Hydration break

Hydration break

One word. “Content.” If you treat programming as something disposable, something that is background noise while doing something else, it’s no surprise that message gets through to the audience. If the audience then reflects that ambivalence back, why the shock?

The movie holds up. As does this great anecdote courtesy of Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum.

Sorry to hear about Sam Neill this morning. For some illogical reason I always got him and Michael Kitchen mixed up. So was surprised once I saw the pictures attached to the posts of the former’s death. Loved him in Event Horizon - he really had the best lines and most interesting character.

Bonnie Tyler’s cover was good, but you can never beat the original…

Latest missive from New Commodore. Just wondering about that first sentence, after seeing this posted on here last week... Happy to be proved wrong. Also, my name is still not 'Bins'.

“An incredible endorsement of our vision”; so incredible we felt the need to send out a schmaltzy email to defend it and have since reduced the spec, unbundled headphones and dropped the price in response to feedback. This is a definition of “incredible endorsement” I was previously unaware of.

Got an email from New Commodore’s damage limitation department addressed to “Bins”. My name isn’t bins. I even checked my birth certificate. Sadly, it seems New Commodore doesn’t know when to stop digging with all the emotional journey schtick laid on heavy to justify their choice of product…

These fellas. Braun industrial design is art. The calculator especially. I have no idea why, it just resonates. I’m aware that Apple’s iPhone calculator is an homage to the Braun design, but in person really hits the right notes. And that Braun amplifier/radio is just… I need one in my life.

Plenty of Apple and Sony there too and very handsome they were too; but what surprised me was that it wasn’t what I was impressed by the most…

Never seen a Grid in the flesh and loved how futuristic it felt, despite being ancient. The BBC’s inclusion was also a bit of surprise, as was the Nokia N-Gage. I always quite like the idea, if not the execution. And of course the physical media. Who don’t love a Zip disk?

Loving the walls of objects. The current range of generic products really have lost that certain something… The IBM Thinkpad with the folding keyboard really is quite smart when you see it up close. And the Sinclair Executive calculator is an unexpected thing of beauty.

Your actual dumb phone. Designed for a time when your phone wasn’t your wallet or bank branch. Can’t think why this resonates this week.

At the Design Museum… and a wall of design classics…

Third part of the 28 Years Later trilogy is off then, lads.

This really didn’t have me expecting much, as once an Amiga brand deal was ruled out, it was pretty obvious the new product would be a phone. This kind of thing does NOT smack of a serious tech company. This is how you sell an off-brand energy drink to teenagers, not <cough> $700 phones to GenXers.

The series retooled as a new version of The Hitman and Her, with The Vlinx DJing.

Had hoped that the Xmas 2026 episode would help the series into a noble hiatus as opposed to what we now have. Honestly and sincerely hope the show is rested. Absence will make the heart grow fonder. It will let someone discover the series and want to take it on.

And while we’re bemoaning the omission of Cushing…

If your my age then you’ll know how important moviedrome was to us This is worth a watch youtube.com/watch?v=TuA_...

It grows on you. It really does.

This. Absolutely this. Have long had similar thoughts! We do kind of have something similar with the Criterion Cupboard and Arrow Films stuff at the moment, but curation is the key. So easy to conflate enthusiasts sharing their favourite films with curation. Alex Cox brought weight to his choices.

Yet still no word for my proposed revival of “The Adventurer”. What today’s Media landscape is screaming for is a weekly espionage thriller starring a grumpy middle aged American movie star playing a version of himself, while rampaging around Europe pretending he’s twenty years younger than he is.

It’s over 31 degrees in the spare room, sat in front of my work laptop on my day off. The fans I have going don’t make much of a difference and what’s more…

Yeah, I know it’s predictable. But yeah.

Been down the canteen for lunch.

Back in the glory days of dot com, I worked in Soho. That evening we were drinking outside The Toucan just off Soho square when we heard a loud “thud”. The air went still. People looked at each other, chatter turning into a hubbub. My friend who had been at Brixton turned to me… “that’s a bomb”. /1

I know what you're thinking. "Did he read 6 articles or only 5?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But as this is The Grauniad, the least spell checked website in the world, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?

And now, we move onto “liars”. Father Peter Sorenson. Father Desmond Clerents. Remember him?

Predictably, a cinema. An old style one with a main screen and a smaller screen. The opening weekend’s programming would include Predator 2, Holiday on the Buses & The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou on the main screen and Object Z on the bijou smaller one. I’d be bust in a week. But what a week.

In honour of the Spectrum's 44th birthday, please observe a moment of silence. Then five minutes of screeching. Then a loading error. Then rewind the tape and try again. This is the authentic experience.

Pro level laptops and desktops with user upgradable RAM and SSDs.

Look what they’ve done to my beautiful boy.

I’ll never forget listening to The Case of Charles Dexter Ward on my way home on New Year’s Day 2020 in preparation for Whisperer in Darkness. It really gripped me as I sped through the winter gloom. Lost count of the how many times I’ve listened since! Glad they’re back!

We all know it’s cheese.

Sadly, we’ve hit a new low of YouTube ads. Now when I get an advert, now I have an annoying little link for the same advertiser pop up in the bottom left hand corner of the screen that I have to dismiss. Who on Earth, except the bean counters, would think trashing your UI this way is a good idea?

There’s a lot being said about Julian Glover turning 91 today and his body of film and TV work. Rightly so. But he was also on radio, certainly here in the UK. For me, his Hober Mallow in the BBC adaptation of Foundation is the definitive. Not the poundshop Han Solo of the Apple TV adaptation.

What’s the perfect gif for your Bluesky persona?

This. So much this.

Just read the sad news that Commodore engineer Hedley Davis has died. I always remembered his name courtesy of The Deathbed Vigil. The silly “Memorial Disk Drive” summed up what it was like to work in IT in the 80s & 90s. Passionate people who really gave a monkeys about what they were making. RIP

Hello and welcome to my unboxing video

The reboot we may not want, but the one we deserve.

That said, now in a Bone Temple twist, I can’t unsee Hacker as Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and Bernard as Spike.

Twelve months from now I believe my family and I will have made a fortune and not still be selling stuff from the back of a yellow Regal.

Orange Album cover. Got to give Very some love. Especially the first iteration that I never bought when I had the chance and have regretted ever since. BUT I did love the “further listening” release.

Never understood the Fraser’s group strategy for Game, and by the looks of it neither did anyone else. The one near me closed and was replaced by a sign in a nearby Sports Direct flogging gift cards. To call it a token effort would be overselling it.

Cut my teeth on HP-UX in the 1990s. It ran my first interactive websites. I both loved and loathed it in equal measure. I feel hit right in the feels <insert image of William Shatner here>.

Plugging this new ChinnyVision video that has already caused 3 subscribers to rage quit. youtu.be/MK-JTCye7MY