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Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Oct 2026)

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed reading how the prediction markets are arresting people, how smart TV’s have been hovering up all data and how little push back Apple has received for live rewind?

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 the AI Doc now on Netflix, the open wallet a permanent member of the Linux foundation now and Germany investing 500000 euros in sovereignty via the Flatpak packaging system.

Attitudes on AI from Gen-Z

Ian thinks: Although focused on America Gen-Z, I found the attitudes of these young people thoughtful and well balanced. The conversation with Bernie Sanders was also a good conversation

The stories from the tech industry

Ian thinks: So many stories of tech industry people being let go, its awful to hear but a clear reminder of how broken the tech industry is in right now. Its clear things must change and the status-quo is no more.

How does AI watermarketing work in a decentralised world?

Ian thinks: Hof does a good job explaining how AI water-marketing works and then casts an eye on what this means for the decentralised and federated future we should be moving towards.

The machine god story some forget

Ian thinks: As AI becomes more mainstream, the history and cult like status is unknown by many. However as Zittron and friends dredge through the past uncovering some of the motivations behind key people. Its clear a lot of people are not aware. Gebru’s thoughts on TESCREAL and quote is perfectly placed… “I understood that it was an ideological thing. It was almost like a secular religion, and these are true believers.”
This also comes up in a recent book Nerd Reich, which I just finished and don’t miss Gebru’s interview.

The genie is out of the bottle

Ian thinks: Schneier has an amazing way of thinking about different things in real life with a hackers mindset. In this talk Schneier, goes deep on AI and the future uses of it. Its a seriously thoughtful speech and worth every moment.

Self tracking has never been so valuable?

Ian thinks: Gary’s piece about the potential Oura IPO speaks volumes about the state of data, subscriptions and enshittification. Oura has been quite a darling of the the quantified self movement but knowing where the data maybe going even has me looking for an alternative.

How to really tax the super rich?

Ian thinks: I recently read the book by Gabriel Zucman, We Need to Tax Billionaires; which is a very good and short read and a blueprint for how to tax the super rich. This video covers the basics and rights some of the misunderstandings I still hear in debates about taxing the rich.

Ian thinks: I like the way JD thinks, its a clever and honest observation of traditional social media through the eyes of a black man. It also makes a number of good comparisons which will make you think a little deeper.

The fodder of smart glasses…

Ian thinks: The debate over mainly Meta smart glasses is intense but the people most affected right now are women, hence the term pervert glasses. I think this is pretty much summed up when one of the guests tries to say tech are looking to make useful products to which everyone laughs, and rephrases it with yes it a money grab. Something which is summed up in the pervert economy video.

Less Human more artificial

Sherry Turkle’s new book, is casing a lot of conversation. Although I am waiting for the Audiobook, this interview with 404 media is one of the better interviews with Turkle. Honestly this book covers not only now such as social media, LLMs but also deeply human topics like empathy and Intimacy.

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Getting hot in Athens – My first full Drift zero mix

Ian Forrester in a local coffee shop holding up the Drift Zero with one hand

This is the first proper mix with the Drift DJ Zero while on holiday in Athens recently. It was done over two parts because of a crash with the beta firmware. Most of it in a lovely place in Athens (Morgan All Jeans) then second part on my flight to Barcelona, which attracted the eye of one of the captains of the plane!

One of the captains of the airplane has a amazed look at the Drift DJ Zero.The image has a lot of black out blocks for privacy — One of the captains of the airplane has an amazed look at the Drift DJ Zero

I asked permission to take the picture but wanted to preserve the privacy of the pilot and member of public who was in the seat opposite. I gather the staff of the plane had talked about it over the backchannel and he decided to come check it out? All I can say is he was blown away and to be honest I had similar interest while DJing to myself in Athens and Barcelona. Lots of positive questions and thoughts.

But back to the actual mix…

Its a good mix (especially since I don’t have all my tunes synced on the zero) and using the Drift Zero is smooth now I fully understand the DJ mix flow. As I’m always DJing in my headphones there is a few extra steps I have to take. A few times I forget and you could hear the cueing in the mix, which isn’t great but its human error. However I’m kinda use to it and because its still beta there’s still lots of opportunity to feedback and shape the Dj flow.

