Blog Archives

The World’s Second Worst Panorama 2024

Here’s my traditional group panorama for the 2024 Cinque Terre and Tuscany trip. From the left: Yours Truly, Grant, Elizma, Hildige, John, Buzz and Lee. Remind me never to book any of my fellow travellers for a portrait shoot – … Continue reading

Thursday, October 10, 2024 in Italy 2024, Travel

(In)Correct Tripod Technique!

With Apologies to My Photography Tutors First, I’d like to apologise to all the authors, tutors, mentors and tour leaders who have tried to instil in me “correct” tripod technique. As they say, it’s not you, it’s me.I don’t particularly … Continue reading

Tuesday, October 8, 2024 in Italy 2024, Photography, Thoughts on the World, Travel

What’s That Shiny Yellow Thing?

We started day 2 by getting a train. There are essentially four ways of getting between the five towns which make up the Cinque Terre: you can walk along the cliff paths, go by boat, or get the excellent trains … Continue reading

Sunday, September 29, 2024 in Italy 2024, Travel

Trippin’ AI

Just how wrong can an AI get it? As part of my effort to profile the power consumption of GenAI, I decided to try and summarise one of my travel blogs using ChatGPT and the other big public models, plus … Continue reading

Tuesday, September 10, 2024 in Thoughts on the World

An AI Scares Itself, and Me

Just how bleak can an AI’s world view become? One of my clients asked me to write an article on the environmental impact of generative AI. Like a lot of large corporations they are starting to embrace GenAI, but they … Continue reading

Friday, August 30, 2024 in Agile & Architecture, Sustainability, Thoughts on the World

All Tide Up

Like it’s predecessor, Man Up!, this is a knock-about farce based around the capable but somewhat cursed sports agent, Patrick Flynn. This time the key protegé is a nymphomaniac Russian tennis player, but otherwise the cast of gangsters, hit-men (& … Continue reading

Monday, April 25, 2016 in Reviews, Thoughts on the World

Man Up

This is a comedy thriller very much affecting the style of Carl Hiaasen. Hiaasen’s latest, the hilarious Bad Monkey, uses almost exactly the same Floridan and Bahamian locations, and reading this book almost immediately afterwards did feel a bit like … Continue reading

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 in Reviews

El Dorado Blues

Like the predecessor novel, Wahoo Rhapsody, this is an enjoyable romp which charges on at an impressive pace. As a complete antidote to all the “Templar Treasure” novels of recent years, while this does feature a long-buried fabled treasure, which … Continue reading

Wednesday, May 1, 2013 in Reviews

Utter Folly

As good as Tom Sharpe at his best Continue reading

Monday, April 15, 2013 in Reviews