David Molloy

What makes Sydney the underquoting capital of Australia Almost half the time, Sydney property buyers are wasting their time pursuing places they can't afford, an exclusive data mining project reveals.

Gosh this is a good piece of journalism from my colleagues over in the Herald - but infuriating!
www.smh.com.au/interactive/...

Polar air mass soaks Sydney ahead of drowned-out weekend Heavy rainfalls and shivering temperatures are forecast to hit NSW for the rest of the week.

It's winter in Sydney, where a "polar air mass" descends bringing the horrors of... a few days of rain in a row and temperatures just under 10C. The horror.

Still getting used to the different standards here.

www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...

YouTube video by Linking Your Thinking with Nick Milo A Custom Obsidian Theme To Feel More Reflective

This chap, who says he modified another person's work from a reddit thread: youtu.be/lUZjpIhYOEw?...

#China’s Didi car hire service company has the wildest ads playing in the breaks for the footy in #Australia…

A screenshot of the Obisdian notetaking software, with brightly multicoloured folders on the left, a central panel with notes on SQL database queries in the centre, and a panel on the right with a complex web of links and nodes - all in a calm, deep pastel blue colour scheme

I've updated my @obsidian.md theme so everything looks pretty and that's basically the same as actually accompishing the work I have to do today, right?

I spent several years as a tech reporter and remain a deep AI sceptic. Other reporters seemed to think it crazy that I don't see the revolution. But years in, all we've got is still a cool toy with no business model.

A screenshot of the Bluesky profile page showing a biography that lists David as Newsletters editor at the Australian Financial Review and as ex-BBC News. The banner image is now the Financial Review logo.

New job, new bio.

This is pretty cool: my favourite podcast app, @pocketcasts.com, has just opened its web player to everyone (previously a paid user benefit). Just go there, search for your podcast, play - no sign-in of any kind, works in incognito mode - neat! play.pocketcasts.com/discover

I bet it's all very calm and reasoned discussion... right? Right!?

Adrien Brody with his hand up telling the Oscars to turn off the exit music

Me filing my long ass drafts to my editor

Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row Customers' photos and documents stored online will no longer be protected by end to end encryption.

This entire saga has been absolutely wild.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

That's really rather good and well expressed. Far from cheery, but that's the industry these days!

Journalism is collapsing in the middle of the information war Just as we need them most, media outlets are failing to cut through Trump's noise.

open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/... Absolutely essential piece on why journalism is broken just when we need it most and what we can do to fix it. Please read - or you could click on a story about a man with three nipples. Your choice…

Star Trek Voyager scene. We're on the bridge and see Seven of Nine (Tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix -01) standing and handing a PADD to Chakotay. Chakotay is in red uniform, Seven is in her 'not yet ready for prime time Starfleet officer' bodysuit thing. Closed caption reads, "I have no good news to report."

Here's the PDF of the actual study. Always good to see the BBC doing research like this and publishing it. I've always admired the R&D parts of the corporation.

www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/...

AI chatbots unable to accurately summarise news, BBC finds The BBC's head of news and current affairs says the developers of the tools are

Saw a sneak peek of this research internally a few weeks ago - interesting formal look at what we all suspected. Most interesting nugget to me are the factual errors cited to BBC stories which don't *actually* contain the inaccurate cited info.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m17d8827ko

Flat farmland sits in front of a looming snow-capped mountain range with colours hanging halfway to the summit

A bridge through a rural town bends slightly around the river curve with a mountain ridge visible against a blue sky

A country laneway lined with bare winter trees.

I've been spending a few weeks back in Europe - took a nice stroll around the French mountains near Grenoble this past weekend.

Tech Decoded newsletter Sign up here to get Tech Decoded newsletter. Get insider stories and expert analysis every week, emailed directly to you.

Over the moon that the BBC's Tech Decoded newsletter, which I launched internationally last year, is finally available to UK audiences!

It's been in good hands since I've been on parental leave and you can and should sign up here: www.bbc.com/newsletters/...

“Columbian president condemned something,” notification from X reads

Apple Intelligence’s commitment to writing incomprehensible summaries is unparalleled

A teacup with the words “Conas ata tu” in Irish, which means “How ar you?”.

I left summer storms in Sydney and flew to Ireland for winter storms. Holy moly has it been breezy here in Dublin. Nothing for it but a cuppa tae and wait for it all to blow over. #Eowyn

What executive orders did Trump sign on day one? The Republican quickly set about using his new powers to approve executive actions on a host of policy priorities.

Great round-up here which also serves as a cheat sheet to Trump policy going forward:

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Holy god, the latest edition of Molly's newsletter is jam-packed - and great prep reading for journalists who'll need a handle on the current state of crypto as Trump prepares to take office.

My Australian wife tells me she can't remember anything like it.

Sydney battered by 'biggest storm' in years, power outages across NSW Significant damage and widespread power outages have swept the state as trees toppled powerlines, fell on homes and destroyed fences.

First real summer storms experience in Sydney and it SUCKS. Internet has been out since Saturday, apparently will take two weeks for an engineer to come fix, and the power has cut twice. As a Dublin / London lad, I've never seen the like.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01...

Star Trek is now a Canadian enterprise. Here's what made it so | CBC News Mayor Olivia Chow has a model starship in her office: the USS Toronto with an accompanying plaque features a quote from her husband, Jack Layton, who died in 2011. "Always have a dream that will outla...

Headline applause.

search.app/PRsKiwxB6z5u...

Elon Musk goes large in Europe Musk has money, a pulpit, and the imprimatur of the White House. But does he actually have a plan for remaking Europe? If not, there are other Trumpians who do.

This is a nice piece attempting to put Elon Musk's intervention in European politics in the context of the wider move to the political right over the past decade.

www.afr.com/world/europe...

What one picture tells us about Trump's power in Congress Friday's vote underscores the challenges for Trump in keeping House Republicans united to legislate his agenda.

As always, @zurch.bsky.social has written a fantastic piece on the political drama in the US House.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

What Nick Clegg leaving Meta tells us about the tech giant’s political positioning.

Nick Clegg, former UK deputy prime minister, leaves Meta Clegg was the tech giant’s chief public policy architect when it was facing scrutiny over Cambridge Analytica scandal

I think The Guardian's copy does a good job of adding context for his successor, Joel Kaplan, which may explain the "why" of it all.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Sir Nick Clegg leave Meta ahead of Trump's return

Nick Clegg has been the face and name of all the boring-but-important policy decisions at Meta that tech journos have been reading for *years* now. This is a really big departure.

www.bbc.com/news/article...