Another insightful post from @leonfurze.com leonfurze.com/2025/10/17/w...

Antifa just means Anti Fascism. And people talk about that like it's a bad idea. Is being pro-fascism supposed to be better? youtube.com/shorts/-sVgF...

Esperanto: what happened to the language of optimism? - ABC listen share.google/BgRAyWoYBTwq...

AI hosts talking to me about the music I'm trying to listen to? That's a hard no from me. The reason I choose to use a music streaming service is so I DON'T have to listen to DJ hosts blather on like they do on the radio. AI experiment adds AI hosts to your music share.google/ld18spf62mlx...

The older I get, the truer this feels. You need enough money to meet your essential needs. Then a little more to build some comfort and security and joy. But beyond that the law of diminishing returns kicks in. I don't understand the insatiable greed of some. theconversation.com/how-much-mon...

Colbert gone. Kimmel gone. How's that first amendment right to free speech working out for you?

One of the things I liked a lot about my Pixel 9 Pro is the battery life. @Google finally managed to get great battery life with the 9, and I'd usually finish each day still with 70% or so. Until the latest Pixel Drop update. Battery life is now crap. Barely getting through a day now. Not happy.

For a guy that was famously critical of so-called "shithole" countries, Trump sure is doing a good job of leading the US along the path to becoming one.

The lunatic is in my head...

Got a question about using technology in your classroom? Come and ask it at the next GEG Sydney online event.

Hey Gemini, take the photos of a cheetah I took at the zoo and turn them into a Lego model of a cheetah.

Androidify is back, baby! The classis Android avatar app is back and powered by AI. Get it from the Google Play Store.

I'm absolutely disgusted by Bob Katter. What a small minded bigot, threatening to punch a reporter in the face for asking a legitimate question. Is this really where our political representatives are at in 2025? And now at an anti-immigration rally waving the Eureka flag. Not the Australian flag.

Chris’s Substack betcher.substack.com?r=2j8i8g&utm...

I used Gemini to make this language practise flipcard app. The language is Esperanto, there are three levels, and you see 10 cards each time you run it (pulled from a larger pool of phrases). Generated in JavaScript and embedded in a Google Site. bit.ly/eo_prac

I meant to add #auspol

There's a lot of claims made about which AusPol party are the better financial managers. Here are the facts on budget deficit/surplus results since Federation. Explore the data for yourself - docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Neither party has any real moral high ground here.

Spain does not use a South African Flag. There is no language called "American", and England does not use the US flag. So confused. A US flag <> English. If your logic is "more Americans speak English than Brits, so we'll use a US flag" then use the Brazilian flag for Portuguese. #techsmith

Mark Zuckerberg has spent $110M to buy 11 houses in one Palo Alto neighborhood. He's turning the homes into a compound. That's on top of his 30 bedroom, 30 bathroom compound in Hawaii and another in Lake Tahoe. I don’t want to hear that billionaires can’t afford a wealth tax.

Was listening to a George Ezra song just now, and wondered what the dude looks like. Searched for a pic. Holy crap. I did not expect that. That voice and that head just don't seem like they belong together.

Grammar alert: In most cases the word "use" is more appropriate (and more correct) than the word "utilize". I keep seeing people use the word "utilize" in places where the simpler word "use" is a far better choice.

I just tried watching the new War of the Worlds on Prime but had to give up after about 45 minutes. It might just be the worst movie I've ever seen. And I've seen both Sharknado and Norbert.

Gemini, tell me about UFOs. g.co/gemini/share...

Every morning the news coming out the US gets a little more insane. So today the head of Labour Statistics got fired because Trump didn't like the low job growth numbers. And Desantis declares a public holiday with flags at half mast because of Hulk Hogan's passing. What a clown show.

I've started gathering stories about Gemini AI (and other AIs) into a Flipboard collection. It's publicly available if you're interested, and you're welcome to follow it. flipboard.com/@chrisbetche...

