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    <title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
    <subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>
    <updated>2026-11-11T12:17:37Z</updated>
    <rights>© Terence Eden. 🄯 CC BY. See https://shkspr.mobi/blog/copyright-and-copyleft/</rights>
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    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Thermal Master P3 Lite - and Linux Instructions ★★★★⯪]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77148</id>
        <updated>2026-11-11T12:15:00Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-13T12:34:48Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="infrared"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="thermal"/>
        <summary type="html">The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me (yet another) thermal camera. The P3 Lite has a detachable macro lens. As well as being good for scanning your house for leaks and looking for wildlife, it can focus down on tiny electronic components.      I've previously reviewed their P3 with adjustable macro focus, the chunky T2 Max, and the wildlife spotting DV2 - how does this compare?  Like…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/">&lt;p&gt;The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me (yet another) thermal camera. The P3 Lite has a &lt;em&gt;detachable&lt;/em&gt; macro lens. As well as being good for scanning your house for leaks and looking for wildlife, it can focus down on tiny electronic components.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/What-you-get.avif" alt="Camera in a small carry case, a lens, and a lightning adapter." width="1024" height="1271" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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Welcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to sweethearts who read my HTML comments. 

I do not really understand how I keep getting sent these cameras. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to the companies who send them to me and it's always fun to write about new tech. But I now have more cameras than I know what to do with. I've given a bunch away to people who want to play with them - but they are rather littering my room!

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TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've previously reviewed their &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/"&gt;P3 with adjustable macro focus&lt;/a&gt;, the chunky &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera/"&gt;T2 Max&lt;/a&gt;, and the wildlife spotting &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/"&gt;DV2&lt;/a&gt; - how does this compare?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Like most thermal cameras, it has a low-ish resolution - 256×192, but their X&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; software upscales it to 512×384 running at around 25fps. That's pretty decent for a small plug-in camera.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It also has a magnetically attachable lens for macro-focus, which allows you to see close up details.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/pages/p3-lite"&gt;read the full specs&lt;/a&gt; but, basically, it is suitable for all domestic tasks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="sample-photos-and-video"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#sample-photos-and-video"&gt;Sample Photos and Video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Note, all photos were originally 6MB JPGs - I've losslessly converted them to JPEG-XL and kept the (minimal) EXIF.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Point the camera at something and you'll see which bits are hot. Useful for checking your radiators are working.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Radiator.jxl" alt="Glowing image of a radiator." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Images are stored in portrait mode and have been rotated. As you can see, some of the UI elements remain in portrait mode. Here's a just-finished dishwasher:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Dishwasher.jxl" alt="Glowing dishwasher." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A 30 second video is about 12MB - it does include audio from your phone's microphone. I've recompressed and rotated this. It is a tap running cold, then hot, then cold again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"&gt;&lt;video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-77148-3" width="620" height="465" preload="metadata" controls="controls"&gt;&lt;source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4?_=3"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4"&gt;https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Video quality is, I think, excellent.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are a variety of different thermal palettes to choose from - and the camera excels at spotting where a circuit's hot spots are. Here's a Raspberry Pi:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Raspberry-Pi-Thermal.jxl" alt="Small computer with a hot CPU." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So what about the macro lens? Here's a close-up shot of a circuit board where I &lt;em&gt;haven't&lt;/em&gt; used the included lens:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Close-no-macro.jxl" alt="Blurry shot of a circuit." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Not bad, but what if we click the magnetic lens on?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Close-with-macro.jxl" alt="Detailed shot of a circuit." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Whoa! Much better. Here's a video demonstrating it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"&gt;&lt;video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-77148-4" width="620" height="465" preload="metadata" controls="controls"&gt;&lt;source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4?_=4"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4"&gt;https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="hardware"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#hardware"&gt;Hardware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The camera has a reasonably long USB-C protrusion - so it will fit in your phone even if you use a chunky case.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Because it is USB-C, you can have it facing you or facing away from you. Handy if you want some thermal selfies!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The lens is a simple affair. Note that the protective cover it ships with might not come away cleanly:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Sticky-macro.avif" alt="Some sticky residue on a lens." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I had to prise off the sticker to prevent that residue dirtying the main lens.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It ships with a USB-C extension cable (with USB-A converter) - that's handy if you want to keep camera and phone somewhat separate. It also makes it easy to plug it in to a computer. More on that later.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's a C to Lightning adapter if you're still stuck on an old iPhone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally, it comes with a little carry case emblazoned with the logo.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="the-app"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#the-app"&gt;The App&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Thermal Master Android App isn't brilliant. It's slow to start and has a bafflingly complicated interface. It takes a couple of clicks to take a photo, rather than the single click you'd expect.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As you can see from the photos, despite the timestamp being rotated, other on-screen elements aren't. You can possibly change this manually in the settings, but it is rather annoying that it doesn't do it automatically. Speaking of which, there are lots of settings to fiddle with - but you'll probably just end up on one that you like and leave it there.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/settings.avif" alt="Some settings relating to thermal sensitivity." width="504" height="983" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The app does work, but I wish it were snappier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="linux-usage"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#linux-usage"&gt;Linux Usage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/pages/download-center"&gt;Windows App&lt;/a&gt;. I couldn't get it working in either VirtualBox or Wine, so here's how to display the camera's feed in Linux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Plug in the camera via the included USB-C extension cable. It will show up in &lt;code&gt;lsusb&lt;/code&gt; as &lt;code&gt;3474:42b2 Thermal Master Technology Co., Ltd. P2 MAX&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;mark&gt;Note:&lt;/mark&gt; the device was previously known as the P2Max and this is reflected in the firmware.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Add a new udev rule with &lt;code&gt;sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-thermal-p2max.rules&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Copy and paste this into the file, then save and exit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;# Thermal Master P2 Max USB Rules
# Allow read/write access for all users
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="3474", ATTRS{idProduct}=="42b2", MODE="0666"
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Reload the rules with &lt;code&gt;sudo udevadm control --reload-rules &amp;amp;&amp;amp; sudo udevadm trigger&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hurrah! Your Linux machine can now control the camera. There's two ways to view it - and easy way and a hard way.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The easy way is to use &lt;a href="https://ferrolho.github.io/thermal-master-viewer/"&gt;https://ferrolho.github.io/thermal-master-viewer/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Open the website &lt;strong&gt;in Chrome&lt;/strong&gt;, click the "Connect camera" button, after a moment you should have a view like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/USB-cam.avif" alt="Thermal selfie. I have a cold nose." width="504" height="733" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The harder way is to use dedicated Linux tools like &lt;a href="https://github.com/Phalphy/OpenP3"&gt;OpenP3&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="https://github.com/skywalker1905/thermal-camera-viewer"&gt;Thermal Camera Viewer&lt;/a&gt; - you may need to hack around with them so they see the device. Usually that's as simple as adding the PID to the code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="cost"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#cost"&gt;Cost&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You're looking at around &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B0aHYIpyK"&gt;£220 for the camera&lt;/a&gt; and can expect to pay about &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-lite-thermal-camera-home-inspection?variant=54687042142492"&gt;£40 for the macro lens&lt;/a&gt;. You can sometimes find them bundled for slightly cheaper.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Readers of this blog get an extra 6% off at &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-lite-thermal-camera-home-inspection?utm_source=PR&amp;amp;utm_medium=MEDIA&amp;amp;utm_campaign=TEB+_P3+LITE"&gt;Thermal Master&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B0aHYIpyK"&gt;Amazon UK/US&lt;/a&gt; with code &lt;code&gt;THERMLITE6&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, that's pretty cheap for a thermal camera. At that price, I'd recommend buying one to share with your local community. If you are a member of a hack-space, these are invaluable for finding hot-spots on your electronics.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The image quality is excellent. There's no bogus "AI" features to hallucinate what it thinks it saw - you just get the raw image. It would be lovely if it presented as a proper webcam on Linux, but there are open source tools to bridge that gap. The detachable macro lens is handy, and the magnet grip is reasonably strong - but I wish it had a strap or something to prevent it getting lost.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's not a &lt;em&gt;lot&lt;/em&gt; of difference between Thermal Master's various cameras. If you want to swap between wide shots and macro shots, this is probably as good a device as any.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77148&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
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    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: This Is for Everyone - Tim Berners-Lee ★★★☆☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-this-is-for-everyone-tim-berners-lee/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77340</id>
        <updated>2026-11-11T12:17:37Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-12T12:34:10Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="web"/>
        <summary type="html">Is this a biography of a man, or of his mission? Is this the story of how the web came to be, or a lament for what happened to it? Do you crave the inside gossip, or the PR sanitised gloss?  This Is For Everyone, but I think it ends up being slightly unsatisfying for anyone.    It starts with the normal charming family anecdotes. No grand revelations or hidden secrets, just a lovely ramble…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-this-is-for-everyone-tim-berners-lee/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/paperback-cover.webp" alt="Book cover featuring Sir Tim in front of a blackboard." width="200" height="882" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Is this a biography of a man, or of his mission? Is this the story of how the web came to be, or a lament for what happened to it? Do you crave the inside gossip, or the PR sanitised gloss?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This &lt;em&gt;Is&lt;/em&gt; For Everyone, but I think it ends up being slightly unsatisfying for anyone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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I feel slightly bad ragging on this book - especially as I'm due to meet Timbl again in a few weeks. I suppose it is better than some of the other autobiographies I've read which are mostly well-worn anecdotes about how the author was always right.

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TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It starts with the normal charming family anecdotes. No grand revelations or hidden secrets, just a lovely ramble through growing up. It's hard to write a memoir without delving in to some of the frailty that makes us human. I wasn't expecting a "tell all" or histrionics, but divorces are waved away in half a sentence and the emotional aspects of life as the inventor of the web are almost totally absent.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Where his emotions shine through is the constant undercurrent of rage and disappointment at how the web has been corrupted.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;those operators turned the supposedly non-profit DNS address system into a nauseating free-for-all. Domain names would become an asset class for investors, rather than a tool for innovators&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;[…]&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;DNS fell into the hands of some rather unscrupulous operators. What had been an unremarkable piece of back-end internet infrastructure was temporarily transformed into a revolting for-profit bonanza.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;He is unashamedly catty about some of the villains of the piece. I won't regurgitate their names or give them the oxygen of publicity, but it is nice to see a senior tech figure call out some of the madness and harm caused by others. Similarly, he is harsh in his criticism of how some browser vendors have behaved. We can argue about whether XHTML was a mistake, but the "moat" of working with non-standards compliant pages makes for a successful monopoly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It isn't exactly a whinge, but you can hear the exasperation in his tone. He gave the world a magnificent gift and some people are trying to poison the well for all of us.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few chapters are dedicated to the rise of AI - and its perils. Similarly the tension between addictive algorithms and staying sane. These are certainly interesting thoughts, but perhaps belong in a different book. Memoirs are, typically, not about the future.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A large part of the book is taken up with Tim's "difficult second album" - &lt;a href="https://solidproject.org/"&gt;Solid&lt;/a&gt;. I &lt;em&gt;desperately&lt;/em&gt; love the idea of Solid - keeping your data personal and only allowing access for explicit and limited purposes. But I also think it is becoming clear that most people just don't care that much and, even if they could be bothered with all the admin, there's no signs that businesses want to get involved with it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At times, it feels like the book is mostly a pitch document for why Solid is the future. Again, not exactly what I was expecting from a memoir.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think every single part of this book is good - the personal memoir, the history of the web, the future of tech - but as a whole they feel a little disjointed. I think I'd rather have read three different books rather than have them jammed in together. I suspect the hard-core geeks will skip the domestic stuff and the average reader will be somewhat baffled by the dive into deepfakes and Mastodon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It does, however, contain a message of hope. The web is still here and it will last in one form or another for eternity. We have to keep working for it though.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;[M]y work with Danny Weitzner had shown me that it was not enough simply to release new technology and hope for the world to improve. You had to develop technology and society together. You really had to fight, in a principled and continuous way, for human rights.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We need that tattoo'd inside the eyelids of every tech executive who has tried to subvert the web for their own ends.&lt;/p&gt;
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    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[HowTo: Fix Eufy HomeBase 2 Storage Full Issues]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76208</id>
        <updated>2026-11-11T12:16:20Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-11T12:34:05Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Eufy"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HowTo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Smart Home"/>
        <summary type="html">Quick Fix: Insert a USB memory stick, format it in the app, restart the Eufy HomeBase 2, format the internal memory, restart the hub.    Background  I've had the eufyCam system for over 6 years - which is pretty long-life for IoT devices.  The cameras have worked pretty much flawlessly. Four years ago I added their Video Doorbell which has been similarly well behaved.  But last night I went to…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/">&lt;p&gt;Quick Fix: Insert a USB memory stick, format it in the app, restart the Eufy HomeBase 2, format the internal memory, restart the hub.&lt;/p&gt;

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Welcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to sweethearts who read my HTML comments. 

I get so bored of (AI written) blog posts that hide the relevant info under 500 words of "why this matters". Executive summaries are cool, yo!

If you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;h2 id="background"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#background"&gt;Background&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've had the &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/10/review-eufycam-2c-wireless-home-security-camera-system/"&gt;eufyCam system for over 6 years&lt;/a&gt; - which is pretty long-life for IoT devices.  The cameras have worked pretty much flawlessly. Four years ago I added their &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/01/gadget-review-eufy-video-doorbell/"&gt;Video Doorbell&lt;/a&gt; which has been similarly well behaved.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But last night I went to check some security footage, only to be told that the 16GB storage was full. Ordinarily that shouldn't be a problem. Full storage just means that older videos get wiped and new ones replace them. In my case, &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; the old videos were gone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I could see the cameras and control them, I just couldn't access any old recordings.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There was nothing on there I especially needed (although I'm curious as to when a courier dropped off a "lost" parcel) so I was happy to experiment with fixing the system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Eufy forums are full of people having these issues. Anker, the brand that own Eufy are usually fairly customer focused - but I guess they're more interested in getting people to upgrade to a newer hub than fixing the problems with their old kit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="what-didnt-work"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#what-didnt-work"&gt;What Didn't Work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Restarting - no change.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Repairing the storage - didn't fix anything.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Clearing the storage - dire warnings but didn't help.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formatting - a last resort, but failed.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2 id="what-fixed-it"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#what-fixed-it"&gt;What Fixed It&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I found an old 4GB USB-A memory stick and shoved it in the back of the Eufy. The app detected it fairly quickly and said the stick needed to be formatted - so I let it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once the stick was formatted, I restarted the hub. Running fix or clean didn't change the situation, so I tried formatting the main memory again. This time it seemed to work. It crawled to 100% and then hung.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I restarted the app and it told me that the storage was unformatted and needed to be formatted again, so I let it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I restarted the hub and everything sprang to life, no more warnings about full storage.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="next-steps"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#next-steps"&gt;Next Steps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'll keep an eye on the storage to make sure it doesn't fill up again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm reluctant to buy a new HomeBase. I like to self-host things, but the promise of commercial kit like this is that it takes the hassle out of ownership. I don't really want to be futzing around formatting memory and deciphering error messages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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Welcome to Comment Club! This exclusive content is only available to awesome folks who read my HTML comments. 

*sigh* I really don't want to self-host security cameras. I had some WiFi ones an age ago and they were so finickity. At least Eufy has a reasonably easy to use app and cyber-security professionals working on it. I don't want to fuck up a firewall rule and broadcast my garden to North Korean teenage hackers.

If you have any personal experience of self-hosting a video doorbell, give me a shout.

If you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If this fails again, I'll have to seriously consider moving my cameras onto something that I can control. At least that way, if it screws up, I'll only have myself to blame.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76208&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#comments" thr:count="0"/>
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    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Unfinished Harauld Hughes - Richard Ayoade ★★★⯪☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-the-unfinished-harauld-hughes-richard-ayoade/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77087</id>
        <updated>2026-11-01T23:31:50Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-10T12:34:31Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <summary type="html">A decade ago, I read Ayoade's first book. In my review, I said:  It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find …</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-the-unfinished-harauld-hughes-richard-ayoade/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/harauld.avif" alt="Book cover featuring a painting of Richard Ayoade." width="250" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A decade ago, I read &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/09/what-i-read-on-my-holidays/"&gt;Ayoade's first book&lt;/a&gt;. In my review, I said:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find it hilarious. Everyone else will just look on in bemusement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And, yeah, this new book is pretty much the same! It's an absurdist novel about a (semi) fictional TV presenter creating a documentary about a (probably) fictional director. Much like &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/book-review-the-satsuma-complex-by-bob-mortimer/"&gt;Bob Mortimer's books&lt;/a&gt; it revels in the mundane and delights in uniquely shaped language constructs.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As well as being wryly funny, it is mercilessly satirical. If you've ever read the risible scripts of an "influential" 1950s playwright, you'll immediately feel at home.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's the drip-feeding of a tiny mystery - but it isn't quite enough to sustain the story. There's no urge to discover what &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; happened; you'll read this like it was a steam train documentary on in the background while you do the washing-up. There's sort-of a plot-twist, but it is of no consequence.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Despite it's caustic and cynical view about theatre, there are moments of genuine profundity. I found this especially beautiful:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can sometimes cost ten times as much to sit near the front as compared to the cheap seats in the balcony. And that’s because it’s worth it. The experience is entirely changed by proximity. The tension alters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What do we want from a celebrity documentary? Is it scandal? Hidden secrets and bitter jealousies? Do we want a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making-of a documentary? This gets close to being a "Lost in La Mancha" in book form, for an author who didn't exist. It is an enjoyable read, but I think I'd've preferred to watch this late-night on BBC4 never quite knowing if it was a spoof or not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77087&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
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        <thr:total>0</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Blunt Banhammer Blocks Basic Bots Ballistically]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77230</id>
        <updated>2026-11-09T10:24:37Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-09T12:34:00Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="bot"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="PHP"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WebDev"/>
        <summary type="html">I cut bot traffic to my site by over 80% with a simple trap.  Last month, my hobby website OpenBenches.org transferred more than 2.5TB of data to visitors. As much as I'd like to think the site is enormously popular, it looks like it is just AI bots endlessly crawling the data and slurping up the images.  So I've built B to be an indiscriminate tool to eradicate these unwanted parasites.  It is…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/">&lt;p&gt;I cut bot traffic to my site by over 80% with a simple trap.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Last month, my hobby website &lt;a href="https://openbenches.org"&gt;OpenBenches.org&lt;/a&gt; transferred more than 2.5TB of data to visitors. As much as I'd like to think the site is enormously popular, it looks like it is just AI bots endlessly crawling the data and slurping up the images.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So I've built B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; to be an indiscriminate tool to eradicate these unwanted parasites.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is &lt;em&gt;very&lt;/em&gt; loosely inspired by &lt;a href="https://perishablepress.com/blackhole-bad-bots/"&gt;Jeff Starr's Blackhole&lt;/a&gt;, but works even on sites with heavy caching.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here's the high level description of how it works.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Create a directory like &lt;code&gt;/honeypot/&lt;/code&gt; on your site&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Put some code in &lt;code&gt;index.php&lt;/code&gt; within the directory&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Add the honeypot as an explicit "Disallow" in &lt;code&gt;robots.txt&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Include a hidden link to to the honeypot on every page of your site&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If something accesses that page, write its IP address to your &lt;code&gt;.htaccess&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The &lt;code&gt;.htaccess&lt;/code&gt; bans the IP address from ever accessing your site again.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This blog post shows you how you can build this yourself and discusses some of the problems it might cause.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="bad-robots"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#bad-robots"&gt;Bad Robots!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The file &lt;a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro"&gt;robots.txt&lt;/a&gt; lives at the root of your website. It contains a list of instructions to automated web crawlers. Respectful bots will read it and refuse to look at specific parts of your site.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Add these two lines to it:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;User-agent: *
Disallow: /honeypot/
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That says bots shouldn't visit any page in the honeypot directory.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots generally check for updates every 24 hours, so either wait a day or manually submit it to major crawlers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="htaccess"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#htaccess"&gt;.htaccess&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/howto/htaccess.html"&gt;.htaccess file&lt;/a&gt; contains a list of instructions for how your server should process requests.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Find the bit of your &lt;code&gt;.htaccess&lt;/code&gt; file which looks like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;&amp;lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&amp;gt;
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteBase /
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Edit it to look like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;&amp;lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&amp;gt;
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteBase /

### BLOCKED IPs
    #   TEST-NET-1
    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} "=192.0.2.1"
    RewriteRule ^ - [R=402,L]
### /BLOCKED IPs
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is important that these rules come before any other rewrite rules.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Change the end of this &lt;code&gt;IfModule&lt;/code&gt; to look like:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;&amp;lt;/IfModule&amp;gt;

ErrorDocument 402 "Payment Required - Access Denied."
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If an IP address is in the blocked IP list, the server will send an error code and a readable message. You can add whatever plain text you like here.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="wipe-them-all-out"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#wipe-them-all-out"&gt;Wipe Them All Out&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Inside the honeypot directory, create a file called &lt;code&gt;index.php&lt;/code&gt; (or whatever you like). When this page is visited, it grabs the visitor's IP address and the name of its User Agent. It then places them in the BLOCKED IPs section.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-php"&gt;//  What's their IP?
$IP = get_client_ip();

//  User Agent
$UA = isset( $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] ) ? $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] : "";

//  Get the existing .htaccess file.
$htaccess_file = "../.htaccess";
$htaccess = file_get_contents( $htaccess_file );

//  Split by newline.
$htaccess_lines = explode( separator: "\n", string: $htaccess );

//  Where's our start block?
$start = "###   BLOCKED IPs";
$end   = "###   /BLOCKED IPs";

//  Exit if the .htaccess doesn't have the block.
if ( !in_array( needle: $start, haystack: $htaccess_lines ) ) { die(); }

//  This is where to start from.
$start_block = array_search( needle: $start, haystack: $htaccess_lines );

//  Add the line after the start block.
//  Include a date.
$htaccess_lines[ $start_block ] = $start . "\n" . 
    "\t#\t" . date( "c" ) . "\t{$UA}\n" . 
    "\tRewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} \"={$IP}\" [OR]";

//  Turn the array back to a string.
$newHtaccess = implode( separator: "\n", array: $htaccess_lines );

//  Save the new .htaccess file.
file_put_contents( filename: $htaccess_file, data: $newHtaccess );

function get_client_ip():string
{
    //  Adapted from https://github.com/ibericode/koko-analytics/blob/main/src/Resources/functions/collect.php

    //  X-Forwarded-For sometimes contains a comma-separated list of IP addresses
    //  @see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-For
    $ips = empty( $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"] ) ?
        [] :
        \array_map( "trim", \explode( ",", $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"] ) );

    //  Always add REMOTE_ADDR and HTTP_CLIENT_IP to list of ip addresses, if set
    foreach ( ["REMOTE_ADDR", "HTTP_CLIENT_IP"] as $key ) {
        if ( !empty( $_SERVER[$key] ) ) {
            $ips[] = $_SERVER[$key];
        }
    }

    //  Return first valid IP address from list
    foreach ( $ips as $ip ) {
        if ( \filter_var( $ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE ) ) {
            return $ip;
        }
    }

    return "";
}
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;h2 id="setting-the-trap"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#setting-the-trap"&gt;Setting The Trap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Web crawlers look at a page, find every link on it, then visit those links. So we need to put a link to the honeypot on every page - but in such a way that normal users will not find it or click it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This adds a link, removes it from the accessibility tree, and gives it impossible to click text (a zero width joiner).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-html"&gt;&amp;lt;a id="honey" aria-hidden="true" href="/honeypot/index.php"&amp;gt;&amp;amp;zwj;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This CSS hides it from normal viewers and removes the mouse cursor from view.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-css"&gt;#honey {
    display: none !important;
    cursor:  none !important;
}
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;h2 id="problems-this-might-cause"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#problems-this-might-cause"&gt;Problems This Might Cause&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's unlikely that a human will find the link, click on it, and be banned. But if they do, consider put a message in the blocking text telling them how they can get unblocked.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some useful bots ignore robots.txt. If they identify themselves via a User-Agent string (and they should) you can manually remove them from .htaccess. You could also code in an allow list exemption for them. But, of course, many bad bots lie about who they really are.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Conversely, not all bots crawl every link. This won't catch bots which respect robots.txt but are nevertheless problematic.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you have thousands of different bots blocked, the performance of your server &lt;em&gt;might&lt;/em&gt; slow down while .htaccess is parsed. There's weak anecdotal evidence that it adds a slight overhead. But, personally, I don't think that's worth worrying about.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots often use hijacked IP addresses. After the bot has moved, an innocent party might be blocked from your site. Each block has a timestamp associated with it. You could periodically unblock older entries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots rotate through hundreds of different IP addresses. So the same bot might get blocked multiple times.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots might see the CSS marks the link as hidden and refuse to follow it. Instead of CSS, you could use invisible spaces or other characters which would be hard for a human to see but appear visible to a bot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Similarly, a smart bot might refuse to visit a path called /honeypot/ so choose a better name for it. A smarter bot would see that touching the honeypot leads to a ban - so perhaps a selection of traps are needed?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As is implied in the name, this is a &lt;em&gt;blunt&lt;/em&gt; banhammer. It doesn't give a warning, nor does it look at User-Agent, Country, or any other signal. You touch the honeypot and you receive an instaban. No warning and no automated way to appeal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="alternatives"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#alternatives"&gt;Alternatives&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are alternative ways to do this. Some bots don't send language headers, some use older versions of HTTP, they often have severely outdated User Agent strings. Those are all reasonable ways to block something which is &lt;em&gt;probably&lt;/em&gt; a bot. There are likely to be a few false positives though.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; has no false positives. A normal user &lt;em&gt;can't&lt;/em&gt; follow the link to the trap and a well-behaved bot &lt;em&gt;won't&lt;/em&gt; follow the link.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Things like Anubis require a lot of work to set up and annoy normal users. B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; doesn't require a specific hosting environment and is never shown to normal users.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="it-works"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#it-works"&gt;It Works!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Since running B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; a week ago, I've blocked over 400 IP addresses and seen a significant fall in traffic. I've not had any complaints yet. Sadly, none of the bots have paid to remove the paywall!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Bandwidth.avif" alt="Drop from 216GB to 26GB per day." width="505" height="837" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At peak, my site was seeing 216GB of data transfer per day. That's now dropped to around 25GB.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't claim this is the most sophisticated bot blocker in existence - but I enjoyed building it myself. I'll probably add something to records the geolocation of the IP and maybe remove any block older than a certain age.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you'd like to use it or improve this code, I'd be grateful if you treated it as &lt;a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html"&gt;AGPL v3 licensed&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77230&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#comments" thr:count="32"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/feed/atom/" thr:count="32"/>
        <thr:total>32</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Some thoughts on restaurant menu QR codes]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/some-thoughts-on-restaurant-menu-qr-codes/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=72653</id>
        <updated>2026-09-25T11:08:36Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-08T12:34:01Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="future"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="QR Codes"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="restaurant"/>
        <summary type="html">Is anyone else SICK AND TIRED of the way hotels now foist plastic "keycards" on guests?  No! I don't want tap to open my door!  No! I don't want to keep the card in my wallet!  No! I don't want electronics in control of my life!  What if I need to stab an attacker? Keys are great for that by flimsy plastic cards are useless  Gives us PROPER keys with big keyrings that we have to hand in to…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/some-thoughts-on-restaurant-menu-qr-codes/">&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is anyone else SICK AND TIRED of the way hotels now foist plastic "keycards" on guests?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No! I don't want tap to open my door!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No! I don't want to keep the card in my wallet!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No! I don't want electronics in control of my life!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What if I need to stab an attacker? Keys are great for that by flimsy plastic cards are useless&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Gives us PROPER keys with big keyrings that we have to hand in to reception when we go out and then ask for when we come back.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That is &lt;em&gt;exactly&lt;/em&gt; what you sound like when you complain about restaurant menus now being available by QR code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My wife and I took a &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/another-ridiculous-interrail-holiday-6379km-and-13-countries-over-7-weeks/"&gt;7 week Interrail through Europe&lt;/a&gt;. While most places still had boring paper menu, a decent number had QR codes which allowed us to see the menu and order food. And they were &lt;em&gt;brilliant&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;An electronic menu offers so many advantages. Being able to instantly translate any terms by selecting the text is much easier than pointing a camera and trying to focus on a laminated bit of card.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That said, most of the online menus were already fully translated. They had all the legally mandated allergen information. Many of them showed when something was out of stock. &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/travelling-around-japan-as-a-vegetarian-vegan/"&gt;We had much the same experience visiting Japan&lt;/a&gt; - getting to see a photo or video about the dish you're going to order is surprisingly useful.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The ones which allowed you to order were even better. So easy to select the right thing - no hoping that the waiter didn't mishear "no cheese" as "extra cheese". Notes to the kitchen about allergies were often supported. Oh, and no trying to catch the waiter's eye to let them know you're ready to order.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Speaking of which, no trying to catch the waiter's eye when you want to pay! Several of online platforms allowed for payment through the Web. Most supported splitting the bill between a group - so no more trying to work out who ate what.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So let's talk about the down-sides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"What if there's no signal?!?!?" Get a roaming SIM, chief. But, as it happens, every restaurant had fast and free WiFi. Because, you know, they understand the service they're providing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"I don't want a bloody app!!!!" Me neither. I didn't encounter any which required me to install a one-time app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"Online ordering tries to upsell to me and I have no self control...." Sure. But waiters often recommend the most expensive wine to go with their cheapest dish.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"How can I flirt with a waitress if everything is mediated through a screen?????" Please reconsider your life choices.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"But I hate progress and love paper!" OK. In just about every restaurant I saw people being handed paper menus. Or wait staff explained what each dish was.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"Yes, but in the worst case scenario I've constructed in my head I have no signal, no phone, and no alternatives - and now I'm irrationally angry about that!" So walk out. Seriously, you'd leave a restaurant if the waiter was rude, or you saw a rat, or the food didn't come for an hour. Do the same if you're forced to use a service that you hate.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I've said before, &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/06/the-modern-world/"&gt;I love living in the future&lt;/a&gt;. I can't be bothered with fully grown adults throwing a tantrum over every bit of progress.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=72653&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/some-thoughts-on-restaurant-menu-qr-codes/#comments" thr:count="14"/>
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        <thr:total>14</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: When the Dust Settles - Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster by Lucy Easthope ★★★★★]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73538</id>
        <updated>2026-11-07T13:11:57Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-07T12:34:34Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <summary type="html">This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way.…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/hbg-title-when-the-dust-settles-2-32.webp" alt="Book cover." width="300" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-73539"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way. It's all very well having a plan to repatriate bodies, strict timetables for witness statements, and a clinical approach to disposing of victims' personal effects - but there needs to be space for a &lt;em&gt;humane&lt;/em&gt; response; not just a humanitarian response. People need space to grieve, they need a shower and cup of tea, they need to be allowed to fucking scream.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My chauvinistic biases were stopped in their tracks by the unrelenting assault of pure and righteous indignation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Women in disaster planning and response are constantly accused of overreaction, of too much thinking and emotion. We ignore our instincts in an effort to fit in.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is also a rallying cry against the national crime that was austerity. The hollowing out of the state's capacity to respond to trauma was a vicious and unnecessary attack on our future. Hoping that the worst never comes is in itself a recipe for disaster.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The book is necessarily grim - with occasional gallows humour - but never fails to be fascinating:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seemed that pigeons and other birds were scooping up the smallest human bones, the finger bones or phalanges, that were still being uncovered&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every chapter contains at least one "big ooof" where you can see exactly how reality refuses to comply to with the best laid plans of disaster planners. Here's one about the difficulty in identifying people after a disaster:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;[The victims] had the same kit on and, in an extra twist of fate, they had all dyed their hair canary yellow for the game.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I said, it is a difficult and bloody book. Vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the why and the how of complex recovery efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73538&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/#comments" thr:count="2"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/feed/atom/" thr:count="2"/>
        <thr:total>2</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[A video game which caused real world violence]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=64450</id>
        <updated>2026-11-06T09:59:09Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-06T12:34:34Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Augmented Reality"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="games"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mobile"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <summary type="html">There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.  I don't want to go too Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people …</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/">&lt;p&gt;There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't want to go &lt;em&gt;too&lt;/em&gt; Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people via a headset rarely leads to real-life consequences.  Beating up street-fighters is less risky than being in a street fight yourself.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But there are times when games &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; cause problems away from the screen. Players of Pokémon Go ramble about outside trying to collect digital pets - this also causes them &lt;a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50971309"&gt;to trespass into military bases&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was recently reminded of &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2010/11/augmented-reality-games-how-far-have-we-come-in-7-years/"&gt;one of the first Augmented Reality Games - Mozzies&lt;/a&gt;. Back in 2004 having a phone with a camera was almost unheard of. The Mozzies game let you see virtual mosquitoes overlayed on the real world - and then shoot them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Waving your cameraphone around while playing caused at least one case of physical violence.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here's a report from Singapore's &lt;a href="https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/newpaper20041006-1.2.3.3"&gt;The New Paper on 6 October 2004&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm grateful to &lt;a href="https://mastodon.social/@esmepotatoes"&gt;Esme Potatoes&lt;/a&gt; for helping me find a transcript.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;h2 id="playing-game-or-snapping-girl-then-smash"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#playing-game-or-snapping-girl-then-smash"&gt;Playing game or snapping girl? Then… SMASH!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/newpaper20041006-1.1.3.webp" alt="Blurry screenshot of a newspaper." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-64452"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The incident happened while he and his friends were at Orchard Cineleisure for a movie recently.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before the movie started at 7pm, his friends went to E-Zone, an arcade in the same building. The Indonesian student, who has lived in Singapore for more than 10 years, preferred to wait outside and play his favourite game, Mozzies, on his Siemens phone.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The game, which involves killing mosquitoes that appear on screen, requires the use of the phone's camera.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The camera captures a live video image as the game's playing background, with the mosquitoes appearing in the foreground.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The player has to move the phone around to target the mosquitoes.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono said: "I was so engrossed with the mosquitoes, I became oblivious to my surroundings."

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Then, I saw through the phone, a figure behind the swarm of mosquitoes heading in my direction but I thought he was just passing by."

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono claims the man then shouted: “Trying to take a photo of my girlfriend, is it?”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he smashed the phone on the floor.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono said he told the man, whom he estimates to be in his mid- or late 20s, that it was a misunderstanding and that he could check the phone for himself to see if he had indeed taken pictures of the man’s girlfriend. 

