Season 4, Issue 4: 🌞🌚 Total Eclipse
We hope you wore solar glasses.
Hello friends. Last week was a scary one for us East Coasters. On Friday the earth beneath our feet shook, and then on Monday this happened:
What other exciting natural phenomenon will happen next week? 😅
1. Team Inbox
If you’ve emailed us in the past month, you’re among the first people on Earth to have received an email from our new shared inbox software.
That might not mean a lot to you, but it’s incredibly exciting for us. The product is functioning and we’re using it daily! We’re improving it based on our own real-world usage, and each day we see it inching closer to a Good Enough Product™.
Our next goal is to bring the software to the point where we feel comfortable inviting a few early alpha testers. (Adding a few more quality-of-life features, smoothing out some UX rough edges. We have high standards for what is good enough for others. 😎)
If you’re interested in being an early alpha tester of a super simple & friendly shared inbox software, please email us!
2. Some People Are Good Enough: Jessamyn West
A while ago, a kind reader emailed us and suggested that we interview people in our community and feature them in this newsletter. We love the idea! So, here’s the beginning of a new interview column: Some People Are Good Enough. We’d like to interview people who have drawn on our Guestbook, started a blog on Pika, or made a list on Album Whale. If you’re one of them and would like to be featured in this newsletter—write us!
Our very first interviewee is Jessamyn West who left a fun drawing of moss on our Guestbook.
Who are you?
I'm a Vermont librarian and technologist who also exists in some extremely online spaces. I own MetaFilter and help run MLTSHP.
What’s one thing about libraries that most of us don’t know, that you wish we’d know about?
We're a huge distributed mutual aid network of information, technology and, most importantly, the people who can help you navigate those things. There are a lot of archives of stuff out there and a lot of inaccessible technology; that's not us. The public library (in the US anyhow) is for everyone.
Why moss? (And do you really collect moss!?)
I'm not sure why exactly. I used to not really be able to grow houseplants (since COVID I've improved) and moss was a thing that was readily available, could be easily taken care of, and brought some green into my wintertime. I even have a web page that tells you how to make moss terrariums (please excuse my http).
Thanks, Jessamyn! You can learn more about Jessamyn from her website and blog, or follow her on Mastodon!
3. Sharing is Caring
Cool links for you cool people:
xkcd machine. Barry was amazed by this game: “You can play with it and then if you complete one…you submit it, name it, and get into an entirely different space to look at.”
Revolutionary pizza invention. James took a break from his paternal leave to share this with us.
In B Flat is a lovely, simple site. Only works on laptop / desktop tho!
The Flipbook Experiment by The Pudding: 13,489 frames drawn as of this writing!
Albums from Reservation Dogs. Great list for a great TV show!
And some great, recent blog posts on your favorite blog software, Pika:
An incredible, cosmic story by Phil B. ❤️ I love everything about this story.
Instead of investing in the S&P 500, invest in the "S&Me 500”. Mike Karnj urges you to invest in yourself.
Ben Tsai went looking for a knee scooter and ended up discovering a Don Norman wisdom. I still don’t know what a knee scooter is! But what a great reminder that, yes to usability and accessibility, but also: aesthetics, pleasure, and fashion, please!
Brendon Bigley was shook by the recent earthquake and thought about Twitter and Threads. A trip down the social media memory lane.
Foofaraw shares how they come up with their new banners. I’ve been following the adventure of this new indie media startup and thoroughly enjoyed these illustrations!
4. In Conclusion
Barry recently re-published a blog post about his very first computer program, which was written for this amazing looking machine:
Do you remember your first computer program? If you do, please share your story with us!
Please remember to hydrate yourself and don’t forget to water the plants. See you in a week or two (or three). ✌🏼🌸