Category: Weekly digest

Weekly Digest

Life
Good week off. Lot’s of walks, a few trips out and about and didn’t spend (much) money for once. Feeling rested.

Media
Line of Duty off to a strong start, Broadchurch also on fire. Looking forward to season finale of Walking Dead…but not the rumours of 20 series. No.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Enjoying the first signs of summer. Cut grass, painted the gate and enjoyed a couple of warmer walks. Also got the upcoming week of work. Nice.

Media
Still enjoying Zelda – what a game. Also enjoying the portability of the Switch. Gave me something to do while F1 was on this morning.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
So Indyref 2 is on. The polarising once in a generation vote is back on the agenda thanks to Brexit and the SNP. All I’ve learned from two referendums is that you can’t boil 100’s of issues into one simple question and expect an outcome that isn’t divisive. No one knows timescales, whats the question is or what brexit and independence will mean but already Scotland is split. Sigh.

Media
Zelda Breath of the Wild is a great game. Scale os it has surprised me but it’s the little things that I find as I play, almost surprises, that make for such a rich experience.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Nasty sort throat from Wednesday turned into nasty throat and cold over the weekend. Bah.

Media
Loving Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Enchanting game and I dip in and out far more easily due to the portability of the Switch. Need to get a post up on my thoughts on the Switch as well as there’s some great touches…and some surprising shortfalls.

Also picked up Fast RMX for the Switch, a fast playing Wipeout clone. It’s pretty impressive and much better than I expected.

Finally I also bought the New Ghost Recon:Wildlands. Shouldn’t have as I don’t have the time to fit all this in but rose tinted glasses and many a night playing multiplayer Ghost Recon saw me succumb. First impressions are it’s not bad and has some potential.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Not a great work week. Too much going wrong, not enough time to do what I want or should be doing. Sigh. Still, spring is in the air and I did enjoy some tasty pancakes.

Media
Picked up the Nintendo Switch and Zelda. Great new device with some clear rough edges and a feeling that I’ve picked up a kickstarter console. Zelda is bloody amazing.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
A reflective week thanks to a funeral on Friday. Apart from that, mostly quiet and thankfully no travel.

Media
Taboo came to an end this week – strong series so hopefully another will appear at some point. SS-GB looked great but not much happened so expect much tonight. Looking forward to some Zelda next week and the new Switch.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Good friend of my Mum’s passed away this week, funeral next week but will remember her help and support during my Dad’s illness. Less travel this week but more tired – was knackered at the end of the week. Spent the weekend pottering and catching up on TV and film. Also tweaked how this post is put together. Instead of Pocket I’m now using Pinboard which allows me to auto populate this post with bookmarks that I’ve specifically tagged saving me a bit of sort time…every little helps.

Media
Enjoying Legion and the production is excellent. Intrigued to see where this goes. Also caught up with Doctor Strange which was OK if a bit predictable.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
The travel continued with a drive through to Rosyth and then Barrow the next day. Long days meant a quiet and relaxing weekend. The trips were really worthwhile, left a positive impression and got me thinking about some changes at work. Nothing big, just time to shake things up a little.

Media
Finally caught up on Arrival this week. Stunning film, proper grown up science fiction without relying on special effects and asking the audience to think a little.

Links

  • Why Nobody Cares the President Is Lying
    MILWAUKEE — If President Trump’s first tumultuous weeks have done nothing else, at least they have again made us a nation of readers.
    Facts. We saw it with Brexit, saw it in recent elections and now Trump and his team are masters of it – repeat your story and be damned with the facts cause it’s lost on the masses. Sigh.
  • Donald Trump visit opposed by Commons speaker
    MPs applauded the speaker of the House of Commons for declaring he would not choose to invite President Trump to Parliament. John Bercow said the valued the relationship with the US, but would oppose inviting the president to address MPs and Lords in Westminster.
    Can’t stand Bercow but well said Sir, well said.

  • The Dark Knight: Visual Echoes
    This videoessay compares the influence and references to Michael Mann’s Films in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Nolan actually screened Michael Mann’s “Heat” for all his department heads before going into production, he say once: “I always felt ‘Heat’ to be a remarkable demonstr
    Love both films but hadn’t realised they shared so much.

  • What Vizio was doing behind the TV screen
    Consumers have bought more than 11 million internet-connected Vizio televisions since 2010. But according to a complaint filed by the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General, consumers didn’t know that while they were watching their TVs, Vizio was watching them.
    Shocker. Thinking I should disconnect my TV from the internet and just use boxes that I trust.

  • Sad to announce: Hans Rosling passed away this morning
    We are extremely sad to announce that Professor Hans Rosling died this morning. Hans suffered from a pancreatic cancer which was diagnosed one year ago. He passed away early Tuesday morning, February 7, 2017, surrounded by his family in Uppsala, Sweden.
    Saddened by the passing of Hans Rosling. A couple of my favourite Ted talks were by him. Loved the passion, clear speaking and graphics he used to make data come alive.

