Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
Author: Ianforrester
Senior firestarter at BBC R&D, emergent technology expert and serial social geek event organiser.
Can be found at cubicgarden@mas.to, cubicgarden@twit.social and cubicgarden@blacktwitter.io
For me the Index 01 calls me (although I do worry about the battery as smart rings don’t have a good rep in this space) , because it has a vision of openness. I expect Index 02, 03 and others who build on top of it will do things which will be super interesting and useful. This is what made the Pebble super interesting and why I find Eric Migicovsky, such a fantastic designer/developer/creator. His values are infused through each project he’s started.
I have some news to share and have been sharing it slowly when meeting people since Summer. After 3.5 years of being together, you can guess me and Alison are now engaged! It was Alison who proposed to me, which is a thing as it runs in the family, with her mum and grandma proposing to their partners too.
We recently changed our relationship status on Facebook, but I don’t think Facebook should have a monopoly on this, so here is a short blog post.
We plan to have a long engagement as we would like to live together before officially getting married. Ultimately we are committed to each other and would like people to know how we feel.
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.”
Ian thinks: I found this conversation spot on, as it touches on many things I find really interesting right now and links them up. From the problems of mass social media to weaponized addiction being generated on mass. Addiction is always a contentious point but regardless, it all points to a future where our revealed preferences are indulged without friction for profit and control..
Ian thinks: I don’t drive a car, and this episode is full of interesting points including the one about superman, electric cars effect on space and the city and the social impact on loneliness.
Ian thinks: If you are in the tech field or even looking in, its clear everybody is talking about the AI bubble but this podcast from Wired again, really breaks down the characteristic of a bubble.
Ian thinks: We all new this was coming. You message first thing in the morning, last thing at night, you message on the toilet! That relationship seems so innocent but engaging. Now there is legal challenges a foot, which could make that relationship grounds for a divorce.
Ian thinks: This video from Wired magazine, starts off with the usual cryogenic nonsense but then grief bots and AI avatars suddenly become a lot more real. I especially like the shout out to get a will and manage your digital legacy. This is something I am working on with a project called Machine readable wishes.
Ian thinks: The NSA’s mobile guide is interesting reading, there are nuggets of information such as restart your phone weekly and have a case which block room audio. Paranoid or just good advice?
Ian thinks: I recently gave a talk about AI to a health insurances. I talked a lot about loneliness and bots. Although I didn’t include it, this detailed video forecasts the logical end of social being the dead internet theory but far far worst.
Ian thinks: Remember when OpenAPI was sharing chatGPT conversations? Well analysis of the conversations by the Gerrit De Vynck tells us exactly how puppy like and integrated it is with peoples lives. Counter to what the AI companies have been saying, this is worry-some to hear and read.
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Wired magazine has a good summary of the death tech or I prefer digital legacy space. I can believe the sector is worth 125,000,000,000 dollars but people are throwing money around in the wrong places I feel.
The best part of the video comes when talking about what people can actually do to take some control over their digital legacy. First step get a will, talk with your family and finally take some control of your data now.
This is why I have been working on machine readable wishes, which work alongside a will. It could be super useful to help people take control of their legacy in the future. The beauty of it is, that it is legal now (in common law countries), doesn’t require any major changes and is open source.
Its a really good piece about the massive leap the Pacemaker device provided way back in 2008. In short the device was up against smartphones like the iphone. Smartphones turned everything down to software.
…the idea of carrying a dedicated device for DJing felt quaint when your phone could theoretically do the same thing via an app
Theres mentions of Tonium’s attempts with the Blackberry playbook, something I used and absolutely hated after my bad experience. Then the change to software, on the iOS platform with the first to have Spotify integration. But I do like the nod to the community and people like myself who modified their Pacemaker devices with a SSD, new battery and replacing the firmware with unofficial builds. I actually use one of the unofficial ones on one device and the last official one on another for live mixing and stability.
But best of all is the ambition of the Pacemaker device. Its what got me to buy my very first one back in 2007.
Looking back at the Pacemaker now, it feels like a glimpse of a future that never quite materialised. The device represented a genuine attempt to rethink DJing for a mobile-first world, to distil the essence of club culture into something genuinely portable without compromising on functionality. It had vision, ambition, and genuine innovation behind it. The execution was largely solid, the feature set comprehensive, and the user experience thoughtfully designed. In many ways, it was exactly what it promised to be: the world’s first truly portable professional DJ system.
For those who owned one, used one, or simply appreciated what it tried to do, the Pacemaker remains a fascinating piece of music technology history. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most interesting innovations aren’t the ones that achieve mainstream success but rather the ones that push boundaries, challenge assumptions, and show what’s possible when you’re willing to think differently about established conventions.