The whole mix is on my mixgarden and one day soon, I’ll get my personal mixgarden working again.

Enjoy my first full mix on the Zero, there will be many more to come I’m sure! Its not the end for the Pacemaker device but as the beta firmwares get better and better, I’m carrying around a lot less, so we shall see what happens…

Here’s the playlist

00:00:00 Fade To Grey (Moreno J Remix) – Visage
00:01:58 Everything’s Been Written – 8 Wonders
00:06:41 Believe – Eli Brown
00:10:52 Mass Noise 2015 – Fred Baker & Seb B-
00:14:54 Turbulance – Klauss Gourlart
00:20:19 Eclipse – Neo
00:23:50 Steller – Driftwood
00:28:53 Catch me – Ormus
00:31:31 You’ve Got The love (Sonny Noto Remix) – Florence The Machine
00:36:32 Never (DJ Tiesto remix) – The Roc Project feat Tina Arena
00:41:32 Earth mover – Cosmic gate

Index 01, the perfect dream capturing device?

Pebble Index 01 package and smart ring on a flat surface

I have been interested in the different ways to capture thoughts I have but with the wave of AI nonsense I have seen stuff which seriously is quite scary. With my focus on local AI control, I found the Pebble index 01 an interesting proposition.

So I bought the Pebble index 01, as an external trigger for local recording. I thought it would be useful, as I like the idea and found speech to text very useful generally when trying to spell words or sharing my thoughts. However the problem always tends to be is getting my phone out trigger the recorder. In a world where phones are regularly being stolen on streets, the less I use my phone in public the better really.

Some may say, your watch can do a great job at this and I agree, I did install quick voice notes. But I noticed something of a unique case, which relates to something I’ve been thinking about for a long while.

After coming out of hospital and watching likely too much Inception on repeat (although I also had read about dreams previously), I had a long think about dream sharing via mydreamscape. What got me thinking is dream capturing is a nightmare, as you usually have to switch a light on, shaking you out of your slightly relaxed state. Most people use a note pad next to the bed or even record their quick recap on their phones. The phone requires the screen to be turned on causing you to be more awake than you might like again.

Screenshot of the options available to the owner

The Index 01 can be worn during sleep and when in a slight awaken state could be used to record a dream for a few minutes. Then sync it to the phone and turned into editable text using a chosen remote or local LLM. On top of this all, the whole thing can be encrypted to keep all those interesting dreams secret.

Dialogue on the phone asking the owner to setup backup encryption.

Who knows maybe I’ll give it a try and if my thoughts are right, setup a prototype with a Anytype project/template.

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Sept 2026)

What happens when the entire economy is a scam, with a large mobile phone stairing down at its user — Via: https://yourbrainonmoney.substack.com/

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed reading Zuckerburg’s deranged superintelligent AI future post, hearing about pagers leveraged for data breach and what could ever go wrong?

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 the EU finally embracing open source as part of sovereignty, Chicago public media launching a city wide social network with New public and will Meta’s settlement finally make the difference we need for traditional social media?

The reality of not believing what you see is here

Ian thinks: This interview with GetReal is honestly incredibly difficult and NSFW listen to. It certainly digs in to how the AI tools from the likes of Grok and Meta is have not only caused the deep-fake dilemma people have predicted for years. But also a crisis for those trying to report and stop them.

Disinformation and fear fuelled deaths

Ian thinks: On a similar point, Channel 4’s breakdown of what happened in the Ceuta migrant crisis, is a good solid watch. Watching it made super clear how disinformation is a real killer and how clearly thoughts about its weaponisation has long become a reality. Sadly its only going to get far worst.

The Surveillance as standard

Ian thinks: The EFF, are great for tools which help so many people understand the nuances of the digital surveillance state we find our selves in now. I would love to see tools like this become something which is shared with others organisations across the world.

Rethinking social software with Blane Cook

Ian thinks: I have a lot of time for Blane, I have come across he quite a lot and his thoughtful mind is perfect for this conversation. A little bit of what Twitter could have been but not the nostalgia nonsense I occasionally still here, but forks in the road where decisions could have made something much closer to what social looks like now.

One good thing going right

Ian thinks: This short TED talk is a reminder there is hope and there is a way forward, even when things are clearly not great.

