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 two rejections for jobs I interviewed for this week. Blue shell. Blue shell. Continue reading →

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.

Thought I’d put on Apple’s personalised “Feel Good” station while working today. After an hour or so, I’m just skipping songs or listening to Powderfinger.

After 5 years of an Apple Music subscription, plus the data from my old iTunes library, how can Apple get its automated playlists so wrong?

Today I fell right down a rabbit hole of settings and emails and optimisations and subscription tiers and managed to achieve very little, though hopefully setting things up well for the future…

An eternity of torture and suffering for every printer executive who decided I needed to replace the Magenta ink cartridge to print in black and white. Seriously, I hope your afterlife is as cruel and unforgiving as the printers you sold me.

Online shopping at EBGames is one of the worst experiences I can think of.

During the sales, I found a heap of great discounts. Added to cart, went to checkout and was hit with something like $30 in shipping fees because it was coming from different locations.

Eventually gave up a bunch of items to get it down to one delivery, and one delivery fee.

So naturally, they shipped things separately. 😳💀

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.

The kids are on school holidays now, so I don’t have to get up early to get them out the door. I switched off my morning alarm…

And awoke at 9.

I am so far behind schedule today.

I was not expecting this result. Absolutely for sure 100% definitely thought Jedi Survivor would be my most played game. Shocked.

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 ended up reaching out to support this week to try and work out what the issue is. Continue reading →

Perfect gift for a middle-aged Star Wars geek, really.

Another year, another lap around the sun. Safe to say, this hasn’t been my favourite orbit.

I’ve officially hit the mid-point of my 40s! The verdict so far? The 40s and I aren’t exactly best mates. But hey, I’m hoping the second half of the decade picks up. 🎉

I’ve been stewing on this piece for months. Trying to find the right approach to talk about how I feel about Gizmodo Australia disappearing. Because it is such a personal thing for me: I put so much of myself into that website, and now it’s gone. https://www.bttr.reviews/gizmodo-australia-eulogy/

I have decided, out of a sheer sense of despair at all… this (gestures wildly), to try and write a weekly “good tech news” story on BTTR.

I am a bit lost at where to begin though.

Has anybody got any good stories about tech? Preferably with an Australian angle.

Played Back to the Future: Back in Time today with my daughter. And just as we were getting a rhythm, Marty disappeared from the photo and we lost.

Next time.

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?

Got concerned when I heard scratching at my back door today. Just this guy saying hello.

I’m looking at ordering textbooks for the kids for next year, and the Campion ordering platform is a wonderful example of an awful user experience. Let’s start with the onboarding. You’re prompted to start with your child’s email address. Easy enough, except that when you enter it, you are prompted to select their books. And from there, there is no way to add in a second child. Instead you have to cancel your order, go back and add a second child to your account from there. Continue reading →

Tonight I picked up my guitar for the first time time in a very long time to try to play some Taylor Swift with my daughter on her birthday. My fingers ache!

We’ve agreed our goal is to duet “Exile” by the end of the summer holidays.