I just stumbled upon Manu’s post on the AI Compass test. Fifteen questions about your relationship with AI, which are supposed to define your archetype and your position on a perceptual map. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here, so that was a good opportunity to do so. I took the quiz, and here’s my archetype: The Shrug AI is a thing that exists and you regard it with detached amusement, like everything else. It’s overhyped, sure, but so is most stuff. You’ll use it when it’s…
Not sure that title even makes sense to be honest, but on we go! I listen to BBC 6Music most mornings when I’m working. The joys of working at home, my music choice, my coffee, my desk and a window I can open as wide as I wish. However that means keeping a browser tab open all the time, something I’m clearly not great at as I kept closing it/the browser and so I looked for a solution. I found one, adapted it for 6Music, and have been using it since then (2021). Over the past few weeks I’ve been…
Welcome to the introduction of what is a new approach to productivity that you've never come across before. An approach that will bring instant relief to those struggling with task lists that are just too convoluted, systems that are too complicated, or with organisation in general being a struggle on a daily basis. This method has served me well through a professional sales career, and the results gain admiration from colleagues, line managers and boardroom CEO's. Comments ranging from "I…
AI chatbots know more about you than you realise If a machine can infer for you from millions of data pieces out on the internet, how hard will it be for it to infer you? How (not to) name things Don’t add “image” to a text alternative for an image. It’s already clear it’s an image. Don’t add “go to” to the name of a link. That’s what links do. They go somewhere. I have to learn to resist the urge to state the obvious. The Costco theory of the internet A read-worthy essay by Westenberg on the…
I'm off to London today, so here's a post from some years back, in which I marked the July 3rd birthday of the actor George Sanders...Born on this day in 1906 – in St Petersburg, whence his family wisely returned to England in 1917 – was the actor George Sanders. With his good looks and crisp, sonorous upper-crust voice, he became the man for playing debonair, louche, more or less depraved English aristo types – most memorably Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jack Favell in…
Writing this up while I remember what I did. Bit of a yak shave. Rekordbox vs Ableton Live Link, and the restThis is my setup: bunch of modern synths, mostly semi-modular, USB midi for the most part. Things like a Make Noise 0-Coast and a Behringer Neutron alongside more slick gear like a Novation Peak. I was definitely part of the Covid surge in interest there.Plus, an ebay flavoured DJ rig with very old parts - because they were cheaper - 2x CDJ-900s (2009) and a big old DJM-2000 (2010) and a…
A gem from Dickon Edwards’ diaries: A frequently asked question: Why don’t you just get a job? Answer: Because I’ve got too much else to do. Answer: Because I’m too busy to get a job. Answer: Being unemployed is a full-time job in itself, involving skills and time in order to survive. So I do have a job. It’s just atrociously paid. Answer: Because I’ve never lasted in the many Wage Slave-type jobs I’ve had in the past. It’s only a matter of time before I’m dismissed, or have to leave to avoid…
It’s often nice to spot familiar faces where you don’t expect them, like an unforeseen run-in with a friend while on holiday. Joy in unexpected encounters is possible in the intellectual realm too; during my wanderings through the linguistic past, I’ve delighted in meeting languages and their humans whom I already know from elsewhere. One example is the Hittites. A culturally Christian upbringing had acquainted me with this mighty nation of the semi-historical past, mentioned in various…
Überbackene Zucchini-Hälften mit Ofengemüse aus Pilzen, Tomaten und Zwiebel – mit einem Würzöl Es ist gerade wunderbar frisch in Hamburg – also so 23 Grad. Nach den vielen Hitzetagen eine Wohltat. Der Professor erwartete mich in seinem Garten. Ich hatte diesen neuen Zucchini-Auflauf dabei – geröstetes Ofengemüse mit eigens hergestelltem Würzöl. Alles unter einer krossen Käsekruste. »Haben Sie Wissenswertes gefunden?« Der Professor nickte und las etwas Wiki-Wissen zu den Zucchini vor. Zucchini…
I use the Snoozz extension to park browser tabs for later action. I also have some tab that I open at regular scheduled times to do things. So I rely on those tabs to pop up in a week or in a month’s time. Obviously I have no way of recalling right now exactly which tabs they are, as that is why they are parked for later. So imagine my extreme irritation this morning, when I find that Brave has just broken my workflow without any warning at all. The notice just says “The extension was turned…
