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Outer Wilds: a once in a lifetime experience - Joel's Log Files

2026-09-02T03:00:35.000Z

You have probably heard of this one, it is an award winning title that came out around 2019 and has been making the rounds as one of the best videogames of all time. I had heard of it when it came out, often confused with Outer Worlds which came out in the same year, but other than it being about exploring space, I didn’t know much about it. Last year, when I beat 1000xRESIST—another incredible game you should definitely play—my friend Jeremy kept pushing me to try this one next. I completed like six more games before I finally gave it a go early this year.

This review is spoiler-free, and even so, I’d rather you go play the game right now instead.

There is something to be said about a game that can go on without you, where you can spend countless hours without reading a single thing and explore every nook and cranny there is, while at the same time, there is not giving you a reason to do anything at all. There is no quest, there are no pop-ups, and there is no rush.

All you have is your own resolve and your own hunger for knowledge and understanding, that will be your only pursue and reward.

Outer Wilds puts you inside a toy-sized, fully simulated solar system, where each planet is completely different from each other and has unique behaviours and mysteries to discover. It will work without you, and you will work within it.

The only caveat about the game is this: It is played in first person perspective, and the physics and orientation in zero gravity can cause dizziness. If you get motion sickness, this game is not for you, and I am incredibly sorry.

You can take control of a spaceship that will absolutely kill you with its sketchy auto-pilot system, dozens of times, however, it will also provide you with a pretty awesome sense of control and simulated physics all around, you’ll have to learn how to land properly, how your velocity works and how each planet’s gravity affects you in the void of space! (The auto-pilot is actually pretty good—just make sure there’s no obstacles between you and your destination.)

With only a few tools at your disposal, you are pretty much on your own. The game doesn’t feature any upgrades or unlockables, there are no level ups, no collectibles, and no storage system either.

One of your tools will be your Scout Launcher, a probe you can aim and shoot at anything. It can take pictures, be a light source and detect hazards around you. Shoot it through a hole in the wall you can’t access and see what’s on the other side!

Another tool is the Signalscope, which let’s you detect signals from outer space (or things that are right next to you) and also zoom in to things far from you that might peak your interest. Keep a look out for any interesting signals and sounds around you.

The most important tool is the Translator. In the story you will learn that you are the first astronaut from the village’s space program—fittingly named “Outer Wilds Ventures”—you are going to able to translate all the ancient writings from an alien civilization whose remains are spread all over the solar system. The knowledge found in them are what is likely to hook you into figuring out more.

There’s also a computer with a ship log, which keeps track of the information you’ve gathered, and let’s you pin certain locations on a map of the whole solar system. You can also pin any celestial body from the map to auto-pilot to it.

And this is about as much as I can tell you of this game, without ruining every surprise it has for you.

I am not going to explain what each planet has to offer, I don’t want you to know even a slice of what the story is about, I also don’t want to describe the encounters or discoveries you will make, I won’t even quote a single line of text in the game. Every single one of those things is unique for your playthrough, and you deserve to cherish each moment.

Outer Wilds doesn’t force you to do anything, it doesn’t tell you in what order you should visit the planets, it doesn’t tell you the main objective or why you are there. It does give you a push, it does give you leads, but no more than that!

It is all about exploration, all about curiosity, about wonder, making your own journey, and connecting your own dots.

Come up with your own theories, try the craziest of stunts on your ship, and learn how to master and move on the environment around you.

It is the kind of game you can only play once, the solution is right in front of you the whole time.

The game has a story, the game will hook you, the game has a motive, everything happens for a reason, the whole system is like a puzzle, but at the same time, it doesn’t need you, it’s alive and well and beautiful and horrifying.

The artstyle of the game is great, it is cute, it is mesmerizing, it is also scary, and it will fill you with a sense of awe. The game adopts a very interesting design language, where the things that matter are incredibly obvious, and the places that don’t will look rather empty, this is to lead you into areas with things you can see or interact with, keeping everything at a small, cozy scale. Funnily enough, the game will somehow pull off incredible landscapes and perspectives that will, as I already said, fill you with a sense of wonder, as you see how beautiful the universe can be.

The music is a masterclass of environmental storytelling, it will make you feel every emotion, sadness, hope, peace. It is an incredible work of art on its own, and it compliments every moment in a wonderful manner. You will grow fond of it, you will also dread it. Every piece carries a lot of weight, and it just hits at the right time. That soundtrack is a must-buy. Andrew Prahlow is a genius.

Well, honestly, everyone who worked on this game clearly gave everything they had on it, the writing is absolutely incredible too. It is funny and sassy, it could also fill you with hope, it may as well make you cry and care about something beyond you. I have already said enough.

Am I hyping it up too much? Perhaps I am, perhaps you will try it and get lost and lose motivation, perhaps you will get hooked for a couple hours and then get stuck somewhere and lose all steam. I played this game in two big moments. From January 6 to 23, and from August 7 to 22. I understand why you may stop, why it may look like things are not clicking and why you may want to move on, perhaps you were there already, and abandoned the game.

I implore you to return, start over if you must but I have a feeling you will get by just with the clues at your disposal and the knowledge you have gained already. Soon something will happen that will finally make things fit inside your head, and it will be smooth sailing from there…

Technically speaking, the game is marvelous, the features and mechanics of its underworkings are miraculous. I played it on my Nintendo Switch and the performance was not ideal, however, it is not a game that requires perfomance or a stable framerate to be enjoyed. I do recommend getting it on a more powerful device though. I still put 32 hours into the Switch edition, and I will soon play the DLC there too, a whole game of its own, from what I’ve heard.

Normally I would plague this review with screenshots, but I just don’t want to show anything else now, just stop reading this and give it a go.

Please, play it, and tell me all about it when you do.

This is day 27 of #100DaysToOffload

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AI companies are at risk of making Silicon Valley's harmful mistakes all over again - Werd I/O

2026-09-01T18:01:52.000Z

Link: AI safety is designed in the West, and failing users everywhere, by Rina Chandran in Rest of World

Amnesty International believes that Facebook was complicit in the genocide against the Rohingya people in Myanmar:

“In 2017, the Rohingya were killed, tortured, raped, and displaced in the thousands as part of the Myanmar security forces’ campaign of ethnic cleansing. In the months and years leading up to the atrocities, Facebook’s algorithms were intensifying a storm of hatred against the Rohingya which contributed to real-world violence.”

It wasn’t that anyone at Facebook actively wanted to enable a genocide: they just didn’t care about not enabling one. Their teams were warned at least fifteen times, but mitigating this obvious harm was deprioritized in favor of other things. They were focused on their own world, with its epicenter in Menlo Park, California. Ultimately, although Facebook was not the source of the genocide, its use contributed significantly, leading to Rohingya deaths. By prioritizing growth in Myanmar but not staffing for local needs, it invested in its valuation rather than preventing harm in a country it didn’t care about.

So it’s more than a little concerning to see AI vendors making the same mistakes. As Rina Chandran writes in Rest of World, failures in the Global South caused by Silicon-Valley-centric product development are becoming more common:

“For example, in Tigrinya, spoken by about 9 million people in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, machine translation rendered smallpox as syphilis, gonorrhea as diabetes and ‘you have been given intravenous antibiotics’ as ‘you have been given intravenous insecticides.’”

