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How things have been since August 2024?

BBC restructuring isn’t anything new, there have been so many over the 20.5 years, I have been there. However, this time the changes have directly affected my role and position in R&D. BBC R&D is restructuring for many reasons which is way outside the scope of this personal post. The cuts are deep and sadly I am one of the people who was told at the start of August, that my position is at risk to close.

As you can imagine, this caused great stress and worry.

During the rest of the summer, I spoke to many friends, family, colleagues (current and previous) and of course my partner. I sought much advice to understand what I could do and make sense of my unsteady position. It was all a shock, I went through the grief cycle twice. Once at the start of August and then again when things became clear during my career consultation in November when things changed from likely to absolute.

Some of the best advice I had included, “Tell people” which I have been doing just not so publicly till now. “Sit like Buddha” don’t do anything rash and be clear-headed when making decisions.

Ian PORTRAIT at work

This week it was made official…

I’m writing to confirm that you have been selected for redundancy. This means that unless you
find alternative employment in the BBC, your employment will be terminated on the grounds of redundancy.

The decision to take compulsory redundancy is mine after a lot of thinking and looking at what I value and want to focus on in the future. I will leave the BBC R&D on good terms wishing everyone the best. I’ll work for another quarter, leaving in March but have a lot of holidays to take and have things which I want to finish.

I will no longer be the BBC R&D Senior Firestarter which is sad as I built and crafted the position. Then became well-known for it. But using a quote in full…

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

Helen Keller

Myself working in a coffee shop looking at my laptop

Over the last quarter; I stopped looking back and created a whole task list of items to manage the stress and gain some control over my future. I used it to manage, plan and focus. All while looking at where my values, talents and skills can have the most impact.

With my markdown CV in hand, I can honestly say I am open to new opportunities and considering taking forward a number of personal projects over the coming year; including the open-sourced Adaptive podcasting/music, Digital legacy/death, finishing my book, the related Ethical dating & matching rethink and some of my 2025 resolutions, while having a well-needed series of mini holidays/breaks.

There is a lot more I want to say about the unique culture created in BBC R&D, the amazing people I work/worked with, and some stories I’d like to share wider but I’ll save all that till later in 2025.

But here are a couple quotes I was reminded of over the last few months, both from Buckminster Fuller

“I’m not a genius. I’m just a tremendous bundle of experience.”

“The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.”

I think 2025 is full of doors, which might need simply a knock.

A review of my 2024 resolutions

Two people looking into the camera for a selfie while on a cable car in London

This year has been full of ups and downs, its a year I’m not going to forget.

2024 is when I got Covid again for the 2nd time. Once again it was in another country (this time the Netherlands) while at MozHouse Amsterdam. Where I spent a lot of time this year due to 4 conferences (PublicSpaces, Mozhouse AMS, Dutch media week and Society 5.0).

Talking about travel, I ended up in Bristol, Audenshaw, Weston Super Mare, Lancaster, Cardiff, Amsterdam, Hiversum, Henden Bridge, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bath, Buxton, Harderwjik, Berlin, Newcastle, Gateshead, Oslo, Sheffield, Barcelona, Sitges, Hoofddorp, Zwolle, York, Huddlesfield, Newport and London; this year.

I’m happy to say I took the train a lot including the Eurostar into Europe a few times. However my train rides around the UK resulted in many delays and cancellationshttps://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/dec/21/just-2-of-busiest-trains-on-key-london-to-manchester-line-run-on-time. I have worked out its resulted in me applying for delay reclaim over 50% of the time! For example here is my diversion from Bristol to Manchester via London due to the storm darragh.

My sleep has taken a bit of dive later in the year which makes sense as you will see. From average of 7.4 hours to 6.8 hours. Bedtime of about 1 am is working out; but my deep sleep goes into freefall when I need to get up early.

