Daily Archives: 2024-10-20

Article note: Ugh, the MIT hype machine is ridiculous even by modern academic standards. The finding is that copper doped PLA filament exhibits PTC (positive temperature coefficient; resistance increases with temperature) properties, and they can make a resettable fuse. Which is neat but not terribly surprising since one of the common species of commercial PTC devices for use as resettable fuses is made from conductive particles in a polymer substrate. The suggestion of active electronics is pure bullshit clickbait.

Article note: Every time I deal with a recent Apple product (...or really most recent devices, but Apple is the worst. Most of the other makers of phones and tablets just copy some of their bad ideas.), I angrily think about what I know about discoverability and affordances from Design of Everyday Things (Norman) and Humane Interface (Raskin) who were pivotal in Apple's reputation for design. I'm very much not surprised to hear he disapproves of their recent design ethos.