The Catalog of Distinctive Type, a visual catalog of distinctive and damaged printing type originating in books published in England from 1660 to 1700

A periodic reminder that you can subscribe to my newsletter Humane Ingenuity on my website

New issue of my newsletter: “Books, AI, and the Public Good: A New Grant” — A Mellon-funded project to develop an ethical, public-interest way to incorporate books into artificial intelligence

New issue of my newsletter: “Synths and Sensibility” — From Beethoven to Kraftwerk, innovative artists have used new technology to make music more human, not less

New issue of my newsletter: “No Happy Medium for Books” — A court ruling curtails the circulation of the written word

New issue of my newsletter: “Break Expectations” — Where does the ability of AI to mimic human expression end? Poetry provides a helpful case study

New issue of my newsletter: “AI Comes for Music”—As the record labels sue AI companies for generating derivative songs, let us ask: What makes a song original and human anyway? (Includes non-spoiler references to Robin Sloan’s new novel Moonbound.)

New issue of my newsletter: “Humane Ingenuity 53: Books are Big AI’s Achilles Heel”—AI companies may have the money and the data centers, but they are badly in need of what humble libraries have in abundance. (Co-authored with Dave Hansen of Authors Alliance)

One way of seeing the eclipse here in Boston: a graph of the electricity produced by the solar panel array on the roof of my library, with peak eclipse at 3:30pm

From the Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections, a photo of viewers of the 1994 solar eclipse, when safety glasses were less advanced

New issue of my newsletter: “Humane Ingenuity 52: Is Science Becoming Conceptual Art?” — A combination of new technologies may represent a new era for science, but one in which the lone scientist may no longer need her lab mates. Is that a good thing?

My friends at the the American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning at CUNY Grad Center are looking for a new Assistant Director for Digital Projects, great position with great people, might be you!

How much does it cost to save a book for 100 years, or forever? What about a web page? I look at hidden long-term preservation issues for cultural artifacts, print and digital, in the new issue of my newsletter Humane Ingenuity. Plus: Apple’s vision (not the Vision Pro)

New issue of my newsletter: “Apple’s Vision + The Cost of Forever” — revisiting the original design documents for the Macintosh computer to understand why we’re in a love/hate relationship with Apple, and a comparison of how much it costs to save a book and a web page forever.

Just a test to check federation from good ol’ social.dancohen.org to @dan@social.dancohen.org on ActivityPub/Fediverse/Mastodon and @social.dancohen.org on AT protocol/Bluesky.

Rwanda’s 500 franc note still has the One Laptop Per Child XO on it.

New issue of my newsletter is out: “The Power Broker at 50” — why Robert Caro’s book The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York remains vital for understanding how power is acquired, used, and preserved. I hope you’ll give it a read.