As a long time user of Camtasia, I bought the software years ago, and have paid incremental upgrades for newer versions. But each time I bought it I owned that version. Forever. This change to a annual subscription model is ridiculous. I'll stick to Camtasia 2020, which I own outright, thanks.

Yeah, what they said! Come along tomorrow.

Let's see... So they speak Spanish in Spain, Portuguese in Portugal, French in France and German in Germany. I wonder what they speak in England? I thought English, but it looks like the USA has claimed that from them. #americanexceptionalism

While our American friends like to talk about the US Constitution in a way that makes it sound like they are the only country in the world to have one, the fact is that all countries have one. You're not special. You can browse and compare them here - constituteproject.org/constitutions

I really hate it when companies lie to us with corporate statements that are so laughably untrue. Does anyone really believe that they only used AI for only the formatting, not the text? ChatGPT used for Qantas CEO's email to millions affected by data breach share.google/1xVAuh4ixuiI... #qantas

I finally got around to hanging one of my screen prints from art school. Only took 43 years

Yay! Google Vids now supports audio ducking! Record your voiceovers, add a music track, and in one click you can balance the audio so your voiceovers are not drowned out by the music. One button click, super easy.

A must read post about AI and education. betaclassroom.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/d...

How long before all these countries being hit with Trump's randomly selected tariffs just tell the US to go jump, and they find new trading partners. This latest threat to add 10% to any country deemed as "anti American" will just encourage those countries to dump any trade with the US altogether.

Just finished watching season 1 of Why Women Kill on Prime. Omg. The multiple plotlines, the writing, the cinematography, and the whole underlying concept of the three interwoven stories.... Just amazing. Uncomfortable to watch in many places, but the finale had me on the edge of my seat.

The Google Educator Group of Sydney is here, and you're invited to our online Launch Party. Open to all educators in Sydney and beyond. Join the GEG here - docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Learn more at www.gegsydney.com

After a soft launch at the Google Teaching Theatre at EduTECH Australia a few weeks ago, we're pleased to announce that the Google Educator Group of Sydney is now open and ready to support educators from Sydney and beyond. Have you joined GEG Sydney yet? docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I'm a Chromebook user, my partner uses Windows. Watched her install a webcam yesterday. Omg. Installing drivers, patches to stop the flickering, manual tinkering in the task manager to kill stray processes, multiple reboots... I'd forgotten what a shitshow Windows is to deal with.

Had a list of names in a Google Sheet and wanted to turn them into Google Slides, each name as a text box on each Slide. Couldn't figure out a way to do it, so asked Gemini to write the Appscript code for it. Copied the code to the Appscript editor, ran it, and hey presto, a slide for each name.

I had a pile of foreign coinage from various travels. Wondering what it was worth, I added the values and quantities to this Sheet, then Gemini helped me use the GOOGLEFINANCE formula to dynamically calculate the values. =R2*GOOGLEFINANCE("CURRENCY:"&B2&"AUD") docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends! 🎉🇨🇦🎉🇨🇦 Glad to see you're not yet the 51st state.

You might notice that I sometimes post content here that seems to not be very positive about AI. I like what AI can offer, and I do use it regularly, daily. It's helpful. But I'm also VERY wary of being too starry-eyed about AI. Lots of it is overhyped. Lots of it is unnecessary. And some of it..

“Now, we have an era of innovation where the greatest opportunities the technology creates are for those already enjoying a disproportionate share of strengths and resources.” www.wired.com/story/genera...

New teaching resources aim to reverse Australian students' poor writing results - ABC News share.google/IePfmCgAhiIV...

I'm a command line guy always have been. Seeing more power come to my terminal (and oh yeah for free too?!) is awesome. “To be very clear, for the vast majority of developers, Gemini CLI will be completely free of charge.." venturebeat.com/ai/google-is...

Chromebooks are better than ever, but is that enough for Google? flip.it/yfGv.r