I love getting targeted ads for new luxury cars. First, there's no way I can afford that. Second, even if I could, I would buy a ten year old Japanese economy car instead.

Phantom dog syndrome: I see a mailman and wonder why I don't hear barking

🕸️ Thank you James, for making “Connectivity of Things“ sail across the Atlantic! It is indeed a critique of any––presumed––network universality. And it is still, and hopefully forever available in #openaccess @mitpress.bsky.social for your reading pleasures. 👉 doi.org/10.7551/mitp... #booksky 📚

NEW PUBLICATION I reviewed Sebastian Giessmann's "The Connectivity of Things: Network Cultures Since 1832" for Information & Culture My takeaway: This book delivers historical & material specificity to talk of "network society" that's been needed for a looong time Link: dx.doi.org/10.1353/lac....

RIP Michael Parenti. Those sound bites on the Choking Victim CD got my 13 year old self saying things like “you cannot drop out of the client-state free market system!” And “the function of police is social control protection of property!” (much to the chagrin of every adult in my life)

SJSU grad student Lauren Donohue's (@stolenbytigers.bsky.social) "Against Legibility" has been selected for our school's 2025 student research showcase! How did early printers mechanize existing scribal traditions, & how did they use typography to signal authority? ischool.sjsu.edu/showcase/aga...

Out now! Issue 11.2 of Archeota, an archival studies journal published by SJSU grad students. Includes "Unrecorded Legacies: Why Masonic Archives Matter" by Audie Robinson, based on an independent study I supervised last summer. Great work Audie! scholarworks.sjsu.edu/saasc_archeo...

Folk punk band called "This Dog is a Stink Bomb"

“He noted that he keeps several models of Soviet T-34 tanks in his office at Columbia to remind himself, and his visitors, that it was not high-minded western ideals like democracy and freedom that defeated the Nazis in the second world war.” www.theguardian.com/business/202...

New Jersey: My dad got laid off from AT&T, then from IBM, then retired early, and then 9/11 happened. By the time 2008 rolled around I laughed at the idea that the economy had somehow newly “crashed.” Tech and the whole NYC area had already been fucked for years.

Bluetooth haters vindicated, cable aficionados reign supreme

On Sunday night I parked a car on the left side of my street. On Tuesday we found it on the right side of the street. No ticket, no note. How does that happen!?

Course evaluations from F25 are up now. Extra mega huge shout out to the student who wrote "his level of hard work and passion should be rewarded by more pay, a sabbatical, and a promotion to full professor" 🤣

Imagine a dog chewing gum

Today, as I turned the key in my 2007 Honda Accord, I thought: “This machine never asks me to use two-factor authentication. Or to install a software update 🥹”

Happy “the gym is going be way too crowded until mid-February” season, everybody 🌲☃️🎁

My big 2025 plans were: 30 surf sessions, 6 days snowboarding, and no broken bones. I am pleased to report I was successful on every count 🫡

Meat Puppets deserve more credit as the jam band for punk rockers who hate jam bands

Telluride ski patrollers are striking for a $24/hr wage. Seems like a pretty reasonable ask to me, considering these are highly skilled workers preventing deadly avalanches at a resort that charges many guests $200+ per day. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/u...

New article out by me and @ashleyblewer.com titled “Each character you create requires a full 15 blocks!” Preserving Video Game Memory Cards in the Age of Cloud Storage." In it, we examine the sociotechnical challenges of preserving video game memory cards. Read it here: tinyurl.com/53pnv64b

Really excited to be both presenting as part of this series and to be helping @ryancordell.org conceptualize the series as well! More from me hopefully in the coming months on this intersection between queerness, archives, and format obsolescence!

As part of our project to preserve the history of Sega Channel, we have recovered OVER 100 new Sega Channel ROMs, including the legendary lost game Garfield: Caught in the Act - The Lost Levels. Read more: gamehistory.org/segachannel/

Today’s win belongs to workers. The Protect America’s Workforce Act is advancing because federal workers refused to back down. This is how we protect our democracy. ✊🏾🎉

aaaaaand grades are posted. that's a wrap!

