Montreal’s Ice Surfer

There’s a guy named Orion who surfs the St Lawrence River in the winter, sometimes dodging massive chunks of ice and sometimes riding them downstream, looking for waves. If you’ve ever been in Montreal near the river, even in the summer, you know how scary the water looks…

Thoughtful lessons from a Google software engineer. “The punchline isn’t ‘never innovate.’...

Thoughtful lessons from a Google software engineer. “The punchline isn’t ‘never innovate.’ It’s ‘innovate only where you’re uniquely paid to innovate.’ Everything else should default to boring, because boring has known failure modes.” 💬 Join t…

Did Nikon Discontinue This Popular Fast Lens?

Nikon cameras and lenses have been quite popular amongst many photographers. Whether you're into portraits, photojournalism, landscape, or birding, Nikon has exciting offerings for everyone. However, it appears that the company may have discontinued a popular prime lens, which w…

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about this 2015 observation on Tumblr...

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about this 2015 observation on Tumblr about the dangerous conflation of respect of personhood and the respect of authority.

The America That Could Be

The main point of Adam Bonica’s post The Wall Looks Permanent Until It Falls is about the optimism of this moment: that the US could be ripe for a Berlin Wall-falling moment that opens the door for a better future. I’m not in the mood for that message these days (IMO, our Wa…

Canon Wins 2025 Camera Sales Race, Leaving Sony Behind

The year 2025 has been an exciting year for camera sales. The industry saw the launch of models such as the GFX 100RF, Canon R6 III, and Nikon P1000. Each of the models is unique, bringing something different to the market and the industry. However, only one has managed to win o…

Astronomers have discovered an “almost-galaxy” called Cloud-9 (no, really), a failed galaxy...

Astronomers have discovered an “almost-galaxy” called Cloud-9 (no, really), a failed galaxy that contains no stars. “There’s nothing like this that we’ve found so far in the universe.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a...

Condé Nast forgot to renew the trademark for Gourmet and so a group of journalists grabbed it and are relaunching the food magazine as a worker-owned co-op. Love it. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

RAMO

Stop me if this sounds familiar to you… There’s a conference you heard about it. It sounded really good but you never got ’round to getting a ticket. You were too busy thinking about work stuff. It was just one of those things that remained in the idle thought stage. The…

PolarPro’s New Filter Lets You Design Motion In-Camera

PolarPro is one of the leading manufacturers of photography accessories in the industry. The company launched various filters, including the recently introduced PolarPro Warp Filter, which won over our editors. To add to this growing list is a new filter, which helps you capture…

Discover the 100-Year-Old Self-Playing Violin, One of the Most Complex Music Players...

Discover the 100-Year-Old Self-Playing Violin, One of the Most Complex Music Players Ever Made. “It featured three vertically mounted violins, each with a single active string, played by a rotating bow of 1,300 horsehairs.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.o…

nikitonsky is being grumpy

nikitonsky: How many ellipses do you want? Thanks Black Asthesky for the picture #Ellipsis #Dropdown #SharePoint

Photography Has a Big Gaze Problem

When you meet a group of photographers, the conversation, unsprisingly, turns towards cameras. Which camera are you using? When will you upgrade? Is Sony actually better than Canon? Why is an f1.2 lens better than an f1.8 lens? But what about the gaze? What about the contents of…

3 Great Lenses That Will Work on Your APS-C and Full Frame Canon DSLRs

Canon DSLR cameras are perfect in many ways. From budget-friendly prices to exceptional image quality, they deliver a wide range of features for their users. While the company has some offerings in its own lineup, we look at a few cheaper third-party options that only add to the…

Sailing Rigs

Could Panasonic Revive Their Best Point and Shoot?

Many years ago, Panasonic made the LX100 point and shoot camera. And for a really long time, we've been yearning for a successor to come to the market. What we got instead is the Leica D-LUX 8 camera. I truly wish that Leica had taken it a step further in nearly every single way…

Distinctions

Divide and —? Axios: "The nation is splitting into three distinct economic realities: the Have-Nots (stalling) … the Haves (coasting) … and the Have-Lots (rocketing to greater wealth)…This shift, if it holds, will rattle economics, politics and AI throughout 2026 and bey…

“I feel stuck and sad and I don’t know what else to...

“I feel stuck and sad and I don’t know what else to do.” Yeah, same.

An Optical Compass Inspired by Bee Vision

Bees use polarized sunlight scattered by the atmosphere in order to navigate; they always know where the sun is, even if it’s cloudy or behind a mountain. Then they waggle dance to inform their hive-mates about food source locations. So if a bee wants to fly straight toward…

The Publication That Doesn’t Answer to the Big Camera Brands

Real talk: if everyone who came to the site was charged $1, I’d have enough money in under a week to fund the website for the entire year without banner ads. Trust me, if I could get rid of banner ads, I would. But the truth is that they help the staff get paid, the …

Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection. “This page contains a collection of small...

Simon Tatham’s Portable Puzzle Collection. “This page contains a collection of small computer programs which implement one-player puzzle games.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Out of the 1000 most-discussed books on Hacker News, it looks like...

Out of the 1000 most-discussed books on Hacker News, it looks like around 50 of them were written by women.

Has OM System Discontinued Its Popular Camera?

OM System has introduced some iconic cameras over the years. The company launched the OM3, OM1, and Pen F, each of which remains important even today. While OM System is expanding its lineup, there are often instances where some cameras are discontinued. This is also true in the…

A Logistical Matter

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say that kottke.org moved servers over the weekend. You shouldn’t have noticed anything, except perhaps that the site is faster now. There was a small issue with the RSS feed after the migration, but that’s been resolved. If you notice any…

Train Wreck

A wreck on the Lehigh Valley trackage in South Somerville, NJ circa 1918. (via shorpy) Tags: this is a metaphor for something · trains

I loved watching this quick video recap of how Penguin designer Elisha...

I loved watching this quick video recap of how Penguin designer Elisha Zepeda made the book covers for 10 books that came out in 2025. Zepeda has a much longer look at his process on YT. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of “60 massive granite...

Using lidar, scientists discovered a 400-foot-long wall composed of “60 massive granite monoliths, set directly onto the bedrock in pairs at regular intervals”. The wall is 30 feet underwater and was built 7000+ years ago. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.or…

Pixless Camera Mk 1 Turns Fewer Pixels into True Works of Art

When was the last time you thought to yourself, “What if my next camera had fewer pixels?” Sure, it sounds silly on its face but that’s exactly what the Pixless Camera mk 1 by Andreini Imaging offers and then takes it to the extreme – the max resolution of this camera is…

3 + 4

Toward the end of 2021, I wrote about working a four-day week. It really suited me. So much so that I’ve gone one further. For the past year or so I’ve been working a three-day week. I work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. From Friday to Monday, my days are my own. Thi…

It’s Time for Pentax to Do Something Weird Again

Do you remember the Pentax MX1? It was a brass point-and-shoot camera that was beloved by many. It returned in popularity two years ago, and in many ways, it represents a time when cameras were just so much different. Truly, I wish that Pentax would make it again -- but without…