Shellsharks Blogroll - BlogFlock

Taylor Swift Moshpit - The Weblog of fLaMEd

2026-08-02T19:42:36.000Z

What’s going on, Internet? Love Story is my favourite Taylor Swift song, I’m defintely a sucker for her earlier stuff. I’m an Offspring fan too, so this cover they performed at the recent Hellfest (never heard of it tbh) is pretty much made for me.

I know James is a big Swift fan, I wonder if he’d also appreciate this?

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August - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-02T00:00:00.000Z

The sun shines through the silvery sky. I look up and around to see where blue might peek through the blanket that covers the sky. There is one space where I can see shades of blue through the silver. I think about how the sky invites me to look up, and then around: to be curious. What can I see today? I do this in all seasons and skies. On the warmest summer days, my eyes focus on the contrast between the green hills and the blue skies. On the coolest, clearest winter days, where the beauty of the clear sky warms the heart despite the cold, I search to see if I can spot a cloud. What can I see today?

A welcome cool air has been blowing over the last few days; the breeze has characterised my walks, the way it blows on my cheeks with every step and gust. I think about how much of walking is not only about what I see, but about what I feel: the temperature, the feeling of putting one step in front of another, the thoughts I have that make me smile or sing or curious or inquisitive; the feeling of joy from seeing and hearing animals – rabbits sitting still on open planes of grass, the calls of pigeons – and how they remind me I am one small part of the community that lives here.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

My morning was warmed by a message from a friend, a video that shared a fusion of musical styles I didn’t expect to find myself listening to. I thought about how much I love sending messages to people of things they find interesting, and how much I enjoy receiving them, too; tiny gifts that brighten a moment.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Sitting here hours later under the silvery sky of evening, I think back to the morning – the cool breeze under the shade of fully-grown trees, the warm sun, the music – and smile. And I look around to evening, and how the green tees look compared to the white sky above; how the clouds look lighter than light. I look forward to whether I will hear the call of a pigeon this evening – Oh! one just started to call! – and what colour the sunset will be. The amber of yesterday? Or the gold of today?

Miley Cyrus, what's going on? - The Weblog of fLaMEd

2026-08-01T21:35:29.000Z

What’s going on, Internet? I jumped on YouTube and found six new Miley Cyrus videos sitting there waiting for me. Six of them. Was this the rollout of a new album? Why hadn’t I heard about this already?

It wasn’t. They’re just videos for Something Beautiful, last year’s record, and they’re the last pieces of the pop opera film that went with it. I caught the film when it came out last year in the theatre but never came back to the album.

These were all released 17 hours ago, when were they made? Is she just emptying the vault before a new rollout?

Let’s have a quick surf around the web to see what’s going on.

She’s had a big week, is what’s going on. On the 27th she guest edited Wonderland’s summer issue. Next day she signed to Atlantic. Columbia’s done after Endless Summer Vacation and Something Beautiful. Four days after that, six videos.

Turns out it’s just a clear out. Everything left over gets dumped on YouTube.

The next one will be her tenth. Something Beautiful was an experimental album, will the tenth be similar? Who knows. She’s never really made the same record twice. Good for her, but it’s also why I keep going back to my favourites.

Not the new album I got excited about, then. Here are the six new videos.

Something Beautiful never lived up to Plastic Hearts for me, and I kinda just want more of that, but I doubt it. Either way, I’m here for the next era.

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Open Tabs July 2026 - The Weblog of fLaMEd

2026-08-01T19:36:28.000Z

What’s going on, Internet? If you don’t folllow my Bookmarks through the feed, then here’s the bookmarks from July. Enjoy.

Rant about blogs and the IndieWeb - Dom Corriveau Okay, this one had me in tears. Such a good read.
Your Metablogging is Lame as Hell – Absurd Pirate’s Internet Blog Lol, kinda nodding my head here. Blogging about Bear Blog blogs is becoming a bit of a thing, isn’t it?
don’t let Web nostalgia obscure a positive Web future This has always been something I’m an advocate for. Draw inspiration from the 90s/2000s web, but don’t rely on old and outdated hacks. Take advantage of the capabilities we have today, but don’t go overboard with modern bloat.
Pseudonym as an escape I’ve written about this previously. The pseudonym isn’t hiding; it’s breathing room. Been enjoying not being my IRL name online since 96.
Websites Are Not Going to Die If Google stops linking to websites, it stops being a search engine. Another good reminder to keep the personal website going while corp search eats itself.
The Web Won Because It Got Easier Worth a read for anyone pushing the indie web. Knowing how it all works doesn’t make it easy for the next person.
Netizen Contributing to the internet for the good of it, not for profit. Now I’m wondering what my netizen contributions will be…
The Music Discovery Problem Music discovery takes intentional effort once the algorithm’s gone, and that’s fine. I should write up and document my discovery process.
We need a physical digital music experience Olly’s model already exists in the audiobook world. Libro.fm sends a slice of my audiobook purchases to my local (physical) bookstore.
Hardcore IndieWeb: Run your own website 100% independently for only $0.01/day Great read.
The Overthinkers Guide to rekindle your Blogging Mojo Maybe some inspiration for some of you to start writing again. Sometimes I just cbf writing, lol
List of things I love seeing in personal webspaces A non-exhaustive list of things Folkmoss love seeing in blogs/personal websites.
What should a personal website be? Ratfactor asks about what a website should be. A reflection of yourself, not some idea of what a website is meant to be.
Kevin Boone: Why Idon’t really care if web content is AI-generated Kevin Boone talks about how scepticism should apply to everything online, not just the AI-generated stuff. Trust the source you know, not the medium. It feels like people forget how crap search results have been since 2008 with the rise of “SEO Spam”. Humans have been shit long before AI.
Dirty Little Zine — Free 8-Page Printable Zine Maker Super cool little tool that will help you create simple 8-page zines
What We Lost When We Quit Using Crappy Old Web Forums A fantastic read about forum software all the way from Usenet to Discourse, which is where we ended up at the 32-Bit Cafe, same as every other forum these days. RIP phpBB.
#11: fLaMEd Fury (flamedfury.com) - Wonders of Web Weaving So, I did a podcast. James had me on his podcast to talk about my corner of the web. We got into gaming and TV communities, music, and why the indie web is worth it.

