A new VR headset to play with, and apparently impossible programming problems solved, against a terrible political background of war and atrocity. Me New VR Headset New Meta Quest Headset 1) Install our app! You must install our app on your phone! [RELUCTANTLY INSTALLS APP ON BACKUP PHONE, logs in.] 2) Redirects to the website…
Read more Working with Godot while Gaza kicks off again – October 2023
Loving Godot, but I have a requirement that seems currently difficult to impossible to do: Rendering a 3D Stereoscopic 360 degree view of the scene. Cubemap We can do a monocular projection by fixing six square 90-degree cameras, one for each axis, rending them each into a texture. Then use a shader loaded with those…
Read more Godot – 360 Stereo 3d camera projections
The building-work is basically done and I saw a nice gig. Meanwhile the internet continued to enshitify, and the UK sank further into being a hilarious farce of a country. Me Personal Oh man, I thought the new extractor-fan they fitted was going to be annoying because it basically never turned off. Turns out that…
Read more Building work. gig, and tech enshitification – September 2023
Apparently SteamVR might not be the way to go on Linux, and there’s this other implementation of the OpenXR system that Valve invented called “Monando”. (Thanks Gabmus) This can be installed with the following incantations: The last line actually launches the OpenXR service, and looks like it might have crashed coz all you see is…
Read more Making a VR/Godot/Linux/Monando dev system:
I got rained on a lot again! Saw a friend play a gig, made a new “Observers” episode, sadly went to a funeral, rants on climate crisis, google, and Twitter’s continuing self-immolation. Me Life Gig Went to see a friend play in one of her bands at the Dublin Castle which is confusingly in Camden…
Read more Gigs, Driving, Internet Ranting – August 2023
The country’s drought finally ends as I go camping three weekends out of four. I play my solo loop-pedal set out a couple of times too! Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse July the 5th happened, so I looked forward to the end of the world and then was sad when it…
Read more Camping and singing in the rain – July 2023
Twitter goes dark, Reddit closes it’s API, Facebook joining Fedi. A very “meta” month on Fediverse as everyone argues about whether Meta should be blocked. Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse Reddit Strike The Reddit owners decided to start charging for API access, making the third party apps financially unviable. Reddit going…
Read more The collapse of the corporate web – May 2023
What is with Lemmy and Kbin all of a suddent? What are they? Where can I look at them? Why are they hot? What’s the difference? What is going on?
A new king is corronated, I release two cartoons, AI’s progress continues, and the usual pile of links and stuff. Me The king got a coronation so I wonder about pulling swords from stones and watched some protoestors and photoshopped the new monarch and his crown Starmer was saying how Labour are the real Conservatives…
Read more May 2023 – A new king is corronated, I release two cartoons, AI’s progress continues.
It’s been on my list to automate more of the compilation of the monthly newsletter for a while. Just something to do all the copying and pasting I do, as I open the last month’s posts and re-read them all and decide which to include. Now there is a good task of a GPT-assisted size…
Read more What it’s like to program with GPT
During April my new short films premiered at the Kino event, my wordy tarot decks finally hit Amazon so I did a reading about leaving twitter, and we continued to talk about AI and Decentralization of social media as the monarch prepares get a new hat while sat on a magic rock that doesn’t even…
When his band broke up during Lockdown, Pre spent a lot of time playing with himself. With his loop-pedal that is. Who needs a drummer when there are machine drums? And who needs a bass player when you can just play synth bass and then loop over it? Who needs a lead guitarist when you…
A lovely holiday with my parents, the GPT4 release sparks more AI conversation, the Fediverse continues to grow, and I have a date for the first public screening of my new Starship film! *Come!* *It’s this month!* Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse: At the start of the month the politicians were…
Read more March 2023 – Family holiday, March of the AI, New Premier Date!
