@craiggrannell@mastodon.social
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craiggrannell

@craiggrannell@mastodon.social

#Writer for hire. Mostly #tech, #Apple, #games, #retrogaming, design. Smashes out words for #Wired, #Stuff, TapSmart and others. Writes #DailyRetroGame here on Mastodon. He/him. GF/DF. Likes #Lego and Mini #Schnauzers. Email: hello at craiggrannell dot com // https://linktr.ee/craiggrannell

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craiggrannell, to random
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We’re doing no-mow again this year. Alas, we’re also apparently doing no-bees. Hardly any this year to date. In fact, very bug-free in general.

From: @RSPB
https://mastodonapp.uk/@RSPB/112472495373522885

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@mjtsai I read your piece about MacBook keyboards earlier and how badly they wear. Apple’s desktop ones are no better. This is just from normal use. Left Option and Command keys are a state also. Just over two years old. (The right arrow key also pinged off one day and has never quite sat right since. Quality…)

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Me: Dang. One of my handhelds won’t boot.

Console: Are you holding the right button?

Me: I held the button down for a full 30 seconds but it won’t force reboot.

Console: Yes, but are you holding the right button?

Me: I’ve just been on Reddit. Tried some things. Can’t figure out what’s going on.

Console: Again, are you holding the right but—

Me: Oh. I was holding down the wrong button.

Console: …

Me: …

Console: …

Me: I’m not going to be braining well today, am I?

craiggrannell, to random
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Guess who’s discovering how long it takes to update a 100+ item round-up that was mothballed over a year ago?

🙋

craiggrannell, to random
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craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Always fun when I leave my Mac alone for an hour and come back to it, only to be told I don’t have permission to write to the document I’ve been working on all afternoon. (Fortunately, I could just duplicate it and didn’t lose anything. Still…)

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Just heard that @CameronDavis has sadly passed away. He was a long-time games journo, who was instrumental on resurrecting Zzap!64 in 2002, for which ex-editor Gordon Houghton came back on board, and I did the art/design. Over the years, he also drew a ton of very sweet and often funny cartoons.

As ever, far too young to go. RIP, Gazunta! You will be missed.

davemark, to apple
@davemark@mastodon.social avatar

Steve Jobs, 23 years ago, showing off the first Apple Store, just before it opened...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce02galgfRo

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@jimluther @davemark If you watched the most recent Doctor Who, that picture might have a slightly different meaning. :D

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Writing a column. Wrote a satirical joke. Got a feeling. Did some research. Found the stupid thing I wrote about exists.

Dear world: please stop doing this. Thank you.

chrisphin, to random
@chrisphin@mastodon.social avatar

Good morning ☁️

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@chrisphin nice. I’m a total sucker for that textured black and white look.

craiggrannell, to retrogaming
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

Not even close. In that game alone, there were harder puzzles. But elsewhere in Infocom’s catalogue – and more widely in text adventures – there were tougher tests.

Where the Babel Fish puzzle got things right was through being clever, funny and absurd, and in also deviating radically from expectations. It’s as far as possible from other media, where the fish is simply put into Arthur’s ear. And so that makes it memorable.

From: @sqhistorian
https://dosgame.club/@sqhistorian/112464455745407129

Jayenkai, to random
@Jayenkai@mastodon.social avatar

First Spike of the Day.
Very odd physics, today!
Can you beat my score of 75 points in today's Daily Dislike?
https://spikedislike.com/?Goto=Daily

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@Jayenkai 291. Nasty with the multiplier timer today.

glynmoody, to random
@glynmoody@mastodon.social avatar

Rishi Sunak faces cabinet backlash over plans to curb foreign student visas - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/19/rishi-sunak-faces-cabinet-backlash-over-plans-to-curb-foreign-student-visas "Education secretary Gillian Keegan, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron oppose move, while university leaders warn of economic and cultural impact" sunak too stupid for his own cabinet

craiggrannell,
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@glynmoody It’s astonishing how poor a grasp every single version of this party has had on soft power since at least 2017. And it just gets worse and worse.

craiggrannell,
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@glynmoody Probably. It’s really something that before Brexit, the UK really did have a few major things going for it:

  1. Bridge to Europe (esp for USA and Japan)
  2. Very strong services sector
  3. Something of a ‘coolness’ and welcoming factor.
  4. A whole lot of soft power

Brexit has seriously damaged all of them. Some are recoverable to some degree, but they won’t be if the UK pisses about for much longer. And Labour appears to now be a “well, we won’t be able to do much” govt in waiting.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody I have a horrible feeling we should believe people when they show what they are. Which suggests a Labour party that won’t do a great deal to change things and will blame the last lot.

