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Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

reuters.com

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Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#731

Post by nailer »

bulbar wrote: post #402
nailer wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The global impression of the US is worth thinking about. The font is part of that.

It's really not. The used font just doesn't move the needle regarding the global impression. 99% of people never ever think or care about the font they use. What else should be decided on on the highest level: spacing, padding, allowance of the Oxford comma? It is useful that somebody thinks about that stuff, just not the highest level of the government. That's like the CEO of Microsoft having meeting about coding co…

> That's like the CEO of Microsoft having meeting about coding conventions, space vs tabs, variable name format etc.

No. Those things aren't exposed to the public. But the UI is:

___

Bill Gates:

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn’t Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn’t use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Update again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#732

Post by throwawaypath »

oblio wrote: post #525
unsupp0rted wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More charitably, the signaling could be: “keep the government as small as possible, but no smaller than that”, i.e. use things that basically mostly work and quit expending resources addressing every edge case, particularly when it’s performative (slight font variations) rather than obvious (a ramp to get into a public building)

Microsoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago. Changing it back is the exact definition of performative work. Edit: 19 years ago. Almost 2 decades ago!

>Microsoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago.

You're behind. They've since changed it again. Calibri is no longer the default for Microsoft Office, it's now Aptos. That change was a few years ago.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#734

Post by oblio »

throwawaypath wrote: post #732
oblio wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago. Changing it back is the exact definition of performative work. Edit: 19 years ago. Almost 2 decades ago!

>Microsoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago. You're behind. They've since changed it again. Calibri is no longer the default for Microsoft Office, it's now Aptos. That change was a few years ago.

I just saw when googling Calibri. But even Microsoft didn't switch it back to Times New Roman :-)

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#735

Post by buellerbueller »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #727
buellerbueller wrote: post #721

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I just don't understand why it would be a virtue to deliberately make things harder for [some] people Yes, obviously, you have stated this before. You are clear on that. I agree with you. What you don't seem to have done (because you keep saying you don't understand why it would be a virtue) is steelmanned the argument of the other side. Only by doing that can you 1) understand why their plan would be considered vir…

Yes, you're right about me not investigating and steel-manning the arguments from the other side. However, I think it's a mistake to do so as you cannot deal with fascism by discussion, reasoned argument and logic. When a country starts rounding people up and putting them in concentration camps (it's not a prison if people are kept there without due process) then clearly the fascists have taken over. Instead of playi…

>Yes, you're right about me not investigating and steel-manning the arguments from the other side. However, I think it's a mistake to do so as you cannot deal with fascism by discussion, reasoned argument and logic.

A font change is fascism?

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#736

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

buellerbueller wrote: post #735
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #727

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you're right about me not investigating and steel-manning the arguments from the other side. However, I think it's a mistake to do so as you cannot deal with fascism by discussion, reasoned argument and logic. When a country starts rounding people up and putting them in concentration camps (it's not a prison if people are kept there without due process) then clearly the fascists have taken over. Instead of playi…

>Yes, you're right about me not investigating and steel-manning the arguments from the other side. However, I think it's a mistake to do so as you cannot deal with fascism by discussion, reasoned argument and logic. A font change is fascism?

It's the sum of their actions that makes them fascist, not just a font change.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#737

Post by throwawaypath »

oblio wrote: post #734
throwawaypath wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Microsoft Office (and Windows) changed the default font more than a decade ago. You're behind. They've since changed it again. Calibri is no longer the default for Microsoft Office, it's now Aptos. That change was a few years ago.

I just saw when googling Calibri. But even Microsoft didn't switch it back to Times New Roman :-)

>But even Microsoft didn't switch it back to Times New Roman :-)

More proof that the government chose correctly.

Re: Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri

#738

Post by moltopoco »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #501
moltopoco wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: > A cable dated December 9 sent to all U.S. diplomatic posts said that typography shapes the professionalism of an official document and Calibri is informal compared to serif typefaces. > "To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface," the cable s…

Because, even if there is a good argument to replace Calibri on grounds of professionalism, the cable still explicitly mentions the "anti-woke" aspect. At best, it's another sideswipe aimed at minorities and people who represent them. At worst, it's 'doing something wrong purely because of prejudice'.

The cable makes the claim that Calibri did not actually help anyone, and even backs up this claim with numbers. So how is it aimed at minorities? Who is prejudiced against people with bad eyesight?

https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/12/state-department-ret...

I don't usually go back to comments from seven days ago, but I missed the full memo being on DF. The sideswipe at the previous administration is childish, sure. But the way in which Reuters has portrayed this memo is even more shocking to me after reading it. Holy culture war partisanship, batman.

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