My mother wants a new computer and a new tablet and wants me to set them up for her since she doesn’t really know how to like, log in. And these things tend to get shipped loaded with bullshit from malware makers so probably best to go through it. Other than my mother, basically my…
Read more Windows / Android Install 2023
A month with a flat full of boxes, but all the kick-starter packages got packed up and sent out in time for my 50th birthday party. Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse: I bought an Aeropress and surprisingly no longer want sugar in the coffee. Finding the all-Musk twitter show entertaining and…
Read more February 2023 – Kickstart Delivery & Birthday
I’ve been working on the animation, playing with Godot and Stable Diffusion, and fighting with banks while the UK government risks the union to insist it decides how Scotland should assess gender. Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse: Spent a lot of time on the lighting of the cartoon I’ve been working…
Read more January 2023 – stable difusion and instability
December was full of strikes, and of starting delivery of the Kickstarter rewards, and of Christmas and New Year. Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse: The Kickstarter ended, but the money finally landed in my accounts so I had to learn more about the Kickstarter process and get the money and designs…
Read more December 2022 – Happy New Year – Withdrawing Labour Over Xmas
March Update: All steam ahead. See you on Saturday! A celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of my birth will take place on the 4th of March 2023, upstairs at the Roebuck on Great Dover Street, SE1 4YG from 3pm until my birthday begins at midnight. Chilling in the afternoon, maybe some computer games on the…
Mastodon is software for talking to people on the internet. Some of those people may one day become virtual friends, some you may even meet, many will make you laugh or tell you interesting stories. Who knows what might happen. But that’s what we’re doing: Talking to people on the internet. I have been asked…
Read more How To Do Some Mastodon
My kickstarter ran through all November, finishing with just under 200 people pledging just under 12k between them. Meanwhile, it all kicked off on Twitter, so Mastodon had to expand to three times the size to accommodate all the newbies. Still not turned the heating on. Turns out of you use some strong clothes-pegs you…
The story is here, but here’s the transcript of writing it with the AI.The edited final version is here . Full Transcript Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there were two great powers: the fairies and the unicorns. The fairies were small and delicate, with wings that sparkled in the sunlight.…
Read more Strike In Fairyland – Full Transcript.
A chat with the new OpenAI chatbot getting it to help me write a story. This is just the result, the transcript can be found here Chapter One Pixie Lala and Trixabel looked at the poster hanging on the tree in front of them. It showed a fairy, with wings shimmering like diamonds, her delicate…
Calkey is a open-source microblogging server that uses ActivityPub. It’s a fork of Misskey – both are similar to Mastodon and other software for connecting to the Fediverse. Seems really nice on first glance. Shame there’s not likely ever going to be a way to port an existing Mastodon instance into a new Calckey on.…
This month an unelected leader took over and made massive stupid changes which risked the future of the whole thing. But is that Truss’s governance of Britain, or Musk’s governance of Twitter? Meanwhile, my new kickstarter is live! Me Some stuff from my diary on the fediverse: My kickstarter for my new tarot deck went…
Read more October 2022 – An unelected new leader causes chaos and my new Kickstarter
There seems to be another wave of people coming through to join the Fediverse, and it’s at this time that it’s traditional in the community to write a blog post filled with tips and hints and metaphors to help all the newbies understand what the hell is going on. What the hell is going on?…
Read more Fediverse and Mastodon
Congratulations to Richie Sunak on being appointed to run the king’s country. I hope he’ll lead the king’s ministers and subjects on behalf of and in the interests of the the crown, as this is the job he is now sworn to do. A year ago he was at the G7 telling bankers how keen…
Read more Central Bank Digital Currency
This month the queen died, pretty much as I got on a plane to Peru. So I spent the mourning period on Peruvian adventures instead of stuck at home with nothing on the TV but Mourn-Hub. Nice timing! Me Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: Twelve days in Peru I flew all the…
Read more September 2022 – Spending the end of the Elizabethian era in Peru
As the monarch died, I boarded a plane bound for Peru and spent the mourning period having Peruvian adventures instead of being stuck at home with nothing but Mourn-Hub on TV. Here’s a photo gallery, you can also click the links below to see some description from my microblog at the time. I flew all…
This month I’ve been doing some test screenings for my next big VR film. I now have a very big bug list. Also went camping and mucked about on the river with friends. None of which I posted about but I did mention other stuff… Me Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: Deep-fakes…
Read more August 2022 – Long-Termism and War and Struggle
The month started with mass resignations and is ending with a new leadership contest. Meanwhile, I started driving again and drove to Blue Dot, the excellent science festival. Me Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: So farewell then Johnson you were the worst prime minister until the next one. Facebook will finally be…
Read more July 2022 – Blue Dot and Driving and Johnson Resign
My ribs healed just in time, thanks for your concern. So I went to Glasto this month and caught all the best acts: Paul McCartney, Dianna Ross, She Drew The Gun, Tankus The Henge, Javis Cocker, Covid-19. The last one really stuck with me, their stuff is very infectious. The rest were amazing as usual…
Read more June 2022 Digest – Catching all the best acts at Glasto: Mccartney. Ross. Covid19.
May started off with a bang and a big holiday in Portugal with lots of friends, but I broke my rib on the waterslide and then spent the rest of the month mostly in recovery not able to lie down to sleep. Sill, recovered enough to do some animation work and sing a song by…
Read more May 2022 Digest – Broke my rib on a waterslide in Portugal
I went on holiday for a week and bloody-hell what have you all being doing with the #markets while I was away? #btc #bitcoin #luna #crypto #nasdaq #capitalism🧵 LunaIn the “crypto” casino, another shit-coin has collapsed to zero again. Someone noticed that they could do to Luna/UST what Soros did to the bank of England…
Read more How well do prices reflect the economy?
