It's rare to find a sci-fi / rom-com crossover - and it's even rarer to find one that's good. TiMER is excellent. Like all good speculative fiction, it changes just one aspect of the modern world - what would it be like if you knew exactly when you would meet your one-true-love? It doesn't bother much with the science part of sci-fi, it goes straight for the paradox. If you knew - really knew…
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Blogging like it's 1991! I'm pretty sure that I had the shareware version of the original Monkey Island. At any rate, I remember the amazing graphics... But I don't remember getting further than the first few screens. I do remember a few years later, my brother and I completing the CD-ROM version of "Day Of The Tentacle" - by which time computer games had advanced so far that there was no…
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Briefly (and incorrectly) put, Moore's Law estimates that the cost of computer power halves every 18 month. Got a grand to spend? Wait a couple of years and you can buy twice the amount of computer for the same cost. Or, if you prefer, the old computer for half the price. The Nokia N95 - the last great Smartphone before the iPocalypse - cost around £370 in 2005. That's about £560 in 2021's m…
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There's a famous quote from Tom Goodwin about the way the world has changed recently: Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening. As part of my MSc,…
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This is probably me being a bit dense. I'm on a video call with two other people. Alice is on the left of my screen, Bob is on the right. Why isn't the audio in stereo? (Zoom lets you send stereo audio - but only of you have a stereo microphone. Whereas I'm talking abound individuals sending mono and receiving to stereo.) Every video conference system I've used delivers the audio in mono.…
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One of my lovely colleagues made an small speech during a recent meeting. She was delighted to announce that she was heading off on maternity leave next month and looked forward to seeing us all next year once the pandemic was over. There were the usual round of congratulations and how-will-we-cope-without-yous. But a few of us were left a little blindsided. For the last 10 months, we've only…
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This is neither a serious proposal, nor an official proposal. This is just me thinking in public. Governments are a monopoly. There is only one institution which can grant you a passport - Her Majesty's Passport Office. That's not quite true, of course. You are free to seek citizenship in other countries. And some countries will sell you a passport. In business studies terms, other countries…
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Inspired by this conversation on Mastodon YouTube hosts 360 videos. Here's one of mine, wandering through the Houses of Parliament. You can drag the video to see all around. If you let YouTube-DL download the "best" version, you'll end up with a video which looks like this: Each lens' view has been horizontally stretched, and then stitched into an over/under view. This is in Google's…
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Another day, another high-profile website cloned to phish credentials. Tess Rinearson@_tessrIs this a phishing attempt? Goes to "githubverification.com" and asks for username and pw (if so, it nearly got me!) /cc @github pic.x.com/jgt4oNvjF2❤️ 2,243💬 111🔁 016:12 - Sat 16 January 2021 In the replies, you’ll see lots of techbros saying “this is why you should switch on 2FA people!!!” Except, an…
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Back in 2011, I sold all of my shares in my former employer and used the money to buy solar panels. I closed my account at the same time. Or so I thought Fast-forward 9 years, and I was surprised to receive an unwanted email from the corporate shareholding service. It was some nonsense about their corporate rebranding. I dropped them a note saying that I hadn't been a customer for many years…
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The WordPress app for Android prompted me to add a story! This is a new and experimental feature. Sadly, it isn't very good. Here's how it works. There's a brief description and some aspirational screenshots. There's a basic image picker. Then you get some basic tools to add text on top of your image. I know I'm a cynic, but this is a little underwhelming. It just posts an image to the…
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There's nothing wrong with this movie. It's just so... ordinary. Partly, that's a failure of the superhero genre. They're all identical movies. I am strong enough to defeat common thieves! Here is a baddie who is somehow stronger than you! I will defeat you due to really believing in myself! Fan service post-credits scene. WW1984 hits all the tropes in all the right places. Superhero fans…
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