Dept. of Minor Observations
A repository of bulletins, field reports, working papers, and notices concerning small thoughts, odd details, internet archaeology, abandoned drafts, and gentle critiques of modern digital culture. Items are classified, stamped, and filed accordingly.
Second bulletin on confirmation dialogs
Revised following initial publication.
The Department's original position held that confirmation dialogs served a protective function. To provide a brief pause before an irreversible action. This position is revised in light of accumulated evidence.
Current position: the confirmation dialog has become a ritual of compliance rather than a mechanism of protection. You have learned to click "Yes, I'm sure" without reading anything. The system now asks without expecting any other answer. Both parties then carry on regardless.
The dialog remains. The confirmation is gone. What persists is the form of caution without its substance. The Department finds this, on reflection, to be a reasonable description of many things.
Revised Notice: On "Unlimited"
Revised following the acquisition of new evidence.
The Department's original draft held that "unlimited," as used in
subscription services, telecommunications contracts and buffet
restaurants was plainly false. This position has been
moderated.
The revised position sees that "unlimited" in commercial contexts typically means
"limited in ways that will not affect most people most of the time."
It is a statistical claim masquerading as an absolute one. The limit
exists. It is there. It has been set above the threshold of "normal" use and therefore,
practically speaking, not encountered.
The Department's concern was with the word. The Department now
acknowledges that the word is doing some real work. It is simply not
doing the work that the word usually does. This distinction is small
enough that most people will never notice it, which is exactly the point.
Third Bulletin: On Helvetica
Revised following correspondence.
The Department's earlier position — that Helvetica's ubiquity
represented a kind of typographic surrender — has been moderated.
Revised position: Helvetica is not a neutral choice. No typeface is a
neutral choice. Helvetica signals modernity, institutional confidence,
and a studied reluctance to call attention to itself — which is itself
a form of calling attention to itself. This is the choice of a typeface that says "we
have not chosen a typeface" is among the most deliberate of typeface choices
available.
The Department's concern about ubiquity stands. The characterisation
of it as a form of surrender is fully withdrawn.