Recently updated blogs

This is part 3 in my “Software and its Discontents” series. This series is the product of speaking with a range of folks in the industry over several months about the sense that something about the current state of tech, startups and software has gone quite wrong. In part 1, I wrote about how the macro-economic environment is driving the timing of this conversation, and in particular the impact that …

Happy end of wretched 2022, everyone! I’ve become too superstitious at this point to claim that 2023 will be better. But I so sincerely hope that it is for you! For me, personally, it’s actually been awful – starting on … Continue reading → The post January 2023 Update appeared first on Kafkaesque.

Announcing Circular Design Praxis, a new movement in and around Japan concerning Asia-Pacific circular design principles and practicesContinue reading on A chair in a room »

Colin Alexander, cello Heather Roche, clarinet Eva Zöllner, accordion LSO St Luke’s, London | 14 January 2023 For her LSO Jerwood Composer+ showcase event, Hollie Harding curated an elaborate event on the theme of memory, culminating in her thirty-minute piece for clarinet, accordion and cello, Theories of Forgetting. Six pieces were given from the stage … Continue reading Train home review: Hollie Harding, Theories of Forgetting →

I was listening to a favorite symphony this morning, Mendelssohn’s Fourth, the Italian Symphony. The first movement is as sunny as I’ve ever known it to be in Italy, even in Tuscany. I started wondering about all the little details that make it sound that way, and I decided to have a look.Recently I have rediscovered a free music notation software called MuseScore. Version 4 was released late last year, …

Alternative panel for the Bastl Kastle (MODE and BIT IN references could be on the side panels)The Kastle is a complex oscillator that fits in the palm of your hand and can connect to a bunch of different things, including modular synths. It has an open-ended I/O jack (headphone type) that just directly connects to breadboard sockets in the device itself, which means you can both send signals into the …

American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art is an excellent, highly DIY doc. In it, Merle Becker (who has a YouTube channel devoted do DIY video production) follows her passion around the country, interviewing rock poster artists active from the 60s through the early 2000s. It about 90 minutes long, and has three fairly distinct chapters: late 60s (largely psychedelic), 1980s (mostly punks), and the indie period from …

January 4, 2023 | by David Jackson | During this most Christian time of year, wherein our faith has leaked so profusely into popular culture, it can be tempting to rest in the comfort of our confessional family. However, today’s reflection reminds us that the story of the Epiphany contains within it the divine plan that Christ’s light shine upon all people – no matter their ethnicity or faith traditions …

The Agrarianism and Revolution Reading Group met weekly for the duration of the Delfina Foundation’s 2022 Politics of Food Programme. Organised by myself and fellow resident Åsa Sonjasdotter, the impetus for the group came from a shared interest in discussing radical movements, ideas and materials concerning land and food. ARRG (as it is affectionately known) met 10 times over the course of the season, and will continue online on a …

I am spending Christmas and New Year in Miami, so as a change of venue, here are some pictures that I took on a walk around Little Haiti in Miami. I finish with a frozen iguana that fell from a tree in our garden, it has been there the last three days. Apparently this is normal when the temperature goes below 8C, and it will defrost and walk away when …

A project I’m working on forced me to wade into the discourse about semiconductors – especially the economics of older chip manufacturing processes and claims about the importance of bleeding edge processes for AI. I wrote this piece mostly to clarify my own understanding but I thought it might be...

‘It has never been the BBC’s intention to set itself up as the arbiter of pronunciation, but inadvertently it tends to be regarded as such’. These were the words of Miss G.M. Miller, a long-serving member of the BBC Pronunciation Unit. Part of Miss Miller’s role was responding to complaints about the pronunciation and accent of those speaking on the BBC. To judge by this correspondence many viewers and listeners …

There’s a lot of choice when it comes to rip saws. And unfortunately options usually just make things more complicated.So hopefully the video above will help clear up some of the confusion around which saw to reach for or at least give you something to think about when you’ve got a lot of ripping to […] The post Which Saws Are Best For Ripping Thick Stuff? [Video] appeared first on …

The snow is still here from yesterday. It is enough snow to close some schools, but not others. The kind of snow a seasoned winter-ist would scoff at – just a dusting! The kind of snow that gives a phone-in radio host the excuse to exclaim “Why can’t we cope with a bit of snow, the rest of the world can?” The kind of peculiar, contradictory exceptionalism where he sees …

Something happened in the past 7 years in the startup and venture capital world that I hadn’t experienced since the late 90’s — we all began praying to the God of Valuation. It wasn’t always like this and frankly it took a lot of joy out of the industry for me personally.What happened? How might our next phase of the journey seem brighter, even with more uncertain days for startups …