← Home Subscribe Replies Photos About Archive Links On this day Surveillance Capitalism Now Podcasts Games Books Education Technology Tweets Blog recommendations Search Feeds Research Surprise Post Also on Micro.blog

  • I hate Sky anyway and I got a hotel with Sky and basically Sky Arts is the only channel with anything worth watching at all… The Cure live! Which was worth it … for the hotel 😂 !!😬

    → 9:36 PM, Apr 11

  • Flipping heck this is not good! Another loss!! This is called cutting it too fine!!!!

    → 6:45 PM, Apr 11

  • Even Frankenstein has games and comics !

    A video game cassette titled Frankenstein 2000 is displayed with a suggested price of £1.99 and features a futuristic design and bold red text.Five vintage comic book covers of Monster of Frankenstein are displayed in a framed arrangement.A pinball machine themed around Frankenstein is set in a room decorated with similar artwork and posters.A collection of Halloween-themed toys and decorations, including a Frankenstein-themed rubber duck and a horror story box, is displayed on a shelf.

    → 6:14 PM, Apr 11

  • Well @dajb@social.coop / @thoughtshrapnel shared this game with our gaming crew this morning playstarfling.com which is very cool. Simple idea super well executed. I then found Hacker News Arcade! hnarcade.com setting aside time to browse !

    → 1:40 PM, Apr 11

  • Wrath of Khan

    When ed-tech fails to bring about its revolution – as it always does – a couple of things are sure to happen:

    First, teachers get blamed for “doing it wrong.”

    Secondly

    students get blamed for “doing it wrong” – in this case, not asking the chatbot the right kinds of questions.

    Students didn’t want to use Khanmigo (Ai)

    So “now Khanmigo (Ai) is incorporated directly … because ‘students were not seeking out Khanmigo’s help as much as we had hoped.'” Don’t want it? Too bad. It’s part of the curricular infrastructure now, suckers.

    • Audrey Watters
    → 8:01 AM, Apr 11

  • So I decided I am away for a couple of days and I will not take my laptop but iPad… let see if it actually manages to catch up sync with iPhone and mac… it always a nightmare when I haven’t used it in a while…

    → 12:04 AM, Apr 11

  • This flat pack shed build has almost killed me. It’s a good job I could get on the wall and lean on the roof to put in the screws on the very top middle !

    A gray and white shed with a pitched roof is situated in a small back garden, surrounded by wooden fencing and a stone pathway.
    → 8:02 PM, Apr 10

  • If a computer is a bicycle for the mind, then LLMs are like e-bikes. They let a lot of people go distances and tackle hills that they couldn’t before, and they’re better for all of us than cars, but they’re a menace to both pedestrians and traditional cyclists, more harmful to the environment than what they’re replacing, and have given companies yet another way to hollow out local businesses. (Neighborhood restaurants know that cheap delivery services are killing them slowly, but if they don’t play, they’ll just die more quickly.)

    2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com/derailleu…

    → 9:39 AM, Apr 10

  • A nice page of inspirational form pairings - www.fontshare.com/pairs

    → 9:22 AM, Apr 8

  • Wow ok so I guess I should have guessed that with the Artemis II mission the flat earthers would come out of the woodwork but I don’t think I was prepared enough. Also what do they actually care about … how is the shape of the earth of any use when we are destroying it anyway with our emissions…

    → 8:19 PM, Apr 7

  • Teaching a group is hard

    Teaching a group is hard, so there’s a tendency to retreat to what works for individuals. Give everyone flashcards. Give everyone a computer. Every kid has a tutor. Every kid works on the app. This tendency is maybe especially strong in thinking about math facts, since they’re so heavily studied by special education and psychological researchers who tend to think in terms of individual support—the one-on-one intervention or study. The “Science of Learning” has a bias towards individual pedagogy.

