Worse is better – Wikipedia

October 23, 2025
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Worse is better

Worse is better (also called the New Jersey style) is a term conceived by Richard P. Gabriel in a 1989 essay to describe the dynamics of software acceptance. It refers to the argument that software quality does not necessarily increase with functionality: that there is a point where less functionality (“worse”) is a preferable option (“better”) in terms of practicality and usability. Software that is limited, but simple to use, may be more appealing to the user and market than the reverse.

Apparently called the New Jersey style (in part, at least) as a reference to systems like Unix and C (“worse”), both developed in New Jersey at Bell Labs.

Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97 – The New York Times

October 14, 2025
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Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97

A broad assortment of delicacies, including some 800 types of cheese and various breads to go with them, covered the ground floor. One flight up was an array of cookware. A small cafe was later added next door. Zabar’s also operates a thriving mail-order business through its website and catalogs, shipping its lox, bagels and gift baskets far and wide.

 

Going on a Weed Run

October 4, 2025
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About a decade ago our town bought an old New York State prison that had been recently shuttered. They turned it into an amazing park with a loop for walkers and runners, and some light business use on the edges.

Though I have to question some of the planning… one of those “light” businesses is Green Thumb Industries, a cannabis manufacturer operating out of what looks like an Amazon warehouse. It’s a huge building, and reeks of weed.

I hadn’t realized that was the case the other day and took a jog by to check things out, only to come away with a contact high instead of a runner’s high 😛

A Salute to Song Birds

October 1, 2025
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If you happen to live in an older or historic home as we do (1880), and have access to digitized local newspaper archives (our library is, literally, the best), try searching for your address and see what comes up.

I found this sweet tribute to song birds written by a previous owner of our house (song birds are still, many years later, perennial house guests here).

Dear Editor,

Wonder how many others have been cheered by the beauty and the number of the birds during this period of snow and wind. Greater numbers than ever before of grosbeaks and song sparrows and cardinals, which this week began his lovely spring song. All winter he whistles us up in the morning.

We had the purple finches at our feeder for the first time, although others have had them before. The chickadees are still with us, so friendly and grateful for the sunflower seed, but soon as the weather warms, they will leave us, and so will the grosbeaks, but then will come the robins and wrens and catbirds and many others.

Let us be thankful that our song birds are again increasing in numbers. However with the new buildings here we have lost our Bob Whites, Mourning Doves and Pheasants who ate under our feeders. We miss them.

— Lillian M. DeKay

Also, a lost cat:

Hawks Nest

September 30, 2025
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Driving the Hawks Nest, a serpentine stretch of road built in to the cliffs high above the Delaware river, a little north of Port Jervis, NY (and Montague, NJ, where I grew up). It’s a popular scenic drive, with a few spots to stop and take in the view.

There used to be a restaurant overhanging the cliffs that we went to a lot as kids, but it burned down in 2002. I remember sharing a dish of pistachio ice cream there with my grandpa ♥️.

Marvel fans may recognize Hawks Nest as the road where Dr. Strange wrecks his car.

Typos

September 24, 2025
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I was traveling recently and picked up a bottle of Just Ice Tea while waiting to board, only to notice a typo on the label!

(I don’t usually make a habit of reading my beverage labels so closely, but I hadn’t heard of Just Ice Tea and was excited to learn it is a new brand from Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman, created in the same spirit as Honest. Seth was a regular subject of and contributor to Inc. in my time working there.)

I also don’t usually make it a priority to report typos to brands, but with time to kill before my flight, I sent a quick note to their customer service team. They were appreciative, of course, and even sent me some thank-you swag.

Lesson learned: if you see something, say something!

Ed Rutsch

September 15, 2025
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Ten years ago I blogged about renowned archeologist, and family friend, Ed Rutsch.

I noted at the time that, “when he died, a Yahoo Group was setup for his many friends to share their Big Ed stories. Because everyone has a Big Ed story.”

Yahoo Groups shut down 5 years after I wrote that post, but before it did I grabbed an export of all of the Remembering Big Ed memorial group messages and pictures so these cherished memories wouldn’t be lost.

It took another five years but, with the help of AI, I have finally cleaned up all of those messages and have made them all available so Ed’s many friends and family can read these stories and memories once again.

The Amazing Art of the Video Game Marquee

September 12, 2025

The Amazing Art of the Video Game Marquee

After a while though, I became captivated not by the games themselves but by the incredible art on the cabinets and specifically the marquee, the sign set above the screen, tempting a kid from 1983 to spend their hard-earned quarters. The marquee back then had to do a lot of work, because the games themselves were all low resolution and blocky affairs. The marquee had to sell the idea of the game, the excitement around the concept and the story because the on-screen graphics alone weren’t going to do it. So you made sure that your marquees did the job, filling it with exquisite hand-lettered logos, art borrowed from the pages of fantasy novels, sci-fi, and comics, and vivid color palettes that would shine out into the dark arcade.

These vintage marquees, to me, are such a beautiful vernacular artform that perfectly capture the moment where our lives were transitioning from the physical to the digital. So, during this long, hot summer, enjoy a gallery of video game marquees I took while walking around the Galloping Ghost.

The hardest working font in Manhattan

September 11, 2025
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The hardest working font in Manhattan:

In 2007, on my first trip to New York City, I grabbed a brand-new DSLR camera and photographed all the fonts I was supposed to love. I admired American Typewriter in all of the I <3 NYC logos, watched Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica fighting over the subway signs, and even caught an occasional appearance of the flawlessly-named Gotham, still a year before it skyrocketed in popularity via Barack Obama’s first campaign.

But there was one font I didn’t even notice, even though it was everywhere around me.

Last year in New York, I walked over 100 miles and took thousands of photos of one and one font only.

The font’s name is Gorton.

Tabstract

September 10, 2025
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Tabstract is a free Safari extension I built to save/manage tabs and reduce clutter while I work. It has all of the features I’ve missed from similar extensions like OneTab or Tab Space, and, well, it looks a lot nicer.

I built it for myself, but it’s also been a fun learning experience being a developer in Apple’s ecosystem, and not just a customer.

You can learn more about Tabstract and download it on the Mac App Store.

Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’

September 9, 2025
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Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’

For months, Google has maintained that the web is “thriving,” AI isn’t tanking traffic, and its search engine is sending people to a wider variety of websites than ever. But in a court filing from last week, Google admitted that “the open web is already in rapid decline,” as spotted earlier by Jason Kint and reported on by Search Engine Roundtable.

New Jersey Punk

September 9, 2025
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New Jersey had an incredible punk rock, ska, and hardcore scene in the mid/late-90s. Breakout bands like Lifetime, Thursday, Bouncing Souls, Bigwig, and Midtown got their start playing in the basements of northern New Jersey’s American Legions, Elks Lodges, VFWs, and fire houses.

Some kind, old punk rockers have archived many of those basement shows on YouTube. You can probably spot a teenaged and bleached-blond Paul somewhere in the crowds.

This is a clip from Outline…not a terribly popular band in our scene at the time, but they were fronted by future-megastar, Taylor Swift-collaborator, and member of Bleachers and Fun, Jack Antonoff.