Category: Weekly digest

Weekly Digest

Life
A bit of focus on fitness so kept my activity rings full for the week. Boom. Nothing strenuous, just some walking but didn’t seem to have any side effects which is a positive sign.

Media
Overwatch has me hooked. Loving it.

Links

  • Donald Trump inauguration TV listing goes viral
    The Sunday Herald TV critic Damian Love reimagined the ceremony as a return of the classic science fiction series The Twilight Zone. “After a long absence, The Twilight Zone returns with one of the most ambitious, expensive and controversial productions in broadcast history.
    This went viral last week and deservedly so.
  • The Problem of the Wilderness
    I went to Alaska for New Year with my friend Dan. We spent a week travelling North from Anchorage by rail, 4×4 & light aircraft. I took along my A7SII for the trip, not knowing what we would see.
    Beautiful
  • Super real Mario Odyssey
    Mario meets GTA.
  • Clearing Out the App Stores: Government Censorship Made Easier
    There’s a new form of digital censorship sweeping the globe, and it could be the start of something devastating. In the last few weeks, the Chinese government compelled Apple to remove New York Times apps from the Chinese version of the App Store.
    Tech companies have a responsibility going forward to stand up to governments around the world.
  • Meet the Team Behind Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Page
    When Facebook went public five years ago, the world had a pretty vivid picture of who Mark Zuckerberg was.
    President Zuck in a few years time?
  • The Final Days of Obama’s Tech Surge
    Onsome members of the United States Digital Service — President Obama’s shining example of how Silicon Valley’s tech minds can make a palpable impact on government — got up early to attend a retreat at Camp David.
    Trump and the Republicans have threatened to trash much of Obama’s legacy…would that include this team?
  • I Earned More From Photo Gigs in 2016 With My iPhone Than My DSLRs
    2016 ended in a most fitting fashion for the new way I am trying to earn a living as a freelance photographer. On December 27, I was on Montara Beach photographing a college volleyball player on assignment for Volleyball USA magazine.
    Wow, times are a changing.
  • Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It O.K. to Punch a Nazi?
    Is it O.K. to punch a Nazi? That is not a brainteaser or a hypothetical question posed by a magazine on Twitter. It is an actual question bouncing around the internet after an attack on a well-known far-right activist, Richard B. Spencer, in Washington after the inauguration of Donald J.
    Yes!
  • WhatsApp, Signal, and dangerously ignorant journalism
    There is something about encryption that brings out the worst in journalists. Because to most of them it is magic, they are always searching desperately for the proverbial man behind the curtain, without knowing what to look for.
    The Guardian vs the rest of the tech press. Surprised they are being so stubborn on this story.
  • How 550 Facebook Users Spread Britain First Content To Hundreds Of Thousands Of People
    The Facebook profiles seem entirely ordinary. Scattered across towns in England, Wales, and Scotland – as well as Spain, Australia, and the US – they share photos of their grandchildren, missing children warnings, sad tales of animal abuse, and cute memes about hugs.
    Doesn’t take many to game the system.
  • My home is a mess
    The coffee machine has burbled into life, the aroma wafts temptingly from the kitchen. In the bedroom my sleep monitor suggests I need to wake up in the next ten minutes and the daylight bulb in the lamp starts to glow into life.
    Gordon’s post captures my situation as well. I’ve some smart home kit but it’s pretty fragmented and each platform owner wants to own the game to the detriment of the end user. Can’t see it changing anytime soon either.
  • Pictures From Women’s Marches on Every Continent
    Yesterdays marches were inspiring.
  • To Obama With Love, and Hate, and Desperation
    On a recent October morning in the White House mailroom, on the ground floor of the Executive Office Building just beside a loading dock, 10 interns sat at two long tables, each trying to get through 300 letters. Grab a bundle, sit down and read. It was pretty straightforward: Read.
    He’ll be missed.

Weekly Digest

Life
Work was pretty full on this week but got a lot done. Finished with an 8 mile walk n Saturday morning which was good…but tired me out. Slept like a baby last night. Still not got rid of this viral nonsense yet.

Media
Watched the first episode of Taboo last week. Stylish, moody but needs more plot and story. Also back into West Wing series 2 which is a magnificent counterpoint to American politics right now. If you haven’t watched it (really?!) or haven’t see it in years dive in and watch along with the excellent West Wing Weekly podcast.