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the phone was so badly damaged it could not be turned on.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I was really shocked. He was behaving very aggressively, I thought he was going to hit me,” Heriyono said.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3 id="man-walked-off"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#man-walked-off"&gt;MAN WALKED OFF&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But the man then walked off with his girlfriend, he said.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono and his friends decided not to chase after the man because he was older and they were worried he could get violent.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono did not make a police report either.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He was worried the man may get to him again, and refused to be photographed for this report.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When contacted, Siemens Mobile said it has never received any complaints about the games on its handphones. (See other report.)  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Mozzies game is available only on the Siemens SX1 model.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono had bought the handphone about four months earlier for over $700, after convincing his parents that it would be worth it because he uses all its functions, including the radio and MP3 player.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he particularly liked the Mozzies game.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“In the end, the game caused me so much trouble,” he said with a sigh.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He sent the phone to the Siemens service centre but was told it was beyond repair.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His friends told him later that his actions could have looked suspicious.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I realised that I could have looked like a pervert if seen by a passer-by,” he admitted.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The thrill took over basic common sense and I began pointing my camera around.”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The girl was playing “air hockey” with her boyfriend at the time.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Miss Nalia Suli, 18, the receptionist at E-Zone, said she saw the commotion.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She said: “The girl was dressed very sexily. Her skirt was very short and when she bent down to pick up the ball, you could see her underwear.”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She, too, thought Heriyono was taking pictures of the girl.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If he wasn’t taking pictures, why was the camera facing up?”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Heriyono said: “Yes I could have pointed to the floor. But the mosquitoes are everywhere on the screen, you have to move around to kill them.”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is now using a handphone he has borrowed from a friend, until he saves up enough to buy another. “I think after this incident, I will buy a much cheaper phone,” he said.  
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps staying inside to play games is safer all round!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=64450&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#comments" thr:count="0"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/feed/atom/" thr:count="0"/>
        <thr:total>0</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Tozo NC9 Pro Bluetooth Headphones ★★★★⯪]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76826</id>
        <updated>2026-11-05T09:49:54Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-05T12:34:17Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="bluetooth"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB-C"/>
        <summary type="html">The most interesting thing about these headphones isn't the headphones; it's their case.    The good folks at Tozo have sent me a pair of their new ear-blasters. They're a fairly standard pair of in-ear headphones. Sound quality is good, noise cancelling is excellent, battery life is fine. You know, all pretty standard. But what's actually a little bit special is the charging case.  As well…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/">&lt;p&gt;The most interesting thing about these headphones isn't the headphones; it's their case.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Case.avif" alt="A small headphone case with a colourful touchscreen." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The good folks at Tozo have sent me a pair of their new ear-blasters. They're a fairly standard pair of in-ear headphones. Sound quality is good, noise cancelling is excellent, battery life is fine. You know, all pretty standard. But what's actually a little bit special is the charging case.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As well providing charging to the cans, it has this cute little full-colour display!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Equaliser-settings.avif" alt="Case showing charging level and some buttons." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Which is also a touchscreen!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Everyone knows that hardware manufacturers can't write decent apps - and Tozo are no different. But here you don't have to rely on the app, or &lt;em&gt;anything&lt;/em&gt; on your phone. Tap the screen to wake, slide to unlock, fiddle about with the settings:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDAC-settings.avif" alt="Touchscreen options to set the connection or toggle LDAC." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Or change what song is playing:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Sinatra.avif" alt="Case showing the song title and artist. There are buttons to pause as well as skip forward or back." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Or interact with a dozen different helpful functions:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/QR-code.avif" alt="A QR code showing on screen to get the app." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;h2 id="specs"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#specs"&gt;Specs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href="https://www.tozostore.com/products/tozo-nc9-pro-active-noise-cancelling-wireless-earbuds-ldac-hi-res-audio?variant=53470092329249"&gt;read about the headphones on the official site&lt;/a&gt; but the headline features for me are:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;14 hours playback with about 60 hours from the case.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;LDAC if you crave bit-perfect audio.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Active Noise Cancelling with various different modes.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Multi-function touch buttons on each side.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2 id="the-app"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app"&gt;The App&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;*sigh*&lt;/em&gt; OK, it isn't the &lt;em&gt;worst&lt;/em&gt; headphone app I've used, but it isn't great. In its defence, you do not need to create an account in order to use most of the features.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Log-in.avif" alt="A login screen." width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The app isn't brilliantly translated, but you'll probably be able to figure it out.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Translation.avif" alt="A poorly translated screen. &amp;quot;After the notification is enabled, the APP message notification can be obtained immediately. To turn on&amp;quot;" width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can play about with some basic settings in the app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Basic-settings-screen.avif" alt="A basic settings screen allowing you to change the time display, screen brightness, and wallpapers." width="504" height="1015" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Both headphones support multi-tap, so you can change them to your preference. There are four different types of tap each ear can support.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/touch-controls.avif" alt="Touch controls for click, double click, triple click, and long press. They can change volume, song, and change mode." width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's also possible to change the noise cancellation. The functions are perhaps a little indistinguishable - but they do work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Noise-cancellation.avif" alt="Noise cancellation, transparency mode, reduce wind noise, leisure mode, normal, adaptive." width="504" height="499" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is, sadly, a bunch of bullshit in the app. As well as a shop, there's also this weird "Community" tab given pride of place in the middle of the shortcut bar.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Community.avif" alt="A bunch of social media posts." width="504" height="1032" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Apparently you can earn points the more you post? Why? Who cares! You also get the now-ubiquitous AI tools, which you have to sign in to use, and some white noise to drown out the sounds of the world.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AI.avif" alt="AI options to record meetings." width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, the app is usable. You can adjust the EQ to your preferences, check for firmware updates, and similar. But you'll play with it once or twice then forget it exists.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="audio-quality"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#audio-quality"&gt;Audio Quality&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm not an audiophile. I'm not going to pretend that you need virgin-rolled cables adorned with mystic crystals in order to hear the true sonic soundstage of The Spice Girls.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Everything sounds fine. The default profile was good enough for me. I pumped up the bass and it was nice and boomy. There was no noticeable sound leakage at moderate volumes. The "spatial mode" didn't sound particularly nice to me and introduced a fair bit of distortion.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The noise cancellation was pretty decent as well. It won't drown out a crying baby next to you on public transport.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It will do LDAC on both Android:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDAC-and-spatial.avif" alt="Android screen showing LDAC and Spatial Audio." width="504" height="451" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And Linux:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Linux-showing-LDAC.avif" alt="Linux showing LDAC as an A2DP sink." width="1300" height="550" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sound quality on both was excellent.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="usability"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#usability"&gt;Usability&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Pretty good! The taps are quick to respond and, of course, you can whip out the case if you want to change the settings. The touchscreen is small but responds well.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="price"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#price"&gt;Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;They're between &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B0hxpfc1S"&gt;£50 - £60&lt;/a&gt; on Amazon right now, or about &lt;a href="https://www.tozostore.com/products/tozo-nc9-pro-active-noise-cancelling-wireless-earbuds-ldac-hi-res-audio?variant=53470092329249"&gt;£40 direct from the manufacturer&lt;/a&gt;. That's bang on what I'd expect for normal headphones, but I think is decent value considering the little touch-screen it includes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's a pity that the app is &lt;em&gt;so&lt;/em&gt; woeful. But once you've set up your favourite EQ settings, you'll never need to touch it again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But if you want noise cancelling, snug fitting, easy to use headphones, these are hard to beat.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Many thanks to Tozo for supplying me with the review unit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76826&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#comments" thr:count="3"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/feed/atom/" thr:count="3"/>
        <thr:total>3</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Practice by Rosalind Brown ★★★★☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76815</id>
        <updated>2026-11-03T22:01:48Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-04T12:34:07Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="oxford"/>
        <summary type="html">I have a simple rule - if I meet someone at a party and they say they've written a book, then I will immediately buy that book. It's a strategy which has worked out well; leading me to some truly interesting and delightful prose.  Rosalind Brown (a fellow UEA graduate) has written a stunning little book. Practice is an almost Proustian meander through a day-in-the-life of a young woman going…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/practice.webp" alt="Book cover featuring an illustration of a woman reading a book." width="240" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have a simple rule - if I meet someone at a party and they say they've written a book, then I will immediately buy that book. It's a strategy which has worked out well; leading me to some truly interesting and delightful prose.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Rosalind Brown (a fellow UEA graduate) has written a stunning little book. Practice is an almost Proustian meander through a day-in-the-life of a young woman going through an essay crisis.  Much like &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/03/book-review-katabasis-by-r-f-kuang/"&gt;R. F. Kuang's "Katabasis"&lt;/a&gt;, I'm rather glad the author found university to be a bewildering and, at times, upsetting experience as it provides rich fodder for this tale.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is an inherent tragedy in studying English literature. The more you read, the more futile it becomes. Just like repeatedly saying a word aloud creates &lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06162-0"&gt;semantic satiation&lt;/a&gt;, so to does the repeated reading of sonnets drive away all their meaning. The closer you study a poem the further it slips from your grasp. The more introspective you become, the more you lose sight of what you really want out of life.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As Proverbs 26:11 suggests, some students are like a snake which is compelled to eat its own tail. The protagonist, Annabel, isn't a caricature but she sure is a trope that you've met in halls. She's a woe-is-me wretch who'd rather cultivate a "Heated Rivalry" style interior monologue rather than engage with those around her. So self-absorbed to that she doesn't realise that, not only do other people have feelings, other people are carrying the same burden she does. I suspect her essay research really should have widened to include the seminal "&lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1052937"&gt;Male gays in the female gaze&lt;/a&gt;"!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's a short novel, but pleasingly thorough. Although there aren't any major twists, I can't say I predicted how the story would evolve and conclude. The punctuation and sentence structure is charmingly idiosyncratic and, I think, perfectly fits the story.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A note on formatting. The ePub has &lt;em&gt;hard&lt;/em&gt; page breaks. That means some "pages" contain little more than a paragraph. I &lt;em&gt;suspect&lt;/em&gt; that's intentional as it gives a wonderfully staccato pace to the text. Our day is broken up into little moments which don't quite fit the strictures of a chapter, yet we experience the day as a cohesive whole.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;An excellent book - but one to read &lt;em&gt;after&lt;/em&gt; you've finished your homework.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76815&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/#comments" thr:count="1"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/feed/atom/" thr:count="1"/>
        <thr:total>1</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Just a little AI resistance, as a treat]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73536</id>
        <updated>2026-09-25T11:08:13Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-03T12:34:31Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="EMFCamp"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <summary type="html">At the recent EMFCamp, I bumped in to Professor Kate Devlin who was talking a little about the AI Resist List. I think one of the useful things we can do is loudly complain about shitty uses of AI. Here's an example.  As mentioned in a previous post, I'm contacting companies which send malformed calendar invites. One of the organisation I contacted was the British online supermarket Ocado. They…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/">&lt;p&gt;At the recent EMFCamp, I bumped in to &lt;a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/kate-devlin"&gt;Professor Kate Devlin&lt;/a&gt; who was talking a little about the &lt;a href="https://airesistlist.org/"&gt;AI Resist List&lt;/a&gt;. I think one of the useful things we can do is loudly complain about shitty uses of AI. Here's an example.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in a previous post, I'm &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/google-calendar-unable-to-launch-event-caused-by-missing-dtstamp/"&gt;contacting companies which send malformed calendar invites&lt;/a&gt;. One of the organisation I contacted was the British online supermarket Ocado. They don't have an easy way to contact their technical team, and no obvious paths to raise a bug report, so I filled in their usual customer service feedback form. I included a clear statement of the problem and a detailed technical analysis of why I thought it was a problem with their service.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After sending in my message, I received this back from "Lulu" at Ocado:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thanks for getting in touch and sharing this feedback about our calendar files.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You're entirely right—having a technical glitch pop up when you're trying to organise your delivery is a real pain, so I've made sure to pass your feedback on to our technical and webshop team.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We really appreciate you taking the time to help us improve our service. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I mean, that's AI right? It starts with the classic tell of a &lt;a href="https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/3382"&gt;sycophantic agreement&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next up is the em-dash. &lt;a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/books/review/em-dash-chatbot-human-language.html"&gt;Beloved by chatbots&lt;/a&gt; but almost unheard of in British English style guides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally (and this is hard to quantify) it just doesn't &lt;em&gt;feel&lt;/em&gt; like a customer service response. They're usually poorly spelled, have dodgy grammar, and ask a bunch of irrelevant questions. The message gave me no confidence that anyone had looked at the problem and I doubted it had been passed on to a technically competent human.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I immediately got a customer satisfaction survey. Usually I give top marks to humans because, even though &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/whats-the-incentive-to-tell-the-truth-on-surveys/"&gt;Net Promoter Score is bullshit&lt;/a&gt;, I don't want customer service agents to suffer the indignity of a bad review. But in this survey I vented my spleen - giving crappy 1 ⭐ scores on every metric and complaining vociferously about how &lt;em&gt;rude&lt;/em&gt; it is to use an AI to deal with a genuine complaint.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was both surprised and delighted to receive this back a few days after my invective was sent:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;I saw your survey comment about getting a robotic, AI-generated response previously, and I wanted to reach out personally to apologise. There is nothing more frustrating than pointing out a legitimate bug only to feel like you're talking to a brick wall. I promise you there is a real person typing this out!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Second, I wanted to send a massive thank you for the incredibly detailed diagnostic. It is rare to get feedback that tells us &lt;em&gt;exactly&lt;/em&gt; what is broken and how to fix it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can assure you that this has been passed to our team to look into. Your feedback is going to make things much smoother for a lot of people, and we really appreciate you taking the extra time to help us get it right.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thank you again, I do hope that this issue is resolved quickly. If there is anything else I can help with in the meantime, please don't hesitate to get in touch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps I'm being touchingly naïve, but that &lt;em&gt;feels&lt;/em&gt; a lot more human, right? The grammar isn't perfect, the sentences are a bit more rambly, and it appears to have actually engaged with the contents of my message.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I get that having a million irate customer service messages is a hassle. Using AI to triage them probably makes business sense, summarising the verbose ones could be useful for customer service agents, and totting up general themes is almost certainly a sensible way to gather metrics without overloading the workforce.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But using an AI to reply to a human is just disrespectful. It says the organisation values their customer's time at less than their own.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's OK to call out shitty AI responses and insist that a human engages with you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73536&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/#comments" thr:count="14"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/feed/atom/" thr:count="14"/>
        <thr:total>14</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Lorem Ipsum Dot Gov Dot UK]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75939</id>
        <updated>2026-10-23T10:27:50Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-02T12:34:00Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="GOV.UK"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="government"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WebDev"/>
        <summary type="html">I love testing in production. The thrill of accidentally publishing some dummy data - or taking down an entire website - is similar to skydiving without a parachute. Exquisite excitement followed by heart-stopping terror.  Before going live with a new website or service, it's sensible to test how text looks on it.  Most people don't test with readable text - it's too easy for management to start…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/">&lt;p&gt;I love testing in production. The thrill of accidentally publishing some dummy data - or taking down an entire website - is similar to skydiving without a parachute. Exquisite excitement followed by heart-stopping terror.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Before going live with a new website or service, it's sensible to test how text looks on it.  Most people don't test with &lt;em&gt;readable&lt;/em&gt; text - it's too easy for management to start reading the content rather than looking at the layout. So the default is &lt;a href="https://www.lipsum.com/"&gt;the Latin text "Lorem ipsum"&lt;/a&gt;. Latin looks enough like English to get a feel for how text will render - but most people can't read it so they gloss over the words and look at the layout.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Say, it sure would be annoying if those dummy pages ever made their way to production, right?!?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
You're now a member of Comment Club! This content is only available to the groovy gang who read HTML comments.

I'm pretty sure I once wrote a variant of this blog post, but I can't find it now. Perhaps I wrote something internal when I worked for the UK Government? Either way, I hope you have fun searching for placeholder text on *your* Government's website 🤣

As is custom, we now recite the three rules of Comment Club…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep your eyes peeled for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://blogs.fcdo.gov.uk/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-5/"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-5-–-Foreign-Commonwealth-Development-Office-Blogs.webp" alt="FCDO blog post with dummy text." width="1178" height="954" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One of the things that's fascinating about seeing testing data in a live environment is that you get a small peek behind the curtain of how a site was made. A tiny glimpse into the minds of the people who made it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Who was Alice? Did she enjoy her time working on the &lt;a href="https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-page-example-all-components-do-not-delete"&gt;London Councils' website&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-page-example-all-components-do-not-delete"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Test-Page-Example-of-all-components-DO-NOT-DELETE-London-Councils.webp" alt="Lorem ipsum text, and a link to &amp;quot;Alice Test Docx&amp;quot;." width="1177" height="973" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Was she friends with &lt;a href="https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/henrys-test-subsite-overview"&gt;Henry at Lambeth council&lt;/a&gt;? We may never know.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some of the placeholders eventually become load-bearing. For reasons which remain inscrutable to those who follow, the Elders declared some pages must remain sacrosanct &lt;em&gt;forever!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.hta.gov.uk/news/news-do-not-delete"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/DO-NOT-DELETE.-Human-Tissue-Authority.webp" alt="A page of dummy text on the Human Tissue Authority website with the title &amp;quot;DO NOT DELETE&amp;quot;." width="1177" height="973" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What would happen if that page were deleted? Would you dare risk it?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sometimes finding a test page leads to a dead end. A &lt;a href="https://www.knutsfordtowncouncil.gov.uk/council-"&gt;stub of a page&lt;/a&gt; which should have been purged before go-live.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.knutsfordtowncouncil.gov.uk/council-"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Council-Knutsford-Town-Council.webp" alt="Knutsford town council page with dummy text." width="1177" height="973" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But other times it can lead us to a page hinting at something more. Deeper tests of long-forgotten functionality.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://customer.surreycc.gov.uk/article/824/Events"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Events-Surrey-County-Council.webp" alt="Surrey Council events page with lorem text and links to attendee plugin pages. One link says aaaaaaaa." width="997" height="1345" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What did those plugins do? Aaaaaaaa indeed!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The purpose of this post isn't to point and laugh, it's to show that searching for dummy data is a good way to find interesting things. It might show you a style-guide, or lead to you to a forgotten and outdated plugin, or it might lead you to an &lt;a href="https://pre.redirect.contractawardservice.gca.gov.uk/digital-outcomes/opportunities"&gt;entire pre-production environment&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://pre.redirect.contractawardservice.gca.gov.uk/digital-outcomes/opportunities"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/preprod-gca.webp" alt="Digital Outcomes page with a large &amp;quot;pre prod&amp;quot; banner and dummy text. This is a composite image." width="1009" height="746" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally, this image was on one of the FCDO blog posts. I assume that means it is available under the &lt;a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"&gt;Open Government Licence&lt;/a&gt; and, therefore, &lt;a href="https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/184149181?ref=studio-promote"&gt;I can start T-Shirt production immediately&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/184149181?ref=studio-promote"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet.webp" alt="The keep calm and carry on poster, but with the words Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet." width="600" height="700" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75939&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/#comments" thr:count="9"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/feed/atom/" thr:count="9"/>
        <thr:total>9</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[10 Years on Mastodon]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65267</id>
        <updated>2026-09-25T11:07:56Z</updated>
        <published>2026-11-01T12:34:18Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mastodon"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Social Media"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Social Networks"/>
        <summary type="html">As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.     Post by &lt;a rel="mention" class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent"&gt;@Edent&lt;/a&gt; View on Mastodon      Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me, your password…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/">&lt;p&gt;As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote class="mastodon-embed" data-embed-url="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/55342/embed" style="background: #FCF8FF; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #C9C4DA; margin: 0; max-width: 540px; min-width: 270px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/55342" target="_blank" style="align-items: center; color: #1C1A25; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; justify-content: center; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 20px; padding: 24px; text-decoration: none;"&gt; &lt;svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" width="32" height="32" viewBox="0 0 79 75"&gt;&lt;path d="M63 45.3v-20c0-4.1-1-7.3-3.2-9.7-2.1-2.4-5-3.7-8.5-3.7-4.1 0-7.2 1.6-9.3 4.7l-2 3.3-2-3.3c-2-3.1-5.1-4.7-9.2-4.7-3.5 0-6.4 1.3-8.6 3.7-2.1 2.4-3.1 5.6-3.1 9.7v20h8V25.9c0-4.1 1.7-6.2 5.2-6.2 3.8 0 5.8 2.5 5.8 7.4V37.7H44V27.1c0-4.9 1.9-7.4 5.8-7.4 3.5 0 5.2 2.1 5.2 6.2V45.3h8ZM74.7 16.6c.6 6 .1 15.7.1 17.3 0 .5-.1 4.8-.1 5.3-.7 11.5-8 16-15.6 17.5-.1 0-.2 0-.3 0-4.9 1-10 1.2-14.9 1.4-1.2 0-2.4 0-3.6 0-4.8 0-9.7-.6-14.4-1.7-.1 0-.1 0-.1 0s-.1 0-.1 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 0 0 0c.1 1.6.4 3.1 1 4.5.6 1.7 2.9 5.7 11.4 5.7 5 0 9.9-.6 14.8-1.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1.1 0 .1 0 .1.1v5.6s0 .1-.1.1c0 0 0 0 0 .1-1.6 1.1-3.7 1.7-5.6 2.3-.8.3-1.6.5-2.4.7-7.5 1.7-15.4 1.3-22.7-1.2-6.8-2.4-13.8-8.2-15.5-15.2-.9-3.8-1.6-7.6-1.9-11.5-.6-5.8-.6-11.7-.8-17.5C3.9 24.5 4 20 4.9 16 6.7 7.9 14.1 2.2 22.3 1c1.4-.2 4.1-1 16.5-1h.1C51.4 0 56.7.8 58.1 1c8.4 1.2 15.5 7.5 16.6 15.6Z" fill="currentColor"&gt;&lt;/path&gt;&lt;/svg&gt; &lt;div style="color: #787588; margin-top: 16px;"&gt;Post by @Edent@mastodon.social&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="font-weight: 500;"&gt;View on Mastodon&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;script data-allowed-prefixes="https://mastodon.social/" async="" src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so&lt;sup id="fnref:arse"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:arse" class="footnote-ref" title="I'm pulling these numbers out of my arse. But, come on, that feels about right, doesn't it?" role="doc-noteref"&gt;0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me&lt;sup id="fnref:pu"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:pu" class="footnote-ref" title="Poor you!" role="doc-noteref"&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;, your password manager is a graveyard of unloved services and your MFA app is filled with icons of websites you barely remember.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It could easily have been that way with Mastodon. I gradually drifted away from Slashdot. Despite a promising start, &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/app-net/"&gt;AppDotNet&lt;/a&gt; died an untimely death. Slack works as a meta-social-network - but there are half-a-dozen communities which I know I'll never check in on. Once in a blue moon I'll think about uploading a photo to Flickr. I tried &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/09/i-didnt-quit-twitter-twitter-quit-me/"&gt;quitting Twitter&lt;/a&gt; several times - only to walk away cold turkey to prevent my soul being polluted by its filth.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I lurk on LinkedIn mainly to gawp at the brainworms. Threads just pushed too much crap into my feed. I &lt;em&gt;think&lt;/em&gt; I have a tumblr and a dozen other social media accounts which fell into disrepair.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So what made Mastodon so sticky for me?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="silence-brand"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#silence-brand"&gt;Silence Brand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Brands on social networks is an anti-pattern. You cannot be friends with a company.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the early days of Twitter, brands were &lt;em&gt;desperate&lt;/em&gt; to join the global conversation. They saw people complaining about them and wanted to intercede. Sadly that just promoted maladaptive behaviour as people (especially those with large followings) found they could bully brands into submission.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So brands retreated into the only thing they know how to do; advertise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mastodon has been remarkably resistant to corporations coming along to plant their flags. The few that are on there are either genuinely interested in the technology or are broadcast only.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="algorithms-and-filters"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#algorithms-and-filters"&gt;Algorithms and Filters&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's wrong to say that Mastodon doesn't have an algorithm. It displays posts in chronological order - that's an algorithm. It has decent enough spam filtering - again, an algorithm. But it never tries to promote far-right hate posts to me.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Even better, it has proper support for a user's personalised filters. I can easily block discussion of politics&lt;sup id="fnref:names"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:names" class="footnote-ref" title="I am grateful that so many politicians have reasonably unique names!" role="doc-noteref"&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; and sport. I can turn off reposts from individual accounts that I follow - you know the guy who reposts every puppy video he finds.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That makes for a relaxing and stress-free experience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="fun-technology"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fun-technology"&gt;Fun Technology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wasted years on the Twitter API. While I got some lovely swag from Twitter for faffing about with their tech, it was always clear that certain sections of Twitter's leadership hated that 3rd parties could use their APIs. Similarly, Facebook's API started as fun but quickly descended into a locked-down corporate hellscape.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mastodon's API is mostly a delight to use. There aren't weird and arbitrary restrictions. Even better, because of the inherent open nature of the Fediverse, I can write my own ActivityPub software to interact with it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/"&gt;I'm even getting paid to develop ActivityBot&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="nice-people"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#nice-people"&gt;Nice People&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most of the people who join Mastodon&lt;sup id="fnref:fedi"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:fedi" class="footnote-ref" title="Yes, I know it is the Fediverse and they're not all on one platform. Cut me some slack." role="doc-noteref"&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; feel rejected from more corporate social media. They've either made an active choice to try something different or they've been thrown off the mainstream apps. That's (mostly) good - and means that they're invested in making work something that's different.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss some of the people from Twitter. I think most of them are on BlueSky now - so I'm on there as well. Think of it like quitting smoking by taking up vaping. Sure, not ideal, but better than the alternative.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="what-it-is-missing"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#what-it-is-missing"&gt;What it is missing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can't pretend everything is brilliant. In no particular order, here are some of the papercuts which annoy me daily.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="reply-controls"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#reply-controls"&gt;Reply Controls&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;BlueSky allows me to set a limit on who can reply to my posts. It is &lt;em&gt;bliss&lt;/em&gt;. Sometimes I don't want the world chatting back to me. Yes, there's the ability to restrict who can see my posts in the first place, or who can quote my posts, but it isn't the same.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="super-block"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#super-block"&gt;Super Block&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Similarly, I want to be able to remove replies to me. If someone is being abusive or annoying, I don't want my friends to see that. If I block them, I want their replies to vanish from view in my threads.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can moderate replies to my blog posts - why can't I moderate replies to my microblog posts?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="reply-guys"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#reply-guys"&gt;Reply Guys&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The two issues above are caused by the same strain of reply-guy. There's something about Mastodon which attracts &lt;a href="https://german.millermanschool.com/"&gt;a certain class of person&lt;/a&gt;. I get so many replies from people who either have never heard of this Earth concept called humour, or think that their inexpert Googling is helpful, or want to argue about something I haven't said.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It can be infuriating and I understand why it drives people away.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="geolocation"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#geolocation"&gt;Geolocation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I just think &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/scattered-thoughts-on-social-geolocation/"&gt;social geolocation would be nifty&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="more-people"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#more-people"&gt;More People&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm in two minds about this. Services like &lt;a href="https://brid.gy/"&gt;Brid.gy&lt;/a&gt; allow me to follow my BSky friends on Masto, and vice-versa. Having more people on the Fediverse and away from corporate-owned social media would (hopefully) make it more viable in the long-term.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But more people means more spammers, grifters, and &lt;i lang="fr"&gt;agents provocateur&lt;/i&gt;. There's a delicate balance to be found - not enough people and the network fails, too many people and it collapses.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't know what the right number is.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The nice thing about the Fediverse is that it literally cannot fail completely. Much like IRC survives despite "everyone" moving to Discord and WhatsApp, it chugs along in the background. ActivityPub servers will be around for the foreseeable future. So I'll be available on Mastodon (or its successor) until the bitter end.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="heres-to-the-next-ten-years"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#heres-to-the-next-ten-years"&gt;Here's to the next ten years!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Mastodon (and the Fediverse as a whole) by 2036. I am sure it'll have some wobbles, I hope it will see a renaissance, I look forward to shitposting far into the future.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can follow me on Mastodon - &lt;a href="https://mastodon.social/@edent"&gt;@edent@mastodon.social&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div id="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes"&gt;
&lt;hr aria-label="Footnotes"&gt;
&lt;ol start="0"&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:arse"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I'm pulling these numbers out of my arse. But, come on, that feels about right, doesn't it?&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:arse" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:pu"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Poor you!&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:pu" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:names"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I am grateful that so many politicians have reasonably unique names!&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:names" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:fedi"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yes, I &lt;em&gt;know&lt;/em&gt; it is the Fediverse and they're not all on one platform. Cut me some slack.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:fedi" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=65267&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#comments" thr:count="10"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/feed/atom/" thr:count="10"/>
        <thr:total>10</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Gig Review: The Witcher in Concert ★★★★☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77063</id>
        <updated>2026-10-30T18:07:11Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-31T12:34:18Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="games"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gig"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="TheWitcherInConcert"/>
        <summary type="html">The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing The Force Awakens - live in concert, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.  But what about watching a video game with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see "The Witcher":  A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/">&lt;p&gt;The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2019/11/review-the-force-awakens-live-in-concert/"&gt;The Force Awakens - live in concert&lt;/a&gt;, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But what about watching a &lt;em&gt;video game&lt;/em&gt; with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see "The Witcher":&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms the lasting legacy and emotional storytelling of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into an immersive concert&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;!-- 
👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
Welcome to Comment Club! This top secret bonus material is only available to people who read my HTML comments. 

This was a TOP SECRET date with my wife. She didn't know what we were going to see or where we were going to see it. I'll admit, Wolverhampton isn't the most romantic destination for a mini-break! But the show was an excellent night out.

What's the best concert you've been to with a date?

