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Newsletter Archive

The latest five issues are available to everyone. Time Travelers have access to every issue.

The Longform

A deep dive into a single topic.
The latest issue of The Longform is available to everyone. Time Travelers have access to back issues.

  • Perpetually Updating
    Later, later, later. That's what we always say to those annoying popups. They hound us. They implore us to act on them. In the end, we find them supremely intrusive and frustrating. But it's the world we now live in.…
  • All The Data
    The same news comes around every few years: Friends, the TV show that shows no slowing down in popularity, moves to another streaming service. From Netflix to HBO Go Max, this is one show that always makes headlines when it…
  • The Discman was amazing. The Discman was awful.
    When it comes to music in the “before times” prior to the iPod, there was a huge boon when Sony introduced its Walkman portable cassette player. It was the first time someone could go anywhere and hear their music without…
  • I Spy With My Little TV
    The march of technology is inevitable. As time passes, components get cheaper. Manufacturing costs dwindle as efficiencies get established. What was once an expensive device to build can get lower in price with better ways to do things. From computers…
  • Reboot Madness
    Clicking around the internet, you may be looking for something new to watch. Some TV shows look interesting while some have run their course, yet continue for another season. But then you spot it. Something familiar. A title that hasn't…
  • Next Of Kin
    The unveiling of a new product is a milestone for any company. Years of R&D, hundreds of hours in meetings, immense time and money spent, all to coalesce into a single moment: the launch. Every company has high hopes for…
  • Walking The Catalog
    It's a normal Saturday afternoon of browsing shelf after shelf of items for sale. Some displays are elaborately laid out. Other sections have setups that feature wonderful layouts on the walls. In the middle of it all is a jewelry…
  • Permanent Deletion
    We scroll and eventually pause. Is it a funny photo that caught the eye? Perhaps it's a memory that the algorithm has surfaced. Or maybe it's simply some piece of content that's got way too many likes and comments for…
  • Page ‘Em
    It's a beautiful day in the woods. Far off the grid, away from stores, people, or even shelters more stable than a tent, Jeff Wilson is backpacking through deep woods. It's a return to nature that brings him enjoyment and…
  • Nuggets and Noms
    A pizza box sits on a table. Moments later two curious faces enter the frame, excited by its contents. The two keep glancing at each other while building their anticipation for what lies inside. Each speaks in a gibberish only…
  • The Paid Social Network Nobody Wanted
    In the early 2010s there were two mighty giants in the social media landscape: Facebook and Twitter. One behemoth was scrapping its way in an attempt to be a third. This company was backed by lots of money, a thoughtful…
  • The Contest to Steal Your Art
    "Win an iPad!" the flyer said. Quite the prize and one that immediately enticed my kids to read on. In only a few paragraphs it was evident what was being proposed to school-aged children: they draw and design something that…
  • Dial I for Information
    It's the top of the 5th inning and the NY Mets have a runner on first. I'm sitting with three of my closest friends at Yankee Stadium, enjoying a crisp summer evening when suddenly it hits me: I didn't check…
  • Twenty One Years and Waiting: The Fans Keeping Sliders Alive
    "What do we do now?" Those were the final words uttered by a character in the final scene of the final episode, The Seer, of the final season of the 90's sci-fi adventure show Sliders. The fate of humanity was…
  • The PC Game That Stalked You
    You log on and check your inbox. A new message has been sitting for a few hours and you anxiously click on it. It begins: Due to a fire at our Anim-X studios, we at Electronic Arts are forced to…
  • Streaming Movies at Home Will Always Be Better… and it’s Theater’s Fault
    Forget about COVID. This is the real reason I never go to the movies It’s the summer of 2008. I'm sitting in a packed theater waiting for The Dark Knight to begin. Knowing how awesome Batman Begins told the Batman…
  • Hello, Wrist
    Events happen during our lives shaping how we live from that moment on. Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007 changed everything we do. The Nintendo Entertainment System hitting the US in 1985 revived a dying industry and set off…

The Stream

Interesting and quick reads about what’s going on. The latest 25 posts are below.
Use the search at the top of the page or browse the Deep Archive to find older posts.

