Weeknote, Sunday 22nd March

What a shit week. However we got some lovely spring weather and the Glasgow Botanics looked smashing on a quiet morning walk. Even saw a bunny.

🔗 Links

9 Favourite Racing Games

So a recent post on BlueSky got me thinking – what are my 9 favourite racing games? Not easy and favourite does not equal best. After a bit of thinking and jogging of memories, here’s my list in no particular order. Or is it.

Sega Rally Championship – Saturn

Sega Rally Championship came to the Sega Saturn in 1995. At the time the graphics were state of the art but what shone was the gameplay especially two player split screen. Can remember one memorable 2 player session where you won by carving out a 2 or 3 second lead and it was around 60 or 70 minutes before one of us ebbed out in front enough. Glorious.

Gran Turismo 4

The fourth version of the series and probably the one I played the most despite there being no online multiplayer. Launching in 2004 the graphics on the Playstation 2 were superb as the dev’s knew how to make the most of the platform. The cars handled differently and there were over 700 of them and so much customisation was available – amazing depth for a mostly single player racing game.

While it wasn’t the first nor got the best reviews this was peak Gran Turismo. Future games may have had much better graphics but the online racing always suffered from cheating and the game grew with bloat. I’d hate to see the hours I spent on this.

Project Gotham Racing 3

PGR was a superb racing series on the Xbox with origins from Metropolis Street Racing on the Dreamcast. PGR 3 was peak for me. Released in 2005, racing around London, Tokyo, New York or Las Vegas was all the better for doing it with friends online. That what set this out from Gran Turismo – up to 8 player multiplayer and online scoreboards for various time trials.

PGR 3 also introduced me to Geometry Wars which was available to play in the arcade cabinets in your garage. Glorious – still play Geometry Wars to this day.

F-Zero

I loved this game. Super Nintendo, 1991, one of the best console pads coupled with a futuristic racing game taking advantage of the Mode 7 system on the SNES. Much simpler than today’s games but I was obsessed. Even sent some times into one of the magazines. Been playing quite a bit of F-Zero 99 on the Switch and this is my goto game for testing an emulator or new bit of retro hardware.

F355 Challenge

F355 Challenge on the Dreamcast was such a tough racing game. Small number of tracks, tough computer opponents but once you put the time in it was such a rewarding game. This came out in 2000 and it took a few years before it was bettered.

Forza Horizon 3

Offshoot of the main Forza racing series, Horizon 3 came out in 2016 and was so much fun. Online was rock solid, superb graphics and gameplay second to none. You really could race anywhere and there was so much depth. Tuning, liveries, unlocking more cars. Loved it and looking forward to Horizon 6 coming out later this year.

Driveclub

The best racing game on the PS4, Driveclub came out in 2014 and despite the mixed reviews I loved the physics, the weather and the online racing. Evolution were great at releasing updates and new modes and tracks were delivered for another two years. It’s a real shame that the original release had issues, didn’t have the weather feature and a bit like we saw in the last few years with No Man’s Sky, Driveclub was one of the first racing games to really evolve and get better with each content drop.

MotoGP

Mugello! 2002, I’ve just got broadband installed for the first time (hello green frog) and the Xbox live beta service has launched with three tracks from MotoGP. That first Friday afternoon with Xbox Live was memorable. The first race on MotoGP was with a few of the developers of MotoGP testing out the online performance – awesome – this is the future of gaming. The next race was with a wee ned from Glasgow calling everyone a fanny – oh no – this is the future of gaming. As it was the only decent beta game I put an ungodly amount of hours into this and the full release of MotoGP.

Many friends were made from that first year of Xbox Live and MotoGP itself was never really bettered as future releases changed the handling and made it maddening for me.