OK, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Obviously you can't have someone sat there with a PS5 controller while a band plays (although that'd be a hell of a Twitch stream!) instead a large screen projects various cut-scenes and in-game footage.  It works pretty well - most of the popular scenes are in there (Geralt in the bathtub got a big cheer) although there was no hyper-extended Gwent session. The videos were a &lt;em&gt;little&lt;/em&gt; repetitive. Some of the music is obviously composed to be swelling in the background and so repeated shots of swords looking cool or Geralt looking grumpy were sprinkled throughout.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The highlight was seeing &lt;a href="https://percival.pl/percival/?lang=en"&gt;Percival Schuttenbach&lt;/a&gt; play a variety of instruments with absolute joy and gusto. The entire band look like they're having a whale of a time, and the conductor encouraged us to whoop and cheer for our favourite scenes (with perhaps a few boos for some of the more notorious enemies).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As soundtracks go, it isn't particularly varied. There's a decent mix of tunes, some with singing, but they do tend to blur into one after a while. Nevertheless, a brilliant time for fans of the game who want to soak up the music.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Witcher in Concert is on tour around the world now.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;iframe title="The Witcher in Concert | Trailer" width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTsQzz2ukXA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

&lt;h2 id="pre-and-post-show"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/#pre-and-post-show"&gt;Pre- and Post-Show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There was a merchandise stall hidden in one corner of the venue. Between doors opening and the start of the show (about an hour) a video looped through three screens - one of which encouraged up to share our photos with a hashtag. That's fine, but a few more videos wouldn't have gone amiss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the show, the conductor said the band would stick around for selfies - which was nice of them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A touring show like this probably can't spare too much space for large scale models for people to pose with, or a couple of cosplayers to photograph, but it might have been nice if there were &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; to interact with before and after the show.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77063&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
        <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/#comments" thr:count="0"/>
        <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/feed/atom/" thr:count="0"/>
        <thr:total>0</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ★★☆☆☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76302</id>
        <updated>2026-10-27T21:11:03Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-30T12:34:22Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Club"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <summary type="html">I did not care for this one bit. I found it cloying, infantilising, and far too circuitous.  It starts off as a bit of an overwritten melodrama, where every phrase is a delicious flower waiting to bloom, but ends up being a over-sugared mess with a rotten heart. Parts are just exhausting to read, with no time to catch your breath between scenes. That can work in some books when spaced out -…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/gost.webp" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I did not care for this one bit. I found it cloying, infantilising, and far too circuitous.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It starts off as a bit of an overwritten melodrama, where every phrase is a delicious flower waiting to bloom, but ends up being a over-sugared mess with a rotten heart. Parts are just exhausting to read, with no time to catch your breath between scenes. That can work in some books when spaced out - here I just found it annoying.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My main problem with it, though, is that it feels like it is &lt;em&gt;entirely&lt;/em&gt; exposition. Because of the (unnecessarily) jumbled order of the story, every paragraph feels like it is introducing us to something or someone. Rather than progress the plot, I felt like I was being drip-fed morsels for what was coming up. In the end, the story just isn't interesting enough to support that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Parts of the writing are gorgeous, but they're in service of so little that it seems like an unfair sleight of hand; you're too busy admiring the prose to realise how dull and uneventful everything is. The repetition hammers away like a vocal tic - wearing out its welcome by the tenth occurrence. The mannered spelling, punctuation, and extemporising is similarly grating after a while.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't mind characters being unsympathetic - but every single one is painted as a monster or a simpleton. It's hard to keep reading when nearly all the main characters are so relentlessly unlikeable. I know I'm not a big fan of sad or upsetting books, but there was so &lt;em&gt;little&lt;/em&gt; joy or happiness in this one that I felt grimy reading it.  Afterwards I was left wondering what the point of it was. I do not doubt that the depictions of casteism were well done but, again, to what end?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I read this for a book club and wondered what my fellow readers made of it. All of us found it a challenging read, with most raising similar criticisms to mine. We all found the prose to be  beautiful but the plot lacking. Only one of use gave it a positive review - but we all agreed it was a fascinating book to discuss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps we were all just philistines? Yet each of us came up with a compelling reason why we found it so unpalatable. There truly was something for everyone to complain about.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76302&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
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        <thr:total>1</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: SoundPEATS CC3 Pro Bluetooth Headphones ★★★★⯪]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75488</id>
        <updated>2026-10-26T11:24:58Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-28T12:34:54Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="headphones"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB-C"/>
        <summary type="html">These are easily the most comfortable headphones I've worn. I've literally had them clipped around my ears all day without noticing them.    The good folks at SoundPEATS have sent me their latest cans to wrap around my lugs. I'm a big fan of these new-style "clip on" headphones. Rather than encasing your ears, or sticking way down into the wax-mines, these clip over your ear. It isn't a tight…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/">&lt;p&gt;These are easily the &lt;em&gt;most&lt;/em&gt; comfortable headphones I've worn. I've literally had them clipped around my ears all day without noticing them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ccpro3.webp" alt="Clip on headphones." width="2048" height="1152" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The good folks at &lt;a href="https://soundpeats.com/en-gb"&gt;SoundPEATS&lt;/a&gt; have sent me their latest cans to wrap around my lugs. I'm a big fan of these new-style "clip on" headphones. Rather than encasing your ears, or sticking way down into the wax-mines, these clip over your ear. It isn't a tight grip like a paperclip - more like the gentle caress of a tender but firm lover who wants only to delicately pinch your ears.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Look - it's hard writing about this stuff, OK?! Grab a pair and try them; you'll see what I mean. Here's a picture of an attractive model to give you an idea.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/female-model.webp" alt="Woman with clip on headphones." width="999" height="576" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;h2 id="specs"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#specs"&gt;Specs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All the usual things you'd expect from headphones. AAC and SBC audio codecs are standard, it'll also do LDAC - which will get you higher quality but at the expense of battery life and the ability to connect to multiple devices at once.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The case recharges via USB-C, the battery seems fairly chunky and will quick-charges the headphones. 10 minutes in the case will give them 3 hours of playback.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Product-shot.webp" alt="Product shot showing the headphones and case." width="1024" height="683" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Each clip has a button - you can change what they do in the supplied app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;IPX6 should be good for wearing in the rain, but you can't go swimming in them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="useful-features"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#useful-features"&gt;Useful Features&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We all know what headphones can do - play audio, provide a microphone, and let you control the audio coming from your device. The CC3 Pro also have a few other smart features.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Like most decent battery-powered headphones, they will automatically switch off after a predetermined period without use.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Scheduled-off.webp" alt="Screenshot of scheduled off functionality." width="504" height="616" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's a privacy mode which adds an EQ filter to reduce sound leakage. It works, but does make the sound slightly murkier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's a button on each one - you can use the app to set actions for tap, double-tap, triple-tap, and long press.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Custom-gestures.webp" alt="Screenshot of custom gestures settings." width="504" height="751" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The case supports wireless charging, so you can chuck it on any charging puck for a quick top-up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="comfort"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#comfort"&gt;Comfort&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Outstanding. After a few minutes you will genuinely forget that you're wearing them. Shake your head as hard as you like and they will not fall off. Here's a genuine photo of me doing some manly exercises while wearing them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/male-model.webp" alt="Male model, slightly sweaty, wearing headphones." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;h2 id="sound-quality"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#sound-quality"&gt;Sound Quality&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Excellent - with a couple of caveats. These are open-ear devices. You can hear the world around you. That is by design and is extremely useful if you need to be aware of your surroundings. You can't block out the world or do active noise cancelling. I was not a fan of the default EQ. The bass wasn't bassy enough for me. It's easy enough to change in &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app"&gt;the app&lt;/a&gt; - but that does require a login.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Voice quality when speaking on the phone was also good. The people I spoke to could hear me clearly and with minimal background noise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="android"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#android"&gt;Android&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Piece of cake. Open the case, press the button on the back, they're ready to pair.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Android.webp" alt="Android showing HD Audio." width="504" height="462" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sound quality was great, my voice transmitted just fine, and I could easily play/pause and adjust the volume.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="linux"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#linux"&gt;Linux&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Again, dead easy. Ubuntu detected and paired with them instantly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="the-app"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app"&gt;The App&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've complained to SoundPEATS before about their lousy app. The best thing I can say about it is that you don't &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; to use it. It's handy for downloading the occasional firmware update and fiddling with the setting. But that's about it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It obnoxiously insists on needing an Internet connection to change &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; settings. Stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere and want to adjust your EQ? Tough. Similarly, some functionality is gated behind a login wall - such as the custom EQ and custom sound effects.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Login-to-get-more.webp" alt="Screenshot showing log in to get more." width="504" height="705" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thankfully, the rest of the app is fairly simple to use and will work offline. You can adjust what the buttons do, for example:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Weirdly, you can also download other people's EQ settings.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/EQ-Marketplace.webp" alt="Screenshot of the EQ marketplace." width="504" height="892" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also a firmware update and a bunch of other things to flick on and off.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="downsides"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#downsides"&gt;Downsides&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Other than the app, there are a few niggles which are only slightly annoying.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Firstly, they don't pause when you take them out of your ear. That's a feature which was on &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/11/gadget-review-soundpeats-clip1-cuff-headphones/"&gt;the first set of SoundPeats&lt;/a&gt; I had and is sorely missed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Secondly, the default sound profile wasn't very bass heavy. A bit of fiddling in the app and they sounded much better.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While they do charge in either slot within the case, they're incompatible with previous SoundPeats cases. The risk with smaller manufacturers like this is that you won't be able to find a cheap replacement case if you need it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="price"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#price"&gt;Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Launch price is about £75 / €80. That's getting towards the upper end of what I think is acceptable for headphones like this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Readers of this blog can use code &lt;code&gt;PRCC3PRO&lt;/code&gt; for an &lt;em&gt;extra&lt;/em&gt; 10% off at &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B06umgpc8"&gt;Amazon UK&lt;/a&gt; or other &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B06umgpc8"&gt;international Amazon stores&lt;/a&gt;. The code should work from today until 30th November 2026.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, these are ridiculously comfortable headphones. They won't block out the noise of the environment around you - but that's their selling point. You use these while cycling, wandering through the city, or any other time you need to be aware of your surrounding. If you can put up with the slightly shonky app, these are well worth the price.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Many thanks to SoundPeats for the review pair.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75488&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
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        <thr:total>4</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] - Andrew Hankinson ★★★★☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-you-could-do-something-amazing-with-your-life-you-are-raoul-moat-andrew-hankinson/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76955</id>
        <updated>2026-10-25T12:10:21Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-27T12:34:53Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <summary type="html">It is hard to write a book in the second person. It is even harder to make it this good. It would have been easier to write a salacious cash-in with a dozen shocking revelations in each chapter. Instead, Andrew Hankinson attempts to use Raoul Moat's own words to build up a picture of the man.  You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.  Go.  It is…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-you-could-do-something-amazing-with-your-life-you-are-raoul-moat-andrew-hankinson/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/9781911344322.webp" alt="Book cover featuring a cherubic boy smiling at the camera." width="200" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is hard to write a book in the second person. It is even harder to make it this good. It would have been easier to write a salacious cash-in with a dozen shocking revelations in each chapter. Instead, Andrew Hankinson attempts to use Raoul Moat's own words to build up a picture of the man.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Go.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is written with sympathy, but without being sympathetic. A stream of consciousness interrupted only occasionally by the voice of god [it probably isn't god] to provide clarity to an unreliable narrator. The paranoia and delusion come streaming off the page, couched in a tone of voice that exudes reasonableness. It doesn't glorify the man, nor does it make excuses for him, instead it asks you to consider what you choices you could have made under similar circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Almost every sentence is set up as a challenge to the reader. Is this man telling the truth? If so, are his actions understandable or explainable? If not, where is the truth and how would you know? When someone has such a fundamental disconnect from reality, when their model of the world and human interactions is so broken, what can society do to help?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;From Moat's point of view, he is the Biblical Job. A callous god tests and torments him. Beset by challenges he never loses faith even after the all the world can throw at him. The god [in parentheses] is &lt;em&gt;also&lt;/em&gt; an unreliable narrator. The author has built upon all the official reports, the suicide notes, the rambling messages, and interviews with contemporaries. But, as is acknowledged, we can never truly know what goes on in someone's head; we can only judge their actions and their aftermath.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A constant drumbeat is the way Moat claims he was repeatedly victimised by the police. Given all his other delusions, the reader might easily conclude that this is yet another piece of self-pitying nonsense. And yet, when discussing how Moat actually died there &lt;em&gt;does&lt;/em&gt; appear to be a conspiracy of silence. The police's behaviour and attitudes are exactly what you would expect from people perpetrating a cover-up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Naturally, this is a depressing and often upsetting read. It reminds me of the autobiography &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/08/week-notes-5/#non-fiction"&gt;Mini and Me&lt;/a&gt; about a child arsonist. In both that book and this, we witness people being offered help and refusing it. Much like &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man"&gt;the parable of the drowning man&lt;/a&gt; it seems people often overlook the helping hand.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Are you responsible for this? The start of the book describes Moat reaching out for psychiatric help. He is offered an appointment but never turns up. He's offered another one, but still doesn't attend. Whereupon the offer of help is withdrawn. Our society strongly favours individual responsibility. Autonomy is to be persevered for all but the most extreme cases. Should Moat have been forcibly removed from home and made to attend his appointments?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Do you want to live in a society where missing a few meetings with a social worker results in you being detained against your will? Are you happy to accept his attacks as a price worth paying for your freedom?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If a journalist took words you'd written in the heat of the moment, would it paint you in a terrible light? How confident are you that you know the truth of any situation? Are you lying to yourself right now?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is an excellent and provocative book. I picked this up after &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/robmanuel.b3ta.com/post/3mxdzridrm22p"&gt;seeing Rob Manuel post about it&lt;/a&gt;. I like the idea of an informal online book club! If someone wants to set one up, please do invite me.&lt;/p&gt;
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        <thr:total>0</thr:total>
    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Theatre Review: Opera UnTouched's "The Telephone" ★★★★★]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76940</id>
        <updated>2026-10-26T11:19:06Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-26T12:34:15Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="london"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="opera"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review"/>
        <summary type="html">Why shouldn't an opera be set in an office? Not merely set there; performed there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day.  We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention?  Both Grace…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/telephone.jpg" alt="A bright pink poster featuring a telephone." width="240" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Why &lt;em&gt;shouldn't&lt;/em&gt; an opera be set in an office? Not merely &lt;em&gt;set&lt;/em&gt; there; &lt;strong&gt;performed&lt;/strong&gt; there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Both &lt;a href="https://encoremusicians.com/Grace-Watkins"&gt;Grace Watkins&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href="https://www.stephenwhitford.co.uk/"&gt;Stephen Whitford&lt;/a&gt; are astonishingly good opera singers. They cover all the tropes, hit all the notes, and interact well with the audience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I know that &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/10/every-theatre-show-is-immersive/"&gt;every production now claims it is immersive&lt;/a&gt; - but here, it genuinely is! The audience wanders through the set to get to the seats scattered around the office, there's a naff PowerPoint presentation projected on to the wall, a leaving card is waiting for us to sign, the singers prance among us.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Just intensely joyful.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My only real criticism it that it is too short! I suspect it is designed to be a pop-up experience, fringe show, or performed during a break in the corporate drudgery. I'd've gladly watched a full length production and traipsed through a series of office spaces to get the the next scene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/operauntouched/reel/DerzyjVR_b_/"&gt;watch excerpts on Instagram&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="pre-and-post-show"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/#pre-and-post-show"&gt;Pre- and Post-Show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I've written about before, &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/the-art-of-the-pre-show-and-post-show/"&gt;theatrical shows need to do something special to warm up their audiences&lt;/a&gt;. Opera UnTouched had a tough job with an audience drenched in London's rain.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The "office manager" ushered us in to the space and told us that it was Ben's last day, so we were all welcome at his leaving drinks. It being a modern office, we were each given a lanyard to wear throughout the show (which also sneakily doubled as an audience feedback QR).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As it was a party, as we wandered round the office space, we were each handed a glass of Prosecco - what a lovely touch! There's a reason your Chinese takeaway comes with "free" prawn crackers; receiving a gift makes you feel cherished. For the cost of a few dozen reusable plastic flutes and all of about 73p worth of fizz each, the audience were positively beaming by the time the show started.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Why can't more shows do that? OK, it might eat in to the takings at the bar. But a welcome drink on arrival is such an easy way to win over the audience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As for post-show, there was the obligatory plea to fill in the feedback form. Charmingly, after receiving rapturous applause, the cast and creatives came back and were happy to chat to the audience and discuss the show.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76940&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
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    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: LiberNovo Omni - the USB-C powered office chair ★★★★⯪]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76246</id>
        <updated>2026-10-25T11:14:08Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-25T12:34:01Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="chair"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="furniture"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB-C"/>
        <summary type="html">Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable!  WHAT?!    The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features.  First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you…</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/">&lt;p&gt;Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;WHAT?!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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Welcome to Comment Club! This top secret bonus material is only available to people who read my HTML comments. 

I get a lot of random companies asking me to review their stuff. Sometimes it is bargain basement crap, but once in a while there's something like this. Is it *really* worth a grand? Well, seats like this aren't cheap and the competition is around that price. But yeeeeeesh! I do love sitting on it though.

OK, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you horizontal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Second, it is USB-C powered. There's a small battery pack which plugs in to the chair. Why? Read on!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;OK, let's start at the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="assembly"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#assembly"&gt;Assembly&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Flat-pack chairs like this are normally notoriously hard to assemble. The LiberNovo bucks that trend - not only does it include a how-to video, it prints the instructions on a MASSIVE piece of cardboard.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Big-instructions.webp" alt="Massive instructions on a big bit of card printed in colour." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm used to peering at tiny black-and-white diagrams in a flimsy paper booklet. IKEA could learn a thing or two from this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The screws are all labelled and a hex-driver is included. What's an even nicer touch, however, is some safety gloves:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Screws-and-gloves.webp" alt="Screws in labelled pouches, a driver, and a pair of white gloves." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That's the sort of thing which doesn't cost much to the manufacturer, but is such a thoughtful gesture. There's nothing &lt;em&gt;too&lt;/em&gt; sharp as you assemble, but who wants to cover their new chair in blood, eh?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The parts come in two large boxes, but there aren't that many separate bits.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ready-for-assembly.webp" alt="All the bits, ready for assembly." width="1024" height="629" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Building it took about half an hour. It's easier with a friend to help - as are most things in life - but doesn't require much skill.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="go-back-to-the-usb-c-part-again-please"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#go-back-to-the-usb-c-part-again-please"&gt;Go Back To The USB-C Part Again Please?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The battery pack is a 2200mAh unit with a USB-C port to recharge. It connects in to the chair with this slightly unusual connector:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Battery.webp" alt="A battery pack with a handle." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The internals of the chair have a USB-C cable to connect everything up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/USB-C-Up-The-BUM.webp" alt="USB-C cable protruding from the chair - it looks like it goes RIGHT UP YOUR BUM!" width="2475" height="2475" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;LOL!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="yes-but-why-does-a-chair-need-a-battery-pack"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#yes-but-why-does-a-chair-need-a-battery-pack"&gt;YES BUT WHY DOES A CHAIR NEED A BATTERY PACK??!?!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On the side of the left arm-rest are three buttons.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Two of them move the lumbar-support up and down. Depending on how your back is feeling and how far you are reclined, you can adjust the the back-support position.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="and-the-3rd-button"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#and-the-3rd-button"&gt;And the 3rd button?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That's the build-in back massager, silly!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;video autoplay="" loop="" muted="" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/omni-back-massage.mp4"&gt;&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="is-that-useful"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#is-that-useful"&gt;Is that useful?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Yes. Being able to instantly adjust the back support without having to twist around is fantastic, especially for those of us reaching a certain age.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The "massage" feature essentially just moves the support up and down for five minutes before returning to its previous location. When sat upright, it feels great. But the real benefit is when you're laying down.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="how-flat-does-this-thing-go"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#how-flat-does-this-thing-go"&gt;How flat does this thing go?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;160° - not quite flat, but good enough when you're taking a break from Typing Real Hard. You don't want a photo of me sprawled out, so LiberNovo have helpfully provided some stock photos of much better looking folk.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/recline.webp" alt="Guy leaning all the way back on the chair." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is incredibly stable. At no point did it tip over or feel like it was going to deposit me on the floor. What really helps is the included foot stall.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="no-feets-on-seats"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#no-feets-on-seats"&gt;No Feets On Seats&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Unsurprisingly, this is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; USB-C powered. A sturdy plastic footrest with a deeply padded leg rest on top.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Again, assembly was a cinch - follow the large printed instructions and clip it together. It's rated for 40㎏, so you shouldn't stand on it but it is more than enough to rest your weary legs.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="price"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#price"&gt;Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I hope you're sitting down for this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Direct from LiberNovo, you can expect to &lt;a href="https://uk.libernovo.com/pages/libernovo-omni-dynamic-ergonomic-chair"&gt;pay around £700&lt;/a&gt; - although there are bundles with extra batteries, the footrest, and even an eye mask which will shoot that price up. You can get the &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B04FRSESZ"&gt;full bundle on Amazon for around £1,000&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's two ways to look at that price. Firstly, youch. But, alternatively, that's still cheaper than a Herman Miller Aeron. And Herm's doesn't come with a built-in lumbar massage.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(There is also an upgraded version which has a built in fan under the seat. Personally, I suggest eating a healthier diet.)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can't deny that's a chunk of change. If you're anything like me, you probably spend most of your day sat down. You might as well sit on something comfortable.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="final-thoughts"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#final-thoughts"&gt;Final Thoughts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Having the back-rest adjustable via arm-rest buttons is a genius touch. I just wish it went further. I'd love a control panel (or, dare I say it, app) which let me adjust the seat height, recline, headrest position etc. Who can be bothered with fiddly manual levers when electricity can do the work for us?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Building this chair was a breeze - and it was delightful to get a pair of safety gloves with it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The chair is extraordinarily comfortable and the back massage, while not on the level of a "shiatsu" style heated massage pillow, is delightfully pleasant. Would I lie all the way back and sleep in it? Yeah! Certainly more comfortable than an economy airline seat.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you spend a lot of time sitting at your computer, your arse deserves something supportive. Your back deserves some love too. Yes, the USB-C power-pack is a little bit of a gimmick - but it is a hell of a good one.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, this is worth splashing out on.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76246&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
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    </entry>
    <entry>
        <author>
            <name>Terence Eden</name>
            <uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
        </author>
        <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Get Ahead of Being Dead by Evie King ★★★★☆]]></title>
        <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-get-ahead-of-being-dead-by-evie-king/"/>
        <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76286</id>
        <updated>2026-10-04T20:07:29Z</updated>
        <published>2026-10-24T11:34:25Z</published>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
        <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="death"/>
        <summary type="html">After reading Evie King's previous book Ashes To Admin - Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer I was eager to read her not-quite-a-sequel.  We know what happens after death; paperwork. Gas bills need to be cancelled, funeral wishes need to be carried out, money needs to be apportioned between warring family members. When you die, you won't be there to experience the annoyance and …</summary>
        <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-get-ahead-of-being-dead-by-evie-king/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/get-ahead-of-being-dead.webp" alt="Book cover featuring living and dying flowers." width="200" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After reading Evie King's previous book &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/02/book-review-ashes-to-admin-tales-from-the-caseload-of-a-council-funeral-officer-by-evie-king/"&gt;Ashes To Admin - Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer&lt;/a&gt; I was eager to read her not-quite-a-sequel.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We know what happens after death; paperwork. Gas bills need to be cancelled, funeral wishes need to be carried out, money needs to be apportioned between warring family members. When you die, you won't be there to experience the annoyance and distress - but other people will. So do you help them or not?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This book is a chatty and informal guide to how to set out your wishes - including that you have no wishes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Much like her previous book, it cheerfully mixes anecdotes about death with a powerful political message about how we treat the dead (and, I suppose, nearly dead).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is one of those rare eBooks which is probably better as a &lt;em&gt;paper&lt;/em&gt; book because the end of every chapter has a few dozen questions to fill in. Some are seemingly banal (library card number) and other potentially a little distressing (who do you &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; want invited to your funeral). The aim is to keep the answers somewhere prominent so that, come the inevitable, there's a one-stop-shop for all your deadmin.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Evie does an excellent job of making the slightly terrifying first steps accessible and approachable. It's fully trans, non-binary, and poly inclusive. It doesn't shy away from some of the more uncomfortable aspects of death, but it really does feel like the author is having a coffee &amp;amp; natter with you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The style won't be for everyone. I think I'd rather have this as just a plain list of questions. But, then again, I &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; find it compelling to read the stories about what happens when things go wrong. So maybe I don't know myself as well as I think. Say, what song &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; I want playing at my funeral?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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Welcome to Comment Club! If this is your first time - hello! This content is only available to people who read my HTML comments.

There's an a cappella version of "Because" by The Beatles. That'll do as a funeral song. But, I kinda guess I won't be there to enjoy it, so I'll play it for myself now.

Anyway, the three rules of Comment Club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep your eyes peeled for more comments in my other blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's no doubt this is a slightly challenging and provocative read - but you should absolutely buy a copy for yourself and fill it in. Whether you buy it for your friends and relatives…&lt;/p&gt;
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	<title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
	<subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>

	<updated>2026-11-11T12:17:37Z</updated>

	<rights>© Terence Eden. 🄯 CC BY. See https://shkspr.mobi/blog/copyright-and-copyleft/</rights>

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	<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Thermal Master P3 Lite - and Linux Instructions ★★★★⯪]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77148</id>
		<updated>2026-11-11T12:15:00Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-13T12:34:48Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="infrared" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="thermal" />
		<summary type="html">The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me (yet another) thermal camera. The P3 Lite has a detachable macro lens. As well as being good for scanning your house for leaks and looking for wildlife, it can focus down on tiny electronic components.      I've previously reviewed their P3 with adjustable macro focus, the chunky T2 Max, and the wildlife spotting DV2 - how does this compare?  Like…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/">&lt;p&gt;The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me (yet another) thermal camera. The P3 Lite has a &lt;em&gt;detachable&lt;/em&gt; macro lens. As well as being good for scanning your house for leaks and looking for wildlife, it can focus down on tiny electronic components.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/What-you-get.avif" alt="Camera in a small carry case, a lens, and a lightning adapter." width="1024" height="1271" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;!-- 
👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
Welcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to sweethearts who read my HTML comments. 

I do not really understand how I keep getting sent these cameras. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to the companies who send them to me and it's always fun to write about new tech. But I now have more cameras than I know what to do with. I've given a bunch away to people who want to play with them - but they are rather littering my room!

If you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've previously reviewed their &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/"&gt;P3 with adjustable macro focus&lt;/a&gt;, the chunky &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera/"&gt;T2 Max&lt;/a&gt;, and the wildlife spotting &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/"&gt;DV2&lt;/a&gt; - how does this compare?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Like most thermal cameras, it has a low-ish resolution - 256×192, but their X&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; software upscales it to 512×384 running at around 25fps. That's pretty decent for a small plug-in camera.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It also has a magnetically attachable lens for macro-focus, which allows you to see close up details.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/pages/p3-lite"&gt;read the full specs&lt;/a&gt; but, basically, it is suitable for all domestic tasks.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="sample-photos-and-video"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#sample-photos-and-video"&gt;Sample Photos and Video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Note, all photos were originally 6MB JPGs - I've losslessly converted them to JPEG-XL and kept the (minimal) EXIF.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Point the camera at something and you'll see which bits are hot. Useful for checking your radiators are working.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Radiator.jxl" alt="Glowing image of a radiator." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Images are stored in portrait mode and have been rotated. As you can see, some of the UI elements remain in portrait mode. Here's a just-finished dishwasher:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Dishwasher.jxl" alt="Glowing dishwasher." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A 30 second video is about 12MB - it does include audio from your phone's microphone. I've recompressed and rotated this. It is a tap running cold, then hot, then cold again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"&gt;&lt;video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-77148-3" width="620" height="465" preload="metadata" controls="controls"&gt;&lt;source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4?_=3"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4"&gt;https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Video quality is, I think, excellent.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are a variety of different thermal palettes to choose from - and the camera excels at spotting where a circuit's hot spots are. Here's a Raspberry Pi:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Raspberry-Pi-Thermal.jxl" alt="Small computer with a hot CPU." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So what about the macro lens? Here's a close-up shot of a circuit board where I &lt;em&gt;haven't&lt;/em&gt; used the included lens:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Close-no-macro.jxl" alt="Blurry shot of a circuit." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Not bad, but what if we click the magnetic lens on?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Close-with-macro.jxl" alt="Detailed shot of a circuit." class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Whoa! Much better. Here's a video demonstrating it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"&gt;&lt;video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-77148-4" width="620" height="465" preload="metadata" controls="controls"&gt;&lt;source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4?_=4"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4"&gt;https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="hardware"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#hardware"&gt;Hardware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The camera has a reasonably long USB-C protrusion - so it will fit in your phone even if you use a chunky case.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Because it is USB-C, you can have it facing you or facing away from you. Handy if you want some thermal selfies!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The lens is a simple affair. Note that the protective cover it ships with might not come away cleanly:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Sticky-macro.avif" alt="Some sticky residue on a lens." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I had to prise off the sticker to prevent that residue dirtying the main lens.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It ships with a USB-C extension cable (with USB-A converter) - that's handy if you want to keep camera and phone somewhat separate. It also makes it easy to plug it in to a computer. More on that later.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's a C to Lightning adapter if you're still stuck on an old iPhone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally, it comes with a little carry case emblazoned with the logo.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="the-app"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#the-app"&gt;The App&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Thermal Master Android App isn't brilliant. It's slow to start and has a bafflingly complicated interface. It takes a couple of clicks to take a photo, rather than the single click you'd expect.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As you can see from the photos, despite the timestamp being rotated, other on-screen elements aren't. You can possibly change this manually in the settings, but it is rather annoying that it doesn't do it automatically. Speaking of which, there are lots of settings to fiddle with - but you'll probably just end up on one that you like and leave it there.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/settings.avif" alt="Some settings relating to thermal sensitivity." width="504" height="983" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The app does work, but I wish it were snappier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="linux-usage"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#linux-usage"&gt;Linux Usage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/pages/download-center"&gt;Windows App&lt;/a&gt;. I couldn't get it working in either VirtualBox or Wine, so here's how to display the camera's feed in Linux.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Plug in the camera via the included USB-C extension cable. It will show up in &lt;code&gt;lsusb&lt;/code&gt; as &lt;code&gt;3474:42b2 Thermal Master Technology Co., Ltd. P2 MAX&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;mark&gt;Note:&lt;/mark&gt; the device was previously known as the P2Max and this is reflected in the firmware.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Add a new udev rule with &lt;code&gt;sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-thermal-p2max.rules&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Copy and paste this into the file, then save and exit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;# Thermal Master P2 Max USB Rules
# Allow read/write access for all users
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="3474", ATTRS{idProduct}=="42b2", MODE="0666"
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Reload the rules with &lt;code&gt;sudo udevadm control --reload-rules &amp;amp;&amp;amp; sudo udevadm trigger&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Hurrah! Your Linux machine can now control the camera. There's two ways to view it - and easy way and a hard way.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The easy way is to use &lt;a href="https://ferrolho.github.io/thermal-master-viewer/"&gt;https://ferrolho.github.io/thermal-master-viewer/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Open the website &lt;strong&gt;in Chrome&lt;/strong&gt;, click the "Connect camera" button, after a moment you should have a view like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/USB-cam.avif" alt="Thermal selfie. I have a cold nose." width="504" height="733" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The harder way is to use dedicated Linux tools like &lt;a href="https://github.com/Phalphy/OpenP3"&gt;OpenP3&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="https://github.com/skywalker1905/thermal-camera-viewer"&gt;Thermal Camera Viewer&lt;/a&gt; - you may need to hack around with them so they see the device. Usually that's as simple as adding the PID to the code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="cost"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#cost"&gt;Cost&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You're looking at around &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B0aHYIpyK"&gt;£220 for the camera&lt;/a&gt; and can expect to pay about &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-lite-thermal-camera-home-inspection?variant=54687042142492"&gt;£40 for the macro lens&lt;/a&gt;. You can sometimes find them bundled for slightly cheaper.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Readers of this blog get an extra 6% off at &lt;a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-lite-thermal-camera-home-inspection?utm_source=PR&amp;amp;utm_medium=MEDIA&amp;amp;utm_campaign=TEB+_P3+LITE"&gt;Thermal Master&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B0aHYIpyK"&gt;Amazon UK/US&lt;/a&gt; with code &lt;code&gt;THERMLITE6&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, that's pretty cheap for a thermal camera. At that price, I'd recommend buying one to share with your local community. If you are a member of a hack-space, these are invaluable for finding hot-spots on your electronics.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The image quality is excellent. There's no bogus "AI" features to hallucinate what it thinks it saw - you just get the raw image. It would be lovely if it presented as a proper webcam on Linux, but there are open source tools to bridge that gap. The detachable macro lens is handy, and the magnet grip is reasonably strong - but I wish it had a strap or something to prevent it getting lost.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's not a &lt;em&gt;lot&lt;/em&gt; of difference between Thermal Master's various cameras. If you want to swap between wide shots and macro shots, this is probably as good a device as any.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77148&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: This Is for Everyone - Tim Berners-Lee ★★★☆☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-this-is-for-everyone-tim-berners-lee/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77340</id>
		<updated>2026-11-11T12:17:37Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-12T12:34:10Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="web" />
		<summary type="html">Is this a biography of a man, or of his mission? Is this the story of how the web came to be, or a lament for what happened to it? Do you crave the inside gossip, or the PR sanitised gloss?  This Is For Everyone, but I think it ends up being slightly unsatisfying for anyone.    It starts with the normal charming family anecdotes. No grand revelations or hidden secrets, just a lovely ramble…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-this-is-for-everyone-tim-berners-lee/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/paperback-cover.webp" alt="Book cover featuring Sir Tim in front of a blackboard." width="200" height="882" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Is this a biography of a man, or of his mission? Is this the story of how the web came to be, or a lament for what happened to it? Do you crave the inside gossip, or the PR sanitised gloss?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This &lt;em&gt;Is&lt;/em&gt; For Everyone, but I think it ends up being slightly unsatisfying for anyone.&lt;/p&gt;

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I feel slightly bad ragging on this book - especially as I'm due to meet Timbl again in a few weeks. I suppose it is better than some of the other autobiographies I've read which are mostly well-worn anecdotes about how the author was always right.

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--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It starts with the normal charming family anecdotes. No grand revelations or hidden secrets, just a lovely ramble through growing up. It's hard to write a memoir without delving in to some of the frailty that makes us human. I wasn't expecting a "tell all" or histrionics, but divorces are waved away in half a sentence and the emotional aspects of life as the inventor of the web are almost totally absent.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Where his emotions shine through is the constant undercurrent of rage and disappointment at how the web has been corrupted.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;those operators turned the supposedly non-profit DNS address system into a nauseating free-for-all. Domain names would become an asset class for investors, rather than a tool for innovators&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;[…]&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;DNS fell into the hands of some rather unscrupulous operators. What had been an unremarkable piece of back-end internet infrastructure was temporarily transformed into a revolting for-profit bonanza.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;He is unashamedly catty about some of the villains of the piece. I won't regurgitate their names or give them the oxygen of publicity, but it is nice to see a senior tech figure call out some of the madness and harm caused by others. Similarly, he is harsh in his criticism of how some browser vendors have behaved. We can argue about whether XHTML was a mistake, but the "moat" of working with non-standards compliant pages makes for a successful monopoly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It isn't exactly a whinge, but you can hear the exasperation in his tone. He gave the world a magnificent gift and some people are trying to poison the well for all of us.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A few chapters are dedicated to the rise of AI - and its perils. Similarly the tension between addictive algorithms and staying sane. These are certainly interesting thoughts, but perhaps belong in a different book. Memoirs are, typically, not about the future.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A large part of the book is taken up with Tim's "difficult second album" - &lt;a href="https://solidproject.org/"&gt;Solid&lt;/a&gt;. I &lt;em&gt;desperately&lt;/em&gt; love the idea of Solid - keeping your data personal and only allowing access for explicit and limited purposes. But I also think it is becoming clear that most people just don't care that much and, even if they could be bothered with all the admin, there's no signs that businesses want to get involved with it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At times, it feels like the book is mostly a pitch document for why Solid is the future. Again, not exactly what I was expecting from a memoir.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I think every single part of this book is good - the personal memoir, the history of the web, the future of tech - but as a whole they feel a little disjointed. I think I'd rather have read three different books rather than have them jammed in together. I suspect the hard-core geeks will skip the domestic stuff and the average reader will be somewhat baffled by the dive into deepfakes and Mastodon.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It does, however, contain a message of hope. The web is still here and it will last in one form or another for eternity. We have to keep working for it though.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;[M]y work with Danny Weitzner had shown me that it was not enough simply to release new technology and hope for the world to improve. You had to develop technology and society together. You really had to fight, in a principled and continuous way, for human rights.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We need that tattoo'd inside the eyelids of every tech executive who has tried to subvert the web for their own ends.&lt;/p&gt;
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			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[HowTo: Fix Eufy HomeBase 2 Storage Full Issues]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76208</id>
		<updated>2026-11-11T12:16:20Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-11T12:34:05Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Eufy" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HowTo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Smart Home" />
		<summary type="html">Quick Fix: Insert a USB memory stick, format it in the app, restart the Eufy HomeBase 2, format the internal memory, restart the hub.    Background  I've had the eufyCam system for over 6 years - which is pretty long-life for IoT devices.  The cameras have worked pretty much flawlessly. Four years ago I added their Video Doorbell which has been similarly well behaved.  But last night I went to…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/">&lt;p&gt;Quick Fix: Insert a USB memory stick, format it in the app, restart the Eufy HomeBase 2, format the internal memory, restart the hub.&lt;/p&gt;

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Welcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to sweethearts who read my HTML comments. 

I get so bored of (AI written) blog posts that hide the relevant info under 500 words of "why this matters". Executive summaries are cool, yo!

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Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;h2 id="background"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#background"&gt;Background&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've had the &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/10/review-eufycam-2c-wireless-home-security-camera-system/"&gt;eufyCam system for over 6 years&lt;/a&gt; - which is pretty long-life for IoT devices.  The cameras have worked pretty much flawlessly. Four years ago I added their &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/01/gadget-review-eufy-video-doorbell/"&gt;Video Doorbell&lt;/a&gt; which has been similarly well behaved.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But last night I went to check some security footage, only to be told that the 16GB storage was full. Ordinarily that shouldn't be a problem. Full storage just means that older videos get wiped and new ones replace them. In my case, &lt;em&gt;all&lt;/em&gt; the old videos were gone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I could see the cameras and control them, I just couldn't access any old recordings.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There was nothing on there I especially needed (although I'm curious as to when a courier dropped off a "lost" parcel) so I was happy to experiment with fixing the system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Eufy forums are full of people having these issues. Anker, the brand that own Eufy are usually fairly customer focused - but I guess they're more interested in getting people to upgrade to a newer hub than fixing the problems with their old kit.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="what-didnt-work"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#what-didnt-work"&gt;What Didn't Work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Restarting - no change.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Repairing the storage - didn't fix anything.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Clearing the storage - dire warnings but didn't help.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formatting - a last resort, but failed.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2 id="what-fixed-it"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#what-fixed-it"&gt;What Fixed It&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I found an old 4GB USB-A memory stick and shoved it in the back of the Eufy. The app detected it fairly quickly and said the stick needed to be formatted - so I let it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once the stick was formatted, I restarted the hub. Running fix or clean didn't change the situation, so I tried formatting the main memory again. This time it seemed to work. It crawled to 100% and then hung.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I restarted the app and it told me that the storage was unformatted and needed to be formatted again, so I let it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I restarted the hub and everything sprang to life, no more warnings about full storage.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="next-steps"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#next-steps"&gt;Next Steps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'll keep an eye on the storage to make sure it doesn't fill up again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm reluctant to buy a new HomeBase. I like to self-host things, but the promise of commercial kit like this is that it takes the hassle out of ownership. I don't really want to be futzing around formatting memory and deciphering error messages.&lt;/p&gt;

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*sigh* I really don't want to self-host security cameras. I had some WiFi ones an age ago and they were so finickity. At least Eufy has a reasonably easy to use app and cyber-security professionals working on it. I don't want to fuck up a firewall rule and broadcast my garden to North Korean teenage hackers.