The drama this month was mostly online with the reaction to Musk deciding to buy Twitter. The flood of newbies into the Fediverse, the complaints of the people losing followers on Twitter, economic and political and social analysis. He sure does get people talking. Spent a few nights with friends, but I spent most of…
I did some foreign travel, ate a ton of chocolate, got fat, won an award against a background of mass job-sackings and city-sackings and financial-hackings. Me Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: War in the internet age is weird, it’s on zoom and social media while television channels get banned. I went to…
It’s been a good month if you don’t count the outbreak of war, continuing pandemic, threat of nuclear disaster or any of that stuff. Me Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: When Facebook threatened to leave Europe, there was a chorus of “Yes please” from all over the web, I was quoted to…
Read more February Digest 2022
Me Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: I wrote a few paragraphs on web3 and identity and Moxie’s web3 post. I found out how to turn of the annoying web-search in the windows11 task-bar My drains got blocked and I did a tarot reading about it before actually managing to fix it myself…
Read more February 2022 Digest
On last week’s episode, we had finally found a way to glue and screw a frame together from the fans and perspex windows. Having built the window it’s time to cut a hole. You start with a template. And then you drill a small hole. But find the drill’s battery is flat so you can’t…
Read more Server Cupboard Ventilation
Social Some stuff from my microblog on the fediverse: * A comment on the UK re-fortifying it’s drug war. * Pointing out forcing people into rehab doesn’t work. * Sometimes a broken clock tells the wrong time for 2 minutes an hour * Building a window for my server-cupboard * Things the press do and…
Social * I got a new musical toy, watch me play Zombie with the little palm-sized synth * Wrote a blog on some thoughts about the future of Bitcoin * I can’t buy any Oculus games now I’m locked out of Facebook * Some progress made on my latest VR Cartoon. * Complaining about people…
Read more December 2021 Digest
Someone mentioned the Haven protocol and I didn’t know what it was. Sometimes I look into some of these sorts of things a bit. Let’s have a look at this one. What does their documentation say? https://havenprotocol.org/knowledge/how-does-haven-work/ To Paraphrase, if we call Haven “X” for short, “Owning xCoin lets you convert your xCoin into xAssets…
Someone asked if I thought bitcoin would work out. Lightly edited, I replied that: It depends on what is “work out” is I guess. Will it be a life-boat in a sinking economy as the pound and the dollar crash into nothing and socialist-fascism takes over the whole globe except for bitcoin citadels in what…
Read more Most Recent Bitcoin Thoughts
I have a new toy, it’s a hand-sized synth and looper. It’s fun look! Same video, multiple places. Who knows what they’ll delete you for. On Odysee: On Youtube
Social * The war with the squirrels continues. More engineers called out to fix their damage. * Commented about an article suggesting Facebook are in trouble coz their audience is aging and quitting and the cool kids are joining. * And indeed I finally finished leaving Facebook myself. This won’t be posted there. * Captain…
Social The company I work for got an innovation award from the queen I talked about my Thursday-night pringles-and-primula sandwich tradition I wondered about the EU wanting up scan all your uploads B3ta’s photoshop competition “Make TV more British” was hilarious. I complained about complaints about measuring standards. Using my new speaker, I can play…
I was pleased there was a new campaign released for VR game Pistol Whip I also cycled to the absolute range-limit of my e-bike for a picnic I had lunch with my parents in Ruby and finally collected Xmas presentsincluding a lovely new plasma-ball added to my lighting corner My band broke up 🙁 –…
Read more September 2021 Digest
Left my pinephone unpowered for weeks. I think the battery died? I replaced the battery and then it isn’t booting any more so I have to reinstall. And wow, this page is terrible. I don’t even know what an eMMC is, or what the difference between an installer-image and a prebuilt-image is, I don’t know…
Read more Installing Mobian on a Pinephone
I added some eyes to my lights-controller and then later I made it compose Artificial Intelligence Subgenius rants I ranted about being a casualty in the war with the robots I went to see a Doctor Who Interactive Theatre show It subsequently flooded and all future performances were cancelled. Sorry. It was great though. I…
Social My band played an online gig which went okay, though sending to Youtube failed. So you had to be there. I failed at watching BBCQT because it’s too terrible I noticed the media studiously not noticing things about Julian Assange. I published the email-list manager app for nextcloud I’ve been working on I had…
Social I voted I edited audio together for a new cartoon The queens speech is terrifying My lava-lamp flipped me the bird, so I replied in kind I gushed about Max and Stacy I fell over playing VR I was invaded by magic drunken wasps Reading Amanda Palmer’s “Art Of Asking” is her autobiography and…