    This tendency should be resisted. Teaching a group is most viable when you’re able to teach them as a group. When you treat them as twenty single individuals, each on their own different path, the job also gets twenty times harder. Now, I’m not naive. I understand there are times when the different needs of students are too great for uniform expectations. But I think we’re often too eager to turn a class into a collection of individuals. Instead we can keep class vibrant, interactive, and engaging without asking everyone to retreat to their desks. The collective deserves more respect

    Michael Pershan via Audrey Watters

    → 9:37 AM, Apr 5

  • Updates to Unity 6.4 look nice

    → 4:11 PM, Apr 4

  • The four pot solution to help fix english footballs finances - youtu.be/zUUj-jV_J…

    → 3:48 PM, Apr 4

  • Slowly been adding subscriptions to micro.blog inkwell - don’t want to overload myself but so far I have read more blogs than I have for a while!

    → 9:16 AM, Apr 4

  • In DiY news. Fixed an issue with the conservatory roof possibly blowing off tommorow !

    → 6:42 PM, Apr 3

  • Sarasohn encouraged his disciples to draft a mission statement by invoking a motto from a shipyard in Newport, Rhode Island:

    We shall build good ships here; at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must — but always good ships.

    Apple at 50: The roots of a tech revolution The Financial Times - subscribers only

    → 6:40 PM, Apr 3

  • Why do I often forget how great Maximo Park are. I am pretty sure this is the one gig I messed up and ended up getting a ticket upstairs at Brixton Academy 2007! I love the standing area - seating not so good

    → 3:16 PM, Apr 2

  • I’ve been enjoying Planthood for the last few months I have to say it’s one of the best “ready” to cook meal things I have tried and I have done a lot however for the positioning of the tear strip for the sauces can someone sort that out! It’s always too high !!

    → 3:58 PM, Mar 31

  • Today I asked Claude how to best use Claude Code. This was worth while. I ran out of credits mind while working on a new game project but I feel like I am heading in the right direction, haven’t decided how I will perform a code review yet but I don’t think playdate code can unleash the singularity…

    → 10:15 PM, Mar 30

  • We now have a weekly brown bin collection starting in Southampton. I’m pretty excited to have my food scraps collected. I’ve tried my own compost scenerio and it never worked so this way I can join the mega composter at least. :)

    → 10:13 PM, Mar 30

  • Before the war in Iran

    Doritos maker PepsiCo said it would reduce prices by up to 15 percent … chief executive Ramon Laguarta citing the “stretched” budgets of low- and middle-income consumers.

    Yay because obviously cheap crisps (chips) for low income households is a good thing…

    🤦 the war is going to push up prices on so many things crisps would be low on my priority!

    → 9:48 AM, Mar 30

  • I use Claude to help me code, I see people “vibe” coding which I see as generally fun, interesting and productive. I also see people trying to “vibe” code as step 1 on the journey to learn to code to make stuff and I only see this causing confusion and frustration, I suggest fundementals first.

    → 9:36 AM, Mar 29

  • Before I power up my Rabbit r1 again just need to confirm OpenClaw is not on by default… nope we are all good

    → 8:48 AM, Mar 29

  • Spent today cleaning up my VPS server, patching it and anything to keep archived before deleting, downloaded all my older repos on my self-hosted gitlab and switched that bit off. Next step is seeing if my very good hosting providing can edit / migrate me to a more something affordable from £80pcm!

    → 4:38 PM, Mar 28

  • Over the last few months I have aquired a pet spider, mainly lives in the cooker hood but ventures out a little most days. seems happy

    → 9:27 PM, Mar 27

  • Join us and more  March 26th for the Women in Games Careers Expo: The Future of Work. Get your FREE ticket now! University of Southampton, Winchester School of Art

    LINK

    → 10:41 PM, Mar 25

  • 33 mins in all about AFC Wimbledon, I hear the drive is because we are fan owned. This is what motivates our players (short stay or long term) our staff and our fans to go above and beyond beyond we were pegged by the bookies (idiots) for instant relegation www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/pl…

    → 10:24 PM, Mar 25

  • Changing the Game: Ten Years of Play at Winchester School Of Art

    Winchester School of Art (WSA) will celebrate a decade of games, play, and creative experimentation this June with Changing the Game: Ten Years of Play at WSA, a major alumni-focused exhibition and programme hosted at The Winchester Gallery.

