just-plain-life – Cubicgarden.com…

1 year ago I left BBC R&D, what’s happen since?

1 year ago I officially left the BBC after just short of 21 years.
Looking back at the post I wrote about how I had been since August 2024, when I first learned my position was at risk and the one I wrote in March 2025. A heck of a lot has happened in the last year. I now have my own business doing a number of different things, but all still focused on the public space. Although it’s been pretty stressful, especially at the start I have found some moments of joy and pleasure.

One of the simple but simple but hardest things is rethinking my role. I still occasionally use a bio which mentions working at the BBC as the Senior Firestarter. I have been calling myself Founder & Firestarter, which is ok. But thanks to Angie & Jennifer, I now have a better description of what I’m doing.

I’m a Digital futurologist, using data and insight to change people’s lives for the better.

Within the BBC, I was always a bit of an intrapreneur always pushing for new projects and approaches. I tended to bend the rules because they were not fit for purpose, be it forwarding calendar invites to my one and only calendar (separation of work and pleasure was never going to be the same for me). The result of this meant my network was vast and diverse. It was never just work, it was driving to a societal public purpose. I was never going to switch to a capitalist stance, and struggled when going to a few new networking events.

I become an advisor to quite a few different projects/organisations. Starting with the Amplify project (the only media related thing I’m doing now), then for the Open Rights Group (something I couldn’t ever do as a BBC employee) and Johannes asked me if I’d be interested in doing the same for the Fediforum. This was just before the future of social report was finally made public, thanks to existing colleagues (Bill, Antonia, Tristan, Todd and others).

My interest in the future of social connected with where I wanted to go and had pushed hard for the BBC to take a lot more seriously. I’m starting to push a bit harder on the social stuff as I have a big interest in how people meet, date, play and less alone lone generally. Currently I have a podcast series around modern intimacy, ideas/plans around the next generation of social platforms (the fediverse = Activitypub & ATproto) and finally my own book which I likely will self publish along with the dating manifesto.

My main work which actually pays is working with New_Public on the Public Service Incubator. It’s a good position and hope to be doing a lot more with them as the project matures to the open web.

During the year I did have some other roles I was asked about but I turned them down as I felt I moved on from a lot of the media stuff. Although Perceptive and adaptive media stuff is waiting for the right time. to rethink it Likewise, I had a lot of people ask about AI related stuff, which I have spoke about at a few events already. To date AI still doesn’t feature on my CV.

Screen of awardees at Mydata 2025 conference — You can see my face on the 2rd row, 3 from the right

My interest in data is still important with the digital legacy work, especially the machine readable wishes project with the first workshop at MyData 2025. It was also great to be given an award for my impact on Mydata over the years. Another place I have been focusing on more then previously. At FOSDEM 2026, I gave 2 talks. One a workshop on the machine readable wishes and the second one around Human data interaction, its a talk I thought about while at My Data 2025 and participating into their updated constitution.

Ian and Sam talking digital legacy from the FOSDEM social stage — Sam talking alongside myself at FOSDEM 2026

I have also met a few people on the way, a couple of them starting working for me (as such). Sam, was introduced to me by his mother who I knew from BBC World Service. He’s a highly skilled developer and interested in socially important projects which work for people. Hence the machine readable wishes was a ideal connection point. I have been thinking about the setup like a work experience with mentoring. The strange thing is that Sam isn’t the only one…

Ian Forrester talking in London to a crowd — Me talking about AI to the private heathcare industry

Currently I’m at a crossroads because I agreed to myself I would give the business one year… Its been just over a year now. I actually setup the business in mid April.

I like the freedom of running my own business but I don’t like the instability of chasing jobs. I have also made things tricky by working on multiple things. I had some advice from Jennifer who was slight shocked when I said I would give it a year and see (one of the decisions I made with my coaching. just before leaving the BBC) .To be honest the business isn’t doing too bad but I really hoped I would have some lecturing to add to the part time work and startup projects.

Balancing what it would be like to go back into full time work with the interesting life of running my own business is top of mind. I’m also super aware of the difficulty of getting a full time job right now. So many of my older friends are struggling with applying, gong through many rounds of interviews and unrealistic salaries. The tech industry is so full of lay-offs and insatiability. It seems to make sense to take advantage of personality, thoughts and build something for me.