For more, check out the bookmarks archive, and subscribe to the feeds if you want these as they happen.

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My next experiment - Werd I/O

2026-08-01T17:36:11.000Z

On Thursday, I left my role as Senior Director of Technology at ProPublica, where I led IT, Security, and Engineering. In September, I will begin my John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. Which means that, during August, I will move with my family back to the San Francisco Bay Area and be based in the vicinity of the Stanford campus.

What can you expect from me?

In August, my writing will likely be more sporadic. From September, I expect to spend more time documenting my research, opening conversations, and being intentional about pushing forward the ideas I’ve always held space for.

My thesis is that community — and open community protocols and platforms — can help build trust, loyalty, and resilience in news. I laid out some of those ideas in The Community-First Software Era. But I’m going into it with an ethos of intentional serendipity, armed with everything I’ve learned about leadership, technology, journalism, and entrepreneurship. I’ll also be armed with everything I will learn with Stanford as a platform. I can’t predict what I’ll emerge with — but I can commit to taking you along with me.

Where else can you find me?

I’m going to endeavor to stick close to Stanford over the next year. I’ve also decided that I won’t get on a plane for the rest of 2026, partially as a challenge to myself and partially as a reaction to some really bad flights earlier this year.

But I’m making an exception for the News Product Alliance Summit in Chicago from October 21-23. Last year I found it to be the most substantive conference about news product and technology I’d been to. I was lucky enough to present two sessions and loved the experience. So I’m back, with Joe Germuska, to talk about how newsrooms can benefit from open technology and protocols:

Proprietary social media platforms have inserted themselves between newsrooms and the things journalism needs to survive: engagement, trust, and revenue. As AI creates new layers of intermediation and puts newsrooms at further risk, building direct relationships with your own audiences has never been more urgent.

Drawing from our combined experience building technology for newsrooms, we'll make the case for open protocols — shared, interoperable technologies no single company controls — as the foundation for a healthier news ecosystem. We'll explore how building on open infrastructure, rather than proprietary platforms, helps publishers reach more people, deepen engagement, and control their own destinies, without losing out on user experience or adding complexity.

I’m hoping to put on more events in California through Stanford, so watch this space.

Can we chat?

This work can’t be done in a vacuum. I want to learn and build alongside people who are doing great work, led by important values.

If anything I’ve spoken about above — or anything I write in this space — resonates with you, I’d love to chat. In September I’ll resume my Open Office Hours and will be available both to chat online and over a coffee for folks who might be in the Bay Area.

A note about ProPublica

I truly loved my time leading tech at ProPublica. The phrase we used internally was that it was never boring: there was always something happening. It was sometimes exhilarating, sometimes frustrating, but it was always done with a community of really great human beings working together towards the most meaningful mission of my career.

That mission runs deep throughout the newsroom:

To expose abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.

Some newsrooms report. Some observe and have a view from nowhere. ProPublica exists to spur reform, and its impact showcase demonstrates that it succeeds. Every workplace has things to improve or friction to overcome — they’re all works in progress — but it was hugely motivational to be working alongside these incredible people for this incredible reason.

The day after I left, the ProPublica Guild ratified its first contract. It was a long, fraught conversation that had been happening almost the entire time I was at the organization. (My timing is impeccable.) I wasn’t a part of the Guild or manager bargaining, but I couldn’t say anything about it while the negotiation was happening for fear of accidentally interfering with the process.

I’m very glad everyone got there: every worker deserves a good union to support them, and the people who work to publish ProPublica’s journalism – across editorial and business teams – certainly deserve a great deal.

I will be cheerleading for ProPublica forever, and I hope to be friends with the people behind it forever. I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of that community. And if you’re looking for a place to financially support that drives real change, there are much worse places to donate.

Mead Recipe - Smoldering Pear & Star Anise Bochet - Cool As Heck

2026-08-01T14:38:00.000Z

Every month I do some research and get inspired by other brewers and mead makers and try to come up with an interesting mead recipe. Here's my idea for August 2026. This doesn't mean I'll be making it this month, but it's going on the list of things to try, and features some new methods like caramelizing the honey and using Voss Kveik yeast.

This recipe is a bochet. If you haven't tried one, it's mead made with honey that's been cooked until it darkens and smells like toasted marshmallow. The heat changes the chemistry. You get unfermentable sugars and Maillard compounds that give you a natural semi-sweet finish without any chemical stabilization. It's one of the few ways to make a mead that doesn't need sulfites or sorbate to stay sweet.