Links

  • Uber debuts Movement, a new website offering access to its traffic data
    Uber is opening up in an area where it might make sense competitively for it to stay more closed off: The ride-hailing company’s new Movement website will offer up access to its data around traffic flow in scores where it operates, intended for use by city planners and researchers looking
    Great use of the data that Uber have amassed. For me this is what Ai in cars can bring, not just safer driving but
  • Twelve things you need to know about driverless cars
    By 2025 most of today’s drivers are unlikely to even want to own a car. But will we still have gridlock? Will you need to pass a test? We asked the experts From forecourt to scrapyard, a new car in the UK lasts an average of 13.
    Just moved into third year of the A3 so later on will be deciding on keeping, getting a new lease or moving to 2nd hand again. Tipping point soon but maybe not this year?
  • This Is What It’s Like to Read Fake News For Two Weeks
    A few weeks ago, perplexed by the persistence of fake news, I attempted to think like someone I wasn’t. On December 13, I created a dummy Twitter account. More of a clone, actually. I chose to emulate Michael Flynn Jr.
    Fake news has become so prevalent, not just online but in the newspapers as well, that I’m not sure it can easily be countered. Sad.
  • I wore men’s clothes for a month – and it changed my life
    It’s 9am and I’m having breakfast at the House of Commons. I’m wearing a three-piece pinstriped suit, matching tie and pocket square, and the confidence of a mediocre white man. To my left, a man is pouring me coffee; to my right, another is listening respectfully. How did I get here?
    Eye opening read. Didn’t expect the results.
  • Guy Makes Sweaters Of Places And Then Photographs Himself In Those Places
    Love it!
  • Bringing Wide Color to Instagram
    When captured by an iPhone 7 Plus, most of the oranges and colors in the room are outside the sRGB color gamut, so detail is lost unless we use a wider color space. The color space that Apple chose for its devices going forward is Display P3.
    A great, detailed and downright geeky post…and I love the results on the iPhone. More please, on all devices. And thats not just a plea to Apple but also iPad support please Instagram.
  • Final Fantasy 7 – An oral history
    We are saving your place in the story as you read. Today, it sits above a Doutor coffee shop a few doors from a train station in a busy part of Hiyoshi, Yokohama.
    Long, long read on an incredible game.
  • The 50 Most Beautiful Shots of The Star Wars Franchise
    Indulge!
  • The dream of Ara: Inside the rise and fall of the world’s most revolutionary phone
    It looked nothing like an iPhone, or anything Apple might dare to make. Hakkens imagined a smartphone made of interchangeable blocks, and each block — the screen, the battery, the processor, and so on — could be easily upgraded or repaired, so it wouldn’t end up in a landfill after two years.
    Never thought this would work and some of the idea’s are batshit.
  • Tony Fadell tells us the story of the iPod-based iPhone prototype
    This week marks the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone introduction, and with it, a flood of stories about the design and development of the device.
    Some good background from one of the actual team at the time.
  • How the world reacted to the first iPhone 10 years ago
    A decade ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, and nobody knew quite what to think. It was expensive; it didn’t have 3G; there was no physical keyboard and the touchscreen didn’t have a stylus.
    Still interesting to see the reaction to the iPhone…especially Ballmer.
  • A closer look at the Nintendo Switch
    Nintendo finally unveiled launch details for its its new Switch console today (to recap: March 3rd worldwide for $299). While the pricing and availability are big news, the bigger news for me was the ability to actually play with the new console at an event in London. The console consists of a 6.
    Really not sure about the Switch. Pricey, lack of games, low tech specs. Still, I’ve ordered one as I’m intrigued…or an idiot!
  • The Greatest Chess Game ever played
    The Greatest Chess Game ever played: Garry Kasparov (2812) – Veselin Topalov (2700)
    Great commentary of a great game.
  • How An Allegedly Fake Video Killed A Much-Hyped Drone Startup
    On Dec. 20, Lily Robotics was up against a wall. It was five days before Christmas, and dozens of eager customers who had spent more than $499 to pre-order the company’s flagship product were wondering if they were ever going to see it.
    Cheeky fuckers. They faked the video, took in millions from people and never delivered the final product. With Kickstarter there is always an element of risk, but these guys look to be fraudsters which doesn’t help anyone on that platform.
  • How voice technology is transforming computing
    ANY sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point.
    It’s early days but voice offers an intriguing glimpse at a future without UI.
  • App Extensions Are Not a Replacement for User Automation
    Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s imagine that Apple decided to combine their engineering resources to form app teams that delivered both iOS and macOS versions of applications.
    Really thought provoking article by Sal Soghoian, an automation genius recently let go by Apple.
  • Euan McColm: Why voters should take no pride in the NHS
    It is a minimum requirement of any politician that he or she should be a passionate defender of the National Health Service. Few things matter more to voters than the NHS. We are sentimentally attached to it in a way that we just aren’t to other public services. This is quite understandable.
    Maybe we should focus less on Independence, eh?
  • Understanding the Diderot Effect (and How To Overcome It)
    I am not a psychologist, nor am I philosopher. But I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the goals we pursue, the things we own, and the items we buy. I find it to be a fascinating study into the human spirit. There are countless reasons we buy more stuff than we need.
    So this is why I buy so much shit.
  • How the inventor of Mario designs a game
    Shigeru Miyamoto’s design philosophy, explained.
    But maybe it’s Miyamoto’s influence that makes we want the Nintendo Switch.