While international efforts like the Bletchley Declaration aim to mitigate what are considered to be frontier risks of AI, it asks for little accountability for the other harms that inevitably arise from product teams that aren’t rooted in the interests, needs, norms, and values of diverse international communities. Those harms can add up to become deep wounds in themselves, but it’s also worth asking another question.

As Rest of World points out:

“At the heart of the issue ‘is the question of who gets to define what counts as a safety problem in the first place,’ Elizabeth Orembo, a fellow at Research ICT Africa, a think tank, told Rest of World. Big tech firms tend to focus on model risks such as deception, autonomous behavior, cyber capabilities, and aiding bioweapons, she said. They do not pay much attention to deployment risks including discrimination, exclusion, surveillance, language failures, and the inability of affected communities to seek remediation.”

Can affected communities be co-owners of those risk frameworks, including the resulting product roadmaps, or are they, once again, just expected to let technology happen to them?

Facebook was warned fifteen times that it was doing the wrong thing in Myanmar, and still did nothing. AI companies are retreating from even the weak commitments they previously made. They need to be forced to do the right thing: if not by markets and investors, then by international regulation.

August 2026 Summary - Joel's Log Files

2026-09-01T17:20:00.000Z

August was a very interesting month, given the arrival of Blaugust, the summer vacation and a lot of my gaming progression done during all of it. I have recently realized how little I have to say about the month itself here when I keep saying a bunch of stuff for my weeknotes. For a while I’ve seen some people saying I should stick to either monthly or weekly stuff, and perhaps they have a point.

At the same time, I like this format quite a bit, so let’s get to the media I enjoyed during the last 31 days of my life, shall we?

Podcasts

This has been the worst month of the whole year, in fact, it has been the worst month in all of my podcast statistics. I barely listened to 14 hours of audio, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact I had visits and couldn’t sleep to podcasts as I usually do. I would probably use my earphones, except that I somehow lost them for a whole week too! Because people were invading my living space, I couldn’t search for them as comfortably and by the time I found them it was too late.

Into the Aether - 6.6 hours. Brendon and Stephen are also on hiatus for a couple weeks, so I had even less episodes to listen to than usual.
The Rest is History - 3.5 hours. I’ve been listening to one of their series on the Great War, so that’s been interesting.
Land of Eem: Actual Play - 1.5 hours. Since I want to get better at GMing, listening to how others run the game is helpful!
The Ten Minute Bible Hours - 1.4 hours. Back to this one after a long while, still on Matthew of course.

Gaming

I’d say this was the main hobby that completely took over this month, especially combined with the tabletop session we had!

Outer Wilds - A game I started on January, abandoned for months and only returned to in the middle of August. This title immediately gripped me all over again, and it didn’t let me go until I finally rolled creadits. This adventure was so good, I simply had to keep going. It was a rather profound experience and it will linger inside my head for quite a while. Remember, don’t look anything up, simply go and play it, as long as you are okay with some zero gravity maneuvres in a 3D space, you should be okay. I don’t want to say anything else!
Hollow Knight Silksong - After finishing OW, it was about time I returned to Pharloom once again. I made a bunch of progress this time around, finally unlocking Act 3 after defeating the final boss one more time. I have also accessed a whole new area and gone through a couple of gauntlets and new bosses. I have a feeling this will take me another twenty hours or so which I am really looking forward to playthrough.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D - I returned to this game later in the month and completed the Jabu Jabu’s Belly dungeon. It took me a while to figure out how to beat the miniboss for some reason, but everything else was pretty nice! I am finally ready for the next adventure in the game, which will be going to the Temple of Time, and using the Ocarina to access the chambers within, and fight for Hyrule’s future!
Fire Emblem Awakening - This month was mostly dedicated to the leveling up characters and doing side quests. For some reason I have been unable to follow up on the main story—okay, the reason is Outer Wilds and other games—but I am still really looking forward to putting more time into this tactics game.
Donkey Kong ‘94 - This has proven to be absolute platforming perfection. Donkey Kong has so many interesting mechanics for its time, it is kind of ridiculous how well it holds up today. I have completed half of the stages now and I will definitely continue for September, it shouldn’t take much longer to beat.
Minecraft - Only played this one for a day, with some friends on a LAN party on our private server! I started to finally build a house and make it pretty. I was messing around with block textures and stuff to make it a bit livelier, but there is a lot of work left to do, and I don’t even have a rooftop yet.
Super Mario 3D World - We are so close to the finale of this game, my friends and I have been doing steady progress. and we continue to collect all the stars and stamps in the game! It’s incredibly fun to just get everything there is.
Risk of Rain Returns - Played this with a friend of mine, just the two of us versus the world. We barely managed to get to the second portal in the game, it really is kinda difficult!
Faster Than Light - Before our Minecraft session I quickly booted this up on my Laptop and had a fun time on a run. I didn’t last long though and my ship was destroyed in the end.

Land of Eem - After so many months we finally returned to this TTRPG, and it was absolutely glorious. I’m really happy that we managed to go back even if it was a bit improvised. Most of my players forgot a lot of their abilities and features of the game such as how XP works and the like. We still had a lot of fun though and I’ve read some parts of the core rulebook again to improve for our next play.

Books

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson - I read this while listenint to the soundtrack of Resident Evil. I’m only at 40% of the book and I’ve already been taken to some dreadful cosmic horror trips. Not bad at all, I can see how Lovecraft was inspired by this one, I have to say. I will definitely finish it soon.
Clarkesworld Magazine #211 by Neil Clarke - The first issue I’ve ever read and it was a very nice surprise! I already shared a review so, give it a read!
Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey - The finale of an epic saga. I should also write my overall thoughts on the whole thing. For now the review is already available though.

Manga

Centuria - Chapters 39-47. This shonen manga featuring some dark fantasy and eldritch horror elements has been rather interesting! I started it late in July so I’ve read a bunch more of it this month.
Spy x Family - Chapters 138-139. Because of all the gaming I forgot to keep up with this one until last week. It continues to be as fun as every though!
Hunter x Hunter - Chapters 397-401. This epic adventure finally returns from hiatus, and its ongoing arc is rather convoluted after a little while. There are a lot of pages and a lot of texts to go through so my progress has been slow. I do like the build-up though.
Blue Lock - Chapters 355-356. Another one that I fell behind on because of priorities.
Fly Me to the Moon - Chapter 289. Same thing as the rest!

Movies

Spider-Man: Brand New Day - This really is the best Spider-Man film since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 and I really, really enjoyed it. I loved the cinematography, the story, the new characters and how the rest of the Marvel world is interconnected with Peter Parker. Really enjoyable adventure so far!
Edge of Tomorrow - This is one of those sci-fi films that has gotten better over time. Groundhog’s Day with an alien war in the middle. It’s still a pretty refreshing concept and very well done, a blockbuster that delivers, what else can I say?
Sunshine - The sun is dying and a crew of movie stars is sent to the send a bomb to revive it all over again. This was a really interesting watch, with some great visuals and a bit of an Alien feeling to it, given the conflicts between the people in the ship and the series of events that happen. Loved that final sequence quite a lot.

Music

I would also like to point out listening to a bunch of Resident Evil’s soundtrack while reading The House on the Borderland as well, extremely immersive.

FTL by Ben Prunty
Outer Wilds by Andrew Prahlow
Hades by Darren Korb
Minecraft - Volume Beta by C418
Hyper Light Drifter by Disasterpiece

Finishing thoughts

And just like that, August is done! The month is over and there are a lot of things still to say. I have to admit I am not really feeling too accomplished with the goals I’ve been sharing so I’ll stop with that for now.