  • ABC News on Twitter
    Tim Cook condemns immigration order in Glasgow speech. “If we stand and say nothing, it’s as if we’re agreeing.” http://abcn.ws/2kKjUir
    Cook was in Glasgow to receive an honorary degree from my alma mater and had some important things to say on Trumps muslim ban.

  • Full Frontal on Twitter
    We sent @Amy_Hoggart to Scotland to discuss resisting oppression with people who are born crotchety. #SamanthaBee
    Trump is a cunt…and a bawbag.

  • This Teen Hacked 150,000 Printers to Show How the Internet of Things Is Shit
    On Saturday, February 4, 2017, a self-described “pissed off high school student” in the United Kingdom sat in front of his computer, listening to Bones and Yung Lean, coding a rootkit, a set of software tools that allows an unauthorized user to control a computer system.
    Don’t piss of a geek.

  • Piers Morgan & Jim Jefferies: The Lesser of Two Evils | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
    Subscribe to the Real Time YouTube: http://itsh.bo/10r5A1BBill’s request for an apology from the people who said Hillary Clinton was the lesser of two evils leads to a confrontation between Daily Mail editor Piers Morgan and comedian Jim Jefferies.Connect with Real Time Online:Find Real Time on Face
    Fuck off Piers.

  • The Evolution Of Keanu Reeves In Movies
    As big fans of the first John Wick, we are excited about the sequel, and we thought it would be fun to take a look back at Keanu’s career. Party on, dudes!New videos every month!http://burgerfiction.comhttp://twitter.com/burgerfiction
    He’s hardly aged.

  • One Woman’s Brilliant “Fuck You” to Wikipedia Trolls
    The “fuck you” project crystallized one Friday night last year. As Emily Temple-Wood video-chatted with friends, an email pinged in her inbox: The note came from someone with a history of harassing the 22-year-old medical student. This man hates women, Temple-Wood thought to herself.
    Great response to some horrible abuse.

  • Has Facebook slipped up with VR?
    I first tried the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset in the corner of a drab conference room in Las Vegas. I was convinced within seconds – despite feeling a little dizzy – that the device, held together by duct tape and hope, was destined for big things.
    VR sales have been less than expected, but I still believe VR and AR are the next big things.

  • REVEALED: This is what secretive billion-dollar startup Magic Leap has been working on
    Hi everyone – the photo you are all excited about is NOT what you think it is. The photo shows an @magicleap R&D test rig where we collect room/space data for our machine vision/machine learning work.
    Lot’s of laughs about how crap this looks, but it’s a prototype. Remember the iPhone prototype?

  • Let’s stop calling them ‘soft skills’
    Are you good at your job? Different, easier question: Was Ty Cobb good at baseball?
    Totally agree and some thought provoking statements – But when an employee demoralizes the entire team by undermining a project, or when a team member checks out and doesn’t pull his weight, or when a bully causes future stars to quit the organization — too often, we shrug and point out that this person has tenure, or vocational skills or isn’t so bad. But they’re stealing from us. So true.

  • Google Brain super-resolution image tech makes “zoom, enhance!” real
    Google Brain has devised some new software that can create detailed images from tiny, pixelated source images. Google’s software, in short, basically means the “zoom in… now enhance!” TV trope is actually possible. First, take a look at the image on the right.
    This is wild…bad TV shows have been doing this for years!

  • A Dead Simple Tool To Find Out What Facebook Knows About You
    If you could measure all the information you consume online, what would you learn about yourself? That’s the question behind the new Chrome extension Data Selfie.
    Too much.

  • A US-born NASA scientist was detained at the border until he unlocked his phone
    Two weeks ago, Sidd Bikkannavar flew back into the United States after spending a few weeks abroad in South America. An employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Bikkannavar had been on a personal trip, pursuing his hobby of racing solar-powered cars.
    Shameful. Don’t go to America.

Weekly Digest

Life
Long week with some travel down south. Tuesday night in Farnborough turned into Tuesday night in London and a great wee meal at Smoking Goat.

Media
Enjoying new Elbow, Little Fictions, and Melanfonie from Emika.

Links

  • Trial Balloon for a Coup?
    The theme of this morning’s news updates from Washington is additional clarity emerging, rather than meaningful changes in the field. But this clarity is enough to give us a sense of what we just saw happen, and why it happened the way it did.
    Surely not but then the last two weeks have been pretty crazy.
  • ‘Why let ’em in?’ Understanding Bannon’s worldview and the policies that follow.
    In November 2015, Stephen K. Bannon — then the executive chairman of Breitbart News — was hosting a satellite radio show. His guest was Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who opposed President Obama’s plan to resettle some Syrian refugees in the United States. Bannon cut him off.
    Nazi in charge.
  • Tested: The truth behind the MacBook Pro’s ‘terrible’ battery life
    Read professional reviews of Apple’s new MacBook Pro lineup, and you’ll come away thinking the new laptops have great battery life. Dive into a customer forum, though, and the upshot will be exactly the opposite: The new MacBook Pros have “piss poor” battery life.
    Reality is that a lot of people would trade weight for battery.
  • MICHAEL WOLF: Hong Kong’s Architecture of Density
    Lovely feature on Hong Kong’s architecture.
  • Press Statement: Why I held up that sign behind Nigel Farage
    London Labour MEP, Seb Dance, has explained why he held up a sign saying “he’s lying to you” while Nigel Farage defended the immigration policy of Donald Trump in the European Parliament. “Mainstream politics must be more willing to challenge the nationalists and the populists.
    Or just keep Farage of TV and Radio. Cnut.