    Running from 4–27 June 2026, the exhibition coincides with the WSA Degree Show and brings together graduates from across ten years of games and play-related practice. The project offers a rare opportunity to see how WSA alumni have continued to shape, challenge, and expand the field of games and interactive work since graduating.

    Alongside the exhibition, the programme is designed as a moment of reconnection — bringing alumni, current students, and staff together to meet, play, and discuss the past, present, and future of games at WSA.

    www.thewinchestergallery.soton.ac.uk/exhibitio…

    → 9:55 PM, Mar 25

  • Finally!

    iOS 26.4 to finally let Family Sharing members use their own payment methods

    This has been a royal pain for us so pleased this has finally been resolved

    Purchase Sharing lets adult members in Family Sharing groups use their own payment method when making purchases, without relying on the family organizer.

    9to5mac.com/2026/03/1…

    → 8:17 AM, Mar 25

  • What a week for the mighty AFC Wimbledon and The Dons Trust - Out in all the places www.sameoldwombles.com/season-4-…

    → 7:43 AM, Mar 25

  • Inkwell for macOS wasnt easy to find… help.micro.blog/t/inkwell… @manton I think you need to surface all your apps much clearer in the interface of micro.blog (web) - I like apps

    → 8:11 PM, Mar 24

  • Using A New Kind of Science to Create a New Kind of Music

    WolframTones uses various Wolfram Language algorithms to form music out of cellular automaton patterns. The most straightforward is to take every block of contiguous black cells at a certain height, and map it to a single note played by the same instrument. Here’s the result for rule 30, starting from a single black cell, played on a piano in C major

    tones.wolfram.com

    → 3:32 PM, Mar 24

  • I feel like Apple have and keep making minor tweaks to the iOS keyboard with each point update, either that or my ability to tap targets accurately is decreasing exponentially!

    → 10:46 AM, Mar 24

  • I’m no fan of social media these days but had a really useful training session with @jamiebgall.co.uk on ways to use the various platforms as part of my work at the University of Southampton, very engaging and made a lot of sense.

    → 1:01 PM, Mar 20

  • Come play some games in Southampton tomorrow in the John Hansard Gallery !

    → 10:23 AM, Mar 20

  • Oh tails I’m sorry we have to put you to sleep tomorrow

    A man with glasses and a yellow scarf poses with a cat standing on a kitchen sink, surrounded by colorful dishes and jars.
    → 7:46 PM, Mar 19

  • A game-making workshop to bring complex systems to life

    Board games offer a powerful teaching tool to deepen understanding of complex dynamics such as climate. This analogue group task fosters the skills of systems thinking: setting boundaries, seeing multiple perspectives and holistic analysis.

    www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/ga…

    → 9:02 AM, Mar 19

  • At the moment I get over 60 emails a day that need my direct attention, it’s slightly mad but I am also excited about all the awesome things the department I lead at the University of Southampton, Art & Media Technology can do thanks mostly in part to the staff and students I work with. 🤖🎨

    → 9:00 PM, Mar 14

  • “It doesn’t feel safe”—Many international game developers plan to skip GDC in US

    • dctr.pro/2qu

    When I travelled to GDC in 2023 I was nervous about this and got a grilling at border control because I wasn’t leaving straight after the conference ended, so I can only imagine now feeling even worse. At work I have made it clear I would not personally be happy to travel to the USA at the moment.

    → 11:32 PM, Mar 10

  • As part of international fans weekend Dons legend Oyvind Leonhardsen arrived for a special event Friday evening - “Finishing 8th and reaching two semi finals was an amazing achievement. The biggest achievement was the supporters bringing the club home.”