Anyway, this is already enough, until next time!

This is day 26 of #100DaysToOffload

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Android Auto Has Been Hammering My Phone’s Battery - Kev Quirk

2026-09-01T12:25:00.000Z

I've noticed recently that my phone needs to be charged way more often than I used to have to do it. I used to be able to go for nearly 2 days on an 80% charge, but I started having to charge daily. Sometimes even multiple times per day!

My first thought was that my 2.5 year old Pixel 9A might be starting to show signs of age, and the battery was on its way out. But I have always had charging optimised, so it only charges to 80%. Looking at the health of my battery in settings, it shows the health as normal and reports a 100% capacity. So it's not the battery.

The final straw came when I went to bed one evening with a charge of around 65%, only to wake up the next morning with just 30% of my battery remaining. How the fuck had my phone used so much battery while I was sleeping??

I checked which apps had used all that battery and to my surprise it was Google Maps and Android Auto.

6.5 hours of "screen time" while I was asleep!

Ok, something is clearly fucked with Android Auto here, but I've been using it for years and it's been fine, so what's changed?

New car

The only thing that has really changed from an Android Auto perspective was that I'd got a new car which now used wireless Android Auto instead of having to plug a cable in.

After some research, it turns out that wireless Android Auto is an absolute resource hog.

Unlike standard Bluetooth audio, the wireless projection that Android Auto uses forces your phone to continuously compress and stream a high frame rate video feed over a Wi-Fi link, all while aggressively hammering the GPS and cellular radios too.

To make matters worse, if the car is parked anywhere near the house, the phone can get stuck in a persistent background polling loop that blocks deep sleep, basically turning the handset into an expensive pocket radiator.

Nice in winter, but not so bueno when you need your phone and it has a dead battery!

The fix

The fix, dear reader, was rather simple. Disable wireless Android Auto. However, in practice it was more difficult than I had expected.

I had to enable developer options within Android Auto's settings so the "disable wireless Auto" option became available. Why is that even a "developer option"? It should be a standard option IMO.

Then I had to fiddle with the car's settings to not force wireless Android Auto, but instead prefer plain old Bluetooth. By doing this it allows me to still use Android Auto when I plug a USB C cable in, but by default it only uses Bluetooth.

The infotainment display in my car is pretty nice, so I'm not really missing anything by not using Android Auto. Plus, it annoys me that Navigation always shows up - I don't need it most of the time, so why waste the computing power and screen real estate?

Anyway, it's been a few days now and my battery is back to lasting me a couple of days. Worst case I need to quickly pull out my phone to open Spotify or my podcast app, AntennaPod, before I drive away, so the car picks up the media stream.

If I really need it, full Android Auto is only a USB C cable away, and I know it won't hammer my battery after I get out of the car.

Final thoughts

I've ranted about how complicated modern cars are before, but this is just another example of how annoying it is. I'm a technical person, so can work this out for myself, but many of my friends and family would have had no chance in figuring this shit out, let alone fixing the problem.

It's too much - they're too intrusive. I don't need to be connected everywhere. I don't need phone notifications in my car, and I usually don't need a sat nav - plus my car has it's own sat nav! I just want a way to stream media from my phone, without it getting as hot as the surface of the sun and wasting a tonne of battery power. Is that too much to ask?

Anyway, it's fixed now (I think). If you're having battery issues on your phone, it might be worth checking your wireless phone connection to your car too.

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Book Review: ActivityPub by Evan Prodromou ★★★★⯪ - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-09-01T11:34:18.000Z

As part of my grant from NLnet to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text.

Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and presents it in a consistent format. This is nearly that book.

Evan Prodromou has the unenviable task of making the whole ecosystem easy to understand. Thankfully he does that well. Things are logically laid out, there are comprehensive descriptions of even the most obscure parts of the spec, and it builds up nicely from the fundamentals. Oh, it's also surprisingly light-hearted.

This principle is so important and long-winded that web architects have given it an acronym, HATEOAS. (We often pronounce it “HATE-ee-OH-us,” which sounds like a breakfast cereal nobody wants to eat. This is one reason web architects aren’t allowed to name breakfast cereals.)

There's an excellent checklist for all the steps needed when building a minimal ActivityPub server.

As with all O'Reilly books, it is a beautifully typeset ePub. Even better, it was supplied DRM-free through Kobo.

About the only significant thing missing is details of how to verify RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures. That's understandable as they're pretty new, but a bit annoying as that's what a lot of servers are sending now. Similarly, there's a good write up of how to publish a poll, but not much about voting or publishing the results.

The "Far Horizons" chapter is particularly exciting - giving a speculative overview of what AP could be used for. I, for one, am particularly looking forward to putting my Internet Connected Fridge on social media 😆

Ultimately ActivityPub is a living and evolving set of standards. No book can possibly keep up with all the changes happening to it - but Evan does a brilliant job of bringing together all the moving parts and creating a coherent picture of the standard.

Highly recommended if you're interested in understanding the fundamentals of the Fediverse!

Inside Ukraine's Kill Zone - Kev Quirk

2026-09-01T10:18:00.000Z

Inside Ukraine's Kill Zone

by Reuters

Really interesting (and saddening) look at the front line in the Ukraine/Russia war.

Read post ➡

Saw this on Dense Discovery. It's a really interesting look at how the shape of warfare has changes from soldiers with weapons, to drone-based attacks.

The days of heavy mechanised manoeuvres are over; a drone costing a few thousand dollars can disable a tank worth millions.

-- Reuters

I served in Iraq and Afhganistan with the British Army in the early 00's. Back then drones were used, but were in their infancy. The fact that we've completely moved to this kind of warfare in ~20 years in scary.

I learned a lot in this post. It's both interesting and extremely saddening. My thoughts are with all those involved in this needless conflict.

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Thoughts on Blaugust 2026 - Joel's Log Files

2026-09-01T05:50:00.000Z

Well, the month is over, and with that, Blaugust is gone as well! This is the second time I have participated on this challenge, and it has also lead to quite a lot of interesting interactions and a decent amount of posts.

To be honest, I was unable to reach the goal of 31 posts for the whole month. I wanted to give that a try and I even did two posts per day some times when I missed some previous days. However, as usual, some other matters got in the way! My siblings were visiting, my sister’s boyfriend was visiting, and I also had a few days of vacation which I decided to spend on other hobbies unrelated to writing.

As such, I ended up with a total of 19 blogposts for the whole month, one less than July which didn’t have an event tied to it! I basically wrote the usual, and well, that’s pretty good, although my pacing was all over the place, with some weeks much fuller than others and the like.

Not many people can afford to write in the same way I do, so I am content, even if it’s not a particularly impressive amount given my previous history.

Here is a quick list of some of my favorite moments and things that happened because of this event!

I started chatting with Sam from The Tangent Space about our blogging, videogames and specifically how epic Outer Wilds is.
My post about how we should react to slop was one of many responses to Andreas, who had a fantastic Blaugust too.
My post on iconic gaming moments inspired Victoria to do a tabletop edition!
My post on books and tranlsations inspired Marisable to write a blog reply!
Jedda found this event very helpful to process her recent losses and grief.
Naty participated for the first time ever, and got a Silver Award just like me.
Syl actually beat me this time around, I’m going to steal some of her post ideas for future dates.

And here are some of the post ideas I am yet to draft or post, which didn’t make it in time for Blaugust!