Most listened to podcast is Daily Tech News show (they keep change the artist tag) with Better offline and Podnews just behind that. Music wise, Tonepoet has the advantage, as my pacemaker doesn’t track me and I tend not to listen to single tracks on the go. Trakt indicates so far, I have watched 259 hours of TV shows and 318 hours of films.

Here is the review of my 2024 resolutions.

Digital nomad things
Make or break year I wrote previously, well nothing moved on this front for me. I also been reading how digital nomads are causing a back lash.
Finish my dating book
Well I’m closer, really close. I attempt to use the gig platform fiver to get some external proof readers and it made was shocking how the scammers operate there. I’m still getting contacted by them right now, luckily its contained within the platform chat, which I have ignored.
I still have many thoughts about the title, want to change the epilogue a bit to related to something I’m involved in.
Head even further a field with the scooter
Not happened but this is likely to happen next for sure, when I have more time. Will add to next years list.
Learn to drive a car
Another one which looks like will happen next year when I have a lot more time for reasons which will be clear soon. Another hold out for the the next years list.
Listen to two Audiobooks every month
This has been a good challenge and I have blown through 24 books with 28, although 2 of the books were quite short but still well worth listening to. I did also start a number of books but gave up on them as they were annoying or just not interesting in anyway. Its likely I will keep the goal at 24 for next year too although I might have more time.
Go to a new country
This year I finally made it to Norway for the first time. Its a country I should have visited ages ago to complete my Scandinavian travels but never did. I went to Oslo and really enjoyed the short time I had there. I do have ideas for potential short trips to Switzerland and maybe the Czech republic, although Rural France is booked for a wedding.
Go to a new Rollercoaster park
I ended up going to Wallai again but I’m considering going to a lot more in the 2025. I certainly can do better, especially with Thorpe parks new ride Hyperia on my doorstep as such.
Take the Diabolo skills up another level
I still can’t do the infinite suicide but learned a bunch of new tricks and even ones of my own, although getting out of them can be tricky and a matter of luck.
Move over to privacy preserving protocols and platform
This is happening more and more. Like many people I have pretty much ditched X/Twitter (although I do seem to get a few direct messages from the API which is strange). I lean on the Fediverse for all my social stuff and am generally very picky about new applications and services I use. For example I have been looking at knowledge management systems as I’ve been using Joplin too much like a notes store and could do with something new for project based stuff (feel free to shout at me, but I blame importing a bunch of Evernote & Standard notes stuff). I am always searching alternative.to for open and self hosting options. There is a big question of when I switch over my email to Proton, but thats still in the future right now.
Separate out my food waste
This is one I am happy to say I have done pretty much 85% of the time. Some tricky times is when I have a Airbnb guest and also when emptying the food waste bin into the main bin, which is generally quite empty now. This one is good and its just part of the routine now.
Start to mark out significant moments in my history
This one has started but I spent a lot of time working out how to best do it. I found a markdown schema/format called MarkWhen, which does exactly what I need. So far I have converted most of my significant moments but add more as I go. Plus I’m going backwards and finding dates for many more. Another good thing to have done and will keep on doing.
Its also another indicator that although I love XML, I am do get Markdown is pretty human writable, which is important for those little tasks. Also I need to play with SaxonJS which can convert between Markdown and XML with ease.

UWE Masters VR unofficial end party in Bristol after 4 years in the advisory role
See more of my friends
This has been ok, but I feel like I can do so much better than I have done so far. I might modify this one a bit in the next year to something less ambiguous

Never fading to grey mix

Man standing on a platform in the distance as a storm gathers around him — One man on a lonely platform

I recently got some new tunes mainly for the party mix I last shared. While checking out a number of new tunes, I discovered the amazing Tell nobody by Basil O’Glue and instantly thought this driving tune is tech trance at its best. I needed to mix it along side Follow Me (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended Remix) by Jam & Spoon.

Of course Tell nobody is just one of a few new tunes in this mix, expect them to pop in future mix for sure.