    → 11:53 AM, Mar 7

  • Ha now I know why my newsletter is being missed because I didn’t post anything during those weeks! Wow too busy for my own blog is bad times indeed !

    → 11:37 AM, Mar 1

  • Uber don’t try and guess my location just use my last home location. I am not trying to work out how/ who to contact. I only deal with this app due to train discount. Gah I hate dealing with devil

    → 8:39 PM, Feb 21

  • Expecting to get a thrashing but winning 3-1 is a great day out at the lane. COYD

    → 6:38 PM, Feb 21

  • One of our Alexa’s had a melt down and now it will only connect to my Apple Music. Not happy

    → 4:09 PM, Feb 15

  • Probably my fav picture of my wife and her late Dad. Don’t tell her :)

    A framed photograph of two people, one wearing a flat cap and glasses, and the other smiling beside them.
    → 4:09 PM, Feb 15

  • Strange @help not seen the email copy of my newsletter today normally get it at 9am an hour before it goes out at 10am and can’t see it when I log into blog to edit only up to last weeks

    Have this error maybe unrelated Feed: Unknown exception OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError 2026-02-15 09:25:26

    → 9:41 AM, Feb 15

  • Sky Sports does not care about football fans

    AFC Wimbledon each year runs WorldWide Wombles Weekend a special international celebration hosted by The Dons Trust, supported by Wimbledon in Sporting History (WiSH) and the Wimbledon Old Players Association (WOPA)

    Plans for this year were made and communicated 5 months ago for the fixture against Northampton on Saturday 7 March, 3pm, fans from around the world have been booking to come to this game.

    This week Sky Sports requested the game to be moved to Sunday 8th March 12pm, so it can be broadcast on TV. AFC Wimbledon requested that the game not be moved due to these plans but this request has been refused.

    This fixture is also earmarked as the club’s Level Playing Field Unite for Access fixture, as well as a celebration of International Women’s Day with our annual Women at the Game lead by the Foundation.

    Even for myself travelling from Southampton for a 12pm kick off is no fun on a Saturday when moved for TV and it’s made worse on a Sunday.

    That weekend there are no premium league games so I guess Sky are just trying to fill their schedule with any football they can find.

    This is such an outrageous move by Sky Sports and the EFL to refuse to listen to our club request.

    My distaste for Sky is not new but this, this takes the biscuit.

    → 9:08 AM, Feb 6

  • I am connected to the Internet!! I need to find out how to backup / export my checkin’s from Swarm asap hopefully it is just a glitch! I have been using it so much since covid and then the app changed and I have issues with my VPN when out and about blocking it but I don’t want to lose my data!

    A sad face icon is displayed with a message reading, It looks like you're not connected to the internet. Check your connection and try again.
    → 8:43 AM, Feb 6

  • Sold out :) RailBreak at Bitterne Train station Wednesday 4th Feb from 17:00

    Information about RailBreak, a collaborative installation exploring Britain's railway system through play, featuring a public debut and sold-out music set tickets.
    → 10:24 PM, Feb 3

  • City of Heros - Billy Bragg - music.apple.com/gb/album/…

    → 4:13 PM, Jan 31

  • Rosie in a bag! 🐱

    A cat is curled up inside a colorful shopping bag placed on top of a stack of household items.
    → 1:50 AM, Jan 31

  • wow! I just had to switch to light mode as Apple Creator Studio auth for education sign up is broken in dark mode… and It still strugglng to verify me but wow light mode on macOS Tahoe is even worse than dark mode !

