Ben Fry
@benfry.com
Emily Bressler's “I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person” for McSweeney‘s might be one of the best things written this year, and the backstory only confirms and further elevates it: www.patreon.com/posts/top-25...
Top 25 of '25: Emily Bressler's "I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I'm Actually a Really Good Person" | McSweeney's Internet Tendency
Get more from McSweeney's Internet Tendency on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Emily Bressler's “I Work For an Evil Company, but Outside Work, I’m Actually a Really Good Person” for McSweeney‘s might be one of the best things written this year, and the backstory only confirms and further elevates it: www.patreon.com/posts/top-25...
“6 or 7 characters should be plenty for a password, or maybe 8 if you must”
![Connect to the file server “borges” as:
( ) Guest
(x) Registered User
Name: [ a very large text field… ]
Password: [••••••••] [x] Add to Keychain](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3jxxtvxhel7vjozs4kg63mh4/bafkreiawqba3kf7qnfcdqmuszedu44wx4bya2chfc7xmt5xvwokant4zum@jpeg)
December 23, 2025 at 12:20 AM
“6 or 7 characters should be plenty for a password, or maybe 8 if you must”
For our holiday mailing, we gave our printers (inkjet, plotter, filament, and Paul) a break, and prepared an animated minisite with recipes from everyone in the studio.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
This year we celebrated the holidays by gathering together our favorite cozy winter treats and comfort meals to share with our friends and families.
You can visit the charming animated cookbook Paul put together to read, print, and share our recipes: www.fathom.info/holiday/25/
You can visit the charming animated cookbook Paul put together to read, print, and share our recipes: www.fathom.info/holiday/25/
December 22, 2025 at 7:49 PM
For our holiday mailing, we gave our printers (inkjet, plotter, filament, and Paul) a break, and prepared an animated minisite with recipes from everyone in the studio.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
Inspired by LEGO (or Minecraft, or pixels, or things that are blocky), it's a fun range of recipes & characters behind them.
Reposted by Ben Fry
A fun writeup from Ellory about what we've been up to at Fathom over the past year.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
As is now tradition, Ellory put together a year end recap to keep our avid fans updated on all we’ve been up to (both in and out of the office) in 2025.
It’s now up on our blog if you would like to check it out: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday season!
It’s now up on our blog if you would like to check it out: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
Wishing you all a safe and restful holiday season!
2025 at Fathom! | Fathom Information Design
2025 was a pretty mind-blowing year for our work in pandemic preparedness.
www.fathom.info
December 19, 2025 at 9:03 PM
A fun writeup from Ellory about what we've been up to at Fathom over the past year.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
If we were good at the social, we might do this every few months like reasonable people. Instead we're going long form, and if folks don't read it, we're gonna go even longer in 2026.
😍
December 19, 2025 at 7:13 PM
😍
Fascinating piece about the manifold problems with data centers in space: taranis.ie/datacenters-...
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea.
There is a rush for AI companies to team up with space launch/satellite companies to build datacenters in space. TL;DR: It's not going to work.
taranis.ie
December 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Fascinating piece about the manifold problems with data centers in space: taranis.ie/datacenters-...
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
It's not just the heat problems, but it doesn't appear to make sense on any dimension… complexity, size, reliability, cost, anything.
Super impressed with this extremely well-documented, and well-designed, open source hacking project. What a pleasant surprise: www.typeframe.net
Typeframe
A collection of open-source hardware and software for building writerdecks/cyberdecks.
www.typeframe.net
December 12, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Super impressed with this extremely well-documented, and well-designed, open source hacking project. What a pleasant surprise: www.typeframe.net
These are magnificent.
I was sent some screenshots of HTML sites around the 1994 election cycle, one of the really rare to find examples of websites playing a part in politics so early. I'll get them on the archive but now you get them too.
December 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
These are magnificent.
“So yeah, I’m having a great time with Qobuz, both because the product is genuinely better than Spotify, and because it feels like sweet release to be free of that shitpit.”
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
How to quit Spotify
This Black Friday, here's a guide to finding the best Spotify alternative
www.bloodinthemachine.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:19 PM
“So yeah, I’m having a great time with Qobuz, both because the product is genuinely better than Spotify, and because it feels like sweet release to be free of that shitpit.”
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/a-complete...
Reposted by Ben Fry
BestChristmasSongOf '70, '71, '72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84, '85, '86, '87, '88, '89, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24, '25
Donny Hathaway - This Christmas (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by RHINO
www.youtube.com
December 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
BestChristmasSongOf '70, '71, '72, '73, '74, '75, '76, '77, '78, '79, '80, '81, '82, '83, '84, '85, '86, '87, '88, '89, '90, '91, '92, '93, '94, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24, '25
Down the rabbit hole of “what European countries are not part of NATO and why?” this morning.
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
December 5, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Down the rabbit hole of “what European countries are not part of NATO and why?” this morning.
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
The history of Irish neutrality: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_n...
