John Gruber on the rise in the use of *asterisks* for emphasis in the plaintext age: "Neither appeared in print until the mid-'60s, when *sigh* began appearing. But *cough* doesn't appear until 1987. Both though, exploded in usage starting in 1997, and have risen steadily ever since. So I think I'm correct that this use of asterisks has been largely driven by Internet punctuation idioms."
Emphasize *this*
The mysterious "small house" in an old IBM character set
The Glyph Drawing Club blog has a fantastic post about the "small house" to be found in IBM code page 437. Unicode has inherited it (hopefully it'll show up quoted… READ THE REST
FreeDOS 1.4 brings new life to old computers
The last version of Windows to depend on DOS was Windows ME—perhaps not the best send-off for the classic operating system—but true believers and regular users have since had the… READ THE REST
Convert normal text to Unicode homoglyphs to look silly, cool or clever
Q and Z (formerly at Panix) is a hidden pillar of the old web, converting text to appear to be upside-down, in a 𝔟𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔨𝔩𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯 typeface, Ɽ𐌵𐌍𐌉𐌂, or anything else made… READ THE REST
Sick of subscription fees? Microsoft Office 2024 is a one-time buy
TL;DR: Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business is just $159.97 (36% OFF) through April 27 at 11:59 P.M. PST — no subscription required. Microsoft quietly raised the price of Microsoft 365 for… READ THE REST
Windows 10 support is ending — upgrade Windows 11 for under $15
TL;DR: Get a Microsoft Windows 11 Pro for just $14.97 before Windows 10 support ends. Windows 10 has had a good run, but the clock is ticking with Microsoft officially ending support for… READ THE REST
This CES 2025-featured projector is now $119.97
TL;DR: Host the best movie nights on the block this summer with the $119.97 CinéMini portable projector. You've never had a movie night as good as the one you'll get with the CinéMini,… READ THE REST