If you have any personal experience of self-hosting a video doorbell, give me a shout.

If you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
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Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If this fails again, I'll have to seriously consider moving my cameras onto something that I can control. At least that way, if it screws up, I'll only have myself to blame.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76208&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			<thr:total>0</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Unfinished Harauld Hughes - Richard Ayoade ★★★⯪☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-the-unfinished-harauld-hughes-richard-ayoade/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77087</id>
		<updated>2026-11-01T23:31:50Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-10T12:34:31Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" />
		<summary type="html">A decade ago, I read Ayoade's first book. In my review, I said:  It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find …</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-the-unfinished-harauld-hughes-richard-ayoade/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/harauld.avif" alt="Book cover featuring a painting of Richard Ayoade." width="250" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A decade ago, I read &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/09/what-i-read-on-my-holidays/"&gt;Ayoade's first book&lt;/a&gt;. In my review, I said:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find it hilarious. Everyone else will just look on in bemusement.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And, yeah, this new book is pretty much the same! It's an absurdist novel about a (semi) fictional TV presenter creating a documentary about a (probably) fictional director. Much like &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/book-review-the-satsuma-complex-by-bob-mortimer/"&gt;Bob Mortimer's books&lt;/a&gt; it revels in the mundane and delights in uniquely shaped language constructs.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As well as being wryly funny, it is mercilessly satirical. If you've ever read the risible scripts of an "influential" 1950s playwright, you'll immediately feel at home.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's the drip-feeding of a tiny mystery - but it isn't quite enough to sustain the story. There's no urge to discover what &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; happened; you'll read this like it was a steam train documentary on in the background while you do the washing-up. There's sort-of a plot-twist, but it is of no consequence.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Despite it's caustic and cynical view about theatre, there are moments of genuine profundity. I found this especially beautiful:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It can sometimes cost ten times as much to sit near the front as compared to the cheap seats in the balcony. And that’s because it’s worth it. The experience is entirely changed by proximity. The tension alters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What do we want from a celebrity documentary? Is it scandal? Hidden secrets and bitter jealousies? Do we want a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making-of a documentary? This gets close to being a "Lost in La Mancha" in book form, for an author who didn't exist. It is an enjoyable read, but I think I'd've preferred to watch this late-night on BBC4 never quite knowing if it was a spoof or not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77087&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			<thr:total>0</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Blunt Banhammer Blocks Basic Bots Ballistically]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77230</id>
		<updated>2026-11-09T10:24:37Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-09T12:34:00Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="bot" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="PHP" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WebDev" />
		<summary type="html">I cut bot traffic to my site by over 80% with a simple trap.  Last month, my hobby website OpenBenches.org transferred more than 2.5TB of data to visitors. As much as I'd like to think the site is enormously popular, it looks like it is just AI bots endlessly crawling the data and slurping up the images.  So I've built B to be an indiscriminate tool to eradicate these unwanted parasites.  It is…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/">&lt;p&gt;I cut bot traffic to my site by over 80% with a simple trap.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Last month, my hobby website &lt;a href="https://openbenches.org"&gt;OpenBenches.org&lt;/a&gt; transferred more than 2.5TB of data to visitors. As much as I'd like to think the site is enormously popular, it looks like it is just AI bots endlessly crawling the data and slurping up the images.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So I've built B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; to be an indiscriminate tool to eradicate these unwanted parasites.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is &lt;em&gt;very&lt;/em&gt; loosely inspired by &lt;a href="https://perishablepress.com/blackhole-bad-bots/"&gt;Jeff Starr's Blackhole&lt;/a&gt;, but works even on sites with heavy caching.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here's the high level description of how it works.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Create a directory like &lt;code&gt;/honeypot/&lt;/code&gt; on your site&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Put some code in &lt;code&gt;index.php&lt;/code&gt; within the directory&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Add the honeypot as an explicit "Disallow" in &lt;code&gt;robots.txt&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Include a hidden link to to the honeypot on every page of your site&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;If something accesses that page, write its IP address to your &lt;code&gt;.htaccess&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The &lt;code&gt;.htaccess&lt;/code&gt; bans the IP address from ever accessing your site again.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This blog post shows you how you can build this yourself and discusses some of the problems it might cause.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="bad-robots"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#bad-robots"&gt;Bad Robots!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The file &lt;a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro"&gt;robots.txt&lt;/a&gt; lives at the root of your website. It contains a list of instructions to automated web crawlers. Respectful bots will read it and refuse to look at specific parts of your site.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Add these two lines to it:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;User-agent: *
Disallow: /honeypot/
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That says bots shouldn't visit any page in the honeypot directory.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots generally check for updates every 24 hours, so either wait a day or manually submit it to major crawlers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="htaccess"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#htaccess"&gt;.htaccess&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/howto/htaccess.html"&gt;.htaccess file&lt;/a&gt; contains a list of instructions for how your server should process requests.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Find the bit of your &lt;code&gt;.htaccess&lt;/code&gt; file which looks like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;&amp;lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&amp;gt;
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteBase /
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Edit it to look like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;&amp;lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&amp;gt;
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteBase /

### BLOCKED IPs
    #   TEST-NET-1
    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} "=192.0.2.1"
    RewriteRule ^ - [R=402,L]
### /BLOCKED IPs
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is important that these rules come before any other rewrite rules.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Change the end of this &lt;code&gt;IfModule&lt;/code&gt; to look like:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-_"&gt;&amp;lt;/IfModule&amp;gt;

ErrorDocument 402 "Payment Required - Access Denied."
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If an IP address is in the blocked IP list, the server will send an error code and a readable message. You can add whatever plain text you like here.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="wipe-them-all-out"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#wipe-them-all-out"&gt;Wipe Them All Out&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Inside the honeypot directory, create a file called &lt;code&gt;index.php&lt;/code&gt; (or whatever you like). When this page is visited, it grabs the visitor's IP address and the name of its User Agent. It then places them in the BLOCKED IPs section.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-php"&gt;//  What's their IP?
$IP = get_client_ip();

//  User Agent
$UA = isset( $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] ) ? $_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"] : "";

//  Get the existing .htaccess file.
$htaccess_file = "../.htaccess";
$htaccess = file_get_contents( $htaccess_file );

//  Split by newline.
$htaccess_lines = explode( separator: "\n", string: $htaccess );

//  Where's our start block?
$start = "###   BLOCKED IPs";
$end   = "###   /BLOCKED IPs";

//  Exit if the .htaccess doesn't have the block.
if ( !in_array( needle: $start, haystack: $htaccess_lines ) ) { die(); }

//  This is where to start from.
$start_block = array_search( needle: $start, haystack: $htaccess_lines );

//  Add the line after the start block.
//  Include a date.
$htaccess_lines[ $start_block ] = $start . "\n" . 
    "\t#\t" . date( "c" ) . "\t{$UA}\n" . 
    "\tRewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} \"={$IP}\" [OR]";

//  Turn the array back to a string.
$newHtaccess = implode( separator: "\n", array: $htaccess_lines );

//  Save the new .htaccess file.
file_put_contents( filename: $htaccess_file, data: $newHtaccess );

function get_client_ip():string
{
    //  Adapted from https://github.com/ibericode/koko-analytics/blob/main/src/Resources/functions/collect.php

    //  X-Forwarded-For sometimes contains a comma-separated list of IP addresses
    //  @see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-For
    $ips = empty( $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"] ) ?
        [] :
        \array_map( "trim", \explode( ",", $_SERVER["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"] ) );

    //  Always add REMOTE_ADDR and HTTP_CLIENT_IP to list of ip addresses, if set
    foreach ( ["REMOTE_ADDR", "HTTP_CLIENT_IP"] as $key ) {
        if ( !empty( $_SERVER[$key] ) ) {
            $ips[] = $_SERVER[$key];
        }
    }

    //  Return first valid IP address from list
    foreach ( $ips as $ip ) {
        if ( \filter_var( $ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE ) ) {
            return $ip;
        }
    }

    return "";
}
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;h2 id="setting-the-trap"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#setting-the-trap"&gt;Setting The Trap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Web crawlers look at a page, find every link on it, then visit those links. So we need to put a link to the honeypot on every page - but in such a way that normal users will not find it or click it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This adds a link, removes it from the accessibility tree, and gives it impossible to click text (a zero width joiner).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-html"&gt;&amp;lt;a id="honey" aria-hidden="true" href="/honeypot/index.php"&amp;gt;&amp;amp;zwj;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This CSS hides it from normal viewers and removes the mouse cursor from view.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code class="language-css"&gt;#honey {
    display: none !important;
    cursor:  none !important;
}
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;

&lt;h2 id="problems-this-might-cause"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#problems-this-might-cause"&gt;Problems This Might Cause&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's unlikely that a human will find the link, click on it, and be banned. But if they do, consider put a message in the blocking text telling them how they can get unblocked.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some useful bots ignore robots.txt. If they identify themselves via a User-Agent string (and they should) you can manually remove them from .htaccess. You could also code in an allow list exemption for them. But, of course, many bad bots lie about who they really are.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Conversely, not all bots crawl every link. This won't catch bots which respect robots.txt but are nevertheless problematic.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you have thousands of different bots blocked, the performance of your server &lt;em&gt;might&lt;/em&gt; slow down while .htaccess is parsed. There's weak anecdotal evidence that it adds a slight overhead. But, personally, I don't think that's worth worrying about.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots often use hijacked IP addresses. After the bot has moved, an innocent party might be blocked from your site. Each block has a timestamp associated with it. You could periodically unblock older entries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots rotate through hundreds of different IP addresses. So the same bot might get blocked multiple times.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bots might see the CSS marks the link as hidden and refuse to follow it. Instead of CSS, you could use invisible spaces or other characters which would be hard for a human to see but appear visible to a bot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Similarly, a smart bot might refuse to visit a path called /honeypot/ so choose a better name for it. A smarter bot would see that touching the honeypot leads to a ban - so perhaps a selection of traps are needed?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As is implied in the name, this is a &lt;em&gt;blunt&lt;/em&gt; banhammer. It doesn't give a warning, nor does it look at User-Agent, Country, or any other signal. You touch the honeypot and you receive an instaban. No warning and no automated way to appeal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="alternatives"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#alternatives"&gt;Alternatives&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are alternative ways to do this. Some bots don't send language headers, some use older versions of HTTP, they often have severely outdated User Agent strings. Those are all reasonable ways to block something which is &lt;em&gt;probably&lt;/em&gt; a bot. There are likely to be a few false positives though.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; has no false positives. A normal user &lt;em&gt;can't&lt;/em&gt; follow the link to the trap and a well-behaved bot &lt;em&gt;won't&lt;/em&gt; follow the link.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Things like Anubis require a lot of work to set up and annoy normal users. B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; doesn't require a specific hosting environment and is never shown to normal users.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="it-works"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#it-works"&gt;It Works!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Since running B&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; a week ago, I've blocked over 400 IP addresses and seen a significant fall in traffic. I've not had any complaints yet. Sadly, none of the bots have paid to remove the paywall!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Bandwidth.avif" alt="Drop from 216GB to 26GB per day." width="505" height="837" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;At peak, my site was seeing 216GB of data transfer per day. That's now dropped to around 25GB.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't claim this is the most sophisticated bot blocker in existence - but I enjoyed building it myself. I'll probably add something to records the geolocation of the IP and maybe remove any block older than a certain age.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you'd like to use it or improve this code, I'd be grateful if you treated it as &lt;a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html"&gt;AGPL v3 licensed&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77230&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Some thoughts on restaurant menu QR codes]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/some-thoughts-on-restaurant-menu-qr-codes/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=72653</id>
		<updated>2026-09-25T11:08:36Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-08T12:34:01Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="future" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="QR Codes" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="restaurant" />
		<summary type="html">Is anyone else SICK AND TIRED of the way hotels now foist plastic "keycards" on guests?  No! I don't want tap to open my door!  No! I don't want to keep the card in my wallet!  No! I don't want electronics in control of my life!  What if I need to stab an attacker? Keys are great for that by flimsy plastic cards are useless  Gives us PROPER keys with big keyrings that we have to hand in to…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/some-thoughts-on-restaurant-menu-qr-codes/">&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is anyone else SICK AND TIRED of the way hotels now foist plastic "keycards" on guests?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No! I don't want tap to open my door!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No! I don't want to keep the card in my wallet!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No! I don't want electronics in control of my life!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What if I need to stab an attacker? Keys are great for that by flimsy plastic cards are useless&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Gives us PROPER keys with big keyrings that we have to hand in to reception when we go out and then ask for when we come back.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That is &lt;em&gt;exactly&lt;/em&gt; what you sound like when you complain about restaurant menus now being available by QR code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My wife and I took a &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/another-ridiculous-interrail-holiday-6379km-and-13-countries-over-7-weeks/"&gt;7 week Interrail through Europe&lt;/a&gt;. While most places still had boring paper menu, a decent number had QR codes which allowed us to see the menu and order food. And they were &lt;em&gt;brilliant&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;An electronic menu offers so many advantages. Being able to instantly translate any terms by selecting the text is much easier than pointing a camera and trying to focus on a laminated bit of card.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That said, most of the online menus were already fully translated. They had all the legally mandated allergen information. Many of them showed when something was out of stock. &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/travelling-around-japan-as-a-vegetarian-vegan/"&gt;We had much the same experience visiting Japan&lt;/a&gt; - getting to see a photo or video about the dish you're going to order is surprisingly useful.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The ones which allowed you to order were even better. So easy to select the right thing - no hoping that the waiter didn't mishear "no cheese" as "extra cheese". Notes to the kitchen about allergies were often supported. Oh, and no trying to catch the waiter's eye to let them know you're ready to order.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Speaking of which, no trying to catch the waiter's eye when you want to pay! Several of online platforms allowed for payment through the Web. Most supported splitting the bill between a group - so no more trying to work out who ate what.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So let's talk about the down-sides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"What if there's no signal?!?!?" Get a roaming SIM, chief. But, as it happens, every restaurant had fast and free WiFi. Because, you know, they understand the service they're providing.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"I don't want a bloody app!!!!" Me neither. I didn't encounter any which required me to install a one-time app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"Online ordering tries to upsell to me and I have no self control...." Sure. But waiters often recommend the most expensive wine to go with their cheapest dish.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"How can I flirt with a waitress if everything is mediated through a screen?????" Please reconsider your life choices.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"But I hate progress and love paper!" OK. In just about every restaurant I saw people being handed paper menus. Or wait staff explained what each dish was.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;"Yes, but in the worst case scenario I've constructed in my head I have no signal, no phone, and no alternatives - and now I'm irrationally angry about that!" So walk out. Seriously, you'd leave a restaurant if the waiter was rude, or you saw a rat, or the food didn't come for an hour. Do the same if you're forced to use a service that you hate.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I've said before, &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/06/the-modern-world/"&gt;I love living in the future&lt;/a&gt;. I can't be bothered with fully grown adults throwing a tantrum over every bit of progress.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=72653&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			<thr:total>14</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: When the Dust Settles - Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster by Lucy Easthope ★★★★★]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73538</id>
		<updated>2026-11-07T13:11:57Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-07T12:34:34Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" />
		<summary type="html">This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way.…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/hbg-title-when-the-dust-settles-2-32.webp" alt="Book cover." width="300" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-73539"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way. It's all very well having a plan to repatriate bodies, strict timetables for witness statements, and a clinical approach to disposing of victims' personal effects - but there needs to be space for a &lt;em&gt;humane&lt;/em&gt; response; not just a humanitarian response. People need space to grieve, they need a shower and cup of tea, they need to be allowed to fucking scream.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My chauvinistic biases were stopped in their tracks by the unrelenting assault of pure and righteous indignation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Women in disaster planning and response are constantly accused of overreaction, of too much thinking and emotion. We ignore our instincts in an effort to fit in.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is also a rallying cry against the national crime that was austerity. The hollowing out of the state's capacity to respond to trauma was a vicious and unnecessary attack on our future. Hoping that the worst never comes is in itself a recipe for disaster.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The book is necessarily grim - with occasional gallows humour - but never fails to be fascinating:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;It seemed that pigeons and other birds were scooping up the smallest human bones, the finger bones or phalanges, that were still being uncovered&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Every chapter contains at least one "big ooof" where you can see exactly how reality refuses to comply to with the best laid plans of disaster planners. Here's one about the difficulty in identifying people after a disaster:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;[The victims] had the same kit on and, in an extra twist of fate, they had all dyed their hair canary yellow for the game.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I said, it is a difficult and bloody book. Vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the why and the how of complex recovery efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>2</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[A video game which caused real world violence]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=64450</id>
		<updated>2026-11-06T09:59:09Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-06T12:34:34Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Augmented Reality" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="games" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mobile" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" />
		<summary type="html">There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.  I don't want to go too Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people …</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/">&lt;p&gt;There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't want to go &lt;em&gt;too&lt;/em&gt; Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people via a headset rarely leads to real-life consequences.  Beating up street-fighters is less risky than being in a street fight yourself.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But there are times when games &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; cause problems away from the screen. Players of Pokémon Go ramble about outside trying to collect digital pets - this also causes them &lt;a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50971309"&gt;to trespass into military bases&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was recently reminded of &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2010/11/augmented-reality-games-how-far-have-we-come-in-7-years/"&gt;one of the first Augmented Reality Games - Mozzies&lt;/a&gt;. Back in 2004 having a phone with a camera was almost unheard of. The Mozzies game let you see virtual mosquitoes overlayed on the real world - and then shoot them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Waving your cameraphone around while playing caused at least one case of physical violence.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here's a report from Singapore's &lt;a href="https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/newpaper20041006-1.2.3.3"&gt;The New Paper on 6 October 2004&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm grateful to &lt;a href="https://mastodon.social/@esmepotatoes"&gt;Esme Potatoes&lt;/a&gt; for helping me find a transcript.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;h2 id="playing-game-or-snapping-girl-then-smash"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#playing-game-or-snapping-girl-then-smash"&gt;Playing game or snapping girl? Then… SMASH!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/newpaper20041006-1.1.3.webp" alt="Blurry screenshot of a newspaper." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-64452"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The incident happened while he and his friends were at Orchard Cineleisure for a movie recently.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Before the movie started at 7pm, his friends went to E-Zone, an arcade in the same building. The Indonesian student, who has lived in Singapore for more than 10 years, preferred to wait outside and play his favourite game, Mozzies, on his Siemens phone.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The game, which involves killing mosquitoes that appear on screen, requires the use of the phone's camera.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The camera captures a live video image as the game's playing background, with the mosquitoes appearing in the foreground.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The player has to move the phone around to target the mosquitoes.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono said: "I was so engrossed with the mosquitoes, I became oblivious to my surroundings."

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;"Then, I saw through the phone, a figure behind the swarm of mosquitoes heading in my direction but I thought he was just passing by."

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono claims the man then shouted: “Trying to take a photo of my girlfriend, is it?”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he smashed the phone on the floor.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono said he told the man, whom he estimates to be in his mid- or late 20s, that it was a misunderstanding and that he could check the phone for himself to see if he had indeed taken pictures of the man’s girlfriend. 

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the phone was so badly damaged it could not be turned on.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I was really shocked. He was behaving very aggressively, I thought he was going to hit me,” Heriyono said.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3 id="man-walked-off"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#man-walked-off"&gt;MAN WALKED OFF&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But the man then walked off with his girlfriend, he said.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono and his friends decided not to chase after the man because he was older and they were worried he could get violent.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono did not make a police report either.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He was worried the man may get to him again, and refused to be photographed for this report.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When contacted, Siemens Mobile said it has never received any complaints about the games on its handphones. (See other report.)  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Mozzies game is available only on the Siemens SX1 model.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Heriyono had bought the handphone about four months earlier for over $700, after convincing his parents that it would be worth it because he uses all its functions, including the radio and MP3 player.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And he particularly liked the Mozzies game.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“In the end, the game caused me so much trouble,” he said with a sigh.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He sent the phone to the Siemens service centre but was told it was beyond repair.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;His friends told him later that his actions could have looked suspicious.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“I realised that I could have looked like a pervert if seen by a passer-by,” he admitted.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“The thrill took over basic common sense and I began pointing my camera around.”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The girl was playing “air hockey” with her boyfriend at the time.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Miss Nalia Suli, 18, the receptionist at E-Zone, said she saw the commotion.  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She said: “The girl was dressed very sexily. Her skirt was very short and when she bent down to pick up the ball, you could see her underwear.”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;She, too, thought Heriyono was taking pictures of the girl.

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;“If he wasn’t taking pictures, why was the camera facing up?”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But Heriyono said: “Yes I could have pointed to the floor. But the mosquitoes are everywhere on the screen, you have to move around to kill them.”  

&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He is now using a handphone he has borrowed from a friend, until he saves up enough to buy another. “I think after this incident, I will buy a much cheaper phone,” he said.  
&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps staying inside to play games is safer all round!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=64450&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			<thr:total>0</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Tozo NC9 Pro Bluetooth Headphones ★★★★⯪]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76826</id>
		<updated>2026-11-05T09:49:54Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-05T12:34:17Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="bluetooth" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB-C" />
		<summary type="html">The most interesting thing about these headphones isn't the headphones; it's their case.    The good folks at Tozo have sent me a pair of their new ear-blasters. They're a fairly standard pair of in-ear headphones. Sound quality is good, noise cancelling is excellent, battery life is fine. You know, all pretty standard. But what's actually a little bit special is the charging case.  As well…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/">&lt;p&gt;The most interesting thing about these headphones isn't the headphones; it's their case.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Case.avif" alt="A small headphone case with a colourful touchscreen." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The good folks at Tozo have sent me a pair of their new ear-blasters. They're a fairly standard pair of in-ear headphones. Sound quality is good, noise cancelling is excellent, battery life is fine. You know, all pretty standard. But what's actually a little bit special is the charging case.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As well providing charging to the cans, it has this cute little full-colour display!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Equaliser-settings.avif" alt="Case showing charging level and some buttons." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Which is also a touchscreen!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Everyone knows that hardware manufacturers can't write decent apps - and Tozo are no different. But here you don't have to rely on the app, or &lt;em&gt;anything&lt;/em&gt; on your phone. Tap the screen to wake, slide to unlock, fiddle about with the settings:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDAC-settings.avif" alt="Touchscreen options to set the connection or toggle LDAC." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Or change what song is playing:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Sinatra.avif" alt="Case showing the song title and artist. There are buttons to pause as well as skip forward or back." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Or interact with a dozen different helpful functions:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/QR-code.avif" alt="A QR code showing on screen to get the app." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;h2 id="specs"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#specs"&gt;Specs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href="https://www.tozostore.com/products/tozo-nc9-pro-active-noise-cancelling-wireless-earbuds-ldac-hi-res-audio?variant=53470092329249"&gt;read about the headphones on the official site&lt;/a&gt; but the headline features for me are:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;14 hours playback with about 60 hours from the case.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;LDAC if you crave bit-perfect audio.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Active Noise Cancelling with various different modes.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Multi-function touch buttons on each side.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;h2 id="the-app"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app"&gt;The App&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;*sigh*&lt;/em&gt; OK, it isn't the &lt;em&gt;worst&lt;/em&gt; headphone app I've used, but it isn't great. In its defence, you do not need to create an account in order to use most of the features.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Log-in.avif" alt="A login screen." width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The app isn't brilliantly translated, but you'll probably be able to figure it out.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Translation.avif" alt="A poorly translated screen. &amp;quot;After the notification is enabled, the APP message notification can be obtained immediately. To turn on&amp;quot;" width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can play about with some basic settings in the app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Basic-settings-screen.avif" alt="A basic settings screen allowing you to change the time display, screen brightness, and wallpapers." width="504" height="1015" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Both headphones support multi-tap, so you can change them to your preference. There are four different types of tap each ear can support.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/touch-controls.avif" alt="Touch controls for click, double click, triple click, and long press. They can change volume, song, and change mode." width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's also possible to change the noise cancellation. The functions are perhaps a little indistinguishable - but they do work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Noise-cancellation.avif" alt="Noise cancellation, transparency mode, reduce wind noise, leisure mode, normal, adaptive." width="504" height="499" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is, sadly, a bunch of bullshit in the app. As well as a shop, there's also this weird "Community" tab given pride of place in the middle of the shortcut bar.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Community.avif" alt="A bunch of social media posts." width="504" height="1032" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Apparently you can earn points the more you post? Why? Who cares! You also get the now-ubiquitous AI tools, which you have to sign in to use, and some white noise to drown out the sounds of the world.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AI.avif" alt="AI options to record meetings." width="504" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, the app is usable. You can adjust the EQ to your preferences, check for firmware updates, and similar. But you'll play with it once or twice then forget it exists.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="audio-quality"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#audio-quality"&gt;Audio Quality&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm not an audiophile. I'm not going to pretend that you need virgin-rolled cables adorned with mystic crystals in order to hear the true sonic soundstage of The Spice Girls.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Everything sounds fine. The default profile was good enough for me. I pumped up the bass and it was nice and boomy. There was no noticeable sound leakage at moderate volumes. The "spatial mode" didn't sound particularly nice to me and introduced a fair bit of distortion.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The noise cancellation was pretty decent as well. It won't drown out a crying baby next to you on public transport.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It will do LDAC on both Android:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDAC-and-spatial.avif" alt="Android screen showing LDAC and Spatial Audio." width="504" height="451" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And Linux:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Linux-showing-LDAC.avif" alt="Linux showing LDAC as an A2DP sink." width="1300" height="550" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sound quality on both was excellent.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="usability"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#usability"&gt;Usability&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Pretty good! The taps are quick to respond and, of course, you can whip out the case if you want to change the settings. The touchscreen is small but responds well.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="price"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#price"&gt;Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;They're between &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B0hxpfc1S"&gt;£50 - £60&lt;/a&gt; on Amazon right now, or about &lt;a href="https://www.tozostore.com/products/tozo-nc9-pro-active-noise-cancelling-wireless-earbuds-ldac-hi-res-audio?variant=53470092329249"&gt;£40 direct from the manufacturer&lt;/a&gt;. That's bang on what I'd expect for normal headphones, but I think is decent value considering the little touch-screen it includes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's a pity that the app is &lt;em&gt;so&lt;/em&gt; woeful. But once you've set up your favourite EQ settings, you'll never need to touch it again.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But if you want noise cancelling, snug fitting, easy to use headphones, these are hard to beat.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Many thanks to Tozo for supplying me with the review unit.&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>3</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Practice by Rosalind Brown ★★★★☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76815</id>
		<updated>2026-11-03T22:01:48Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-04T12:34:07Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="oxford" />
		<summary type="html">I have a simple rule - if I meet someone at a party and they say they've written a book, then I will immediately buy that book. It's a strategy which has worked out well; leading me to some truly interesting and delightful prose.  Rosalind Brown (a fellow UEA graduate) has written a stunning little book. Practice is an almost Proustian meander through a day-in-the-life of a young woman going…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/practice.webp" alt="Book cover featuring an illustration of a woman reading a book." width="240" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I have a simple rule - if I meet someone at a party and they say they've written a book, then I will immediately buy that book. It's a strategy which has worked out well; leading me to some truly interesting and delightful prose.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Rosalind Brown (a fellow UEA graduate) has written a stunning little book. Practice is an almost Proustian meander through a day-in-the-life of a young woman going through an essay crisis.  Much like &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/03/book-review-katabasis-by-r-f-kuang/"&gt;R. F. Kuang's "Katabasis"&lt;/a&gt;, I'm rather glad the author found university to be a bewildering and, at times, upsetting experience as it provides rich fodder for this tale.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is an inherent tragedy in studying English literature. The more you read, the more futile it becomes. Just like repeatedly saying a word aloud creates &lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06162-0"&gt;semantic satiation&lt;/a&gt;, so to does the repeated reading of sonnets drive away all their meaning. The closer you study a poem the further it slips from your grasp. The more introspective you become, the more you lose sight of what you really want out of life.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As Proverbs 26:11 suggests, some students are like a snake which is compelled to eat its own tail. The protagonist, Annabel, isn't a caricature but she sure is a trope that you've met in halls. She's a woe-is-me wretch who'd rather cultivate a "Heated Rivalry" style interior monologue rather than engage with those around her. So self-absorbed to that she doesn't realise that, not only do other people have feelings, other people are carrying the same burden she does. I suspect her essay research really should have widened to include the seminal "&lt;a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1052937"&gt;Male gays in the female gaze&lt;/a&gt;"!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's a short novel, but pleasingly thorough. Although there aren't any major twists, I can't say I predicted how the story would evolve and conclude. The punctuation and sentence structure is charmingly idiosyncratic and, I think, perfectly fits the story.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A note on formatting. The ePub has &lt;em&gt;hard&lt;/em&gt; page breaks. That means some "pages" contain little more than a paragraph. I &lt;em&gt;suspect&lt;/em&gt; that's intentional as it gives a wonderfully staccato pace to the text. Our day is broken up into little moments which don't quite fit the strictures of a chapter, yet we experience the day as a cohesive whole.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;An excellent book - but one to read &lt;em&gt;after&lt;/em&gt; you've finished your homework.&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>1</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Just a little AI resistance, as a treat]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73536</id>
		<updated>2026-09-25T11:08:13Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-03T12:34:31Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="EMFCamp" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" />
		<summary type="html">At the recent EMFCamp, I bumped in to Professor Kate Devlin who was talking a little about the AI Resist List. I think one of the useful things we can do is loudly complain about shitty uses of AI. Here's an example.  As mentioned in a previous post, I'm contacting companies which send malformed calendar invites. One of the organisation I contacted was the British online supermarket Ocado. They…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/">&lt;p&gt;At the recent EMFCamp, I bumped in to &lt;a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/kate-devlin"&gt;Professor Kate Devlin&lt;/a&gt; who was talking a little about the &lt;a href="https://airesistlist.org/"&gt;AI Resist List&lt;/a&gt;. I think one of the useful things we can do is loudly complain about shitty uses of AI. Here's an example.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As mentioned in a previous post, I'm &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/google-calendar-unable-to-launch-event-caused-by-missing-dtstamp/"&gt;contacting companies which send malformed calendar invites&lt;/a&gt;. One of the organisation I contacted was the British online supermarket Ocado. They don't have an easy way to contact their technical team, and no obvious paths to raise a bug report, so I filled in their usual customer service feedback form. I included a clear statement of the problem and a detailed technical analysis of why I thought it was a problem with their service.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After sending in my message, I received this back from "Lulu" at Ocado:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thanks for getting in touch and sharing this feedback about our calendar files.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You're entirely right—having a technical glitch pop up when you're trying to organise your delivery is a real pain, so I've made sure to pass your feedback on to our technical and webshop team.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We really appreciate you taking the time to help us improve our service. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I mean, that's AI right? It starts with the classic tell of a &lt;a href="https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/3382"&gt;sycophantic agreement&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next up is the em-dash. &lt;a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/books/review/em-dash-chatbot-human-language.html"&gt;Beloved by chatbots&lt;/a&gt; but almost unheard of in British English style guides.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally (and this is hard to quantify) it just doesn't &lt;em&gt;feel&lt;/em&gt; like a customer service response. They're usually poorly spelled, have dodgy grammar, and ask a bunch of irrelevant questions. The message gave me no confidence that anyone had looked at the problem and I doubted it had been passed on to a technically competent human.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I immediately got a customer satisfaction survey. Usually I give top marks to humans because, even though &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/whats-the-incentive-to-tell-the-truth-on-surveys/"&gt;Net Promoter Score is bullshit&lt;/a&gt;, I don't want customer service agents to suffer the indignity of a bad review. But in this survey I vented my spleen - giving crappy 1 ⭐ scores on every metric and complaining vociferously about how &lt;em&gt;rude&lt;/em&gt; it is to use an AI to deal with a genuine complaint.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was both surprised and delighted to receive this back a few days after my invective was sent:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;I saw your survey comment about getting a robotic, AI-generated response previously, and I wanted to reach out personally to apologise. There is nothing more frustrating than pointing out a legitimate bug only to feel like you're talking to a brick wall. I promise you there is a real person typing this out!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Second, I wanted to send a massive thank you for the incredibly detailed diagnostic. It is rare to get feedback that tells us &lt;em&gt;exactly&lt;/em&gt; what is broken and how to fix it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can assure you that this has been passed to our team to look into. Your feedback is going to make things much smoother for a lot of people, and we really appreciate you taking the extra time to help us get it right.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thank you again, I do hope that this issue is resolved quickly. If there is anything else I can help with in the meantime, please don't hesitate to get in touch.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps I'm being touchingly naïve, but that &lt;em&gt;feels&lt;/em&gt; a lot more human, right? The grammar isn't perfect, the sentences are a bit more rambly, and it appears to have actually engaged with the contents of my message.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I get that having a million irate customer service messages is a hassle. Using AI to triage them probably makes business sense, summarising the verbose ones could be useful for customer service agents, and totting up general themes is almost certainly a sensible way to gather metrics without overloading the workforce.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But using an AI to reply to a human is just disrespectful. It says the organisation values their customer's time at less than their own.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's OK to call out shitty AI responses and insist that a human engages with you.&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>14</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Lorem Ipsum Dot Gov Dot UK]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75939</id>
		<updated>2026-10-23T10:27:50Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-02T12:34:00Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="GOV.UK" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="government" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WebDev" />
		<summary type="html">I love testing in production. The thrill of accidentally publishing some dummy data - or taking down an entire website - is similar to skydiving without a parachute. Exquisite excitement followed by heart-stopping terror.  Before going live with a new website or service, it's sensible to test how text looks on it.  Most people don't test with readable text - it's too easy for management to start…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/">&lt;p&gt;I love testing in production. The thrill of accidentally publishing some dummy data - or taking down an entire website - is similar to skydiving without a parachute. Exquisite excitement followed by heart-stopping terror.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Before going live with a new website or service, it's sensible to test how text looks on it.  Most people don't test with &lt;em&gt;readable&lt;/em&gt; text - it's too easy for management to start reading the content rather than looking at the layout. So the default is &lt;a href="https://www.lipsum.com/"&gt;the Latin text "Lorem ipsum"&lt;/a&gt;. Latin looks enough like English to get a feel for how text will render - but most people can't read it so they gloss over the words and look at the layout.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Say, it sure would be annoying if those dummy pages ever made their way to production, right?!?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
You're now a member of Comment Club! This content is only available to the groovy gang who read HTML comments.

