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She-Hulk

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I was quite interested when this Marvel show got announced. It was certainly a bit different from other Marvel shows so I thought I’d watch it. How disappointed I was. I persevered with the show all of the way through to the end, but overall found it confused, aimless and badly thought through.

It was such a shame, such a wasted opportunity. Such a good character, so poorly executed and thought through. I have to say that I would be disappointed if Marvel made a second season and I’m not sure I could stomach watching it either.

Why did credit card computers not take off?

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I noticed a Rex device on eBay the other day and was sorely tempted. In the end I resisted though. Which is probably good. But it got me thinking about these kinds of devices. I’ve posted about these before, a number of times and there is a page dedicated to all things PDA as well. I wonder why credit card sized devices never took off.

I know that smartphones have taken over almost every use case of mobile computing, but I do think that the result of that is that everything is a little dull. Sure we have smartwatches and phones, but the lack of a variety of form factors makes everything a little too uniform in many ways.

Something to think about maybe.

Rebble hackathon

Posted by on in Tech, Wearable ComputingLeave a comment

I find myself inextricably drawn back to the Pebble ecosystem, if indeed you can call it that. I had the original Pebble, then the Pebble Time. I got rid of both. The I decided to try something different with an original Pebble that I put on my key ring. I tried that for a few months, but in the end I really had no need for it, it had no real use at all.

Then I heard about this Rebble Hackathon, and once more, my interest is peaked. Why? Well, I have no idea really. For a start I don’t currently even own a Pebble device. However, I’ve been looking on eBay for them again. Once more, why? I do not know. It is probably just an obsession of some kind. I even tried using a Pebble on my key chain.

Sadly that little experiment was never really a success.

Anyway, I’m interested in what comes out from it. The event is running now (18th – 20th November 2022). If you want to find out more here’s the event page.

See, season 3

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I have watched all three season of See on Apple TV+. In fact it was one of the things that attracted me to their streaming platform in the first place. Overall, I have to say that for me, the first season was by far the strongest of the three. Not that I am giving away any spoilers at all. However, I will say that the ending was quite satisfying. Of course, you should see it for yourself and make up your own mind, but for me I’m glad to have seen it. It was good if not ground breaking.

I am glad that See was limited to three seasons and not one of those series that rambles on and just fades out badly and gets cancelled. Keeping the story to play out over three seasons worked, although I think it could probably have been done in two. Nevertheless, I think I enjoyed it.

Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Posted by on in Edinburgh Fringe, Festivals, Places, TheatreLeave a comment

The last time I was at the fringe was in 2018, before the pandemic. I was looking forward to coming back again as it’s something that I’ve enjoyed for a number of years.

But this year it felt smaller, much smaller. Probably because it was smaller, and that’s likely to be because of the pandemic. It’s a shame, but I take some comfort in the fact that it is still there. Plenty of other festivals and events have fallen by the wayside.

Even so there were some good shows. Some less so, but I won’t focus on those. I enjoyed the good ones and also just the ambience of being back in Edinburgh after a long time.

I’m not sure when I’ll go back to the Edinburgh Fringe, in the current climate it’s hard to know what will happen next, or indeed to plan ahead with any certainty, but I think I’d like to do it again at some point. It’s a good festival and one worth supporting.

Shriekback, the lyrics

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks, Music1 Comment

I have enjoyed the music of Shriekback since I first heard ‘My Spine is the Bassline’. I think it was on John Peel’s radio show. Which tells you how long ago that was. I have mostly kept up with their music and also backed the last couple of their crowdfunded albums.

When I found that they were releasing a book of their lyrics I knew that would be something I would enjoy, and I was right. When I got it I have to admit that I was a little disappointed as the lyrics for my favourite songs weren’t included. But never mind, I’ve enjoyed it nevertheless.

It’s not just the lyrics though, it’s the stories behind the lyrics that make it really interesting. Overall I would say that this is a great book for anyone who has enjoyed their music. I’ve certainly enjoyed reading it.

3,000 posts and 12 years

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This is post 3,000 and it has been 12 years since the start of this site or blog or whatever the correct term is. I think that is a fair amount of time for something to be running. Not that the level of activity has always been consistent, and it certainly isn’t at the moment,even so, it feels like 12 years is something of an achievement.

When I started writing this it was a way to talk about stuff that I was doing that was nothing to do with the mobile music world and PalmSounds, but since PalmSounds shut down it feels like it has lacked something. I’m not entirely sure why that is. I often think about what I want this site to, what it could be, but somehow that never really becomes a reality.

In part I wonder if it could be because of DayOne, the journalling app, which I have used a lot, and of course has been acquired by the same people who run wordpress. It is possible. It seems strange to have both of these things running at the same time, but perhaps it makes sense.

After 12 years I don’t feel like I want to give up on the site, but I do feel like I need to have a reason to for it to exist. I think that’s important.

Thumby has arrived

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You may remember that I posted about this a little while ago. Finally it has arrived, in a somewhat inauspicious package, but arrived nevertheless.

Of course, it is tiny, really tiny. Actually thumb sized.

And it comes in a tiny box too. Yes I bought two of them.

I had thought that it would be so small that I wouldn’t be able to read the screen at all, but I can, just about, and I even managed to play one of the games that comes pre-loaded.

https://videopress.com/v/3U189G0r?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
This gives you an idea of the size of the thing.

It even makes a very tiny sound too. At this point I have no idea what I will do with it. I had been trying for a very long time to not buy any tech that I had no use for, and this is certainly a piece of tech that I have no use for. I am no gamer at all, so playing games is not something that I will be doing much of, but perhaps I will find a way to make it useful. If not it’ll find it’s way on to eBay in a few months.