I've currently got about four projects on the go simultaneously, but can't talk about them for fear it'll distract from the stuff that's actually available right now... ..and incidentally, I've figured out how to sort out the screen reflections when photographing VideoBeast. Sorta.

More Robots at CES: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aitx...

Reports from CES are our annual reminder that the UK has no meaningful technological or industrial strategy, and just rather hopes that "being smart" is going to help us keep up. Newsflash: you can find smart people everywhere. We have no monopoly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrUH...

Good "Holy cow, do we have to get up this early?" to all of you who celebrate.

Thinking about doing a regular Discord hangout to talk about current projects and answer questions about the existing kits and software. I'm not expecting a big audience, but a predictable time may help existing owners. Good idea? Best time/day to do it? (UK Time!)

What's the rule? "Any article that has a question for a title can be answered with 'No'" Screens are ubiquitous and rarely more than an arms length away for most adults. It is actually less convenient to strap them to your head than to just reach for them when you need them and then put them away.

A rather lovely font editor for the MicroBeast 14 segment display by Ant Skelton here: blowback.github.io/microbeast-f...

Our government brought in the clunky online safety act despite many experienced people pointing out significant flaws. So watching it sit on its hands whilst people do actual harm is.. not remotely surprising.

Oohhh... I think I know how to do useful things... Fire up KiCad, stoke the boiler, and someone fetch me a bucket of tea.

MTV is officially ending all of its music channels. In honor of that, what's your favorite music video? www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj44...

My daily driver going into 2026. Though I might need to figure out how to make the display (a lot) less reflective! Thanks to the support of hundreds who've built their own MicroBeasts. I'm officially making 2026 the year of the VideoBeast - the ultimate 8-bit graphics upgrade. feersumbeasts.com

Small update to MicroBeast firmware - the start of the 1.7 release. Small fixes to BeastEm, the emulator - continued GUI improvements. That's enough for now. Things generally working, which is all I need.

We're starting to get the technology predictions for 2026. Mainly it's all the obvious stuff - like 2025 but bigger. The problem is that 2025 was largely full of global scale corporate slop. There are other things we could be doing that would probably make more of a useful difference.

BeastEm - the MicroBeast emulator. Latest binary build for Windows now available. Use "beast -d videobeast.dat" to start the emulator with VideoBeast enabled. Hit Ctrl-D to disable the LED screen in CP/M for faster screen refresh. github.com/atoone/Beast...

A short piece on why "Better Algorithms" are not going to save the internet, despite Jack Conte's enthusiasm. feersumbeasts.com/algorithm.html

Hmmm... if you "Watch" a file in an emulator, should it reload it: (a) Whenever it changes, whether or not the emulator is paused (b) Whenever it changes, so long as the emulator is paused (c) Whenever it changes, but only when the emulator is running These are the issues we face today.

There's no better way to improve a GUI than to not use it for a couple of months. Whatever annoys you/confuses you when you go back to it becomes the top priority to fix. Anyway... putting a little TLC into the MicroBeast emulator.

DigiKey have nicely fixed the miss-packed order from the start of the month, which means I can send out the last handful of kits this year. I'm stocked up with Z80s and PIOs, but rely on ad-hoc ordering for the rest of the MicroBeast components.

The BBC have a captive audience of millions, and they choose to have three hours of repeats. Not a show under fifty years old.

Happy Christmas, folks! Have a great day, with family, friends, pets or just by yourselves.

Happy Christmas Eve to everyone currently being forced to watch films on their parents' TV that is set to MAXIMUM BRIGHTNESS AND SHARPENING! HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? THERE CANNOT BE TOO MUCH SATURATIONS! WATCH THE EDGES OF OBJECTS GLOW NEON!

We in the UK have a phrase to explain this: Two cheeks of the same arse.

One of the great amusements of having a nominally left wing UK government and right wing American government is watching political commentators perform mental gymnastics to criticise one whilst ignoring the faults of the other. Especially the ones who position themselves as 'free thinkers'.