Wipeout

It was 1995 and Sony launched its first console, the PlayStation, in Europe with Wipeout. Like most launches you pick up a few games and Ridge Racer had got most of the press, but Wipeout was an instant win for me. Visuals such a step up compared to something like F-Zero from only 4 years prior but it was the handling of the ships, the variety of tracks, the soundtrack and the industrial visuals. What. A. Game.

Follows up’s were also very good but the first version will always be the best for me.

Contenders

I’ve played a ton of racing games over the years so getting down to a favourite 9 wasn’t easy. Some runners up – Burnout Paradise, Daytona, Forza Motorsport 4, Colin McRae Rally, Stunt Car Racer and Super Mario Kart. All cracking games and while some of them may be technically better than my top 9 they don’t have the same hold on my memory.

Lot’s of arcade racers in the list and very little sim – anything obvious missing?

Weeknote, Sunday 15th March

The Union Street fire, started in an unregulated vape shop, devastated a much loved Glasgow victorian building, thankfully didn’t damage Central Station long term and turned every Glaswegian into a building expert. Got to love social media.

I took a walk into town yesterday and the burning smell was still noticeable. Demolition is underway and when you see the damage its understandable as the front of the building looks like it could be pushed over without much effort. Watching the disaster unfold last Sunday was numbing. There’s been many memorable and haunting images shared including some drone shots that really showed the challenge the Fire Service had in not only stopping the fire but protecting Central Station and Hotel. I thought this selection on Reddit were some of the better images from the incident.

The Glasgow Bell has also done some terrific reporting this week on the fire and its worth reading through their article from last year – Tinderbox – which catalogues the far too many, and suspicious, fires that blight Glasgow. If you are at all interested in whats going on in Glasgow and supporting local journalism then it’s well worth subscribing.

🔗 Links

  • MICROSOFT BROKE THE ONLY THING THAT ACTUALLY MATTERED – I have a growing hatred of Windows 11 and this article captures my many annoyances. Such a regression.
  • “This Is Not The Computer For You” – The best review of the new MacBook Neo. My first computer was an Amstrad CPC 464 with a green screen as thats all my parents could afford. I loved that thing. I gamed on it, wrote little scripts – well copied them from Amstrad Action. I’m chuckling now, I go to such lengths to not copy any text but back in the 80’s I’d sit for hours typing in code copied from a magazine. Also wrote my six year studies dissertation – Pessimism and Hope – The victim as protagonist in the novels To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men and A Disaffection. I was a fun kid. Bought a dot matrix printer for it as well. That first computer lasted for 6 or 7 years until I bought my first PC. And I didn’t care about specs, green screen, tape drives – I just got on with it. The MacBook Neo will be a massive hit. I do wonder if iPad sales will take a hit as you can do so much more on a Neo vs an iPad.
  • 239. Mac Neo and my afternoon of reflection and melancholy – Ex Microsofter Steven Sinofsky looks back on how Microsoft had all the parts that make the Neo such a hit with Surface and Windows 8 but never made a compelling device.
  • Gone (Almost) Phishin’ – pretty scary breakdown on how the founder of WordPress, so not a dummy, was almost scammed.
  • Lords a-leaving: Britain is ejecting hereditary nobles from Parliament after 700 years – get out! Pretty annoying they’ve had to do a deal with the Tories to still keep some in, even temporarily. The Lords needs a reset and its annoying that Labour with their massive majority aren’t doing more.
  • Wired headphone sales are exploding. What’s with the Bluetooth backlash? – exploding is a little strong, but wired headphones are fashionable.

📺 Media

Finished season 4 of Industry – quite the pivot from previous seasons but enjoyed it all the same. The Capture also started well – its been ahead of technology in previous series so we’ll see where this one takes us.

Loved Drive to Survive Season 8 although there were a couple of stories missing from the season recap, maybe due to them dropping down to 8 episodes. Today’s race from Shanghai didn’t disappoint either. Felt like there were battles up and down the standings and although there is something a little artificial around the overtaking the overall races have been enjoyable. The politics are coming to the surface more than ever though with some teams and drivers clearly not liking the changes.