    → 3:45 PM, Jan 30

  • I subscribe

    Several newspapers and magazines are scattered on a carpeted floor, including The Guardian and Private Eye.
    → 10:25 PM, Jan 27

  • Weekend of moving the family has wiped me and Monty out 🐶

    A dog is sleeping on a couch surrounded by sports jerseys and other miscellaneous items.
    → 10:59 PM, Jan 25

  • All the 26 updates are terrible in so many ways on Mac and iOS / iPad

    → 7:15 PM, Jan 25

  • I have yet to use this as I only just found out we have it … blending

    A Silver Crest multifunction blender with a control panel featuring speed settings and two black dials.
    → 7:57 PM, Jan 24

  • Went and played a whole lot of pinball in Salisbury this evening

    A pinball machine display shows a score of 5,631,100 with the text FREE PLAY and includes comic-style illustrations of seven characters.A brightly illuminated vintage pinball machine is flanked by two darker-themed pinball machines in an arcade setting.Several classic pinball machines are lined up, with the central one prominently featuring a vibrant Nitro Ground Shaker design.A person stands next to two pinball machines, one themed after Doctor Who.A row of vintage pinball machines is set up against a wall in an arcade.Two people are playing on pinball machines at an arcade, with one machine displaying a GETAWAY theme.

    → 11:06 PM, Jan 23

  • Weekend ruined 99 mins

    Wimbledon lost 0-1 to Doncaster with a goal from Bailey in stoppage time, while J. Lewis received a red card.
    → 7:31 PM, Jan 17

  • I love King Creosote amazing voice
    [odesli.com/m…](https://odesli.com/https://music.apple.com/gb/album/new-land-immunity/1860950215?i=1860950232) And this documentary sounds amazing

    → 1:23 PM, Jan 17

  • Rosie is old and attached to me and being up high 🐱

    Photo of Adam wearing glasses and a checkered shirt while Rosie cat sits on his shoulder in a kitchen setting.
    → 10:47 PM, Jan 13

  • This is what happens when you have a wife of the late 70s and 80s and has some form of undiagnosed ADHD.. let just say this is only a small group of the collection.

    Several boxes of Imperial Leather soap are stacked in a display cabinet.
    → 7:50 PM, Jan 10

  • Head of Department - Art and Media Technology

    After a competitive internal process in Nov/December I can now excitedly confirm I have been appointed as the new Head of the Department for Art & Media Technology at Winchester School of Art for an initial term of 3 years from Jan. This means I will be looking after staff and students across Fine Art, Games Design, Game Art, Creative Computing, Creative Technologies, Digital Media, Contemporary Curating and Arts and Cultural Leadership. I can’t wait to drive forward all the excellent research, education and civic engagement we have been undertaking already.

    It will mean a very busy semester 2 for me as my games work with year 3 and our 10 year alumni show “Changing the Game” will still continue as we make more adjustments in the summer to support my new leadership role.

    However even after that my main education practice will still be in games and digital practices and so I look forward to being based in our new Capital House campus in Winchester on the games studio floor working with the games students each week.

    If you would like to know more about the department follow this link - www.southampton.ac.uk/about/fac…

    → 6:38 PM, Jan 10

  • Why are more gamers than ever playing the 2000s classic RuneScape? - BBC

    → 6:14 PM, Jan 10

  • It’s the process not the product

    Peter Gabriel - Been Undone

    youtu.be/iqKKOtfC2…

    → 10:20 PM, Jan 4

  • Board games for the holidays (or anytime!)

    Before the break I was contacted by our Press team as The Conversation were after someone to write about board games for the holidays. They had some categories they wanted the games to fit under so I said yes and consulted the games team.

    The Conversation said they had a lot of interest - of course they are contacting a number of institutes and could I let them know the games we picked. We did. I never heard from them again and it appears this was the contact/article they went with - theconversation.com/an-expert…

    I ended up buying Heat: Pedal to the Metal and played it with the family over the holidays—it’s really good.

