Ian RentonBlog Archive
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Look Mum, I made an AI!
All the cool kids are making AI these days, and probably dooming the human race or whatever, so I made one too. Caveat: might just be a Markov chain bot? Ten years ago (ten years?!) I took part in something called NaNoGenMo—National Novel Generation Month. An alternative to its much...
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Rejecting the Infinite Scroll
In an effort to be more conscious about time spent idly scrolling through “content” on my phone every day, I’ve decided on a new policy for apps: no infinite scroll. By this I mean making an effort not to use any app that offers an endless feed of posts or...
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Winter, Year Three
Winter, Year Three. The cats put up with the frozen ground, while the foxes snooze on tarpaulin covering soil fertilised ready for the year to come.
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Weird Stuff from the Archives: ArmJoe
Over the years I have tried to preserve some of the weirdest software, videos etc I came into contact with, just in case someone years from now asks “hey, do you remember that…” and not only do I remember, I still have a copy. Today on “Weird Stuff from the...
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Ghost in the Machine: "Haunted WiFi" with Home Assistant
Since starting to play with Home Assistant, it’s consistently impressed me with just how many possible integrations it has. From the things you’d expect, like Google Home, Siri, and smart lights, to the unexpected, like cars and smoke detectors, to the downright strange—it warms my weird little heart that I...
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A New Home Server Setup
In a move that feels almost heretical, given my history with the devices, I am moving away from using Raspberry Pi computers for my various “home server” projects. This has been driven in particular by a desire to tidy up the area of desk used for Plane/Sailing by powering all...
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A Scenic Tour of Dyson Sphere Program
If you know much about me, you’ll probably know that I like “factory games” a lot. My stupid head won’t let me relax at any point, but at least I can constantly improve, expand, optimise; each day ending in a better place than it began. Factorio and Satisfactory have long...
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Farewell to Twitter
It seems strange to say now, in the closing days of 2022, but once upon a time… Twitter was cool. Initially called “twttr”, it was a new and exciting thing—“micro-blogging”, they called it. Messages were limited to 140 characters because you could post them via SMS; no retweets, no “likes”,...
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Autumn, Year Three
Autumn, Year Three. Day after day, thunder rumbles across the sky, bringing to an end the driest summer we have ever known. And then peace once more, as the mist rolls in and the year rolls on to Christmas.
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Summer, Year Three
Summer, Year Three. The grass is slowly yellowing, while the vegetables grow on and on. Sweltering says give way to nights without relief. I made it home in time for the pea harvest after all.