I recorded this mix on a very long train journey in the UK and it includes all the subtle crossfader mistakes. However this is one heck of a mix and it will get much better as I learn the new tunes.

Enjoy!

Listen on peertube or on my personal mixgarden.

The tunes used…

Fade To Grey (Moreno J Remix) – Visage
Rhienkraft (Full original mix) – Oliver Klien
Melodemon (Extended Mix) – Mrphlindr
Turkish Bizarre (DBA Remix) – Art Of Trance vs POB
Tell Nobody – Basil O’Glue
Running up the hill (Jerome isma-ae bootleg) – Placebo
Follow Me (Jerome Isma-Ae Extended Remix) – Jam & Spoon
Aluminium (Extended Mix) – Robert Nickson
Tears (Protoculture Remix) – Dakota
Theme For Great Cities (Revisited & Extended Mix) – Paul Oakenfold
Energy Crash (Extended Mix) – Maarten de Jong
Interstellar (YORK’s Back In Time Extended Mix) – Torsten Stenzel
You’ve Got The love (Sonny Noto Remix) – Florence + The Machine
Anahera (extended mix) – Ferry Corsten presents Gouryella

Vote for digital legacy at SxSW London 2025

Six feet under a data centre, not enough storage available – Not enough storage available to access memories

How do we die online?
This is a big question and raises a lot of questions and thoughts including

🌷 The role of technology in grief and mourning
🥀 The technological and cultural shifts in how we die and remember
🌹 Possible approaches to preparing our digital afterlife.

From the use of AI for digital holograms of the dead, to poor infrastructure for managing deceased accounts, this is a problem that will only grow.

At next years SXSW London, we (Myself, Arda Awais, Savena Surana, and Linn Friedrichs) will talk through some of the points and expect AI to appear more than once in the discussion.

However, we need your votes to make it happen!

Vote for us, its going to be one heck of a important discussion!

R&D advisory and labs winter party dance to this mix (2024 edition)

I recorded this mix live on the Pacemaker device’s build in recorder/editor while mixing at our work end of year do. Its a little ropey in places but its all mixed live and with new tunes that I wouldn’t normally mix with. This is similar to the Amstels thriller chiller mix in some of the tunes.

As it goes out on Peertube, I need to mark it as explicit because it contains one swear word in the first tune – Animals (Christmas remix).

Some will enjoy this short mix, we only had 30 minutes to play and went over that even. But I certainly could redo it into something better, now I know the tunes more.

Listen on Peertube or my mixgarden

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Dec 2024)

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed while reading through the UK online safety draft statement of priorities, reading the Tiktok teen addiction documents and understanding the mass use of open washing throughout the tech corps.

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“

You are seeing aspects of this with home workers getting more sleep,
A number of newspapers leaving X citing disturbing content and future smartwatches powered by your skin.

The story behind Silicon valleys pronatalism drive

Ian thinks: There has been much talk about the birth rate but some of Silicon valley billionaires seem to have a certain view which feeds into the religious conservatives and immigration fear narratives. This video starts to explain and hints at the overthrow of roe vs wade in America.

EU AI code of practice

Ian thinks:I know many who will cringe at the very notion of the EU wading into the space of AI. However this is a first draft and sets the direction, which is hard to disagree with. I personally welcome some level headed and thoughtful direction from a large entity underlining the efforts of many smaller organisations.

Interesting times at Mozilla?

Ian thinks: With many service and job cuts, its a tricky time ahead. However with the discussion of Chrome being sliced away from Google, it potentially comes with a huge drop in revenue but also potentially for a more balanced and ethical browser ecosystem?

Scam baiting with Daisy

Ian thinks: Although a bit of promo for O2 in the UK, the very notion of Daisy the AI granny. Is a great feature which we all wish we had. Will it help, is a larger question, but thoughts of how to scale scam-baiting (messing with scammers) has been imagined for years. This might just answer that question.