Finally – The Pitt. Loved season 1, season 2 going strong and launches properly in the UK in a couple of weeks. The Guardian had a good behind the scenes this week.

Weeknote, Sunday 8th March

Quick week, lots done and todo. Despite reservations and looking elsewhere I’m still using Todoist to keep me on track and I’m also still wedded to having only one action list for both work and personal todo’s. Next few weeks is a focus on roadmaps, investments and whats next. Lots to unpack.

Sport in the last few days has been tremendous. The Scotland v France rugby yesterday was one of the best games I’ve watched. Scotland were magnificent and disciplined as they ripped France apart. The 50-40 score flatters the French as Scotland tired in the last 15 minutes. To think many were calling for Gregor Townsend to step down…and if only Scotland had won their first game against Italy, they’d be champions now.

The new F1 season also delivered. New rules, a real shuffle of the order from a teams perspective and not a bad first race this morning. Some of the overtaking felt a bit artificial but willing to give it time before rushing into a judgement. Great to see 5 Uk drivers in the top 8 at Melbourne.

Spring felt it really arrived this weekend as well. A warmth in the sun on Saturday. Great to get some rays in whats been a drab start to the year.

Kelvingrove park with Glasgow University tower in the background
Street art off Byres road from https://www.instagram.com/lyndsey.arts/

Love this bit of street art from https://www.instagram.com/lyndsey.arts/

🔗 Links

  • The stranger secret: how to talk to anyone – and why you should – loved this post and it’s something I wish I could do but I’m so introverted. Can’t break the habit even in work conferences.
  • Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo – great laptop, great price although I still feel 8GB of ram is on the tight side for the O/S plus apps. Still missing something really new and innovative from Apple.
  • HazeOver – great but simple app that dims all other windows on the Mac apart from the one you are using. Improves usability especially on Tahoe.
  • The fall and fall of Tony Blair – I still view Blair as one of the best prime ministers the UK has had in the last few decades despite the Iraq War mistake…but its hard not to agree with this article especially when you see him cuddle up to Trump on Gaza and criticise Starmer this weekend.
  • The View From RSS – another pro RSS post. I’m really enjoying the renaissance of blogging, no mater how small it is in reality, and the setback from social media.

Weeknote, Sunday 1st March

And just like that….the little runt of a month that is February is gone for another year. A busy week punctuated by a day trip to London on Thursday. The travel was pretty flawless apart from a slightly longer than expected train journey from Heathrow to Farringdon but there are worse ways to see London than via a crawling train. Walking around areas of London that I don’t know is always interesting. Old buildings in need of repair, some wonderful architecture and loads of new and interesting skyscrapers punching into the sky. Love it. And cyclists everywhere coming from all directions, always a danger for me who can’t wait for the lights to go green.

Gordon Ramsay's Fish & Chips

What I didn’t love though was Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food Market at Terminal 5. I plumped for a safe Fish Combo from the menu that at a glance could be a World Buffet special until you spot the prices. Three pieces of cod, think slightly plumper fish fingers and some of the poorest chips I’ve had in a long time. £19. My colleagues Tom Kha Glass Noodles were no better. £18. Underwhelming and will head to Wagamama’s next time.

