Tom Adams

If there’s one critical weakness I have, it’s the 1990s classic Mac typeface Chicago, set in outline and shadow.

It was the only Mac in our school - the one actual computing room was full of Acorn Archimedes which, looking back, might have been even cooler. When I was in sixth form, they replaced them all with Windows PCs, which even in 1996 felt sad and soulless :-(

Screenshot of a text style selection menu from an early version of Mac OS, showing the different text options in the relevant style (“Bold” styled in bold text, “Italic” in italic, etc)

Reading Nikita Prokopov’s excellent blog (via @gruber.foo) about terrible menu icons in MacOS 26, and getting a massive proustian rush from this old screenshot. 1994, huddled over a tiny Mac in the Design & Technology room that smelled of sawdust and glue, overusing SHADOW in my GCSE coursework.

EIGHT YEARS

It didn’t make the snail happy.

Big fan of getting milk from a milkman (no plastic, satisfyingly retro/nostalgic). But not a fan of grabbing a bottle from the fridge to find I’ve actually just grabbed a big snail that had crawled up the side of it 😱

Am at the very first UK Gov research operations conference today, which is very exciting. A room full of public sector people doing innovative things on shoestring budgets to help us do better research with government service users more quickly and efficiently. Inspiring 🙌

I am recruiting a Senior Accessibility Specialist to be part of the Government Digital Service accessibility and digital inclusion team. Applications open until Sunday 26th October. www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/index.cg...

#a11y #Accessibility #AccessibilityRegulations

Well you didn’t need to tell me that, Kate.

a monster is burning in a dark room with flames coming out of it 's mouth Alt: a monster burning in a dark room with flames coming out of its mouth

Yes and this happened? Probably fine.

Also, what a great weekend. Did you watch it with the kids, or secretly on your own? (no shade/maximum respect if so)

I’m less distressed about this because at least he was meant to be 30 years younger between 1955 and 1985.
(I watched BTTF2 a few weeks ago, and I think there’s a whole PhD thesis to be written about how the school teacher already looks past retirement age in 1955, but not a day older in 1985)

Photo of an indoor wall. There is a light switch in the middle with a picture hook above it.

Moved a picture to a different room, and remembered it was hiding a MYSTERY LIGHT SWITCH. As far as I can tell it controls no light or anything else electrical in/outside the house, so assume instead that it controls some kind of terrifying portal to hell? Will cover it up again with a new picture.

Love this. What’s it been replaced with, digitally? It’s not Facebook marketplace or anything like that. Maybe Craigslist or something in the US, but not over here. I’ve genuinely no idea - is this a completely lost piece of wonderfully barmy culture?

(Just checked and THANK GOD I still have eleven years before I’m as old as Connery was in that gif. Harrison Ford - not such good news 😭)

indiana jones and the last crusade movie poster with two men ALT: indiana jones and the last crusade movie poster with two men

Can’t find the proper Donovan ageing/“he chose poorly” gif, but this sums up my feelings reasonably well.

Just read something that said Michael Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days was the start of his “latter-day career” and yep I’ve just checked & Palin was younger than me when he did 80 Days - which is an unnecessary reminder for a Monday of both my general decay & my minimal overall life achievements

Thanks, really appreciate you checking! (and this is my second nice interaction with kids’ authors in the last 24 hours, after Nadia Shireen was LOVELY with my son, signing the new Grimwood at our local bookshop/attacking him with a Sharon The Party Crow puppet. You guys are all brilliant.)

Came here to ask the same question @jamiesmart.bsky.social! (Although mine is dancing lesson, not cub camp)

My loft is a bit chilly, otherwise… 🫢

(Am now gutted I can’t remember the rest of the mixtape. It’s probably up in the loft, although even if I spent half of Saturday looking for it [not completely out of the question] I of course don’t have a tape player to play it on)

Been listening to Ash recently, from the 90s, who I had sort of forgotten existed. Remembered a) how great Ash were, b) a mixtape I made in 1998 or so that started with Jesus Says - which is a banger of an opener. Don’t want to big myself up too much, but I was an absolute premier league mixtaper.

Re 1: in addition to the medical definition (which is important to understand for diagnosis) I’d like expert summaries of non-formal but commonly accepted features. Eg RSD & emotional dysregulation aren’t in the definition, but discovering they’re a thing in ADHD was the biggest ‘oh!’ moment for me.

Whereas e.g. Fast Minds, by Craig Surman, Tim Bilkey, Karen Weintraub is a lot less personal and more academic. I’m aiming to go back to it, because the first few chapters were full of really useful concepts - but it wasn’t what I needed right then.

Two books I really got a lot from in the first year or so after my diagnosis: Jess McCabe’s How To ADHD and Alex Partridge’s Now It All Makes Sense. The personal stories were what I wanted to hear at that time, and both really helped me relate and process my own life and experiences.

Maybe a community-curated book reading list with some narrative on what the book is (and therefore if it’s what I’m looking for right now). There are so many books out there, but finding the right ones to read/listen to for the stage of journey I’m on has been really hard.

Am in a nearly deserted jungle tent hotel in Thailand, with a poorly 9 year old. Everybody else is out doing activities, and all I can hear is birds and insects and the room fan. There’s nothing to do except lie/sit and read, and I could absolutely get used to this (apart from the poorly 9 year old)

Can highly recommend a cordless iron - I got one because I hated the cord getting all tangled up around the board and clothes. But the unexpectedly transformational part is that, because it has to be re-docked every minute or so to reheat, it’s forced me to slow down which is… sort of really nice?

I gave all my Apple wealth away because wealth and power are not what I live for. I have a lot of fun and happiness. I funded a lot of important museums and arts groups in San Jose, the city of my birth, and they named a street after me for being good. I now speak publicly and have risen to the top. I have no idea how much I have but after speaking for 20 years it might be $10M plus a couple of homes. I never look for any type of tax dodge. I earn money from my labor and pay something like 55% combined tax on it. I am the happiest person ever. Life to me was never about accomplishment, but about Happiness, which is Smiles minus Frowns. I developed these philosophies when I was 18-20 years old and I never sold out.

Steve Wozniak on why he sold his Apple shares (via @gruber.foo). More Woz in the world, please.

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