Spiegelman documentary to cut derogatory mentions of Donald Trump from the film before it could air. “If PBS isn’t going to stand up for free speech, who is?”

Flashpoint Launches a Fun, Compact Flash for just $74!

An additional source of light can be a game-changer for many photographers. This works well not only for portrait photographers but also for anyone shooting street or documentary. Considering that compact flash is now the need of the hour, Flashpoint has announced iT30Pro TTL Po…

Use of semicolons by UK authors has dropped by nearly half over...

Use of semicolons by UK authors has dropped by nearly half over the past two decades. “Many writers hooked on semicolons become an embarrassment to their families and friends.” (I got a 10/10 on the semicolon quiz.) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Donald Trump is waging war on the future; he’s attempting to destroy...

Donald Trump is waging war on the future; he’s attempting to destroy America’s democracy, its economic future, a sustainable climate future, and science. “The aim, whether stated explicitly or not, is to erase the future as Americans have understood it.”

I’m Not Going There Anymore. Tony Wheeler (co-founder of Lonely Planet) lists...

I’m Not Going There Anymore. Tony Wheeler (co-founder of Lonely Planet) lists four places he’s not going back to, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the USA.

The landing zone

Also sprach Wittgenstein: Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt. Or in English, thus spoke Wittgenstein: The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. Language and thinking are intertwined. I’m not saying there’s anything to the strong f…

Ricoh Quietly Announced the Development of GR IV

Ricoh Imaging had been quiet about the future of the GR series since the launches of GR III and GR IIIx in 2019 and 2021, respectively. While we did see reports of the GR Monochrome camera or patents for wide-angle lenses, we, however, didn't hear much about the highly anticipat…