I listened to an NPR segment - probably TAL - interviewing AI researchers and I felt like I was listening to a charming, brilliant man calmly explaining how he knew leprechauns were stealing his slippers.

Now imagine these pricks in national government. They’d all be like little Trumpist wannabes.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ll just make the new book slightly and yet also noticeably shorter than all of the others. No one will mind, right?” Hrrrnnggggggg

@seanphillips.bsky.social OK, this was so good that I’ll even forgive the pair of you for it being a different format from the other Criminal HCs. :D

Nice bit about AI in the new Criminal book. (Basically: “Your slop machine does NOT have permission to ingest this book, and if it does we’ll consider that plagiarism.”)

Apropos of nothing, I’ve been playing around with Deezer recently for a thing and it’s pretty great these days.

QOL feature for my #picotron #gridrunner; you can now see where the patrollers will fire next (which you could in Llamasoft's iOS version)! Also some power-up text effects which make things even more arcadey! #gamedev #retrogaming #arcade #gaming

What is effective about this Burnham statement is it reads like something that he is personally invested in and is not worried about criticism for. More of this please.

Ed Davey should take note. What Polanski says here is basically identical to Lib Dem policy (closer ties and then ‘rejoining’ – although LD preferred pathway is SM-centric, not CU-first). But HOW this is said cuts through. Polanski is upfront. Straightforward. No dithering, ifs and buts.

Alas, it’ll probably take another decade before one is willing to say we need to join the EU (and as a normal member) vs “closer integration” (translation: no SM/CU/FOM, so tinkering around the edges of what’s ultimately necessary). Progress is good. But it’s going to be painfully slow.

The most annoying facet of AI marketing is people like this braying in your face that it's here to stay because their stock portfolio demands it. Meanwhile actual tech innovation is getting kneecapped because AI made ram cost $5000 🙄

The US seems intent on turning itself into Mordor

sigh

My God, we need to vet politicians for basic understanding of the sciences… it’s absurd that people this thick have any influence on globally impacting policy.

Milk of magnesia looks nervously over its shoulder

“Milk is defined as coming from the dairy sector and, more specifically, animals.” www.theguardian.com/business/202... This is also going to be ‘fun’ for coconut milk producers…

Was just checking whether iOS 26.3 was out, but from a device not running 26.x. So I figured I’d use a search engine. The top story was that iOS 26.3 was released on 9 February, which is, of course, bollocks. Sigh.

Quite a few strips from The Phoenix comic are very much all-ages, in the sense adults can enjoy the heck out of them too. Squid Bits is absolutely one of them. This collection isn’t just for kids – it’s for anyone who loves loads of loads of fun and silly jokes. I hope it sells by the truckload.

If nothing else, this is all very depressing. Yes, Davey was a member of a junior partner in the coalition that ended 11 years ago. But he approached THIS parliament in the spirit of constructive opposition and Labour basically told the Libs to fuck off. (Same with the Greens.) 1/2

@2000ad.bsky.social That's definitely quite the thumbnail on your latest podcast vid!

Also breaking: the usual sense of reality when it comes to mandates. Labour did NOT win the backing of 66% of voters. Had it decided to work WITH Libs and Greens, that would be >50%. We so desperately need PR and were never going to get it. Doubly so now Reform’s U-turned on the idea.

you also need to unmute this for the perfect song / visual combo

Something compelled me to make this

The latest entry in my classic iPhone and iPad app series is Bear: www.tapsmart.com/features/cla... Thanks to Danilo Bonardi of Shiny Frog for the chat that went into all aspects of the app’s history.

"We need to face the fact that the threats to public trust in our democracy... also relate to the structural weaknesses in the way we do politics in this country." Thank you @elliechowns.bsky.social for making the case for fair votes. The Elections Bill must include Proportional Representation.

Anyway, enjoy the World Cup!