Which end of the centaur are you?

Ian thinks: This interview on Jon Steward’s weekly show with Cory Doctorow is full of amazing insight about our lives with AI. I only started reading Doctorow’s Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, but I won’t lie I budged it to the top my reading list after watching this. Even if you are fed up of hearing about AI, this is a must read.

Public media and social networks?

Ian thinks: The digital public space or the public service internet. Both have been tried but like always, its about the timing. Maybe New_Public have it right this time? As there are a lot of events in the states which could really need stronger local news and communities. One to keep an eye on.

IKEA marketspace a good move or centralisation?

Ian thinks: I respect the points about trusted place especially when looking at the awful nightmare of Facebook marketplace. IKEA seem to be doing a solid for buyers and sellers. However I wonder about the centralisation of this all. There is a number of power plays they could put into action but time will tell, how successful it will be and how much control they will unleash? Dare I say enshittification…?

Is someone you know part of the grift economy?

Ian thinks: Following the Louis Threoux documentary about the Manosphere, the notion of grifting became a lot more common to most the internet users. Grifting isn’t anything new but the ecosystem which has grown around it is something super charged by the physiological super weapons of Gen AI. As usual the companies and people selling the tools are also benefitting off griffters. Just like people selling shoves during the gold rush.

Hetrosexual dating is broken beyond repair?

Ian thinks: As someone writing a book and building a new type of system to make connections more meaningful; I have found a lot of discussion about how straight dating is broken beyond repair, including one from the same Vox channel. This interview summaries a lot of the thoughts I have about this space. Yes its slightly broken (always was) but its turned up to 11 and echoed by the internet/social algorithms. Its not good and its a clear example of the real human effects, adding to the loneliness epidemic; even in part.

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Its about the richness of the network bonds we all have

I recently posted this on linkedin. It came from an email conversation with Alex DS and my experiences with applying for jobs recently.I’ll say it again, Alex is extremely smart and been a fantastic person to talk with about so many things, especially the rights and wrongs of the tech industry.

A month ago, I remembered something fundamental: my network matters far more than applications sent into the void of public job boards.
Thanks to Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino for the wise words again and the nudge!

I’m finally putting this into action…

I’m seeking roles inspired by four core strengths I bring to the table:

🔹 Declarative Development – xHTML, CSS, SVG, #XML, RDF, #Linked Data, Semantic Web. I’m a declarative coder at heart, specialising in this space. Data privacy and management are non-negotiable.
🔹 Project Leadership – Planning, leading, and nurturing projects from early development, through securing funding, all the way to public launch.
🔹 Real-World AI Advising – Beyond the hype! I combine academic rigour with hands-on experience running local, private #AI systems on regular open-source systems. I’m also a strong advisor on technology, design, and data-related projects.
🔹 Leading, Lecturing & Teaching – #UX research and future media development (object-based, adaptive and perceptive media). I’m passionate about shifting from #HCI (Human Computer Interaction) to an #HDI (Human Data Interaction) mindset, with a focus on alternative metrics grounded in human values, sustainability and good human incentives.

If you know of opportunities, teams, or conversations that align with any of these areas, or if you’d just like to connect and exchange ideas (especially around digital legacy, ethically connecting people or the digital public space), I’d love to hear from you.

Open to remote, hybrid, or in-person opportunities.
Feel free to comment or send me a DM. And if you think someone else should see this, I’d appreciate the re-share…

Its clear this post connected with quite a few people, and I have booked in talks with quite a few people…

My whole DJ set from EMFCamp is now live

Following on from the post where I decide to change my DJ name to cubicgarden. Here is the whole mix live from EMFCamp 2026. I am just transcoding it for Peertube but uploaded the full 8.6gig cut to Youtube (very surprised its not been flagged…yet?)

Enjoy the incredible lasers and even fire balls! Heck the firestarter is back?

The null sector organisers are incredible and the audio isn’t straight from the desk, so you can sense how crystal clear the sound system was. Even some of the videos friends recorded, with a phone are pretty clear.

The whole set was done on the Pacemaker device, but I’ll certainly be using the Drift Zero if I’m back in 2 or 4 years time.

Beta testing the Drift Zero, how is it going?