Can someone explain how Tesla's stock is nearly at an all time high when their car business has tanked, their robotaxis are not doing any of the things they claimed and their robots are stubbornly refusing to be anything other than remote control puppets? It's insanity.

Last minute Christmas present for yourself? You know they'll just send you socks otherwise. I've got two MicroBeast Z80 kits that can ship immediately. After that, further kits will be sent out after Christmas. feersumbeasts.com/shop.html

Though there is a lot to criticise the BBC for at the moment, they should stand up to this fight. And maybe learn that pandering to regressive political views doesn't actually win them any protection or favours.

Anything in a car that requires a subscription will be terminated with extreme prejudice. Just No.

Maybe @zackpolanski.bsky.social needs a tech policy advisor. That'd really annoy the big corporates that run our media (and government infrastructure, and business services and...).

Sure, when I say it I'm a grumpy old greybeard. When Cory Doctorow says it he gets interviewed on The Daily Show. There's a point here for UK and European Policy Makers - the key part of our modern economic and social infrastructure doesn't have to be like this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2e-...

After putting up with an Epson EcoTank that flat out refused to calibrate, and produced consistently mushy prints, I had to do an emergency dash to get a printer for an urgent job. A Brother office printer is a massive improvement - better built, better prints, more features, half the price.

Just a minor thought: our Political Parties have optimised to a local maxima, encouraged by an almost homogeneous media landscape. So whilst they profess to hate each other, they're all too fearful of arguing away from extremely similar solutions and views. #politics #sorry

I don't know what you lot have been putting in your morning cuppa, but the first few conversations I've seen on the feed have involved po*n and penis fonts. It's only Wednesday.

Reform's act as MAGA-lite (complete with their sad impression of DOGE) is looking increasingly sad as the full-fat MAGA implodes in the US. Nope, we don't want to be sold out to some idiot billionaires and their secret police, thanks.

This should concern us a lot more than it does. Yorkshire Bylines' reporting regularly impresses me.

Cute idea, looks fun.

This is a neat idea.

Communities have power that they don't always fully understand - here's an interesting piece on Open Source and the power it hands to corporations and abusers.

Quick! Whilst the Americans are through there eating all the food, let's put Marmite in their shoes!

The overwhelming feeling on BSky at the moment seems to be that we're all in agreement that certain things are really pretty unacceptable (British understatement), but no-one feels able to do the slightest thing about it. Too busy trying to get through the day to stick it to the man.

Today's mini thesis: AI concentrates wealth and employment but doesn't provide a pathway to new jobs. Alternately engineering and manufacture boost jobs and increase resilience and independence. An argument for strengthening physical services and enterprises as AI eats the knowledge economy?

Drink up, citizen! See, nutrients are plentiful, there is no cost of living crisis!

Any company that has to publicly say "We are not Enron"... is Enron. I don't make the rules. #nvidia #enron

First up against the wall, come the revolution. I'll keep banging the drum for online communities that actually benefit their members - and that requires us to build new platforms that aren't Facebook et. al.

Turns out games are good for the heart and soul... literally. (See what I did there?)

I should roll these posts up into an essay. Getting past the current decline in online communities and independent media is not about building a better algorithm - it's about building better incentive structures so the algorithms you have don't degrade.

Sunday Papers... Why have the right wing press in the UK given up on reporting national politics, and just moved to wholesale importing American social issues? Stop saying "everyone thinks..", and then talking like someone from 1950s deep South Texas.. Who are we rounding up/abusing today?

This seems to be giving off Mad Emperor Nero vibes.

The fatal flaw in Jack Conte's otherwise uplifting opinion piece for the NYT (many points I've been making for years), is that he's maintaining the incentive structures and gatekeeper architecture of the companies he singles out as bad. 🧵 www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO14...

Luckily, none of our political classes are using AI to help them with policies affecting millions of pe.. ..what?

Sooooo.... Arduino appears to have abandoned the community that built it. Anyone want to do a hardware startup? I hear they're really profitable.