Pupdate

The fair weather has (mostly) continued, which allowed for some nice long walks.

Milo turned four at the start of the month :)

Brussels

The end of the month brought the half term holiday, and Mrs S wanted to spend the first weekend away somewhere. Brussels quickly made the top of the list after my great time there for FOSDEM back in February. We went by train, which got us there and back with minimal fuss, and stayed in Hotel9 – right next door to where I stayed last time (and very close to Centraal station).

The highlight of the trip was dinner a La Table de Mus, which delivered a 6 course tasting menu (and wine flight) that was easily one of the best meals of my life. I’ll definitely visit again next time I’m in the city; I may have to plan another trip just so I can go back there…

We also both really enjoyed doing a Belgian Chocolate Workshop where we were taught how to temper chocolate and turn it into pralines.

It was also nice to wander around the city, see the sights, and enjoy a few beers and cocktails.

Andor

I’ve been a Star Wars fan since the first film in ’77. So of course I’ve been watching Andor, and I really enjoyed the first season.

Season 2 took things to an entirely new level. Easily the best thing that’s ever been done in the franchise, and quite possibly some of the best TV ever made.

The way some episodes captured the banality of evil in the mundanity of life as an Imperial bootlicker was incredible. But there was also some great action, and they did a brilliant job of filling in some plot gaps.

I can only hope that the same production values and attention to detail make it into future parts of the franchise.

I also totally got an ear worm with the “Niamos” techno track at the Chandrilla wedding, and I wasn’t alone.

Careless people

I might never have heard of “Careless People” if it wasn’t for Meta’s clumsy attempt to block its promotion leading to an inevitable Streisand effect.

Cory Doctorow has an excellent review on his blog, so I won’t rehash the points he made there, other than to say I also really enjoyed Sarah Wynn-Williams narration of the audiobook. Did I learn anything from the book, not really; but it was nevertheless entertaining.

What did surprise me was the Nick Clegg shaped hole in the narrative. Given the nature of Wynn-Williams’s role, and what Clegg was supposed to be doing I’d have thought that he’d have at least got a mention. His notional replacement Joel Kaplan is one of the starring characters. I smell lawfare, and the long shadow of English libel law.

Blurb

I blurbed my first book :)

Jamie Dobson asked me to review his “Visionaries, Rebels and Machines” (affiliate link), and I really enjoyed it. His editor went with this comment:

That’s not quite what I’d originally said, which was:

Covering a lot of ground to explain how we ended up with cloud and AI, I particularly enjoyed the focus on the leadership approaches taken by the people who made things happen. The Talent Density chapter is delicious.

Adding:

Or in the spirit of less is more, you might simply want to go with: “The Talent Density chapter is delicious.”

But I’m delighted that the book is out there (soon), and I’m looking forward to collaborating with Jamie on future projects.

Solar Diary

Given how warm and sunny it’s been I wasn’t surprised that this May was better than last, but weirdly not as good as 2023 :/