Reading Nikita Prokopov’s excellent blog (via @gruber.foo) about terrible menu icons in MacOS 26, and getting a massive proustian rush from this old screenshot. 1994, huddled over a tiny Mac in the Design & Technology room that smelled of sawdust and glue, overusing SHADOW in my GCSE coursework.

EIGHT YEARS

Big fan of getting milk from a milkman (no plastic, satisfyingly retro/nostalgic). But not a fan of grabbing a bottle from the fridge to find I’ve actually just grabbed a big snail that had crawled up the side of it 😱

Am at the very first UK Gov research operations conference today, which is very exciting. A room full of public sector people doing innovative things on shoestring budgets to help us do better research with government service users more quickly and efficiently. Inspiring 🙌

I am recruiting a Senior Accessibility Specialist to be part of the Government Digital Service accessibility and digital inclusion team. Applications open until Sunday 26th October. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg... #a11y #Accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations

Moved a picture to a different room, and remembered it was hiding a MYSTERY LIGHT SWITCH. As far as I can tell it controls no light or anything else electrical in/outside the house, so assume instead that it controls some kind of terrifying portal to hell? Will cover it up again with a new picture.

Just read something that said Michael Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days was the start of his “latter-day career” and yep I’ve just checked & Palin was younger than me when he did 80 Days - which is an unnecessary reminder for a Monday of both my general decay & my minimal overall life achievements

Been listening to Ash recently, from the 90s, who I had sort of forgotten existed. Remembered a) how great Ash were, b) a mixtape I made in 1998 or so that started with Jesus Says - which is a banger of an opener. Don’t want to big myself up too much, but I was an absolute premier league mixtaper.

Am in a nearly deserted jungle tent hotel in Thailand, with a poorly 9 year old. Everybody else is out doing activities, and all I can hear is birds and insects and the room fan. There’s nothing to do except lie/sit and read, and I could absolutely get used to this (apart from the poorly 9 year old)

Steve Wozniak on why he sold his Apple shares (via @gruber.foo). More Woz in the world, please.

ADHD care in the UK is a postcode lottery. Different rules. Long waits. Services that don’t talk to each other. We’re mapping all this, starting with lived experience. If you’ve been through ADHD assessment, diagnosis or treatment, your story matters. No personal info, just what happened.

Absolute made up that the Bluesky age verification photo upload thing reckons I’m only 46, when actually I’m 47. Screw you, AI!

I’ve come to a different Aldi to normal and am genuinely outraged at the store layout. Why put the fake Ritz crackers over there?! Ridiculous.

One of my colleagues’ husbands drove tour buses in the 90s, which is a pretty cool job. He spent a week or two driving a bunch of WWF wrestlers around a UK arena tour. Lovely lads apparently. Very quiet. Played cards and watched videos. The one with the snake played quietly with his snake.

Hulk Hogan dying - I was never into WWF because I thought it was ridiculous (absolutely not because I was jealous of mates whose parents paid for Sky) but he was still a major cultural figure from my childhood. *Astounded* to find out he was only 71 - I genuinely thought he was about 50 in 1991?!

Over on twitter @pulplibrarian.bsky.social accidentally posted an AI image of a fake 1960s tobacco mascot called “Mr Cig” and lots of people are really cross but others are saying things like “no, Mr Cig was real, I drank bourbon with him backstage at a Doors gig” and THAT’S the daft Twitter I miss.

#campdigital love the tradition of ending the day with a keynote sort of tangentially about design, but mainly about an enthusiastic nerd sharing something cool. Last year was LASERS!, this year MAPS! (and how they lie to us, and what it means). Per Axbom is ticking a *lot* of geek boxes for me here

Likewise! Depressing to learn. (Speaker was Jane Bowyer bowyerjane.co.uk )

Also a massive +1 for her neurodivergent bewilderment at the nightmare usability of HR/expenses systems.

#campdigital Claire Dellar’s talk on universal design and disability is brilliant. Full of uncompromising examples and insight - and very literally hands-on via the power of an elastic band.

#campdigital really great 300 Seconds lightning talks. Although I’m distressed to learn via the “mid career MOT” talk that, apparently, I’m about to exit mid-career and enter late-career? Must be some kind of clerical error, surely. (I didn’t catch the speaker’s name, sorry! @sharonodea.com ?)

Dr Zeynap Engin giving me lots to think about AI governance and human authority. #campdigital basically just working its way through my to-do list now. (Note to self, re lesson from earlier session: must talk in the open about the hopefully exciting AI thing we’re about to start experimenting with…)

One of the best days of the year, #campdigital at RNCM in Manchester. Very excited about a day of meeting and catching up with all the best Digital people, and recharging my brain and ideas from all the brilliant talks and speakers.

In the late 90s, when I was about 9 or 10 on a school trip to see something at the National Theatre, I stood next to Sylvester McCoy at the urinals. Best day of my life. My friend Stewart Polden was all wide-eyed and said “you had a wee next to Doctor Who!”

Spent a lovely couple of hours in the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield today with my gaming obsessed 9yo. He played old Sonics and Marios, and I spent way too much time geeking out over the original hand-drawn plans for probably the 4th or 5th best ever ZX Spectrum game. @nvmuk.bsky.social

Somehow managed to plan to deliver two entirely different talks and a workshop today. Ironically one of the talks is about ADHD, where poor future planning, taking on too many things, and struggling to focus on a task until it’s urgent, are all common traits. So, you know, it’s been a busy 24 hours.

Electrician taking up floorboards and fitting new sockets today. As far as I can tell, he’s taken his dad on as an apprentice, and from the level of tension (particularly after he nearly electrocuted him by switching the wrong fuse back on) I feel he’s regretting this particular family arrangement.

Thinking about my grandad on VE Day. He was a proud WW2 soldier, a tank commander in North Africa. He and his crew nearly died when a shell burst through the side of their tank - but failed to explode. He apparently didn’t talk about that, or any of his other battle experiences, until the 1970s.

A bloke with a big sign and a loudhailer just told me I’ll go to hell if I don’t repent, but he also called me “young man” so overall I’m winning.

I realise I’m risking all the Northerner Points I’ve built up over 25 years living in Manchester, but there’s still very few places I like more than central London on a sunny morning.

Secretly played a loud witch cackle through our sonos and made the eight year old panic-cry hysterically for five minutes, so Halloween is already going well 😬

Our haunted Halloween balloon is now SEVEN YEARS OLD and still fully inflated/possessed. It has seen wars and pandemics and governments fall, five prime ministers and (nearly, fingers crossed) three US presidents, and even outlived a major social network (demonic year 2-6 photos are on Twitter)

I love wonky old future tech predictions. This has smart watches, health sensors, cashless society, remote working and VR headsets, but apparently the concept of screen technology getting good enough to avoid carrying around a printer in a briefcase was just a step too far. youtu.be/5A44p77mkII?...

Joined here months ago, but it was a graveyard and I forgot to come back. But saw the other day that @debblanch44.bsky.social @andyjones.bsky.social and @ideasintheround.bsky.social are here, so there’s something going for it now. Who else should I follow?