Gerard Martin

Life in a Northern Town

I've somehow managed to get Spotify into a 'songs your favourite songs sampled from' playlist. Seriously, 0:55 of this track blew my mind. open.spotify.com/track/4m3OS5...

A screenshot of Flightradar24 with two Army Air Corps helicopters flying in tandem, one with callsign UGLY01 and the other with callsign CRNGE2.

Never let it be said the Army isn't allowed to have fun on the job.

More reasons to love Radio Garden. They've just added a new Christmas radio station from Tallinn. I tuned in expecting to hear some traditional Estonian song, but no, it's just I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday AGAIN.

On the edge My week in the NHS

New post just out:

"On the edge"

On my unexpected week in hospital and five things I learnt about the state of the NHS.

(Free to read)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/o...

Two announcers, Jason Garrett and Dan Hicks, stand in front of a sign that reads "Big Turd" thanks to how they are blocking it

Not sure the folks at NBC/Peacock thought this one through

I wasn't ready to hear the term washi tape in real life.

Screenshot from Umamusume Maruzensky C'mon! Pump your fist in the air and sing the words, "Don't you... forget about me!"

I just had to mark the incredible translation for Maruzensky's hip and fresh references, job well done.

Captured frame number 5944 from the anime Yuyushiki ゆゆ式

It's difficult to overstate the influence Recettear's surprise hit of a digital English release was in terms of getting the Japanese games industry to turn their heads towards PC as a viable release platform.

We all owe a lot to Andrew and his work and I'm so sad to hear this.

UK number ones at the time of Mandelson sackings/resignations:

1. Goodbye – The Spice Girls (23 December 1998)

2. Rollin’ – Limp Bizkit (24 January 2001)

3. Golden – Huntr/x: Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami (11 September 2025)

I've finally listened to a song for the first time from an album I've owned for 20 years. It only took trawling through old forum posts, buying a new drive on eBay, and crossing my fingers.

Top job to the owner of the Subaru Subaru! #holoAllForOne

Important Account Update - fandom has sold Giant Bomb to Jeff Bakalar and Jeff Grubb. You must log in and accept terms to keep your account when the new site launches.

Extremely super duper important for you to login at giantbomb.com and opt in if you want to keep your account.

Today I purchased a CD drive in Year of our Lord 2025 because apparently there are some songs I've never heard on some of my albums because they're hidden before track 1, and it's a crapshoot as to which drives are able to rip from this pre-gap.

I'm convinced that the Google app Home feed has been tweaked to go on forever instead of just stopping at some point. I've lost hours to this thing.

Always appreciate a social media feed that has the decency to just stop.

*bloody* hell, this entire story www.ft.com/content/0e24...

Agnes Tachyon bossing it at the URA Finale, with a bonus sad Super Creek in the background.

My first run with Agnes Tachyon is also my first URA Finale win. Tachyon came in clutch as 8th favourite on my last alarm clock in the final. What a legend.

I do not want to alt text this anime, it's just too shameful.

It can't be beaten.

Today's homelab setup adventures included renaming some downloaded Linux distributions, and a massive sidetrack on how to reverse proxy the IRC bouncer over Tailscale TLS using Caddy, which was not easy to work out.

I'm now slowly watching my collection come to life on Shoko.

To use Gemini, turn on smart features in Google Workspace You agree to let Google Workspace use your Workspace content and activity to personalise your experience across Workspace. Workspace includes apps for businesses and schools, such as Gmail, Chat, Meet, Drive and more. To learn more, visit the Workspace website. Smart features include: Show events from Gmail in Calendar (such as flight itineraries and invitations) Personalised search (such as keyword suggestions, file suggestions and more relevant results) Ask Gemini to summarise content, create drafts and find key information, along with other Gemini for Workspace features You can always turn smart features in Google Workspace on or off in your settings. When smart features are on, your data may be used to improve these features. Learn more about these smart features.

Can't I just have the non-AI version of "show my hotel reservation in my calendar" that I've had for decades without needing to offer up my lifetime on a plate?

So in Google's new personalisation options, do you effectively have to opt in to having your data be trained on for AI if you want to keep calendar entries discovered from Gmail in Calendar?

Captured frame number 2974 from the anime Yuyushiki ゆゆ式

DVD titled "A History of Horseracing"

You: watching Uma Musume guides on YouTube

Me:

God I love Glastonbury weekend on TV. Flicking between stages on iPlayer knowing it'd take me at least half an hour to walk between them in real life, now that's power.

(Would still go though!)

Just spotted the Derry / Glastonderry flag during CMAT. Very nice.

As penance, the game now crashes on launch for me, so Oguri Cap will remain out of reach for now.

I think I beat the desire sensor on my very first roll.

Finally, my long awaited tribute to new york city in celebration of mamdani's win

The US bombed Iran and Korone talked to Danny Boyle - did anything ELSE happen while I was asleep?

But yes, with the hotel already reserved and flights now secured, I will see some of you in New York in August hopefully!