Microblogging without the social media aspect. Extended thoughts that come to mind. You can find my in-depth posts on videogames and nostalgia at my other blog: relativenostalgia.com
Since early 2025 I've been reducing my reliance on "Big Tech". Unsurprisingly Microsoft is one of those firms I've been working on moving away from. Like with Google it is very difficult to truly leave, but it is very possible to greatly reduce how much you use their services. Because my work place continues its reliance on Microsoft services, it is down to my personal use that I have any real…
It's now been around 18 months since I ditched Chrome as my daily web browser, both on desktop and mobile. Not once have I missed it. Chrome has for a while been a joke when it comes to performance and that was a part of what led me to moving away from it. At the time I was still using my old Dell XPS which - according to Microsoft - was coming to end of life (EoL). Even though I do still use that…
It's now been over a year since I started blogging with Pagecord (and almost as long since I started paying too). Pagecord was not my first blogging platform this decade, nor is it my only one. But, even in just the past year it has really grown as a service. It's partly why I will be allowing my paid subscription to auto-renew, the other is that it was great last year and those key parts that…
Last week Sony announced that from January 2028 they will no longer be producing physical discs for PlayStation games. In some ways this announcement isn't a completely unexpected surprise. Videogame consoles have become increasingly digital focused over the past decade. Partly out of players choice (digital can be convenient) and console manufacturers increasingly nudging consumption habits in…
Time to curl into a ball and hug my Steam Deck (I initially wrote Machine in a Freudian daze). So, the time has finally come, Valve has now announced the price of the Steam Machine, and as feared, it is expensive . Even at the low end with the 512GB version without a controller it is £879 !! (also over $1,000 in the US) Then at the other end, for the 2TB version with a controller it goes up to…
Earlier this week I wrote about the newly announced under-16 social media ban for the UK. The post has so far been one of my most read on this blog so far ( spotlight helps). This is unsurprisingly a hot topic, but has also got me thinking about my relationship with technology and the web around that age. Especially after speaking with a colleague who has a 16 year old son. I grew up in a rural…
Today the UK Government announced an "under-16 social media ban". Whilst I have previously complained about the Online Safety Act , largely due to its poor implementation, I'm not inherently against the idea of a social media "ban" for those under 16. Before you call me a hypocrite, the difference is that the big social media platforms are inherently toxic. They are not there for the users, or…
A couple of months ago I wrote about how I was considering moving from Bazzite to Cachy OS . I had yet to make the move in large part because Bazzite on my decade old Dell XPS 15 was working very well and was doing what I needed it to do. It's great as a companion machine for marking student work and general admin when I'm not on my work provided laptop (unmanaged thankfully). I don't like using…
The rumours were true, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake is a thing . Now, Nintendo absolutely despises leaks, and judging by the "footage" Nintendo showed today I wouldn't be surprised if the announcement (confirmation) today was Nintendo's hand being forced far sooner than it would have otherwise. Whilst Nintendo is often accused of remaking its games often, in practice it's not as…
Yes, it's another post on AI. Whilst, I don't write too many posts on it myself (I wrote around 7,000 words on it for a journal instead) you've probably come across countless posts on it elsewhere. I was planning to write something about it following the announcement that the Steam Deck was going up by around £200! What was once the go-to suggestion for a PC handheld (" just get a Steam Deck ") is…
This week two new films were released that followed on from two different established streaming TV shows. Although only one of these made its way to the cinema. The films I'm talking about are Jack Ryan: Ghost War (Amazon Prime) and Star Wars: Mandalorian and Grogu (Disney). These are both very different franchises not only in genre but also in what surrounds them as a media entity. Jack Ryan is…
The past couple of days I've been solving various things across devices, services, and operating systems. I spent a big chunk of yesterday evening finally fixing the HDR issue I had playing The Witcher 3 on Steam Deck via Heroic Launcher (that I got for free on GOG). The fix was very simple and it was one I was aware of, but didn't want to mess around too much in desktop mode outside of installing…
It's finally here, the plugin to enable me to post directly from Obsidian, which is now where I do most of my blog writing. As well as a lot of my research notes too. This is to see how well I get on with it. Is it easier to post directly from here, or do I prefer to just copy and paste the text from Obsidian into Pagecord? The main test for me is possibly the ease of dealing with the metadata. I…
As I mentioned in my previous post I actually had nothing scheduled during the Bank Holiday Weekend. what made this one particularly good was that it also coincided with the made up holiday of May 4th, aka May the Fourth Be With You. In other words, an excuse to immerse oneself in Star Wars content over 4 days. Not only did the excellent Maul - Shadow Lord series conclude its first season but also…
Finally, the Bank Holiday Weekend! I know that the Easter break wasn't that long ago, but I very much did not have a break then. Haven't had a proper break for a long time. Either had things that scheduled to do, or something has come up that needed my immediate attention. Over the past 12 months this has ranged from minor to major and everywhere in between. For the past month all sorts of issues…