As a whole its amazing where I was a year ago and wouldn’t have imagined I would be where I am now. But I can’t rest, I need to move forward as I have much I want to do, setup and achieve…

Maybe the firestarter is still apart of me… ?

Following up from my ULEZ fine – The computer is wrong!

Honda Silverwing in front of a Mountain in Ireland — This scooter hasn’t passed through London in a decade and I can prove it!

I have a follow up to the post about cloning of my scooter licence/number plate.

Ian Forrester | @cubicgarden

@cubicgarden@mas.to

Great, just got a ULEZ fine for a Honda car with a cloned number plate in London!

However

I drive a scooter not a car
I can't legally drive a car
I live 200miles away in Manchester
Haven't ridden in London for over 15 years
I was mid air in a plane across the alps when it happened

My scooter was locked up and hasn't moved according to the many locks, multiple trackers and CCTV's in the garage.

But I need prove it wasn't me?
According to…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3743p5q72o
https://www.wilsons.co.uk/news/what-to-do-if-your-number-plate-is-cloned/

March 11, 2026, 3:46 pm 2 boosts 8 favorites

Its been pretty hellish, with everything falling back to the analogue hole aka writing letters by hand to prove who I am with the DVLA. The MET police called me and after verifying they who they said they were, we had a long conversation.

Ultimately they identified the licence/number plate was incorrectly found using TFL’s (Transport for London) APNR (automatic plate number recognition system). Aka the computer vision was wrong! One character was off and that was enough for me to get the fine and go down the route of trying to prove my innocence. So I had to write to DVLA again, saying my number plate was not cloned but there had been a APNR mess up (I use my words carefully).

With my crime reference in place I wrote again.

The automated number plate camera used to capture the Honda Civic CAR has the wrong number plate. The number plate is actually a *****Y* which leads to a Green Honda Civic CAR. The number plate *****V* is my Honda Silverwing 600 cc SCOOTER/MOTORBIKE which has not been ridden in London for over 12 years and was locked in a garage under multiple CCTV’s during the date and time in question. I personally was on holiday and have many Manchester airport cameras and passport checks to prove I was not driving either vehicles. I have included pictures of my SCOOTER with the number plate in question. You can even see its the wrong size and SCOOTER don’t have front number plates! When I received this PCN, I thought my number plate was cloned as the SCOOTER has not moved or unlocked while I was on holiday. So I raised it with the DVLA and Police . I personally only have a motorcycle licence and can not legally drive a car or have ever owned a car. I urge you to use common sense and look up a Blue Honda Silvering 600 and see its not even a CAR. Let alone a Honda Civic CAR in Green. I have added the Honda Civic registrations in a simple look up you could.should have done. DVLA are also aware of this issue, alongside the GM & MET police services. This has been very stressful and honestly I’m upset about the amount of time I have had to use to prove my innocence over an automated camera.

So now I wait…

I assume TFL will send a letter saying sorry but this has taken a lot of time and effort on my part. What a waste of public resources too.

This is clearly a screw up and my suspicion of my number plate being cloned was right as there was no other way; although that’s what I thought thinking the camera was correct. Heck I fell for the trust the computer till the conversation with the police.

How many others have gone through this? Those automated number plate cameras are everywhere and honestly it chimes with all the problems with automation, surveillance and no transparency. Heck something simple like a V & Y can cause injustice.

A reminder to support the Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch in the UK.

Updated 30th March 2026

The letter I got back from TFL

Its finally over, they admit there was a administrative error and they had charged the wrong vehicle. This for me is a clear case of the computer says no; as mentioned above a worrisome trend of automated surveillance. The wording peed me off but what did I expect?

Anyway its done now, I can ride my bike without worrying about being pulled over for some stupid automated computer mistake.

Diabolo tricks on the Fediverse

For a long while I have been posting stills from my diabolo sessions on pixelfed. It makes a lot of sense as I was recording at 90 frames/sec making good still images.

However I decided its time to just go with video and as I’m quite a fan of peertube for my mixes on my own selfhosted site and rankett.net tube. I found a good peertube community at Makertube.

Especially since I bought a more up to date camera which can record 4k at 60fps, or as I prefer 1080p at 120fps.

Now you can watch, subscribe and ultimately enjoy the progression of my diabolo skills here.

Dealing with a cloned motorcycle licence plate

Silvering outside Ibis hotel — Would this beautiful scooter break the ULEZ rules?