A very long review about Outer Wilds.
A retelling of my second session GMing the Land of Eem TTRPG with friends
A post about the Max Steel franchise and its influence during my childhood
A post/reply inspired by Syl’s favorite game screenshots

I could share a bit more but I’d rather get working on them and publishing something more soon!

All in all, I now posses the Silver Award for Blaugust 2026! after publishing more than 15 posts during the month, and I can continue to write whatever I want as usual. Not like I ever stopped doing that, but still!

This is day 25 of #100DaysToOffload

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Not home alone, Outer Wilds obsession - w35 - Joel's Log Files

2026-09-01T01:48:30.000Z

I will write a separate post sharing some thoughts about Blaugust, but here are some of my notes for this week between August 25 to 31, 2026.

📺 After beating Outer Wilds I have watched all sorts of playthroughs, supercuts, essays, reviews, interviews, and any sort of related media about this game! I also purchased the soundtrack on Steam (if only it was available on Bandcamp…). Some of the videos I’ve watched are by About Oliver, Cynthetic, CDawgVA, Joseph Anderson, Chert’s Research Notes and Goragle. I also gifted the game to two friends.
🏠 Stayed at home for most of the week, first I had vacation on Monday and Tuesday, then I got out of work early on Thursday and Friday. This gave me lots of time for gaming and movies!
🕵️ During half of the week my sister’s boyfriend was still visiting, and my parents left for a trip, so I was kind of the third wheel there and I made absolutely sure he knew I was around… Okay but seriously, the guy did prep lunch for everyone a couple times so maybe he’s not so bad.
🌳 There was this person who was going to do a bunch of yardwork in our house so I had to keep an eye on things there as well. There was this tree with roots that got in the way of our plumbing—the reason my restroom flooded a lot lately–and it had to be removed. We had planted four more trees further away from the house to replace it!
🥪 My eating habits when I’m alone are never particularly great, a lot of cereal bowls and bread and chips and snacks were consumed for the sake of me staying alive for another day. Don’t worry, I got normal food at work, and I actually cooked some quesadillas and also chicken later in the week!
🚲 Hate to say it but my cycling habit fell off at last. I need to pick it up again, at least I am aware of what is going on and can work on it. I really need to get a grip on this. Perhaps I don’t like going to the gym via bicycle lol.

A lovely panel with Anya and Yor sleeping, some Silksong screenshots with a low health bar, and some iconic scenes from Ocarina of Time

Gaming

Hollow Knight: Silksong - With Outer Wilds out of the way, I’ve returned to this as my main Nintendo Switch game. I fulfilled all of the requirements and more to unlock Act 3 and defeated the final boss one more time, in order to change the fate of Pharloom! But of course, the fact there’s an Act 3 means there’s a lot more to do now to actually fix things. Alas, I have faced against plenty of perilous foes already. and having a lot of fun despite the higher difficulty.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - I continued my adventure through Jabu Jabu’s Belly and ended up defeating the main boss. This means that I have now acquired the three stones I needed, and after an iconic cutscene where I meet Ganondorf chasing after the princess, I am now heading to Temple of Time to continue with the legendary story we all know and love. Awesome stuff!
Minecraft - Finally returned to the Minecraft server I have with my friends. I started to build a new house and it’s going quite well! I still don’t have a rooftop but I also have no complaints, I had fun trying to come up with a fun house design I must say.
Faster Than Light - Started another quick round of this title, I didn’t do a lot of progress and ended up with another destroyed ship! I should probably try some of the Advanced content or at least a different ship design to mix things up.

Reading

Spy x Family - Chapters 138-140. With Loid out of commission for a little while, Anya and Nightfall end up in a bit of a convoluted quest to help Twilight on his mission, each one on their own secret spy-ish ways! Some pretty fun moments and interesting developments too.

Watching

Edge of Tomorrow - For some reason, I was feeling like watching a movie with a time loop in it. This is actually a fantastic sci-fi action film and I absolutely love it. The aliens are pretty neat, the emotional mfor oments actually hit, and well, I don’t know, I really enjoy it! I had seen it before, though I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it then, it’s good stuff. I may re-read the All You Need is Kill manga now.
Sunshine - For some reason, I was feeling like watching a movie with a dying sun in it. What a film this turned out to be, I also watched it because I heard of it from Brendon Bigley in one of the Shore Leave patreon episodes of the Into The Aether podcast. Gillian Murphy and a bunch of other movie stars show up. The concept of and the cinematography of this is awesome.

Around the Web

YouTube

I am omitting all of the Outer Wilds videos I watched, it was quite the challenge.

Blog Posts

Blogposts for everyone, you better enjoy them so much!

This is day 24 of #100DaysToOffload and 18 of #Blaugust2026

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Wonders of Web Weaving, Episode 17 - James' Coffee Blog

2026-09-01T00:00:00.000Z

The seventeenth episode of Wonders of Web Weaving is out:

In Episode 17, Mike interviews James, the author of "with words, wonder" (formerly James' Coffee Blog) about, among other things, identity and personal websites, writing on the web, communicating the potential of personal websites, and more.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Wonders of Web Weaving also has an RSS feed you can use to follow along from wherever you get your podcasts.

James Mike The seventeenth episode of Wonders of Web Weaving is out Wonders of Web Weaving also has an RSS feed

Published on Citation Needed: "Issue 109 – Reg Crypto" - Molly White's activity feed

2026-08-31T16:56:37.000Z

Published an issue of Citation Needed:

Issue 109 – Reg Crypto

The SEC’s “Reg Crypto” aims to carve out exemptions, the CFTC wields emergency powers to shield prediction markets from state regulators, and a Trump family crypto firm gets a bank charter

Nine Fifth Wave Emo Bands Worth Checking Out - Cool As Heck

2026-08-31T14:53:17.000Z

Emo has a habit of being pronounced dead every few years, right before a new crop of bands revives it under a slightly different name. The current revival is no exception. People call it the fifth wave, and while the label is loose and a little contested, it's the term the scene uses for itself.

What emo actually is

If you're not familiar with what emo is, the word is short for "emotional hardcore." It started in the mid-1980s in Washington, D.C., when bands like Rites of Spring and Embrace took hardcore punk's volume and intensity but wrote about interior life instead of politics. The name was meant as a slight and stuck anyway.

From there the genre branched a few times:

First wave (mid-80s): Rites of Spring, Embrace, Dag Nasty. Hardcore kids writing about feelings.
Second wave (mid-90s): the Midwest scene, Sunny Day Real Estate, American Football, Cap'n Jazz. Quieter dynamics, cleaner and more intricate twinkly guitar work.
Third wave (early 2000s): emo crossed over. My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday moved it from basements to arenas.
Fourth wave (2010s): the "emo revival." Modern Baseball, The Hotelier, Into It. Over It., The World Is a Beautiful Place. DIY again, literate and sad.
Fifth wave (late 2010s to now): harder to pin down, which is sort of the point.

The fifth wave borrows the twinkly guitar language of the second wave and the hooks of the third, but it grew up online. These bands tour small rooms, built audiences through streaming and TikTok, and write with a self-awareness that comes from having the entire history of emo a click away. They also blur into adjacent genres, so you'll hear the same bands filed under Midwest emo, pop punk, and post-hardcore depending on who's writing the playlist.

Here are nine bands worth checking out, each with a song to start with.