I'm pretty sure I once wrote a variant of this blog post, but I can't find it now. Perhaps I wrote something internal when I worked for the UK Government? Either way, I hope you have fun searching for placeholder text on *your* Government's website 🤣

As is custom, we now recite the three rules of Comment Club…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep your eyes peeled for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://blogs.fcdo.gov.uk/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-5/"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-5-–-Foreign-Commonwealth-Development-Office-Blogs.webp" alt="FCDO blog post with dummy text." width="1178" height="954" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;One of the things that's fascinating about seeing testing data in a live environment is that you get a small peek behind the curtain of how a site was made. A tiny glimpse into the minds of the people who made it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Who was Alice? Did she enjoy her time working on the &lt;a href="https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-page-example-all-components-do-not-delete"&gt;London Councils' website&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-page-example-all-components-do-not-delete"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Test-Page-Example-of-all-components-DO-NOT-DELETE-London-Councils.webp" alt="Lorem ipsum text, and a link to &amp;quot;Alice Test Docx&amp;quot;." width="1177" height="973" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Was she friends with &lt;a href="https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/henrys-test-subsite-overview"&gt;Henry at Lambeth council&lt;/a&gt;? We may never know.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some of the placeholders eventually become load-bearing. For reasons which remain inscrutable to those who follow, the Elders declared some pages must remain sacrosanct &lt;em&gt;forever!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.hta.gov.uk/news/news-do-not-delete"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/DO-NOT-DELETE.-Human-Tissue-Authority.webp" alt="A page of dummy text on the Human Tissue Authority website with the title &amp;quot;DO NOT DELETE&amp;quot;." width="1177" height="973" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What would happen if that page were deleted? Would you dare risk it?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sometimes finding a test page leads to a dead end. A &lt;a href="https://www.knutsfordtowncouncil.gov.uk/council-"&gt;stub of a page&lt;/a&gt; which should have been purged before go-live.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.knutsfordtowncouncil.gov.uk/council-"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Council-Knutsford-Town-Council.webp" alt="Knutsford town council page with dummy text." width="1177" height="973" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But other times it can lead us to a page hinting at something more. Deeper tests of long-forgotten functionality.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://customer.surreycc.gov.uk/article/824/Events"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Events-Surrey-County-Council.webp" alt="Surrey Council events page with lorem text and links to attendee plugin pages. One link says aaaaaaaa." width="997" height="1345" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What did those plugins do? Aaaaaaaa indeed!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The purpose of this post isn't to point and laugh, it's to show that searching for dummy data is a good way to find interesting things. It might show you a style-guide, or lead to you to a forgotten and outdated plugin, or it might lead you to an &lt;a href="https://pre.redirect.contractawardservice.gca.gov.uk/digital-outcomes/opportunities"&gt;entire pre-production environment&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://pre.redirect.contractawardservice.gca.gov.uk/digital-outcomes/opportunities"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/preprod-gca.webp" alt="Digital Outcomes page with a large &amp;quot;pre prod&amp;quot; banner and dummy text. This is a composite image." width="1009" height="746" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Finally, this image was on one of the FCDO blog posts. I assume that means it is available under the &lt;a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/"&gt;Open Government Licence&lt;/a&gt; and, therefore, &lt;a href="https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/184149181?ref=studio-promote"&gt;I can start T-Shirt production immediately&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/184149181?ref=studio-promote"&gt;&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet.webp" alt="The keep calm and carry on poster, but with the words Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet." width="600" height="700" class="aligncenter"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>9</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[10 Years on Mastodon]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65267</id>
		<updated>2026-09-25T11:07:56Z</updated>
		<published>2026-11-01T12:34:18Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mastodon" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NaBloPoMo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Social Media" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Social Networks" />
		<summary type="html">As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.     Post by &lt;a rel="mention" class="u-url mention" href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent"&gt;@Edent&lt;/a&gt; View on Mastodon      Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me, your password…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/">&lt;p&gt;As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote class="mastodon-embed" data-embed-url="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/55342/embed" style="background: #FCF8FF; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #C9C4DA; margin: 0; max-width: 540px; min-width: 270px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"&gt; &lt;a href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/55342" target="_blank" style="align-items: center; color: #1C1A25; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; justify-content: center; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 20px; padding: 24px; text-decoration: none;"&gt; &lt;svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" width="32" height="32" viewBox="0 0 79 75"&gt;&lt;path d="M63 45.3v-20c0-4.1-1-7.3-3.2-9.7-2.1-2.4-5-3.7-8.5-3.7-4.1 0-7.2 1.6-9.3 4.7l-2 3.3-2-3.3c-2-3.1-5.1-4.7-9.2-4.7-3.5 0-6.4 1.3-8.6 3.7-2.1 2.4-3.1 5.6-3.1 9.7v20h8V25.9c0-4.1 1.7-6.2 5.2-6.2 3.8 0 5.8 2.5 5.8 7.4V37.7H44V27.1c0-4.9 1.9-7.4 5.8-7.4 3.5 0 5.2 2.1 5.2 6.2V45.3h8ZM74.7 16.6c.6 6 .1 15.7.1 17.3 0 .5-.1 4.8-.1 5.3-.7 11.5-8 16-15.6 17.5-.1 0-.2 0-.3 0-4.9 1-10 1.2-14.9 1.4-1.2 0-2.4 0-3.6 0-4.8 0-9.7-.6-14.4-1.7-.1 0-.1 0-.1 0s-.1 0-.1 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 0 0 0c.1 1.6.4 3.1 1 4.5.6 1.7 2.9 5.7 11.4 5.7 5 0 9.9-.6 14.8-1.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1.1 0 .1 0 .1.1v5.6s0 .1-.1.1c0 0 0 0 0 .1-1.6 1.1-3.7 1.7-5.6 2.3-.8.3-1.6.5-2.4.7-7.5 1.7-15.4 1.3-22.7-1.2-6.8-2.4-13.8-8.2-15.5-15.2-.9-3.8-1.6-7.6-1.9-11.5-.6-5.8-.6-11.7-.8-17.5C3.9 24.5 4 20 4.9 16 6.7 7.9 14.1 2.2 22.3 1c1.4-.2 4.1-1 16.5-1h.1C51.4 0 56.7.8 58.1 1c8.4 1.2 15.5 7.5 16.6 15.6Z" fill="currentColor"&gt;&lt;/path&gt;&lt;/svg&gt; &lt;div style="color: #787588; margin-top: 16px;"&gt;Post by @Edent@mastodon.social&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div style="font-weight: 500;"&gt;View on Mastodon&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;script data-allowed-prefixes="https://mastodon.social/" async="" src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so&lt;sup id="fnref:arse"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:arse" class="footnote-ref" title="I'm pulling these numbers out of my arse. But, come on, that feels about right, doesn't it?" role="doc-noteref"&gt;0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me&lt;sup id="fnref:pu"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:pu" class="footnote-ref" title="Poor you!" role="doc-noteref"&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;, your password manager is a graveyard of unloved services and your MFA app is filled with icons of websites you barely remember.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It could easily have been that way with Mastodon. I gradually drifted away from Slashdot. Despite a promising start, &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/app-net/"&gt;AppDotNet&lt;/a&gt; died an untimely death. Slack works as a meta-social-network - but there are half-a-dozen communities which I know I'll never check in on. Once in a blue moon I'll think about uploading a photo to Flickr. I tried &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/09/i-didnt-quit-twitter-twitter-quit-me/"&gt;quitting Twitter&lt;/a&gt; several times - only to walk away cold turkey to prevent my soul being polluted by its filth.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I lurk on LinkedIn mainly to gawp at the brainworms. Threads just pushed too much crap into my feed. I &lt;em&gt;think&lt;/em&gt; I have a tumblr and a dozen other social media accounts which fell into disrepair.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So what made Mastodon so sticky for me?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="silence-brand"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#silence-brand"&gt;Silence Brand&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Brands on social networks is an anti-pattern. You cannot be friends with a company.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the early days of Twitter, brands were &lt;em&gt;desperate&lt;/em&gt; to join the global conversation. They saw people complaining about them and wanted to intercede. Sadly that just promoted maladaptive behaviour as people (especially those with large followings) found they could bully brands into submission.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So brands retreated into the only thing they know how to do; advertise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mastodon has been remarkably resistant to corporations coming along to plant their flags. The few that are on there are either genuinely interested in the technology or are broadcast only.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="algorithms-and-filters"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#algorithms-and-filters"&gt;Algorithms and Filters&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It's wrong to say that Mastodon doesn't have an algorithm. It displays posts in chronological order - that's an algorithm. It has decent enough spam filtering - again, an algorithm. But it never tries to promote far-right hate posts to me.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Even better, it has proper support for a user's personalised filters. I can easily block discussion of politics&lt;sup id="fnref:names"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:names" class="footnote-ref" title="I am grateful that so many politicians have reasonably unique names!" role="doc-noteref"&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; and sport. I can turn off reposts from individual accounts that I follow - you know the guy who reposts every puppy video he finds.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That makes for a relaxing and stress-free experience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="fun-technology"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fun-technology"&gt;Fun Technology&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wasted years on the Twitter API. While I got some lovely swag from Twitter for faffing about with their tech, it was always clear that certain sections of Twitter's leadership hated that 3rd parties could use their APIs. Similarly, Facebook's API started as fun but quickly descended into a locked-down corporate hellscape.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mastodon's API is mostly a delight to use. There aren't weird and arbitrary restrictions. Even better, because of the inherent open nature of the Fediverse, I can write my own ActivityPub software to interact with it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/"&gt;I'm even getting paid to develop ActivityBot&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="nice-people"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#nice-people"&gt;Nice People&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most of the people who join Mastodon&lt;sup id="fnref:fedi"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:fedi" class="footnote-ref" title="Yes, I know it is the Fediverse and they're not all on one platform. Cut me some slack." role="doc-noteref"&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; feel rejected from more corporate social media. They've either made an active choice to try something different or they've been thrown off the mainstream apps. That's (mostly) good - and means that they're invested in making work something that's different.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss some of the people from Twitter. I think most of them are on BlueSky now - so I'm on there as well. Think of it like quitting smoking by taking up vaping. Sure, not ideal, but better than the alternative.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="what-it-is-missing"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#what-it-is-missing"&gt;What it is missing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can't pretend everything is brilliant. In no particular order, here are some of the papercuts which annoy me daily.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="reply-controls"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#reply-controls"&gt;Reply Controls&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;BlueSky allows me to set a limit on who can reply to my posts. It is &lt;em&gt;bliss&lt;/em&gt;. Sometimes I don't want the world chatting back to me. Yes, there's the ability to restrict who can see my posts in the first place, or who can quote my posts, but it isn't the same.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="super-block"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#super-block"&gt;Super Block&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Similarly, I want to be able to remove replies to me. If someone is being abusive or annoying, I don't want my friends to see that. If I block them, I want their replies to vanish from view in my threads.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can moderate replies to my blog posts - why can't I moderate replies to my microblog posts?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="reply-guys"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#reply-guys"&gt;Reply Guys&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The two issues above are caused by the same strain of reply-guy. There's something about Mastodon which attracts &lt;a href="https://german.millermanschool.com/"&gt;a certain class of person&lt;/a&gt;. I get so many replies from people who either have never heard of this Earth concept called humour, or think that their inexpert Googling is helpful, or want to argue about something I haven't said.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It can be infuriating and I understand why it drives people away.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="geolocation"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#geolocation"&gt;Geolocation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I just think &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/scattered-thoughts-on-social-geolocation/"&gt;social geolocation would be nifty&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id="more-people"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#more-people"&gt;More People&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm in two minds about this. Services like &lt;a href="https://brid.gy/"&gt;Brid.gy&lt;/a&gt; allow me to follow my BSky friends on Masto, and vice-versa. Having more people on the Fediverse and away from corporate-owned social media would (hopefully) make it more viable in the long-term.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But more people means more spammers, grifters, and &lt;i lang="fr"&gt;agents provocateur&lt;/i&gt;. There's a delicate balance to be found - not enough people and the network fails, too many people and it collapses.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't know what the right number is.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The nice thing about the Fediverse is that it literally cannot fail completely. Much like IRC survives despite "everyone" moving to Discord and WhatsApp, it chugs along in the background. ActivityPub servers will be around for the foreseeable future. So I'll be available on Mastodon (or its successor) until the bitter end.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="heres-to-the-next-ten-years"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#heres-to-the-next-ten-years"&gt;Here's to the next ten years!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Mastodon (and the Fediverse as a whole) by 2036. I am sure it'll have some wobbles, I hope it will see a renaissance, I look forward to shitposting far into the future.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can follow me on Mastodon - &lt;a href="https://mastodon.social/@edent"&gt;@edent@mastodon.social&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div id="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes"&gt;
&lt;hr aria-label="Footnotes"&gt;
&lt;ol start="0"&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:arse"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I'm pulling these numbers out of my arse. But, come on, that feels about right, doesn't it?&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:arse" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:pu"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Poor you!&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:pu" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:names"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I am grateful that so many politicians have reasonably unique names!&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:names" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li id="fn:fedi"&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yes, I &lt;em&gt;know&lt;/em&gt; it is the Fediverse and they're not all on one platform. Cut me some slack.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:fedi" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"&gt;↩︎&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ol&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
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			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gig Review: The Witcher in Concert ★★★★☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77063</id>
		<updated>2026-10-30T18:07:11Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-31T12:34:18Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="games" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gig" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="TheWitcherInConcert" />
		<summary type="html">The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing The Force Awakens - live in concert, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.  But what about watching a video game with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see "The Witcher":  A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/">&lt;p&gt;The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2019/11/review-the-force-awakens-live-in-concert/"&gt;The Force Awakens - live in concert&lt;/a&gt;, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But what about watching a &lt;em&gt;video game&lt;/em&gt; with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see "The Witcher":&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms the lasting legacy and emotional storytelling of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into an immersive concert&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;!-- 
👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋
Welcome to Comment Club! This top secret bonus material is only available to people who read my HTML comments. 

This was a TOP SECRET date with my wife. She didn't know what we were going to see or where we were going to see it. I'll admit, Wolverhampton isn't the most romantic destination for a mini-break! But the show was an excellent night out.

What's the best concert you've been to with a date?

OK, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Obviously you can't have someone sat there with a PS5 controller while a band plays (although that'd be a hell of a Twitch stream!) instead a large screen projects various cut-scenes and in-game footage.  It works pretty well - most of the popular scenes are in there (Geralt in the bathtub got a big cheer) although there was no hyper-extended Gwent session. The videos were a &lt;em&gt;little&lt;/em&gt; repetitive. Some of the music is obviously composed to be swelling in the background and so repeated shots of swords looking cool or Geralt looking grumpy were sprinkled throughout.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The highlight was seeing &lt;a href="https://percival.pl/percival/?lang=en"&gt;Percival Schuttenbach&lt;/a&gt; play a variety of instruments with absolute joy and gusto. The entire band look like they're having a whale of a time, and the conductor encouraged us to whoop and cheer for our favourite scenes (with perhaps a few boos for some of the more notorious enemies).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As soundtracks go, it isn't particularly varied. There's a decent mix of tunes, some with singing, but they do tend to blur into one after a while. Nevertheless, a brilliant time for fans of the game who want to soak up the music.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Witcher in Concert is on tour around the world now.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;iframe title="The Witcher in Concert | Trailer" width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTsQzz2ukXA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;

&lt;h2 id="pre-and-post-show"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/#pre-and-post-show"&gt;Pre- and Post-Show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There was a merchandise stall hidden in one corner of the venue. Between doors opening and the start of the show (about an hour) a video looped through three screens - one of which encouraged up to share our photos with a hashtag. That's fine, but a few more videos wouldn't have gone amiss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the show, the conductor said the band would stick around for selfies - which was nice of them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A touring show like this probably can't spare too much space for large scale models for people to pose with, or a couple of cosplayers to photograph, but it might have been nice if there were &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; to interact with before and after the show.&lt;/p&gt;
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			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ★★☆☆☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76302</id>
		<updated>2026-10-27T21:11:03Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-30T12:34:22Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Club" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" />
		<summary type="html">I did not care for this one bit. I found it cloying, infantilising, and far too circuitous.  It starts off as a bit of an overwritten melodrama, where every phrase is a delicious flower waiting to bloom, but ends up being a over-sugared mess with a rotten heart. Parts are just exhausting to read, with no time to catch your breath between scenes. That can work in some books when spaced out -…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/gost.webp" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I did not care for this one bit. I found it cloying, infantilising, and far too circuitous.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It starts off as a bit of an overwritten melodrama, where every phrase is a delicious flower waiting to bloom, but ends up being a over-sugared mess with a rotten heart. Parts are just exhausting to read, with no time to catch your breath between scenes. That can work in some books when spaced out - here I just found it annoying.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My main problem with it, though, is that it feels like it is &lt;em&gt;entirely&lt;/em&gt; exposition. Because of the (unnecessarily) jumbled order of the story, every paragraph feels like it is introducing us to something or someone. Rather than progress the plot, I felt like I was being drip-fed morsels for what was coming up. In the end, the story just isn't interesting enough to support that.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Parts of the writing are gorgeous, but they're in service of so little that it seems like an unfair sleight of hand; you're too busy admiring the prose to realise how dull and uneventful everything is. The repetition hammers away like a vocal tic - wearing out its welcome by the tenth occurrence. The mannered spelling, punctuation, and extemporising is similarly grating after a while.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I don't mind characters being unsympathetic - but every single one is painted as a monster or a simpleton. It's hard to keep reading when nearly all the main characters are so relentlessly unlikeable. I know I'm not a big fan of sad or upsetting books, but there was so &lt;em&gt;little&lt;/em&gt; joy or happiness in this one that I felt grimy reading it.  Afterwards I was left wondering what the point of it was. I do not doubt that the depictions of casteism were well done but, again, to what end?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I read this for a book club and wondered what my fellow readers made of it. All of us found it a challenging read, with most raising similar criticisms to mine. We all found the prose to be  beautiful but the plot lacking. Only one of use gave it a positive review - but we all agreed it was a fascinating book to discuss.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Perhaps we were all just philistines? Yet each of us came up with a compelling reason why we found it so unpalatable. There truly was something for everyone to complain about.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76302&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			<thr:total>1</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: SoundPEATS CC3 Pro Bluetooth Headphones ★★★★⯪]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75488</id>
		<updated>2026-10-26T11:24:58Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-28T12:34:54Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="headphones" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB-C" />
		<summary type="html">These are easily the most comfortable headphones I've worn. I've literally had them clipped around my ears all day without noticing them.    The good folks at SoundPEATS have sent me their latest cans to wrap around my lugs. I'm a big fan of these new-style "clip on" headphones. Rather than encasing your ears, or sticking way down into the wax-mines, these clip over your ear. It isn't a tight…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/">&lt;p&gt;These are easily the &lt;em&gt;most&lt;/em&gt; comfortable headphones I've worn. I've literally had them clipped around my ears all day without noticing them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ccpro3.webp" alt="Clip on headphones." width="2048" height="1152" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The good folks at &lt;a href="https://soundpeats.com/en-gb"&gt;SoundPEATS&lt;/a&gt; have sent me their latest cans to wrap around my lugs. I'm a big fan of these new-style "clip on" headphones. Rather than encasing your ears, or sticking way down into the wax-mines, these clip over your ear. It isn't a tight grip like a paperclip - more like the gentle caress of a tender but firm lover who wants only to delicately pinch your ears.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Look - it's hard writing about this stuff, OK?! Grab a pair and try them; you'll see what I mean. Here's a picture of an attractive model to give you an idea.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/female-model.webp" alt="Woman with clip on headphones." width="999" height="576" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;h2 id="specs"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#specs"&gt;Specs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All the usual things you'd expect from headphones. AAC and SBC audio codecs are standard, it'll also do LDAC - which will get you higher quality but at the expense of battery life and the ability to connect to multiple devices at once.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The case recharges via USB-C, the battery seems fairly chunky and will quick-charges the headphones. 10 minutes in the case will give them 3 hours of playback.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Product-shot.webp" alt="Product shot showing the headphones and case." width="1024" height="683" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Each clip has a button - you can change what they do in the supplied app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;IPX6 should be good for wearing in the rain, but you can't go swimming in them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="useful-features"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#useful-features"&gt;Useful Features&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We all know what headphones can do - play audio, provide a microphone, and let you control the audio coming from your device. The CC3 Pro also have a few other smart features.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Like most decent battery-powered headphones, they will automatically switch off after a predetermined period without use.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Scheduled-off.webp" alt="Screenshot of scheduled off functionality." width="504" height="616" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's a privacy mode which adds an EQ filter to reduce sound leakage. It works, but does make the sound slightly murkier.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's a button on each one - you can use the app to set actions for tap, double-tap, triple-tap, and long press.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Custom-gestures.webp" alt="Screenshot of custom gestures settings." width="504" height="751" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The case supports wireless charging, so you can chuck it on any charging puck for a quick top-up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="comfort"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#comfort"&gt;Comfort&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Outstanding. After a few minutes you will genuinely forget that you're wearing them. Shake your head as hard as you like and they will not fall off. Here's a genuine photo of me doing some manly exercises while wearing them.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/male-model.webp" alt="Male model, slightly sweaty, wearing headphones." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;h2 id="sound-quality"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#sound-quality"&gt;Sound Quality&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Excellent - with a couple of caveats. These are open-ear devices. You can hear the world around you. That is by design and is extremely useful if you need to be aware of your surroundings. You can't block out the world or do active noise cancelling. I was not a fan of the default EQ. The bass wasn't bassy enough for me. It's easy enough to change in &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app"&gt;the app&lt;/a&gt; - but that does require a login.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Voice quality when speaking on the phone was also good. The people I spoke to could hear me clearly and with minimal background noise.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="android"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#android"&gt;Android&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Piece of cake. Open the case, press the button on the back, they're ready to pair.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Android.webp" alt="Android showing HD Audio." width="504" height="462" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sound quality was great, my voice transmitted just fine, and I could easily play/pause and adjust the volume.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="linux"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#linux"&gt;Linux&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Again, dead easy. Ubuntu detected and paired with them instantly.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="the-app"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app"&gt;The App&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I've complained to SoundPEATS before about their lousy app. The best thing I can say about it is that you don't &lt;em&gt;have&lt;/em&gt; to use it. It's handy for downloading the occasional firmware update and fiddling with the setting. But that's about it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It obnoxiously insists on needing an Internet connection to change &lt;em&gt;some&lt;/em&gt; settings. Stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere and want to adjust your EQ? Tough. Similarly, some functionality is gated behind a login wall - such as the custom EQ and custom sound effects.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Login-to-get-more.webp" alt="Screenshot showing log in to get more." width="504" height="705" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thankfully, the rest of the app is fairly simple to use and will work offline. You can adjust what the buttons do, for example:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Weirdly, you can also download other people's EQ settings.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/EQ-Marketplace.webp" alt="Screenshot of the EQ marketplace." width="504" height="892" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's also a firmware update and a bunch of other things to flick on and off.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="downsides"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#downsides"&gt;Downsides&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Other than the app, there are a few niggles which are only slightly annoying.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Firstly, they don't pause when you take them out of your ear. That's a feature which was on &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/11/gadget-review-soundpeats-clip1-cuff-headphones/"&gt;the first set of SoundPeats&lt;/a&gt; I had and is sorely missed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Secondly, the default sound profile wasn't very bass heavy. A bit of fiddling in the app and they sounded much better.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While they do charge in either slot within the case, they're incompatible with previous SoundPeats cases. The risk with smaller manufacturers like this is that you won't be able to find a cheap replacement case if you need it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="price"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#price"&gt;Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Launch price is about £75 / €80. That's getting towards the upper end of what I think is acceptable for headphones like this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Readers of this blog can use code &lt;code&gt;PRCC3PRO&lt;/code&gt; for an &lt;em&gt;extra&lt;/em&gt; 10% off at &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B06umgpc8"&gt;Amazon UK&lt;/a&gt; or other &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B06umgpc8"&gt;international Amazon stores&lt;/a&gt;. The code should work from today until 30th November 2026.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, these are ridiculously comfortable headphones. They won't block out the noise of the environment around you - but that's their selling point. You use these while cycling, wandering through the city, or any other time you need to be aware of your surrounding. If you can put up with the slightly shonky app, these are well worth the price.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Many thanks to SoundPeats for the review pair.&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>4</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] - Andrew Hankinson ★★★★☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-you-could-do-something-amazing-with-your-life-you-are-raoul-moat-andrew-hankinson/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76955</id>
		<updated>2026-10-25T12:10:21Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-27T12:34:53Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" />
		<summary type="html">It is hard to write a book in the second person. It is even harder to make it this good. It would have been easier to write a salacious cash-in with a dozen shocking revelations in each chapter. Instead, Andrew Hankinson attempts to use Raoul Moat's own words to build up a picture of the man.  You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.  Go.  It is…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-you-could-do-something-amazing-with-your-life-you-are-raoul-moat-andrew-hankinson/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/9781911344322.webp" alt="Book cover featuring a cherubic boy smiling at the camera." width="200" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is hard to write a book in the second person. It is even harder to make it this good. It would have been easier to write a salacious cash-in with a dozen shocking revelations in each chapter. Instead, Andrew Hankinson attempts to use Raoul Moat's own words to build up a picture of the man.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Go.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is written with sympathy, but without being sympathetic. A stream of consciousness interrupted only occasionally by the voice of god [it probably isn't god] to provide clarity to an unreliable narrator. The paranoia and delusion come streaming off the page, couched in a tone of voice that exudes reasonableness. It doesn't glorify the man, nor does it make excuses for him, instead it asks you to consider what you choices you could have made under similar circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Almost every sentence is set up as a challenge to the reader. Is this man telling the truth? If so, are his actions understandable or explainable? If not, where is the truth and how would you know? When someone has such a fundamental disconnect from reality, when their model of the world and human interactions is so broken, what can society do to help?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;From Moat's point of view, he is the Biblical Job. A callous god tests and torments him. Beset by challenges he never loses faith even after the all the world can throw at him. The god [in parentheses] is &lt;em&gt;also&lt;/em&gt; an unreliable narrator. The author has built upon all the official reports, the suicide notes, the rambling messages, and interviews with contemporaries. But, as is acknowledged, we can never truly know what goes on in someone's head; we can only judge their actions and their aftermath.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A constant drumbeat is the way Moat claims he was repeatedly victimised by the police. Given all his other delusions, the reader might easily conclude that this is yet another piece of self-pitying nonsense. And yet, when discussing how Moat actually died there &lt;em&gt;does&lt;/em&gt; appear to be a conspiracy of silence. The police's behaviour and attitudes are exactly what you would expect from people perpetrating a cover-up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Naturally, this is a depressing and often upsetting read. It reminds me of the autobiography &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/08/week-notes-5/#non-fiction"&gt;Mini and Me&lt;/a&gt; about a child arsonist. In both that book and this, we witness people being offered help and refusing it. Much like &lt;a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man"&gt;the parable of the drowning man&lt;/a&gt; it seems people often overlook the helping hand.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Are you responsible for this? The start of the book describes Moat reaching out for psychiatric help. He is offered an appointment but never turns up. He's offered another one, but still doesn't attend. Whereupon the offer of help is withdrawn. Our society strongly favours individual responsibility. Autonomy is to be persevered for all but the most extreme cases. Should Moat have been forcibly removed from home and made to attend his appointments?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Do you want to live in a society where missing a few meetings with a social worker results in you being detained against your will? Are you happy to accept his attacks as a price worth paying for your freedom?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If a journalist took words you'd written in the heat of the moment, would it paint you in a terrible light? How confident are you that you know the truth of any situation? Are you lying to yourself right now?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is an excellent and provocative book. I picked this up after &lt;a href="https://bsky.app/profile/robmanuel.b3ta.com/post/3mxdzridrm22p"&gt;seeing Rob Manuel post about it&lt;/a&gt;. I like the idea of an informal online book club! If someone wants to set one up, please do invite me.&lt;/p&gt;
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			<thr:total>0</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Theatre Review: Opera UnTouched's "The Telephone" ★★★★★]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76940</id>
		<updated>2026-10-26T11:19:06Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-26T12:34:15Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="london" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="opera" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review" />
		<summary type="html">Why shouldn't an opera be set in an office? Not merely set there; performed there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day.  We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention?  Both Grace…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/telephone.jpg" alt="A bright pink poster featuring a telephone." width="240" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Why &lt;em&gt;shouldn't&lt;/em&gt; an opera be set in an office? Not merely &lt;em&gt;set&lt;/em&gt; there; &lt;strong&gt;performed&lt;/strong&gt; there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Both &lt;a href="https://encoremusicians.com/Grace-Watkins"&gt;Grace Watkins&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href="https://www.stephenwhitford.co.uk/"&gt;Stephen Whitford&lt;/a&gt; are astonishingly good opera singers. They cover all the tropes, hit all the notes, and interact well with the audience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I know that &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/10/every-theatre-show-is-immersive/"&gt;every production now claims it is immersive&lt;/a&gt; - but here, it genuinely is! The audience wanders through the set to get to the seats scattered around the office, there's a naff PowerPoint presentation projected on to the wall, a leaving card is waiting for us to sign, the singers prance among us.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Just intensely joyful.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My only real criticism it that it is too short! I suspect it is designed to be a pop-up experience, fringe show, or performed during a break in the corporate drudgery. I'd've gladly watched a full length production and traipsed through a series of office spaces to get the the next scene.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/operauntouched/reel/DerzyjVR_b_/"&gt;watch excerpts on Instagram&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="pre-and-post-show"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/#pre-and-post-show"&gt;Pre- and Post-Show&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As I've written about before, &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/the-art-of-the-pre-show-and-post-show/"&gt;theatrical shows need to do something special to warm up their audiences&lt;/a&gt;. Opera UnTouched had a tough job with an audience drenched in London's rain.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The "office manager" ushered us in to the space and told us that it was Ben's last day, so we were all welcome at his leaving drinks. It being a modern office, we were each given a lanyard to wear throughout the show (which also sneakily doubled as an audience feedback QR).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As it was a party, as we wandered round the office space, we were each handed a glass of Prosecco - what a lovely touch! There's a reason your Chinese takeaway comes with "free" prawn crackers; receiving a gift makes you feel cherished. For the cost of a few dozen reusable plastic flutes and all of about 73p worth of fizz each, the audience were positively beaming by the time the show started.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Why can't more shows do that? OK, it might eat in to the takings at the bar. But a welcome drink on arrival is such an easy way to win over the audience.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As for post-show, there was the obligatory plea to fill in the feedback form. Charmingly, after receiving rapturous applause, the cast and creatives came back and were happy to chat to the audience and discuss the show.&lt;/p&gt;
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			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: LiberNovo Omni - the USB-C powered office chair ★★★★⯪]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76246</id>
		<updated>2026-10-25T11:14:08Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-25T12:34:01Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="chair" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="furniture" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB-C" />
		<summary type="html">Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable!  WHAT?!    The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features.  First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you…</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/">&lt;p&gt;Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;WHAT?!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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Welcome to Comment Club! This top secret bonus material is only available to people who read my HTML comments. 

I get a lot of random companies asking me to review their stuff. Sometimes it is bargain basement crap, but once in a while there's something like this. Is it *really* worth a grand? Well, seats like this aren't cheap and the competition is around that price. But yeeeeeesh! I do love sitting on it though.