Weekly Digest

Slightly different look to the post this week thanks to Gordon’s article on how he automates his Weekend Reading posts. So I’ve followed his advice and use Workflow on iOS to save a few steps and quite a bit of time. Enjoy!

Life
Straight back in to work and it’s busy busy busy. Set yearly goals and hoping to deliver a few more than I managed last year.

Media
Sherlock…just not doing it for me this year.

Forza Horizon 3 on the Xbox One. Really enjoying it. Great gameplay, lots to do and it looks and sounds gorgeous.

Links

  • Thanks Mom!
    On Christmas in 1995, I unwrapped a shiny new IBM Aptiva. Much to my delight, my mom had gifted me my first PC. Each time I’ve thought about my mom making this purchase, it’s been thru the lens of someone looking back in time.
    Love this post. Reminds me of my mum and dad getting me an Amstrad CPC for Christmas. Money was tight and they must have scrimped and saved to get it but I loved that machine and in many ways set me on a path.
  • Apple’s 2016 in review
    This has been the winter of our discontent. 2016 was the year the tone changed. There’s always been a lot of criticism and griping about anything Apple does (and doesn’t do — it can’t win) but in 2016 I feel like the tone of the chatter about Apple changed and got a lot more negative.
    Excellent post and captures what many feel about Apple right now.
  • Wind just generated more power than coal in the UK, for the first year ever
    During most years since the industrial revolution, the UK has relied on coal to produce the lion’s share of its energy (in the last 10, gas has been top some years, and coal others).
    Good to see our reliance on fossil fuels decreasing.
  • Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System
    The concept of an operating system is pretty straightforward: it is a piece of software that manages a computer, making said computer’s hardware resources accessible to software through a consistent set of interfaces.
    Alexa won CES this year. VW & Ford are putting it in their cars, many vendors had integrated Alexa into their products and Amazon have a real leg up on their competitors with Alexa. Interesting times.
  • How ‘Rogue One’s’ Princess Leia, Grand Moff Tarkin Were Created
    Bringing back the late Peter Cushing and 19-year-old Carrie Fisher for a story taking place before the 1977 “Star Wars” was a CGI challenge.
    Still found the CGI characters false and jarring in amongst the real actors. Do not like.
  • That mystery Go player crushing the world’s best online? It was AlphaGo again
    DeepMind’s AlphaGo is back, and it’s been secretly crushing the world’s best Go players over the past couple of weeks. The new version of the AI has played 51 games online and won 50 of them, including a victory against Ke Jie, currently the world’s best human Go player.
    AI is taking over the world, one little step at a time.
  • Mini Metros
    Love this – minimalist graphics of the worlds light rail systems.
  • What Did And Did Not Happen In 2016 – AVC
    As has become my practice, I will end the year (today) looking back and start the year (tomorrow) looking forward. As a starting point for looking back on 2016, we can start with my What Is Going To Happen In 2016 post from Jan 1st 2016.
    Review of the year by Fred Wilson. His 2017 predictions are worth reading too.
  • The Scottish pioneer whose plan for a basic income could transform Britain
    In the city where Adam Smith developed the free-market theories that inspired Thatcherism nearly 300 years later, a young Labour politician is pursuing an economic vision that takes a drastically different approach to “the wealth of nations”.
    Not sure if this will work but it’s worth trying and one could argue it’s better than what we’ve got now.
  • First 10 Years of iPhone: How It Has Changed Our World
    The Legendary Intro 10 years ago from now, Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone. I was luckily covering the event onsite.
    January 9th 2007. Time flies.
  • Journey to Iceland
    @Shortstache full trip. Entire country of Iceland over 10 days.
  • this is iceland
    I really need to book a trip to Iceland.

