Developer culture, explained
Where the mascots, logos, memes and dead frameworks actually came from — researched properly, with sources.
Who is Ferris, and why Rust's mascot is unofficial
Ferris began as a two-hour drawing for friends. The story of Rust's crab, the name nobody remembers choosing, and the licence that set it free.
There is a cog hidden in the React logo
The negative space in the React logo forms a cog, and the designer put it there deliberately — after studying the arrow hidden in the FedEx logo.
Where "it works on my machine" came from
A 1990s excuse, a satirical certification, a badge nearly everyone misattributes, and the container that finally made the sentence true.
The frameworks that lost
Backbone, Ember, Polymer, Aurelia, Inferno. What each one got right, what killed it, and which of their ideas you are using today without knowing.
The seven spokes of the Kubernetes logo
The Kubernetes helm has exactly seven spokes, and the reason is a Star Trek joke. Where the name, the logo and the nautical vocabulary came from.
A field guide to programming language mascots
Why some language mascots end up everywhere and others barely exist. A guide to the gopher, Ferris, Duke, Tux — and the licences that decided their fate.
Why is Go's mascot a gopher?
The Go gopher was drawn years before Go existed, for a radio station. Where Renée French's buck-toothed rodent came from, and why it spread.