Error States explores how things go wrong.
How do public digital things such as software, hardware, and AI break? And what the implications of that are as we move from analog to digital public infrastructure?
Things go right in few ways, and wrong in infinite ways.
Deep Dives
>> Making sense of how things work and how things break.
A Trip to the Airport / Digitized Wayfinding
23 January 2022 4 min read
Airports are logistics-centric data fiends. Flights are constantly being routed and rerouted. The showcase of data is an integral part of the experience. So when screen critical to the traveler's experience fail, you take notice. And when it happens over and over…
What is Integration Testing?
05 September 2021 2 min read
On June 17th, HBO accidentally sent out an email meant for only internal developer audiences. This email was an integration test, confirming that the code was running as intended. Except, they sent it out to everyone... by an intern.
Drift and Degradation: On Preserving Digital Media
27 September 2020 12 min read
Much of our known history is told through artifacts that we have left behind. We know about how objects and records that are preserved – intentionally, accidentally, or otherwise - drift in meaning over time. How does digital media drift and degrade?
Dear "First Name"
08 July 2020 3 min read
When personalization goes wrong, you get to peak behind the curtain. It's all just a bunch of variables holding together the same message everyone else got.
The Internet of Pipes
04 April 2020 6 min read
The "cloud" is really just a bunch of computers in someone else's closet, connected by literal pipes and wires.
Distributed & Weathered Hardware at Scale (LinkNYC Edition)
19 February 2020 5 min read
Public monuments and infrastructure often gain a lovely patina from people touching them over the course of decades and centuries. Digital public infrastructure gets warped hardware, malfunctioning screens, and internal fogging in months.
View all 6 deep dives →
Briefly
>> Notes and links from around the web.
Microservices Failures
20 November 2022 Filed under: Software
Why Meta’s Giant Science-focused AI Model Only Survived 3 Days
20 November 2022 Filed under: AI & ML
Why the Milwaukee Bucks Can't Wear Cream Uniforms (Hint: It's because it interferes with courtside digital ad placements)
18 November 2022 Filed under: Machine Vision
The Last Remaining Manufacturers
24 October 2022 Filed under: Hardware
Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates
20 October 2022 Filed under: Software, Healthcare
Cloudflare silently deleted my DNS records
19 October 2022 Filed under: Software
A new way to think about your favorite game’s code
19 October 2022 Filed under: Software