Another view on AI should do dishes and laundry

Ian thinks: The semi-famous post saying I want AI to do my laundry and dishes not art and writing. Is a interesting one but Runnels, writes a compelling reason why AI shouldn’t do this too. Its written in good spirit and thoughtful in nature.

How to review a privacy policy

Ian thinks: Privacy policies are long, complex and deliberately made for lawyers not people. But without getting into the argument of reforming them. Caltrider’s guide to reviewing them, is ideal ground and uses a lot of the tricks I personally use.

Things to do when facing the political nightmare?

Ian thinks: You can’t fail to notice the impact of the American election on people not only in America. White wrote a very good list of positive things to do now. I wish I had seen this just after the Brexit vote.

The final end of Twitter?

Ian thinks: The final death blow of x/twitter is on a lot of peoples lists right now. This thoughtful overview from a previous staff member is worth reading. I have personally moved on from another twitter. I’m backing the fediverse for many reasons including the portability, ownership and diversity of platforms. Maybe AT Proto will get there but till then, its not a consideration. Also worth reading Cory’s thoughts on Bluesky currently.

Surveilled documentary

Ian thinks: This documentary relooks at the NSO group’s Pegasus. Ideally it would be wider focused than Pegasus but it is timely reminder of the incredible surveillance devices we carry around with us all.

Find the archive here

My top rollercoasters in 2024

I voted in Coasterbot‘s Votecoasters. You can too. As I did in 2021

The list goes beyond the 50 as I did spend time in Wallbi and some old rollercoasters no longer exist (goodbye Jetline).

Worth noting how a bunch of the 4D freespinners are group together and how a lot of the special one time riders are near the bottom (looking at you Th13teen, which needs replacing with something new!)

On buying the Boox palma 2

I bought the Palma 1st edition and then the 2nd edition.

As most of you know I have a sweet spot for eink/epaper, buying my first ereader in the form of a Sony ereader, moved to the kindle and then the Android based Likebook. During that time I also have a long history with the Pebble smartwatch.

I bought the Palma 1 because it fitted with a need to have a second Android device as a backup and to replace my old Likebook. Just as I bought it, they announced a Android 13 upgrade and I searched for the firmware which seemed to be only available in Asia? Then soon after the Palma 2 was announced with a few tweaks I would use including fingerprint support, better processor and higher microSD levels. Seeing I could pre-order it but also return the Palma 1 for no extra cost; I jumped.

It shipped a month later and I got it last week. Its great just like the last one with a few extras, which I understand most don’t care about.

A few things are strange, including access to authy and a few apps which don’t run as expected. The strange part, is that authy on the Palma 1 worked correctly? I assume it’s a API problem but annoying and reminds me of my plan to move away from authy. Another thing I noticed is keepassx won’t allow the fingerprint access to be saved. I got a feeling this might be the problem?

I’m sure these will be solved over time… fingers crossed.

If it wasn’t for me being able to send the old one back, I wouldn’t upgrade but I got lucky…

No longer Xtwitter but Elon Musk’s X

A gun shaped out of a book with the medium is the message quote written on it

I recently saw this note from the Guardian.

The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, from its official accounts.

In an announcement to readers, the news organisation said it considered the benefits of being on the platform formerly called Twitter were now outweighed by the negatives, citing the “often disturbing content” found on it.

My instant thought is the medium is the message and organisations and people are starting to understand this. The hate on Xtwitter is almost impossible to avoid but the medium Elon’s X changes and shapes not just the conversation but the way people think.

Worth noting the Guardian already have a mastodon bot on the Fediverse.

Techgrumps podcast now on RSS.com

Some of you know I record a podcast with a few friends once a month called #Techgrumps. Due to the awful things which have/are happening with the Internet Archive, we made the decision to mirror it to RSS.com.

<a href="https://rss.com/podcasts/techgrumps/">TechGrumps</a>

You can now subscribe/resubscribe to the feed here. or listen online here. I’m slowly adding the new feed to the long list of podcast sites/services.