    However, I wanted to share the games we pitched with summaries based on their categories:

    Love Letter - A TRAVEL FOR GAME

    Love Letter is a compact travel companion, fitting easily into a bag or pocket. With just a small number of cards and a handful of tokens, this deduction game packs surprising depth into a tiny package. With a number of franchise themes you can pick your own family genre. Set up and play in minutes - www.zmangames.com/game/love…

    Sushi GO! - A QUICK GAME

    Sushi GO! delivers fast-paced card-drafting fun in 15-20 minutes. Simple rules, simultaneous card selection, and no downtime between turns make it perfect for squeezing in multiple quick rounds - www.hobbycraft.co.uk/sushi-go-…

    Codenames - EASY TO RETURN TO

    Codenames is brilliantly accessible for players who haven’t touched a board game in years. Giving and guessing word clues feels familiar with no complex rules, making it effortless for mixed groups and casual players - www.czechgames.com/news/code…

    Wilmot’s Warehouse - FUN FOR ALL THE FAMILY

    Wilmot’s Warehouse brings families together with charming cooperative puzzle-solving. Players organize and retrieve items from a chaotic warehouse, encouraging communication without competitive tension. Quirky humor and simple mechanics engage different ages and skill levels - wilmotswarehouse.com

    Daybreak - GAME FOR THE BOARD GAME EXPERT FAMILY

    Daybreak offers rich, strategic depth that enthusiasts crave. This cooperative climate crisis game features interconnected systems and meaningful decisions requiring careful co-operation. It provides satisfying complexity and replayability for families who enjoy sinking their teeth into a game - daybreakgame.org

    And if you want even more recommendations check out this Guardian article - Plus FYI www.theguardian.com/lifeandst…

    → 2:28 PM, Jan 3

  • Work hard & save no longer works

    Recently @dajbelshaw@mastodon.social posted about the fact we cannot apply the “old” model for a “successful” life:

    work hard, save patiently and climb the career ladder, max out your pension

    It’s a depressingly accurate article and one I agree with. He also connects this to the issue of starting a career with university debt, which compounds the problem. Starting a career with £27,750 of graduate debt is far from ideal, and the current economic climate makes this burden even more problematic.

    However, this raises a deeper question about the reductive argument that university education should command higher future wages.

    I believe education should be free, with the state and universities funding study through to PhD level. At Winchester School of Art, we’ve taken a small step in this direction by introducing scholarships (from 24/25) that reduce fees for home students pursuing master’s programmes.

    A well-educated society is vital—though universities aren’t the only institutions that can provide this education. The recent introduction of V-Levels (planned for September 2027) is a case in point. While these new vocational qualifications aim to simplify the post-16 landscape by replacing around 900 existing qualifications including BTECs, they exemplify a concerning trend: education increasingly designed around “real-world job standards” and employer-led outcomes. For creative disciplines, this creates particular challenges. BTECs have been a successful pathway into creative higher education precisely because they allowed for exploration and development rather than narrow technical training. Their replacement with qualifications explicitly framed around immediate employability risks diminishing the very qualities that make creative education transformative.

    This brings me to my central concern: we must challenge the reductive framing that has taken hold—the idea that university education is purely an economic transaction where students pay fees in exchange for highly paid jobs. This transactional mindset has dominated since the introduction of fees and the subsequent push for mass university attendance. The declining graduate premium only exposes the hollowness of this framing: if the financial return is diminishing, the transactional model collapses entirely.

    Education should be transformative, not merely transactional. When we reduce it to a financial exchange—or worse, to a skills pipeline for industry—we diminish both its intrinsic value and its broader social purpose. A well-educated society needs critical thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and people who can engage meaningfully with complex ideas, not just workers trained to meet current employer demands.

    → 10:19 AM, Jan 3

  • What does a board game tell us about the new age of climate overshoot?

    Medium Article by @baddeo.bsky.social

    → 9:31 AM, Jan 3

  • The mental models society has used to advise young people – work hard, save patiently, climb the career ladder, max out your pension – assume structural conditions that no longer exist.

    blog.dougbelshaw.com/outdated-…

    As ever @thoughtshrapnel @dajbelshaw@mastodon.social makes a great case, we slightly disagree on the value of university education (even in 2026) but go read and then I may rebuttal a little

    → 3:14 PM, Jan 2
  • RSS
  • JSON Feed
  • Micro.blog
All content on this site, unless otherwise stated, is released under creative commons attribution 1.0 england & wales.