Today I received a ULEZ fine from Transport for London?

Somehow I had broken the rules of the ultra low emission zone. On the day when I was flying over the alps in Europe on a holiday. My scooter hasn’t been stolen as I have used it since, plus I have a ton of thick chains and trackers on it (although we already know that never stops some people, just slows them down).

My scooter registration number (number plate) had been cloned and I needed to do something about it straight away, or this could really have negative effects.

Ian Forrester | @cubicgarden

@cubicgarden@mas.to

Great, just got a ULEZ fine for a Honda car with a cloned number plate in London!

However

I drive a scooter not a car
I can't legally drive a car
I live 200miles away in Manchester
Haven't ridden in London for over 15 years
I was mid air in a plane across the alps when it happened

My scooter was locked up and hasn't moved according to the many locks, multiple trackers and CCTV's in the garage.

But I need prove it wasn't me?
According to…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3743p5q72o
https://www.wilsons.co.uk/news/what-to-do-if-your-number-plate-is-cloned/

March 11, 2026, 3:46 pm 3 boosts 8 favorites

I thought it would be pretty straight forward but I realised reading around, its much more complex!

Contacting the DVLA and the police is harder than it should have been. None of them have clear paths for cloned number plates (I called the DVLA and maybe should have called the police too). Then I got a sense my insurance and all those many years of no-claims are at risk. But my insurance won’t do anything till I have a crime reference from the police.

The criminals (which they are) could be running up large amount of fines or even committing all types of other things (like robbery or who knows what) under my licence number. Most people don’t even know till the first fine comes in, which in my case is 11 days later.

After reporting it to the police, I had a look through the different number plate look up sites and found most were correct. However a couple gave clues to who had cloned my number plates.

Cloned licence found on a licence look up site

As you can see, my Honda Silvering is not a Honda Civic and certainly not green with a 1600 cc engine! I always wanted a larger scooter but 1600 would be a huge change from 600cc.

Mountain ride

This is bad, because of course its appearing places. However interestingly in the information which is blanked out, I can see the city location, history, etc. I won’t post it because I’m unsure how I feel about this, although with the right registration details you can look it up yourself.

Some resources for anyone who is facing the same. Starting with a BBC news page

Car cloning involves criminals stealing or copying another car’s registration plates, often choosing plates from a similar looking vehicle

The scam involves criminals using another person’s registration plates and running up fines and penalties which then land on their unsuspecting victims, who only realise there is an issue when the fines start arriving

Police say once reported, those affected can then contact the organisation that issued the fine, explain the vehicle has been cloned, that police have been informed, request cancellation and send supporting evidence if available

More practical advice and this quote shows how common it is…

Cloned number plates are very common in the UK, and the number of cases where cloned plates are involved has been increasing. Some of the factors that influenced the increase include the installation of more ANPR cameras, the expansion of London’s ULEZ area, and now more cities are introducing CRZ (Clean Air Zones).

Absolutereg.co.uk

Digital legacy planning?

Recently I was looking around at the space of digital legacy after a conversation with a friend and ahead of a presentation myself and Sam are giving at FOSdem 2026 titled Fedi legacy; next weekend in Brussels.

I was quite shocked at some of the products and services including expensive glorified spreadsheets templates (I won’t link to it).

Then I came across noni.digital and wanted to understand how it worked, as their site didn’t make it clear. So I checked out this video. Of course I was even more confused than looking through their site, so had a browse of their blog and finally found a video which made more sense.

So they are using the letter of wishes (the additional document for a will, which you can add almost anything to) like machine readable wishes but you need to trust them with a ton of very private information. I’m sure they have the legal backing to do this…? However I had a look through their privacy policy… Then saw a number of points, which I assume are ok in the USA? They certainly not ok by me and those wanting to keep things secure and private.

Anyway, I’m not calling them out but its certainly why machine readable wishes can be run locally, on a remote machine or be run as a service by a trusted 3rd party.

Which makes me wonder, if others have seen similar or better?

A review of my 2025 resolutions

Me and Alison sat at a bar looking at the camera — Me and Alison earlier this year

Well I did say in 2024…

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

2025 likely took on the challenge and hit it out the park. Talking of highs and peaks something big happened in 2025.

