Connected to this: Bluetooth headphones do not need, and never needed, a flashing LED while they’re in use. I would regulate this harshly.

“Advertising doesn’t work on me!” I mutter smugly, before loading up the Apple keynote to see what my next phone will do.

and those that do post don’t really interact with others

I’ve found quite the opposite on Mastodon. I get WAY more interaction on there than I ever did on Twitter.

I do a radio show on Monday nights. Despite having more followers on Twitter I never really managed to attract many listeners. Dropped it for a few years and started up again a few months back, publicising solely through Mastodon. Engagement with it is three or four times what it was before.

It’s essentially a request show, and there have been a couple of weeks where I’ve not had to pick any songs to fill the time, all of it has been filled by listener requests.

That said, that’s only my experience, it may be different for others.

The story in To The Moon absolutely floored me when I played it.

I can’t say as to whether it runs on Linux, but it’s pretty old at this point and was never graphically intense to begin with so should. It’s a pretty short game too, but really is worth the time you’ll spend with it.

I have also stolen this idea and give it as much as one (1) week before I forget that I’m doing it.

cleaning the kitchen in the evening

To add to this, I set a five minute timer. I have ADHD, so even starting on cleaning can feel like a mountain to climb. That five minute timer is a really good way to see just how much you can get done in that amount of time. And as an added bonus, once you’ve started you figure you may as well finish.

So Ee-van-guh-lion, yes?

Podcasting

I love listening to podcasts, but almost never the ones that everyone goes on about. I like ones made by people with a passion for storytelling, or ones that serve as people’s journals, y’know?

I’ve made my own podcasts over the past 15 years or so, but a few years back I gave up. The barrier to entry lowering so sharply meant an influx of them, making it basically impossible to get mine heard. So I’d spend 8/10 hours making my 15 minute episodes sound as perfect as I could for them to get 5 listens. I tried to tell myself that I was doing it for me, but ultimately I wanted people to hear my efforts.

So I got burned out and at some point just abandoned the whole thing.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s wonderful that anyone can pick up their phone and bang out a professional sounding piece of audio, but between that and the likes of Spotify throwing cash at the already big names, it became impossible to stand out without having your own marketing budget.

I’ll never forget when the internal speaker went on my first iPhone, a 3GS. I put off getting it repaired because I was so used to having to send my previous Nokias and HTCs back and being without my phone for a couple of weeks. But the warranty was about to expire, so I bit the bullet and booked an appointment to get it sorted.

Walked in to the appointment and walked out ten minutes later with a brand new phone.

That sold me on Apple’s customer support.

I will say though, that the support seems to have tanked over the past few years. That they’ll jump on any blemishes on the device as a reason to not honour the warranty. Like how the screen in my XR had a tiny burn right at the edge (I was a welder at the time and stupidly had it in the top pocket of my overalls), which they used as reason to not work on it when it kept freezing. They demanded I pay £150 for a replacement screen first, which I refused, so they returned it to me. They’d taken off the screen protector, so I then had to argue with them for weeks to get them to replace it.

Shimano really should have turned to shit, what with them effectively having a monopoly (in mountain biking certainly) for literally decades. I don’t know whether it’s a Japanese thing or what, but they never did. Just kept quietly putting out decent gear at a variety of price ranges.

I picked up a full set of XTR v-brakes from eBay a few years back. Those things were still as good as the day they were new, despite being old enough that I only paid £20 for the lot.

I got so sad when I picked up some Airwalks a few years ago, only for them to fall apart pretty quickly. Turns out they’d been bought out by some branding firm who had licensed the name out to whoever wanted to make them on the cheap. So yeah, Airwalks used to be one of the big names in skateboarding shoes with Vans and DC, and now they’re dog shit.

I like how Hilti and Makita own… Hilti and Makita.

Sennheiser

Just FYI, Sennheiser’s consumer audio department got bought out a few years ago. I can’t say as to whether that has affected the quality of their products, but brands being purchased rarely works in their favour.

I’m a Sony kid these days.

I always wanted my music to sound nice, but could never afford the best equipment.

These days I have a set of Sony MDR-7506, and while I appreciate there are ‘better’ headphones, the detail I hear when listening to lossless audio through them is astonishing. I can listen to tracks I’ve heard dozens of times and hear elements that I’ve never noticed before. And these headphones are relatively cheap at £80.

All of these are good answers, but the movie with the best opening theme is obviously Alan Partridge - Alpha Papa.

Massive shame. Those characters are ripe for it. C’mon BBC, get to it!

I’d like to see any adaptations of any of the Watch books. Any at all.

I used to have a pair. Tried to use them on a train and ended up wishing I also had earplugs.

It’d be interesting to see if you could install the Steamdeck’s OS on a Steam Machine.

I put Linux Mint on mine. It’s like a brand new laptop. Incredible hardware.