Like Roses

Like Roses formed in the Bay Area, California, and frontwoman Amy Schmalkuche's voice does most of the heavy lifting. Their single "Easy" caught fire in 2023 and landed them a deal with Hopeless Records; the debut full-length Closure followed in 2024. It's anthemic, emotionally direct emo with a pop-punk engine and a genuine edge.

Listen: Like Roses, "Easy"

Ben Quad

From Oklahoma City, Ben Quad started as a jokey emo project and got serious fast. The 2022 EP I'm Scared That's All There Is was full of screamy, mathy, occasionally silly songs that turned out to be a lot smarter than they let on. Signed to Pure Noise Records, they followed it with Ephemera in 2024. They describe themselves as "post-emo," and it fits.

Listen: Ben Quad, "You're Part of It"

Arm's Length

Arm's Length is from Belleville, Ontario, and their debut album Never Before Seen, Never Again Found (2022) is one of the most-loved records in the current scene. "Object Permanence" and "Garamond" are the tracks people name when they recommend them. Big, bruised, sing-along emo with a distinctly Canadian melancholy.

Listen: Arm's Length, "Object Permanence"

Pool Kids

Pool Kids come out of Tallahassee, Florida, fronted by Christine Goodwyne. Their self-titled 2022 album is full of tricky, mathy guitar parts and sharp songwriting that rewards repeat listens. "That's Physics, Baby" and "Arm's Length" are the standouts. It's emo that sounds like a band that rehearses a lot, in the best way.

Listen: Pool Kids, "That's Physics, Baby"

savings

savings started as a solo project for Sam Wilmot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before growing into a full band. The EP Get Well Soon (2023) introduced them, and How Do You Feel? (2025) pushed their sound toward shoegaze and indie without losing the Midwest emo core. The lowercase name is intentional.

Listen: savings, "Chin Up, Champ!"

saturdays at your place

saturdays at your place formed at Western Michigan University in 2021 and are about as Midwest emo as a band can get, hailing from Kalamazoo. The trio of Esden Stafne, Gabe Wood, and Mitch Gulish pairs intimate lyrics with twinkly guitar parts and heavy instrumental hooks. "eat me alive" is the song that broke them; the 2023 EP always cloudy is the deeper cut.

Listen: saturdays at your place, "eat me alive"

Origami Angel

Origami Angel is the duo of Ryland Heagy and Pat Doherty from Washington, D.C., and they're one of the biggest names in the fifth wave. Their sound is bright, hooky, and relentlessly fun, with a self-contained universe they call "Gami." Somewhere City (2019) and the double album Gami Gang (2021) made them, and Feeling Not Found (2024) kept the streak going.

Listen: Origami Angel, "24 Hr Drive-Thru"

Leisure Hour

Leisure Hour is a three-piece from Muncie, Indiana: Grace Dudas, Raegan Gordon, and Isaiah Neal. They play loud, fast Midwest emo with three-part harmonies, and they built their following on relentless DIY touring. The Sunny Side (2024) was self-released; ...and to think landed on Counter Intuitive Records in early 2026. "Ode to Muncie" is their hometown anthem.

Listen: Leisure Hour, "Ode to Muncie"

Jail Socks

Jail Socks is a trio from Charlotte, North Carolina. Their debut album Coming Down (2021) came out on Counter Intuitive Records and is one of the catchiest emo records of the last few years, with post-hardcore bite under the hooks. "Peace of Mind" and "Point Pleasant" are the songs to start with.

Listen: Jail Socks, "Peace of Mind"

Review: Ruined Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream ★★★★☆ - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-31T11:34:08.000Z

The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us?

Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut their hour among the ruins of Abbey Wood. Hey, gentrification has its benefits, OK?

I don't know how many times I've seen "Dream", but I know I've never seen it performed in an actual wood during summer. Booking the tickets a few weeks ago during England's heatwave, it sounded perfect. A warm, dusky evening, accompanied by færies and asses. The British weather, of course, had other ideas.

The Show Must Go On

The storm clouds were, as the bard wrote, heavy, black and, pendulous. Outside it may be raining, their makeup may be flaking, but everyone knows that Shakespeare is best played when defying the elements, right?

Even in the rain, it was great! Theseus and Hippolyta as selfie-obsessed poseurs made for a delightful start. Recasting Athens as Lesnes was a great touch. And then we were led through the woods. Rather than traipse us from scene to scene, we settled in to a clearing - bringing our own camping chairs with us - and watched the magic unfold.

Half the fun is in watching children and teenagers giggling at Hermia's rage and Bottom's overconfident bombast. But you can't go wrong with actors studiously ignoring the downpour and professing their (misplaced) love for each other. Honestly, who'd lie down in the mud just to make us chuckle? How many laughs can you ring out of a man with an ass's head? Lord, what fools these mortals be!

It is a fairly straightforward production. Aside from modern dress there wasn't much updating of the text other than trimming it down. The smoke machine might have been an eerie touch on a still summer's night, billowing around us, instead the wind took it before it had a chance to settle. The incidental music worked well - especially the intertextuality of Pyramus & Thisbe playing to the Romeo+Juliet soundtrack - but the speakers were over-driven and distorted. A small crimp on an otherwise fine production.

Reflections in a dappled pond

I'm fairly sure I once played Demetrius in a youth production. Or possibly Lysander. I know I got to kiss Helena. Or possibly Hermia. The mind plays funny tricks as you age. Some of the more dreary prose becomes light and airy. The laughs which felt forced come more easily. The gender politics a little more nuanced.

You can never go back, of course. But you will always remember your first stage kiss with Hermia (or possibly Helena) with great affection. Seeing Shakespeare again and again and again in a hundred different variations just helps you realise what a master storyteller he was.

Carl's Doomsday Scenario - Kev Quirk

2026-08-31T06:29:00.000Z

Carl's Doomsday Scenario

Author: Matt Dinniman
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi
Released: 2021
Rating: ★★★★★

"The training levels have concluded. Now the games may truly begin."

The ratings and views are off the chart. The fans just can't get enough. The dungeon gets more dangerous each day. But in a grinder designed to chew up and spit out crawlers by the millions, Carl and Princess Donut need to work harder than ever just to survive.

They call it the Over City. A sprawling, once-thriving metropolis devastated by a mysterious calamity. But these streets are far from abandoned. An undead circus trawls the ruins. Murdered prostitutes rain from the sky. An ancient spell is finally ready to reveal its dark purpose.

Carl still has no pants.

They call it Dungeon Crawler World. For Carl and Donut, it's anything but a game.

Learn more on Goodreads ➡

Similar to the first book I absolutely loved this one too, and finished it in a couple days as well. This book focuses on the next level in the dungeon, level 3, and introduces new concepts to the game, as well as new characters.

Of course, Dinniman continues to develop the main characters as well, and I'm finding myself beginning to like Princess Donut. Which is strange, as I'm not a cat person. 🙃

Some intergalactic politics are starting to make their way into the story line too, which is acts as a nice reprieve from all the mob killing...sometimes. I hope to see these story lines continue to develop as Carl and Donut (hopefully) continue to find out more about this whole shit show they find themselves in.

Blooding loving this series.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️

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Blaugust 2026 in review - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-31T00:00:00.000Z

I am sitting with a cup of tea by my side as I have been on many mornings this month. This morning, my tea cup, instead of being precariously balanced on the arm of the chair, rests between the right arm of the chair and my right leg, keeping me warm. I love being cosy.