🔗 Links

  • Apple in 2025: The Six Colors report card – always a highlight, 50 odd Apple watchers vote annually on how Apple is doing in their eyes. No surprise that the Mac has fallen over the last 12 months thanks to Tahoe, Liquid Glass and one of the buggiest releases I’ve used in years.
  • Sticking with the Mac, 2 dock utilities worth a look. Dockey makes it easy to tweak your dock without resorting to terminal commands. Dockfix is a throwback app for me and introduces a level of graphical tweaking I haven’t seen in years including customising any icon.
  • It’s less than a week to go until it slights out on a new F1 season. In America Apple is now the exclusive TV provider and they announced this week something nobody predicted – Drive to Survive available on Apple TV – in the US only. Apple and Netflix hardly ever play ball so an interesting development including Netflix broadcasting the Canadian Grand Prix live. If you haven’t watched Drive to Survive its well worth binging before the start of the season, first couple of episodes have been great.
  • Alignment theatre – this struck a chord as we set out goals, deliverables, roadmaps and plans for the year. Much to do.
  • How I built Timeframe, our family e-paper dashboard – total overkill and expensive but there’s something about these information sinks that make me want to do my own, and Trmnl hasn’t satisfied the itch.

📺 Media

Quiet week really. Enjoyed Industry and looking forward to the final episode of season 4 – also good they’ve got a fifth and final season green lit to close things out. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms also finished well. 6 half hour episodes and a season 2 already filming. Also enjoyed Shelter which is Jason Statham’s annual kick the shit out of people movie while wearing a cardigan or jacket.

Fortnightnote, Sunday 22nd February

Gradually the days are getting lighter and longer. The difference starting and leaving work in the light, even if its just the sun setting, is massive. I blame the office I’m in which is windowless although very very bright. Something I need to take care off.

I’ve loved the Winter Olympics from Italy over the last two weeks. So many great performances, so much drama and it always feels a little bit cooler than the summer Olympics. The curling was a highlight and it’s a shame the men were pipped to Gold – there’s always France in 2030. Also, the Scottish Premiership this year is delivering in spades.

BAFTA’s tonight – always enjoy skipping through the award ceremonies. So good to see I Swear and the actor Robert Aramayo pick up awards. An amazing film about the life of John Davidson who has spent most of his life dealing with Tourette’s – you could hear him occasionally through the awards as well. Great to see Jessie Buckley get her award too – richly deserved.

🔗 Links

  • Something big is happening – shared everywhere but it’s important. AI is overhyped and some of the results are shit but when you look at the rapid improvements in coding using Claude or Codex then there’s no doubt its going to bring some major changes to employment across the glove in the coming years.
  • I gave Claude access to my pen plotter – this is getting weird…but others have done the same and got similar results. You can replicate it without the plotter by asking it to create the image and write to an svg.
  • Xbox chief Phil Spencer retires from Microsoft – Xbox as a brand is cooked. Too much focus on being the Netflix of games, too many AAA games that didn’t deliver and now thanks to AI any new hardware will be super expensive. And going with everything is an Xbox and bringing their exclusives to PC and PlayStation means you don’t have a console business anymore.
  • Paged Out – Stumbled on this – great webzines full of geeky content. Number 8 is just out.
  • TV is most popular way to watch YouTube – Never thought we’d see the day that in the UK most folk are watching YouTube via their televisions and not mobile devices. YouTube is the big threat to Netflix.
  • One of the highlights of the Olympics has been the use of drones. They need to do something about the high pitched noise but from skiing to skeleton and even speed skating they’ve really added to the action. The sense of speed you got from them reminded me of switching to bumper view in racing games. So good.

Fortnightnote, Sunday 8th February

The last two weeks have been manic, perfectly summed up by this.

Meme talking about how a busy Monday felt like the whole week.

Work has been full on and despite my head saying keep posting weekly, the heart wasn’t in it last weekend. I have kept the walking up thought – January saw the biggest month yet with over 310km banked. Great way to catch up on podcasts and actually think rather than veg out in front of a screen.

