Remember that Hustlechad who announced he’s done a “website heist” by generating SEO spam with AI? Some real Daniel Day Lewis “I drink your milkshake” vibes. | Continue reading
One of the first ever personal websites—long before the word “blog” was a mischievous gleam in Peter’s eye—was Justin Hall’s links.net. Linking was right there in the domain name. I really enjoy sharing links on my website. It feels good to point to something and say, “Hey, check … | Continue reading
The output of generative tools based on large language models gives me the ick. This isn’t a measured logical response. It’s more of an involuntary emotional reaction. I could try to justify my reaction by saying I’m concerned about the exploitation involved in the training data, … | Continue reading
Reading The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. | Continue reading
Wishing I could be in Köln this evening for the premiere of “This Is What I Want To Do”—mein FOMO ist groß! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48YdZrCsafA | Continue reading
Socialising in England usually follows a set pattern. You work during the week. You go out on the weekend. This week I’ve been doing the exact opposite. I’ve been out every weeknight and I plan to stay in all weekend. Monday On Monday Jessica and I took a trip up to London. Dinne … | Continue reading
Thank you to @wienerlibrary@zwezo.o-k-i.net for last night’s screening of The Zone Of Interest with director Jonathan Glazer. | Continue reading
Reading Bridge by Lauren Beukes. | Continue reading
In attempt to improve my Irish language skills, which are currently not very good at all, I’ve started using Duolingo. It’s quite good fun, with the just the right level of challenge so far. Then there’s the gamification. Plenty of encouragement and nudging with prizes and streak … | Continue reading
Saturday night house session | Continue reading
I try to get back to Ireland a few times a year to see my mother. At some point in each trip there’s a social gathering with her friends or family. Inevitably the talk turns to ailments, illnesses, and complaints. I sit there quietly and nod politely. 2023 was the year I joined i … | Continue reading
We have within reach, now, the attainment of almost every dream of mankind. — Gene Roddenberry | Continue reading
Reading The Wager by David Grann. | Continue reading
I posted 947 times on my website in 2023. sparkline That’s a bit less than 2022. March was the busiest month with 98 posts. sparkline August was the quietest month with 57 posts. sparkline That’s probably because I spent a week of that month travelling across the Atlantic ocean o … | Continue reading
As the year draws to a close, I like pressing “play” on my Indy map for 2023: https://adactio.com/archive/2023/map | Continue reading
The opening of my talk Of Time And The Web deals with our collective negativity bias. The general consensus is that the world has become worse. Crime. Inequality. Poverty. Pollution. Most people think these things are heading in the wrong direction. But they’re not. Every year th … | Continue reading
I wrote close to a hundred entries in my journal—or blog—in 2023. Here are some entries I like: Blood — One hundred duck-sized Christs is better than one horse-sized Jesus. Tragedy — Greek tragedies are time-travel stories. Reaction — Weekend action, weekend reaction. Conduct — … | Continue reading
I read 25 books in 2023. That’s exactly the same amount that I read in 2022. 15 of the 25 books were written by women—a bit of a dip from last year. I read a lot more fiction than non-fiction this year. I’m okay with that. There was plenty of sci-fi as usual, but 2023 was also th … | Continue reading
Nollaig shona daoibh, a chairde! | Continue reading
Sunday session in Charlie’s | Continue reading
Reading Extra (Ordinary) People by Joanna Russ. | Continue reading
There’s a langerload of good graffiti in Cork, like. | Continue reading
I was impressed with how Safari now allows you to add websites to the dock: It feels great to have websites that act just like other apps. I like that some of the icons in my dock are native, some are web apps, and I mostly don’t notice the difference. Trys liked it too: For … | Continue reading
If you added a website to the dock from Safari, it used to be that external links opened in your preferred browser. Now external links open in the same “app”. This is not good. Not good at all. Users are trapped. | Continue reading
I’ve written quite a bit about how I’d like to see a declarative version of the Web Share API. My current proposal involves extending the type attribute on the button element to support a value of “share”. Well, maybe a different attribute will end up accomplishing what I want! C … | Continue reading
I was doing some housekeeping on my website recently, tidying up some broken links, that kind of thing. I happened on the transcript and video for the talk I gave two years ago called “Sci-fi and Me.” I really enjoyed preparing and giving that talk. It’s the kind of topic I’d lo … | Continue reading
If you’re planning to come to Patterns Day, but you haven’t got your ticket yet, early-bird pricing ends tonight! Tickets go up by £30 from tomorrow. https://patternsday.com/ | Continue reading
Reading Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. | Continue reading