Having watched Rise of the Skywalker on Thursday it only seems right (as others have done) to rank the films.
I rewatched Last Jedi this week and found it hard to watch through so it’s dropped further than I expected. You can find a prettier version of this list on Letterboxd.
On holiday now until next year. Needing the break as tiredness and health haven’t been great the last few weeks. Looking forward to a lazy recharge over the next couple of weeks.
General Election 2019
So clearly many people spent last Thursday kicking children and pensioners into traffic as well as voting Tory. Since then the Labour Party have imploded, the LibDems have disappeared and lost their leader while the SNP are pushing Scotland to independence much like Wales and Ireland. Hard to see there being a United Kingdom by 2025.
Moment of the night was Swinson losing her seat and Sturgeon celebrating. Some will say its unbecoming of the FM. Bullshit. Show’s the cut throat business of politics.
Clearly Brexit was the issue. Some of the other reasons and demographic breakdowns behind the vote are interesting. The split between old and young in this election is telling. No wonder the Tory’s don’t want 16-18 to vote. The Tory’s have been voted in on half a manifesto but were the only (serious) ones to say they will deliver Brexit. As ever, Marina Hyde sums up how many are feeling.
So we end this year/decade on a downer in my opinion. The worse off in our society will be further penalised while the have’s feel less of the impact of Brexit. What a mess.
Greta Thunberg – Time Person of the Year
Time’s person of the year is often controversial but hard to argue with this years choice – Greta Thunberg. Her story is remarkable and she’s had a massive impact on the conversation around climate change even if it’s not delivered a material difference yet. The difference in a year is striking.
Simone Giertz
Loved this profile of Simone Giertz in Wired. She’s went through a lot of health issues and I’ve loved her videos on YouTube for years – nice to read she’s moving on to more ambitious builds and goals. If you’ve not seen anything from Simone before start with her Truckla Tesla mod.
Passwords
Everyone hates passwords. This article proves that almost half of users iterate their passwords. No surprise in this day and age of complex passwords, three out of four characters, number, symbol types etc. We need to do away with forcing users to change passwords every x days and help and support with alternative methods or allow them to set a complex password but not enforce the frequent change – we’d be far more secure.
Doddie Weir
Watched Sports Personality in tears last night seeing Doddie Weir receive the Helen Rollason award. He’s been fighting MND for a couple of years now and raised awareness and money to find a cure. The BBC have more on Doddie here and a great documentary now on iPlayer. To donate visit the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation website.
LEGO cartography
So geeky but so good – a Lego map of Scotland. It’s expensive at £1500 but I want one.
The Decades best Gadgets
The 2010’s have seen some great gadgets and The Verge has a nice top 100 round up. Stand outs for me from the list – iPhone 4, DJI Phantom and the iPad. That iPhone 4 design is such a classic.
The Deep Sea
Almost my new favourite thing, The Deep Sea is a great website that you must visit. Just keep scrolling….it goes on for a long time.
AI Dungeon
This is amazing. AI Dungeon popped out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago. Years and years ago text adventures were all the rage. However they were limited by the path the developer wanted you to take – think Bandersnatch. Not so with AI Dungeon. You can ask it to do anything you can in written language and it has scope and scale to grow according to your commands. Give it a go while you still can – it’s costing the dev’s $65k a month to host.
A while back I blogged on how I was using the Apple Watch to keep active. So much so I hit a streak of 365 days. That was a long time ago and like Forrest Gump said “For no particular reason I just kept on going”. Today was day 1000 of the streak.
I still find great benefit from doing this. It gets me out and about on days that I would literally do nothing apart from sit at a computer screen. It’s also kept my weight in a fairly good place despite not being able to get back to running or other more active pursuits. I know I’m being gamed doing this but if it’s helping what’s the harm?
There have definitely been days when I wanted to do anything apart from a 30 minute walk. Sick days, wet days, snowy days, windy days (remind me of this tomorrow when I’m getting blown away during a downpour), far too hot days but I’ve stuck with it. I’m sure I’ll keep going too until there’s a sick day that just stops me from continuing but hopefully thats a while away yet because there’s always more podcasts to listen to while walking. Onwards!
In four days time Britain has yet another general election. Like many I’m sure, I’m sick and tired of vote after vote that seems to make very little difference. I’m sick and tired of referendums. Distilling complex issues into one yes or no question is not democratic especially in this day and age where politicians can lie without any consequence. There’s also no point in having them if the result is never carried out or commitments around “once in a generation” are then walked back within weeks.