In “Countryside; Blaugust”, I noted how much seeing my friends participate in Blaugust encouraged me to participate. This year, the minimum requirement to participate was to write five posts in the month. I didn’t write down a specific commitment, but in my mind I had a private goal of trying to write every day. I didn’t want to write this down in case something came up that made it harder. I was able to achieve this goal. I technically published a blog post every day except for last Tuesday, when I saw Lorde perform ¹. On that day, I wrote most of the observations that, on the next day, I developed into my Summer Sessions post.

My contributions to Blaugust embodied a mix of genres. At the start of the month, I thought about trying to write about Nature every day, the goal being to have a log of writing that represented how I saw Nature this August that I could look back on. With that said, my writing naturally gravitated toward lots of different genres. I followed this rather than my goal to write about Nature every day because, as long as I was writing and content with what I was writing, I felt good. This month, I wrote about art, music, organising, code, HTML Day, Nature, and more. I wrote a tiny bit of fiction and poetry too.

I thoroughly enjoyed the secondary Blaugust goal of trying to write posts that involve collaborating with others. This month I did art and music exchanges with Thamara (art, music) and V.H. (art, music), where we each chose pieces of art and music for each other to write about. I did a music exchange with Ruben, too, and an art exchange with Thomas. I also did a title swap with Zachary, where we gave the other titles for a blog post that we had to write (tailored to our own interests), and a blog post swap where we each wrote a piece for each other’s website. Indeed, the spirit of writing with others is what made this Blaugust special. I definitely plan to do more writing with friends in the future.

With that said, this month was challenging. Blaugust is supposed to be a challenge so this is by definition, but certainly there were days when I was pushing myself to try and come up with a topic to write about. Trying to come up with new ideas every day and develop them was hard, and I was starting to feel a bit less motivated toward the end of the month. Since this academic year is starting to wind down I had more free time to work on blog posts so there wasn’t as much pressure, but certainly I did feel under pressure to write at points. I had other stressors that made it harder to write on some days too. I could have “saved” posts to publish on future days, but I had the personal goal of writing something every day.

This month made me think how I do write every day, but I don’t publish everything I write. On almost every day I write notes. I may only write a few sentences, but they are writing nonetheless – thoughts, observations, ideas, records of my days. These notes often grow into blog posts, but sometimes they don’t: not all ideas are compelling to enough to develop further. This feels like part of the practice for me though. Sometimes things stand out that I want to write about; other days, I need more time to think.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

One of the highlights of Blaugust this year was not only writing more, but also being able to read what others wrote. It was a delight being able to read more from writers whose writing I enjoy reading. In particular, I read a lot from Frances, Juhis, Jedda, Tantek, Naty, Thomas, and more.

I have lost track of how many blog posts I have read this month, and across how many sites. With that said, I do feel like I spent more time reading blogs this month. On that note, I finally wrote down my thoughts on reading as participation in the indie web this month. Reading others’ work was definitely an important part of how I participated in Blaugust this year.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Today is the last day of Blaugust. I am looking forward to taking a little bit of a break, even if that break is only the breathing space that comes from realising I can take a day off. With that said, Blaugust 2026 was a delightful experience. I am sincerely thankful to Mark Temple (rest in peace) for starting Blaugust. I am thankful too for all people who helped organise this year's event, and to everyone who wrote a post on their website in the spirit of Blaugust.

I did publish an announcement of an episode of Wonders of Web Weaving on the Tuesday, but those are more standard so I don’t include it as a contribution for the month.

[↩]

Mark Temple Naty Frances Juhis Countryside; Blaugust blog post swap HTML Day poetry fiction music music exchange with Ruben music art art exchange with Thomas title swap with Zachary code art Summer Sessions post organising reading as participation in the indie web music art Nature 1 [↩] Blaugust Jedda Tantek Thomas

Weeknote #2016 - Robb Knight • Posts • Atom Feed

2026-08-30T16:37:00.000Z

We just passed $2000 on the St Jude Fundraiser and it’s not even September yet. Donate here.

On Ruminate this week I spoke about the worst snack I've ever tried for the show. Truly awful.

This Mastodon tool to see which servers the people I follow are on as well as where my followers are is interesting and highlights again that mastodon.social is just too large.

FontFridge is an "enhanced Google Fonts collection" with better filtering based on the features of the fonts (variable axes, weight, etc) and it also has a favourites features.

This article about favicons is excellent and allowed me to reduce the amount of non-essential icons I'm generating on Favicons to Go.

There's another open source app to replace Logitech Options - OpenLogi. I haven't tried it but it's good to have options.

Terence Eden's ActivityBot has come a long way since I last looked at it. Worth keeping bookmarked for any bots I want to make.

GoldenPad is an iOS and MacOS port of Goldeneye 64. Neat.

Dayna has made a printable zine holder template which is very cool. Will be trying this soon.

Lego have some amazing new Mario sets with actual minifigures. via Marty

I adored The Social Network but I don't have it in me to watch The Social Reckoning no matter how good it looks.

Queen Budapest can be injected right into my veins though.

GTAVI looks exactly like I expected, it’s GTA. Definitely gunna buy it.

ActivityBot is the recipient of an NLnet grant! - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-30T11:34:55.000Z

Back in February, I applied for NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it:

Reclaim the public nature of the internet

Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up.

I run ActivityBot - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for launching automated accounts and designed as a learning tool for those who want to understand how the protocol works. Several people have told me how useful it is, but I haven't had the time to make it better. So I decided to stick in a last-minute application to the fund.

I really didn't know how much to apply for - or even if my project would be suitable for funding - so I cheekily asked for €10,000. After a few months of back-and-forth, I'm delighted to announce that I was successful!

In the spirit of openness, this blog post details how the NLnet grant process worked for me and what I'll be using the money for.

The Process

The application was delightfully simple. Here's what it asked for, along with my answers. If you apply, please don't copy these verbatim; use your own words.

Abstract : A single file server for ActivityPub. Designed for write-only bots. Allows any project to quickly and easily start publishing automated content to the Fediverse. Uses PHP, no other dependencies.
Experience : I am the sole developer of Single File ActivityPub - https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file
I was formerly the UK Government's representative to the W3C and have contributed to various ActivityPub projects and specifications.
Amount : € 10000
Use : The fund will be used for development, testing, promotional activity (including conference travel).
I anticipate this will fund 6 months of development. I have funded all previous development.

Comparison : Most ActivityPub services are complex. They implement a full specification and are designed for multi-user environments. Other projects allow reading and writing. ActivityBot is deliberately designed to be as simple as possible. A single file to upload, one user, publish only.
This will enable more projects to be able to instantly start publishing with low development cost and close to zero hosting cost.
Challenges : Formal spec verification and a security audit will be the main technical challenges. The ActivityBot software has been running well for over a year. The funding will allow for better compatibility and security.
Ecosystem : The project has mostly targeted individuals who want to run small bots. After further development, the project will engage with IoT providers, smaller publishers, open source projects who wish to publish updates, and other relevant parties.

I was told there was intense competition. After a couple of months, I received word that I'd made it to the 2nd round.

What then followed was a very polite interrogation about my ideas, how I would develop the project, what I would use the money for, and what my AI usage policy was. They also wanted a breakdown of the main tasks - with the understanding that this would be a provisional document subject to change.

I was on a train through Europe when I wrote this. I don't claim it to be a brilliant document - but it got the job done!