In the picture, I put the Pacemaker device next to the Drift DJ zero and suggest this could be everything the Pacemaker promised and very almost delivered on. Its clear portable DJ systems are incredible and provide all types of possibilities not realised. Maybe its time for a #DJhackday?
I have been using the Pacemaker device for I believe 17 years now but I have been looking around for the next generation of DJ tools. It was Si who first sent me the Drift DJ zero and I was sold pretty much straight away.
Under a year later, I have have signed up as a alpha tester and today it came in the post from Chicago.
Its quite an incredible device, with the level of quality I expect will last even the most crazy DJ performances. Its small (its just a bit bigger a profile than my Pixel 9 pro, likely same size as the XL one) and its lighter than I expected, not pacemaker device light but easy to carry or host on a tray table on a train or plane. (Can’t wait to see the faces of KLM staff in the near future). All the buttons and nobs are solid and tactile in a way only another DJ would understand. The weighting and feedback is just right, while the screen is just delightful to see. Navigation is pretty intuitive as I haven’t looked at any documentation at all to date.
As this is the alpha, its not got a lot of the features like DJing or library control but the testers have access to a git repo to upload updates via USB. Not played enough yet but I have been told I can SSH into the device for extreme levels of control. When the official build becomes available, I will also receive one for the testing my feedback; which I feel is a fantastic deal.
One thing is for clear, I really need to sort out my music library, because the Pacemaker editor was prehistoric and I never managed it.
Expect updates and who knows a mix or two in the near future…
I had the absolute pleasure of talking about the social internet, public values and so much more in the Fireside Fedi chat. It was really good fun and we covered a lot in a short time. Everything from the Fediverse to CSS is covered in a relaxed and fun way.
Conference season is pretty much over and my last event was the excellent Mozilla Festival, this time in Barcelona. I took a KLM flight via Amsterdam on the way and created the base of a interesting mix. On the way back I flew via Heathrow on BA (a reminder how much I don’t like Heathrow, and use to fly from Gatwick when I could).
On my BA flight, I re-did the mix with a few tweaks and the resulting mix was created. Created using the very ageing Pacemaker device on KLM and remix/raised on BA? as such?
Its a strange one because there is a bit of reusing of the same tunes, which isn’t a thing you do when DJing, but it kind of worked. Also maybe the early mornings, 4 hours of sleep and climbing what felt like 100 steps to the festival, had gotten to me?
What ever it is, I have been enjoying this longer mix, as it includes new tunes, especially Bring back the techno which I also heard DJ B Jones playing on the Saturday night party.
About a month ago I was in Helsinki for the Mydata conference, one of the things I like to do is find new places. A guy I knew from Manchester suggested a really amazing speakeasy place to me, while I complained about the sugar-horrific gin & lemon in a can one night.
So I checked it out and thought it was a fantastic bar, although having your phone locked away when you needed to know the last train is quite something. However I met a stranger at the bar and we talked for a while and even walked back to the train station. Then on a second night after going to the theme park in Helsinki, he was there again. Although not a familiar stranger, it was some inspiration for this mix.
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.”
Ian thinks: This discussion between Taylor and Drew is very revealing, how prolific Ai slop really is. Its a detailed discussion and with lots of in-depth commentary on the process of how its made and why.
Ian thinks: Everyone is talking about the AI bubble but this video breaks down what a bubble looks like and with a critical eye how money is being passed around. How this works and are we really looking at the collapse of the last decades?
Ian thinks: During the PublicSpaces conference earlier this year, there was a great keynote talk in Dutch but a big part of the talk was around European culture and Startup culture clash. The German Digital-Mittelstand is a strong example of the long-term view of the European landscape.
Ian thinks: Bluesky has been talking about federation for a long while but its clear over this high profile this conflict with Blacksky.
Futher conflict is around the corner with the Trump administration’s arrival on Bluesky.
Ian thinks: The emphasis on smart glasses recently has raised a ton of red flags. It feels like there is so little learned from the past including Google glass. Gilliard and Paris break down what I have been thinking how little has been learned. On a more casual note.
Ian thinks: Cory has been on the circuit talking about his new book Enshittification. I have heard a few interviews but one of the best is certainly the one with Rushkoff where they talk about so much more. Second best is this one on Vox’s grey area.
Ian thinks: Talking of Douglas Rushkoff, he’s monologue on a potential intentional international collapse due the Ai bubble, greed, quality and so much is a sobering reminder of what’s at stake. But also the small steps we can do to make a difference.
Ian thinks: You may have come across this story about Mark Bray and his radical works casing him and his family to be put on a watch list of radicals. It’s a story in a worrisome trend of researchers joining such lists along side journalists and activists.
Amazon goes down and so many of the services we rely on daily and there are many thoughts about that? However there is so much more to this story than first imagined. This video explains how deep this all potentially runs.
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