I’m sick and tired of TV debates that achieve nothing and where politicians are not held to account. I’m sick and tired of leaders who can duck out of anything that looks challenging or could lead to a slip up.
However what annoys the most is the current crop of politicians in the UK. By far the worst in my lifetime, the state of the parties and their leaders gives me little choice in next weeks vote. We seem to be heading to voting for personalities rather than parties. All the parties are focussing on their leader and less on policy. They’ve always done that to a certain extent but this year more than ever. First past the post doesn’t help. We really need to move to some form of proportional representation to better balance the views across the country.
You won’t be surprised to learn that I won’t be voting Tory on Thursday, for much the same reasons that I won’t be spending the day kicking children and pensioners into traffic
Frankie Boyle
Frankie Boyle’s Election Countdown whilst funny makes for depressing reading but I agree wholeheartedly on his rule’s for voting Tory. Britain is broken right now. We shouldn’t need food banks. We need to fund education and health properly. Universal credit doesn’t work. We need to reverse the last 9 years. We need to hold current parties to account for their leadership. It still amazes me that the SNP get a free run in Scotland despite the mess of education and the NHS. I lie though – until independence is delivered they’ve pretty much got 50% of the vote. Like Trump, they could literally do anything and their supporters will still vote for them.
While I don’t like Corbyn and think he’s one of the worst leaders in decades I’ll be voting for Labour on Thursday. They are offering a radical alternative to todays ill’s and while I don’t agree with all their policies they better align with my moral compass than any other party.
Despite opinion polls I can only hope that tactical voting and the many campaigns online switching your vote will deliver, if not a Labour majority, a chance that they could lead a minority government. If not then Labour and Libdem’s need to hang their head in shame at this missed opportunity to work more smartly and seize power. Come the morning of Friday the 13th I can only hope we are in a better place. The fear is that there are more like this guy who will do whatever it takes to deliver Brexit and vote against a fairer society.
Hard to believe it’s not just the last month of the year, but the last of this decade. Winter has set in Glasgow and the last couple of days have been really cold. If we do have a cold spell it will really impact the election which is now next week. One of our most important votes could be greatly influenced by the weather. Sigh.
Fact checkers
This election more than ever depends on fact checking services. Every party says they are right, the others are wrong and there facts and figures are correct. The tories rebranding their own twitter account during a leaders head to head was a new low. Quite rightly there was outrage and Twitter themselves gave them a yellow card. I was amazed at first but then they got away with it, talked themselves out of it and people generally shrugged their shoulders. Wow. Now Google have banned 8 conservative adverts. Our campaigning is getting dirtier.
Hate Speech and Fakes
One of the biggest distributors of “fake news” is Facebook. Unlike others they are refusing to police political adverts. Step forward Sacha Baron Cohen who delivered a withering speech this week on Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s “bullshit” arguments against regulating his platform. It’s a half hour watch but its really worth your time. There’s something about comedians in the way they can deliver a message…no bullshit, no reason to not offend. Brilliant.
Annoying Noise
I find background noise at work so fecking annoying. Other’s, not so much. So I found this BBC article on background noise really interesting. I work in an open plan office and find some noises drive me up the wall. Thank goodness for AirPods. However the article breaks down the reasons why certain noises affect some more than others. I blame my introverted tendencies.
Getting Old
When do you become old? As I’m no closer to 50 than 40 (shudder) then this research says that old is over 70 and I’m in a limbo group…neither young nor middle aged. All I do know is that I’m feeling older and my pension seems a long way a way.
Streaming Wars
Not video streaming…games. Google launched Stadia 2 weeks ago and Digital Foundry have a good summary of what works and doesn’t. I tried it over the last few days via a buddy code so it wasn’t in 4K and not via a controller but I was pleasantly surprised. I played Destiny 2 in 1080p in a browser on the Mac. It was quick to launch and also didn’t need any installs. The graphics felt soft compared to Xbox One X but I was playing a full screen 1080p feed on a 5k screen so of course it wouldn’t look as sharp. The big test was control lag….and it was hard to spot any even during a multiplayer game. Not perfect but I was impressed. Not enough for me to sign up and ditch the console but a good start from Google.
Giri/Haji
Not seen this talked about much but I’ve loved Giri/Haji on BBC 2. Great cast, inventive story and even some Manga on the BBC. All episodes on iPlayer and the last episode is broadcast next week. Well worth catching if you’ve missed it so far.