1987 U.S. Gold Platforms: Amstrad CPC, IBM PC, Commodore 16 Masters of the Universe – The Super Adventure and The Arcade Game were two games based on the Filmation cartoon Masters of the Universe, released by US Gold in 1987. The games have you as He-Man, who fights to deal with the evil forces of Skeletor, who is determined to take over Eternia. The franchise has received a cult following over 40 years, culminating in the release of a new live action movie in June 2026 by MGM Amazon. The Super…
2022 historical mystery; tenth in Huber's Lady Darby series (post-Regency amateur detection). The Gages are staying at a remote castle for a wedding party; but when Kiera is introduced to the owner's famous art collection, she's disturbed to notice that some of the most notable pieces are forgeries…
People keep asking me how I actually work with Claude Code now. Not the “does AI coding work” question — I’ve beaten that horse into glue on this blog already — but the boring, practical, how-does-my-loop-actually-work question. So here it is. The whole rig. And fair warning: what I’m about to describe is a chainsaw, and most of the industry is still lined up at the axe-throwing contest, spitting on their hands.
Minions & Monsters (2026) • View trailer3.5 stars (out of five); rated PG, for animated violent action and rude/macabre humorAvailable via: Movie theatersBy Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.5.26Minions features always have felt less like a coherent film, and more like a randomly assorted collection of sight gags, but this one is particularly scattershot. (It’s no accident that the Minions work best in cartoon shorts.) Although the slyly duplicitous Goomi (the little green…
Public schools have been drafted again and again to fight national problems (e.,g., racial segregation, teenage pregnancy, cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, and drug use). Americans believe that schools must be part of any solution to social problems. This idea is deeply embedded in the American psyche and schooling practices. It has led to educators adopting actual courses and curriculum materials to remedy national social problems. For example, three-fourths of U.S. schools have programs…
"Finisterra" is a 2007 science fiction novelette by David Moles. It is about an engineer from Earth who contracts out to help poachers on a distant world make their biggest kill yet. Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell: Bianca Nazario grew up on post-singularity Earth as a minority Christian living under an Islamic government. For generations the members of her family have been aeronautical engineers, but when her parents die and her brothers marry she is left with very few professional or…
Today, we’re going to have a look at the CI/CD pipelines for Resonite, and admittedly, I’m at my third attempt at writing this blog post. I started writing this post back when work started on the pipelines, trying to keep it in sync. However, while I was adding more features, and patching others, I didn’t have the time to update the draft which ended up completely desynchronized from the pipelines themselves. The release of the Unity renderer as an Open-Source project also changed plans quite a…
Jumping spiders are, I think, generally agreed to be the cutest spider. What makes an animal cute? Especially this representative of one of the most-feared animal groups, the spider? It’s fuzzy, like a teddy bear. It has big eyes, like a baby fox. It holds its pedipalps, those little things that stick out on either side of the mouth and look like legs but aren’t, so politely, pointing down, like it’s trying to avoid upsetting you. It has a big cuddly abdomen and the fuzz makes its legs look…
Dutch travelog, part 6.5. Read part 6 here. We arrived in Utrecht around 19:30. Mozzarella would be hosting us for the next two nights. We were to meet at the station, near his gate. Around 5 minutes later, I spotted him and waved. He smiled widely as he walked towards us and hugged us both. We rode the escalator down to where the bus terminals were. M lives in a quaint neighborhood just outside of the city center; about a 10-minute bus ride away. My cousin lives in a modern high-rise building…
I’ve been reviewing some of our Camino photos, and there were some I didn’t use because they just didn’t fit in with the Camino route or the city we were visiting, or I didn’t have room in a particular blog for more photos. I thought I’d share some of them with you… just because. Cows, chimps, giraffes, bugs, lizards… what’s not to like?In Porto, a life-sized Holstein at the entrance of Ale-Hop, a Spanish retail chain famous for its bovine mascot. If you look closely, the cow appears to be on…
The United States of America will shortly be celebrating 245 years since it achieved independence and I thought I would mark the occasion with some American beers. As it happened, there was something of a theme to what was in my fridge when I went looking for candidates.Another Sierra Nevada brand extension? Hell yeah! This is Mango Little Thing, number eleventy-seven in the hazy IPA series, this time with tropical fruit added. It's a gentle 6% ABV and an innocent sunny yellow colour; hazy but…
This is my second year playing the C=tar live at Wood Chip Fest, a small 8-bit music festival in Denmark.
