iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 8h

can whoever buys letterboxd please fix whatever this interface is

Letterbox'd interface shows Watch, Like, Watchlist, Rate, Review or log, add to lists, show your activity, change images, and share.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 13/09/2026

i have processed this photo maybe 500 times and it never gets old #photography

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 02/09/2026

i am becoming unhinged, i am not making a lil tamagotchi that gives small hints about vim motions. i just make toys now tbh

a little maneki neko pixel cat sitting in an nvim session

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 26/08/2026

the waste of AI makes me super uncomfy for a number of reasons. i've also seen a huge uptick in "i made [thing thats already been solved] and i need you to beta test it for me" and shifting a huge validation burden to users

Post from reddit user DRZBIDA:
I can't comprehend the logic of wasting your own time prompting a worse version of something that's already been solved, clearly without ever checking whether a solution exists. And that's 99/100 of the "projects" out there right now.

Someone should tell Anthropic and OpenAI to put a step in their agent harness (for subscription users, not API) that web-searches whether the dumbass "idea" already exists before generating anything. It'd save an enormous amount of money and compute. It has become almost impossible to find / promote something actually useful in between all the useless abandonware.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 26/07/2026

testing to see how actual negative scans do, it's a bit crunchy but i am a high contrast enjoyer so i really like the look. 35mm ektar 100 redeveloped to ortho "cross processed", re-printed

A print shows a two story restaurant over the San Diego bay. It's in black and white.

A black and white photo shows a sailboat in the San Diego bay between two window panels

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 22/07/2026

multi-pass process that's visually more similar to how a consumer photo printer works

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 22/07/2026

testing out color prints. RA-4 is an incredibly inaccessible workflow — paper costs a lot and you have to burn through a lot of it to get good prints.

Waimea Canyon in Lihue, Hawaii is shown in a color print generated by CAFFENOL, a darkroom toy for making prints.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 22/07/2026

photo editing roguelike with no output being the same is kinda it here, but it makes some cool art

A black and white photo shows a woman in a white dress and a man stand side by side in an open field.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 16/07/2026

develop a negative and then make a print!

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 14/07/2026

experimenting with a darkroom style print approach, live laugh print

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 12/02/2026

workshopping this 2x2 for taste/craft/style/signature...?

A two by two grid shows Recognition (seeing quality) as a column header 1 and Execution (making quality) as header 2. The first row is "Shared" (learnable, evaluable). In the first cell, it says "Taste" - can they see what's working and what isn't? The next cell says "Craft" - can they solve the problem completely?

The second row says "Personal" (individual, emergent). The first cell says Style - what are they drawn to? and the final cell says Signature - what makes their work recognizably theirs?

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 10/02/2026

ongoing saga of tree (summer 25 vs feb 26)

A color photograph shows a tree tilting 45 degrees or so to the left, blocking a garage door.

A black and white photography shows a tree completely toppled over to the right, blocking the right door.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 06/02/2026

i have unearthed my 3.5 star pitchfork review from long ago, and guess what, still fledgling

A screenshot of a Pitchfork review says: "Demerit points for the so-lovingly-rendered-it's-almost-plagiaristic homage to the deep thuds and carnivalesque whirlygigging of Daft Punk's 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger', but if you can get past that, 'Distraction' is actually a pretty wonderful slice of disco house. As the cringingly-named Melee Beats, fledgling Sacramento-based producer Nic Bertino makes French house from his American bedroom. There's good reason that sounds like a bad idea, but the 20-year-old Bertino's (junior) boyish vocals and considerable maximalist production chops say otherwise. 'Distraction''s chockers with sweep filters, slap funk basslines, and wheezy vocodered vocals, so it's obvious that Bertino's Daft Punk man-love runs far deeper than the obvious 'Harder, Better' connects, but, know what? There are worse bands to sound a lot like, especially at only 20."

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 26/01/2026

but, i'm not sure i can,

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 14/01/2026

josh may i interest you in an Apply Now cta with useless motion on hover that actually destroys the aliasing? it's verrry apple

A rounded "apply now" button with a gold background from The Trump Gold Card website with aliasing artifacting, caused by motion on hover.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 14/01/2026

this is a very, very bad impression of apple or nike. what does this even mean? how is this possibly minimal with all of the maximal elements? did we just tell the AI to make a landing page like apple?

A header from the Trump Gold Card website shows "America's opportunities accelerated." with a gold card against a carrera marble background.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 02/01/2026

simply love old timey mono by @dsembry.bsky.social and i've set my personal site with it - something about these typewriter revival fonts (and their numericals, really) just sing for me

A blog header from nicbertino.com shows the heading Bidding Modality with some meta tags, exhibiting Old Timey Mono, a modern mono typewriter font.