This batch pairs that caramelized base with dried pear and star anise. The yeast is Voss Kveik, which I keep wanting to try because it ferments hot and fast without producing fusel alcohols. At 86°F it throws off bright orange esters that cut through the richness of the caramel. The dried pear goes in during secondary; fresh pear is mostly water and dilutes the flavor, but dried pear rehydrated in the mead itself gives you a concentrated, honeyed fruit note.

Star anise is the risky one. Two pods, lightly crushed, and you have to taste every three days starting at day seven. It goes from subtle to medicinal fast, and it keeps building in the bottle. I'd rather under-spice and add more next time than overdo it and dump the batch. It can get out of control fast.

The full process is below. Fair warning: caramelizing honey can be the most dangerous thing you'll do in meadmaking. It foams to three or four times its volume and holds heat like napalm. Use a pot at least six quarts, wear long sleeves, and add water drop by drop at first or it seizes into hard candy.

---

Ingredients (1 gallon)

Wildflower honey 3.0 lbs Raw, not buckwheat

Spring water ~0.8 gal Top up to 1 gallon total

Voss Kveik yeast 3 g Lallemand LalBrew Voss

Go-Ferm 3.75 g Rehydration nutrient

Fermaid O 4.0 g total 4 doses, TOSNA schedule

Dried Bosc pears 4 halves Unsulfured

Star anise 2 pods Lightly crushed

Black tea 1 cup Steeped 5 min, cooled

French oak cubes 7 g Medium toast, optional

Process

Caramelize the honey. Cook 3 lbs honey in a 6+ quart pot over medium heat, stirring constantly. It'll foam violently, then subside. Keep going 45–55 minutes until it's deep mahogany and smells like toasted marshmallow and dark caramel. Remove from heat, cool to 180°F, then trickle in 1 cup warm water drop by drop. Add a second cup once it's incorporated.

Build the must. Combine the caramelized honey, 1 cup cooled black tea, and enough spring water to hit 1 gallon. Shake for 2 minutes to aerate. Check OG — you want ~1.112. Temperature should be 85–90°F.

Pitch the yeast. Rehydrate 3 g Voss Kveik with 3.75 g Go-Ferm in 50 mL water at 104°F for 15 minutes. Pitch into the warm must, seal with an airlock, and hold at 85–95°F.

This one is daunting but very interesting and could be a great learning opportunity. I'm excited to try this out, but it might have to wait for next summer.

📝 2026-08-01 15:28: Our new addition to the family, Nelly, has arrived and she's causing havoc already. 🤣 - Kev Quirk

2026-08-01T14:28:00.000Z

Our new addition to the family, Nelly, has arrived and she's causing havoc already. 🤣

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📝 2026-08-01 13:46: Signed up for a Vinted account. My options to "secure my account" were adding a... - Kev Quirk

2026-08-01T12:46:00.000Z

Signed up for a Vinted account. My options to "secure my account" were adding a phone number, or to logout.

I fucking hate this side of the internet. Scumbags.

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Gadget Review: HIKMICRO D02 Thermal Camera ★★★★★ - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-01T11:34:43.000Z

The good folks at Hikmicro have sent me their D02 Infrared Camera to review. It's part of their "Eco" series of thermal imagers - designed to be easy to use around the home and relatively cheap.

Despite the no-fills appearance, it packs in a lot of features which put some more expensive models to shame. It even works with Linux. Shove in a USB-C cable to grab the photos or even use it as a webcam.

All the images you see in this post are unaltered. I haven't optimised them or stripped the metadata; what you see is what you get.

Let's go!

Specs and Pictures

Infrared cameras usually have tiny sensors - the D02 is no different, you get 96x96 pixels of thermal information upscaled to 240x240.

Where the D02 shines is that it also has an optical camera just below the thermal sensor. This allows the camera to combine both the thermal and optical images into one "fusion" image.

Here's an example of the thermal image:

The optical image has a higher resolution - 480x640:

It isn't the highest quality lens in the world, but more than adequate for seeing what's going on.

Once fused, the image looks like this:

With the two images overlayed, you get a reasonably clear photo. The visual shows a good amount of detail and the thermal image shows what's hot.

It mostly works. If you're pointing at something very close to the sensor then you'll end up with a slightly surreal image like this which show the two out of alignment.

Storage is limited to around 2.5GB with no SD card slot. But given that photos are typically less than 150KB, you'll fit tens of thousands on there before worrying about running out of space.

Videos

Videos are a bit bigger, about 12MB per minute in MP4 format. But, again, you'll be able to store a couple of hours of footage on there without worry.

Again, 240x240 upscaled. Good enough for domestic use. No audio. What you see is what you get.

EXIF

There's not much useful EXIF - just the timestamp and camera serial number. That said, all the images and videos are placed in the DCIM folder which should make importing them easier.

Some other cameras provide the "raw" thermal data separately - but that's only really useful if you're doing analysis on the data, rather than trying to spot hot / cold spots.

Features

There are a few other nifty features. You can set a schedule to allow it to take pictures periodically - handy if you use the tripod attachment point to place it in a static location.

You can change the type of thermal image taken - there are various palettes available depending on what you're interested in.

There are various emissivity profiles depending on what you're pointing at:

You can also fiddle with the distance setting depending on how close you are to the subject. There's also an alarm setting to warn you if something is too hot or too cold.

Finally, you can view back the images and videos on the device. Handy if you can't get to a computer and want to show someone what you've spotted.

