Linked List: February 26, 2019

Tuesday, 26 February 2019

Zhiye Liu, writing for Tom’s Hardware:

Remember when the USB 3.0 standard was eventually rebranded to USB 3.1 Gen 1? Well, history is about to repeat itself once again. The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced at MWC 2019 that the new USB 3.2 standard will absorb the prior USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 specifications.

Both USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 are to be considered generations of the USB 3.2 specification. USB 3.1 Gen 1 (formerly known as USB 3.0), which offers speeds up to 5 Gbps, will be rebranded into USB 3.2 Gen 1 while USB 3.1 Gen 2, which supports communication rates up to 10 Gbps, will be called USB 3.2 Gen 2 moving forward. Since USB 3.2 has double the throughput (20 Gbps) of USB 3.1 Gen 2, the updated standard has been designated as USB 3.2 Gen 2 × 2.

Remember yesterday when I said if I went to work for Google I wouldn’t last a day? I wouldn’t last that long at USB-IF.

The Tiny Type Museum and Time Capsule ★

Speaking of Glenn Fleishman (who, I’ll add, is my guest on the latest episode of The Talk Show), he’s got a Kickstarter project that is heading into the final two days with just a wee bit to go before getting funded:

The Tiny Type Museum and Time Capsule is a celebration of type and printing, and an effort at preserving history for future generations to re-discover. Each custom, handmade wood museum case holds a couple dozen genuine artifacts from the past, including a paper mold for casting newspaper ads in metal, individual pieces of wood and metal type, a phototype “font,” and a Linotype “slug” (set with your own message), along with original commissioned art and a letterpress-printed book and a few replicas of items found in printing shops. […]

I realize the museum’s price isn’t low, but the intent is for it to be comprehensive, authentic, and long-lasting. Sourcing and commissioning material, building a custom case designed to last centuries (and likely longer), and having the book printed in a historically accurate and archival method adds up quickly.

I wanted to do this right, have it be meaningful, and produce a treasure that will last the ages, and you’ll be proud to own, examine, and share.

Each Tiny Type Museum is $1,000, but you can get the letterpress-printed book for $200 and the e-book version is just $10. If you love typography and printing history, this project is irresistible.

The Old Guard of Mac Indie Apps Has Thrived for More Than 25 Years ★

Glenn Fleishman, writing for Macworld a few weeks ago:

The longevity of indie apps is more extraordinary when you consider the changes Apple put the Mac through from the early 1990s to 2018. Apple switched from Motorola 680 × 0 processors to PowerPC to Intel chips, from 32-bit to 64-bit code, and among supported coding languages. It revved System 7 to 8 to 9, then to Unix across now 15 major releases (from 10.0 to 10.14). That’s a lot for any individual programmer or small company to cope with.

Nice profile of four Mac apps that are each 25 years old and going strong — BBEdit, PCalc, Fetch, and GraphicConverter.