Drift Zero on a table top — Drift Zero syncing while sitting in a coffee shop

The last few weeks, I have been beta testing the Drift DJ and its getting a lot more stable.

The hardest part I have found is my tunes are from all over, going from Rave stuff from the late 90’s to more recent stuff with decent metadata. Some of it is recorded at as low as 192k to 320k but some at a sampling rate of 32, 44 and 48khz. However the current and previous firmware’s have had problems with different sampling rates.

It makes sense, especially with the complexity of the problem with DJ accurate pitching explained by the creator in the video discussion.

This will get fixed but for now I spent a lot of time trying to work out what is a problem with my music collection and what is a bug.

I recently was working this out in a coffee shop over a pour over coffee and I had some interesting questions and comments about the Drift Zero. Its certainly eye catching and like my prototype one before, I had some really interesting comments from the public. Looking forward to a long train journey to Amsterdam again on the Eurostar in November or the long international flight to Canada in October.

I’m finally at a happy place where I can do a mix and be confident the tunes in the library will play and can be mixed. So hopefully you will my first proper mix, although I’m also going to convert all my nux tunes to Opus audio to see how that changes everything,

Look out for new mixes on here and my mixgarden…

Machine readable wishes + Quantified Self = Digital legacy?

Machine readable wishes, with a picture of Ian Forrester on stage Text reads: Ian Forrester, founder of QS-Manchester back in the day, gave a fascinating talk a couple of weeks ago at EMF Camp on machine-readable wishes: applying the logic of automation rules to the question of what should happen to your personal data after you die. Ian’s talk made me think about my personal archives in a different way. He makes the case that a personal archive should contain executable instructions and provides an open-source framework to help you do this without entangling yourself even further in rent-seeking cloud services.

The whole video (17.5 mins) is available on Peertube and now legacy media (Youtube). Small enough for a TED talk even…

I was reading through the Quantified Self newsletter and had a shock when I saw my talk about machine readable wishes from EMFCamp featured. I shared it on Linkedin quickly but not on my blog.

Ian Forrester, founder of QS-Manchester back in the day, gave a fascinating talk a couple of weeks ago at EMF Camp on machine-readable wishes: applying the logic of automation rules to the question of what should happen to your personal data after you die. Ian’s talk made me think about my personal archives in a different way. He makes the case that a personal archive should contain executable instructions and provides an open-source framework to help you do this without entangling yourself even further in rent-seeking cloud services.

I do think Gary, has the right idea. Machine readable wishes could be used to connect items and (for example) open source data sets for the public research. Or more realistically, create a custom last note to friends and family. Imagine leaving a beautiful infographic of the key moments in your life which were super meaningful to you. I am always reminded of Fabio who tracked all his conversations. Imagine if that conversation after the Quantified self was so impactful and then 40 years later you have a message reminding you how much it meant to the person who recently passed?

Ok bit far out or even creepy, but I was reminded of someone who helped me through my divorce without really knowing how impactful it was to me at the time. Sadly I think that person died.

I do have a markdown document of all the key moments in my life using the markwhen syntax. It wouldn’t take a lot to convert the document to something more readable then provide a few lines in my machine readable wishes to convert it into something beautiful to maybe part of the funeral booklet/order of service; if my executors allow it.

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Aug 2026)

Ecosystem of tree roots in a forest — Image by Manfred Antranias Zimmer from Pixabay

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed hearing how Meta’s Instagram approving illegal adverts, Claude AI chats appearing in public searches along many others and how did we all let one company break the internet?

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 Google losing its appeal in the EU anti-trust android case. LG’s 32inch power friendly eink display and with the UK culture secretary leaving X.

Play has limits: The year of the Linux game machines

Ian thinks: Sony is well known for their stance on licencing not owning, recently making their platform even more painful to own. Micrcosft looks to follow suite too. Doubled with the huge costs of memory and console prices rising as discussed on tech won’t save us…Which begs the question, is the next year the year of the Linux game machine?

Libraries to the rescue

Ian thinks: When talking about public service, the importance of librarians is never forgotten. In this discussion with Paris Marx, a number of topics are covered including the notion of library values, algorithmic literacy and libraries as the grass-root resistance to AI.