2025 was a struggle emotionally and practically while I faced for the first time my position being made redundancy, Last time at this time of the year, I was told the week before it was happening for sure. I then needed to pull myself together and plan for my uncertain future. Regardless I went ahead with my almost 3 months of paid holiday, had 5 different redundancy parties (why not?) and planned for what next.

Next included a heck load of travel! I visited Bristol, Lancaster, Amsterdam, Henden Bridge, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bath, Buxton, Harderwjik, Berlin, Newcastle, Gateshead, Sheffield, Barcelona, Helsinki, Espoo, Portishead, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Zwolle, Weston Super Mare, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Saint-Emillion, Berlin, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Gzira, Silema, Brussels, Breman, Soltau, Hoofddorp, Huddlesfield, Newport and London; this year.

Sadly I spent a lot of it on planes, my carbon foot print wasn’t good (a total of 14 trips on planes, mainly on KLM via Amsterdam). HS2 to Manchester, therefore to Europe is a but a distant dream, for now?

Sleep has taken a bit of dip again, likely due to the stress of redundancy and setting up a limited business. From average of 6.8 hours to 6.5 hours.

My Trakt time says, I watched way too much drama, and watched 161 movies, and 454 shows.

So what about my 2025 resolutions?

Find a new position of employment
Last week was the week last year when I received the official letter that my position in BBC R&D was being made redundant. The word was out and I looked at my options, picked up a few of the projects I had in mind forlosi personal and work.
I’m working part time for New_Public on their open source plans for the Public Service Incubator, its great working with them and the 6 other public service broadcasters (most I knew already)
In between I am doing bits of work here and there including lectures & talks. The other projects I’m working on is digital legacy via the machine readable wishes and the online dating manifesto.
The most stressful part is running a limited company, I feel like I jumped into deep end of freelancing as it took forever to get setup and feel like I wasn’t prepared for the huge change but hope next year will be more settled.
Finish my dating book
While all the massive amount of changes, I also spent quite a bit of time working on the dating book. I even gave a sneak peak of the cover during the publicspaces conference in June (if you were there during lunch). The struggles of the book name, subtitle, cover, etc has been covered. The stake to publicly release before Hannah finishes her PhD is pretty much been won, as the final cut is Hannah now.
I have made one last decision on the self publishing side. I’m going to spend part of the festive period and January going through the writers and publishers book to give it one more try before going the self publishing route for sure.
Head even further a field with the scooter
This didn’t happen, I had the opportunity to head to the Netherlands via the scooter but the costs of getting across channel to Europe was too high at the time (I was being careful with money having no solid income at the time). Another one for next year?
Learn to drive a car
As my partner keeps reminding me, driving a car would be really useful. However although I had more time as such (although job searching is super stressful and requires a lot of time) I had far less funds and wasn’t high on my list. Who knows maybe it might happen next year but unlikely.
Listen to 25 Audiobooks in the year
Currently I am on a train listening to audiobook number 27 (Cooked a natural history of transformation by Michael Pollan). So I have pretty much blazed through the 25 and thats with my old spa closing down and the lack of regular audiobook time.
Go to a new country
Yes I went to Malta surprisingly, with my partner. Not really a place I planned to visit but who knows maybe I’ll pop back one day in the future? This year my carbon footprint has not been good, with a 14 trips mainly via Amsterdam. I wish HS2 was happening up to Manchester because I would have happily got trains.
Go to a new Rollercoaster park
Yes marked off, I ended up going to Heide park near Hamburg, which is owned by Merlin (same as Alton Towers and Thorpe Park in the UK). Two rides of note are Flug der Dämonen and Colossos – Kampf der Giganten (I only got 2 rides before a film crew took it over for the rest of the afternoon.
See more of my friends further a field
This started to happen, there are quite a few I haven’t seen in ages but a lesson for me is to be better at planning a head
Personal knowledge management and task rethink
I started using Vikunji for tasks and Anytype for longer notes. Its working but I’m having issues with Vikunja flatpak as a client currently (think its a flatpak issue), the CALDav support does work but I find it iffy when using another CALDav client on Android and Linux. I’m going to try self-hosting it again.
Anytype is good but I find some of the ways things work a bit strange. For example trying to invoke a type on the Android app is more painful than it should be. Even creating bullets is more pain than it should be. I was also lead to believe the collaboration options didn’t need the full app to work, like it would create a web version if shared. This isn’t true from what I can see and from my tests.
Be more active about my personal health
Some good news on this front. I had a coach for a short while and he suggested I was doing everything right but I should do some weights to move things around my body. So I gave it a try and its happening. Then my spa shutdown but after a lot of hassle I found an alternative (Nuttfield heath) which works.
Generally I’m about the same weight but my clothes are dropping in size, meaning things are moving to the right parts of my body.
I’m also leaning more about what it means to be older and using my quantified self approach to full understand certainly aspects of what is happening. Of course I’m seeking professional advice from NHS doctors too.
Create a new social event
I thought a lot about this one but I just didn’t have the energy and time. Had a lot of thoughts and maybe I should look through the notes soon .
Do my bit for others in the community
This didn’t happen but something weird happened. A couple of friends who are mothers, got in touch over the year because their sons have gone through university and struggling to find their way into the tech industry. Long story short, I have been doing my bit by working together loosely Its not what I was originally thinking but life takes you to different places if you let it..

