Eric Carl

Watched The Fall for the first time (which I enjoyed) and was mildly struck by the much younger Lee Pace, especially as the film still looks modern. A few decades ago film making fidelity and actors aged together. But now film fidelity stays mostly consistent, while actors clearly age, and it […]

Modern computer work is something like: click link in application window, browser window A opens, OS message asks to open application, application opens, sign in via SSO, updates are available, restart application, sign in via SSO again, browser window B opens, OS asks if it can open application […]

If you’re looking for a spooky film to watch this time of year, I’d strongly recommend The Beast by Bertrand Bonello. Wikipedia describes it as “science fiction romantic drama” but I think it’s psychologically unsettling enough to make it appropriate for the season. One of my favorite films of […]

R. Crumb: Tales of Paranoia | Los Angeles | October 10—December 20, 2025 | David Zwirner David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of new drawings and prints by renowned illustrator and cartoonist R. Crumb (b. 1943), on view at the gallery’s Los Angeles location.

Can’t believe R. Crumb has new work on display in LA. Would absolutely go if I was around: https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2025/r-crumb.

Made a little prototype of my lo-fi game inventory screen: https://ericcarl.link/null-inventory/. Didn’t test it much so can’t guarantee it will work that well, but here’s a video version: https://ericcarl.link/images/null-inventory-sd.mp4. Only item selection works for now. I did try a […]

All I ask is to be able to edit the CSS of every Electron based app to change the button cursor to the default OS pointer instead of the gloved hand (which should be reserved for links between web pages).

WILL ADLER cargo.site Will Adler is a Santa Barbara based photographer and commercial film director. His visual storytelling has taken him all over the world for brands and magazines. Aside from his commercial work Will has exhibited his photographs internationally.

Okay, spooky season avatar activated. Better late than never. Hope Will Adler, amazing photographer of seagulls and more, doesn’t mind. Do appreciate their work: https://willadler.com.

Screenshot of Dia browser’s AI chatbot. I first ask if Dia runs on Chromium, it says no. Then I ask again and it says yes.

Very smart technology, yes very good.

I guess this counts as math rock? https://shellac.bandcamp.com/track/new-number-order

Feels like a math rock kind of day: https://hella.bandcamp.com/track/biblical-violence

Folks in the digital product design space likely often hear about the importance of “delight”. There’s been a blog post in my head for ages that amounts to essentially “delight is mandatory fun.” Since I likely won’t ever write it, here’s a speculative tl;dr: Preoccupation with “delight” risks a […]

Classic Web (@classicweb@indieweb.social) Attached: 1 image One thing I miss about web designs from 25 years ago is the columns... in the mobile era, columns went extinct. saimasays.com in 2001 https://web.archive.org/web/20011120010402if_/http://saimasays.com:80

True https://indieweb.social/@classicweb/115339124976068164

Screenshot of the interface of a desktop vector graphics editing tool. A toolbar is on the left, property panels on the right, and some geometric vector artwork is placed on the canvas in the middle.

This weekend I published a page outlining a concept for a speculative vector graphics editing tool focused on geometric shapes. I had put this together a few years back as a hack sprint project at the day job, but never got around to sharing it elsewhere […]

[Original post on merveilles.town]

Mockup of an inventory screen for a computer game. It features a grid of 3D item thumbnails each rendered in a low-fidelity 3D wireframe style. Text elements on the screen use a monospaced typeface. The background of the screen is black and all foreground elements are grey.

Been playing with a design for the inventory screen in my lo-fi urban walking simulator. Mostly happy with it so far! The text in the lower left corner is a terminal-style feed that’s also visible when the inventory is closed. Seems like it should remain […]

[Original post on merveilles.town]

Ableton Live 12.3 is coming – with Stem Separation and more Ableton Live 12.3 is now in public beta. See what’s new in the next update, free for all Live 12 users – and try it today.

Computer music makers — Live 12.3 beta available today: https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/live-12-3-is-coming/. My team worked on a small but handy new feature — A/B compare of built-in instruments and effects. Hope you like comparing!

Managed some minor updates to my website: ericcarl.link. I mainly increased the max width (from around 1440 to 1920), which meant enlarging most images (and unfortunately increasing file sizes). I did also consider refactoring all my CSS, but resisted the urge. Still playing with some […]

Modern digital product design leans way too heavily into autocomplete (as in, when you type and suggestions for what might come next are displayed). My friend (you, the computer), please anticipate my needs less, you are too often wrong.

When a room has a column in it, people tend to stand around it. Isn’t that interesting?

I sometimes wonder if products that promote new features, events, etc., directly within the product aren’t fundamentally adversarial. You have the interests of the software maker, and the interests of the user, and it would seem they can easily conflict.

Classic Web (@classicweb@indieweb.social) Attached: 1 image Macromedia Dreamweaver on December 02, 1998 https://web.archive.org/web/19981202011445/http://www.macromedia.com:80/software/dreamweaver/

Classic https://indieweb.social/@classicweb/115033018137576942

Nameless King in Dark Souls 3 is going to be the end of me.

Photograph of a small brown cardboard box containing a modular synthesizer module. The box is sealed with a green sticker labeled “MF2” in a geometric typeface and includes some additional nicely designed technical details.

Photograph of a portion of a silver modular synthesizer rack with the aforementioned Toppobrillo Multifilter 2 module (black version) installed.

New module acquired (number four), Toppobrillo Multifilter 2. I was looking for something that could morph between filters, and the people at Schneidersladen (great shop and people) recommended this beauty. Nice packaging too!

Just some rare noodling with the modular.

[Slightly strange animated gif involving a toilet]

Yikes, I didn’t realize Mastodon converted gifs into compressed videos. That got properly trashed. Oh well, here’s the real thing: https://ericcarl.link/elsewhere/toilet-blue.gif.

[Slightly strange animated gif involving a toilet]

Don’t mind me, just experimenting.

Amazing https://mastodon.social/@kepano/114871343744754732

I finally disabled autoplaying videos on all websites, and mostly it’s been great. That is, except for the frequent times now when websites that aren’t designed for it are awkwardly broken (mine included actually).

And I’m coming from the perspective of working on creative tools, where success metrics are more ambiguous. Compared to something like, a sales funnel, where line go up or down.

There’s a common sentiment in UI design that even though a design change is an improvement, users might still react negatively simply because it’s a change. Something like “give it time, they’ll get used to it”. And while this is often true, it can also backfire, because users can get used to a […]

I rather like screens actually. They’re kinda like paper, except they’re interactive. That’s pretty useful!