Came back from holiday to find my dishwasher has died. Such is life.

I think I was in @colbertlateshow.bsky.social's happy place today: Hobbiton. So here are a few from a series I'm calling "Middle-Earth in Monochrome".

Really loved Hamilton Gardens today. What a genuinely lovely place to explore.

Really enjoyed checking Brisbane from the ferry back from Bluey’s World. It's a really nice city. Can't believe I've never been before.

You can't take photos in Bluey's World, and while every fibre of my being yearned to, it's easy to see why: Bluey is about experiencing life through a kid's eyes, and watching your kids experience life in Bluey has to be seen and enjoyed, rather than simply photographed.

In Brisbane with the Bluey family (mum, two girls) for real life.

Just told my wife the rapture is apparently on. She looked at her watch. The dog burped. I said dog.

For SEO folks/journos trying to explain SEO drops this week: Google changed the rules for results removing 100 at once. Your impressions dive as tracking tools can't scrape more. Less scrapes mean positions improve because views are real. TL;DR: SEM/SEO tools were manipulating counts in Console.

I'll be on ABC Adelaide talking about the Optus outage and how these things shouldn't happen, plus how newer phones can theoretically get around outages in an emergency. No telco should lean on that, though.

Well this is awkward.

This is an interesting piece. On a related note, I actually dabbled with creating an offensive AI a month or two ago. I quickly found the limits of OpenAI's ability to offend, and switched to something on my machine. www.afr.com/technology/c...

How long does it take roughly to get through customs and immigration at Auckland airport? Asking for a friend. That friend is me. Clearly I need more friends.

Today I did a thing: I did a presentation on SEO, covering the sorts of things I do and the thought processes I work with to snag top spots largely without trying. Folks told me I should do more of them. I just hope it helped. I'm told there's a video of it somewhere.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there that tell the worst dad jokes, which is all of us. My family treats me so well. My little Bluey family. Thanks @drmummabear.bsky.social for organising.

Kinda weird that to be accredited for an industry event I have to write about the event before it happens and can't be judged on simply having an audience like other events. Feels a little like asking me to write advertising for the event, @sxswsydney.com, rather than find angles AT the event.

The new Charlie Brown special has barely been out for a day, and Ms 8 wants to turn @actualbenfolds.bsky.social's "Look Up, Charlie Brown" into chords so she can play it on her guitar. She says it's the best song on the album. It's a pretty solid way to get her into more Ben Folds.

I was invited to an event in America today. I said I appreciate the invite, but I'm not travelling to the US while Trump is in power. That probably comes as little surprise, but the person I spoke to told me other journalists had turned it down for the same reason. I wasn't the first.

Heading to Auckland with the family in October. I've never been. What's good and worth seeing? (Beyond Hobbiton a couple of hours away, because we'll definitely do that.)

Did my segment. Now I have a music streaming service running locally as a test. What should I do with it?

I'll be on ABC Darwin talking about streaming music and folks leaving Spotify for ethical reasons later, plus whether people can just start their own service. Here's my effort this morning... which works. And plays my old band's music. Turns out you can start your own service... if you know how.

Saving electricity is important in general, but when costs are rising, even more so. My bills made zero sense, so I spent time researching why. I did the work so you don't have to. www.pickr.com.au/qa/2025/why-...

Ms 8 is using Fozzie Bear's jokes. I'm not sure if I've failed or succeeded.

Built a script as part of the AI Dr Karl project, and incidentally made the M3 Ultra Mac Studio work hard, switching on its fan. Even when the Mac Studio fan is on, it's fairly quiet. Like you have to concentrate to hear it.

Ms 7 will become Ms 8 in a couple of weeks, and rather than ask for presents, she's suggested a donation to the koalas. Such a lovely idea. If you want to help, here's a link. Share around. www.teamtaronga.org.au/users/emma-s...

I don't want to write about THAT phone, but it almost certainly wouldn't be made in America for the price being suggested, and based on perceived specs and camera config, is also very likely a rebranded Xiaomi Redmi 12 in gold. www.mi.com/global/produ...

