Personal blogs

I am back to walking a little and we went ahead with our planned vacation. We tried to plan it so that even if I wasn’t doing too well it would still be enjoyable and …

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all …

(“The Library of the Distant Future,” as envisioned by Midjourney, when I was let into the beta in March 2022.) Before one can become a Cassandra or Pollyanna about the uses or abuses of impressive …

A good friend made a Facebook post saying “Sadly it turns out that the latest AI photo app y’awl using to look hot and sexy is built off the back of a training set full …

Finishing my morning walk where, perhaps, I should have started it with the first cache in this enjoyable series. Took a while for a good GPSr fix and I walked up and down the path …

A lot of companies talk about being data-driven, yet fail to define—explicitly—what it means in practise. Being data-driven is seen as being a de-facto good thing, even though many can’t describe how data-driven decisions are …

Black Flag’s April 1986 show at SUNY Albany, held about 30 minutes from my suburb of Niskayuna, New York, changed my life. The very instant singer Henry Rollins ignited – a human heat-seeking missile in …

I had consecutive evenings of playing basketball this week. In addition to a training session, I played in Worthing D&D White's 85-82 win against Angmering GSD. I thought I shot the ball well when in …

It's almost 2023. The world is different, the online world is very different, and I'm pushing 50. So I think it's time we all start talking about online gathering places with a more apt metaphor: …

(Thanks to Prof. Dr. Molly Steenson for initiating this habit when I was a student. I’ve now trimmed it down a little as I find myself with the same answers to some questions year on …

I’ve been at DIT 100 (working) days as of today (Friday 27th January). This is significantly longer than I lasted at Becta, Defra or UKHSA and on a par with consultancy gigs at Essex and …

While looking for something to watch on the television earlier in the week I stumbled across The Fringe, Fame and Me, a programme about the “story of how a small Scottish arts festival that began …

I love making quesapizzas at home. It’s fun to make these pizza/quesadilla combinations and I think you can be pretty flexible with how you do it. Some folks think they should be open faced and …

Genuine question: can anyone point me to a practical usage of actor-network theory? (from Bruno Latour). I read [[Technology appropriation in a de-growing economy]] and they discuss a Marxist spin on ANT. For the purposes …

It's always satisfying when projects you have been involved with demonstrate great results:https://twitter.com/ResearchEssex/status/1504867213840420870Cofarm is in our third growing season, and starting to think about how best to grow - we're getting quite a lot of …

Action generators Published 2022-12-20 Quick, do something. Now do something without leaving your current position. e.g. if you're sitting down stand up. Now, without leaving your current position, do something with your left hand. Now, …

2022 has probably been one of the best years of my life, so I’d like to do my best to document everything that has happened - away from social media, and on something a little …

Reid Blackman’s book on AI ethics provides a good and practical overview of the field, but conspicuously avoids the trickier and more studious questions of technology ethics. The ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine …

I’m very sad for the passing of Wilko Johnson. I flew to England and got the news when I arrived. I’m glad to be in England at the moment, it seems appropriate - Wilko may …

You tend to get stuck when you’re writing. Moreso when you’re writing something long. (Or at least, much longer than you’ve written in quite some time.) And even moreso when you’re writing about something you …