  • I Feel It Coming – How Streaming is Changing Music Consumption
    Over the past couple years we’ve published two massive articles about the current state and impending trends of music consumption—my deep dive on the tough realities of streaming platforms and Nick’s bullshit-free synopsis of Nielsen’s 2016 music industry report.
    Streaming is my main way of consuming music now and I’m a late comer to it.

  • Arkansas passes law allowing rapists to sue victims who want an abortion
    Abortion rights activists hold placards outside of the US Supreme Court ahead of an expected ruling on abortion clinic restrictions on June 27, 2016 in Washington, DC.
    Actual what the fuck moment of the week. Shocking.

  • David Bowie Special Stamps
    Cookies are small text files stored by your device when you access most websites on the internet. We will use two types of cookies: www.royalmail.com (this Website) uses cookies in order to make it easier to use and to support the provision of relevant information and functionality to you.
    Love these. Well done Royal Mail.

  • Being Batman
    A look behind the mask of the real life Batman.Batman: http://ift.tt/2jKIqmg & Music: Ryan Freeman (http://ift.tt/2jvrPOq)Produced by: Lossless Creative (http://ift.tt/2h0N8Hd)Drone & Camera Assistant: Nick Freeman
    I thought this was a spoof at first but no, this guy really is Batman every night.

  • The making of Apple’s HAL
    Between the lack of surprise (so many spots are released early now) and the general mediocrity, it became more chore than fun. That said, I refuse to lose my Big Game spirit. So — how about a little story from Apple’s Super Bowl past?
    With Super Bowl today we’ll see lots of great adverts (and some not so great) and this is a nice write up on Apple’s ad from 1999.

  • Alphabet’s Boston Dynamics is working on a robot that its founder calls “nightmare inducing”
    Boston Dynamics now has a long history of viral videos showing off its latest terrifying robots. Apparently its latest creation takes things even a step further.
    It’s got wheels!!!

  • Not ‘Lone Wolves’ After All: How ISIS Guides World’s Terror Plots From Afar
    HYDERABAD, India — When the Islamic State identified a promising young recruit willing to carry out an attack in one of India’s major tech hubs, the group made sure to arrange everything down to the bullets he needed to kill victims.
    Good article and shows how terror attacks are far more coordinated than we thought.

  • In his own words: Imam Hassan Guillet’s address at Quebec City funeral for 3 mosque victims
    Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder following Sunday night’s shooting. None of the allegations against him has been proven in court. We are here to celebrate Khaled, Aboubaker, Abdelkrim, Azzedine, Mamadou, Ibrahima.
    I fear this won’t be the only attack this year.

  • LIFE – Official Trailer (In Theaters March 24)
    This March, be careful what you search for. #SearchForLIFE In theaters March 24, 2017Follow us on Social:http://www.facebook.com/lifemovieofficialwww.twitter.com/lifemoviewww.instagram.com/lifemovieofficialSubscribe to Sony Pictures for exclusive video updates: http://bit.ly/SonyPicsSubscribeLife tells the
    Nice Alien vibe to this film.

  • What The Fuck Just Happened Today?
    1/ Homeland Security suspends travel ban, and will resume standard inspections of travelers as it did prior to the signing of the travel ban. The White House announced the Justice Department would file an emergency motion to stop the halt, but it had yet to do so as of Saturday afternoon.
    Keep up to date with all that Trump fucks up.

  • Sean Spicer Press Conference – SNL
    White House press secretary Sean Spicer (Melissa McCarthy) and secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos (Kate McKinnon) take questions from the press (Bobby Moynihan, Kristen Stewart, Cecily Strong, Vanessa Bayer, Alex Moffat, Mikey Day).
    So good, SNL and Melissa McCarthy tackle Sean Spicer.

  • Inside Libratus, the Poker AI That Out-Bluffed the Best Humans
    For almost three weeks, Dong Kim sat at a casino in Pittsburgh and played poker against a machine. But Kim wasn’t just any poker player. This wasn’t just any machine. And it wasn’t just any game of poker. Kim, 28, is among the best players in the world.
    Libratus learned how to play poker and then took on the best in the world. The advances in AI are astonishing…what will keep them in check?

Weekly Digest

Life
Kept the walking going this week as well and so far no ill effects. 14 days and counting. Next week will see the first bit of travel in a while as I’m off to Bristol then Farnborough. I used to enjoy travelling but now, not so much.

Media
Homeland is back and I’m hopeful of a good season. Binge watched some West Wing as it’s far better than watching the news. Also keeping an eye on the Sky/Discovery spat. I really need to move on from Sky.

Links