Notes
Short observations, responses, and things I wanted to remember.
Latest note
AI Policy Could Price Startups Out of AI
Brendan Bordelon reports nearly 200 startups urging against broad bans on Chinese open-weight models—arguing the U.S. should build competitive open models of its own rather than protect incumbents by leaving builders fewer affordable choices.
Inspired by businessinsider.com · Brendan Bordelon
Archive
2026
CodePen Grew Up
Chris Coyier introduces CodePen 2.0’s largest rebuild—file systems, Blocks, one-click deploy, versions, and collaboration—arguing the original made it easy to try one small idea in public, and 2.0 lets that idea grow before you have to leave.
Inspired by blog.codepen.io · Chris Coyier
We Made Lighting Cheaper, So We Used More of It
Paul Bogard examines how cities turned efficient LEDs into another source of excessive night light—arguing programmable, directional fixtures should illuminate only where useful, and that darkness should not be treated as a design failure.
Inspired by spectrum.ieee.org · Paul Bogard
Physical Games Did Not Die by Themselves
Kyle Orland examines collapsing US physical-game sales as Sony ditches discs—arguing the decline is real, but calling abandonment “practically inevitable” turns a profitable corporate choice into a force of nature rather than a decision that finishes physical ownership off.
Inspired by arstechnica.com · Kyle Orland
The Future Still Runs Windows 98
Jordan Scales’s 98.css rebuilds Windows 98 chrome in HTML and CSS—arguing a JS-free design system for retro UIs is useful for experiments and games, and that nothing sells a futuristic space prison quite like an AOL free-trial icon on the desktop.
Inspired by jdan.github.io · Jordan Scales