1. User Research
Recruit 2 - 5 potential users. Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user research session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.
Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.
2. Standards Research
Participate in ActivityPub user communities and standardisation groups. Attend virtual conferences (or any local to the UK). Approx 1 day per week for 6 months.
3. Test Driven Development
Create modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 3 months.
4. Security Testing
Work with the community and security professionals to test the resultant code. This will use human testers and normal fuzzers - this will not use AI tools. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 2 months.
5. User Acceptance Testing
Recruit 2 - 5 potential users (ideally different to the research participants). Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user acceptance session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.
Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.
6. Updates Based on Research, Testing, and Security
While it would be lovely to anticipate getting everything right first time, the reality is that changes will need to be made based on the findings of the above. This will take up the remainder of the allocated time.

Again, there was a little more back and forth. But a few weeks later I was informed that I was at the final stage, pending review. And, a few weeks after that, I was told my project had been given the green light.

I was invited to a group call where the very friendly team discussed the practicalities of the grant, what it could and couldn't fund. I also met a bunch of other people who'd also won.

The final stage was writing a proper Memorandum of Understanding. With the help of one of the team (thanks Victoria!) I was able to turn my scrappy plan into something a bit more formal. The project tool NLnet uses made it easy to build up a plan and put € amounts by each task.

The idea is that I will invoice against the grant whenever I have completed a task or sub-task. Obviously I don't want to leave invoicing until the end of the project, but I also need to be mindful of the foreign exchange fees charged by my bank for receiving Euro payments.

Final Project Plan

This is the plan I submitted. It represents what I hope to accomplish and how I'll draw down on the grant. I suspect this will change as the months go on.

ActivityBot is an Open Source project which aims to develop, maintain, and improve a minimum viable ActivityPub server in a single PHP file.

The project is run by Terence Eden (trading as @edent); a developer residing in England.

This project is expected to run for approximately 6 months. All of the deliverables will be openly licenced using either an OSI approved software licence or a Creative Commons licence.

The high-level aims of the project are for ActivityBot to be:

A fully compliant ActivityPub server, running in a single PHP file.
A teaching tool to help developers understand the practical aspects of creating an ActivityPub server.
A practical method of publishing automated messages to the Fediverse.
A promotional tool to show how simple and easy ActivityPub development can be.
A secure and usable tool written in modern PHP.
Written by humans, with no AI/LLM generated code.

In light of NLnet's non-profit status, costs assume a discounted rate of €330 per day (£280). Incidentals such as hardware, software, travel, or sundries will be charged at cost with receipts provided.

Prepare for initial release

Ensure that the project is in a suitable state for initial release and future development.

Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab.

€495 Prepare initial release. Clarify licencing, solicit community engagement, include example usage.
€495 Standards Research. Collation of standards websites. Ensure code comments refer to specific standards. Publish blog post(s) about findings for others to reference.

User Research

Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-research study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.

Investigate what participants want from a tool like ActivityPub. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.

Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on the results will be pushed to GitLab.

€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).
€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.

Test Driven Development

Create a modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests.

Deliverable: Tests published to GitLab. Blog posts published about the process and results.

€330 Set up test suite
€330 Write tests
€330 Fixes based on test results

Security Testing

Working with NLnet's security offering, ensure that the project meets modern security requirements.

€720 Work with security team to assess security risks and possible mitigations. Fixes based on security team feedback

Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blogs published about the process and results.

User Acceptance Testing

Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-acceptance study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.

Investigate whether participants are able to use ActivityBot. See which aspects need improvement. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.

Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on feedback will be published to GitLab.

€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).
€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.

Conferences and Standards Work

Open Source participation often depends on attending conferences, either in person or virtually. Getting involved in the standardisation process ensures that future versions of ActivityPub and associated standards will be suitable for the community.

Deliverables: Presentations material (slideware), speaking at conferences (may be published as video), conference outputs. Where possible, these will be available under a suitable Creative Commons licence.

€700 Travel and accommodation to one EU conference
€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.
€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.

Final release

Creating a final release for this phase of the ActivityBot project. This will involve incorporating all feedback received so far, improving documentation, and publishing code.

Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blog post written. Release announcements.

€330 Phase 1: Process and implement feedback from users
€330 Phase 2: Bug fixes
€330 Phase 3: Features
€330 Phase 4: Bug fixes
€330 Phase 5: Features
€330 Phase 6: Remedial work
€330 Process and implement feedback from accessibility scan
€330 Final release

Next Steps

I've already begun work on updating the code. If you'd like to get involved, or have suggestions or bug reports - please take a look at ActivityBot on GitLab.

I'll be putting out a call for user-research participants once I've had a chance to catch my breath 😆

Turning my sad gaming PC into a media server - localghost

2026-08-30T00:00:00.000Z

In 2016, I built my very first gaming PC, armed with a PCPartPicker list and a ton of Reddit research. We had some good times together: Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Divinity: Original Sin, various Batman games. Then we got a PS4, then a PS5, then a Steam Deck - the final nail in the coffin - and poor Calculon (for that was its name) sat neglected under my desk, a coffee-stained glorified (but not very ergonomic) footrest.

Its giant tower was taking up a lot of room under my desk, and it was too shit to play any modern games. When I looked into the logistics of upgrading any of it, it seemed I’d have to completely gut it and start again, and I really didn't have much use for a gaming PC, let alone the desire to spend that much money. Where do old computers go when they’re no use to anyone any more? That’s right, they become media servers.

The first job was to downsize so it could sit nicely in the spare room without taking up too much space. I could have left it as-is, and saved several days of my life, but I didn’t do that. I bought a smaller case - a second-hand Lian Li A3-mATX - which fit my motherboard but only had room for one HDD. (And it’s PRETTY.) So I backed up what I needed to, took the machine apart, and carefully reassembled it in the new case, sans one hard drive. PCPartPicker was helpful here, as I still had the old list from when I built the PC in the first place, and swapping out the case in the list told me what header adaptors I needed to buy for the USB connectors.

Don't talk to me or my son ever again

When I say carefully, I managed to dislodge the heatsink on the CPU, which caused it to instantly overheat and turn off. I screwed it back in, and it worked for a little while but then eventually powered down, and the BIOS showed it running at around 71°C from boot, climbing steadily. I looked it up, and according to the internet you’re meant to replace thermal paste on a CPU every 2-5 years, and it had been 10.

I dug out the remainder of the thermal paste from my Steam Deck repair, cleaned the old stuff off, and applied it to the CPU. I also got it on the floor, and all over my hands, but it also got to the places it was supposed to get to, and when I turned the machine on again it was motoring along at a much happier 35°C.

So now it was turning on... sort of. My PC had been running Windows 10 installed onto an SSD (the C drive), with two 1TB hard drives for media and games. I’d naïvely assumed that when I installed Windows on the C drive, that was where Windows was installed. But as soon as I removed the HDD, it wouldn’t boot at all. I plugged the drive back in, and Windows started freezing every time it loaded. I couldn’t even get into recovery mode, and there was no way I could reinstall it.

So I did what any Windows user would do in this situation: I gave up and installed Linux. I asked at work what Linux OS is recommended these days for people who don’t want to mine their own ore for their computers, and Ubuntu was still a top recommendation, but I actually went with Linux Mint. I’ve been really impressed at how simple everything is - it’s been a minute since I last tried Linux in general, and last time I tried to get an Ubuntu machine up and running for dev stuff it took me days to sort it out. Mint has Software Manager, a GUI for installing apps. It’s lightning fast, and everything just works in a way it really didn’t with Windows. I can still access drives over the network from my Mac via Samba, and I can remotely control the Linux machine via SSH or RDC. If I didn’t have a Mac I’d consider using Linux Mint for my daily driver.