I’ve also been dabbling more with Claude Code and also Codex with mixed results. I gave Codex a task to summarise my pay for the year via 12 PDF’s, total pay, total tax, total paid to pension etc. After a few minutes it grabbed the data, checked it was accurate and graphed it as asked. Brilliant. Passed it another few years worth and all was good. Passed it another 10 years worth and it claimed 5 minutes later, all done. Asked it to pull into a total over 20 years and despite it saying done when I looked at the end results it was clearly wrong. I looked at 2025 and it had changed the sums drastically. I told Codex it was wrong compared to the first run…and it agreed. So off it went redoing it all, compared it to its checksums, said all good…and it was wrong again but differently from the last time. I told it again it was wrong – you are right to check and you are correct I got it wrong. Third time lucky? It got more right than wrong but still inaccurate. The scripts it was writing were impressive and seeing it install what it needed via brew was a bit mind-blowing. Still, like anyone’s code in real life, you need to check the results.

For what it’s worth, Claude Code got it right first time but I put much more effort into the prompt. Agentic coding is going to be very disruptive…not in the future but now. It will breed a whole new category of coding managers. I’m not quite sure what the future holds for apprentices and graduates. Interesting times.

It’s also interesting times thanks to Epstein, Mandelson and the stench that surrounds modern day politics. Keir Starmer swept to power promising change. In reality much to my dismay, Labour have been more of the same. Today’s resignation of Morgan McSweeney won’t save Starmer. He’s toast and it’s really a matter of when not if he goes – upcoming by-election or Scottish and Welsh elections will probably see to that. I do wish he or whoever’s next uses the opportunity Labour have to clean up politics in both Houses. That was one of their early commitments but repeated failings and infighting look to have put paid to any hope of the right kind of reform that this country needs. I dread to think what would happen if the Farage version of Reform actually won power.

🔗 Links

  • Openclaw – I’ve stayed away from installing on my Mac given the various security holes found, but there’s no doubt this or something like it will form part of the future of computing.
  • Moltbook – a social network for your AI bots. Amazing to watch this grow so quickly.
  • The tipping point – as I dabble with Claude Code and OpenAI Codex it’s clear not from my hacking and thrashing but the general view of many experienced developers that agentic coding is here now, is useful, it’s impact needs to be understood and if you aren’t using these tools you are behind. They are evolving and improving so quickly.
  • Six Lords a-speaking – I hope the deliberate stalling of bills by the Lords leads to a fundamental gutting of it. Come on Labour – stop infighting, start cleaning it up while you’ve got the opportunity.
  • The Fallen Apple – Another great piece on the failings we all see day to day with Apple. The real challenge is where else to go. Windows is worse than ever, it’s been the year of Linux for about 15 years now and it’s still not there.
  • I Now Assume that All Ads on Apple News Are Scams – I’m probably one of the few that likes Apple News and News+ but the adverts which started off bad are now awful…and look likely to be scam’s. Clearly over $140 billion in revenue in just the last three months isn’t enough. I’d love to say do the right thing and get rid of the ad’s, but the new Keynote, Pages and Numbers now have permanent adverts to upgrade to the new Creator Studio. And Apple supporters used to laugh at Windows running ad’s in the O/S. How the mighty really have fallen.
  • Phantom Obligation – Nice article on the stagnating design of feed readers…and also an opportunity to sign up for the authors new feed reader app Current.
  • A Year in The Life at MKBHD – 90 minutes but I loved seeing what goes into the company, the videos and the team that make up MKBHD.
  • Opalite – Taylor Swift – a great video born on the Graham Norton show featuring the guests who appeared on the same night as Taylor. Amazing.

📺 Media

Hamnet – well made, great acting, bit too much misery porn.

Bugonia – nice switch of movie style at the end. Enjoyed it.

One that is a surprise is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Funny and so much better without the serious world at stake tones from the other Game of Throne series. This is how you do accompanying drama’s in the same universe – you watching Disney as you’ve wasted the Star Wars licence.

