One Man's notebook this week.
I love it when a book randomly mentions where I live:
”I was also looking forward to experiencing my first aid station, laid on at regular intervals to help runners stay fuelled and hydrated on their journey south to Shoreham on the West Sussex coast.”
— from Failure is an Option by Matt Whyman 📚
2023-01-08
Nice wooden boat coming ashore on the slipway.
Up on the Downs this morning.
Walkers and shingle shifters on the beach this afternoon.
The sea was putting on an impressive show earlier.
The sea is bringing in some big bits of jetsam right now.
It’s interesting how many publications do “predictions for the year ahead” posts - and how few of them go back and assess how good their post the year before was…
2023-01-11
The science of stupidity
Stupidity is a very specific cognitive failing. Crudely put, it occurs when you don’t have the right conceptual tools for the job. The result is an inability to make sense of what is happening and a resulting tendency to force phenomena into crude, distorting pigeonholes.
Source: Why some of the smartest people can be so very stupid - Psyche Ideas
2023-01-11
This looks worryingly like the Royal Mail has been hit by a ransomware attack.
2023-01-11
There’s a guy down the river collecting old boats. He seems to be working on them. It annoys some locals, but I rather like it. It’s a great reminder of the Tonks maritime past.
D&D’s OGL was a corporate con job
Cory Doctorow on the Hasbo D&D OGL rugpull:
If you're a game designer who was pissed off because the OGL was getting ganked – and if you're even more pissed off now that you've discovered that the OGL was a piece of shit all along – there's a lesson there. The OGL tricked a generation of designers into thinking they were building on a commons. They weren't – but they could.
Source: Pluralistic: John Deere’s repair fake-out; Good riddance to the Open Gaming License (12 Jan 2023)
2023-01-12
The courage and talent of Laura Price, whom I had the privilege of teaching a few years ago, continues to inspire me, as she prepares to launch the paperback edition of her novel from her post-cancer surgery hospital bed.
2023-01-12
Nice to see more EV charging infrastructure going in just around the corner.
Looks like Hasbro is learning that you can create a community, play host to a community, but never, ever own a community.
The D&D community is on the warpath.
2023-01-12
What do you think the chances of the Revue integration on people's Twitter profiles just frictionlessly disappearing when they shut down the newsletter service next week, as opposed to breaking in new and exciting ways?
2023-01-13
Twitter's API appears to be down, breaking any third party client access to the service.
And now we wait to find out if this is intentional, or just a cock-up.
2023-01-13
Metal cover of the A-Team theme.
Perfect Friday fodder for those of us of a certain age.
2023-01-13
Some fun weekend reading for you from my soon-to-be-defunct Revue newsletter.
2023-01-13
It turns out that glass-sided bridges require more maintenance than you’d think.
My weekend reading has arrived. 📚
Complex clapping game in progress. 🤷🏼
Every Sunday, I tell myself the early starts are worth it.
And sometimes it’s really true.