OK, the three rules of comment club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you horizontal.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Second, it is USB-C powered. There's a small battery pack which plugs in to the chair. Why? Read on!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;OK, let's start at the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="assembly"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#assembly"&gt;Assembly&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Flat-pack chairs like this are normally notoriously hard to assemble. The LiberNovo bucks that trend - not only does it include a how-to video, it prints the instructions on a MASSIVE piece of cardboard.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Big-instructions.webp" alt="Massive instructions on a big bit of card printed in colour." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I'm used to peering at tiny black-and-white diagrams in a flimsy paper booklet. IKEA could learn a thing or two from this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The screws are all labelled and a hex-driver is included. What's an even nicer touch, however, is some safety gloves:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Screws-and-gloves.webp" alt="Screws in labelled pouches, a driver, and a pair of white gloves." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That's the sort of thing which doesn't cost much to the manufacturer, but is such a thoughtful gesture. There's nothing &lt;em&gt;too&lt;/em&gt; sharp as you assemble, but who wants to cover their new chair in blood, eh?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The parts come in two large boxes, but there aren't that many separate bits.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ready-for-assembly.webp" alt="All the bits, ready for assembly." width="1024" height="629" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Building it took about half an hour. It's easier with a friend to help - as are most things in life - but doesn't require much skill.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="go-back-to-the-usb-c-part-again-please"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#go-back-to-the-usb-c-part-again-please"&gt;Go Back To The USB-C Part Again Please?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The battery pack is a 2200mAh unit with a USB-C port to recharge. It connects in to the chair with this slightly unusual connector:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Battery.webp" alt="A battery pack with a handle." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The internals of the chair have a USB-C cable to connect everything up.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/USB-C-Up-The-BUM.webp" alt="USB-C cable protruding from the chair - it looks like it goes RIGHT UP YOUR BUM!" width="2475" height="2475" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;LOL!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="yes-but-why-does-a-chair-need-a-battery-pack"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#yes-but-why-does-a-chair-need-a-battery-pack"&gt;YES BUT WHY DOES A CHAIR NEED A BATTERY PACK??!?!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On the side of the left arm-rest are three buttons.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Two of them move the lumbar-support up and down. Depending on how your back is feeling and how far you are reclined, you can adjust the the back-support position.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="and-the-3rd-button"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#and-the-3rd-button"&gt;And the 3rd button?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;That's the build-in back massager, silly!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;video autoplay="" loop="" muted="" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/omni-back-massage.mp4"&gt;&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="is-that-useful"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#is-that-useful"&gt;Is that useful?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Yes. Being able to instantly adjust the back support without having to twist around is fantastic, especially for those of us reaching a certain age.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The "massage" feature essentially just moves the support up and down for five minutes before returning to its previous location. When sat upright, it feels great. But the real benefit is when you're laying down.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="how-flat-does-this-thing-go"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#how-flat-does-this-thing-go"&gt;How flat does this thing go?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;160° - not quite flat, but good enough when you're taking a break from Typing Real Hard. You don't want a photo of me sprawled out, so LiberNovo have helpfully provided some stock photos of much better looking folk.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/recline.webp" alt="Guy leaning all the way back on the chair." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is incredibly stable. At no point did it tip over or feel like it was going to deposit me on the floor. What really helps is the included foot stall.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="no-feets-on-seats"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#no-feets-on-seats"&gt;No Feets On Seats&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Unsurprisingly, this is &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; USB-C powered. A sturdy plastic footrest with a deeply padded leg rest on top.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Again, assembly was a cinch - follow the large printed instructions and clip it together. It's rated for 40㎏, so you shouldn't stand on it but it is more than enough to rest your weary legs.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="price"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#price"&gt;Price&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I hope you're sitting down for this.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Direct from LiberNovo, you can expect to &lt;a href="https://uk.libernovo.com/pages/libernovo-omni-dynamic-ergonomic-chair"&gt;pay around £700&lt;/a&gt; - although there are bundles with extra batteries, the footrest, and even an eye mask which will shoot that price up. You can get the &lt;a href="https://link.amazon/B04FRSESZ"&gt;full bundle on Amazon for around £1,000&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's two ways to look at that price. Firstly, youch. But, alternatively, that's still cheaper than a Herman Miller Aeron. And Herm's doesn't come with a built-in lumbar massage.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;(There is also an upgraded version which has a built in fan under the seat. Personally, I suggest eating a healthier diet.)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I can't deny that's a chunk of change. If you're anything like me, you probably spend most of your day sat down. You might as well sit on something comfortable.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2 id="final-thoughts"&gt;&lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#final-thoughts"&gt;Final Thoughts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Having the back-rest adjustable via arm-rest buttons is a genius touch. I just wish it went further. I'd love a control panel (or, dare I say it, app) which let me adjust the seat height, recline, headrest position etc. Who can be bothered with fiddly manual levers when electricity can do the work for us?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Building this chair was a breeze - and it was delightful to get a pair of safety gloves with it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The chair is extraordinarily comfortable and the back massage, while not on the level of a "shiatsu" style heated massage pillow, is delightfully pleasant. Would I lie all the way back and sleep in it? Yeah! Certainly more comfortable than an economy airline seat.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you spend a lot of time sitting at your computer, your arse deserves something supportive. Your back deserves some love too. Yes, the USB-C power-pack is a little bit of a gimmick - but it is a hell of a good one.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, this is worth splashing out on.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76246&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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			<thr:total>1</thr:total>
			</entry>
		<entry>
		<author>
			<name>Terence Eden</name>
							<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
						</author>

		<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Get Ahead of Being Dead by Evie King ★★★★☆]]></title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-get-ahead-of-being-dead-by-evie-king/" />

		<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76286</id>
		<updated>2026-10-04T20:07:29Z</updated>
		<published>2026-10-24T11:34:25Z</published>
		<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="death" />
		<summary type="html">After reading Evie King's previous book Ashes To Admin - Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer I was eager to read her not-quite-a-sequel.  We know what happens after death; paperwork. Gas bills need to be cancelled, funeral wishes need to be carried out, money needs to be apportioned between warring family members. When you die, you won't be there to experience the annoyance and …</summary>

					<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-get-ahead-of-being-dead-by-evie-king/">&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/get-ahead-of-being-dead.webp" alt="Book cover featuring living and dying flowers." width="200" class="alignleft"&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After reading Evie King's previous book &lt;a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/02/book-review-ashes-to-admin-tales-from-the-caseload-of-a-council-funeral-officer-by-evie-king/"&gt;Ashes To Admin - Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer&lt;/a&gt; I was eager to read her not-quite-a-sequel.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We know what happens after death; paperwork. Gas bills need to be cancelled, funeral wishes need to be carried out, money needs to be apportioned between warring family members. When you die, you won't be there to experience the annoyance and distress - but other people will. So do you help them or not?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This book is a chatty and informal guide to how to set out your wishes - including that you have no wishes.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Much like her previous book, it cheerfully mixes anecdotes about death with a powerful political message about how we treat the dead (and, I suppose, nearly dead).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is one of those rare eBooks which is probably better as a &lt;em&gt;paper&lt;/em&gt; book because the end of every chapter has a few dozen questions to fill in. Some are seemingly banal (library card number) and other potentially a little distressing (who do you &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; want invited to your funeral). The aim is to keep the answers somewhere prominent so that, come the inevitable, there's a one-stop-shop for all your deadmin.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Evie does an excellent job of making the slightly terrifying first steps accessible and approachable. It's fully trans, non-binary, and poly inclusive. It doesn't shy away from some of the more uncomfortable aspects of death, but it really does feel like the author is having a coffee &amp;amp; natter with you.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The style won't be for everyone. I think I'd rather have this as just a plain list of questions. But, then again, I &lt;em&gt;did&lt;/em&gt; find it compelling to read the stories about what happens when things go wrong. So maybe I don't know myself as well as I think. Say, what song &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; I want playing at my funeral?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!-- 
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Welcome to Comment Club! If this is your first time - hello! This content is only available to people who read my HTML comments.

There's an a cappella version of "Because" by The Beatles. That'll do as a funeral song. But, I kinda guess I won't be there to enjoy it, so I'll play it for myself now.

Anyway, the three rules of Comment Club are…

1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.
2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.
3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi

Keep your eyes peeled for more comments in my other blog posts 😃

TTFN.
--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There's no doubt this is a slightly challenging and provocative read - but you should absolutely buy a copy for yourself and fill it in. Whether you buy it for your friends and relatives…&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76286&amp;amp;HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager"&gt;</content>
		
