ABSTRACTION IS A TYPE OF DECADENCE

why am I being followed around the internet by ripped tai chi monks

I have not consciously bought into “the smart home”, but there are some smart devices in here because it’s 2025 and everything has wifi in now. And there is one clear, tangible benefit it has brought to my life: I can turn noisy things off from other rooms when I just can’t be arsed to move.

Presenting: the worst possible (but still useful) AI server! Lives under my desk and does low-ish end LLM inference work. Built out of used parts from ebay for almost exactly 100 quid. Idles at about 20w (should be able to get it down to 4 or 5), peaks at 150w while running inference.

my feelings when I see people getting exercised over the AI hype train

my new jam is playing beloved old drum & bass mixes in my headphones at 80% speed with a massive reverb on, because I am old and my anxiety can no longer cope with the full 170bpm

I wrote something about our work designing escape rooms for strategy, aka strategic simulations. Please come through. www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-f... Thanks to @scoxsmith.bsky.social @prehensile.bsky.social and @igorschwarzmann.com for keeping the doors revolving.

Folks! Here’s an interesting niche request. Does anyone have access to a really fast video camera (1000fps or faster), or know someone who does? I’m working on a hardware project, and I need to verify something is updating at the rate it says it is.

<dr manhattan voice> It is 2001. I am fucking about with computers and listening to Moving Shadow compilations in a music player with cool customisable skins. It is 2025. I am fucking about with computers and listening to Moving Shadow compilations in a music player with cool customisable skins.

important point raised by taller child this morning: why is it that most cryptids are associated with cold / dark / snow? Where are all the sun-loving strange creatures?

Spoke to the BBC about the future of social platforms: clicks, legitimacy, the alms race, and the collapse of shared ‘now’. BBC R&D’s Projections: The Social Internet report is out now:

morning team! So far today I have managed to completely lose both my phone and my keys inside my own house and do my back in. things are going well.

morning team! what are we using to scratch that Flickr itch these days? By which I mean: somewhere to upload Proper Photos, with some social business but definitely not endless fucking reels / ads / other enshittifications

ME (SOBBING): why can’t functions just return things NODE.JS FOR SOME REASON: you fool. you absolute buffoon.

tapering off antidepressants while on Easter holidays with the family: NOT RECOMMENDED. Zero stars.

can’t log on to the train wifi until you fill in a brief survey about the state of the toilets. Just normal 2025 things.

tfw someone says, "But who is going to TRANSLATE all this hard theory for non-academics???" and the answer is, "Me, I did it!" If you've struggled reading Donna Haraway, standpoint theory, feminist theories of tech, or intersectionality, may I present: CYBORG mitpress.mit.edu/978026254755...

@jarkman.bsky.social omg I just saw the new Air Giants thing on @jemimahknight.bsky.social’s insta, IT’S SO GOOD!

technologies I have used in interactive live shows, which were totally not designed for this kind of thing: - bluetooth (we were all young once) - mqtt (surprisingly good, especially when bridged with osc) - rfid (meh) - rfid gen2 (actual magic) - spreadsheets (because it’s always spreadsheets)

I am greatly enjoying this very thoughtful leaving gift from @tristanfe.bsky.social, @billt.bsky.social, @cubicgarden.com, @mathieutriay.bsky.social et al (so satisfying to type on! a rotary volume knob!), but unfortunately it has turned me into a Man With Opinions About Mechanical Keyboards

ME (in conversation): hey, did you know someone made a computer out of water? 8YO: Dad, please don’t ME: crabs can be a computer too

checking in on the cheese shift

turning up late to my own leaving do. Honestly, this is kind of perfect.

@mearm.bsky.social hello! apparently you had a bunch of 7-segment displays to give away, almost a year ago. this is a very long shot, but: I don't suppose you have any left?

Morpheus: You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. me (42 years old): which one is ibuprofen

This one goes out to all my #emfcamp pals: I’m mulling a project which would require sourcing a bunch (as many as possible) of used / scavenged 7-segment LCD displays. Where would you hunt for such things?