  • Ask Me Questions At My Funeral
    Mourning the dead is a process that differs by culture, geographic location, customs, and a myriad of other factors. One interesting turn of how technology may augment this process is…
  • The First Name Club
    The internet is a place where people make connections for a variety of reasons. None more odd & interesting was an unknown-to-me way was group chats for people who had…
  • Book On A Bench
    We've seen a boom in the availability of tiny libraries across the world. These small structures can be found in parks, outside people's homes and in other public spaces. Often…
  • The HomePod Comes Home
    In what is surely one of the most out-of-left-field announcements from Apple in a long time, they have done something I have never seen them do: They resurrected a product.…
  • Barnes & Noble is a Success Again
    In the late 90s and early aughts, it was thought that print was dead and the Internet would replace everything physical. That hasn't happened and one company has stuck around…
  • Farmers Finally Allowed to Repair the Stuff They Own
    Let's start with the end of this story first: John Deere sucks. That is the most important part to know because, like others, they have fought tooth and nail to…
  • Obi-Wan Fighting Like A Youngin’
    With the incredible computing power we all possess these days, it is infinitely fascinating to see how people can remaster, edit, and recut classic cinema into something more interesting and…
  • Is Anyone Still “Trying to fall in love” with Horizon Worlds?
    In yet more proof (like we needed any) that Facebook Meta is still falling quite short in making their virtual reality world Horizon Worlds a thing, Wired reporter Eric Ravenscraft…
  • This Could Have Been an Email
    Meetings suck. They've always sucked. Generally they go longer than they need, key people can't attend, and they can easily become unproductive which is the exact opposite of a meeting's…
  • iPhone Karaoke
    Apple Music has been in fierce competition with Spotify since the launch of Cupertino's service. Aside from Spotify Wrapped (which Apple greatly improved their version in '22), there are few…
  • Forbidden Island
    Even though it's 2023 and we think the world is extremely connected, there are still parts of the globe that are not only disconnected but visiting these locations could be…
  • Alexa, Go Away
    With the massive proliferation of Amazon Echo / Alexa devices, Amazon found a gaping hole by which to get their hardware into people's houses. For years Amazon has generally released…
  • Dead or Alive, You’re Coming With Me
    When science fiction becomes science fact, it can be awesome. Other times it can be really bad. In the case of "Asimov's Laws of Robotics", it has become reality to…
  • Library: The Streaming Service
    One of the greatest achievements in the past decade has been the ability of local public libraries ability to shift to offering more and more digital items. In a world…
  • Hive Temporarily Forced Offline
    With people looking for Twitter alternatives, because... you know why, there have been many giving Mastodon and others a try. One that has come up is called Hive, a social…
  • The Smartest Dog
    We all know dogs get excited when they see us, but is that because they miss us or know we're going to feed them? It's been speculated that dogs are…
  • Eufy’s Promise of Secure Video Was A Lie
    Anker, whose sub-brand Eufy, has built a ton of goodwill in the decade-plus it's been in business. They've created many sub-brands with Eufy being one for the home and consisting…
  • Finally, Apple Competes With Spotify Wrapped
    You know we're firmly in December when you begin seeing the plethora of people sharing their year-end Spotify Wrapped. This compilation of listening stats has been awesome to see but…
  • The Aliens Will Protect Us
    While weather and natural events can be unpredictable, modern meteorologists have done a good job of predicting storms and natural disasters. But the residents of Miramar Beach, Mexico don't listen…
  • I’m Sorry I Got Caught
    Autographs and original works of art are always collectible. For fans of Bob Dylan, his new book The Philosophy of Modern Song had a special edition: For $600 you could buy…
  • A Silly Little SmartPhone
    Over on "The Birdsite" there continues to be no end of apologists, seekers of Lord Manchild's (as I've nicknamed Musk) attention, and defenders of Elon Musk's every move. Twitter is…
  • Bob is Dead. Long Live Bob
    In one of the most public about-faces in recent history, Disney is admitting they've screwed up. Late on Sunday night, they announced CEO Bob Chapek was out as head of…
  • It Looks Like You Need a Sweater
    Does anyone like Clippy? For anyone who's initial response is "Who?" let's rewind. Back in the mid 90's, Microsoft introduced an assistant into Word named Clippy. It was an animated…
  • Evernote’s End
    One of the longest-running and successful apps on iOS has been Evernote. This note-taking app was an amazing piece of software in the early days of the iPhone. From OCR…
  • Roof Shark
    Sometimes art can be subtle and other times it is expressive. Then there are the statement pieces that become icons. One such art installation is over in Oxford in the…