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    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77148",
      "title": "Gadget Review: Thermal Master P3 Lite - and Linux Instructions ★★★★⯪",
      "description": "The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me (yet another) thermal camera. The P3 Lite has a detachable macro lens. As well as being good for scanning your house for leaks and looking for wildlife, it can focus down on tiny electronic components.      I've previously reviewed their P3 with adjustable macro focus, the chunky T2 Max, and the wildlife spotting DV2 - how does this compare?  Like…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/",
      "published": "2026-11-13T12:34:48.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-11T12:15:00.000Z",
      "content": "<p>The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me (yet another) thermal camera. The P3 Lite has a <em>detachable</em> macro lens. As well as being good for scanning your house for leaks and looking for wildlife, it can focus down on tiny electronic components.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/What-you-get.avif\" alt=\"Camera in a small carry case, a lens, and a lightning adapter.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1271\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to sweethearts who read my HTML comments. \n\nI do not really understand how I keep getting sent these cameras. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to the companies who send them to me and it's always fun to write about new tech. But I now have more cameras than I know what to do with. I've given a bunch away to people who want to play with them - but they are rather littering my room!\n\nIf you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p>I've previously reviewed their <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/\">P3 with adjustable macro focus</a>, the chunky <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera/\">T2 Max</a>, and the wildlife spotting <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/\">DV2</a> - how does this compare?</p>\n\n<p>Like most thermal cameras, it has a low-ish resolution - 256×192, but their X<sup>3</sup> software upscales it to 512×384 running at around 25fps. That's pretty decent for a small plug-in camera.</p>\n\n<p>It also has a magnetically attachable lens for macro-focus, which allows you to see close up details.</p>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/pages/p3-lite\">read the full specs</a> but, basically, it is suitable for all domestic tasks.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"sample-photos-and-video\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#sample-photos-and-video\">Sample Photos and Video</a></h2>\n\n<p>Note, all photos were originally 6MB JPGs - I've losslessly converted them to JPEG-XL and kept the (minimal) EXIF.</p>\n\n<p>Point the camera at something and you'll see which bits are hot. Useful for checking your radiators are working.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Radiator.jxl\" alt=\"Glowing image of a radiator.\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Images are stored in portrait mode and have been rotated. As you can see, some of the UI elements remain in portrait mode. Here's a just-finished dishwasher:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Dishwasher.jxl\" alt=\"Glowing dishwasher.\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>A 30 second video is about 12MB - it does include audio from your phone's microphone. I've recompressed and rotated this. It is a tap running cold, then hot, then cold again.</p>\n\n<p></p><div style=\"width: 620px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-77148-3\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video/mp4\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4?_=3\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4\">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>\n\n<p>Video quality is, I think, excellent.</p>\n\n<p>There are a variety of different thermal palettes to choose from - and the camera excels at spotting where a circuit's hot spots are. Here's a Raspberry Pi:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Raspberry-Pi-Thermal.jxl\" alt=\"Small computer with a hot CPU.\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>So what about the macro lens? Here's a close-up shot of a circuit board where I <em>haven't</em> used the included lens:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Close-no-macro.jxl\" alt=\"Blurry shot of a circuit.\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Not bad, but what if we click the magnetic lens on?</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Close-with-macro.jxl\" alt=\"Detailed shot of a circuit.\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Whoa! Much better. Here's a video demonstrating it.</p>\n\n<p></p><div style=\"width: 620px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-77148-4\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video/mp4\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4?_=4\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4\">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"hardware\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#hardware\">Hardware</a></h2>\n\n<p>The camera has a reasonably long USB-C protrusion - so it will fit in your phone even if you use a chunky case.</p>\n\n<p>Because it is USB-C, you can have it facing you or facing away from you. Handy if you want some thermal selfies!</p>\n\n<p>The lens is a simple affair. Note that the protective cover it ships with might not come away cleanly:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Sticky-macro.avif\" alt=\"Some sticky residue on a lens.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>I had to prise off the sticker to prevent that residue dirtying the main lens.</p>\n\n<p>It ships with a USB-C extension cable (with USB-A converter) - that's handy if you want to keep camera and phone somewhat separate. It also makes it easy to plug it in to a computer. More on that later.</p>\n\n<p>There's a C to Lightning adapter if you're still stuck on an old iPhone.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, it comes with a little carry case emblazoned with the logo.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-app\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#the-app\">The App</a></h2>\n\n<p>The Thermal Master Android App isn't brilliant. It's slow to start and has a bafflingly complicated interface. It takes a couple of clicks to take a photo, rather than the single click you'd expect.</p>\n\n<p>As you can see from the photos, despite the timestamp being rotated, other on-screen elements aren't. You can possibly change this manually in the settings, but it is rather annoying that it doesn't do it automatically. Speaking of which, there are lots of settings to fiddle with - but you'll probably just end up on one that you like and leave it there.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/settings.avif\" alt=\"Some settings relating to thermal sensitivity.\" width=\"504\" height=\"983\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The app does work, but I wish it were snappier.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"linux-usage\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#linux-usage\">Linux Usage</a></h2>\n\n<p>There is a <a href=\"https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/pages/download-center\">Windows App</a>. I couldn't get it working in either VirtualBox or Wine, so here's how to display the camera's feed in Linux.</p>\n\n<p>Plug in the camera via the included USB-C extension cable. It will show up in <code>lsusb</code> as <code>3474:42b2 Thermal Master Technology Co., Ltd. P2 MAX</code></p>\n\n<p><mark>Note:</mark> the device was previously known as the P2Max and this is reflected in the firmware.</p>\n\n<p>Add a new udev rule with <code>sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-thermal-p2max.rules</code></p>\n\n<p>Copy and paste this into the file, then save and exit.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\"># Thermal Master P2 Max USB Rules\n# Allow read/write access for all users\nSUBSYSTEM==\"usb\", ATTRS{idVendor}==\"3474\", ATTRS{idProduct}==\"42b2\", MODE=\"0666\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Reload the rules with <code>sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger</code></p>\n\n<p>Hurrah! Your Linux machine can now control the camera. There's two ways to view it - and easy way and a hard way.</p>\n\n<p>The easy way is to use <a href=\"https://ferrolho.github.io/thermal-master-viewer/\">https://ferrolho.github.io/thermal-master-viewer/</a></p>\n\n<p>Open the website <strong>in Chrome</strong>, click the \"Connect camera\" button, after a moment you should have a view like this:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/USB-cam.avif\" alt=\"Thermal selfie. I have a cold nose.\" width=\"504\" height=\"733\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The harder way is to use dedicated Linux tools like <a href=\"https://github.com/Phalphy/OpenP3\">OpenP3</a> or <a href=\"https://github.com/skywalker1905/thermal-camera-viewer\">Thermal Camera Viewer</a> - you may need to hack around with them so they see the device. Usually that's as simple as adding the PID to the code.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"cost\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-lite-p2-max-and-linux-instructions/#cost\">Cost</a></h2>\n\n<p>You're looking at around <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B0aHYIpyK\">£220 for the camera</a> and can expect to pay about <a href=\"https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-lite-thermal-camera-home-inspection?variant=54687042142492\">£40 for the macro lens</a>. You can sometimes find them bundled for slightly cheaper.</p>\n\n<p>Readers of this blog get an extra 6% off at <a href=\"https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-lite-thermal-camera-home-inspection?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=MEDIA&utm_campaign=TEB+_P3+LITE\">Thermal Master</a> or <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B0aHYIpyK\">Amazon UK/US</a> with code <code>THERMLITE6</code>.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, that's pretty cheap for a thermal camera. At that price, I'd recommend buying one to share with your local community. If you are a member of a hack-space, these are invaluable for finding hot-spots on your electronics.</p>\n\n<p>The image quality is excellent. There's no bogus \"AI\" features to hallucinate what it thinks it saw - you just get the raw image. It would be lovely if it presented as a proper webcam on Linux, but there are open source tools to bridge that gap. The detachable macro lens is handy, and the magnet grip is reasonably strong - but I wish it had a strap or something to prevent it getting lost.</p>\n\n<p>There's not a <em>lot</em> of difference between Thermal Master's various cameras. If you want to swap between wide shots and macro shots, this is probably as good a device as any.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77148&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [
        {
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Hot-Water.mp4",
          "image": null,
          "title": null,
          "length": 3276503,
          "type": "video",
          "mimeType": "video/mp4"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lens-on.mp4",
          "image": null,
          "title": null,
          "length": 1477844,
          "type": "video",
          "mimeType": "video/mp4"
        }
      ],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "gadget",
          "term": "gadget",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "infrared",
          "term": "infrared",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Review",
          "term": "Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "thermal",
          "term": "thermal",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77340",
      "title": "Book Review: This Is for Everyone - Tim Berners-Lee ★★★☆☆",
      "description": "Is this a biography of a man, or of his mission? Is this the story of how the web came to be, or a lament for what happened to it? Do you crave the inside gossip, or the PR sanitised gloss?  This Is For Everyone, but I think it ends up being slightly unsatisfying for anyone.    It starts with the normal charming family anecdotes. No grand revelations or hidden secrets, just a lovely ramble…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-this-is-for-everyone-tim-berners-lee/",
      "published": "2026-11-12T12:34:10.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-11T12:17:37.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/paperback-cover.webp\" alt=\"Book cover featuring Sir Tim in front of a blackboard.\" width=\"200\" height=\"882\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>Is this a biography of a man, or of his mission? Is this the story of how the web came to be, or a lament for what happened to it? Do you crave the inside gossip, or the PR sanitised gloss?</p>\n\n<p>This <em>Is</em> For Everyone, but I think it ends up being slightly unsatisfying for anyone.</p>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to nerds who read my HTML comments. \n\nI feel slightly bad ragging on this book - especially as I'm due to meet Timbl again in a few weeks. I suppose it is better than some of the other autobiographies I've read which are mostly well-worn anecdotes about how the author was always right.\n\nIf you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p>It starts with the normal charming family anecdotes. No grand revelations or hidden secrets, just a lovely ramble through growing up. It's hard to write a memoir without delving in to some of the frailty that makes us human. I wasn't expecting a \"tell all\" or histrionics, but divorces are waved away in half a sentence and the emotional aspects of life as the inventor of the web are almost totally absent.</p>\n\n<p>Where his emotions shine through is the constant undercurrent of rage and disappointment at how the web has been corrupted.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>those operators turned the supposedly non-profit DNS address system into a nauseating free-for-all. Domain names would become an asset class for investors, rather than a tool for innovators</p>\n\n<p>[…]</p>\n\n<p>DNS fell into the hands of some rather unscrupulous operators. What had been an unremarkable piece of back-end internet infrastructure was temporarily transformed into a revolting for-profit bonanza.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>He is unashamedly catty about some of the villains of the piece. I won't regurgitate their names or give them the oxygen of publicity, but it is nice to see a senior tech figure call out some of the madness and harm caused by others. Similarly, he is harsh in his criticism of how some browser vendors have behaved. We can argue about whether XHTML was a mistake, but the \"moat\" of working with non-standards compliant pages makes for a successful monopoly.</p>\n\n<p>It isn't exactly a whinge, but you can hear the exasperation in his tone. He gave the world a magnificent gift and some people are trying to poison the well for all of us.</p>\n\n<p>A few chapters are dedicated to the rise of AI - and its perils. Similarly the tension between addictive algorithms and staying sane. These are certainly interesting thoughts, but perhaps belong in a different book. Memoirs are, typically, not about the future.</p>\n\n<p>A large part of the book is taken up with Tim's \"difficult second album\" - <a href=\"https://solidproject.org/\">Solid</a>. I <em>desperately</em> love the idea of Solid - keeping your data personal and only allowing access for explicit and limited purposes. But I also think it is becoming clear that most people just don't care that much and, even if they could be bothered with all the admin, there's no signs that businesses want to get involved with it.</p>\n\n<p>At times, it feels like the book is mostly a pitch document for why Solid is the future. Again, not exactly what I was expecting from a memoir.</p>\n\n<p>I think every single part of this book is good - the personal memoir, the history of the web, the future of tech - but as a whole they feel a little disjointed. I think I'd rather have read three different books rather than have them jammed in together. I suspect the hard-core geeks will skip the domestic stuff and the average reader will be somewhat baffled by the dive into deepfakes and Mastodon.</p>\n\n<p>It does, however, contain a message of hope. The web is still here and it will last in one form or another for eternity. We have to keep working for it though.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>[M]y work with Danny Weitzner had shown me that it was not enough simply to release new technology and hope for the world to improve. You had to develop technology and society together. You really had to fight, in a principled and continuous way, for human rights.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>We need that tattoo'd inside the eyelids of every tech executive who has tried to subvert the web for their own ends.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77340&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "web",
          "term": "web",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76208",
      "title": "HowTo: Fix Eufy HomeBase 2 Storage Full Issues",
      "description": "Quick Fix: Insert a USB memory stick, format it in the app, restart the Eufy HomeBase 2, format the internal memory, restart the hub.    Background  I've had the eufyCam system for over 6 years - which is pretty long-life for IoT devices.  The cameras have worked pretty much flawlessly. Four years ago I added their Video Doorbell which has been similarly well behaved.  But last night I went to…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/",
      "published": "2026-11-11T12:34:05.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-11T12:16:20.000Z",
      "content": "<p>Quick Fix: Insert a USB memory stick, format it in the app, restart the Eufy HomeBase 2, format the internal memory, restart the hub.</p>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! This fun bonus content is only available to sweethearts who read my HTML comments. \n\nI get so bored of (AI written) blog posts that hide the relevant info under 500 words of \"why this matters\". Executive summaries are cool, yo!\n\nIf you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<h2 id=\"background\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#background\">Background</a></h2>\n\n<p>I've had the <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/10/review-eufycam-2c-wireless-home-security-camera-system/\">eufyCam system for over 6 years</a> - which is pretty long-life for IoT devices.  The cameras have worked pretty much flawlessly. Four years ago I added their <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/01/gadget-review-eufy-video-doorbell/\">Video Doorbell</a> which has been similarly well behaved.</p>\n\n<p>But last night I went to check some security footage, only to be told that the 16GB storage was full. Ordinarily that shouldn't be a problem. Full storage just means that older videos get wiped and new ones replace them. In my case, <em>all</em> the old videos were gone.</p>\n\n<p>I could see the cameras and control them, I just couldn't access any old recordings.</p>\n\n<p>There was nothing on there I especially needed (although I'm curious as to when a courier dropped off a \"lost\" parcel) so I was happy to experiment with fixing the system.</p>\n\n<p>The Eufy forums are full of people having these issues. Anker, the brand that own Eufy are usually fairly customer focused - but I guess they're more interested in getting people to upgrade to a newer hub than fixing the problems with their old kit.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-didnt-work\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#what-didnt-work\">What Didn't Work</a></h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Restarting - no change.</li>\n<li>Repairing the storage - didn't fix anything.</li>\n<li>Clearing the storage - dire warnings but didn't help.</li>\n<li>Formatting - a last resort, but failed.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-fixed-it\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#what-fixed-it\">What Fixed It</a></h2>\n\n<p>I found an old 4GB USB-A memory stick and shoved it in the back of the Eufy. The app detected it fairly quickly and said the stick needed to be formatted - so I let it.</p>\n\n<p>Once the stick was formatted, I restarted the hub. Running fix or clean didn't change the situation, so I tried formatting the main memory again. This time it seemed to work. It crawled to 100% and then hung.</p>\n\n<p>I restarted the app and it told me that the storage was unformatted and needed to be formatted again, so I let it.</p>\n\n<p>I restarted the hub and everything sprang to life, no more warnings about full storage.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"next-steps\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/howto-fix-eufy-homebase-2-storage-full-issues/#next-steps\">Next Steps</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'll keep an eye on the storage to make sure it doesn't fill up again.</p>\n\n<p>I'm reluctant to buy a new HomeBase. I like to self-host things, but the promise of commercial kit like this is that it takes the hassle out of ownership. I don't really want to be futzing around formatting memory and deciphering error messages.</p>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! This exclusive content is only available to awesome folks who read my HTML comments. \n\n*sigh* I really don't want to self-host security cameras. I had some WiFi ones an age ago and they were so finickity. At least Eufy has a reasonably easy to use app and cyber-security professionals working on it. I don't want to fuck up a firewall rule and broadcast my garden to North Korean teenage hackers.\n\nIf you have any personal experience of self-hosting a video doorbell, give me a shout.\n\nIf you're new here, the three rules of comment club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p>If this fails again, I'll have to seriously consider moving my cameras onto something that I can control. At least that way, if it screws up, I'll only have myself to blame.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76208&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Eufy",
          "term": "Eufy",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "HowTo",
          "term": "HowTo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "security",
          "term": "security",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Smart Home",
          "term": "Smart Home",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77087",
      "title": "Book Review: The Unfinished Harauld Hughes - Richard Ayoade ★★★⯪☆",
      "description": "A decade ago, I read Ayoade's first book. In my review, I said:  It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find …",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-the-unfinished-harauld-hughes-richard-ayoade/",
      "published": "2026-11-10T12:34:31.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-01T23:31:50.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/harauld.avif\" alt=\"Book cover featuring a painting of Richard Ayoade.\" width=\"250\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>A decade ago, I read <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/09/what-i-read-on-my-holidays/\">Ayoade's first book</a>. In my review, I said:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>It's hard to know how to assess a book like this. It's far too clever for its own good - a frustrating and humorous look at... what? It's neither autobiography nor comic novel. An anti-novel which trudges the reader through a series of comic vignettes. It reminded me of some of Woody Allen's work. If you get the joke - you'll find it hilarious. Everyone else will just look on in bemusement.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>And, yeah, this new book is pretty much the same! It's an absurdist novel about a (semi) fictional TV presenter creating a documentary about a (probably) fictional director. Much like <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/book-review-the-satsuma-complex-by-bob-mortimer/\">Bob Mortimer's books</a> it revels in the mundane and delights in uniquely shaped language constructs.</p>\n\n<p>As well as being wryly funny, it is mercilessly satirical. If you've ever read the risible scripts of an \"influential\" 1950s playwright, you'll immediately feel at home.</p>\n\n<p>There's the drip-feeding of a tiny mystery - but it isn't quite enough to sustain the story. There's no urge to discover what <em>really</em> happened; you'll read this like it was a steam train documentary on in the background while you do the washing-up. There's sort-of a plot-twist, but it is of no consequence.</p>\n\n<p>Despite it's caustic and cynical view about theatre, there are moments of genuine profundity. I found this especially beautiful:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>It can sometimes cost ten times as much to sit near the front as compared to the cheap seats in the balcony. And that’s because it’s worth it. The experience is entirely changed by proximity. The tension alters.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>What do we want from a celebrity documentary? Is it scandal? Hidden secrets and bitter jealousies? Do we want a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the making-of a documentary? This gets close to being a \"Lost in La Mancha\" in book form, for an author who didn't exist. It is an enjoyable read, but I think I'd've preferred to watch this late-night on BBC4 never quite knowing if it was a spoof or not.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77087&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77230",
      "title": "Blunt Banhammer Blocks Basic Bots Ballistically",
      "description": "I cut bot traffic to my site by over 80% with a simple trap.  Last month, my hobby website OpenBenches.org transferred more than 2.5TB of data to visitors. As much as I'd like to think the site is enormously popular, it looks like it is just AI bots endlessly crawling the data and slurping up the images.  So I've built B to be an indiscriminate tool to eradicate these unwanted parasites.  It is…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/",
      "published": "2026-11-09T12:34:00.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-09T10:24:37.000Z",
      "content": "<p>I cut bot traffic to my site by over 80% with a simple trap.</p>\n\n<p>Last month, my hobby website <a href=\"https://openbenches.org\">OpenBenches.org</a> transferred more than 2.5TB of data to visitors. As much as I'd like to think the site is enormously popular, it looks like it is just AI bots endlessly crawling the data and slurping up the images.</p>\n\n<p>So I've built B<sup>6</sup> to be an indiscriminate tool to eradicate these unwanted parasites.</p>\n\n<p>It is <em>very</em> loosely inspired by <a href=\"https://perishablepress.com/blackhole-bad-bots/\">Jeff Starr's Blackhole</a>, but works even on sites with heavy caching.</p>\n\n<p>Here's the high level description of how it works.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Create a directory like <code>/honeypot/</code> on your site</li>\n<li>Put some code in <code>index.php</code> within the directory</li>\n<li>Add the honeypot as an explicit \"Disallow\" in <code>robots.txt</code></li>\n<li>Include a hidden link to to the honeypot on every page of your site</li>\n<li>If something accesses that page, write its IP address to your <code>.htaccess</code></li>\n<li>The <code>.htaccess</code> bans the IP address from ever accessing your site again.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This blog post shows you how you can build this yourself and discusses some of the problems it might cause.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"bad-robots\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#bad-robots\">Bad Robots!</a></h2>\n\n<p>The file <a href=\"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro\">robots.txt</a> lives at the root of your website. It contains a list of instructions to automated web crawlers. Respectful bots will read it and refuse to look at specific parts of your site.</p>\n\n<p>Add these two lines to it:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\">User-agent: *\nDisallow: /honeypot/\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>That says bots shouldn't visit any page in the honeypot directory.</p>\n\n<p>Bots generally check for updates every 24 hours, so either wait a day or manually submit it to major crawlers.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"htaccess\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#htaccess\">.htaccess</a></h2>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/howto/htaccess.html\">.htaccess file</a> contains a list of instructions for how your server should process requests.</p>\n\n<p>Find the bit of your <code>.htaccess</code> file which looks like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\"><IfModule mod_rewrite.c>\n        RewriteEngine On\n        RewriteBase /\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Edit it to look like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\"><IfModule mod_rewrite.c>\n        RewriteEngine On\n        RewriteBase /\n\n### BLOCKED IPs\n    #   TEST-NET-1\n    RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} \"=192.0.2.1\"\n    RewriteRule ^ - [R=402,L]\n### /BLOCKED IPs\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>It is important that these rules come before any other rewrite rules.</p>\n\n<p>Change the end of this <code>IfModule</code> to look like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\"></IfModule>\n\nErrorDocument 402 \"Payment Required - Access Denied.\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>If an IP address is in the blocked IP list, the server will send an error code and a readable message. You can add whatever plain text you like here.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"wipe-them-all-out\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#wipe-them-all-out\">Wipe Them All Out</a></h2>\n\n<p>Inside the honeypot directory, create a file called <code>index.php</code> (or whatever you like). When this page is visited, it grabs the visitor's IP address and the name of its User Agent. It then places them in the BLOCKED IPs section.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">//  What's their IP?\n$IP = get_client_ip();\n\n//  User Agent\n$UA = isset( $_SERVER[\"HTTP_USER_AGENT\"] ) ? $_SERVER[\"HTTP_USER_AGENT\"] : \"\";\n\n//  Get the existing .htaccess file.\n$htaccess_file = \"../.htaccess\";\n$htaccess = file_get_contents( $htaccess_file );\n\n//  Split by newline.\n$htaccess_lines = explode( separator: \"\\n\", string: $htaccess );\n\n//  Where's our start block?\n$start = \"###   BLOCKED IPs\";\n$end   = \"###   /BLOCKED IPs\";\n\n//  Exit if the .htaccess doesn't have the block.\nif ( !in_array( needle: $start, haystack: $htaccess_lines ) ) { die(); }\n\n//  This is where to start from.\n$start_block = array_search( needle: $start, haystack: $htaccess_lines );\n\n//  Add the line after the start block.\n//  Include a date.\n$htaccess_lines[ $start_block ] = $start . \"\\n\" . \n    \"\\t#\\t\" . date( \"c\" ) . \"\\t{$UA}\\n\" . \n    \"\\tRewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} \\\"={$IP}\\\" [OR]\";\n\n//  Turn the array back to a string.\n$newHtaccess = implode( separator: \"\\n\", array: $htaccess_lines );\n\n//  Save the new .htaccess file.\nfile_put_contents( filename: $htaccess_file, data: $newHtaccess );\n\nfunction get_client_ip():string\n{\n    //  Adapted from https://github.com/ibericode/koko-analytics/blob/main/src/Resources/functions/collect.php\n\n    //  X-Forwarded-For sometimes contains a comma-separated list of IP addresses\n    //  @see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-For\n    $ips = empty( $_SERVER[\"HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR\"] ) ?\n        [] :\n        \\array_map( \"trim\", \\explode( \",\", $_SERVER[\"HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR\"] ) );\n\n    //  Always add REMOTE_ADDR and HTTP_CLIENT_IP to list of ip addresses, if set\n    foreach ( [\"REMOTE_ADDR\", \"HTTP_CLIENT_IP\"] as $key ) {\n        if ( !empty( $_SERVER[$key] ) ) {\n            $ips[] = $_SERVER[$key];\n        }\n    }\n\n    //  Return first valid IP address from list\n    foreach ( $ips as $ip ) {\n        if ( \\filter_var( $ip, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_NO_PRIV_RANGE | FILTER_FLAG_NO_RES_RANGE ) ) {\n            return $ip;\n        }\n    }\n\n    return \"\";\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"setting-the-trap\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#setting-the-trap\">Setting The Trap</a></h2>\n\n<p>Web crawlers look at a page, find every link on it, then visit those links. So we need to put a link to the honeypot on every page - but in such a way that normal users will not find it or click it.</p>\n\n<p>This adds a link, removes it from the accessibility tree, and gives it impossible to click text (a zero width joiner).</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><a id=\"honey\" aria-hidden=\"true\" href=\"/honeypot/index.php\">&zwj;</a>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>This CSS hides it from normal viewers and removes the mouse cursor from view.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">#honey {\n    display: none !important;\n    cursor:  none !important;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"problems-this-might-cause\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#problems-this-might-cause\">Problems This Might Cause</a></h2>\n\n<p>It's unlikely that a human will find the link, click on it, and be banned. But if they do, consider put a message in the blocking text telling them how they can get unblocked.</p>\n\n<p>Some useful bots ignore robots.txt. If they identify themselves via a User-Agent string (and they should) you can manually remove them from .htaccess. You could also code in an allow list exemption for them. But, of course, many bad bots lie about who they really are.</p>\n\n<p>Conversely, not all bots crawl every link. This won't catch bots which respect robots.txt but are nevertheless problematic.</p>\n\n<p>If you have thousands of different bots blocked, the performance of your server <em>might</em> slow down while .htaccess is parsed. There's weak anecdotal evidence that it adds a slight overhead. But, personally, I don't think that's worth worrying about.</p>\n\n<p>Bots often use hijacked IP addresses. After the bot has moved, an innocent party might be blocked from your site. Each block has a timestamp associated with it. You could periodically unblock older entries.</p>\n\n<p>Bots rotate through hundreds of different IP addresses. So the same bot might get blocked multiple times.</p>\n\n<p>Bots might see the CSS marks the link as hidden and refuse to follow it. Instead of CSS, you could use invisible spaces or other characters which would be hard for a human to see but appear visible to a bot.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, a smart bot might refuse to visit a path called /honeypot/ so choose a better name for it. A smarter bot would see that touching the honeypot leads to a ban - so perhaps a selection of traps are needed?</p>\n\n<p>As is implied in the name, this is a <em>blunt</em> banhammer. It doesn't give a warning, nor does it look at User-Agent, Country, or any other signal. You touch the honeypot and you receive an instaban. No warning and no automated way to appeal.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"alternatives\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#alternatives\">Alternatives</a></h2>\n\n<p>There are alternative ways to do this. Some bots don't send language headers, some use older versions of HTTP, they often have severely outdated User Agent strings. Those are all reasonable ways to block something which is <em>probably</em> a bot. There are likely to be a few false positives though.</p>\n\n<p>But B<sup>6</sup> has no false positives. A normal user <em>can't</em> follow the link to the trap and a well-behaved bot <em>won't</em> follow the link.</p>\n\n<p>Things like Anubis require a lot of work to set up and annoy normal users. B<sup>6</sup> doesn't require a specific hosting environment and is never shown to normal users.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"it-works\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/blunt-banhammer-blocks-basic-bots-ballistically/#it-works\">It Works!</a></h2>\n\n<p>Since running B<sup>6</sup> a week ago, I've blocked over 400 IP addresses and seen a significant fall in traffic. I've not had any complaints yet. Sadly, none of the bots have paid to remove the paywall!</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Bandwidth.avif\" alt=\"Drop from 216GB to 26GB per day.\" width=\"505\" height=\"837\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>At peak, my site was seeing 216GB of data transfer per day. That's now dropped to around 25GB.</p>\n\n<p>I don't claim this is the most sophisticated bot blocker in existence - but I enjoyed building it myself. I'll probably add something to records the geolocation of the IP and maybe remove any block older than a certain age.</p>\n\n<p>If you'd like to use it or improve this code, I'd be grateful if you treated it as <a href=\"https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html\">AGPL v3 licensed</a>.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77230&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "AI",
          "term": "AI",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "bot",
          "term": "bot",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "CyberSecurity",
          "term": "CyberSecurity",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "PHP",
          "term": "PHP",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "WebDev",
          "term": "WebDev",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=72653",
      "title": "Some thoughts on restaurant menu QR codes",
      "description": "Is anyone else SICK AND TIRED of the way hotels now foist plastic \"keycards\" on guests?  No! I don't want tap to open my door!  No! I don't want to keep the card in my wallet!  No! I don't want electronics in control of my life!  What if I need to stab an attacker? Keys are great for that by flimsy plastic cards are useless  Gives us PROPER keys with big keyrings that we have to hand in to…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/some-thoughts-on-restaurant-menu-qr-codes/",
      "published": "2026-11-08T12:34:01.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-09-25T11:08:36.000Z",
      "content": "<blockquote><p>Is anyone else SICK AND TIRED of the way hotels now foist plastic \"keycards\" on guests?</p>\n\n<p>No! I don't want tap to open my door!</p>\n\n<p>No! I don't want to keep the card in my wallet!</p>\n\n<p>No! I don't want electronics in control of my life!</p>\n\n<p>What if I need to stab an attacker? Keys are great for that by flimsy plastic cards are useless</p>\n\n<p>Gives us PROPER keys with big keyrings that we have to hand in to reception when we go out and then ask for when we come back.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>That is <em>exactly</em> what you sound like when you complain about restaurant menus now being available by QR code.</p>\n\n<p>My wife and I took a <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/another-ridiculous-interrail-holiday-6379km-and-13-countries-over-7-weeks/\">7 week Interrail through Europe</a>. While most places still had boring paper menu, a decent number had QR codes which allowed us to see the menu and order food. And they were <em>brilliant</em>!</p>\n\n<p>An electronic menu offers so many advantages. Being able to instantly translate any terms by selecting the text is much easier than pointing a camera and trying to focus on a laminated bit of card.</p>\n\n<p>That said, most of the online menus were already fully translated. They had all the legally mandated allergen information. Many of them showed when something was out of stock. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/12/travelling-around-japan-as-a-vegetarian-vegan/\">We had much the same experience visiting Japan</a> - getting to see a photo or video about the dish you're going to order is surprisingly useful.</p>\n\n<p>The ones which allowed you to order were even better. So easy to select the right thing - no hoping that the waiter didn't mishear \"no cheese\" as \"extra cheese\". Notes to the kitchen about allergies were often supported. Oh, and no trying to catch the waiter's eye to let them know you're ready to order.</p>\n\n<p>Speaking of which, no trying to catch the waiter's eye when you want to pay! Several of online platforms allowed for payment through the Web. Most supported splitting the bill between a group - so no more trying to work out who ate what.</p>\n\n<p>So let's talk about the down-sides.</p>\n\n<p>\"What if there's no signal?!?!?\" Get a roaming SIM, chief. But, as it happens, every restaurant had fast and free WiFi. Because, you know, they understand the service they're providing.</p>\n\n<p>\"I don't want a bloody app!!!!\" Me neither. I didn't encounter any which required me to install a one-time app.</p>\n\n<p>\"Online ordering tries to upsell to me and I have no self control....\" Sure. But waiters often recommend the most expensive wine to go with their cheapest dish.</p>\n\n<p>\"How can I flirt with a waitress if everything is mediated through a screen?????\" Please reconsider your life choices.</p>\n\n<p>\"But I hate progress and love paper!\" OK. In just about every restaurant I saw people being handed paper menus. Or wait staff explained what each dish was.</p>\n\n<p>\"Yes, but in the worst case scenario I've constructed in my head I have no signal, no phone, and no alternatives - and now I'm irrationally angry about that!\" So walk out. Seriously, you'd leave a restaurant if the waiter was rude, or you saw a rat, or the food didn't come for an hour. Do the same if you're forced to use a service that you hate.</p>\n\n<p>As I've said before, <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/06/the-modern-world/\">I love living in the future</a>. I can't be bothered with fully grown adults throwing a tantrum over every bit of progress.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=72653&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "future",
          "term": "future",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "QR Codes",
          "term": "QR Codes",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "restaurant",
          "term": "restaurant",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73538",
      "title": "Book Review: When the Dust Settles - Stories of Love, Loss and Hope from an Expert in Disaster by Lucy Easthope ★★★★★",
      "description": "This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way.…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-when-the-dust-settles-stories-of-love-loss-and-hope-from-an-expert-in-disaster-by-lucy-easthope/",
      "published": "2026-11-07T12:34:34.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-07T13:11:57.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/hbg-title-when-the-dust-settles-2-32.webp\" alt=\"Book cover.\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-73539\">\n\n<p>This is a difficult but essential book. I was initially put off by how graphically autobiographical it is. The disaster planning I came for was frequently interrupted with the author's loves, disasters, health issues, pains, and domestic issues. As the book wore on, I realised how vital that is. Disasters - whether natural or caused by human actions - cannot be tackled in a dispassionate way. It's all very well having a plan to repatriate bodies, strict timetables for witness statements, and a clinical approach to disposing of victims' personal effects - but there needs to be space for a <em>humane</em> response; not just a humanitarian response. People need space to grieve, they need a shower and cup of tea, they need to be allowed to fucking scream.</p>\n\n<p>My chauvinistic biases were stopped in their tracks by the unrelenting assault of pure and righteous indignation.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Women in disaster planning and response are constantly accused of overreaction, of too much thinking and emotion. We ignore our instincts in an effort to fit in.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>It is also a rallying cry against the national crime that was austerity. The hollowing out of the state's capacity to respond to trauma was a vicious and unnecessary attack on our future. Hoping that the worst never comes is in itself a recipe for disaster.</p>\n\n<p>The book is necessarily grim - with occasional gallows humour - but never fails to be fascinating:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>It seemed that pigeons and other birds were scooping up the smallest human bones, the finger bones or phalanges, that were still being uncovered</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Every chapter contains at least one \"big ooof\" where you can see exactly how reality refuses to comply to with the best laid plans of disaster planners. Here's one about the difficulty in identifying people after a disaster:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>[The victims] had the same kit on and, in an extra twist of fate, they had all dyed their hair canary yellow for the game.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>As I said, it is a difficult and bloody book. Vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the why and the how of complex recovery efforts.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73538&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=64450",
      "title": "A video game which caused real world violence",
      "description": "There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.  I don't want to go too Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people …",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/",
      "published": "2026-11-06T12:34:34.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-06T09:59:09.000Z",
      "content": "<p>There has been a dramatic fall in the amount of interpersonal violence in most countries.</p>\n\n<p>I don't want to go <em>too</em> Freakanomics and, obviously, correlation is not causation but perhaps video games have a role to play in this? A teenager being cooped up in their room means less exposure to situations where hormonal impertinence is likely to cause a violent reaction. Shouting and screaming at people via a headset rarely leads to real-life consequences.  Beating up street-fighters is less risky than being in a street fight yourself.</p>\n\n<p>But there are times when games <em>do</em> cause problems away from the screen. Players of Pokémon Go ramble about outside trying to collect digital pets - this also causes them <a href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50971309\">to trespass into military bases</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I was recently reminded of <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2010/11/augmented-reality-games-how-far-have-we-come-in-7-years/\">one of the first Augmented Reality Games - Mozzies</a>. Back in 2004 having a phone with a camera was almost unheard of. The Mozzies game let you see virtual mosquitoes overlayed on the real world - and then shoot them.</p>\n\n<p>Waving your cameraphone around while playing caused at least one case of physical violence.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a report from Singapore's <a href=\"https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/newpaper20041006-1.2.3.3\">The New Paper on 6 October 2004</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I'm grateful to <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@esmepotatoes\">Esme Potatoes</a> for helping me find a transcript.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n<h2 id=\"playing-game-or-snapping-girl-then-smash\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#playing-game-or-snapping-girl-then-smash\">Playing game or snapping girl? Then… SMASH!</a></h2>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/newpaper20041006-1.1.3.webp\" alt=\"Blurry screenshot of a newspaper.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-64452\">\n<p>The incident happened while he and his friends were at Orchard Cineleisure for a movie recently.\n\n</p><p>Before the movie started at 7pm, his friends went to E-Zone, an arcade in the same building. The Indonesian student, who has lived in Singapore for more than 10 years, preferred to wait outside and play his favourite game, Mozzies, on his Siemens phone.\n\n</p><p>The game, which involves killing mosquitoes that appear on screen, requires the use of the phone's camera.\n\n</p><p>The camera captures a live video image as the game's playing background, with the mosquitoes appearing in the foreground.\n\n</p><p>The player has to move the phone around to target the mosquitoes.\n\n</p><p>Heriyono said: \"I was so engrossed with the mosquitoes, I became oblivious to my surroundings.\"\n\n</p><p>\"Then, I saw through the phone, a figure behind the swarm of mosquitoes heading in my direction but I thought he was just passing by.\"\n\n</p><p>Heriyono claims the man then shouted: “Trying to take a photo of my girlfriend, is it?”  \n\n</p><p>And he smashed the phone on the floor.  \n\n</p><p>Heriyono said he told the man, whom he estimates to be in his mid- or late 20s, that it was a misunderstanding and that he could check the phone for himself to see if he had indeed taken pictures of the man’s girlfriend. \n\n</p><p>But the phone was so badly damaged it could not be turned on.  \n\n</p><p>“I was really shocked. He was behaving very aggressively, I thought he was going to hit me,” Heriyono said.  \n\n</p><h3 id=\"man-walked-off\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/a-video-game-which-caused-real-world-violence/#man-walked-off\">MAN WALKED OFF</a></h3>\n\n<p>But the man then walked off with his girlfriend, he said.  \n\n</p><p>Heriyono and his friends decided not to chase after the man because he was older and they were worried he could get violent.  \n\n</p><p>Heriyono did not make a police report either.  \n\n</p><p>He was worried the man may get to him again, and refused to be photographed for this report.  \n\n</p><p>When contacted, Siemens Mobile said it has never received any complaints about the games on its handphones. (See other report.)  \n\n</p><p>The Mozzies game is available only on the Siemens SX1 model.  \n\n</p><p>Heriyono had bought the handphone about four months earlier for over $700, after convincing his parents that it would be worth it because he uses all its functions, including the radio and MP3 player.  \n\n</p><p>And he particularly liked the Mozzies game.  \n\n</p><p>“In the end, the game caused me so much trouble,” he said with a sigh.  \n\n</p><p>He sent the phone to the Siemens service centre but was told it was beyond repair.  \n\n</p><p>His friends told him later that his actions could have looked suspicious.  \n\n</p><p>“I realised that I could have looked like a pervert if seen by a passer-by,” he admitted.  \n\n</p><p>“The thrill took over basic common sense and I began pointing my camera around.”  \n\n</p><p>The girl was playing “air hockey” with her boyfriend at the time.  \n\n</p><p>Miss Nalia Suli, 18, the receptionist at E-Zone, said she saw the commotion.  \n\n</p><p>She said: “The girl was dressed very sexily. Her skirt was very short and when she bent down to pick up the ball, you could see her underwear.”  \n\n</p><p>She, too, thought Heriyono was taking pictures of the girl.\n\n</p><p>“If he wasn’t taking pictures, why was the camera facing up?”  \n\n</p><p>But Heriyono said: “Yes I could have pointed to the floor. But the mosquitoes are everywhere on the screen, you have to move around to kill them.”  \n\n</p><p>He is now using a handphone he has borrowed from a friend, until he saves up enough to buy another. “I think after this incident, I will buy a much cheaper phone,” he said.  \n</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Perhaps staying inside to play games is safer all round!</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=64450&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Augmented Reality",
          "term": "Augmented Reality",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "games",
          "term": "games",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "mobile",
          "term": "mobile",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76826",
      "title": "Gadget Review: Tozo NC9 Pro Bluetooth Headphones ★★★★⯪",
      "description": "The most interesting thing about these headphones isn't the headphones; it's their case.    The good folks at Tozo have sent me a pair of their new ear-blasters. They're a fairly standard pair of in-ear headphones. Sound quality is good, noise cancelling is excellent, battery life is fine. You know, all pretty standard. But what's actually a little bit special is the charging case.  As well…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/",
      "published": "2026-11-05T12:34:17.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-05T09:49:54.000Z",
      "content": "<p>The most interesting thing about these headphones isn't the headphones; it's their case.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Case.avif\" alt=\"A small headphone case with a colourful touchscreen.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The good folks at Tozo have sent me a pair of their new ear-blasters. They're a fairly standard pair of in-ear headphones. Sound quality is good, noise cancelling is excellent, battery life is fine. You know, all pretty standard. But what's actually a little bit special is the charging case.</p>\n\n<p>As well providing charging to the cans, it has this cute little full-colour display!</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Equaliser-settings.avif\" alt=\"Case showing charging level and some buttons.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Which is also a touchscreen!</p>\n\n<p>Everyone knows that hardware manufacturers can't write decent apps - and Tozo are no different. But here you don't have to rely on the app, or <em>anything</em> on your phone. Tap the screen to wake, slide to unlock, fiddle about with the settings:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDAC-settings.avif\" alt=\"Touchscreen options to set the connection or toggle LDAC.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Or change what song is playing:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Sinatra.avif\" alt=\"Case showing the song title and artist. There are buttons to pause as well as skip forward or back.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Or interact with a dozen different helpful functions:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/QR-code.avif\" alt=\"A QR code showing on screen to get the app.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<h2 id=\"specs\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#specs\">Specs</a></h2>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://www.tozostore.com/products/tozo-nc9-pro-active-noise-cancelling-wireless-earbuds-ldac-hi-res-audio?variant=53470092329249\">read about the headphones on the official site</a> but the headline features for me are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>14 hours playback with about 60 hours from the case.</li>\n<li>LDAC if you crave bit-perfect audio.</li>\n<li>Active Noise Cancelling with various different modes.</li>\n<li>Multi-function touch buttons on each side.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-app\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app\">The App</a></h2>\n\n<p><em>*sigh*</em> OK, it isn't the <em>worst</em> headphone app I've used, but it isn't great. In its defence, you do not need to create an account in order to use most of the features.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Log-in.avif\" alt=\"A login screen.\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The app isn't brilliantly translated, but you'll probably be able to figure it out.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Translation.avif\" alt=\"A poorly translated screen. \"After the notification is enabled, the APP message notification can be obtained immediately. To turn on\"\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>You can play about with some basic settings in the app.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Basic-settings-screen.avif\" alt=\"A basic settings screen allowing you to change the time display, screen brightness, and wallpapers.\" width=\"504\" height=\"1015\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Both headphones support multi-tap, so you can change them to your preference. There are four different types of tap each ear can support.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/touch-controls.avif\" alt=\"Touch controls for click, double click, triple click, and long press. They can change volume, song, and change mode.\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>It's also possible to change the noise cancellation. The functions are perhaps a little indistinguishable - but they do work.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Noise-cancellation.avif\" alt=\"Noise cancellation, transparency mode, reduce wind noise, leisure mode, normal, adaptive.\" width=\"504\" height=\"499\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>There is, sadly, a bunch of bullshit in the app. As well as a shop, there's also this weird \"Community\" tab given pride of place in the middle of the shortcut bar.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Community.avif\" alt=\"A bunch of social media posts.\" width=\"504\" height=\"1032\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Apparently you can earn points the more you post? Why? Who cares! You also get the now-ubiquitous AI tools, which you have to sign in to use, and some white noise to drown out the sounds of the world.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/AI.avif\" alt=\"AI options to record meetings.\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Ultimately, the app is usable. You can adjust the EQ to your preferences, check for firmware updates, and similar. But you'll play with it once or twice then forget it exists.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"audio-quality\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#audio-quality\">Audio Quality</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'm not an audiophile. I'm not going to pretend that you need virgin-rolled cables adorned with mystic crystals in order to hear the true sonic soundstage of The Spice Girls.</p>\n\n<p>Everything sounds fine. The default profile was good enough for me. I pumped up the bass and it was nice and boomy. There was no noticeable sound leakage at moderate volumes. The \"spatial mode\" didn't sound particularly nice to me and introduced a fair bit of distortion.</p>\n\n<p>The noise cancellation was pretty decent as well. It won't drown out a crying baby next to you on public transport.</p>\n\n<p>It will do LDAC on both Android:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/LDAC-and-spatial.avif\" alt=\"Android screen showing LDAC and Spatial Audio.\" width=\"504\" height=\"451\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>And Linux:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Linux-showing-LDAC.avif\" alt=\"Linux showing LDAC as an A2DP sink.\" width=\"1300\" height=\"550\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Sound quality on both was excellent.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"usability\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#usability\">Usability</a></h2>\n\n<p>Pretty good! The taps are quick to respond and, of course, you can whip out the case if you want to change the settings. The touchscreen is small but responds well.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"price\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/gadget-review-tozo-nc9-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#price\">Price</a></h2>\n\n<p>They're between <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B0hxpfc1S\">£50 - £60</a> on Amazon right now, or about <a href=\"https://www.tozostore.com/products/tozo-nc9-pro-active-noise-cancelling-wireless-earbuds-ldac-hi-res-audio?variant=53470092329249\">£40 direct from the manufacturer</a>. That's bang on what I'd expect for normal headphones, but I think is decent value considering the little touch-screen it includes.</p>\n\n<p>It's a pity that the app is <em>so</em> woeful. But once you've set up your favourite EQ settings, you'll never need to touch it again.</p>\n\n<p>But if you want noise cancelling, snug fitting, easy to use headphones, these are hard to beat.</p>\n\n<p>Many thanks to Tozo for supplying me with the review unit.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76826&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "bluetooth",
          "term": "bluetooth",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "gadget",
          "term": "gadget",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Review",
          "term": "Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "USB-C",
          "term": "USB-C",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76815",
      "title": "Book Review: Practice by Rosalind Brown ★★★★☆",
      "description": "I have a simple rule - if I meet someone at a party and they say they've written a book, then I will immediately buy that book. It's a strategy which has worked out well; leading me to some truly interesting and delightful prose.  Rosalind Brown (a fellow UEA graduate) has written a stunning little book. Practice is an almost Proustian meander through a day-in-the-life of a young woman going…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/book-review-practice-by-rosalind-brown/",
      "published": "2026-11-04T12:34:07.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-11-03T22:01:48.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/practice.webp\" alt=\"Book cover featuring an illustration of a woman reading a book.\" width=\"240\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>I have a simple rule - if I meet someone at a party and they say they've written a book, then I will immediately buy that book. It's a strategy which has worked out well; leading me to some truly interesting and delightful prose.</p>\n\n<p>Rosalind Brown (a fellow UEA graduate) has written a stunning little book. Practice is an almost Proustian meander through a day-in-the-life of a young woman going through an essay crisis.  Much like <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/03/book-review-katabasis-by-r-f-kuang/\">R. F. Kuang's \"Katabasis\"</a>, I'm rather glad the author found university to be a bewildering and, at times, upsetting experience as it provides rich fodder for this tale.</p>\n\n<p>There is an inherent tragedy in studying English literature. The more you read, the more futile it becomes. Just like repeatedly saying a word aloud creates <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06162-0\">semantic satiation</a>, so to does the repeated reading of sonnets drive away all their meaning. The closer you study a poem the further it slips from your grasp. The more introspective you become, the more you lose sight of what you really want out of life.</p>\n\n<p>As Proverbs 26:11 suggests, some students are like a snake which is compelled to eat its own tail. The protagonist, Annabel, isn't a caricature but she sure is a trope that you've met in halls. She's a woe-is-me wretch who'd rather cultivate a \"Heated Rivalry\" style interior monologue rather than engage with those around her. So self-absorbed to that she doesn't realise that, not only do other people have feelings, other people are carrying the same burden she does. I suspect her essay research really should have widened to include the seminal \"<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2015.1052937\">Male gays in the female gaze</a>\"!</p>\n\n<p>It's a short novel, but pleasingly thorough. Although there aren't any major twists, I can't say I predicted how the story would evolve and conclude. The punctuation and sentence structure is charmingly idiosyncratic and, I think, perfectly fits the story.</p>\n\n<p>A note on formatting. The ePub has <em>hard</em> page breaks. That means some \"pages\" contain little more than a paragraph. I <em>suspect</em> that's intentional as it gives a wonderfully staccato pace to the text. Our day is broken up into little moments which don't quite fit the strictures of a chapter, yet we experience the day as a cohesive whole.</p>\n\n<p>An excellent book - but one to read <em>after</em> you've finished your homework.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76815&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "oxford",
          "term": "oxford",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73536",
      "title": "Just a little AI resistance, as a treat",
      "description": "At the recent EMFCamp, I bumped in to Professor Kate Devlin who was talking a little about the AI Resist List. I think one of the useful things we can do is loudly complain about shitty uses of AI. Here's an example.  As mentioned in a previous post, I'm contacting companies which send malformed calendar invites. One of the organisation I contacted was the British online supermarket Ocado. They…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/just-a-little-ai-resistance-as-a-treat/",