Lists
It’s the end of the decade so there are many best of lists doing the rounds. This post does a great job of pulling together all the best off’s as they are published although any best of movie list that doesn’t have Mad Max:Fury Road can be ignored 😉
Turned 46 this past week. Shit’s getting real.
The Daft Prince
What drove Prince Andrew to do that interview? Emily Maitlis skewered him with ease, his PR advisor has quit yet despite the obvious lies he stands by it. What a mess.
Too Easy
Really important reporting from the New York Times on the ease with which child abuse images can spread online. Encryption protects us as internet users but also makes it easier for those that want to avoid being caught. It’s a difficult balancing act and Facebook are doing more than others. Feels like legislation will eventually have to hold tech companies to account and force them to do more. The scarier part was how search engines can be used to find these images. Surely that can be dealt with?
Who was Kenyan man who fell into London garden?
Great reporting from Sky as they investigate the case of the man who fell from a plane in London earlier this year. We take so much for granted in our day to day life’s that don’t force us into desperate acts like this.
Gaming’s next step?
Heard of FaZe clan? For non gamers probably not until the recent story of a young UK guy getting a life ban from Fortnite for cheating. This article shows how clans are evolving into YouTube, lifestyle and merchandise. Seems bizarre to me but I’m now an old man so what do I know?
The Mandalorian
Disney+ launched this last week unless you are in the UK. Having acquired the first two episodes of The Mandalorian I watched an hour of TV that feels closest to the original Star Wars than anything else since Return of the Jedi. Stunning to look at, a soundtrack thats growing on me and a good mix of action, humour and drama. A streaming service off to a strong start despite the technical difficulties. Watch it before you get spoiled. I have spoken.
Glasgow Newsagents
The Guardian profiled Will Knights sketches of Glasgow newsagents. Lovely article and I’ve shopped in many of them – Barrett’s in Byres Road was a great magazine stockist back in the day, Tabak a great wee shop and Park Dairy was my local newsagent for 30 years except it was in Gray Street not Derby Street. Details. Sadly these wee newsagents are a dying breed. You can see a lot more sketches on Knights website. Stunning work.
I Am Railing
Who’d have thought it. Sir Rod Stewart is a model railway enthusiast and his setup is epic. The detail is superb and he’s been working on it for 23 years! The best bit was he called into the Jeremy Vine show live after the host questioned how much he had built himself. Love it.
Apple’s new 16″ MacBook Pro has finally addressed the keyboard issues of the last few years by going back to an old design and ditching the butterfly keys. Marco is convinced. If the post doesn’t convince then the podcast will. Great to see Apple caring about the Mac again.
In this day and age we see lot’s of fake news however some things aren’t up for debate. Han shot first.
Apple Arcade launched with iOS 13 and I’ve come to the end of my free trial month. It’s been much talked about…will it change mobile gaming? Will the quality of games encourage sign-ups? Is it just Apple trying to grab another slice of service revenue?
Apple Arcade promised 100 games at launch but like many products Apple launch now the details were opaque. On day one there were around 70 titles and after a couple of days they added another 3-4. Since then they’ve dropped around 5 new titles every week and on Friday 8th Nov they’ve hit 100. Impressive considering the variety of titles available.
While cloud saving meant an easy shared gaming experience on iPhone and iPad Pad, Arcade extends that to Apple TV and the Mac. For some games this works well and means you can continue that favourite game wherever you are.
However the platforms can offer really different experiences. iOS is driven by touch unlike the other two. There are games like Mini Motorways that while you can play them on the Mac or Apple TV just aren’t as good and that’s purely down to the interface. Conversely Sayonara Wild Hearts shines on the Apple TV when used with a controller while on iOS it feels a different game as the touch controls are lacking.
Of course you can pair a controller with iOS and with 13 now supporting Xbox and PS4 gamepads Apple are finally taking gaming + controllers seriously, but you are more likely to pair a pad on the Apple TV and Mac.
Apple Arcade costs £4.99 a month. £60 a year. One full priced digital title on Xbox or PS4 costs £60 so do you get value for money? Yes. Will I have the same opinion in 6 months time? Not so sure.
Today’s mobile games are full of in-app purchases, adverts or a grind of some sort to get more coins to unlock some special move or worse multiple in-app currencies to unlock various things. I’m looking at you Mario Kart which is so unlike a Nintendo game it hurts. Apple Arcade games guarantee no in-app purchasing. No adverts. No grinding either – just a clean experience which is far from what we see in mobile gaming today.