User Interface

There's a trigger. Press it once to take a photo. Hold it down to start / stop recording. Pretty much idiot proof.

The rest is a bit flimsy. A combined power / select button, a back button, then up & down arrows. The arrows confused me for a while. Press the up one to change the type of photo you're taking, the down one changes the colour scheme.

There's no touch-screen, haptic feedback, speaker, or anything expensive like that.

Linux and Open Source

Works fine as a storage device on Linux, showing up as 0525:a4a5 "Netchip Technology, Inc. Linux-USB File-backed Storage Gadget". True to its word, it shows up as a standard disk.

Most hardware manufacturers from China ignore their Open Source obligations - but not HIKMICRO. There's a rather prominent menu item in the settings screen which lets you scroll through an almost endless parade of software names and their licences. A bonus star for that!

You can also turn on diagnostic logging - that'll slowly fill the disk with log files:

[07-21 14:47:40][pid:477][tid:642][GUI][ERROR][minigui_lcd_dsp_update][line:1393] KEY_OK_MSG minigui_lcd_dsp_update GUI_TM_DATA_CAPTURE...

Probably not overly useful unless you've got a problem.

Webcam

On plugging in the camera via USB-C, the screen gives a choice of "USB Drive" or "USB Cast Screen". Toggling to the screen option transforms the device into 2bdf:017f a "UVC Camera". In theory, you should be able to use it as a standard WebCam and show others what the D02 is seeing. I couldn't get it to work with Chrome or Firefox directly.

Using qv4l2 I was able to open it as an MJPG stream once I set the resolution to 240x320.

For those of a technical bent, here's what v4l2-ctl showed as the available formats:

ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
    Type: Video Capture

    [0]: 'MJPG' (Motion-JPEG, compressed)
        Size: Discrete 240x320
            Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
        Size: Discrete 320x240
            Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
    [1]: 'YUYV' (YUYV 4:2:2)
        Size: Discrete 640x256
            Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)

Price

Infrared cameras are annoyingly expensive. This one is around £190 - although currently discounted to £170 - which is fairly reasonable.

How much will it save you? Well, it can tell you where your insulation isn't working - or which plugs are about to burst into flames; so a decent investment.

Final Thoughts

I've reviewed a lot of thermal cameras and I think this might be one of my favourites. The fact that it (optionally) captures both the thermal and the optical image makes it great for diagnosing problems because you can easily see what it is you're looking at.

There are enough settings to fiddle around with to keep most tinkerers happy and the image quality is more than good enough for spotting problems in the home. It's well worth buying for your home if you want to check for leaks, insulation gaps, hotspots, and other domestic problems. I'd recommend sharing the cost with your neighbours, or loaning it to a local tool library.

This is lightweight, quick to boot up, has good accuracy, and is (relatively) cheap. Well worth it, in my opinion.

📝 2026-08-01 08:47: Today is the first of August. Where the hell did the first two thirds of... - Kev Quirk

2026-08-01T07:47:00.000Z

Today is the first of August. Where the hell did the first two thirds of 2026 go??? 😵‍💫

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July 2026 Summary - Joel's Log Files

2026-08-01T03:36:54.000Z

July has been left behind, Mexico didn’t make it further in the World Cup, but at least Spain won instead of Argentina. It does seem like the U-20 team is doing pretty well in the CONCACAF Championship though! group leaders and ready for quarter finals.

Back to July, I am rather impressed with the amount of gaming that happened this month! It was really quite a diverse bunch of titles, and movies are not too far behind either, way too many superhero films somehow, and of course, The Odyssey, which was a highlight already, that was truly fantastic cinema.

This month my family and friends also visited, which affected a bit of my schedule, it’s also part of why I watched so many movies, and a TV show too, just to spend time with them and such. it was nice to go out.

Oh, of course, I also stayed home alone during the last week! That was a surprise for the weeknotes but thought I may as well say so here. That would explain how I completed one of the many games featured here, so that was fun.

Podcasts

Into The Aether - I am still up to date on the weekly shenanigans and gaming shared on this podcast. It continues to be super chill and entertaining for me as well.
Trash Taste - Same as the above to be honest! Some fun banter, hot takes, and such.
99% Invisible - This is a very good one, I checked a lot of interesting episodes on their backlog. Very informative and genuinely interesting topics.
Avatar: Braving the Elements - Listened to a couple of great episodes going over two of my favorites in the show, The Blind Bandit and Zuko Alone!
Late Night Linux - Honestly, with so many news in the Linux space going in directions I dislike, I wanted to be somewhat informed about it, returning to this one has been alright.
Wolf 359 - I finally listened to more episodes of this, including some of my all-time favorites that I still remembered from my first listen, though everything around it was fuzzy, great stuff.