A photo from nicbertino.com shows more of the type system using Old Timey Mono.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 30/12/2025

sometimes your camera just kinda flips out and decides to make some cool stuff

A photograph shows light streaks in waves, with dots, solid lines, and texture.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 30/12/2025

not to like, retvrn, but sometimes single-purpose controls are the most affordable regardless of context. plus i wanna mess with these overhead switches bad

The console of an Ineos Grenadier car shows large controls with clear labels.

An overhead interface for various modes in the Ineos Grenadier; various toggle switches with clear labels.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 30/12/2025

the late contax logo also good

A contax 645 medium format SLR camera shown from a 3/4 perspective.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 24/08/2025

fonts in use: Slop Sans (OpenAI, 2025)

An AI-generated post by an influencer reads "BUILT FOR EVERYONE. LOVED BY NO ONE" and features a zombie that says "add dark mode" and a happy person with "more filters" - a tombstone reads "BUILT FOR EVERYONE. LOVED BY NO ONE." and a person stands crossarmed with a disgusted look on their face.

A screenshot from LinkedIn shows a "texting habits by generation" graphic created with generative AI.

Yet another generative AI post with sans serif text, this time it's a line drawing of a verndor and a PM in conversation with each other.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 27/07/2025

this image was the closest i could find, but much like exits, it would tell you where to go for transfers. google maps would tell you what car number was best for your transfer, so it all kind of clicked. it was pretty incredible from a design perspective

A photo of a screen in a Japanese subway car shows the number of cars in the train, and the direction of travel. The current car (number 8) is highlighted with "you are here." A cutaway of the station, with stairs and escalators, shows several exits, helping riders understand station layout. The interface is in both Kanji and English.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 22/02/2025

someone tagged me in one of his unhinged LI posts yesterday, it's embarrassing

A screenshot of a comment from LinkedIn by Nic Bertino reads: The fact that AI hasn't improved Nielsen's design, content strategy, or ability to discern slop is a good indicator that he doesn't have a firm grasp on what's happening to UX and Design with or without AI. He continues to post this AI fantasy slop, and it's embarrassing to the UX community that has lent him legitimacy.

As designers and researchers, we expect things to change: technology, context, environment, everything. These are complicated systems. I think it's more impactful to understand how these impact human behavior as best we can, and continue iterating services (be it freelance or in-house) to provide the right thing at the right time. The businesses that were bad at this weren't going to be durable, AI or not.

It has one "insightful" reaction

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 27/01/2025

llms struggle somewhat hilariously with generating ascii text, if deepseek can do this, it's OOOOER

A conversation with Claude where N asks "Make an ascii art that says "go eagles." Claude responds "Here'an ASCII art design that says "go eagles," and ascii art that reads "GO EEEELES." A followup from N asks: "What does that say?" and Claude responds "It says "GO EAGLES" in large block letters arranged vertically. I can make a simpler version if you'd like to read it more easily."

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 14/01/2025

as these tech figureheads continue to discuss and "rollback" dei, i keep thinking of audre lorde.

A picture of the cover of Audre Lorde's book The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 14/01/2025

not too unusual necessarily but i absolutely loved the design on this sriracha vending machine!

A photograph shows a vending machine with several rows of sriracha. The machjne is designed with flames and a maximalist design.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 08/01/2025

lilikoi here, present and ready to eat your roller blinds.

Lilikoi, a big fluffy himalayan ragdoll mix with seal point coloration, is upside down on a couch staring directly at the camera

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 04/01/2025

i'm still somehow surprised that jakob nielsen is posting misogynistic AI slop as design thought leadership. this is absolutely embarrassing.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 30/12/2024

it's sunday, have you been listening to: 90s r&b 2000s r&b 2010s r&b 2020s r&b if so you may be entitled to compensation between 1 and a million. tune in tonight to learn more from aaliyah, toni b, goapele, and more nicbertino.com/radio 7PM PST

A photo of Aaliyah Haughton from her album cover for 1 in a million. She's wearing glasses in a dimly lit subway.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 08/12/2024

it's christmas time and you know what that means

A film poster for the 2015 film tangerine shows a dreamy sunset with orange, pink, purple and blue. "tangerine" is written in cursive with the shadows of two figures against the backdrop. Palm trees and power lines are in the background.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 05/12/2024

alright, we're back a little early from digital detox due to some Unforeseen Circumstances Requiring Technology, but in other news, got some film back! #filmphotography #filmisnotdead

A color photo shows the shadow of a fountain and a pond with water caustics rebounding off of the bottom of the pool.

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 19/11/2024

how will i change? how will i be changed? #photography #bwphotography

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nic bertino @nicbertino.com · 15/11/2024

took this in imperial beach, where there’s an ocean water quality crisis. it’s one of the best surf breaks in san diego, so some folks risk getting sick to catch some waves i’ve had e. coli from particles aerosolizing from the waves and it is not fun

A black and white photo shows a person standing on rocks looking out to the ocean - a wave is breaking and a surfer is getting ready to pop up on the wave.

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