Also finished series 2 of The Night Manager and (spoilers ahead) I’m not sure I’ll bother with the third. Found the story predictable and full of cliches, almost AI generated. In fact, I asked ChatGPT the following “I want a new script for a season 2 run of The Night Manager, a 10 year old hit on the BBC from 2016. Use themes from the latest Bond films as references through season 2. Ensure all the main characters that survived season 1 return. Add in a twist mid series even though the twist involves a character played by one of the exec producers. Base the series in south america. In the last episode spin out the jeopardy as you want a series 3 – think Empire Strikes Back when it comes to endings and who wins. Remember it’s the BBC so budgets are tight. Before generating the full script, list out each episode and give each episode a 5 line summary of the main plot points.” It churned out and 8 part season that would pass for what I’ve just watched.

Season 2 – Episode Guide (8 episodes)

Episode 1 – “Ghost Assets”

  • Jonathan Pine resurfaces in Uruguay, working logistics security at a port quietly moving “agricultural equipment.”
  • Angela Burr pulls him back in: British intelligence has lost visibility on a private arms network operating across the Southern Cone.
  • Intelligence suggests the network isn’t new — it’s a reconstitution of Roper’s old supply chains.
  • Pine discovers the operation uses shell NGOs and climate-aid projects as cover.
  • Bond echo: post-Cold War villains hiding inside respectable global systems (think Skyfall themes of rot within institutions).

Episode 2 – “The Long Way Round”

  • Pine embeds with a Chilean shipping consortium tied to illegal drone and cyber-weapons exports.
  • Burr faces political pressure: Whitehall wants plausible deniability, not arrests.
  • We learn the weapons are destabilising regional elections, not wars — quieter, harder to prove.
  • Pine crosses paths with a ruthless private-sector fixer who knows him from Cairo.
  • Bond echo: corporate power as the real villain (Spectre).

Episode 3 – “Green Zone”

  • The operation expands into the Amazon basin, disguised as carbon-offset security infrastructure.
  • Pine uncovers a plan to sell AI-driven surveillance tools to multiple governments — including allies.
  • Burr realises this is bigger than Roper ever was: arms as data, not hardware.
  • A familiar name appears in offshore records… but is officially “inactive.”
  • Budget-smart episode: jungle, boats, radios, tension — minimal spectacle, maximum paranoia.

Episode 4 – “The Benefactor”

  • Richard Roper returns — not as a fugitive, but as a government-sanctioned intermediary.
  • He’s been quietly released years earlier in exchange for intelligence cooperation.
  • Roper claims he’s “gone legit,” advising on counter-terror financing — and might be telling the truth.
  • Pine is forced into direct contact again, their dynamic colder, subtler, more dangerous.
  • Twist sting: Roper may now be on the right side — or simply better protected.
  • Bond echo: former villains repurposed by the state (No Time to Die).

Episode 5 – “Terms of Engagement”

  • Pine works alongside Roper under Burr’s reluctant authorisation.
  • Evidence suggests a third actor is manipulating both sides — using Roper’s reputation as camouflage.
  • Roper saves Pine’s life, muddying loyalties.
  • Burr discovers her own operation has been partially funded by the same offshore structures.
  • Moral theme: the system eats everyone eventually.

Episode 6 – “Soft Power”

  • A Latin American election is quietly tipped using surveillance tech Pine helped track.
  • Pine tries to expose it — only to be blocked by allied intelligence agencies.
  • Roper admits he warned them; destabilisation was “priced in.”
  • Burr is forced to choose between exposure and collapse of diplomatic relations.
  • Pine realises this war cannot be won cleanly.

Episode 7 – “Extraction”

  • Pine plans an unsanctioned extraction of evidence tying British interests to the operation.
  • Roper helps — but only enough to protect himself.
  • Burr burns sources to keep Pine alive, effectively ending her own career.
  • The true architect remains unnamed, unseen, untouched.
  • Episode ends with Pine fleeing across the border — hunted by allies, not enemies.

Episode 8 – “Ashes in the Ledger”

  • Partial truths leak publicly — no one goes to prison.
  • Roper emerges wealthier, cleaner, more embedded than ever.
  • Burr is sidelined, discredited, but alive.
  • Pine disappears into South America under a new identity — mission unresolved.
  • Final note: the system survives, worse than before.
  • Victory belongs to power, not justice.