Videogames

Completed

Transistor - a predecessor to Hades that features a mix of turn-based/action combat and a sort-of murder mystery/conspiracy story in a cyberpunk future. My review is already written I just need to edit it and add some screenshots for it.
Monument Valley: Forgotten Shores (DLC) - This was a DLC for the original game that features more levels and great art!
Monument Valley II (+ The Lost Forest DLC) - The sequel and the DLC. Featuring new characters to control, sometimes all at once, and a more understandable story, if still obscure, with some new mechanics and great level design. The DLC was actually much more complicated especially the last level, I had to look it up a bit.
Monument Valley III (+ The Garden of Life DLC) - This one had a much more understandable story than the others, and a bigger set of levels to complete. Each puzzle helps you restore and bring more characters to your island/lighthouse, and you can eventually play little levels for each character you bring back too. Overall, it’s much easier than both previous games, but the last level is a true challenge, probably the most complicated of the whole trilogy. A weird change, but a welcome one.
Jabberwocky - A short Game Boy game that became my test subject for RetroAchievements. The story was quite funny and there’s one puzzle too, most of it is walking and dialogue though, but enjoyable nonetheless for 20 minutes or so.
Gris - It seems like I was up for some more artistic videogames as I chose this to play and beat in a couple of days. This was a wonderful platformer. Not a difficult one, but more aesthetic, atmospheric and awe-inspiring than most! My review will be coming soon. I beat this one in a couple days while my family was out!

Ongoing

Astro Boy: Omega Factor - Another one I tested for RetroAchievements and worked out alright! Unfortunately have made a lot of progress on it, so I won’t ever get all of them unless I decide to replay it for some reason, but I won’t. Great little beat’em up though.
Donkey Kong (1994) - This was my ultimate choice for RetroAchievements, and it was truly fantastic, I have progressed all the way up to world 4 now, and every level keeps being simply fantastic. This game is impressive for its time and genuinely a joy to go through so far.
Ys I & II Chronicles - I tested this when I setup PSP PlayTime tracking and it kind of stuck for a bit. This is a classic action RPG and it shows, but it doesn’t seem too hard now that I’ve spent some more time on it, I am interested on revisiting it sometime.
Fire Emblem Awakening - Well, I’ve made a bunch more progress on this game since I started it last month, I’m on chapter 19 and I’ve completed plenty of paralogues as well! The story continues to be great and I am loving the mechanics too, which have turned out to be quite interesting. I still restart a lot though.
Lumines
Slice & Dice

Started

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D - It’s happening! I wrote a bunch about Zelda already, I’m playing along with Syl and having quite a blast with the game itself. I’ve made a lot of progress and got to Jabu Jabu’s Belly, I’m waiting for Syl to catch up with me right now.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - My sister wanted to try this game so I let her borrow my handheld, she got stuck on the first level’s boss. I decided to start a new game myself and have played up to Count Dooku’s boss fight. I love the combat system and the pixel art so far.
Black Rock Shooter - An action RPG shooter, exclusive for the PSP, with an interesting post-apocalyptic story where robots are destroying humanity, until an anime girl showed up!

Movies

Masters of the Universe - This was better than I expected, very self-aware of what it is, way too many jokes about swords though.
Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender - Epic animation, good nostalgia, excellent action and choreography, fine story if a bit rehashed.
The Odyssey - As cinematographic as it gets, it’s Christopher Nolan after all. I really enjoyed it and I am interested on reading it.
Unstoppable - Two blue-collar workers save the day after a train goes out of control.
Megamind - Among the best animated superhero films. Second watch this year somehow.
Yes Day - A pretty cringe family comedy movie but the mom is Electra so that’s cool.
Superman - Great return to form for the character, fun action and emotional moments, humor was mixed for me.
Supergirl - This didn’t stick the landing as well but I liked the ideas and the spacey vibe it had.

TV Shows

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live Action Season 2) - In the end this was mostly decent, but it just didn’t hit as well as the original, it skipped over a lot of important things and I wouldn’t really recommend it unless you really don’t care at all about animation for some reason—that would be quite a shame.

Books

Leviathan Falls - Up to chapter 25. Most of my progress was this week though, I really fell off reading most of the month because of all the gaming I did. However, I decided to read a bit more on my commute which helped me get back on track. This is the last book of The Expanse, and it has actually built up a bunch of stuff I didn’t expect, with many plotlines that will culminate somewhere, and I am still unable to see where, which is great.

Manga

Started

Centuria - Up to chapter 38. This is a dark fantasy shonen manga that features an orphan slave boy who is blessed/cursed by a sea goddess with powers beyond human capacity. After a wreckage, he and a baby girl are the only survivors. On a new continent, he wants to protect her and have a simple life in peace. There’s quite a bit of eldritch horror and other humans with similar abilities, a prophecy that he refuses to accept, and other interesting plot devices. I’ve enjoyed it so far though the artstyle is not exactly awesome.

Ongoing

Uncle from Another World - Up to chapter 27. Returned to this after a few months, it has been a pretty fun fantasy isekai and got me laughing quite a bit! Still has that fan-service problem but it’s whatever.
Blue Lock - Up to chapter 354. Many of the later chapters were setting up the Japan vs England match and they have been a little mixed, I may wait until the whole arc is over before I continue reading!
Kingdom - Up to chapter 873. I’ve only read a couple of these since I want to build up until I have a nice chunk to go through on a single session. This continues to be very epic, you should really read it already.
Spy x Family - Up to chapter 137. Fun stories and slice of life I have no complaints, it brings me joy every single time.

Completed

Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie - I ended up finishing this rom-com at last, and it was really quite good. I enjoyed the dynamic with a couple that was already together from the start and seeing how things developed with the rest of the cast too. It made me happy quite a bit and was a pretty consistent and fun journey. I think it didn’t have anything particularly special, but I rooted for these characters so, it was nice to see how things went.

Music

Top Albums

FTL: Original Soundtrack by Ben Prunty
Time Once Lost by Rozen
Outer Wilds by Andrew Pharlow
Hades by Darren Korb
Plants vs Zombies by Laura Shigihara

Goals

Finishing thoughts: Blaugust begins!

