he music of the past is better and more complex. A year before I was born Lisa Jane Stansfield (from Manchester) won Search for a Star and I still listen to her music in 2026.

Why is it that nobody in today’s “music industry” (the term industry seems misplaced, it’s meant to be an art form, not manufacturing) can still replicate what was accomplished when vocals could also play 2-3 instruments? Have the standards been lowered?

Similarly, computer programs used not to ship until they were well tested, solid, reliable. There was no “patching along the way”.

We’re settling on worse quality for the sake of “profit maximisation”.

ake a look at the tweets below, as recent as hours. I added green highlights.

Why does he still bother with x.com (at all) at this point?

oday we are one week away from September and I will soon ‘push to live’ the new version of “Today in Techrights” and “Over at Tux Machines…”

There seem to be no bugs in these. We still test a number of other things.

There’s also room for more scripting to lessen the manual work.

he insensitive behaviour of Brett Wilson LLP last year [1, 2, 3] was a self-inflicted wound, as it was not the first time, far from it, but this time it was more blatant and likely intentional (they like to attack people during holidays, they effectively weaponise religion). In this particular case it was a mistake as they know that in this sector being seen as antisemitic is career suicide and, to make matters worse, their biggest client is alleged to be profoundly antisemitic. Freedom fighters don’t massacre dogs and civilians.

oday I published 13 posts here, which probably is an all-time high for this blog or “Weblog” that began in 2004. That’s despite the fact we were out for Rianne’s birthday, so at least the day of this record will be a memorable one (the date).

Tomorrow we’ll be back to normal, except still on vacation. No journeys across Town.

Personal stuff isolated:

HE other month (June or July) I began writing many more posts in my personal blog and I didn’t expect it to ramp up this quickly – to the point where today this is the twelfth blog post despite us being outside the home much of the day. The aim was to improve Signal-to-Noise (s/n) ratio in other blogs and it seems to have worked. Fewer but more focused articles elsewhere.

I’ve meanwhile noticed an increase in Geminispace activity, so maybe it’s time to set up a capsule again at home, this time for another site in incubation.

oday we travelled to 3 places (quite distant from one another). One of them had a beach-like feel to it, but Manchester has no beaches, the closest one can get to that are the reservoirs, the boat canal, or the port-like structures in Salford Quays. They’re not too far from central stations, the weather was perfect (blue sky, but not too hot), so we made the most out of it and everything went smoothly for Rianne’s birthday.

9 years ago on the same date we stayed in the centre of Town, but not this time.

Next up we have the September 2024 [1, 2] counterclaim anniversary, then our wedding anniversary, followed by an anniversary in October, another one in November, and then my birthday in December, exactly a week before XMas Eve.

Lots to look forward to. We still need more rain.