VOL 3, NO 1
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I used to know how computers work. If something broke, either inside my laptop or on my website, I could usually figure it out and fix it. It was a thing I enjoyed doing. Somewhere along the way, I stopped knowing how things work and stopped wanting to figure it out. Part of that is that I bought a bunch of products and started using websites that "just work." Part of it was just me getting older and devoting more of that time to things like learning to make bread, reading books and having a few time-sucking kids. It happens.
Last winter, the arcade cabinet I built a couple years ago crapped out. Screen went black and it wouldn't turn on. I poked at it for about 10 minutes and then walked away, because trying to relearn how I made it work in the first place was too daunting, never mind troubleshooting software and hardware in a rigorous way. Too hard! Too much!
One of the time-sucking children finally complained — he had been waiting months to work on his Pac-Man score. Fair enough. The easiest solution, I figured, would be to buy the same model Raspberry Pi and just swap in the SD card and plug it in, but I didn't know if that was possible. I found a forum, signed up and asked, getting a few pretty quick answers that amounted more or less to "Maybe... but it's probably not that simple." Then one guy suggested I replace the power supply — an $8 plug — because reasons (the specifics don't matter here, but I assure you every response I got was fucking thorough. Sure enough, that's all it was and boy did I feel stupid and lazy. Don't tell my kids.
I hope you enjoyed your summer. Welcome to Pop Loser Vol. 3.
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Confusions. / 💻 Info-determinism and the ruin of society. (I added the "ruin" bit.) ❝Until very recently, the cultural cocoon we lived in was woven by other humans. Going forward, it will be increasingly designed by computers.❞ / One Million Screenshots. / Twitter '95. / Is Ben scrolling TikTok right now? / The internet's fridge. / 🗄️ Radio Shack Catalogs (dot com). / MTV News is now preserved and searchable. / Public Work, a search engine for public domain content. / The People's Graphic Design Archive. / A complete visual guide to Sony MiniDisc Blank Media (1992-2004). / 🎨 Did Duchamp steal his urinal? / 📰 SPIN and Playboy are returning to print. Music and pornography on the internet will plod along mostly not noticing. / 👾 What beats rock?
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