My mum's friend Rachel has a one-woman show on at the Fringe. As, apparently, the only orthodox Jew on the UK comedy circuit she has constructed a fully interactive Jewish Mother experience. Like several shows on the fringe, it relies on the audience writing questions on cards and the comedian riffing on them. Unlike other shows, Rachel has a huge stream of anecdotes and songs to weave into her…
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Fancy a quickie in Scotland's most haunted pub? Smut Slam is a (mildly) interactive performance where a handful of speakers get to tell their dirtiest stories. The audience fills in cards with their questions or confessions which may be read out. The format mostly works. There are different stories every night, so maybe we got a slightly uninspiring batch. Tales of sex parties, STIs, and broken …
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By my count there are at least three "Heated Rivalry" musical parodies on at the Fringe this year. The zeitgeist skates to where the puck was six months ago, I guess! There's also a live version of a HR podcast if you just can't get enough of their wacky ice-capades. Just how much sexy-hockey can one city take? Produced by Quick and Funny Musicals, an American company specialising in cash-ins …
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Our first show at the Fringe! Caught by a rainstorm (in Scotland?!?!?) the app said this was the nearest comedy show to our sodden carcasses and it was free pay what you want! This is bang-average stand-up. That isn't to disparage it at all. Four Australian blokes each doing 15 minutes of material - nothing particularly avant-garde or challenging. Just some decently funny (albeit well worn)…
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There's a certain strain of commentator who is just sure that nothing can ever get better. In amongst all the hullaballoo about the UK potentially banning under 16s from social media, I saw a prominent historian say: i assume banning kids from social media will be accompanied by a huge investment in teen-friendly communtiy [sic] spaces (like youth clubs) and social activities? No? Huh. But,…
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How do you tell users that the text they're about to read has been synthetically generated? It is polite to readers that you don't waste their time, it's also important that LLMs don't feed on their own regurgitated slurry lest they pollute their own development. I think there are a number of potential ways to do this and I'd be interested in your thoughts. Let's go with some bad ideas first. …
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The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me another Thermal Camera to review. The last one was a big beastie with a huge touchscreen. This one is much smaller and is designed to plug into your phone's USB-C port. The T2 Max is a chunky little camera - but doesn't weight too much. The USB-C connector is long enough to securely plug in even if your phone is wearing a case. Thermal Master…
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It's 1998 and Doogie, the guy across the hall in our student accommodation, will not stop playing The Boy With The Arab Strap. Eventually I crack and ask him who the band are. He infodumps on me with all the authority of an 18 year our music snob about this cool new Scottish band called Belle & Sebastian. I slip him a tenner, a couple of Smirnoff Ice, and the promise of my help on the next…
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This is such a useful book. It makes the case that there's no such thing as "human error" - instead most catastrophes are caused by system issues, misaligned incentives, and unrealistic processes. You are not the custodian of an otherwise safe system that you need to protect from erratic human beings. By its nature it is a little repetitive. I suspect it's the sort of book students and…
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The good folks at Hikmicro have sent me their D02 Infrared Camera to review. It's part of their "Eco" series of thermal imagers - designed to be easy to use around the home and relatively cheap. Despite the no-fills appearance, it packs in a lot of features which put some more expensive models to shame. It even works with Linux. Shove in a USB-C cable to grab the photos or even use it as a…
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