This is a collection of deep dives into very specific topics, written or recorded by hobbyists or subject matter experts. The appeal is in the passionate, uniquely individual, finely detailed takes on niche subjects. This is in contrast to journalistic longreads (which are interesting in their own right). A perfect example is Knots on Mars! (and a few thoughts on NASA's knots). Not all links collected here reach such heights, but many do and the rest are not far off.
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Restoration of Ave Maria - Narrated Version (video) | painting, restoration | YouTube | Julian Baumgartner |
| Woodblock Print - start to finish (in real time) (video) | woodblock printmaking | YouTube | David Bull |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Curious Case of the Pygmy Nuthatch | birds, Charlie's Angels | Slate | Forrest Wickman |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| The hardest working font in Manhattan | typography, font, history | Aresluna | Marcin Wichary |
| The UX of LEGO Interface Panels | user interface design, Lego | Interaction Magic | George Cave |
| Velocipedia | bicycles, drawing, memory | Gianluca Gimini's blog | Gianluca Gimini |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Common Horse Mistakes I Want Game Developers to Stop Making | game development, biomechanics, horses | The Mane Quest | Alice Walsh |
| Environmental Discs of Tron Roadside Pickup! | gaming history, arcade, Tron | The Arcade Blogger | Tony Temple |
| Explosive barrels (video) | gaming history, gaming tropes | YouTube | Stuart Brown |
| Finding Deceit in the Chambers of Xenobia | gaming history, investigative, forgery, computer history | Computer Gaming World Museum | Stephane Racle |
| Forty Years of Lunar Lander | gaming history, Lunar Lander | Technologizer | Benj Edwards |
| My full statement regarding DOOM Eternal | soundtrack, dispute, id Software | Medium | Mick Gordon |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Hardest Bug Ever | Crash Bandicoot, Playstation, hardware, debugging | Quora | Dave Baggett |
| The Great Bug Hunt | Xbox, crash, hardware, investigative | Allen Pike's blog | Allen Pike |
| The Best Debugging Story I've Ever Heard | tape drive, hardware, investigative | Tumblr | Patrick Thomson |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westeros is Poorly Designed | geography, history, Game of Thrones | Medium | Lyman Stone |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can I get an amen? (video) | drum break, sampling, popular music | YouTube | Nate Harrison |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bicycle | forces, cycling, stability | Bartosz Ciechanowski's blog | Bartosz Ciechanowski |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knots on Mars! (and a few thoughts on NASA's knots) | knots, cable lacing, aerospace, engineering | International Guild of Knot Tyers Forum | David J. Fred |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| The case of the 500-mile email | email, bug, debugging, investigative | ibiblio | Trey Harris |
| Can't stream rock music, only classical | Streaming, audio, disconnect, debugging | Reddit (via Wayback Machine) | Mike Ash |
| UK air traffic control meltdown | air traffic control, algorithm, flight plan | GitHub | James Haydon |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon's Build System | build system, deployment system, microservices | GitHub gist | Carl Myers |
| I Wrote Task Manager - 30 Years Later, the Secrets You Never Knew | Windows, task manager, development | YouTube | Dave Plummer |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reversing Sinclair's amazing 1974 calculator hack | computer history, reverse engineering, mathematics | Ken Sheriff's blog | Ken Sheriff |
| Wallace's Leaping Tank | military vehicles, military history, engineering | Tank Encyclopedia | Andrew Hills |
| Why is there a "small house" in IBM's Code page 437? | computer history, glyphs, text art | Glyph Drawing Club | Heikki Lotvonen |
| Title | Keywords | Platform | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| How Google is killing independent sites like ours | Product reviews, experts, Google | HouseFresh | Gisele Navarro, Danny Ashton |
| In Search Of Wikipedia's Shrug Guy | Wikipedia, shrugging, whodunit | Defector | Annie Rauwerda |