If you are interested in being part of the podcast, just add #techgrumps to a social media network and someone will find it.

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Nov 2024)

Old woman steps out of a door, Nostalgia from Inside out 2

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed while reading the politics of the io domain, seeing the real people who’s voice is used for AI misinformation and Tiktok misinformation advertising under the microscope.

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“

You are seeing aspects of this with wider Fediverse interest, more research why companies should be owned by employees and Rushkoff’s program or programmed rewritten for the AI future.

The lack of privacy behind those AI input prompts

Ian thinks: Another look at the uncomfortable side of AI, but this video outlines the problem and also offers some solutions beyond running your own LLM; including Venice.ai and Brave’s Leo LLM.

Could webarchives be more distributed?

Ian thinks: The internet archive and wayback machine has been a solid part of the internet for so long, the shock of many when it was taken offline recently has visceral. There are other web archives but this has shone a light on the absolute importance of archives and maybe more cooperation between archives to boost resilience.

Watch out for the nostalgic trap!

Ian thinks: Nostalgia gives a lot of people a fuzzy warm feeling even when you never actually experienced it as GenZ have demonstrated. It is very hard to explain how problematic nostalgia can be when thinking and writing policies for the future. The very notion of commercial nostalgia jacking, being used to weaponize nostalgia against ourselves is even more dangerous. The video shows talks through all this and how it was a commercial tactic for decades.

Why Surveillance Watch? The creator explains in depth

Ian thinks: This interview is full of interesting points about privacy and the problems we all face when attempting to protect our privacy. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to explain why I don’t use Whatsapp for example.

Embedding repair culture by looking at Berlin

Ian thinks: The rise of right to repair is exciting. However could paying people to repair their old goods be a mixture for something more sustainable? Or could make things more complex as other studies have shown in the past.

Where we are going, we don’t need environmental limits?

Ian thinks: I think Schmidt’s statement is very irresponsible to say the least, But he’s not the only one, following their Silicon values (Which was coined and written by Julian York) and the absolute push for revenue with complete dominance over human life; is shocking. However worst still is the belief the problem will be solved by emerging tech, is short term thinking and gambling with all our lives. In this case Gen AI, is clearly part of the problem and won’t save us.

What are the environmental costs of gen AI in real terms?

Ian thinks: Schmidt and all of the AI industry really need to take a serious look at the environmental impact. However those figures can be quite dry and difficult visualise. The Washington post have made the environmental damage more tangible using resources we use everyday.

Data vampires only respect Silicon Values

Ian thinks: This mini-series by Paris Marx is a powerful reminder of how little to zero care or attention is paid to democracy, the environment and humanity in the Silicon corps. I kept thinking about those Silicon values across the episodes, and its very clear across this 4 part series [2] [3] [4].

Publishers should decentralised now?

Ian thinks: There is a number of journalists and news publishers who have switched their business models to one focused on supporting journalism by going direct to the reader. The podcast post outlines how the fediverse can support direct community relationships and sets out why it could signal the future of news.

Find the archive here

The pay or accept cookies enshittification business model

The Independent newspaper site with the option either accept cookies or pay a fee on a Android mobile screen — Pay or accept cookies business model comes for us all

Its the first time I have come across this awful enshittified business model, which totally shocked me because I had only read about it. But frankly annoyed me so much I blocked the Independent newspaper from my network and devices.

I mean it wasn’t great anyway but now and then I would get something outside my usual scope.

Another reason why I need to look at my RSS reader more.

SOLD – Ian’s ereader: Its a steal, its a deal, its sale of the century

Likebook Mars 7.8inch E-Reader with Android

I am selling my Android Ereader on ebay.

To be honest it was a great device but a bit big for regular use. I would have preferred something I could carry around without thinking about it. So I recently bought the Boox Palma also running Android.