"What's the password?" Ms 3 says to stop me from getting by. "Rainbow" she whispers. "Rainbow!" I say. "Nope," she says. Ms 3 totally gets the importance of changing passwords.

Last night, the awesome @doctorkarl.bsky.social had me on stage to talk about a project we've been working on together: a digital Dr Karl designed to help explain climate change. Unlike most AI projects, the goal is to help people and run it in a way where it relies on renewables.

Going to go do something a little unlike me: be a part of a story as opposed to reporting on a story.

The girls are playing and doing craft while jazz plays in the kitchen and I cook, and Dr. Wife is on the way home from a science conference. A good Sunday.

I’m sure it’s probably not this simple, but on one of my AI test projects, when I applied a RAG layer, it made every question revolve around what was in that layer. Which sounds a lot like what’s happening with Grok. In that it’s a failed tweak to hone the results, and now it’s ONLY about that.

I've started including extra information (largely pricing on products where I can) for readers in New Zealand. I figure we're seeing the same tech, so the product review experience can be shared with friends in a nearby country. Let me know if there's anything else NZers would like to see.

"Daddy, can we have jazz at dinner?" asked the three year old. I guess we're doing something right.

Happy May the Fourth to all who celebrate. Which appears to be much of Australia for taking on a bad guy and rejecting them. But also Happy Star Wars day. I can't believe there's no emoji for this.

If you're not sure what's going on in Australia for #ausvotes, the country basically said no to Trumpism and all the nonsense awfulness associated with it. Here's hoping the wins from the Canadian and Australian elections send a message to the rest of the world.

But his softer side. But. But. Yeah nah. #ausvotes

Wow. What an election. #ausvotes

Voting in Australia is a joy. It's on a Saturday, you can support a local school on the day, or you can vote early, too. No one was angry, everyone respectful. And yes, #DemocracySausage. I won't say who I voted for, but the ballot this year was as tall as Ms 3. #ausvotes

This episode of Bluey is called "Wearing The Right Socks For The Circus". (The Circus includes Australian voting. It's a voting day today. Expect a reference to Democracy Sausages from many Australians today.)

Gosh, it's a real race to the bottom for the electoral voting papers this year. Who do I mark lowest? I need a group number that brings together all the terrible parties under one box.

I just can't with Siri.

All of this sounds like a great reason to not use it. So I guess I'm not using it.

I've been wanting to find ways to make journalism and storytelling that little bit more interesting beyond words, so I'm expanding certain stories at Pickr. This one celebrating ten years of the Apple Watch has working recreations of Watch faces and a little bit of mindfulness.

I'll be on ABC Brisbane talking AI music at 7.10 this evening. It's highly possible you'll hear my AI efforts live, too. Will you be able to tell the difference? www.abc.net.au/brisbane

Imagine that. Hiring a grossly unqualified alcoholic TV show host for the top job at the Pentagon turned out to be a less than fantastic idea. Clearly no one could have seen that coming. www.cnn.com/2025/04/20/p...

This looks like a good Friday to have bacon and eggs for breakfast, and a burger for dinner.

Wow. It seems like the US policy is currently more like "you see that foreign person over there trying to return to living in the country, stop them even if they're totally legal".

A total surprise last night: my publication @pickrau.bsky.social grabbed the Best Independent Coverage award at the 2025 Australian IT Journalism Awards. Humbled by it all.

Parent teacher night tonight. Ms 7 nailing it, and she does something kids don't typically do: she goes back and edits her work. Definitely the child of a journalist.

Tried Bing today. Two of the eight result spots were organic. Two. I get that Google has its problems, but whoa Microsoft, that's just nuts.

Today I am resurrecting a seven year old Surface Book because it's the only device I have with Nvidia in the house and I need to know whether there's enough power in CUDA on that thing for something in Python. Apple Silicon is great, but the support for MLX isn't as wide as CUDA, it seems.