2025–03–06
1403/12/16
ANNO·VICESIMO·NONO·DIE·QVINQVAGESIMO·SEPTIMO·VITÆ·POVYA
![This image is a digital collage on a blue background, featuring photos of three distinct gadgets and your handwritten reflections on their design.
*Handwritten Text:
Thinking about the 'Lumon' Terminals (Dasher D2 / D3) and my WMF timer; and the awesome WikiReader; I have found a shared beautiful form and design which is perhaps the most beautiful for me.
Visual Description:
[A collage highlighting a specific aesthetic of 'boxy but curved' retro-futuristic hardware:
WMF Timer (top-left): A square digital timer with rounded corners, a black face, and a white outer shell. The display shows '10:00' in a segmented white font.
Lumon Industries Terminal (top-right): A vintage-style computer monitor with a dark blue bezel and a beige/white body, mounted on a stand. It resembles the ==Data Refinement== terminals from the show Severance*.
*WikiReader (bottom-left): A handheld device with a monochrome e-ink screen being held by two hands. The screen displays a Wikipedia entry for 'Toyo Ito.'
The three items are connected by small white arrows and labels, emphasizing their shared design language of square-ish frames with soft, rounded edges.]](/photographs/thoughts/2025/03/06/my-favorite-devices-1.webp)
Design of My Favorite Devices (1/2)
![This final image breaks down the design elements of the Lumon-style terminal into a 'formula.'
*Handwritten Text:
Kind of white then Black/Dark layers Squircles everywhere
Super Minimal
And this is the formula
Visual Description:
[A blue background featuring a centered photo of the retro-futuristic terminal. Several thin blue arrows point to specific parts of the device to illustrate the design principles mentioned in the text:
An arrow points to the outer beige casing, labeled 'Kind of white'.
An arrow points to the dark blue/black bezel around the screen, labeled 'then Black/Dark layers'.
Two arrows point to the rounded corners of the screen and the outer frame, labeled 'Squircles everywhere'.
An arrow points to the simple adjustment knob on the side, labeled 'Super Minimal'.
The yellow handwritten text on the right concludes that these combined elements form the specific aesthetic 'formula' you admire.]](/photographs/thoughts/2025/03/06/my-favorite-devices-2.webp)
Design of My Favorite Devices (2/2)
Quotes & Excerpts
@Shannon was looking for a mathematical procedure that was best suited for describing the behavior of relay circuits. His thesis showed how George Boole’s algebra could be used to describe the operations of these complex circuits. And he was not unaware of the implications if the fact that these circuits could now be designed to represent the operations of logic and arithmetic.
During the war, working at top-secret defense projects for Bell Laboratories, @Shannon was involved in cryptological work that brought him into contact with Turing.
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