The one hope: Starmer is a chameleon and doesn’t care about doing U-turns if that benefits Labour and can further its cause. So if he sees eg SM as a benefit, it’s possible that might happen. But I think it’s unlikely.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody I still reckon there’s a high chance Labour will be a one-term govt. If the Tories get their shit together, it will be endless attacks. The media and Tories will ignore why we are in the state we are. And FPTP would leave even a very large Labour majority vulnerable.

Labour had best hope three things don’t happen: the Tories 1) don’t settle their differences; 2) don’t shift back to the centre; 3) don’t outflank Labour by brazenly suggesting we join the single market.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@glynmoody It says everything about how arrogant certain Labour people are right now with the whole “Tories will be out of power for a generation”, on the basis Labour is looking likely to repeat 1997. Have they already forgotten what happened in 2019? People were arguing it would take Labour a decade or more to be in a position to fight for a GE win. The Tories had too big a lead! A massive majority! Etc.

glennf, to random
@glennf@twit.social avatar

Why is anyone left on Twitter?

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@glennf Because diminishing returns beat starting again? Because no other network has bailed the “what’s happening now” angle? Because social fragmented and no one place – even now – offers the crossover Twitter once had and that X still has vestiges of? Because it’s still the best broadcast option for work, for a lot of people?

I find it really sad. All of it. But I’m not surprised most people aren’t moving away.

marcpalmer, to random
@marcpalmer@iosdev.space avatar

There are so few insects in our rural garden now. Haven’t seen any bats yet this year either. Almost no blackbirds. Lived here for 18 years, this is a drastic change.

This is extremely worrying.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@marcpalmer We’ve seen a few butterflies. Some bees bonking their heads on the window. One wasp inside so far, which is about 50% of what we got last year. But it’s not exactly thriving. Out front is now full no-mow too.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@marcpalmer Sorry to hear it. No-mow lawn this year here is… really quiet. We have at least seen a few bats about. Fingers crossed things are just slow this year. (We saw a load of butterflies before the cold snap. Very few since.)

seancull, to random
@seancull@mas.to avatar

@craiggrannell Did you ever end up moving back to Dropbox? I was waffling about and finally bit the bullet and resubscribed. Tried Proton Drive too, but the sync speeds were too slow for me. (Canada)

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@seancull not yet, no. Although I do have a premium Dropbox subscription

craiggrannell, to DoctorWho
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

OK, so THAT was more like it with Boom. A plot that held together. Tension. Heart. No stupid fart gags. Good job, Moffat.

jonhicks, to random
@jonhicks@mastodon.social avatar

So, we CAN still have really really decent Dr Who, the conditions need to be: RTD as showrunner, and Steven Moffat writing.

“Boom” was just 👌. Faith restored!

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@jonhicks I find it odd that this series has the showrunner writing as much as they do. And it’s never had a powerful enough script editor to make a dent. There should be someone who gets all the scripts and makes sense of them. But no.

I hope the first two eps were just a rocky start and we won’t be looking back in a month and thinking: well, at least we got Boom.

craiggrannell,
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

@chris22smith @jonhicks so far this series, IMO:

1: weird/uncanny valley/probably seemed a funny idea on paper but yikes on screen
2: messy and incoherent/illogical at times but fun, primarily due to the antagonist and their performance
3: very, very good, bar a few typical Moffatisms

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

“Thousands in Devon no longer have to boil drinking water, says supplier”

That’s quite the headline, in the UK. It’s amazing how our water quality has gone from being really very good to absolute shite (or, in the case of open water, literal shite) since leaving the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/may/18/thousands-in-brixham-devon-no-longer-have-to-boil-drinking-water-cryptosporidium

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