… when I wandered into the bathroom and saw the bidet, I made a sound I haven’t been able to reproduce. Heated seat, glowing blue light, and the kind of steely-eyed menace you get from people who have a job to do and know what’s involved in getting it done.
This slice of life post made me laugh far too hard this morning. But, thankfully, not so hard I needed a bidet.
The hollowed world of the appistocracy:
The true power of the appistocracy isn’t measured in billions but in dependence. It’s a relationship that transforms us from citizens into users. Yet even as these digital dependencies deepen, so too does our capacity to question them – to carve out spaces of genuine presence in a world increasingly defined by algorithmic engagement.
So maybe it’s time we finally changed the way we talk about the Internet of Things (IoT). We keep talking about it as something achievable. Perhaps it’s time we started talking about what it really is: one of the biggest consumer scams ever invented.
Oh, I really want smart homes to be a thing. But Om is right. It’s a shoddy mess at the moment.
Quiet on the beach.
First lamb I’ve seen this year.
I now have access to Sora, OpenAI’s generative video tool. So, I asked it to generate a stressed middle-aged blogger writing in a coffee shop.
The results are… interesting
Truth found in a second-hand bookshop.
Friendly wee fella.
Signs of spring.
Started reading: Renaturing by James Canton 📚
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 →
An evening in Brighton for the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour.
It started as any walk should, with the discovery that the entire contents of my Kleen Kanteen flask had emptied itself inside my rucksack. My jacket, gloves and everything else I knew I would need that day were drenched in coffee.
Now, that’s how to start a newsletter.
This evisceration of worldly experience is evident in news stories of people dismayed to find themselves suddenly sharing their spaces with other animals. My anti-favourites include ‘Vicious badger roams Scots school grounds as farmer warns parents’ (Daily Record), ‘Man calls 999 because he’s scared of a hedgehog’ (ITV News), and ‘Rewilding of Horsham Park a “mad idea” amid fears long grass could house “lots of insects’ (Sussex Express).
— From Groundbreakers by Chantal Lyons 📚
Cold, frosty and misty Sunday morning in the South Downs.
If you’re contemplating getting into (or back into) blogging for the New Year, micro.one might be worth a look. Blogging with fediverse compatibility — for $1 a month.
Headline only RSS feeds are an abomination.
It’s update your Apple devices day: bug fixes for iPhones and iPads.
How I escaped my desk, and spent the day at WWT Arundel:
Stunning wintry photos from Chris Townsend.