I used to see how many I could get to go off at once by hitting them with a hammer. Or make them pop by scraping them with my thumbnail. Used to have discoloured nails that smelled of gunpowder.

Time to crack out the Tildagon and see what I can do with it.

Whoop! I just got tickets for @emfcamp.bsky.social (after failing two weeks ago). Can't wait!

Embuggerance - it's such a good word, isn't it?

After four very busy years building global identity systems for Sky, my team and I have all been let go as they restructure.

If anyone needs 'big iron' Java services, wants to build a startup or create something new - let me know.

Daffodils by a stream. The stream reflects the trees overhead. To the left a small drift of snowdrops, behind which are some more daffodils. Beyond the stream is a fence, through which a grassy field can be seen.

Spring is springing.

A screenshot of my app. It says: Best Hour - 14 Species 25 Jan 2026 13:19 - 14:19 Species Spotted: Blackbird 2 Blackcap 1 Blue Tit 2 Carrion Crow 15 Coal Tit 1 Great Tit 4 House Sparrow 1 Little Egret 1 Long-tailed Tit 7 Magpie 1 Pheasant 1 Robin 2 Stock Dove 1 Woodpigeon 2

It was #BigGardenBirdwatch #BGBW today. It's supposed to be just an hour of bird watching, but I made an app so I could watch all day and then pick the best hour. I also saw a Redwing and a Treecreeper, but they were in a different hour. And heard a Goldcrest and a Jay, but didn't see them.

Glad the job's going well. And good to know about the station — I'm taking the train to Manchester once a week for my new contract. I maybe skip that week.

Squaredle Squaredle is a daily word building game. Swipe letters in the grid to test your vocabulary every day and rise to the top of the leaderboards!

I played squaredle.com 01/04:
66/66 words (+6 bonus words)
🎯 Perfect accuracy

(But it didn't really feel like a five star difficulty).

"AI" is bad UX teapot from the cover of Don Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things” clumsily ‘shopped by me "AI" means bad UX There is an emergent strain of thought in...

It's been, uh, a while, but I have a new newsletter out, based on some conversations here, about the irreconcilable experiences of LLMs that different groups have had and how that all boils down to afordances and how 'AI' is a terrible name and an even worse UX metaphor.

I'd only watched one of the shows, so only half got it at first. I tried asking Google AI for help, and it confidently told me it was "a Simon Pegg in a Somerfield" and then tried to explain that it was funny because the guy with the gun is Hans Gruber, standing in front of Nick Frost.

With that keyboard I'd guess at Nixdorf or Siemens. (Or Siemens Nixdorf.)

Me, trusting AI with my tax advice. (While wearing underpants on my head, having pencils up my nose, saying "Wibble", and looking suspiciously like Blackadder.)

Of course you *can* trust it. For example, here's a picture of me trusting AI with my tax advice. But should I trust it?

For over a month a pair of pheasants has been visiting our garden. The female now roosts in one of our plum trees every night, and we think the male may be roosting in a conifer. He also likes to peck at his reflection in a mirror. The fox has been round occasionally, but hasn't bothered them yet.

A Line 6 Flextone II amp, sitting on a patterned blue mat. In front is the floorboard - a foot pedal that controls the amp. You can just the the side of a guitar on the right and part of an electric drum kit on the left.

Selling my guitar amp (Line 6 Flextone II). I upgraded to a Helix a few years ago so never use it these days. Had a play just now and remembered how surprisingly good it is — I'll feel a little sad to see it go.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/23646509...

What's the difference between a violin and a trampoline? You take your shoes off to jump on a trampoline.

A Google Maps 3D view of Princess Street in Edinburgh.

Not much has changed around Tintern Abbey.

I'll answer later after I've eaten them all to make sure my answers are wrong.

A tree lined track. The ground is covered with mostly yellow leaves. A branch hangs overhead, its leaves turning from bright green to bright yellow. A new five bar gate stands on the left.

A tree lined track. The ground is covered with mostly yellow leaves, onto which the sun is shining, turning them golden.

It's again my favourite time of year for walking to and from church.

A path covered in red and yellow leaves leads off into the distance on the left. Trees lean over the path, and on the right, on the other side of a split chestnut fence, is a pond, the other side of which are more trees.

After-work walk.

A muffin tray with 12 apple filled filo pastry things. Not that you can tell they're apple filled in the picture.

I had some filo pastry that needed using up and a bunch of windfall apples, so I made some things.

Mostly guesswork, and I got a 5/5.

quizl.io

Quizl#1249 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 | 🔥 x9

Can you imagine what you would have thought if you'd seen the new laptop when you'd just got the 386? I tried to imagine it when I got my new laptop last week, and I think it would have been beyond my comprehension. (My first was an already old Toshiba T1200.)

Also, the XPS used to get ridiculously hot just from normal usage and then run out of power (even with a new battery), whereas the ThinkPad runs for hours on a charge and is nice and cool. (Unless I start running something that really taxes the processor, such as a game).

I got a new ThinkPad this week. It's not as pretty as my old Dell XPS, but the keyboard is so nice to use. Not as nice as my silent mechanical ergonomic keyboard at my desk, but good enough that I don't mind spending hours away from my desk.

This image is one of AIs main sources on how to draw people.

The open window of a greenhouse, with a conifer behind it.

A robin has got stuck in our greenhouse five times over the last week, after flying in and then getting so engrossed in something that it didn't notice that the automatic window was very slowly closing.

I had a jar of marmite at work that I was slowly working my way through. It was only a few years past its best before date, and the cleaners threw it out. I was incensed. I probably had another couple of years to go on that jar.

Jimmy Carr's laugh.

The alt text: A black and white A4 poster. At the top it says HAVE YOU SEEN THIS DOG. Below that is the face of a dog staring at the camera with its eyes wide open in a ridiculous expression of surprise. The bottom of the poster has a bunch of tear off strips, each of which says I HAVE NOW.