I'm delighted to announce that my new book, Artgames after Gamergate, is out now with Palgrave: link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Today is my last teaching day of Fall 2025 semester 👍

Never forget how stupid this was

Q: Why are reviewer comments taking so long on my article manuscript? A: They were sent to an email address from the institution I left in 2020 😭 Just a little PSA in case anyone else also needs to do a little check-up on their old neglected inboxes

In a new Points piece, Hannah Lipstein & @tamigraph.bsky.social examine VA’s Data Center Alley, and explain why their research examines not only individual sites but “how the politics, economics, & cultural factors of a place" inform effective organizing strategies. datasociety.net/points/situa...

This Tuesday, December 2, you can buy my book about books about computing... Treat yourself...😀 mitpress.mit.edu/978026255348... 🗃️ #HistSci

My book on the history of fanzines created by Washington, D.C.'s punk community was just published last month via @georgetownup.bsky.social. It's called "Keep Your Ear to the Ground: A History of Punk Fanzines in Washington, D.C." and more info is available here: press.georgetown.edu/Book/Keep-Yo...

University leadership: “We love innovation!! 😇☺️🥳” The innovation in question: theintercept.com/2025/11/21/f...

Chomsky haters vindicated, Parenti stock on a bull run

It's 1999: "Unreal" is a solo FPS that's just released a multi-player version, in response to Quake 3. It all runs on GeForce 256 graphics cards by a company called "Nvidia." It's 2025: Nvidia is a multi-trillion-dollar AI hardware company, & most 3D Anything is made in "Unreal" these days.

Workslop is the post-literate office’s lingua franca

Subway ads in NYC: “Hello diverse neighbors! Use our app to join unlimited polycules for only $7,955.99/mo!” Metro ads in DC: “It’s mission-critical. This is Patriot AI. We kill people.”

A little later today, a panel on Geographic information in information science research at #asist25 with @zlkatz.bsky.social @jameshodges.net Wade Bishop, Diana Marsch and Ia Bull. Paper free to read at asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Arrived in DC for the annual ASIS&T conference 🚂 Speaking on this panel, which the Official Conference App says is a “session with big attendance!” 🥳 Come see for yourself in Conference Theater at 2pm tomorrow (Monday) 🌎 #ASIST #ASIST25

Big congrats to Amelia, who was a wonderful mentor to me during my postdoc at UT Austin Readers! Hit me up if you want to review this for Information & Culture

New blog post! Not going to link it. Just wanted to let you know that it exists

I love seeing people go hysterical over our new mayor from 5,000 miles away. Just another 4 years of this, I’m sure it will be great 👍🏻

Our new book, Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry, is out today! Use the code DIGI-WORKERS-HOMIE on the @commonnotions.bsky.social site for a 25% discount

My alma mater is in the news! But not for good reasons. Seems like bad wiring in a decrepit frat house got someone ELECTROCUTED while tied to a metal chair for hazing. www.nydailynews.com/2025/10/25/r...

Most people don't know this, but Eddington is actually a prequel to Wall-E

When you get booted from the IRC channel but ride back in on a netsplit and kickban the ops

Very excited to share that on November 10 @discoxford.bsky.social are hosting a hybrid roundtable on Videogame preservation practices with @carrythezero.bsky.social, Alex Habgood, digital archivist at Rebellion studios, and @emarlow.bsky.social: digitalscholarship.web.ox.ac.uk/event/video-...

Scene report from Malmo following "reconstruction of one of the most iconic spots in skateboarding history, imported, piece by piece, from Philadelphia" www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/m...

FUN FACT: Bladee's hit song "Missing Person," from the "Eversince" album, is actually about about Thomas Pynchon

🌊 New article out now in Social Studies of Science 🌊 How do common web development frameworks shape our experience of coastal pollution? 🌊 Two case studies from NYC's beaches Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

*management voice* Remember the labor market after Covid? Workers suddenly had more bargaining power. AI fixes that