This section contains my writings about words on the web and related issues. Each page is linked back to this one and to my main contents page; most are also linked forward &/or back, although the neighboring pages may be on unrelated topics.

Introduction
Why I wrote these, including some of my fears;
first thoughts on the vicious circle that
surrounds reading on-screen

Tune Your Browser
Ways to make your screen look better,
including an assault on Times and Helvetica;
followed by a closer look at some aspects of
typography, specifically Screen Fonts and Leading,
and discussion of some of my Design Choices

Signal-to-Noise Ratio
Why good text design is important,
linked to an essay on the Great Unconscious
and why people should listen to typographers,
and to a Rant about Seeing a Bad Movie Twice,
class prejudice and other hobbyhorses

Designing for the Web as It Will Be
What is a page? Discussion of
the vanishing issues of user-control,
loading speed and the print mindset, with
notes on Acrobat and the Yale Style Manual

Writing Fiction to be Read on a Computer
The control freak insists on letting go;
with an example of randomized text,
a subjective take on objectivity,
and a dream for the future

Who Is Pete Shanks?
At least two realities out of the many

Where Is He?
Mostly photos of me and my stuff
and environs, June, 2002