The Machine and Whippets

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

This is Benson my hound.

The dog lovers amongst you will be able to deduce that he’s a Whippet from his photograph. You can recognise his breed by his bony shape, long legs, pointy head and beautiful curves over his back and under his flattened but enlarged chest. He’s quite a goer.

But what you can’t do is hear the whining he makes when he’s desperate for a walk or his “happy growl”, which sometimes scares people, but in reality means he’s full of joy and really pleased with you. You cannot feel how soft his ears are, like rose petals, and … you can read the rest of my newest piece over on the blog

As I wrote last newsletter, “Small steps and all that but I’m back making things” and I am.

Bubbles is a new way to find new and interesting writing online, mainly from the small web, which I find myself reading more and more as the “big”, corporate web becomes AI written and enshittified.

Taken is a beautifully crafted visual reminder of how much web pages can use data to track you.

Kill the corporation in your pocket - re-evaluating the place of smartphones in our lives and communities. I loved this article bu Slingshot Collective. More to think about when we think about smartphone use.

If you are in the UK and if you’re looking to move broadband provider, maybe consider Youfibre. Now this isn’t some clever paid marketing pitch, but simply that I use them myself, I’ve had no complaints, they seem pretty fast and inexpensive and they’re currently running a promo at present where existing customers (me) and referees (you) both get a cash reward of between £25 - £100. So if you’re interested, and they seem OK to you, feel free to use my code: 39JD6B so we both get a bit of cash.

I’ve checked the dashboard and there are newbies here, so just the usual reminder - at some point I’ll be moving this email newsletter away from Substack, so if you’ve subscribed by the app rather than good old email, you’ll need to change that as Substack won’t allow me to export your details (yes they are slowly starting the enshittification playbook path)

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

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