Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Chess Peace

Chess Peace — a new iOS game by Sam Shepherd — is my kind of logic puzzle. Each puzzle is a board with a few unplaced chess pieces. To solve you need to place all the pieces so that none of them attack each other. There’s a timer if you care, but I don’t. Clever name too: the pieces need to be ... at peace with each other. You can download Chess Peace and try it out free of charge, and it’s just a one-time payment of $7 to unlock everything. Great simple premise, really well implemented.

Adobe’s ‘Modern’ User Interface Is Just Webpages

Nick Heer:

I was going to write about how this stuff should have been tried with people who actually use Adobe’s apps in a high-pressure environment, but I am sure it was and, also, it does not matter. Wichary has it right. These are fundamental principles of user interface design that Adobe is ignoring because its internal tooling has taken precedence.

I will quibble only with this line from Heer’s post:

Also, Adobe’s interface has always been unique and not quite at home on either MacOS or Windows.

You have to go back to the 1990s and classic Mac OS, but Adobe’s best apps used to have exemplary native UIs. Apps like Photoshop helped push the state of the art in Mac UI forward. Tabbed palettes were a revelation. Fire up, say, Photoshop 3.0 on MacOS 7.6 and see what I mean.

Also worth noting is how much this new “modern” UI isn’t just subjectively ugly, it’s objectively breaking the habits and expectations of users with literally decades of experience with Photoshop — users who, like me, remember when Adobe’s UI wasn’t just merely tolerable but actually good. It’s insane when you think about it.

How did Adobe lose that good sense of yore? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

Sources: Sam Altman discussed spinning out OpenAI's robotics and consumer hardware divisions in late 2025 to give them more room to grow; the plan was rejected (Berber Jin/Wall Street Journal)

Berber Jin / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Sam Altman discussed spinning out OpenAI's robotics and consumer hardware divisions in late 2025 to give them more room to grow; the plan was rejected  —  Company is considering an Alphabet-like structure for its portfolio of products, though no discussions are currently active

As Colorado tech leaders say that burdensome regulations are driving companies away, lawmakers introduce a slimmer version of an AI anti-discrimination bill (Owen Tucker-Smith/Wall Street Journal)

Owen Tucker-Smith / Wall Street Journal:
As Colorado tech leaders say that burdensome regulations are driving companies away, lawmakers introduce a slimmer version of an AI anti-discrimination bill  —  Proposed AI bill has many wondering whether state's regulations killing its entrepreneurial spirit

Met Gala Ends Abruptly After Anna Wintour’s Parents Get Home Early

NEW YORK—In a chaotic scene that sent rising stars, supermodels, and A-list actors scattering, the Met Gala ended abruptly Monday night after Anna Wintour’s parents reportedly got home early. According to sources, the sight of the Met Gala co-chair’s parents pulling into the Metropolitan Museum of Art driveway caused considerable alarm and distress among the […]

The post Met Gala Ends Abruptly After Anna Wintour’s Parents Get Home Early appeared first on The Onion.