Richard MacManus

Today I'm launching season 5 of Cybercultural: the history of web design from 1993 till 2012. It will be a celebration of the peak years of personal websites and blogs! My intro post explains the structure and a few of the main themes I'll be exploring (e.g. personal web design vs platform peer pressure). I invite you to subscribe now for weekly updates via email or RSS.

Cybercultural

The History of Web Design, 1993–2012: Season 5 Launch

Introducing Cybercultural's history of web design, from the grey web pages of 1993 to the colorful, mobile-centric web designs of 2012. A celebrati...

#WebDesignHistory

Open question: how do tech folks keep track of interesting events and conferences you might want to attend. Back in Web 2.0, Upcoming was great for this. I know @Andy Baio resurrected it several years ago, but not sure if it’s currently maintained (it seems to only have a Twitter login option, for example). Is there an Upcoming for the fediverse? Or somewhere else to see what events e.g. @Andy Piper is going to this year? I.e. a social events app that isn’t Twitter-based (Bluesky would be ok tho).

To commemorate the 79th anniversary of David Bowie's birth & nearly the 10th anniversary of his passing, I've written a mini-history of Bowie's website from 2004 to 2016. BowieNet, his pioneering social network, had basically been discontinued. But when his website did reactivate in 2013, Bowie conspicuously shunned social media ("Dropped my cell phone down below"). We can learn a lot from him.

Cybercultural

After BowieNet, David Bowie Goes Dark and Shuns Social Media

From 2004, BowieNet enters a long period of stasis. When David Bowie unexpectedly returns with a new album in 2013, his website is reactivated — ...

#BowieForever 👨‍🎤

Hooray for all of us little mammals! (and the Mastodon instances, big and small) "When the get-rich-quick folks left the scene, those of us who remained, who truly loved the web as a creative and expressive medium, found a ton of opportunity in being the little mammals amidst the sad dinosaurs trying to find funding for meteor dot com."

500,000 tech workers have been laid off since ChatGPT was released - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

by @Anil Dash

Over the holidays I’ve been reorganizing my RSS reader. Firstly, I migrated from Feedly to Feedbin (and am also using NetNewsWire as my iOS app). That’s all thanks to the suggestions I got in a previous Mastodon thread. Secondly, I have been pruning my feeds…some had become inactive over the past several years, either a) because the feed URL changed, or b) because the person stopped blogging or updating their website. Latter makes me sad when they don’t seem to have moved anywhere…just stopped.

I want to become more focused on my RSS Reader again next year. So I have been pondering if I should switch away from Feedly, which I have been using since...well *you know what* happened. It's browser-based always for me, but anyone have suggestions? "While it's still traditional to bemoan the death of Google Reader all the way back in 2013 in any article about RSS, I'll skip the eulogy. The world of RSS apps has moved on..."

The 3 best RSS reader apps in 2026 | Zapier

These 3 free RSS reader apps let you find a replacement for Google Reader—or just start enjoying your favorite content chronologically.

This is a very smart marketing ploy, to be the only non-AI browser. But it’s wise they have left the door open a little for if/when AI shrugs off the issues that currently dog it: “We will continue building a browser for curious minds, power users, researchers, and anyone who values autonomy. If AI contributes to that goal without stealing intellectual property, compromising privacy or the open web, we will use it. If it turns people into passive consumers, we will not.”

Vivaldi Browser

Vivaldi takes a stand: keep browsing human | Vivaldi Browser

Browsing should push you to explore, chase ideas, and make your own decisions. It should light up your brain. Vivaldi is taking a stand. We choose ...