I recently started coaching people in less-technical roles because of all the Imposter Syndrome around this shit, especially when they talk to engineers “I don’t code, I’m really dumb” YOU’RE NOT DUMB. If anything, your brain’s probably better than mine because it isn’t full of fucking Javascript

And what direction did this room of artists and producers, culture sector workers, creative technologists, writers, researchers and policy makers think AI policy should take? The words we heard were: Shared governance Empowerment Literacy Labelling and transparency Localism Resistance

And now @mialeslie.bsky.social @ifow.bsky.social, academic Julia Bell from Birkbeck, and BBC creative technologist @prehensile.bsky.social on different aspects of the real world of creative practice, facilitated by @drkatedevlin.bsky.social

is there a spa treatment where they take out your spinal column and all the muscles in your back and just let you flop about a bit? I think I’d like that.

How should the new government approach AI and creativity? Join creative practitioners, researchers, and industry representatives to shape the future of AI policy for the creative industries. 🗓️ Tues 19th November ⏲️ 12:00 - 16:00 📍 The Lowry Hotel, Salford, UK Tickets available: lu.ma/q03v8qrb

Bluesky, wrapped #76,199

one of the things I was never told about life in my 40s: I have become a headache aficionado, capable of recognising the nuances and subtleties of many different types.

good morning new followers! I wondered where you were all coming from, then I spotted that @jukes.ie had put me on one of his starter kits, so thanks for that 😀

Morning folks. What are we all reading? As The Other Place decoheres into endless bad faith actors and adverts for AI pyramid schemes, I need to rebuild my feeds. What newsletters / blogs / indies / etc are we reading for interesting & insightful tech / arts / digital culture commentary & analysis?

u know ur listening to too much experimental bullshit when ur laptop fans spin up instead of the music starting and u don’t even notice

pinpointing the exact publishing time of news commentary in my head by precisely which bit of the openai kerfuffle they’re reporting

Over in the day job, the BBC R&D Advisory Team has just published a really fascinating piece of research into tech trends, with the great title 'Things are not normal' h/t to @prehensile.bsky.social , the main author and cat juggler. www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023...

Very happy to have done a tiny amount of behind-the-scenes gesturing on this - @prehensile.bsky.social 's excellent foresight report for/from BBC R&D - 'Things Are Not Normal' www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023...

Things are not normal... from BBC R&D's @prehensile.bsky.social A great report on emerging technology through the lens of public service values Download the whole beautifully designed report here - www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023...

Excellent list of interviewees for this one www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023...

Pleased to have advised a little on it. Well done @prehensile.bsky.social and team!

This Romeo + Juliet interactive CD-ROM is a real time capsule of late '90s graphic design.

if you’d told me in ~2006 that I’d still be brute-forcing my way through CSS 17 years later and, moreover, that it would be to make a print document behave itself, I would have laughed at you. Laughed! And yet here we are.

How does one find the good people here? So far I’m following 3 people, all of whom I’m in a group chat with called ‘wizards’.

modern parenting is seeing a stupid meme on instagram and saving it for later because you know kiddo will enjoy it

stashing useful and / or nice things around the holiday rental in an act of solidarity with the next tenants ✊

VR sims I would absolutely sink significant chunks of time into: - hanging out in a lighthouse, listening to the birds and the waves - on a wooden sailing boat, out on the sea on a nice day. Like Obra Dinn but in better resolution and no ghosts Crucially, nothing happens in either of these.

I'm helping judge the first Tiny Awards, a free/open competition highlighting the best of the small, playful, and heartfelt web from the last year. The winner gets $500 and a little trophy, so send in all your favorite non-commercial web sites/pages/projects by June 14! https://tinyawards.net/

the only reasonable explanation for spreadsheets in VR is that there must be a significant proportion of gleeful chaos goblins in the user testing cohorts