Rushkoff’s history lesson for us all

Ian thinks: Rushkoff has a lot to say usually and although I don’t always agree. This reminder of history monologue, is so very fitting for where we are now and where we are heading if the status-quo isn’t challenged and changed. A stark warning from history.

Sovereignty: build ecosystems not monocultures

Ian thinks: As a advisory member of the Open Rights Group, I found this essay via a recent live cast about sovereignty. The essay connects and credits a lot of the key points mentioned over this newsletter including rewilding, climate collapse, and open ecosystems. Its needs more attention and I say it deserves it.

Setting light to your community

Ian thinks: I have always been a fan of bonfire, and seeing the direction they have taken the fediverse has been enlightening. This new announcement really cermets their aim to centre the community and their leaders. This is a shining example of the open social future with backbone. Why would deploy anything else?

Modular is the new under-rated metric?

Ian thinks: I usually ignore reviews of consumer technology but watching Marques Brownlee review the Framework 13 pro was enlightening. The key point of why I have included it is because Marques comes to the realisation the longevity of modularity is a feature which is unmeasurable and ignored in reviews

How dating data became a national security problem

Ian thinks: Data and data brokers is a huge problem which is causing too many headaches. In this vid/podcast from 404media, the data which is collected by apps is highlighted and in one case became a national security problem, and I could completely understand why. But you should listen to hear the whole story. Expect chills afterwards.

What are the facts and learnings in the OpenAI LLM cyberattack?

Ian thinks: There has been a lot of talk and disinformation about the Open AI LLM cyber attack on Hugging face. Well Simon Willison’s walk through does underline the lack of security from Open AI, the lack of cooperation and trust in the commercial AI space.

Explaining the AI bubble credit swaps

Ian thinks: This is likely the best and clearest explainer of what is happening with the AI bubble, in regards to the amount of debt which is growing for a number of the AI companies. Ed Zitron has a lot to add to this.

Wearables, making your doctor concerned

Ian thinks: I found this discussion via the quantified self newsletter, In the short video there is a number of questions about how useful user controlled/wearable data is for the medical industry. Its a long running challenge between data and insight.

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Digital italic is dead, long live The Cubicgarden

For a long time, I have been known as DJ Digital Italic. However people have gotten very confused and so today I’m changing my DJ name to The Cubicgarden.

For a long time, I have been known as DJ Digital Italic. However people have gotten very confused and so today I’m changing my DJ name to The Cubicgarden.

DJ Digital Italic shown on a screen while people dance with lazers

Digital italic, came about when I was starting my move from vinyl to MP3’s (yes I switched CDJs because I didn’t like the format for its skeuomorphism. Even then I was thinking this makes no sense to copy the vinyl model.

Anyway I am waiting for my set recording from EMFCamp but honestly its a banger, as you can see in the video above.

I also decided to back off from self hosting my own mix site because sadly there is a bug in Yunohost’s peertube application which means every-time there is a security or feature update it breaks everything. Till then I’m going to use rankett.net, and will start making those changes including a new look soon-ish.

Drift DJ taken on a desk top — I took the drift zero apart to check if there was anything obvious

Another part of the decision is my move from the Pacemaker device to the Drift zero. Something I have been alpha/beta testing for a while. A little update is that it was going great with help from the Drift team but on my last trip to Amsterdam, it just stopped booting. I did the usual charging over night, etc but it wouldn’t boot at all. Sadly it was right before I could show Dirty Si, my friend who first pointed me towards the Drift Zero. It was a shame but ultimately, there was no way to send another prototype out, when the production ones were so close to ready.

My Drift Zero DJ production version

Then last Thursday the production version was delivered to my flat but I was on holiday and wouldn’t get my hands on it till Saturday. Then came Saturday and I got my first play with it and the latest firmware already installed. However its not till tonight I really got a play with it and loaded up a bunch of tunes.

If you want to know more about what happens next, keep an eye on this blog and of course you can order your own and learn more at driftdj.com

Polaroid photo of the Drift Zero DJ production chip with #007 written on it

By the way, my production version is quite special… Yes #007!!!

Something I’m extremely proud to own and be part of right at the start. Now comes the important part of feedback, bug fixing, learning and playing as…

The Cubicgarden…