Now that I share this, I didn’t want to forget mentioning, it’s the beginning of Blaugust!

That means I want to post even more often than normal, which should not be too difficult for me as I’ve done this in the past. My posts may get a bit shorter in average, but I do have a couple drafts ready to share this month that will also be quite long…

Make sure to participate and sign up if you haven’t!, it should be pretty fun if you are up for the challenge.

So, well, that’s pretty much it, what about you dear reader? Did you find any of the stuff shared here interesting for you? Or is there something I missed out on? Feel free to tell me!

This is day 6 of #100DaysToOffload

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Countryside; Blaugust - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-01T00:00:00.000Z

With the window open and the breeze flowing through, I hear the calls and songs of birds. A calling pigeon in particular stands out. I love the calls of pigeons in the evening. The sound reminds me of childhood, looking out the window, onto Nature. A flock of birds fly by as the occasional person strolls down the street. While the sun set a little while ago, day is still here.

A gust of wind moves the leaves across a big tree, and then the breeze settles down, and picks up again. I think about the cycles of Nature: a breeze comes, and another. I watch the leaves that seem to dance with the wind; therein, a beautiful rhythm. The songs of other birds come to the fore, ones I don’t recognise but whose music is nevertheless soothing.

My eyes are heavy. The day was busier than normal, occupied with studies and essay writing and time with friends and watching the joy of community pop up around the Blaugust challenge. It got me thinking again about what it means to write on the web. When we write on the web, we can do so in a broader context: as part of the communities we are in. Seeing all the people come around for Blaugust motivated me to write this piece, and to try and participate. With this challenge, we’re all writing together. Whether I will participate often or not, I am unsure, but I do know that, at minimum, I am abundantly excited to read what my friends write.

In the spirit of sharing, while I can’t bring the fresh air of a Scottish countryside to you, I can bring part of what I hear and see; a snippet of time, for you, dear reader. That is this blog post – a little part of the Scottish countryside, as seen through my eyes, on this evening, August 1st.

Mark Temple (Belghast), who started Blaugust, passed away on July 2nd, 2026. I didn't know Mark, but I am sincerely grateful to him for starting a challenge that brings the web together. Projects like Blaugust bring light to the beautiful potential of the web. May he rest in peace.

Mark Temple (Belghast) Blaugust

Linkception - Kev Quirk

2026-07-31T22:05:00.000Z

So many links in one post. I ended up going down all kinds of rabbit holes off the back of this single post (also the second time I've linked to Sal's blog today 🙃).

I discovered Coyote's blog, and Sylvia's. So went ahead and read some of their posts. I was already aware of Brennan's fantastic blog, but it's a great read, so check it out.

Anyway, I completely agree with what Sal, Coyote, Sylvia, and Brennan say in their posts - the backbone of the internet is the hyperlink, so go forth and link out to your fellow bloggers with reckless abandon.

It's what makes the web, the web. 🕸️

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Open-ear earbuds: A comparison - Cool As Heck

2026-07-31T18:51:30.000Z

I've recently been curious about open-ear earbuds since I've been having so many problems with my ears hurting and/or getting infected from wearing earbuds that block the ear canal. I also recently got a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort Ultra 2 over-the-ear headphones, and whatever material their ear cups are made of made my skin break out. 😩 So I had to get some cooling gel, memory foam ear pads for those and they're fine now. But I don't always want to wear those giant cans over my ears.

I ordered both the Nothing Ear (open) 2 and the Soundcore Aeroclip earbuds.

Both are very lightweight and comfortable. As you can see from the images, the Nothing earbuds wrap around the ear while the Soundcore buds sort slide or clip onto the ear. Both have drivers that sit just outside the ear canal and deliver sound directly into your ear without blocking the ear canal.

Both are roughly the same price, around $100 depending on where and when you buy them. The estimated battery life is the same for both, but in practice I got a bit more play time out of the Nothing buds; maybe 30-60 minutes more. I also have no complaints about the charging case for either one; both provide up to nearly 30 hours of charge for the buds and charge with USB-C.

I think the Soundcore app is a bit better than the Nothing app, with better EQ options.

What this comparison ultimately comes down to is sound quality, which is why I would certainly recommend the Soundcore Aeroclip earbuds over the Nothing Ear open 2 earbuds. They have better bass, better clarity in the highs, and can get louder without getting distorted.

If you have any more questions about these, please shoot me an email or a message on Mastodon!

Notable links: July 31, 2026 - Werd I/O

2026-07-31T13:01:57.000Z

Most Fridays, I share a handful of pieces that caught my eye at the intersection of technology, media, and society.

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Leaders are Leverage

I’ve often shared Corey Ford’s pieces. I find his frameworks and thinking genuinely useful, and he’s been a friend and mentor to me for well over a decade.

This piece outlines his underlying thinking, and why he’s focused where he has:

“When I work with one leader, I'm not working with one person. I'm working with every person on their team, every meeting they'll ever run, every piece of feedback they'll ever give, every subculture they'll ever build. A leader is not a single node in an organization. A leader is a multiplier. Change how one leader leads, and you change what work feels like for everyone around them, and everyone around the people they develop, for years.”

It’s all about seeding culture. I see a lot of similarities in the underlying ideas in Corey’s work and the intention behind culture change manifestos like Emergent Strategy. Change is fractal, bubbling up from one person to affect a whole system.

