One Man's Notes

Started reading: Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie 📚

It’s this month’s Adventurous Ink book.


Interesting update from Bluesky:

  • They’ve hit 2m users, despite still being invite-only
  • A web view of posts and timelines coming this year
  • Federation should be working early next year

I’m really happy with this little quality of life improvement from the Ghost folks. As a habitual emoji user, anything that makes it easier gets a 👍🏻 from me!


The Gawker brand is coming back — but not the archive or the same approach, it appears.


For years, Twitter was second only to to Google as a source of traffic to my blog. This month, it’s being beaten by… Yandex. LinkedIn is now the top social referrer.


A dalmatian pelican at the Arundel Wetland Centre.

A dalmatian pelican in Sussex.

Sadly, I had no ducks left to give.

A sign saying “ducks (and staff) only”.

Lovely to see someone whom I got started in blogging (I ran the network of businessss blogs he alludes to), hit a decade of doing under his own steam.


Podcast listeners!

I’m looking for podcasts with vibrant and well-managed online communities, be they on Reddit, in Facebook groups, Forums, Discord, or whoever they chose to create them.

Suggestions gratefully received.


Started reading: Enchantment by Katherine May 📚

Reminded to do so by this podcast with her.


This is worrying: publications are using AI generated images of the Gaza conflict from Adobe Stock without declaring that they are AI created.

One might also ask if this is an appropriate subject for generative AI…


I’ve spent a lot of time on alt text for presentations over the past five weeks, and more than once Apple’s Live Text feature has saved me a whole bunch of retyping, when people (myself included) have used non-accessible infographics in their decks.


Put that phone down and go be bored: your creativity depends on it.

(And other things worth reading).


Worth a read: Mastodon Is the Good One


Greetings from Storm Ciarán…

Adam Tinworth in the rain, during Storm Ciarán.

Psst. The first one of these in months is going out this evening…

🤫🤫


Sad times: Canon formally discontinues the last EOS-M cameras, saying goodbye to EF-M

I used EOS M cameras for much of the last decade, and will miss them. But I switched to EOS R earlier this year. The direction of travel was clear. The M series is becoming my daughter’s starter camera.


Wind really starting to pick up now, as Storm Ciarán hits the south coast. Glad I don’t need to travel in the morning.


Me: I don’t know why everyone thinks I’m a geek; I’m a journalist!

Also Me: Just finished updating nodejs on two VPSes so I can update my self-hosted Ghost installs. Very satisfying.


Great to see Ghost building its new recommendations feature on open standards: it’s basically Webmentions under the hood.

I was one of the test group - and it’s great to see it out there.

The Ghost recommendations feature at work.

Huh. Movable Type 8 is out. Once upon a time I’d have been really excited by that - but at $499 a licence, not much chance I’d ever go back…

They seem to have obseleted xml-rpc too, which mighty be of concern to @danielpunkass.


Happy Halloween 🎃!

Screamer on duty outside our house this evening.

A carved Halloween pumpkin.

I posted to my Substack for the first time in, um, two years, 10 months and 28 days.

Hell of a posting frequency there, huh?

Some thoughts on mortality and over-sharing former students.


Having a gourd day. 🎃

Pumpkins a’plenty at Roundstone FarmGreen gourds at Roundstone Farm.


Nighttime in Farringdon, Autumn 2023.

An autumnal tree in Farringdon, illuminated by streetlights.