ith Daniel Pocock mentioned again today (in the mainstream/local media), ahead of an election race that is due 10 days from now (we had ours last week) let’s examine what he is proposing: “In 2024, I contested the European Parliament election for the most disadvantaged region in Europe, Ireland’s Midlands North West. On 6 June 2024, the day before voting, members of the Debianism cult distributed a falsified legal document in contempt of court. The timing of the malicious publication was clearly an attack on the democratic process. In 2025, it was revealed that a key member of the group engaged in that vendetta is a registered sex offender from Florida. Other members of the group have repeatedly and publicly expressed support for violence. Subsequently, I published a detailed history of the dispute, demonstrating how another collaborator in the group died on our wedding day in 2011. His wife became the mayor of Basel. Imagine having that death on your mind on your wedding anniversary every year. As with everything in Switzerland, there is extreme embarrassment about the whole affair because it was part of the Debian suicide cluster. Many people in Clacton-on-Sea are deeply concerned about the risks of social control media for their children. If this online culture is not even safe for the people who created it, how can it be safe for kids? Mental health, in general, is a big issue for the region.”

Mental health aside, there is hostile foreign intervention.

can see 535,926 Web requests in Techrights and I can recall the days when it was 5k or 50k. The incentive to publish (write original articles) back then was profoundly different and writing more was not guarantee of more readers. What matters is the substance.

This is what LLM slop proponents don’t get and may never get. You cannot judge something based on the number of words.

Many legal documents are very carefully written and expensive to produce.

They will perhaps be read by two people – a recipient and judge.

The same is true for academic (scholarly) papers. They will perhaps be read by few people in the same field. They lack mass appeal. Many cannot even comprehend these.

HAVE been getting back to regular blogging in my personal site, which is turning 25 next year and today surpassed 2,900 blog posts. Soon it’ll be over 3,000.

Prior to Techrights this was where I was most active. I sort of neglected this space after participating in Tux Machines as well.

oday I published 46 short and long articles across 3 sites and it feels like a pace that I can maintain because of my habits and growing focus, a devotion to the task at hand.

Doing so without compromising other essential tasks (including sleep) is the bigger challenge, but it boils down to good workflows, discipline, and rational life rhythm.

What motivates me to write even more are the growing efforts – even violent threats – to silence me. When someone makes such demands, the only good response is to do more of the same.

T was nearly a decade ago that we bought the above percolator, which must have prepared thousands of litres of coffee, maybe 1,500-2,000 litres. It still works. We bought it about 80% off RRP in a closing down sale of Clas Olson in Manchester.

Today, for the first time in perhaps a year, I purchased some instant coffee. The price was right and I sort of miss the hassle-free way of making coffee.

Doing it the “instant” has many downsides, especially quantities. Growing up, I felt like “instant” was the only way. Nobody was brewing coffee except “old people”.

“Criminals often call other people criminals as a form of psychological projection, deflection, or hypocrisy.”

N case it’s not obvious, there are some people out there who believe that reporting crimes, opposing online abuse, and generally blogging about tech is sometimes something one deserves prison for. Worse yet, there is collective punishment extending to one’s wife.

It’ll never work. It can only ever backfire badly, both for those who wish for it to happen or those who facilitate or entertain this wish.

Later this year we celebrate 15 years and we still live in a country which cherishes free speech and freedom of the press.

AM reminded today that the Clacton by-election is 11 days away because the BBC has updated its article about it. The election has many candidates on the ballot. “In a statement on his website, external, Pocock, who is a software engineer, is asking voters to
read about his work on ethics in technology, safety of children online, artificial intelligence,
cryptocurrency and cybersecurity,” the BBC says.

This is “short and buried among the loonies,” a friend told me, “but at least he is mentioned [...] how does the math work out in regards to splitting the vote there? If all the anti-Farage and protest votes are spread too thinly…”

Well, it’s very unlikely that Pocock will win and many of the rest cannot win, either. The more potent contender can lose votes to the marginal candidates, but so can Farage.

The outcome will be interesting.