Just as “every program attempts to expand until it can read mail”, I believe that:

Every organization expands until it commissions its own bespoke typeface.

Apple, IBM, Microsoft, etc. have all done it. Mozilla did it. Now, Figma has done it too.

See Garrity’s Law of Eponymous Laws

Which ISO standard determines how Jibbitz can work across the greater Crocs ecosystem?

I learned about the row/column grouping feature in Google Sheets. If you’re anything like me, can’t believe you didn’t already know about this.

The company I helped start, silverorange, is now 25 years old. I wrote a bit about how it feels 25 years in (it feels good!).

When we got started in 1999, we were 7 people in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

In 2024 we are 38 people spread across 8 provinces (and one Canadian working abroad in the US):

• 12 on Prince Edward Island
• 9 in British Columbia
• 7 in Ontario
• 3 in Alberta
• 2 in Quebec
• 2 in Nova Scotia
• 1 in New Brunswick
• 1 in Manitoba
• and one Canadian working in the US

(read the rest)

I wrote in 2021 that my dream car is a mythical 3-year-old electric minivan (that doesn’t exist). Later that year, I wrote up a summary of the prospects of an electric minivan (as of 2021). As of 2023 there wasn’t much of a change.

Here in 2024, I’ve given up on the dream of an electric minivan, at least for my purposes and for now. The dream is closer than ever.

• I was actually able to sit in a 2024 Kia EV9 at a local dealership. It’s a big 3-row SUV, but it’s the closest thing to an EV minivan that actually exists. It’s not cheap, but it’s not ridiculous either.
• Volkswagen says their EV minivan, the ID.Buzz is “coming to Canada in late 2024.” I suspect that means I wouldn’t be able to test drive or buy one for at least another year, and even then, I expect it will be quite expensive.

For my family, we still have (and love) our 2013 8-passenger Honda minivan. We’ve been finding we’re driving it around a lot more with one or two people in it lately though. With three kids often heading in three directions, we’re also reluctantly accepting that we have use for a second vehicle.

So, we’ve added a 2024 Hyundai Kona EV to our fleet.

• It’s the cheapest and least cool EV we could find.
• It was actually available on the lot to test drive and buy.
• Provincial and federal rebates add up to $10,750.
• It doesn’t have stupid door handles (though it does have a stupid key fob).

Farewell electric minivan dream. I hope we meet again.

Today some tourists ask me to take a photo of them. I happily obliged. They thanked me, and then they asked me to take another, this time with the phone vertical please.

I could almost feel my hair turning grey.

It’s so easy to complain about poorly-designed and poorly-built systems, and just as easy to forgot to note (or even notice) when they are well done.

I filled out the 2024 Census Test from Statistics Canada yesterday and it was pretty good. The interface was simple, understandable, fast, and allowed for a combination of mouse and keyboard input.

Well done.