Fortnightnote, Sunday 25th January

It’s getting to that time of year already when there’s a hint of light in the sky when leaving work, still a while to go yet before I see anything light in the mornings. It makes the walking at the weekends all the more precious although the weather being cold, damp and breezy hasn’t helped over the last few days.

Kevin walkway
Mary Barbour mural at Govan

The Govan-Partick bridge really opens up bits of the city that previously would have been a car or underground journey. Yesterday’s walk finished with a snap of the new (last May!) Mary Barbour mural at Govan. Still enjoying Project Indigo.

Work has been focussed on three main topics – budgets, goals and recruitment – AKA fun, fun, fun. Joking. There’s also been some news that puts everything into perspective. Enjoy life, work to live not live to work. Something I still struggle with myself but hit home hard in the last two weeks. I’ve managed to survive January with no weekend work. Small steps.

📺 Media

Let’s start with Traitors and if you aren’t up to date then move on as there’s some spoilers coming. The latest series has just finished in the UK and the first two weeks were fire, there was a slight dip and then it finished strong with a cracking final. Couple of thoughts on the format and the players:

  • Rachael dominated the show – such a great traitor and was pleased she won even with some luck along the way. Her and Stephen made a formidable pairing.
  • Harriet – played a great game until she blew it at breakfast. Will never know if the desire to sell more books or just the pressure of the game got to her. The takedown of Hugo though was chefs kiss.
  • Format means strong players do drop out quickly and the final is always weakest + traitors. However some of the players in this season were pretty poor at spotting what seemed to be right in front of them. Easy to say as a viewer I guess.
  • Secret Traitor and the Dagger worked well – kept it interesting especially at the start when with so many players you are unlikely to catch a traitor.
  • Claudia is THE perfect host for this show. Ed Gamble also great on Uncloaked.
  • Clearly jumpers and cardigans are necessary to be on the show.
  • Still love the format and if they can keep the current production team there’s plenty life in the format still.

The Pitt is back and picked up nicely from season 1. Industry season 4 is also back with a bang – really hitting their stride. Watched Tron:Areas – terrible film. The Ballad of Wallis Island is well worth catching though as is The Rip.

🔗 Links

Weeknote, Sunday 11th January

Into the new year with a bang – full work week and it was packed. Good to catch up with the team and colleagues alongside looking back at 2025 and what we delivered while looking to this year and where we can improve. Lots to do.

As tradition there’s no resolutions as they’d be broken within a couple of weeks but there is a theme and a few areas to focus on.

Really enjoyed Predator: Badlands – some bonkers sci-fi and hopefully there will be more of the same in a follow up. Night Manager is ok but feels just another spy thriller in amongst healthy competition from a number of streamers whereas 10 years ago it really stood out. What is pretty special is The Traitors. I wondered if the changes this season would be a tweak too far but it’s been glorious – a programme at the top of its game. To round off this first post, a few links:

  • Kent Hendricks things I learned posts are also a great read and 2025’s is no exception. I’d missed the Louvre password 🤦🏻‍♂️
  • Interesting read around 21 lessons from working at Google.
  • Nikita Prokopov’s post on Tahoe, It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons, is a terrific takedown on what’s going wrong on the Mac. Liquid Glass is such a step back and the OS is so buggy but it’s the attention to detail on interface design that’s highlighted by Prokopov that used to be prided upon and now seems abandoned. Shame.
  • Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards – this post is stinging and can’t disagree with a word of it. If you are still using X its time to leave.
  • 2025: The year in LLMs – Simon Willison covers in great detail just how much has changed in 2025.
  • Claude Code and What Comes Next – I could have posted four or five links just this week on what people have been using Claude Code for and it’s damned impressive. I need to start dabbling.

