Writing a paper for an International journal resulted in a better understanding and stopped me in my tracks.

Excuse the rambling. This is written in the true sense of blogging, and it started life as a short blog post idea, transforming into this, for what it’s worth. So I decided to cross-post it here first. I’ll publish it verbatim on my blog soon. That blog is another outlet for my brain, and not exclusively about matters digital.

Take a peek here...

Rather than whine about how I’ve been busy and haven’t had the time or resources to write too much for this newsletter, I thought I’d share a few of the things I’ve been doing so you can get up to speed. Forgive me for the shameless self-promotion.

I’m currently writing an article on tech regulation. I’m looking at it from a different angle that I think will be interesting. I’ll share it here as soon it is in a decent state.

Despite its best efforts to make you hate it.

In a departure from some of the writing I’ve done here, I thought it would be interesting and perhaps helpful to mention how I use Twitter and how that keeps me a little more protected from the dreadful content and commentary that is so readily forced onto your retinas.

It starts with using the right tools and then unfollowing everyone. (Well, not “everyone”, but most accounts). Then with judicious use of the largely misunderstood and unused tool on Twitter, the experience is much better and more productive for people like me who primarily use it as a research tool.

I recently appeared on a podcast with my friend and tutor for my Master’s, Jean-François Nantel, where we talked at some length about web3 and the aspects to take notice of. I really enjoy the format, and I hope you will too. It’s in French, with my ‘Allo ‘Allo accent, but it’s full of interesting tidbits. If you understand French, you should check it out here.

In this essay, I wanted to follow up on some of the things I wrote in Part 1, give a little context, and highlight some of the changes that have happened since. If you’re vigilant, you’ll notice that the world has standardised on Web3 and no longer tends to use Web 3.0. I have complied! I could make a joke about centralisation here, but I’ll resist.

After my recent hiatus from writing, I’m feeling good about writing a few essays this year on some of the emerging topics that have captured the imagination of the technorati. I’ll also be diving into some other issues that, whilst not specifically about tech, have such a tech element to them they can be considered tech subjects.

I have been on a hiatus for the last few months for several reasons. Most notably, I caught the dreaded writer’s block and wasn’t able to write anything that wasn’t regurgitated and ill-thought-out junk. In my defense, I’ve been doing a few projects that have taken up a lot of my time and pulled my focus away from this endeavor. More on that in the future, perhaps.

I know as a writer on the internet, that shouldn’t matter. I should churn out post after post because that’s how the online world works if you want the algorithm to work. Sadly, that’s not how I work or align my priorities. I’ve always strived to provide value in my writing and analysis, and I have largely succeeded in doing that. But these past few months have been complicated for myriad reasons (global pandemic, anyone?).

In this essay, I explore the meaning and consequences of Computational Computing. It’s a deep reflection on the state of tech currently and a work in progress. Some of it might not be coherent or have a conclusion, but it is all how my mind is thinking about the world today.

I have to say, overall, I’m more optimistic than I am pessimistic. Not that you could tell from this piece. 😁

I got on Clubhouse so you don't have to

I recently got an invitation to Clubhouse from a friend. Thanks, you know who you are 🙏 I have some ...er, thoughts. Read on for those.

I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news first as is customary. There’s no podcast version of this essay yet. It’s actually a very time-consuming process, and I’ve had a lot on my plate recently. Furthermore, the stats show that it isn’t as popular as some had led me to believe. I’m thinking of changing up the format and doing a more “traditional” podcast that complements these essays, but I haven’t quite finished thinking that through. I’d love a regular partner to podcast with. Let me know if you’re interested.

Despite being criticised, and rightly so for some products, much hi-fi equipment is far from being snake oil. It tends to follow the laws of diminishing returns, for sure, but looking at that from the starting end of the graph, it means that spending just a little more will yield large returns on investment in sound quality. It generally follows that build quality and robustness also follow when you increase the budget of your hi-fi equipment.

Good day from Martinique.

I’ve been on a hiatus for a few weeks as I wind down a multi-month project researching and investigating the state of ICT in the Eastern Caribbean, I hope you don’t mind. Rather than the 2,000-ish words I write here, I’ve written and re-written over 50,000 words in the last month or so. Looking at the statistics for Grammarly —yes, I use it happily— I have written over half a million words over the previous year, despite being on a reduced schedule. I’m back malgret tout(1), and I’m hoping to share some of the insights and information I’ve been researching.