Some news about me and my wonderful partner, Alison

Me and Alison sat at a bar looking at the camers

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.

This is a solid commitment to each other. Especially as a lot has happened recently with my family, my position being made redundant and starting my own business.

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.

Bannatyne Gym/Spa shuts down in Manchester

A man spoke to me in the Bannatyne, Withworth street Steam room. I adjusted my headphones and announced I can’t hear him, as I’m listening to an audiobook. He kept speaking and I paused Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown. Turning to him, as he was the only one in the steam room, which was admittedly strange for peak-time.

The man says, what are you going to do when the gym shuts down?

I was shocked, what do you mean? This weekend it will close for good. This is the moment I found out the last Bannatyne will close for good and my weekly spa time with it. I confirmed this with the staff, as I left for the last time, not only to get clarity but to find out when I’ll be getting a refund for my yearly payment (which I now have). I was told the nearest Bannatyne gyms are Blackpool (55miles) and Buxton (27miles) now.

The thing which got me is how over August Bannatyne sent 12 emails about their new app in August but zero about the closure of the last Manchester gym.

It’s laughable how this has all turned out and so quickly! At once point there was 3 different Bannatyne’s in Manchester then with the last 3 years they have shut down.

The main reason I blog about this is because I’m looking (Lazyweb) for a Spa/Gym which is based in Manchester city centre. It must have a steam room, sauna and a way to cool down (cold shower, Jacuzzi, etc) following this a weight room. Currently I’m using Kontrast for my sauna but with steam room and zero weights its a stop gap (although I do like the late night weekends).

Honestly, I’m open to suggestions because I see many gyms and a few Saunas but very few which have all three without a seriously huge cost. I would even consider having different subscriptions if cost effective. I’m currently looking at Nuffield and others

They would be a great time, when all those Manchester spas/gyms would see this and get in touch with there best options.

Blog changes and self-hosting

You may have noticed cubicgarden.com has gone through a bit of change since I left BBC R&D. After setting up a Cubicgarden ltd, I quickly made some changes. One of them, is a quick page before you see this blog.

However I have finally got my Yunohost setup working thanks in a small part to Gemini, which filtered my queries down to something more understandable (It was a combination of a Yunohost bug which was fixed in the latest update, SD cards wear and reinstalling and DNS problems)

However, I now have moved things around to different domains.

We now have…

Cubicgarden.com = My personal blog
Cubicgarden.uk = My business site – Needs work
Cubicgarden.info = My mixgarden/Dj site – Still need to upload my many mixes, anyone know how to add the ability to subscribe and copy a channel with yunohost peertube?
Datingmanifesto.cc = The online dating manifesto – Still needs work and I need to move from Github to Codeberg too.

Expect more changes soon

Motorcycling lane filtering is a must!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRXIA-BwgK0

Filtering on a motorcycle is a must. I can’t even imagine not filtering to the front of the queue at traffic lights. The video above pretty much confirms all the things most motorcyclist know.

Passing on the side where cyclists usually are is certainly a death trap but I do see some motorcyclists in the UK do it. Although I do find it annoying when most car drivers don’t understand the rules around bus lanes (they usually have times of use on them, which makes it a normal lane most of the time).

I was shocked most of America and Canada makes filtering illegal.

It would be really interesting if Google maps had a motorcycle mode, especially in some cities like Bristol and London, where some bus lanes allow motorcycles and it can be a massive time saver. Frankly Google maps is always wrong with travel time for me on my scooter.