Tag Archives: Technology

When you thought things couldn’t get worse

History & Research, Literature, ,

Google, like hoover, has become a commonplace word to mean “internet search”. In the beginning it was simple, proud to give search results in fractions of a second. The company even had a motto: do no evil. Other search engines have since bowed to the inevitable. Google über alles.

Now? The motto is long gone. Alphabet, the parent corporation, is enormous with tentacles spreading into everything. Search results, initially just full of advertising, are now becoming garbage regurgitated by so-called artificial intelligence.

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I am not a Luddite

Personal, Technology, Wittering, , , ,

When I was much younger I was always trying to keep up with all the latest fads and trends, particularly in computing and software. It was part of my job, plus I really enjoyed it.

As my career and various jobs evolved my need to keep up with things faded. I now find myself several steps behind the bleeding edge of technology, and I’m okay with that. 

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Rabbit Holes

History & Research, Personal, Sound & Audio, Technology, , , , ,

Sorting and tidying following Paul’s death is an ongoing activity. I have barely scratched the surface, if I’m being honest. The easiest things to dump — ancient magazine back issues, bank statements from long-defunct accounts, that kind of thing — are quickly dealt with. Paul’s amateur radio gear was taken away by members of the local club. I am now getting down to deeper layers, where I am finding things harder to just pitch into a bin bag.

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Worrying times

Personal, Wittering, , , , , ,

I am conscious that I particularly want to avoid talking about what’s going on outside my little bubble. Trying to comment on the political world in previous iterations of this blog just made things worse for me and my mental health. I am about to touch on things happening right now, but I do not plan to make it a habit.

Writing a blog regularly is hard. I’ve already written about it. It doesn’t get any easier as time goes on, because the small pool of ideas rapidly evaporates and I forget to replenish it. I have ideas, but they need time to set seed and germinate – and I have to remember to actually care for those seeds so I can harvest the fruit.

(I’ll stop that analogy right now. Sorry.)

The world is undergoing several types of massive convulsion. Not much is of a good kind. It is not easy to see a bright side, and I admit my mental health is taking yet another battering. I try to do the self-care thing, but it’s not easy.

How about, then, I write a bit about what’s going on here at Snaptophobic Towers? You may find it interesting, you may not. It’s my party and I’ll do what I want.

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What I’ve been watching in 2024

Sound & Audio, Technology, , , ,

We still have a telly. It sits in the corner over there. Once or twice a week, we might find where the remote control went and fire the gogglebox up to catch some news. Otherwise, it spends most of its life wasting milliwatts on standby. 

That said, I do use it to watch DVDs. I’ve only got a small collection, various films, some TV series box sets, that sort of thing. If I feel in the mood, I’ll take a disc from the shelf and turn the lights down and volume up, and wallow in some escapism for an hour or two.

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