Reposted by Ben Fry
A charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. “Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing…” [kottke.org]
Sound Designing a Life
This is a charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing, a spray bottle sounds like rustling sheets, that sor
kottke.org
December 4, 2025 at 4:32 PM
A charming short film on how a Foley artist would sound design a day in an ordinary life. “Running hands through spaghetti noodles stands in for hair washing…” [kottke.org]
I'm terrible at marketing so I asked ChatGPT 5 to make an ad for rowboat.net
December 2, 2025 at 7:58 PM
I'm terrible at marketing so I asked ChatGPT 5 to make an ad for rowboat.net
Inverse Histogram of Seltzer Flavor Preference at New England-based Design & Software Development Studio (2025)
November 26, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Inverse Histogram of Seltzer Flavor Preference at New England-based Design & Software Development Studio (2025)
Fun with streets… from 2007, here's what a map of the United States* looks like made up of only roads.
No other features have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population.
* the “lower 48,” sorry AK & HI
www.benfry.com/allstreets/
No other features have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population.
* the “lower 48,” sorry AK & HI
www.benfry.com/allstreets/
November 25, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Fun with streets… from 2007, here's what a map of the United States* looks like made up of only roads.
No other features have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population.
* the “lower 48,” sorry AK & HI
www.benfry.com/allstreets/
No other features have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population.
* the “lower 48,” sorry AK & HI
www.benfry.com/allstreets/
Sad to hear about reductions at the MIT Libraries… I have happy memories of digging around in the ancient, musty-smelling stacks to find an obscure journal article, or going looking for a single oddball book & finding even more interesting things on nearby shelves.
libraries.mit.edu/about/vision...
libraries.mit.edu/about/vision...
Our approach to budget reductions at the MIT Libraries | About us
November 19, 2025 Dear members of the MIT community, I write to share important information about the ways MIT Libraries will reorganize to take account of budget pressures facing the Institute and ...
libraries.mit.edu
November 21, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Sad to hear about reductions at the MIT Libraries… I have happy memories of digging around in the ancient, musty-smelling stacks to find an obscure journal article, or going looking for a single oddball book & finding even more interesting things on nearby shelves.
libraries.mit.edu/about/vision...
libraries.mit.edu/about/vision...
For the past 5 years, our primary project @fathom.info has been Sentinel, led by Pardis Sabeti & Christian Happi, and an incredible cast of collaborators.
*Absolutely floored* to share that the MacArthur Foundation just awarded it their 100&Change prize.
www.macfound.org/press/press-...
*Absolutely floored* to share that the MacArthur Foundation just awarded it their 100&Change prize.
www.macfound.org/press/press-...
Sentinel Awarded $100 Million to Prevent Pandemics
www.macfound.org
November 18, 2025 at 7:33 PM
For the past 5 years, our primary project @fathom.info has been Sentinel, led by Pardis Sabeti & Christian Happi, and an incredible cast of collaborators.
*Absolutely floored* to share that the MacArthur Foundation just awarded it their 100&Change prize.
www.macfound.org/press/press-...
*Absolutely floored* to share that the MacArthur Foundation just awarded it their 100&Change prize.
www.macfound.org/press/press-...
Delighted that there's an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the concept of “spherical cows.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spheric...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spheric...
November 16, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Delighted that there's an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to the concept of “spherical cows.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spheric...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spheric...
We just shipped a desktop version of Rowboat that runs fully offline: rowboat.net
It's silly fast, the app loads almost instantly, and you can plunk a multiple gigabyte dataset into it and it just starts spilling out answers.
Lots more in the pipeline; try it out and send us your feedback!
It's silly fast, the app loads almost instantly, and you can plunk a multiple gigabyte dataset into it and it just starts spilling out answers.
Lots more in the pipeline; try it out and send us your feedback!
We just launched a desktop version of Rowboat!
* Open much larger files (offline!)
* Own Desktop as a one-time purchase.
* Use a double-clickable app that’s even faster than the web version.
Browser or desktop, your data never leaves your machine.
Read more: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
* Open much larger files (offline!)
* Own Desktop as a one-time purchase.
* Use a double-clickable app that’s even faster than the web version.
Browser or desktop, your data never leaves your machine.
Read more: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
November 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM
We just shipped a desktop version of Rowboat that runs fully offline: rowboat.net
It's silly fast, the app loads almost instantly, and you can plunk a multiple gigabyte dataset into it and it just starts spilling out answers.
Lots more in the pipeline; try it out and send us your feedback!
It's silly fast, the app loads almost instantly, and you can plunk a multiple gigabyte dataset into it and it just starts spilling out answers.
Lots more in the pipeline; try it out and send us your feedback!
Nice!
And images, you say… That would be fun, wouldn't it?
And images, you say… That would be fun, wouldn't it?
The enhanced data from @metmuseum.org (github.com/graslowsnail...) looks great in rowboat.net by @fathom.info. 🤩 I can't wait to see the images from primary_image directly inside Rowboat. 😃
November 11, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Nice!
And images, you say… That would be fun, wouldn't it?
And images, you say… That would be fun, wouldn't it?
The installer for macOS Sequoia version 15.7.1 is… 15.71 GB.
Well done, everyone. A++
Well done, everyone. A++
November 10, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The installer for macOS Sequoia version 15.7.1 is… 15.71 GB.
Well done, everyone. A++
Well done, everyone. A++
Reposted by Ben Fry
Sometimes you have an idea so dumb that you HAVE to do it (I didn’t get this up in time for Halloween though)
November 9, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Sometimes you have an idea so dumb that you HAVE to do it (I didn’t get this up in time for Halloween though)