I was involved in Matter, the accelerator Corey founded, in two ways: first as an entrepreneur, receiving an earlier version of the ideas he continues to teach, and then as a member of the team, helping to deliver them to cohorts of entrepreneurs. It changed my life, and I watched it change the way other participants think about building teams, products, and cultures.

Those ideas are now part of the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia University. If you’re a newsroom leader, I believe you should strongly consider it. And even if you’re not, I recommend that you follow Corey and his work. I guarantee he’ll change your thinking.

Fed up with Big Tech, communities turn to data collectives for control

It’s interesting to contrast the current moment to the “information wants to be free” era of Web 2.0, twenty or so years ago. Back then, everyone was talking about open APIs and open data. Now, it’s become clearer that communities need to control the terms of their data if they’re going to avoid being strip-mined for somebody else’s profit.

“Workers, producers, consumers, and others have been establishing cooperatives and other community-led associations to pool resources, share benefits, and address socioeconomic challenges for centuries. The United Nations marked 2025 as the year of cooperatives, positioning them as “essential solutions to today’s global problems,” kindling renewed interest in data collectives and cooperatives.”

While there’s certainly an argument to be made that communities tend to over-estimate the value of their own data (looking at you, news), some of these datasets may be truly unique in ways that would add value to an AI service or model. As this article points out, collectively-owned data includes creative works in more than 20 African languages that aren’t recognized in mainstream linguistic frameworks.

The danger, of course, is that putting these kinds of gates in front of underrepresented cultures just works to further marginalize them: in that potential future, if everyone’s using a model where those languages are missing, they become irrelevant. But there’s another one where data collectives can pull the levers they have to bring about the world they want to see. That’s exactly what the Nwulite Obodo Open Data License aims to do: data rights holders can negotiate to share their work and cultural heritage without losing their right to benefit from it. (Nwulite Obodo is Igbo for raising, reviving, and building the community.)

In one model, vendors building non-extractive and responsibly trained models for public interest purposes get to use their data for free, but the closed-model big tech vendors have to pay. That’s what Meesum Alam did with voice data for 39 at-risk languages in Pakistan: the communities he worked with determined that the data was free for research and non-commercial purposes, but for-profit tech companies would need to negotiate terms (which Meta did).

That potentially becomes more interesting: either OpenAI et al negotiate to license the data, or they lose functionality to their public interest competitors. There’s also a world where some communities proactively document their cultures and make them available specifically so that models, whoever they’re built by, won’t omit them. Either the world has more equitable AI or the communities financially benefit from their cultural heritage.

Whatever happens, these communities certainly have the right to control their data however they see fit. What vendors do about it is the open question. But initiatives like Mozilla Data Collective make it more possible to have more substantive conversations about how data is provided and used, and that can only be a good thing.

US government targets Cop City protester over phone operating system

This is worth knowing about and is concerning — but not necessarily for the main reason that’s being reported.

The Department of Justice is trying to prosecute Sam Tunick, an Atlanta-based activist, for allegedly using a duress password on his GrapheneOS phone when he crossed the border in January 2025.

“Agent Findley and several others repeatedly asked Tunick to open his phone during the interrogation, telling him they would seize it if he did not. When he finally provided a passcode, “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart”, according to the motion.”

The phone was wiped. According to the Department of Justice, rather than the usual unlock password, the one Tunick had provided was a signal that GrapheneOS should reset the device to factory settings. That’s the core issue: it’s not that he was using GrapheneOS or had set up a duress password, but he was accused of using it to reset his device rather than give his data to law enforcement when asked.

At the point where law enforcement or border protection are asking you for data, it’s your right to refuse a search, but you typically can’t actively destroy it. I’ve always understood that the police can’t compel you to unlock your phone without a warrant, although, unfortunately, Customs and Border Protection has an exemption around the border. If there is a warrant, or if CBP asks you in a border zone, you may still refuse to unlock it, but the device may be seized and held. The trick here, which Tunick’s lawyers are arguing, is that the request was unlawful to begin with.

Because Tunick was a part of Atlanta’s Stop Cop City protests, he had been put on a terrorist watchlist; that fact was circulated just three hours prior. That flagged him for the secondary inspection that led to him being asked to unlock his phone. Protest is protected by the first amendment and a core component of democratic speech; putting protesters on a watchlist designed to protect the public against violent extremism is undemocratic. That’s even more affronting when you consider that the protest was against a police training center: the message it sends is nakedly authoritarian. Finally, and most egregiously, the questioning was about child exploitation imagery, which they had no reason to suspect him of holding. As a result, the search may not have been legal.

While a duress password is a deliberate act of destruction, the better path when crossing the border is to not have data to seize to begin with. Anyone who deals with sensitive information should consider that their phone might be taken at the border. Customs and Border Protection policy even allows agents to clone it, giving them permanent access to your data even after they hand your device back to you. They’re only supposed to do this when there’s a national security concern or reasonable suspicion of a crime — but if activists are being targeted as terrorists, that policy threshold doesn’t feel like a solid protection.

So: log out of your email, calendar, and file sharing before you embark upon your travels. Delete Signal entirely (but back it up). Consider which photos you want to travel with. Don’t travel with a stock phone — that can lead to more questions — but intentionally cut down your information footprint. That way, even if you are stopped, you won’t compromise sources (if you’re a journalist) or your compatriots (if you’re an activist). And you’re not forced to delete data in the moment in a way that could leave you vulnerable.

