It’s taken me long enough but I’ve finally tweaked my site design to get it looking, and acting, like a bit of a micro-blogging feed. I want to reclaim my posts and keep them under my own control, where they can be found and read in isolation; without being sandwiched between crypto spam, clickbait, and bots.
Gone are the days of Twitter, replaced by a rats nest of influencers and shit posters, and it’s clear we’re all the better for it. Now that more and more folks are returning to their own little spaces on the web. Sharing their thoughts in longer form.
The results of which are richer and more thoughtful than those shared on social timelines. So much so, that I’ve had several conversations with friends on what are the best RSS readers to use these days in order to follow people’s blogs. (The answer is NetNewsWire, in case you were wondering) 🤓
A really interesting conversation with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber discussing the differences and between the two big federation protocols ActivityPub (used by Mastodon) and AT Protocol (used by Bluesky).
It’s always interesting listening to Jay, very knowledgeable and balanced in her thinking. And also a delightful person in general.
After three or four failed attempts at perfecting my blog layout, I think I’ve finally managed to get it working the way I want. It’s been a frustrating challenge wrestling the WordPress editor into submission. I equal parts love it and loath it, due to it’s very, how can I put this… eccentric way of working.
I’ve long wanted by blog to be more of a hybrid blogging space / social media alternative, something to replace tweets while giving me complete control and ownership of the content. I think this layout does the job pretty well and now I can finally use it in that way. Anything and everything else not worth preserving can go on Threads.
I thought I’d post this book recommendation after a series of interesting conversations at work about how our specific team shares their work online. Through blogs, websites, and social media we’ve built an engaged community of like-minded educators, creators, and researchers over the years, but how did we do it?
Well, there really wasn’t any particular master plan or social strategy, it was mainly just enthusiasm, a love for sharing our work, and having a good time, which makes it fun to post our shenanigans along the way. But, rather than spending a bunch of time trying to write that up, the easiest way is to share a book that’s already been written that pretty much sums it up perfectly.
It’s easy to forget about the little gadgets that were once really impressive little pieces of innovation for the home, yet over time end up stored away or recycled. However, there’s something magical about digging out an old relic from the attic and finding that it still works perfectly. That’s exactly what happened to me when I went searching for my old Airport Express base station from 2007 in the hopes it might yet make a return perfromance.
Back in the day, the Airport Express was a game-changer for me. It allowed me to wirelessly cast music to a speaker system in my house, years before Airplay or Chromecasts were even a thing. Just plug it in the wall, plug in an audio cable and get wireless iTunes on the stereo. It was like magic. Fast forward to today, and I found myself in need of a WiFi extender to boost the signal strength to my garage so the car could more reliably get over-the-air updates from the house.
I know that Apple products tend to hold up well over time, but I wasn’t sure if the Airport Express would still be compatible with modern WiFi standards. I found the box hidden away with some other old gear, unwrapped it, and plugged it in – and to my surprise, it was still alive! Amber flashing light baby!
I remembered seeing the Airport Utility in the Finder on my MacBook the other day and hoped it would be useful for my experiment. Sure enough, I opened it, and Airport Utility was waiting patiently for a signal. I reset the AirPort Express with a pin and it immediately showed up in the device list. Already impressed.
Next, I entered the password and added the device to my existing network as a WiFi extender. And just like that, a green light appeared, and the AirPort Express was back in business! I couldn’t believe it worked!
But, what really blew my mind was that the AirPort Express showed up as an Airplay device and even appeared in Spotify alongside my other Airplay and Chromecast receives. 🤯 The fact that this device, which I bought with my first Mac 15 years ago (!!), was not only still compatible but also functioning as a Airplay device is just amazing. Airplay didn’t even exist when this came out!
I was expecting it to turn on and maybe just sit there, incompatible with the latest hardware and Mac OS version, but no. This thing is still going strong and I’m super chuffed to give it a new lease of life. Nice one Apple.
Now that the AirPort Express is back up and running, it’s time to fit some speakers in the garage 😆 It just goes to show that sometimes, the oldies really are the goodies!
I hate that social media took over as the primary platform for sharing personal content online. Blogging and personal website culture, which was once a staple of the internet, has slowly been replaced by bite-sized social media updates. As someone who has been online for donkey’s years now, I can’t help but feel nostalgic for the days when blogs and personal websites were the norm.
While there are still a few awesome people who continue to blog and maintain their own websites, they are few and far between. I miss the days of RSS feeds and visiting the little online homes of my friends, which all slowly ground to a halt as their thoughts and comments got squeezed from 5000 word posts into 140 character burps of content. There was something special about visiting a blog and learning more about the person behind it. The art of blog design was also something that I appreciated, as it allowed bloggers to express their creativity and create a unique online space, something that was really popular when I was growing up in the early days of the web. I mean, we got free domain names with our internet service here in the UK for goodness sake!
But, there may be a change coming. The rise of newsletters and independent journalism was the first sign that things were beginning to shift. People started to see the benefits of owning their own words, rather than posting it on some billionaire’s platform. This glimmer of hope has my hoping we might see a resurgence of blogging culture. I’m a big fan of WordPress, but not so much the default structure of posts with their titles and comments and all that. The idea of simply posting a video you like, or a link that you want to share, has just that little bit too much friction, which is probably what made the likes of Twitter and Instagram all the more attractive. I’d like to see shorter posts be a norm on blogs. Maybe there’s a good theme that can help make this a reality? Just add Tumblr features to WordPress please! I mean, they are owned by the same company and have plans for fediverse integration, so go on, do it! 😁
The slow death of Twitter and the friction of Mastodon might be just what we need to bring back the art of blogging. As people become more aware of the negative effects of social media, they might start looking for alternatives that allow them to share their thoughts and ideas without being constantly bombarded by notifications and advertisements.
As someone who’s always enjoyed reading blogs and getting to know the people behind them, I’m hopeful that we’ll see a revival of blogging culture. I’m looking forward to the day when my RSS reader is once again chock full of blog posts to read, just like a Twitter feed without the shite. One that redirects me to the little online spaces curated by friends.
This isn’t Jay-Z. It’s AI-generated. I heard it first thing this morning but didn’t share at first, because to be honest, I don’t know what to believe anymore 😂. The creator posted that it’s AI-generated vocals based on lyrics provided by the artists. Incredible!
I honestly can’t tell that it’s computer generated, and that’s so impressive, but it does beg the question: How will we ever believe anything we see and hear again?
Strange times ahead. Media changing technology aside though, it’s a banger!
I really enjoyed this podcast episode featuring Cory Doctorow and Rebecca Giblin talking about their new book, Chokepoint Capitalism, discussing “why creative labor markets are rigged – and how to unrig them” – as one of the book’s taglines describes. It’s a great discussion, with some funny stories, passionate rants, and insightful facts about the creator economy and the way big tech monopolies and corporate giants exploit the very people that craft the content they profit from.
It’s a fascinating discussion from start to finish, and I highly recommend giving it a listen. I’m definitely going to read listen to the Chokepoint Capitalism book myself. Here’s a nice little trailer describing what it’s all about, if you’re interested…
