I just spent (checks watch) an hour trying to setup a Windows review laptop.

One hour. Just to get to log in and use the device.

Maybe I should start charging an hourly rate to review Windows laptops. Such a ridiculous waste of time.

I just received a message on LinkedIn: “I wanted to introduce [redacted], an exclusive members club for entrepreneurs with $1M+ in revenue, and our Early Stage Business Community for those with $200K–$1M. I’d love to schedule a quick call to learn more about your business and see if either … read more

I will probably end up writing it up for BTTR more comprehensively, but the past few days I decided to try and use Gemini to add features and update my portfolio site: nick.broughall.com.au. I built that site earlier this year for a job application. I liked the idea of creating something I … read more

Things that are driving me crazy this week: People opining Apple is failing with its AI initiatives, when everyone else’s AI solutions are terrible for the quality of the Internet, small business and the environment.

Give me a shit Siri over the crap Google plans to unleash every day of the week.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed and depressed by Google’s I/O announcements overnight. It’s so hard to see a way to succeed as an individual publisher in the face of Google’s strategy to vacuum up all the content and repurposing it to keep people on Google.

I made bread today while testing the Ankarsrum mixer. It was incredible.

Yesterday when this news was announced I was feeling a bit down, and couldn’t bring myself to celebrate it. But I’m feeling a bit better today, and I am stoked to be a finalist for three individual awards at the 2025 IT Journo Awards. Plus, BTTR is up for the Best Independent Media award too. It’s … read more

Real first world problem here, I know, but it’s still frustrating that after two years of doing BTTR (not to mention the 15 years of tech journalism before that), there are still so many PR companies not communicating with me. Makes it hard to write about those products…

I feel very much over it all today. Had a phone call from a recruiter last week about a role. She was lovely and suggested I make a number of edits to my CV to better suit the role. 3 hours of updates later, I sent it off and received good feedback. This morning she called to say that the client … read more

I am all over the place this week. It’s Friday and I haven’t done any planning for the weekly BTTR newsletter, which sends this afternoon.

What should I write about?

The other day I thought I’d try to create a single-page portfolio site to help with the job hunt/freelancing. Got version 1 up and running by leveraging a free template.

I didn’t realise I was going to have to learn React and Javascript to make any meaningful changes, though.

The past few years has been like real life Rainbow Road. I keep thinking I’m doing well, then I fall off the track. I get picked and I keep going, somehow still out in front. 2024 has been like getting hit by a blue shell every single jump. Again and again, blue shell after blue shell. Today I got … read more

I don’t have a deep understanding of code, but I know enough to mess around. That makes it really easy to mess things up.

Today, I was messing things up in a big way, but then I worked out why. I felt good for solving the problem, but bad that I’d made such a basic, basic error.

Last full working week before Xmas, so all the HR teams are closing the loop and sending job application rejection letters today.

My inbox is brutal.

Today as I was pulling together my entries for the ITJourno Awards, I discovered that across TikTok and YouTube I’ve had over 100,000 views.

Obvs the numbers don’t reflect people actually watching my vids, but it was still cool to realise that I’ve passed that milestone.

Since I migrated domains to BTTR.reviews, I haven’t been indexed by Bing. I’ve read the webmaster guidelines, but can’t see anything that would exclude it from Bing aside from (at a stretch) the membership gate. But a lot of stuff isn’t gated at all, and nothing is appearing in Bing results. So, I … read more

I’m looking for a privacy-friendly (no cookies, at the very least) alternative to Adsense that I don’t have to pay for as a publisher.

I can’t find anything that fits the description… Anyone have any ideas?

I am currently testing a robot vacuum that heavily promotes its “AI” features. It has just spent 10 minutes in a carpeted bedroom while on the “mop” setting.

My cheap old entry-level robot vacuum never tried to mop carpeted bedrooms. Is “AI” making robot vacuums stupider? I think it might be.

One of the fallouts from the Google shenanigans this year is that, for me at least, affiliate revenue isn’t really there in any sustainable way.

This means I am putting very little effort into Black Friday this year, and will likely stop covering deals/shopping stuff entirely moving forward.

Today I received two rejection notices for jobs I’d interviewed for last week. The first was a phone call I wasn’t really surprised to receive - I knew it was a bit of a stretch during the interview stage. The second was a heads up from a former colleague who had referred me for the job. … read more