Left-Handed People Can’t Use a Fountain Pen - Kev Quirk

2026-07-31T09:52:00.000Z

Apparently left-handed people can't use a fountain pen as the left hand smudges the ink as they write. I call bullshit on that. I'm left-handed, and I use a fountain pen just fine - even with an "overhand" grip.

I read this post from Neal Stephenson a few days ago (thanks to Sal for sharing it), where Neal - a professional, left-handed writer who writes his books with a pen and paper - shares some of his experience and advice on writing with a fountain pen.

I've been back using fountain pens for a few months now and it's going great, but as Neal says - it's all about the paper. I use a decent quality notepad for writing my notes, with either a £30 Lamy Safari fountain pen, or a ~£100 Kaweco AL Sport. Both work great and I'm yet to find myself with pen on my hand. Here's an example of me writing in my notebook, using both my Lamy and Kaweco.

As you can see, I have an overhand grip where my hand swipes across the ink as I write, but the ink is dry by the time my hand gets there. Both these pens have a medium nib too.

So if you're left-handed and think you can't use a fountain pen, you can! You just need some decent paper.

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Of Day - James' Coffee Blog

2026-07-31T00:00:00.000Z

I hear the birds singing as I sit by the window and look out on the horizon. I like looking at all the colours of the sky in the moments after sunset, when ambers recede and the sky becomes ever more blue before night time. I hear the sound of my fingers typing on my keyboard, too: nature and words are my evening.

Nature and words are my evening, and so too is music. Moments ago I was playing on the piano, two songs I love but haven’t played in as long as I can remember. And one more song that I play often: one that always makes me feel free to improvise; one where the piano shines through the recording to which I listen while I play; one where I can be an accompaniment to the melody.

A cool breeze comes through the periphery of a window; I had a window open earlier while I played music, hoping that perhaps someone would hear a note or two and feel in wonder. I remember a story a friend told me about how welcomed their music was by a neighbour. I don’t know what it is about music that makes me feel confident: I don’t need to be perfect, as long as I can play a few notes that sound good. (If only, however, my singing voice were better – someone, guide me.)

My week has been full: of tasks and ideas, assignments and readings, writing and chatting. But now, sitting here, I am starting to wind down. I look out the window to see what I can see: the tiny birds dancing around the air (which reminds me that I saw two butterflies dancing together recently; I had to write that down); the sky taking on a new blue as the sun goes even further beyond the horizon; a canvas of green; of trees whose age I will never know and whose beauty grows by the day.

Lattes - James' Coffee Blog

2026-07-31T00:00:00.000Z

I watched the movie "Valentines Day" (2010) for the first time today, which stars, among others, Taylor Swift. The energy in this scene (especially the enthusiastic and excited way in which the words are said, while Taylor carries a huge bear) ¹ fills me with joy:

[call out: "Save the Lattes!"]
Taylor: They're putting lattes in the vending machines? Finally!
Taylor: Robbie, I am so glad you are taking care of this.
Robbie: You got it.
Taylor: And, I like caramel lattes, just FYI.

I am not a fan of caramel lattes, but I do love this scene!

1m06s to 1m18s in the linked video.

[↩]

1 [↩] The energy in this scene

Toot.community is shutting down - Kev Quirk

2026-07-30T15:59:00.000Z

Toot.community is shutting down

by Jorijn Schrijvershof

Sadly, toot.community is shutting down in October. This post talks about why Jorijn has made that decision.

Read post ➡

So much of this post resonated with me and aligned closely with my reasons to step away from Fosstodon. Being a fediverse server admin is a thankless job and as Jorijn says:

I find myself feeling more angry or discouraged after spending time as an admin, and that’s not what I want from social media or a volunteer project.

Over a year on since I stepped away from the Fosstodon team, I'm much happier now, but the experience has tainted my experience of social media. These days I probably visit Fosstodon maybe once per week. Every post I write is written here, on my site, and syndicated over there. I feel this is much better for me personally, as it keeps me away from the latest drama.

When I do go visit the timeline, it's usually fun because it's fleeting. I don't have time to get involved in the latest drama. I go, check notifications, quickly peruse the timeline, and leave. It's a much healthier way of engaging, I think.

More broadly, I think the issue with admin and mod burnout on the fediverse is what will limit it in the long run. It's almost entirely propped up by volunteers, who don't want to be involved with the drama, or be attacked for making a decision you don't agree with. And as a result, servers like toot.community fall by the wayside.

I don't know what the solution is here - I actually don't think there is one. It's a fundamental limitation of the way in which the fediverse is architected and as a result, another great server is gone. 😔

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Change is fractal. It starts with leaders - Werd I/O

2026-07-30T12:15:48.000Z

Link: Leaders Are Leverage, by Corey Ford at Point C

I’ve often shared Corey Ford’s pieces. I find his frameworks and thinking genuinely useful, and he’s been a friend and mentor to me for well over a decade.

This piece outlines his underlying thinking, and why he’s focused where he has:

“When I work with one leader, I'm not working with one person. I'm working with every person on their team, every meeting they'll ever run, every piece of feedback they'll ever give, every subculture they'll ever build. A leader is not a single node in an organization. A leader is a multiplier. Change how one leader leads, and you change what work feels like for everyone around them, and everyone around the people they develop, for years.”