Yearnote, 2025

Another year done and I can’t quite believe thats a quarter of this century gone already. Doesn’t feel 25 years since Y2K.

Life

Let’s start with a quick work update. There’s much I’d love to say in public but due to the type of firm it becomes difficult quickly but safe to say it’s been a challenging and stressful year with many successes but also a few dings that I could certainly have helped steer in a different direction. Over two years now in director role and still learning but comfortable with many aspects of it that I wasn’t at the start. Looking back it was good to get uncomfortable and it’s something we all need from time to time.

What I do need to manage better is the work/life balance which hasn’t been good – and let’s be honest here, it’s never been good and got a lot worse recently. I must remember what one of my seniors has made clear more than once – we work to live and not live to work. I’ve seen too much time focussed on work, too many hobbies and things I want to do put on hold.

One indulgence this year was replacing the Synology NAS with…my own custom one powered by Unraid. It’s went well as an upgrade, it wasn’t cheap, but I’ve got something thats scalable and less reliant on Synology switching on and off features on a whim.

I also replaced the drone with a new Mavic 4 Pro. OTT for what I need and how often I use it but when has that logic got in the way?

Glasgow tower fog bound
Glasgow shrouded in fog with only the Glasgow Tower (and the Uni tower) visible

One of my recent images is the one above from mid December when Glasgow was covered in fog but the drone (only just) showed what was visible above the gloom. I still love the different perspectives a drone can provide.

Health

A mixed year to be frank. Weight looks stable comparing year to year but I’d nicely dropped some kg’s at the start of 2025 only for it to come back on. Mostly related to bad diet and poor sleep – averaging just under 5 hours since around June.

My weight through 2025
Weight through 2025

A positive though is I’ve kept my daily walks going. I’ve set a target since 2020 of 2000km and this hit 3k for the first time. I find it. A great way to step away from technology, work and clear my mind. I’m also on day 3214 of my move streak – yes its become a thing.

Walking total 2025
Walking total 2025

Looking forward the main aim is to keep the walks going, improve the diet and more focus on improving the sleep which will in turn help the diet.

Media

Thanks to streamers, each year has felt like peak TV…and 2025 was no exception. Shows that you really should find time to watch in no particular order are:

  • Andor – the best Star Wars since Empire
  • Blue Lights – Season 3 was so good and that was after a bang average episode 1
  • Celebrity Traitors – who didn’t watch this? And we’ve got S4 of the normal edition starting tomorrow!
  • Adolescence – hard hitting, surprising and it deserves all the awards
  • Task
  • Ludwig
  • The Pitt – this and Andor are at the top of my list for the year. A modern day ER.
  • Severance – stuck the landing
  • Race Across The World – both the normal and celeb versions are a great watch

Alien:Earth, The Diplomat, Dept Q, Slow Horses were also a good watch. The Studio on Apple TV was good but it never clicked as much for me – same with Plur1ous. Good concepts, enjoyable but something didn’t grab me.

As for movies I didn’t watch a many this year but still enjoyed Sinners, One Battle After Another, I Swear, Superman, Hard Truths, F1, Wake Up Dead Man and A Real Pain.

Finally on the gaming front two stand outs. Battlefield 6 was a great return to form of a franchise I’ve always loved and in the last couple of weeks Sektori which is a modern day love letter follow up to Geometry Wars. If you love twin-stick shooters and vivid bullet hell top down graphics then this is for you. The Switch 2 I’ve found to be a disappointing update. Non OLED screen and launch games that didn’t hold interest – Mario Kart World in particular – has left it largely untouched compared to the Steamdeck.

Whats Next

No resolutions but plenty to work on in the new year. This site also needs a spruce up and a bit of focus but I did say that at the start of 2024 and have left it pretty much untouched so we’ll see what 2026 brings. The year ahead feels in many ways less certain than what’s been before but I’m grateful for where I am right now and looking forward to what comes next.