First time in Cambridgeshire. First proper time anyway. There’s a free car park in the middle of the city and on a Thursday night the people of town trek back and forth between their mk. II Skoda Fabia Combis and their wellness classes. There are a surprisingly number of wellness studios in Ely, and a surprising number of pubs also.We walk up to the cathedral; a mixed group of parents and older folks dressed nicely but not formally mill on the cathedral green. Groups of lads in threes and fours…
Here are my stats for January to June 2026. This was generated using my data from Exist, and I found it highlights some key facts I hadn't considered as much as I should. Key Themes I should make sure I hit at least 5,500 steps in a day before I retire to play games or watch TV in the evening. I should keep up my reading habit, and try and read at least every other day. I should continue with my diet plan (Huel!), as it seems to be working! I really need to think about what makes the difference…
July 3, 2026 Our heroine, the ambitious bank employee, takes her wardrobe inspiration from this beautiful work: At the end of June, her wardrobe included 28 garments: And this snappy assortment of accessories. Our heroine is beginning to really understand the joy of wearing scarves… This month, she’s finally buying a suit! It’s linen, so she understands that it’s for mostly warmer weather, but she’s absolutely NOT opposed to buying a second suit for cold weather. Men wear suits every day… And…
Got up at 9.30. Did the mowing and a bit of weeding. Wind still cold. Joan and her three children came in the afternoon. The two eldest grown up now. Surprised to see them.
Hello, I have been thinking about something for like a year or so, but I have not really been able to put it into practice much. Today, I want to finally write about it. I have been sick on and off for like a month now and am currently taking antibiotics. I wanted to wait until I was completely healthy again to write anything, but I have been waiting for a month and right now I am feeling comfortable enough coughing fit to try and write this post. Anyway, now let's talk about Naruto. LOL. Bear…
You want some new metal releases? Of course you do. Let’s get in to it. Hails! Dichotomy - death - USACoprolith - death - CanadaMortem - death - NorwayMouflon - death/doom - NetherlandsPseudobiblion - death/doom - ItalyMylingen - death/black - SwedenAgarwaen - black - FinlandDragsholm - black - USAIn Throes - post black - AustraliaEutonazia Kordax - symphonic black - RussiaFrolic - thrash - USACrime Zone - thrash - NorwayHellionight - thrash/speed - BahrainTodoMal - doom - SpainWitchsorrow -…
I recently had a "phone support" call with my parents, where they needed help with their computers and smartphones and the internet router. They regularly ask me for help, because they're completely overwhelmed and out of their depth when it comes to modern technology, and it makes me sad to see how much they struggle with their devices. We have incredible technology these days; things that 40 or 50 years ago were pure science fiction, like a supercomputer that you carry around in your pocket…
So the other night, as I was working on my Final ’90s Countdown post about Strange Attractors, I did what I usually do when prepping these and tried to log into the old Diamond Comics retailer portal. While that version of Diamond was no longer an operative business, having since become “Diamond Select Brands,” a division of Enesco, the product database was still (mostly) functioning on the old site and I would use it for research. When I tried to log in last night, and received an error…