Its a pretty amazing and I’m surprised how fast eink has gotten with refreshes now. No matter what others say, I have installed most things on it including a full RSS reader, Wallabag, WordPress, Audiobook reader, music player, drive, google docs, password manager, 2FA app, etc. Decided to stop short on social apps but may add emails as they are useful to have for backups.

I did think it had a SIM but I am reading it is a microSD card, which is very useful but the slot doesn’t seems set for mini SIM?

Anyway, my old ereader is a steal at a low price of 55 pounds.

Should we all say I love you to friends?

I found this video and was pretty impressed with the conversation between Simon and Noah. There is a lot to unpack in the video but there was a question in the discussion which myself and my partner talked a lot about afterwards.

Especially the question…

Should we all say I love you to friends?

Its a really good point but I’ve been thinking about it ever since. With this in mind, I’m thinking about possibly saying it and potentially linking to the conversation some how (pretty hard to do in person of course).

My partner, as a female says it quite a lot to friends but as male, it still feels very loaded. Also she did say, she would feel a bit strange if I started saying I love you to my female friends too.

Since my brush with death, I have been hugging friends which is a lot more than I use to do while saying hi and bye to friends. Maybe I’ll give it a try and see what happens…

Look out friends… !

What do others think?

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Oct 2024)

Your friends will be there for you, your work won't

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed while seeing Mozilla closing their Mastodon instance, the internet archive no longer allowed to lend ebooks and the endless saga of 23 and me.

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.“

You are seeing aspects of this with coffee pod recycling for real, The possible return of concentrated solar power plants and the formulation of the social web foundation.

Real stories about Facewatch in the UK

Ian thinks: Although put together by big brotherwatch, this video shows the people caught up in the facewatch surveillance in the UK. Its hard to watch but a good reminder of the on going problems.

What does Fish have to do with online privacy?

Ian thinks: Based around the paper written by Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier. NBTV, puts the paper into focus through many clear examples and comparisons. Its clear privacy has been misjudged and we are all paying for this.

Cory shouts Disenshittify or die at Defcon24, and in text.

Ian thinks: Cory’s follow up to last years talk, is another great reminder of the horrible state of the market, internet and society. You can’t help but raise a fist to some of points about Spotify, Google, Meta, etc. But the re-examination of the words; if you are not paying for the product you are the product. Is a very important call.

Will you host your data on Lidl’s cloud service?

Ian thinks: Although it sounds ridiculous on first glance, This is an example of the big difference between the EU data space and the Silicon Valley space. There is no way Lidl would even consider this an option outside the EU, but the EU laws makes a somewhat trusted brand viable for this type of pivot.

The importance of friendship, loneliness and vulnerability

Ian thinks: This conversation between Simon Sinek & Trevor Noah strikes a chord with some of the large societal problems. This has so much from questions about friendship to the importance of cultivating them into something strong and lifelong. Just at a time when loneliness is rising, I felt this a important one to share.

Tokyo creates its own dating app, against the likes of Match

Ian thinks: Match group currently has 50% of the market, but the Japanese government is about to launch their own as the population decline is that serious. Its worth noting Japan has tried many things including paying bars/clubs to put on single nights for the last 10 years, making this decision not something made lightly.

Detecting AI generated like a pro?

Ian thinks: We are all facing a barrage of AI generated images and videos, it is easy to be distracted or be tricked and there is no shame to this. With some of these tips, it will help weed out 90% of the typical AI slop.

Digital legacy a change is due

Ian thinks: Digital legacy is something we rarely think about but really should. There is a number of interesting developments from research into digital legacy to UK justice beta testing digital LPAs. This podcast gives a real sense of the importance of this all.

Grief and digital grief

Ian thinks: Following the previous link, this video from the Guardian, explores both sides of the divide around using AI technology for people who die. Its striking as these homegrown solutions are being commercialised and rolled out with little to no care for the people on both sides

Find the original here and the archive here