Computer-mediated conversation [410]

Greetings from Wales...

I'm sat on the side of the river to Tryweryn. It’s threatening to rain and the cool breeze is very welcome.

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#TheAction

Let me see as I sit here if I can record some terrible quality audio into my mac.

I've had almost two blisteringly beautiful sunny days here in Wales. A whistle stop tour. In yesterday to document some sheep shearing and a wool haulage company plus a couple of personal side quests today and i’m now on the way home.

The motorcycling has been amazing. Less traffic on the road than I thought there would be and perfect riding weather.

A lot of my thoughts from the week will be in the audio below so I’ll leave this here and let you catch up down there.

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#ThePictures

Stunning images made with floppy disks.

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#TheWords

Thanks to Tim for sharing this Tweet with me.

Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.
He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.
Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."
Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.
Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."
He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"
The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.
"Yes, now there is a God."
Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.
A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

~ (Fredric Brown, "Answer" 1954)

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The power of words lies in their ability to shape minds, inspire hearts, find friends and transform the world. And wow do we have a lot of words right now.

When I list my other places to connect at the bottom of this email. That usually looks like this:

Some of my other places include Flickr, Strava, Untappd, Diaspora, Vivino, LinkedIn, YouTube, Mastodon, a ham radio newsletter called 73 from G5DOC or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire, Twitter or Bluesky.

Now the other-other Twitter clone T2 has started to add more people, I’m also dipping into there.

It feels a little like 2007 again when there were a load of similar platforms vying for our attention. (Feel free to start a list in the comments if you remember platforms in the time of Plurk.)

I’d worry about spreading myself too thinly, but there is no chance of getting burnout or worrying about quantity taking over quality when my main focus is this dispatch. I’m in these newer places more for curiosity now over feeling like I should research the way they work. Especially as the difference between them is minimal. Decentralised stuff like Mastodon pulls me more as it feels it’s where things should have gone back when Diaspora popped up.

It’s not that i’m always looking for a profound connection in these spaces. Sometimes it’s nice to just bridge a gap. Be it one of distance or understanding. Sharing our experiences unites us.

A marketer will tell you it's important to evaluate the platforms that align best with your objectives and make strategic choices to maximise your impact.

How about just considering the platforms that resonate most with you and your values? Then make thoughtful choices to enhance your friendship circle in the hope we can have a meaningful impact on each others lives.

There are so many words floating around out there that appear to be tied to little or no meaning. And on the cusp of a new age of AI, these same places will soon be populated with more machines than humans.

Words are easy. Easier than ever. Let’s make sure we continue to use them to find each other.

Because friendship is more important than any of this.

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#TheSound

Here are the #AudioMo’s I have shared since last week. I’ll do a special summery post for supporting subscribers at the end of the month.

Day 10: Me a little stressed while prepping for guests

Day 11: The other bit of slow audio I recorded by the river

Day 12: Coffee at the noisy end of the village

Day 13: Some watery prose with a backstory ..and just the audio here

Day 14: Contemplating an old T-shirt

Day 15: Sitting with a new friend on a hill

Day 16: Introducing the Capcorder

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Here is a podcast (on YouTube) shared to me by Ade who I had the pleasure of catching up with in meatspace this week. Audio with him to come.

The main focus of the video is why TikTok kids hold Lav mics in front of them. And yes it’s an evolution from the iPhone headphone mic but he does a deep dive into lots of mics.

The video is long. Too long really. Could have been done in 10 mins but that is the nature of YouTube and it’s ever increasing demand for our attention.

What the US based Adam Ragusea failed to note is that Terry Wogan was doing tiny mics before anyone else.

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#TheConsumed

One minute I’m eating noodles in the garden thinking…

“Yes. This is all I need a few healthy veg and some prawns thrown into a broth and I’m more than happy till teatime. Simplicity at its best.” [Top left in the photo]

And then after a bike ride in the blistering sun I’m grabbing some milk from the shop and catch a glance of something in the freezer… [Top right]

“What the hell is that monstrosity? Who the hell puts popcorn and caramel into a chocolate coated ice cream? …I need to try it to see if it is as bad as it looks.”

Interestingly it was fine. But that was in the head after a bike ride. I imagine it will be a bit full on if I hadn’t just been exercising. I’ll make a point of trying it again. Just to be sure.

Bottom left is a bag of very nice coffee gifted to my by Ade and bottom right is yesterday’s breakfast in a small cafe in Corwen (£4).

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#TheThings

Should you wonder what Terry Wogan’s wand was made from there are details here.

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Back in 2010 I equipped my ScotteVest cap with wifi and 13 years later I have repurposed the same cap to be a headworn 32bit float field recorder.

Here is the AudioMo sharing more about this 9also linked above). And here is the original 2010 Wi-Fi hat audio in full.

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#TheThanks

Many thanks to those who support these emails. If you are able, please consider joining those that consider all this worth while ;-)

Either way… Thank you for reading.

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#TheWeb

• Love this photo booth that has an artist inside.

• I see a few more of you have added yourselves to the Documentally community map

• At the risk of sounding like an old fart this ‘podcast editor’ from stream labs sounds a lot like a video editor to me. I feel my thoughts that a podcast should be something audio focused with an RSS feed are not going to change what seems to be a rising general consensus.

• Want to see how good your passport is? check Passport Index.

• This screen distance feature on iOS great because I have to hold my phone at arms length to see it anyway.

• This 15th century manuscript mentions a Monty Python-esque killer rabbit

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#TheEnd

All the spelling mistakes in here are intentional.

Next week I’m playing catchup on a mountain of editing and no doubt still taking part in #AudioMo. (It’s never too late to get involved.) It’s also not too far till Orwell’s birthday on the 25th. I’ll be there at the grave in Sutton Courtenay for a picnic lunch with whoever would like to join me.

Right now I really should jump back on the bike and head back to England.

Have a great week!

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“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” ~ Rumi

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Paddle hard,

See you out there.

Over…