Recently updated blogs

Recently, I started a new project. I react to the accessibility of more or less randomly picked websites.Before you get too excited, It's in German. I feel more comfortable recording live reactions to websites I have never seen in my native language. However, I may try it in English if there's demand. So far, I've recorded four videos: Wie barrierefrei ist gruene.at? Wie barrierefrei ist fpoe.at? Wie barrierefrei ist bierpartei.eu? …

The SC29 is a general-purpose flashlight running on a single included rechargeable 21700 battery. It features USB-C charging and a distinctive TIR optic. Introduction Manufacturer Specifications Package Details Build User Interface Circuit Measures Emitter Measures Beamshots Testing Results Runtimes Pros and Cons Overall Rating Preliminary Conclusions Acknowledgement Introduction Still working through my backlog – this SC29 sample was received back in March of this year. The SC29 is another in …

Tirzah Garwood, Erskine Returning at Dawn, 1950, oil on canvasI'm thrilled that my exhibition Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious will be opening at Dulwich Picture Gallery on 19 November. It's been a fascinating journey since I suggested the show to them three or so years ago, not least because so little study has been made of Garwood's work before. Her life is quite well-documented, thanks to her autobiography Long Live Great …

mambo vipi from kenya!Last week at the Apple keynote event, the iPhone camera features that stood out the most to me were the new Camera Control button, upgraded 48-megapixel Ultra Wide sensor, improved audio recording features (wind reduction and Audio Mix), and Photographic Styles.When I finally landed in Nairobi (after more than 15 hours of flight delays), these were the features I was most excited to put to the test.Over …

DDoS Update The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is ongoing. Even after I moved our load balancer to new hardware and a new IP address. This means that the attackers are not just targeting the IP address of the load balancer, but they are targeting “runestone.academy” by name. This is a much more serious attack and it is taking a lot of time to mitigate. I’ve learned a lot …

I've shared these at work and thought it might be helpful to post my notes from the launch of the Museum Data Service at Bloomberg last week in public too. The MDS aggregates museum (and museum-like) metadata, encouraging use by data scientists, researchers, the public, etc. The MDS doesn't include images, but link to them … Continue reading Notes from the Museum Data Service launch

I just learned that the painter, illustrator and writer known as Ul de Rico (his full name was Ulderico Conte Gropplero di Troppenburg) passed away on 3 August 2023, a bit over a year ago, aged 79. I've written about him before, and here is the link. The Rainbow Goblins has been a favorite of mine since I first discovered it not long after U.S. publication in 1978. His family's …

Some details of AIS tracking data around some of America's busiest waterways. Data: NOAA; Map: Jon Keegan / Beautiful Public Data As we run, drive, bike, and fly, humans leave behind telltale tracks of movement on Earth—if you know where to look. Physical tracks, thermal signatures, and chemical traces can reveal where we’ve been. But another type of breadcrumb trail comes from the radio signals emitted by the cars, planes, …

Where time allows this year, I have been doing PC build projects for Compaq LTE Elite laptop (486), IBM Aptiva (AMD-K6 500), Compaq DeskPro (P3-1Ghz), Core i7 PC I built back in 2011, and Pentium 200MMX setup on IBM PC300GL with OS/2, plus adding a parallel ZIP, HP iPAQ, Sony Clie Palm into the mix.Whew.This work has been ongoing since May, being done in small chunks when I had time. …

Researching another piece of writing, I discovered today with great sadness that the American composer and instrument builder Chas Smith died earlier this year, on 13 May. I can’t say that I knew a huge amount about Smith’s life before today – although he found success in Hollywood, particularly through his work on Dune, he … Continue reading Delayed memorial: Chas Smith →

We understand that a community has built up over the years and some of you will find this disappointing, however, in line with changing audience behaviours a decision has been made to direct users to our social channels where there are active communities discussing the show on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. The Strictly blog and its comment section will soon be closing in line with other blogs across the BBC, …

The cheatsheet that came with the Teenage Engineering KO II was pretty but a bit hard to parse, at least for me. Meanwhile the manual seems to leave some features undocumented. So I scratched together what I could, plus tips from forums, and condensed everything down to this.Things still unclear:The difference between "Reset fader" and "Erase fader"Does group FX send (hold FX, move fader) override the fader's own FX send …

Years ago I bought a cheap chinese E-Cigarette 510 box mod, the Eleaf iStick Pico 25. It's running the ArcticFox custom firmware which sadly seems to be no longer available. I never really used it for anything, but for reasons I want to get it going again. Unfortunately the display is so dim that it can no longer be used. So I wanted to repair the device. I found this …

Image: Bathhouse built on top of a hot pool, Taiwan. Photo from early 20th century, public domain. No Running Water at Home For people in industrial societies, few activities demand more privacy than washing and grooming the body. We usually do it alone, in our private bathrooms, with locked doors. Seen in a historical context, that is unusual. Bathing in the presence of others has been the rule rather than …

A while ago I went to north Wales with my daughter. I posted here a few pictures from that trip. We wanted to visit a place I saw in various websites, that at first looked like a mistake. Someone must have taken the wrong pictures, I first thought. These pictures looked like a place from another country. And actually, that is the intent of Portmeirion, a fake Italian village someone …