After 22 years as a letterer, I now only have enough regular lettering work to keep me busy for 2 days per week. So if you’re staffing a new project, please keep me in mind as your letterer! Or request me via your editor! Recent clients include DC, Marvel, BOOM, Dark Horse, 2000AD, etc. Thank you 🙏🏻

Had some nice feedback and numbers on this one. Thanks to everyone who read it. If anyone’s actually tried the Vision Pro version, let me know what you thought.

In Boston ICE randomly pulled over this huge white Irish guy with a Mass drivers license, 20 years in the states, legal status, pending green card and have held him for 5 months, his citizen wife paid a $4k bond that was ignored(!) ICE forged his signature on deportation agreement, no appeal

Davey/Polanski job-sharing PM duties, leading a Lab-Green-Lib coalition, then. :D

Morning Blueskiers…. A little amuse bouche to start your day…

I'm no political strategist but has anyone in Labour considered *not* alienating any huge chunk of their base? I just feel like they tried alienating the left and the centre left and the public sector workers and the academics, and none of those things worked great, so maybe give my idea a whirl?

He may soon be changing the last three words of his bio, assuming this story is true. (Related: back up your important shit. Cloud sync is NOT a backup. And then check your backups to make sure they work. Have more than one.)

I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.

Weeknote: 👾 Apple Arcade = the best place for normal people to play retro arcade games 🍎 Apple Creator Studio 🧘🏽‍♂️ Meditation apps for iPhone 🎨 Liquid Glass sucks 😴 Apple Watch sleep score is a joke 🚫 Social media bans isolating children 🕹️ Fab free iPhone games reverttosaved.com/2026/02/08/w...

Kids can't hang out in parks. They can't hang out at the mall. They don't have 3rd spaces because no one wants kids around and then we are surprised when they rely on SM for connection. If you take that away, what do they have left?

Squid Bits is superb. A collection is long overdue. I hope this sells by the truckload.

I wish there was more games writing for "normal people," since so much of it is enthusiasts writing for other enthusiasts. So, so many people who might be willing to hop in and play games just have no interest in so much of what's discussed with fervor on most sites

Column! Apple Arcade just accidentally became the best place for normal people to play retro arcade games www.stuff.tv/features/app... Note: there are LOTS of caveats in this piece (and re that title), but that doesn’t take anything away from the fact that Retrocade is really very good.

Column! Apple Arcade just accidentally became the best place for normal people to play retro arcade games www.stuff.tv/features/app... Note: there are LOTS of caveats in this piece (and re that title), but that doesn’t take anything away from the fact that Retrocade is really very good.

I think the Apple Watch sleep score needs work. I had an abysmal night’s sleep. awake for 2+ hours at 3am. The watch recorded this. But because I’m ill and stayed in bed until almost 11am (getting 6h 50m of sleep in total, it says), the rating is 74/100. What would be needed for a rating under 50?

ICYMI, my post this week was on U.S. Gold's World Cup Carnival. Read about: - How they ended up with the World Cup licence but no game, and decided the only answer was to pull a con and call it "to the good of the software market" - How two years was a very long time in 80s Spectrum football games

“You wouldn’t know the Greenland concessions – they go to another school.”

Downloaded the Switch 2 Pragmata demo and it asked my age. Then couldn’t believe someone so old was playing so now I’m going to bed in a huff. Just need to make a mug of hot cocoa and get my favourite cardigan ready for the morning first.

Does anyone sell subatomic sized violins?

Incredible that the government can say all this yet also be pushing through immigration rule reforms that actively prevent migrants from being full or equal members of the community. Pride might well be necessary. So is equality. Labour used to know that.

Well, I enjoyed the heck out of that. Silly, warm and familiar was kind of what was needed. Very, very meta final five minutes though, speaking to the audience and, I suspect, Disney execs. Fingers crossed there will be more.

PSA: The new episode of The Muppets is on Disney+ as of today.

Only just realised on iPadOS that Apple sort-of fixed the menu bar being unreadable if you shoved windows behind it. It did so by making the window’s top border grow upwards ‘into’ the space the menu bar might occupy. That’s… definitely a decision. (A Mac-like always-on menu bar would be better…)