      "published": "2026-11-03T12:34:31.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-09-25T11:08:13.000Z",
      "content": "<p>At the recent EMFCamp, I bumped in to <a href=\"https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/kate-devlin\">Professor Kate Devlin</a> who was talking a little about the <a href=\"https://airesistlist.org/\">AI Resist List</a>. I think one of the useful things we can do is loudly complain about shitty uses of AI. Here's an example.</p>\n\n<p>As mentioned in a previous post, I'm <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/google-calendar-unable-to-launch-event-caused-by-missing-dtstamp/\">contacting companies which send malformed calendar invites</a>. One of the organisation I contacted was the British online supermarket Ocado. They don't have an easy way to contact their technical team, and no obvious paths to raise a bug report, so I filled in their usual customer service feedback form. I included a clear statement of the problem and a detailed technical analysis of why I thought it was a problem with their service.</p>\n\n<p>After sending in my message, I received this back from \"Lulu\" at Ocado:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Thanks for getting in touch and sharing this feedback about our calendar files.</p>\n\n<p>You're entirely right—having a technical glitch pop up when you're trying to organise your delivery is a real pain, so I've made sure to pass your feedback on to our technical and webshop team.</p>\n\n<p>We really appreciate you taking the time to help us improve our service. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I mean, that's AI right? It starts with the classic tell of a <a href=\"https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/3382\">sycophantic agreement</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Next up is the em-dash. <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/10/books/review/em-dash-chatbot-human-language.html\">Beloved by chatbots</a> but almost unheard of in British English style guides.</p>\n\n<p>Finally (and this is hard to quantify) it just doesn't <em>feel</em> like a customer service response. They're usually poorly spelled, have dodgy grammar, and ask a bunch of irrelevant questions. The message gave me no confidence that anyone had looked at the problem and I doubted it had been passed on to a technically competent human.</p>\n\n<p>I immediately got a customer satisfaction survey. Usually I give top marks to humans because, even though <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/whats-the-incentive-to-tell-the-truth-on-surveys/\">Net Promoter Score is bullshit</a>, I don't want customer service agents to suffer the indignity of a bad review. But in this survey I vented my spleen - giving crappy 1 ⭐ scores on every metric and complaining vociferously about how <em>rude</em> it is to use an AI to deal with a genuine complaint.</p>\n\n<p>I was both surprised and delighted to receive this back a few days after my invective was sent:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>I saw your survey comment about getting a robotic, AI-generated response previously, and I wanted to reach out personally to apologise. There is nothing more frustrating than pointing out a legitimate bug only to feel like you're talking to a brick wall. I promise you there is a real person typing this out!</p>\n\n<p>Second, I wanted to send a massive thank you for the incredibly detailed diagnostic. It is rare to get feedback that tells us <em>exactly</em> what is broken and how to fix it.</p>\n\n<p>I can assure you that this has been passed to our team to look into. Your feedback is going to make things much smoother for a lot of people, and we really appreciate you taking the extra time to help us get it right.</p>\n\n<p>Thank you again, I do hope that this issue is resolved quickly. If there is anything else I can help with in the meantime, please don't hesitate to get in touch.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Perhaps I'm being touchingly naïve, but that <em>feels</em> a lot more human, right? The grammar isn't perfect, the sentences are a bit more rambly, and it appears to have actually engaged with the contents of my message.</p>\n\n<p>I get that having a million irate customer service messages is a hassle. Using AI to triage them probably makes business sense, summarising the verbose ones could be useful for customer service agents, and totting up general themes is almost certainly a sensible way to gather metrics without overloading the workforce.</p>\n\n<p>But using an AI to reply to a human is just disrespectful. It says the organisation values their customer's time at less than their own.</p>\n\n<p>It's OK to call out shitty AI responses and insist that a human engages with you.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73536&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "AI",
          "term": "AI",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "EMFCamp",
          "term": "EMFCamp",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75939",
      "title": "Lorem Ipsum Dot Gov Dot UK",
      "description": "I love testing in production. The thrill of accidentally publishing some dummy data - or taking down an entire website - is similar to skydiving without a parachute. Exquisite excitement followed by heart-stopping terror.  Before going live with a new website or service, it's sensible to test how text looks on it.  Most people don't test with readable text - it's too easy for management to start…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dot-gov-dot-uk/",
      "published": "2026-11-02T12:34:00.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-23T10:27:50.000Z",
      "content": "<p>I love testing in production. The thrill of accidentally publishing some dummy data - or taking down an entire website - is similar to skydiving without a parachute. Exquisite excitement followed by heart-stopping terror.</p>\n\n<p>Before going live with a new website or service, it's sensible to test how text looks on it.  Most people don't test with <em>readable</em> text - it's too easy for management to start reading the content rather than looking at the layout. So the default is <a href=\"https://www.lipsum.com/\">the Latin text \"Lorem ipsum\"</a>. Latin looks enough like English to get a feel for how text will render - but most people can't read it so they gloss over the words and look at the layout.</p>\n\n<p>Say, it sure would be annoying if those dummy pages ever made their way to production, right?!?</p>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nYou're now a member of Comment Club! This content is only available to the groovy gang who read HTML comments.\n\nI'm pretty sure I once wrote a variant of this blog post, but I can't find it now. Perhaps I wrote something internal when I worked for the UK Government? Either way, I hope you have fun searching for placeholder text on *your* Government's website 🤣\n\nAs is custom, we now recite the three rules of Comment Club…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep your eyes peeled for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p><a href=\"https://blogs.fcdo.gov.uk/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-5/\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet-5-–-Foreign-Commonwealth-Development-Office-Blogs.webp\" alt=\"FCDO blog post with dummy text.\" width=\"1178\" height=\"954\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>One of the things that's fascinating about seeing testing data in a live environment is that you get a small peek behind the curtain of how a site was made. A tiny glimpse into the minds of the people who made it.</p>\n\n<p>Who was Alice? Did she enjoy her time working on the <a href=\"https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-page-example-all-components-do-not-delete\">London Councils' website</a>?</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/test-page-example-all-components-do-not-delete\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Test-Page-Example-of-all-components-DO-NOT-DELETE-London-Councils.webp\" alt=\"Lorem ipsum text, and a link to \"Alice Test Docx\".\" width=\"1177\" height=\"973\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>Was she friends with <a href=\"https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/henrys-test-subsite-overview\">Henry at Lambeth council</a>? We may never know.</p>\n\n<p>Some of the placeholders eventually become load-bearing. For reasons which remain inscrutable to those who follow, the Elders declared some pages must remain sacrosanct <em>forever!</em></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.hta.gov.uk/news/news-do-not-delete\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/DO-NOT-DELETE.-Human-Tissue-Authority.webp\" alt=\"A page of dummy text on the Human Tissue Authority website with the title \"DO NOT DELETE\".\" width=\"1177\" height=\"973\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>What would happen if that page were deleted? Would you dare risk it?</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes finding a test page leads to a dead end. A <a href=\"https://www.knutsfordtowncouncil.gov.uk/council-\">stub of a page</a> which should have been purged before go-live.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.knutsfordtowncouncil.gov.uk/council-\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Council-Knutsford-Town-Council.webp\" alt=\"Knutsford town council page with dummy text.\" width=\"1177\" height=\"973\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>But other times it can lead us to a page hinting at something more. Deeper tests of long-forgotten functionality.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://customer.surreycc.gov.uk/article/824/Events\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Events-Surrey-County-Council.webp\" alt=\"Surrey Council events page with lorem text and links to attendee plugin pages. One link says aaaaaaaa.\" width=\"997\" height=\"1345\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>What did those plugins do? Aaaaaaaa indeed!</p>\n\n<p>The purpose of this post isn't to point and laugh, it's to show that searching for dummy data is a good way to find interesting things. It might show you a style-guide, or lead to you to a forgotten and outdated plugin, or it might lead you to an <a href=\"https://pre.redirect.contractawardservice.gca.gov.uk/digital-outcomes/opportunities\">entire pre-production environment</a>.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://pre.redirect.contractawardservice.gca.gov.uk/digital-outcomes/opportunities\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/preprod-gca.webp\" alt=\"Digital Outcomes page with a large \"pre prod\" banner and dummy text. This is a composite image.\" width=\"1009\" height=\"746\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>Finally, this image was on one of the FCDO blog posts. I assume that means it is available under the <a href=\"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/\">Open Government Licence</a> and, therefore, <a href=\"https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/184149181?ref=studio-promote\">I can start T-Shirt production immediately</a>!</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/184149181?ref=studio-promote\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/lorem-ipsum-dolor-sit-amet.webp\" alt=\"The keep calm and carry on poster, but with the words Lorem Ipsum Dolor Sit Amet.\" width=\"600\" height=\"700\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75939&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "GOV.UK",
          "term": "GOV.UK",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "government",
          "term": "government",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "WebDev",
          "term": "WebDev",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=65267",
      "title": "10 Years on Mastodon",
      "description": "As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.     Post by <a rel=\"mention\" class=\"u-url mention\" href=\"https://mastodon.social/@Edent\">@Edent</a> View on Mastodon      Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me, your password…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/",
      "published": "2026-11-01T12:34:18.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-09-25T11:07:56.000Z",
      "content": "<p>As of today, I've been on the Mastodon social network for 10 years. I think that deserves a little reflection and celebration.</p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"mastodon-embed\" data-embed-url=\"https://mastodon.social/@Edent/55342/embed\" style=\"background: #FCF8FF; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #C9C4DA; margin: 0; max-width: 540px; min-width: 270px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;\"> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@Edent/55342\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"align-items: center; color: #1C1A25; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; justify-content: center; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 20px; padding: 24px; text-decoration: none;\"> <svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" width=\"32\" height=\"32\" viewBox=\"0 0 79 75\"><path d=\"M63 45.3v-20c0-4.1-1-7.3-3.2-9.7-2.1-2.4-5-3.7-8.5-3.7-4.1 0-7.2 1.6-9.3 4.7l-2 3.3-2-3.3c-2-3.1-5.1-4.7-9.2-4.7-3.5 0-6.4 1.3-8.6 3.7-2.1 2.4-3.1 5.6-3.1 9.7v20h8V25.9c0-4.1 1.7-6.2 5.2-6.2 3.8 0 5.8 2.5 5.8 7.4V37.7H44V27.1c0-4.9 1.9-7.4 5.8-7.4 3.5 0 5.2 2.1 5.2 6.2V45.3h8ZM74.7 16.6c.6 6 .1 15.7.1 17.3 0 .5-.1 4.8-.1 5.3-.7 11.5-8 16-15.6 17.5-.1 0-.2 0-.3 0-4.9 1-10 1.2-14.9 1.4-1.2 0-2.4 0-3.6 0-4.8 0-9.7-.6-14.4-1.7-.1 0-.1 0-.1 0s-.1 0-.1 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 0 0 0c.1 1.6.4 3.1 1 4.5.6 1.7 2.9 5.7 11.4 5.7 5 0 9.9-.6 14.8-1.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1 0 0 .1 0 .1 0 .1.1 0 .1 0 .1.1v5.6s0 .1-.1.1c0 0 0 0 0 .1-1.6 1.1-3.7 1.7-5.6 2.3-.8.3-1.6.5-2.4.7-7.5 1.7-15.4 1.3-22.7-1.2-6.8-2.4-13.8-8.2-15.5-15.2-.9-3.8-1.6-7.6-1.9-11.5-.6-5.8-.6-11.7-.8-17.5C3.9 24.5 4 20 4.9 16 6.7 7.9 14.1 2.2 22.3 1c1.4-.2 4.1-1 16.5-1h.1C51.4 0 56.7.8 58.1 1c8.4 1.2 15.5 7.5 16.6 15.6Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"></path></svg> <div style=\"color: #787588; margin-top: 16px;\">Post by @Edent@mastodon.social</div> <div style=\"font-weight: 500;\">View on Mastodon</div> </a> </blockquote>\n\n<script data-allowed-prefixes=\"https://mastodon.social/\" async=\"\" src=\"https://mastodon.social/embed.js\"></script>\n\n<p>Social networks often launch in a blaze of glory but limp out of existence within a year or so<sup id=\"fnref:arse\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:arse\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"I'm pulling these numbers out of my arse. But, come on, that feels about right, doesn't it?\" role=\"doc-noteref\">0</a></sup>. How many services have you signed up to, only to gradually drift away from? If you're anything like me<sup id=\"fnref:pu\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:pu\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"Poor you!\" role=\"doc-noteref\">1</a></sup>, your password manager is a graveyard of unloved services and your MFA app is filled with icons of websites you barely remember.</p>\n\n<p>It could easily have been that way with Mastodon. I gradually drifted away from Slashdot. Despite a promising start, <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/app-net/\">AppDotNet</a> died an untimely death. Slack works as a meta-social-network - but there are half-a-dozen communities which I know I'll never check in on. Once in a blue moon I'll think about uploading a photo to Flickr. I tried <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/09/i-didnt-quit-twitter-twitter-quit-me/\">quitting Twitter</a> several times - only to walk away cold turkey to prevent my soul being polluted by its filth.</p>\n\n<p>I lurk on LinkedIn mainly to gawp at the brainworms. Threads just pushed too much crap into my feed. I <em>think</em> I have a tumblr and a dozen other social media accounts which fell into disrepair.</p>\n\n<p>So what made Mastodon so sticky for me?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"silence-brand\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#silence-brand\">Silence Brand</a></h2>\n\n<p>Brands on social networks is an anti-pattern. You cannot be friends with a company.</p>\n\n<p>In the early days of Twitter, brands were <em>desperate</em> to join the global conversation. They saw people complaining about them and wanted to intercede. Sadly that just promoted maladaptive behaviour as people (especially those with large followings) found they could bully brands into submission.</p>\n\n<p>So brands retreated into the only thing they know how to do; advertise.</p>\n\n<p>Mastodon has been remarkably resistant to corporations coming along to plant their flags. The few that are on there are either genuinely interested in the technology or are broadcast only.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"algorithms-and-filters\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#algorithms-and-filters\">Algorithms and Filters</a></h2>\n\n<p>It's wrong to say that Mastodon doesn't have an algorithm. It displays posts in chronological order - that's an algorithm. It has decent enough spam filtering - again, an algorithm. But it never tries to promote far-right hate posts to me.</p>\n\n<p>Even better, it has proper support for a user's personalised filters. I can easily block discussion of politics<sup id=\"fnref:names\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:names\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"I am grateful that so many politicians have reasonably unique names!\" role=\"doc-noteref\">2</a></sup> and sport. I can turn off reposts from individual accounts that I follow - you know the guy who reposts every puppy video he finds.</p>\n\n<p>That makes for a relaxing and stress-free experience.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"fun-technology\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fun-technology\">Fun Technology</a></h2>\n\n<p>I wasted years on the Twitter API. While I got some lovely swag from Twitter for faffing about with their tech, it was always clear that certain sections of Twitter's leadership hated that 3rd parties could use their APIs. Similarly, Facebook's API started as fun but quickly descended into a locked-down corporate hellscape.</p>\n\n<p>Mastodon's API is mostly a delight to use. There aren't weird and arbitrary restrictions. Even better, because of the inherent open nature of the Fediverse, I can write my own ActivityPub software to interact with it.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/\">I'm even getting paid to develop ActivityBot</a>!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"nice-people\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#nice-people\">Nice People</a></h2>\n\n<p>Most of the people who join Mastodon<sup id=\"fnref:fedi\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fn:fedi\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"Yes, I know it is the Fediverse and they're not all on one platform. Cut me some slack.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">3</a></sup> feel rejected from more corporate social media. They've either made an active choice to try something different or they've been thrown off the mainstream apps. That's (mostly) good - and means that they're invested in making work something that's different.</p>\n\n<p>I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss some of the people from Twitter. I think most of them are on BlueSky now - so I'm on there as well. Think of it like quitting smoking by taking up vaping. Sure, not ideal, but better than the alternative.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-it-is-missing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#what-it-is-missing\">What it is missing</a></h2>\n\n<p>I can't pretend everything is brilliant. In no particular order, here are some of the papercuts which annoy me daily.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"reply-controls\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#reply-controls\">Reply Controls</a></h3>\n\n<p>BlueSky allows me to set a limit on who can reply to my posts. It is <em>bliss</em>. Sometimes I don't want the world chatting back to me. Yes, there's the ability to restrict who can see my posts in the first place, or who can quote my posts, but it isn't the same.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"super-block\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#super-block\">Super Block</a></h3>\n\n<p>Similarly, I want to be able to remove replies to me. If someone is being abusive or annoying, I don't want my friends to see that. If I block them, I want their replies to vanish from view in my threads.</p>\n\n<p>I can moderate replies to my blog posts - why can't I moderate replies to my microblog posts?</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"reply-guys\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#reply-guys\">Reply Guys</a></h3>\n\n<p>The two issues above are caused by the same strain of reply-guy. There's something about Mastodon which attracts <a href=\"https://german.millermanschool.com/\">a certain class of person</a>. I get so many replies from people who either have never heard of this Earth concept called humour, or think that their inexpert Googling is helpful, or want to argue about something I haven't said.</p>\n\n<p>It can be infuriating and I understand why it drives people away.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"geolocation\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#geolocation\">Geolocation</a></h3>\n\n<p>I just think <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/scattered-thoughts-on-social-geolocation/\">social geolocation would be nifty</a>!</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"more-people\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#more-people\">More People</a></h3>\n\n<p>I'm in two minds about this. Services like <a href=\"https://brid.gy/\">Brid.gy</a> allow me to follow my BSky friends on Masto, and vice-versa. Having more people on the Fediverse and away from corporate-owned social media would (hopefully) make it more viable in the long-term.</p>\n\n<p>But more people means more spammers, grifters, and <i lang=\"fr\">agents provocateur</i>. There's a delicate balance to be found - not enough people and the network fails, too many people and it collapses.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know what the right number is.</p>\n\n<p>The nice thing about the Fediverse is that it literally cannot fail completely. Much like IRC survives despite \"everyone\" moving to Discord and WhatsApp, it chugs along in the background. ActivityPub servers will be around for the foreseeable future. So I'll be available on Mastodon (or its successor) until the bitter end.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"heres-to-the-next-ten-years\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#heres-to-the-next-ten-years\">Here's to the next ten years!</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to Mastodon (and the Fediverse as a whole) by 2036. I am sure it'll have some wobbles, I hope it will see a renaissance, I look forward to shitposting far into the future.</p>\n\n<p>You can follow me on Mastodon - <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@edent\">@edent@mastodon.social</a>.</p>\n\n<div id=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\">\n<hr aria-label=\"Footnotes\">\n<ol start=\"0\">\n\n<li id=\"fn:arse\">\n<p>I'm pulling these numbers out of my arse. But, come on, that feels about right, doesn't it? <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:arse\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn:pu\">\n<p>Poor you! <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:pu\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn:names\">\n<p>I am grateful that so many politicians have reasonably unique names! <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:names\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n<li id=\"fn:fedi\">\n<p>Yes, I <em>know</em> it is the Fediverse and they're not all on one platform. Cut me some slack. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/11/10-years-on-mastodon/#fnref:fedi\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\">↩︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n</ol>\n</div>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=65267&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "ActivityPub",
          "term": "ActivityPub",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "mastodon",
          "term": "mastodon",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "NaBloPoMo",
          "term": "NaBloPoMo",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Social Media",
          "term": "Social Media",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Social Networks",
          "term": "Social Networks",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=77063",
      "title": "Gig Review: The Witcher in Concert ★★★★☆",
      "description": "The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing The Force Awakens - live in concert, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.  But what about watching a video game with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see \"The Witcher\":  A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/",
      "published": "2026-10-31T12:34:18.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-30T18:07:11.000Z",
      "content": "<p>The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2019/11/review-the-force-awakens-live-in-concert/\">The Force Awakens - live in concert</a>, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.</p>\n\n<p>But what about watching a <em>video game</em> with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see \"The Witcher\":</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms the lasting legacy and emotional storytelling of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into an immersive concert</p></blockquote>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! This top secret bonus material is only available to people who read my HTML comments. \n\nThis was a TOP SECRET date with my wife. She didn't know what we were going to see or where we were going to see it. I'll admit, Wolverhampton isn't the most romantic destination for a mini-break! But the show was an excellent night out.\n\nWhat's the best concert you've been to with a date?\n\nOK, the three rules of comment club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p>Obviously you can't have someone sat there with a PS5 controller while a band plays (although that'd be a hell of a Twitch stream!) instead a large screen projects various cut-scenes and in-game footage.  It works pretty well - most of the popular scenes are in there (Geralt in the bathtub got a big cheer) although there was no hyper-extended Gwent session. The videos were a <em>little</em> repetitive. Some of the music is obviously composed to be swelling in the background and so repeated shots of swords looking cool or Geralt looking grumpy were sprinkled throughout.</p>\n\n<p>The highlight was seeing <a href=\"https://percival.pl/percival/?lang=en\">Percival Schuttenbach</a> play a variety of instruments with absolute joy and gusto. The entire band look like they're having a whale of a time, and the conductor encouraged us to whoop and cheer for our favourite scenes (with perhaps a few boos for some of the more notorious enemies).</p>\n\n<p>As soundtracks go, it isn't particularly varied. There's a decent mix of tunes, some with singing, but they do tend to blur into one after a while. Nevertheless, a brilliant time for fans of the game who want to soak up the music.</p>\n\n<p>The Witcher in Concert is on tour around the world now.</p>\n\n<iframe title=\"The Witcher in Concert | Trailer\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTsQzz2ukXA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"></iframe>\n\n<h2 id=\"pre-and-post-show\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gig-review-the-witcher-in-concert/#pre-and-post-show\">Pre- and Post-Show</a></h2>\n\n<p>There was a merchandise stall hidden in one corner of the venue. Between doors opening and the start of the show (about an hour) a video looped through three screens - one of which encouraged up to share our photos with a hashtag. That's fine, but a few more videos wouldn't have gone amiss.</p>\n\n<p>After the show, the conductor said the band would stick around for selfies - which was nice of them.</p>\n\n<p>A touring show like this probably can't spare too much space for large scale models for people to pose with, or a couple of cosplayers to photograph, but it might have been nice if there were <em>something</em> to interact with before and after the show.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=77063&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "games",
          "term": "games",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "gig",
          "term": "gig",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Review",
          "term": "Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "TheWitcherInConcert",
          "term": "TheWitcherInConcert",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76302",
      "title": "Book Review: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy ★★☆☆☆",
      "description": "I did not care for this one bit. I found it cloying, infantilising, and far too circuitous.  It starts off as a bit of an overwritten melodrama, where every phrase is a delicious flower waiting to bloom, but ends up being a over-sugared mess with a rotten heart. Parts are just exhausting to read, with no time to catch your breath between scenes. That can work in some books when spaced out -…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-the-god-of-small-things-by-arundhati-roy/",
      "published": "2026-10-30T12:34:22.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-27T21:11:03.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/gost.webp\" alt=\"Book cover.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>I did not care for this one bit. I found it cloying, infantilising, and far too circuitous.</p>\n\n<p>It starts off as a bit of an overwritten melodrama, where every phrase is a delicious flower waiting to bloom, but ends up being a over-sugared mess with a rotten heart. Parts are just exhausting to read, with no time to catch your breath between scenes. That can work in some books when spaced out - here I just found it annoying.</p>\n\n<p>My main problem with it, though, is that it feels like it is <em>entirely</em> exposition. Because of the (unnecessarily) jumbled order of the story, every paragraph feels like it is introducing us to something or someone. Rather than progress the plot, I felt like I was being drip-fed morsels for what was coming up. In the end, the story just isn't interesting enough to support that.</p>\n\n<p>Parts of the writing are gorgeous, but they're in service of so little that it seems like an unfair sleight of hand; you're too busy admiring the prose to realise how dull and uneventful everything is. The repetition hammers away like a vocal tic - wearing out its welcome by the tenth occurrence. The mannered spelling, punctuation, and extemporising is similarly grating after a while.</p>\n\n<p>I don't mind characters being unsympathetic - but every single one is painted as a monster or a simpleton. It's hard to keep reading when nearly all the main characters are so relentlessly unlikeable. I know I'm not a big fan of sad or upsetting books, but there was so <em>little</em> joy or happiness in this one that I felt grimy reading it.  Afterwards I was left wondering what the point of it was. I do not doubt that the depictions of casteism were well done but, again, to what end?</p>\n\n<p>I read this for a book club and wondered what my fellow readers made of it. All of us found it a challenging read, with most raising similar criticisms to mine. We all found the prose to be  beautiful but the plot lacking. Only one of use gave it a positive review - but we all agreed it was a fascinating book to discuss.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps we were all just philistines? Yet each of us came up with a compelling reason why we found it so unpalatable. There truly was something for everyone to complain about.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76302&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Club",
          "term": "Book Club",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75488",
      "title": "Gadget Review: SoundPEATS CC3 Pro Bluetooth Headphones ★★★★⯪",
      "description": "These are easily the most comfortable headphones I've worn. I've literally had them clipped around my ears all day without noticing them.    The good folks at SoundPEATS have sent me their latest cans to wrap around my lugs. I'm a big fan of these new-style \"clip on\" headphones. Rather than encasing your ears, or sticking way down into the wax-mines, these clip over your ear. It isn't a tight…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/",
      "published": "2026-10-28T12:34:54.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-26T11:24:58.000Z",
      "content": "<p>These are easily the <em>most</em> comfortable headphones I've worn. I've literally had them clipped around my ears all day without noticing them.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ccpro3.webp\" alt=\"Clip on headphones.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1152\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>The good folks at <a href=\"https://soundpeats.com/en-gb\">SoundPEATS</a> have sent me their latest cans to wrap around my lugs. I'm a big fan of these new-style \"clip on\" headphones. Rather than encasing your ears, or sticking way down into the wax-mines, these clip over your ear. It isn't a tight grip like a paperclip - more like the gentle caress of a tender but firm lover who wants only to delicately pinch your ears.</p>\n\n<p>Look - it's hard writing about this stuff, OK?! Grab a pair and try them; you'll see what I mean. Here's a picture of an attractive model to give you an idea.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/female-model.webp\" alt=\"Woman with clip on headphones.\" width=\"999\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<h2 id=\"specs\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#specs\">Specs</a></h2>\n\n<p>All the usual things you'd expect from headphones. AAC and SBC audio codecs are standard, it'll also do LDAC - which will get you higher quality but at the expense of battery life and the ability to connect to multiple devices at once.</p>\n\n<p>The case recharges via USB-C, the battery seems fairly chunky and will quick-charges the headphones. 10 minutes in the case will give them 3 hours of playback.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Product-shot.webp\" alt=\"Product shot showing the headphones and case.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Each clip has a button - you can change what they do in the supplied app.</p>\n\n<p>IPX6 should be good for wearing in the rain, but you can't go swimming in them.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"useful-features\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#useful-features\">Useful Features</a></h2>\n\n<p>We all know what headphones can do - play audio, provide a microphone, and let you control the audio coming from your device. The CC3 Pro also have a few other smart features.</p>\n\n<p>Like most decent battery-powered headphones, they will automatically switch off after a predetermined period without use.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Scheduled-off.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot of scheduled off functionality.\" width=\"504\" height=\"616\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>There's a privacy mode which adds an EQ filter to reduce sound leakage. It works, but does make the sound slightly murkier.</p>\n\n<p>There's a button on each one - you can use the app to set actions for tap, double-tap, triple-tap, and long press.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Custom-gestures.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot of custom gestures settings.\" width=\"504\" height=\"751\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The case supports wireless charging, so you can chuck it on any charging puck for a quick top-up.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"comfort\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#comfort\">Comfort</a></h2>\n\n<p>Outstanding. After a few minutes you will genuinely forget that you're wearing them. Shake your head as hard as you like and they will not fall off. Here's a genuine photo of me doing some manly exercises while wearing them.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/male-model.webp\" alt=\"Male model, slightly sweaty, wearing headphones.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<h2 id=\"sound-quality\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#sound-quality\">Sound Quality</a></h2>\n\n<p>Excellent - with a couple of caveats. These are open-ear devices. You can hear the world around you. That is by design and is extremely useful if you need to be aware of your surroundings. You can't block out the world or do active noise cancelling. I was not a fan of the default EQ. The bass wasn't bassy enough for me. It's easy enough to change in <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app\">the app</a> - but that does require a login.</p>\n\n<p>Voice quality when speaking on the phone was also good. The people I spoke to could hear me clearly and with minimal background noise.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"android\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#android\">Android</a></h2>\n\n<p>Piece of cake. Open the case, press the button on the back, they're ready to pair.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Android.webp\" alt=\"Android showing HD Audio.\" width=\"504\" height=\"462\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Sound quality was great, my voice transmitted just fine, and I could easily play/pause and adjust the volume.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"linux\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#linux\">Linux</a></h2>\n\n<p>Again, dead easy. Ubuntu detected and paired with them instantly.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-app\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#the-app\">The App</a></h2>\n\n<p>I've complained to SoundPEATS before about their lousy app. The best thing I can say about it is that you don't <em>have</em> to use it. It's handy for downloading the occasional firmware update and fiddling with the setting. But that's about it.</p>\n\n<p>It obnoxiously insists on needing an Internet connection to change <em>some</em> settings. Stuck on a train in the middle of nowhere and want to adjust your EQ? Tough. Similarly, some functionality is gated behind a login wall - such as the custom EQ and custom sound effects.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Login-to-get-more.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot showing log in to get more.\" width=\"504\" height=\"705\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Thankfully, the rest of the app is fairly simple to use and will work offline. You can adjust what the buttons do, for example:</p>\n\n<p>Weirdly, you can also download other people's EQ settings.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/EQ-Marketplace.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot of the EQ marketplace.\" width=\"504\" height=\"892\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>There's also a firmware update and a bunch of other things to flick on and off.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"downsides\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#downsides\">Downsides</a></h2>\n\n<p>Other than the app, there are a few niggles which are only slightly annoying.</p>\n\n<p>Firstly, they don't pause when you take them out of your ear. That's a feature which was on <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/11/gadget-review-soundpeats-clip1-cuff-headphones/\">the first set of SoundPeats</a> I had and is sorely missed.</p>\n\n<p>Secondly, the default sound profile wasn't very bass heavy. A bit of fiddling in the app and they sounded much better.</p>\n\n<p>While they do charge in either slot within the case, they're incompatible with previous SoundPeats cases. The risk with smaller manufacturers like this is that you won't be able to find a cheap replacement case if you need it.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"price\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-soundpeats-cc3-pro-bluetooth-headphones/#price\">Price</a></h2>\n\n<p>Launch price is about £75 / €80. That's getting towards the upper end of what I think is acceptable for headphones like this.</p>\n\n<p>Readers of this blog can use code <code>PRCC3PRO</code> for an <em>extra</em> 10% off at <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B06umgpc8\">Amazon UK</a> or other <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B06umgpc8\">international Amazon stores</a>. The code should work from today until 30th November 2026.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, these are ridiculously comfortable headphones. They won't block out the noise of the environment around you - but that's their selling point. You use these while cycling, wandering through the city, or any other time you need to be aware of your surrounding. If you can put up with the slightly shonky app, these are well worth the price.</p>\n\n<p>Many thanks to SoundPeats for the review pair.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75488&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "gadget",
          "term": "gadget",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "headphones",
          "term": "headphones",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Review",
          "term": "Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "USB-C",
          "term": "USB-C",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76955",
      "title": "Book Review: You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat] - Andrew Hankinson ★★★★☆",
      "description": "It is hard to write a book in the second person. It is even harder to make it this good. It would have been easier to write a salacious cash-in with a dozen shocking revelations in each chapter. Instead, Andrew Hankinson attempts to use Raoul Moat's own words to build up a picture of the man.  You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.  Go.  It is…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-you-could-do-something-amazing-with-your-life-you-are-raoul-moat-andrew-hankinson/",
      "published": "2026-10-27T12:34:53.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-25T12:10:21.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/9781911344322.webp\" alt=\"Book cover featuring a cherubic boy smiling at the camera.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>It is hard to write a book in the second person. It is even harder to make it this good. It would have been easier to write a salacious cash-in with a dozen shocking revelations in each chapter. Instead, Andrew Hankinson attempts to use Raoul Moat's own words to build up a picture of the man.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>You have nine days and your whole life to prove you are more than a callous murderer.</p>\n\n<p>Go.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>It is written with sympathy, but without being sympathetic. A stream of consciousness interrupted only occasionally by the voice of god [it probably isn't god] to provide clarity to an unreliable narrator. The paranoia and delusion come streaming off the page, couched in a tone of voice that exudes reasonableness. It doesn't glorify the man, nor does it make excuses for him, instead it asks you to consider what you choices you could have made under similar circumstances.</p>\n\n<p>Almost every sentence is set up as a challenge to the reader. Is this man telling the truth? If so, are his actions understandable or explainable? If not, where is the truth and how would you know? When someone has such a fundamental disconnect from reality, when their model of the world and human interactions is so broken, what can society do to help?</p>\n\n<p>From Moat's point of view, he is the Biblical Job. A callous god tests and torments him. Beset by challenges he never loses faith even after the all the world can throw at him. The god [in parentheses] is <em>also</em> an unreliable narrator. The author has built upon all the official reports, the suicide notes, the rambling messages, and interviews with contemporaries. But, as is acknowledged, we can never truly know what goes on in someone's head; we can only judge their actions and their aftermath.</p>\n\n<p>A constant drumbeat is the way Moat claims he was repeatedly victimised by the police. Given all his other delusions, the reader might easily conclude that this is yet another piece of self-pitying nonsense. And yet, when discussing how Moat actually died there <em>does</em> appear to be a conspiracy of silence. The police's behaviour and attitudes are exactly what you would expect from people perpetrating a cover-up.</p>\n\n<p>Naturally, this is a depressing and often upsetting read. It reminds me of the autobiography <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/08/week-notes-5/#non-fiction\">Mini and Me</a> about a child arsonist. In both that book and this, we witness people being offered help and refusing it. Much like <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_drowning_man\">the parable of the drowning man</a> it seems people often overlook the helping hand.</p>\n\n<p>Are you responsible for this? The start of the book describes Moat reaching out for psychiatric help. He is offered an appointment but never turns up. He's offered another one, but still doesn't attend. Whereupon the offer of help is withdrawn. Our society strongly favours individual responsibility. Autonomy is to be persevered for all but the most extreme cases. Should Moat have been forcibly removed from home and made to attend his appointments?</p>\n\n<p>Do you want to live in a society where missing a few meetings with a social worker results in you being detained against your will? Are you happy to accept his attacks as a price worth paying for your freedom?</p>\n\n<p>If a journalist took words you'd written in the heat of the moment, would it paint you in a terrible light? How confident are you that you know the truth of any situation? Are you lying to yourself right now?</p>\n\n<p>This is an excellent and provocative book. I picked this up after <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/robmanuel.b3ta.com/post/3mxdzridrm22p\">seeing Rob Manuel post about it</a>. I like the idea of an informal online book club! If someone wants to set one up, please do invite me.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76955&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76940",
      "title": "Theatre Review: Opera UnTouched's \"The Telephone\" ★★★★★",
      "description": "Why shouldn't an opera be set in an office? Not merely set there; performed there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day.  We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention?  Both Grace…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/",
      "published": "2026-10-26T12:34:15.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-26T11:19:06.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/telephone.jpg\" alt=\"A bright pink poster featuring a telephone.\" width=\"240\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>Why <em>shouldn't</em> an opera be set in an office? Not merely <em>set</em> there; <strong>performed</strong> there! On Saturday night, a couple of dozen audience members were ushered in to a genuine office in Tooting to watch a short comic opera by Opera UnTouched. It was a burst of sunshine in a rainy day.</p>\n\n<p>We're at Ben's leaving party. A flustered woman is busy on the telephone. Will Ben ever get her attention?</p>\n\n<p>Both <a href=\"https://encoremusicians.com/Grace-Watkins\">Grace Watkins</a> & <a href=\"https://www.stephenwhitford.co.uk/\">Stephen Whitford</a> are astonishingly good opera singers. They cover all the tropes, hit all the notes, and interact well with the audience.</p>\n\n<p>I know that <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/10/every-theatre-show-is-immersive/\">every production now claims it is immersive</a> - but here, it genuinely is! The audience wanders through the set to get to the seats scattered around the office, there's a naff PowerPoint presentation projected on to the wall, a leaving card is waiting for us to sign, the singers prance among us.</p>\n\n<p>Just intensely joyful.</p>\n\n<p>My only real criticism it that it is too short! I suspect it is designed to be a pop-up experience, fringe show, or performed during a break in the corporate drudgery. I'd've gladly watched a full length production and traipsed through a series of office spaces to get the the next scene.</p>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/operauntouched/reel/DerzyjVR_b_/\">watch excerpts on Instagram</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"pre-and-post-show\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/theatre-review-opera-untoucheds-the-telephone/#pre-and-post-show\">Pre- and Post-Show</a></h2>\n\n<p>As I've written about before, <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/the-art-of-the-pre-show-and-post-show/\">theatrical shows need to do something special to warm up their audiences</a>. Opera UnTouched had a tough job with an audience drenched in London's rain.</p>\n\n<p>The \"office manager\" ushered us in to the space and told us that it was Ben's last day, so we were all welcome at his leaving drinks. It being a modern office, we were each given a lanyard to wear throughout the show (which also sneakily doubled as an audience feedback QR).</p>\n\n<p>As it was a party, as we wandered round the office space, we were each handed a glass of Prosecco - what a lovely touch! There's a reason your Chinese takeaway comes with \"free\" prawn crackers; receiving a gift makes you feel cherished. For the cost of a few dozen reusable plastic flutes and all of about 73p worth of fizz each, the audience were positively beaming by the time the show started.</p>\n\n<p>Why can't more shows do that? OK, it might eat in to the takings at the bar. But a welcome drink on arrival is such an easy way to win over the audience.</p>\n\n<p>As for post-show, there was the obligatory plea to fill in the feedback form. Charmingly, after receiving rapturous applause, the cast and creatives came back and were happy to chat to the audience and discuss the show.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76940&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "london",
          "term": "london",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "opera",
          "term": "opera",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Theatre Review",
          "term": "Theatre Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76246",
      "title": "Gadget Review: LiberNovo Omni - the USB-C powered office chair ★★★★⯪",
      "description": "Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable!  WHAT?!    The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features.  First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you…",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/",
      "published": "2026-10-25T12:34:01.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-25T11:14:08.000Z",
      "content": "<p>Whenever a company asks me to review their gadgets, I always ask if it is USB-C powered. If not, I'm not interested. So, welcome to the future where your chair is USC-C rechargeable!</p>\n\n<p>WHAT?!</p>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! This top secret bonus material is only available to people who read my HTML comments. \n\nI get a lot of random companies asking me to review their stuff. Sometimes it is bargain basement crap, but once in a while there's something like this. Is it *really* worth a grand? Well, seats like this aren't cheap and the competition is around that price. But yeeeeeesh! I do love sitting on it though.\n\nOK, the three rules of comment club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep looking out for more comments in future blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p>The LiberNovo Omni looks like a standard office chair - but has two secret features.</p>\n\n<p>First, is that it is exceedingly comfortable. Full foam cushions, lovely headrest, and a recline which almost gets you horizontal.</p>\n\n<p>Second, it is USB-C powered. There's a small battery pack which plugs in to the chair. Why? Read on!</p>\n\n<p>OK, let's start at the beginning.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"assembly\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#assembly\">Assembly</a></h2>\n\n<p>Flat-pack chairs like this are normally notoriously hard to assemble. The LiberNovo bucks that trend - not only does it include a how-to video, it prints the instructions on a MASSIVE piece of cardboard.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Big-instructions.webp\" alt=\"Massive instructions on a big bit of card printed in colour.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>I'm used to peering at tiny black-and-white diagrams in a flimsy paper booklet. IKEA could learn a thing or two from this.</p>\n\n<p>The screws are all labelled and a hex-driver is included. What's an even nicer touch, however, is some safety gloves:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Screws-and-gloves.webp\" alt=\"Screws in labelled pouches, a driver, and a pair of white gloves.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>That's the sort of thing which doesn't cost much to the manufacturer, but is such a thoughtful gesture. There's nothing <em>too</em> sharp as you assemble, but who wants to cover their new chair in blood, eh?</p>\n\n<p>The parts come in two large boxes, but there aren't that many separate bits.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ready-for-assembly.webp\" alt=\"All the bits, ready for assembly.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"629\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Building it took about half an hour. It's easier with a friend to help - as are most things in life - but doesn't require much skill.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"go-back-to-the-usb-c-part-again-please\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#go-back-to-the-usb-c-part-again-please\">Go Back To The USB-C Part Again Please?</a></h2>\n\n<p>The battery pack is a 2200mAh unit with a USB-C port to recharge. It connects in to the chair with this slightly unusual connector:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Battery.webp\" alt=\"A battery pack with a handle.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The internals of the chair have a USB-C cable to connect everything up.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/USB-C-Up-The-BUM.webp\" alt=\"USB-C cable protruding from the chair - it looks like it goes RIGHT UP YOUR BUM!\" width=\"2475\" height=\"2475\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p><em>LOL!</em></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"yes-but-why-does-a-chair-need-a-battery-pack\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#yes-but-why-does-a-chair-need-a-battery-pack\">YES BUT WHY DOES A CHAIR NEED A BATTERY PACK??!?!</a></h2>\n\n<p>On the side of the left arm-rest are three buttons.</p>\n\n<p>Two of them move the lumbar-support up and down. Depending on how your back is feeling and how far you are reclined, you can adjust the the back-support position.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"and-the-3rd-button\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#and-the-3rd-button\">And the 3rd button?</a></h2>\n\n<p>That's the build-in back massager, silly!</p>\n\n<p><video autoplay=\"\" loop=\"\" muted=\"\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/omni-back-massage.mp4\"></video></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"is-that-useful\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#is-that-useful\">Is that useful?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Yes. Being able to instantly adjust the back support without having to twist around is fantastic, especially for those of us reaching a certain age.</p>\n\n<p>The \"massage\" feature essentially just moves the support up and down for five minutes before returning to its previous location. When sat upright, it feels great. But the real benefit is when you're laying down.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-flat-does-this-thing-go\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#how-flat-does-this-thing-go\">How flat does this thing go?</a></h2>\n\n<p>160° - not quite flat, but good enough when you're taking a break from Typing Real Hard. You don't want a photo of me sprawled out, so LiberNovo have helpfully provided some stock photos of much better looking folk.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/recline.webp\" alt=\"Guy leaning all the way back on the chair.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>It is incredibly stable. At no point did it tip over or feel like it was going to deposit me on the floor. What really helps is the included foot stall.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"no-feets-on-seats\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#no-feets-on-seats\">No Feets On Seats</a></h2>\n\n<p>Unsurprisingly, this is <em>not</em> USB-C powered. A sturdy plastic footrest with a deeply padded leg rest on top.</p>\n\n<p>Again, assembly was a cinch - follow the large printed instructions and clip it together. It's rated for 40㎏, so you shouldn't stand on it but it is more than enough to rest your weary legs.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"price\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#price\">Price</a></h2>\n\n<p>I hope you're sitting down for this.</p>\n\n<p>Direct from LiberNovo, you can expect to <a href=\"https://uk.libernovo.com/pages/libernovo-omni-dynamic-ergonomic-chair\">pay around £700</a> - although there are bundles with extra batteries, the footrest, and even an eye mask which will shoot that price up. You can get the <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B04FRSESZ\">full bundle on Amazon for around £1,000</a>.</p>\n\n<p>There's two ways to look at that price. Firstly, youch. But, alternatively, that's still cheaper than a Herman Miller Aeron. And Herm's doesn't come with a built-in lumbar massage.</p>\n\n<p>(There is also an upgraded version which has a built in fan under the seat. Personally, I suggest eating a healthier diet.)</p>\n\n<p>I can't deny that's a chunk of change. If you're anything like me, you probably spend most of your day sat down. You might as well sit on something comfortable.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"final-thoughts\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/gadget-review-libernovo-omni-chair/#final-thoughts\">Final Thoughts</a></h2>\n\n<p>Having the back-rest adjustable via arm-rest buttons is a genius touch. I just wish it went further. I'd love a control panel (or, dare I say it, app) which let me adjust the seat height, recline, headrest position etc. Who can be bothered with fiddly manual levers when electricity can do the work for us?</p>\n\n<p>Building this chair was a breeze - and it was delightful to get a pair of safety gloves with it.</p>\n\n<p>The chair is extraordinarily comfortable and the back massage, while not on the level of a \"shiatsu\" style heated massage pillow, is delightfully pleasant. Would I lie all the way back and sleep in it? Yeah! Certainly more comfortable than an economy airline seat.</p>\n\n<p>If you spend a lot of time sitting at your computer, your arse deserves something supportive. Your back deserves some love too. Yes, the USB-C power-pack is a little bit of a gimmick - but it is a hell of a good one.</p>\n\n<p>In my opinion, this is worth splashing out on.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76246&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [
        {
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/omni-back-massage.mp4",
          "image": null,
          "title": null,
          "length": 1322049,
          "type": "video",
          "mimeType": "video/mp4"
        }
      ],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "chair",
          "term": "chair",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "furniture",
          "term": "furniture",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "gadget",
          "term": "gadget",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "Review",
          "term": "Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "USB-C",
          "term": "USB-C",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=76286",
      "title": "Book Review: Get Ahead of Being Dead by Evie King ★★★★☆",
      "description": "After reading Evie King's previous book Ashes To Admin - Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer I was eager to read her not-quite-a-sequel.  We know what happens after death; paperwork. Gas bills need to be cancelled, funeral wishes need to be carried out, money needs to be apportioned between warring family members. When you die, you won't be there to experience the annoyance and …",
      "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/10/book-review-get-ahead-of-being-dead-by-evie-king/",
      "published": "2026-10-24T11:34:25.000Z",
      "updated": "2026-10-04T20:07:29.000Z",
      "content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/get-ahead-of-being-dead.webp\" alt=\"Book cover featuring living and dying flowers.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>After reading Evie King's previous book <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/02/book-review-ashes-to-admin-tales-from-the-caseload-of-a-council-funeral-officer-by-evie-king/\">Ashes To Admin - Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer</a> I was eager to read her not-quite-a-sequel.</p>\n\n<p>We know what happens after death; paperwork. Gas bills need to be cancelled, funeral wishes need to be carried out, money needs to be apportioned between warring family members. When you die, you won't be there to experience the annoyance and distress - but other people will. So do you help them or not?</p>\n\n<p>This book is a chatty and informal guide to how to set out your wishes - including that you have no wishes.</p>\n\n<p>Much like her previous book, it cheerfully mixes anecdotes about death with a powerful political message about how we treat the dead (and, I suppose, nearly dead).</p>\n\n<p>It is one of those rare eBooks which is probably better as a <em>paper</em> book because the end of every chapter has a few dozen questions to fill in. Some are seemingly banal (library card number) and other potentially a little distressing (who do you <em>not</em> want invited to your funeral). The aim is to keep the answers somewhere prominent so that, come the inevitable, there's a one-stop-shop for all your deadmin.</p>\n\n<p>Evie does an excellent job of making the slightly terrifying first steps accessible and approachable. It's fully trans, non-binary, and poly inclusive. It doesn't shy away from some of the more uncomfortable aspects of death, but it really does feel like the author is having a coffee & natter with you.</p>\n\n<p>The style won't be for everyone. I think I'd rather have this as just a plain list of questions. But, then again, I <em>did</em> find it compelling to read the stories about what happens when things go wrong. So maybe I don't know myself as well as I think. Say, what song <em>do</em> I want playing at my funeral?</p>\n\n<!-- \n👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋\nWelcome to Comment Club! If this is your first time - hello! This content is only available to people who read my HTML comments.\n\nThere's an a cappella version of \"Because\" by The Beatles. That'll do as a funeral song. But, I kinda guess I won't be there to enjoy it, so I'll play it for myself now.\n\nAnyway, the three rules of Comment Club are…\n\n1. You must not tell anyone about Comment Club - let them find out about it themselves.\n2. You *must* add some Comment Club Content to at least one of your blog posts. Doesn't have to be much, just a little note will do.\n3. You should drop an email to anyone whose comments you've read. Start by sending me a friendly message at comment.club@shkspr.mobi\n\nKeep your eyes peeled for more comments in my other blog posts 😃\n\nTTFN.\n-->\n\n<p>There's no doubt this is a slightly challenging and provocative read - but you should absolutely buy a copy for yourself and fill it in. Whether you buy it for your friends and relatives…</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=76286&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
      "image": null,
      "media": [],
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Terence Eden",
          "email": null,
          "url": "https://edent.tel/"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "label": "Book Review",
          "term": "Book Review",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        },
        {
          "label": "death",
          "term": "death",
          "url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}