Value would also be questionable if Arcade was all full of the one type of game but the initial launch is packed with a variety of genres and each type has one or two hits in their category. There’s no doubt there’s a few stinkers in there. Sonic Racing is surprisingly poor and there’s a couple of other games that have been written with microtransations in mind and had them quickly stripped for Arcade.
The main challenge around value is how many titles keep coming to Apple Arcade? How long do existing titles stay in Arcade? Arcade’s value would diminish if Mini Motorways or Grindstone which have a lot of repeatability disappeared from the service after 9 months. While thats an unknown we are seeing great new titles like Guildlings appear more than 6 weeks after Arcade launched so I’ve a good feeling that we’ll see more enjoyable titles into the new year.
One other aspect of value is to the developers. There’s not been much said on how developers are rewarded for titles in the Arcade store. Does it depend on number of downloads? Number of plays? Paid up front? Hopefully the first developers and studios making games for Arcade are being rewarded by Apple – they’ve certainly got the money to ensure developers get what’s due but the App Store shows it’s often a race to the bottom.
All the above doesn’t matter a jot if there aren’t games worth playing. Some of my favourites so far:
There are so many that I’ve yet to try out of the 100, but also worth a shout are Sayonara Wild Hearts and Frogger in Toy Town. Frogger was previewed at an earlier Apple event and looked a bit rough but the gameplay gets quite tricky at times and the graphics are really well done.
For me Apple Arcade is well worth the £4.99 a month it currently costs. Should there be a dearth of new titles or favourites disappear then I might have second thoughts but so far it delivers a great gaming experience thats free of adverts, in app purchases and the grinds that have killed much of the good in mobile games.
There’s a definite focus on smaller more unique games compared to AAA titles seen elsewhere but it also introduces, for me anyway, games that I might not have bought had they appeared in the normal App Store especially if the developers were forced to cram in adverts or IAP’s. I’m looking forward to seeing what other titles land over the coming months and whether Apple can keep up this strong start. The games so far have been a nice contrast to what we usually see on the App Store or on the major consoles. Well played Apple.
As if politics wasn’t bonkers enough it’s election time again in the UK. This will achieve nothing methinks but the next 6 weeks will be interesting. I don’t think we’ve seen as many potential new faces in Parliament in years…I just hope there aren’t any Brexit Party faces.
30 Year Timelapse
I do love a good timelapse. Capturing 1000’s of images and assembling into a short video, or speeding up some normal speed video, is something I like to do. I often spot more this way than I would do on a normal video. However Joe DiGiovanna is going above and beyond by capturing a timelapse over 30 years. A unique idea that I hope he achieves…and I live to see!
DSLR vs iPhone
As phones have become more camera than phone the gap between “proper camera’s” and phones have narrowed. As this tour of Scotland shows it can be really hard to tell an iPhone picture now. Partly it’s down to lens improvement but it’s also the smarts that a phone add’s to a picture. In most cases multiple shots with various settings are captured when you click the shutter button capturing an image that better reflects what your eye can see. Compare that to a proper camera which will capture one image, will need to have various dials and settings changed to optimise the image and it’s no wonder the gap is disappearing.
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ launched this past Friday. A small number of shows are available and there have been mixed reviews so far. Wired have a great write up on For All Mankind which is one of the shows launching this week. While this is the only show I have a slight interest in, it’s not enough for me to try even the free trial. I think the problem for Apple is that the shows don’t have any “must see” appeal for me. There is so much good content on at the moment that the last thing I, or anyone, needs is another streaming station. Apple have smartly given anyone buying a new device a free year of streaming. I’ll maybe give it a try next year when there’s something worth watching.
For Fracks Sake
Late Friday, just days after agreeing an election, the tories ban fracking in the UK. What bollocks. The Scottish government have long kicked fracking into touch which has drawn scorn from the tories in Scotland. Wonder what they will say now? I’m also convinced that some polling data has shown that the tories are sensitive to losing seats over this…and I’ve no doubt that if they do stay in power there will be some new piece of data or evidence to allow fracking to commence. Never trust a politician, especially Tory ones.
Some Assembly Required
Richard Parry has an amazing set of images showing the assembly of some well known tech products over the ages. This Verge interview shows how Parry puts the images together. I was convinced these were illustrations but they are photographs – stunning. The full series can be seen on Parry’s Instagram site.
Make Your Own Emoji
Ever wonder how to make your own official Emoji? Here’s a story of how Jay Peters spent two years submitting proposals for new emoji which were approved and are now available. Yawning face is one of my new emoji fav’s.
Meet Memo
Love this story on Memo. Hard work, never giving up. If only more of us could follow those rules.