The only thing I really miss from Windows is MusicBee, the best music management software, but it just about works via WINE so I’m still able to use most of the features.

Given the reduced HDD capacity in the new case, I swapped out the two 1TB hard drives for a refurbished 4TB HDD I picked up for a good price on eBay. I’d thought that storage would be considerably cheaper ten years later, but of course all computer hardware is more expensive in the age of AI because there’s more demand for resources.

The 1TB HDDs have become backup drives. I discovered the existence of external HDD docking stations (sorry for Amazon link) for computers, which require external power (as HDDs do) and are connected via USB. They just plug in, and it feels like it shouldn’t just work, but it’s great and worked totally seamlessly with Linux. I’ve set up regular backup jobs for my music and video collection with Pika Backup.

For the media server itself, we’re using Plex because my husband has a lifetime pass, but I’ll also give Jellyfin a try at some point. I tried AirPlaying music from Plex on my Mac (from the server) and it was dreadful. But I can stream from the server to my iPad while I’m cooking, and the TV has a Plex app as well.

My only complaint is that the new case doesn’t have an indicator light, so I can’t actually tell from the front if it’s switched on (but my graphics card glows a garish red, which is enough of a clue). But it’s a nice little glow up for trusty old Calculon, and I’m happy it’s got a new lease of life.

Old Picture of the Boat-Bridge at Sano, Kozuke Province by Hokusai - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-30T00:00:00.000Z

Thamara and I are doing an art exchange where we each sent the other person an art-related object to analyse. Thamara sent me a copy of “Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai & Hiroshige”, a book from the art exhibition of the same name being held at the Whitworth in Manchester, from which I chose a single painting to write about. I sent Thamara my first greeting card in a set I recently purchased. The card has a painting on the front: Henri Edmond-Cross‘ The Pink Cloud. You can read Thamara's post on his website.

The Old Picture of the Boat Bridge at Sano, Kozuke Province (1830) is a woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai, who, most famously, painted The Great Wave, among other natural subjects. When I was looking through the book that Thamara sent, there were so many prints that appealed to me, but this one in particular stood out. I love winter scenes: of seeing how cold moments are depicted, and how colour is used to depict them.

Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Boat Bridge print features a bridge that spans across the left centre of the print. When I first looked at the print, I was focused on the surface of the bridge. But, then I wondered: how is this bridge, which looks relatively shallow, constructed? Looking closer, I realised the bridge was supported by boats floating in the water. Rope lines both sides of the bridge, a bridge strong enough to support both people and a horse who are traversing its path.

On the right of the print, a tree towers over the scene. From the perspective where the work was set, the tree is just as tall as the mountain in the background. The power of Nature was a theme in Hokusai’s work. The Great Wave showed a wave towering over both people and Mount Fuji. In comparison, the near-barren tree in this print is relatively peaceful. The mountain in the background, however, towers over the print. Of note, the tree is bending to the left, toward the bridge. Viewing this print, I do feel a bit of unease, from both imaging the way the bridge must sway when it is walked on, and the way the tree leans.

With that said, much of my attention is drawn to the colour of the print: white snow dominates the landscape, covering the mountains and hills in the background. Shades of blue, which are rendered using Prussian blue, a European pigment that was available in Japan from the 1820s onwards, appear throughout the middle of the print, the water darker at the bottom left of the print and lighter toward the top and on the right of the print. Studying the water, I see that the water around the bridge is turbulent, adding again to the sense of unease that this snowy scene depicts.

Indeed, it seems the more I think about this print, the more I see both movement and precariousness. I remember many snowy scenes evoking a peaceful mindset in me – the stillness of winter being what I remember. This print feels more alive: people are moving, the water is moving, the clouds are moving, the bridge is moving. It is even making me think back to Western snowy paintings I have seen and how there are often people moving too. It is amazing how one artwork can transform how I think of others.

Although there are only a few people in the print, I do feel like there is a sense of community: people are moving in the same direction, together, through the snowy landscape; dots of black and grey appear to denote footsteps where people have been walking. Each footstep is a sign of movement, too.

Despite how community comes through in this print (this print really does make me ebb back and forth, almost like the water itself is moving back and forth), I am curious about the two hats in the bottom foreground, which I assume represent people, distanced and obscured. We don’t see their faces. Now that I look more, I realise we don’t see anyone’s faces in the painting. I do wonder what the people in the bottom foreground are doing; they are more hidden than most.

There are two more parts of this print I want to point out. First, the clouds are different from any I have seen in Western art. The clouds look both heavy and light at once: heavy in that, on the left of the print, they are taking up a fair bit of space; light in that it looks like they are moving through the countryside. Second, the trees and shrubs are painted in blue. This makes the work feel somewhat surreal. Although, the blue does complement the white well, creating a beautiful effect.

I haven’t studied Eastern art to any great extent, beyond a short study of Van Gogh’s Bridge in the Rain (After Hiroshige), a painting based on Utagawa Hiroshige’s Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake. Browsing through the book that Thamara sent me, I found so many paintings that make me want to learn much more about Japanese art: Hokusai’s Yōrō Waterfall in Mino Province, Hiroshige’s Night View of Matsuchiyama and the San’ya Canal, and more. I’m looking forward to spending more time with this book. Browsing through the book for an hour or so, I already ended up with four bookmarks.

ALT

My left hand holding up the "Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai & Hiroshige" book in front of a white background. There are three bookmarks in the book, marking pages I want to revisit. Two of the bookmarks are proper bookmarks. The third is an envelope I had lying around.

For more background on Hokusai and Hirsohige, Thamara’s post written after seeing the Japanese prints exhibition at the Whitworth is worth a read.

Thamara Thamara’s post written after seeing the Japanese prints exhibition at the Whitworth You can read Thamara's post on his website Old Picture of the Boat Bridge at Sano, Kozuke Province (1830) The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The New Patrol (Liam Scott #2) - Kev Quirk

2026-08-29T21:13:00.000Z

The New Patrol (Liam Scott #2)

Author: Andy McNab
Genre: Military Fiction
Released: 2014
Rating: ★★★☆☆

KNOW YOUR ENEMY.

Liam Scott is back in Afghanistan, this time with 4 Rifles. No longer the new guy, it's his chance to prove himself and take the lead. But the warzone has changed dramatically, and so have the rules.

Working alongside the Afghan National Army, Liam and his new patrol face daily attacks from Taliban insurgents. But the real threat seems to be coming from within his unit.

It looks like there's a traitor in their midst.

Learn more on Goodreads ➡

This is the second book in the trilogy, after reading the first book to my oldest son, he wanted to continue and read this one.

As a veteran myself, parts of this book were close the the bone. I found myself having to take a moment to compose myself a few times, but it's a good read. In hindsight, it's probably too mature and graphic for him, but we're commited now, so we will continue.

We're planning to start the 3rd and final book soon.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️

You can reply to this post by email, or leave a comment.

Note published on August 29, 2026 at 2:27 PM UTC - Molly White's activity feed

2026-08-29T14:27:00.000Z

A bit rich for Senator Bernie Moreno — by far the #1 beneficiary of crypto super PAC spending in 2024, now a champion of the industry's legislation — to accuse anyone of caping for special interest super PACs

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