Weekly Digest

Life
End of the year and the last weekly update which has as most other posts at this time a reflective feel to it. Been a good break and now looking forward to 2017.

Media
Festive TV has been in general pretty poor. Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe was an exception and I’ve got high hopes for Sherlock tomorrow. Caught up on Star Trek Beyond and it was OK but felt like an extended TV episode rather than a movie event. Maybe one for the Star Trek fans?

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Finished work for the year last week so I’ve got 20 days off until returning on Jan 4th. Plenty of present buying completed…and I’ve got AirPods on the way too.

Media
Two films in the last few days which couldn’t be more contrasting.

Rogue One – Enjoyed it and it ticked some of the Stars Wars boxes but also did things differently with a sombre tone at times. Looked stunning and considering everyone knew what was going to happen they did well to keep the story interesting. Still not sold on CGI actors and I’d love to know why some scenes from the early trailers never made the final cut. Also loved bitter droid. Need a BB-8 and K-2SO buddy movie.

Suicide Squad – A travesty of a movie. Imagine 20-30 music videos played back to back, with a seemingly connected story, but each one shot by a different director and written by a different writer. In fact that would have delivered a better movie than Suicide Squad. Crap dialogue, a focus on ass shots from the director, a terrible plot and a truly awful joker. Complete shite.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Business trip to Portsmouth last week. Gorgeous day but long and left me tired and playing catchup for the rest of the week. Good news with my camera – there was a dead/white pixel on it but shop I bought it from fixed it and I have it back in my hands. Christmas shopping continues…still quite a bit to do.

Media
Can’t wait for the last episode of Westworld. Such a great show. Watched Suicide Squad – pile of shit. Picked up Tomb Raider for the PS4 and the 4k graphics are very nice indeed.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Busy this week capped by slipping yesterday morning on an icy step. Old duffer. No lasting damage but a scraped arm and bashed leg. Lucky. Also lucky that I didn’t smash my camera and it was the tripod plate that took the impact which gouged a chunk of metal out of it. Shows how easy it can be to have a nasty fall.

Media
Still enjoying Battlefield 1 although some of the rounds can be just brutal. Also spun up Halo to play some old map remakes…wish I could say it was fun but. No.

Started watching Atlanta – very good. Also enjoyed the first episode of The Grand Tour, more so because of the 4K HDR cars than Clarkson and his merry men. It was just a more expensive Top Gear. If thats your thing, great. If you were getting jaded of the old format then there isn’t much different here.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Back to work but just over three weeks until I stop for the Christmas break so not too bad. Had a checkup at the hospital on Wednesday to rule out anything around the heart being an issue with my health. An ECG, ultrasound and 17 minutes on a treadmill and the heart got a thumbs up which is great news. Doctor concurs with others that it is a viral infection and I need to keep fighting and it will eventually pass. Fingers crossed.

Media
2 similar but different shows this week. Westworld is really hitting it’s stride and the last 2 episodes have been terrific. Also excelling in its second season is Humans on Ch4. Good to have some intelligent sci-fi on the TV.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Good week off work and another year older as it was my birthday yesterday. It was also a week for new toys. Finally got a working Samsung 4k TV and the picture is gorgeous. Also picked up a PS4 Pro (cheers Shak) and you can certainly see an upgrade in performance. Titanfall 2 looked great and the HDR/4k on The Last of Us is stunning. If you are interested on my old PS4 then take a look here.

Media
Titanfall 2 is a very good game. It now has a single player story which so far has been excellent, multiplayer as good as the original and a promise that all future map and mode’s delivered for the game will be free. Bravo and highly recommended.

Links

Weekly Digest

Life
Jury service came to nothing – wasn’t called, service passed hopefully for another few years. Picked up a new 4k TV which has….some issues. Replacement coming this week, hopefully this one works. Yes, it is a Samsung! Got this week off work so chance for a bit of relaxation and the start of Christmas shopping?

Media
Planet Earth II was stunning last night especially the drama around the racer snakes. Who needs CGI! Dear BBC, please release a 4k version on iPlayer. Thanks.

Links