James Cridland

Passionate about audio · Editor of Podnews https://podnews.net · Host of the Podnews Weekly Review https://weekly.podnews.net · Personal/radio blog: https://james.cridland.net · These messages self-destruct · ⚡james@crid.land

I also have a thing for craft beer, and did so before it was quite as trendy as today.

I live in Meanjin/Brisbane QLD Australia - in Bardon 4065 - on the land of the Turrbul and Jagera people. I'm British and moved here almost seven years ago.

Public Key

npub1g5h6rwmps922vx6m3rfj23r9wlkkp9dzrwefuyzfkjktqnfwvxasc9t5sr

NIP-05 Address

james@bne-social.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy2taphdscz49xrddc35e9g3jh0mtqjk3phv57zpymft9sf5hxrwcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qgt4p96

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relay.mostr.pub

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npub1g5h6rwmps922vx6m3rfj23r9wlkkp9dzrwefuyzfkjktqnfwvxasc9t5sr

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Last Notes

2024-11-16 04:13:35

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@nprofile…gx08 I was wondering why the planes were quite annoyed

2024-11-16 02:08:44

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@nprofile…jjde You could give @nprofile…4fxs a go. No AI (in search results); no ads either. Free trial to get you going. No affiliation other than satisfied customer.

2024-11-15 19:27:11

Good morning #Brisbane you look nice (if a bit overcast)
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/488/612/425/819/691/original/03c2ba18b3f3166b.jpeg

2024-11-03 10:12:34

On the road again. One of the things that I always find funny is this “lounge in a corridor” in Brisbane International. Presumably fire regulations mean they can’t build the walls up to the ceiling - not that you’d want to, because the ceilings are low, so low that I can reach the sign in this shot just by reaching for it. #travel #brisbane #bne
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/417/983/069/207/035/original/82e1979e84163958.jpeg

2024-10-14 02:37:45

Voted for the #queensland elections. A nice chat with our federal MP, Elizabeth Brown, before we went in, only marred by the LNP people shouting at us: "You know they want to legalize drugs?" Good, we replied. We love drugs. #auspol

2024-10-10 14:40:09

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@npub1zek…f8vu Looks like if you run an ad-blocking DNS service (like NextDNS or PiHole) then it never gets called anyway.
But goodness, there's quite the cruft on Vulture.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/283/641/036/625/618/original/380ae24e89880f6a.png

2024-10-08 11:13:04

When in Canada…
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/271/502/221/943/178/original/50ce634d63ef9a7f.jpeg

2024-10-06 03:23:23

@npub1df6…ns3a Listening to the board room…
I deliberately use the phrase “open RSS” to make the point that RSS is open. No harm in doing so - that’s the whole point of RSS, after all. Every time we call it “open RSS”, we underline the fact that it is open, and we educate those who don’t understand that. (Remember, most podcasters don’t know what RSS is).
Yes, Spotify reached out and asked if I wanted to email interview. So have YouTube, but that one is being a little harder to organise. No, I don’t know why, but they were my questions and they answered every one of them (well, to a point). And, sure, that means they retain control - but I’d rather hear something than nothing.

2024-09-26 01:02:35

Awful conditions today. Just awful. I don’t know how I’m dealing with it all. This is the view from my desk. #niue #travel
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/201/153/329/749/831/original/c0a26dfa23e1db15.jpeg

2024-09-25 08:56:41

Because it's great to see it supporting another Podcasting 2.0 feature, I've snagged a free year of Pocket Casts Plus for everyone. Shh. Don't pass this on. https://podnews.net/article/pocket-casts-plus

2024-09-20 12:47:06

Off on my travels again early next week (to a random island in the middle of the Pacific). Have bought myself a little treat - a portable radio. Not actually had one of these before.
Opportunity: can I please have one of these, which also has both DAB+ and HD Radio inside? That would make for the perfect travel radio. But it seems nobody makes something that includes digital broadcast radio - its analogue all the way.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/169/942/964/366/493/original/6541772fecaa4bf9.jpeg

2024-09-15 02:37:04

After rewriting the image resizing scripts… oh
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/139/240/625/771/649/original/0ea54e22d32ce4da.jpeg

2024-09-12 00:44:42

Within the space of a few seconds, Google's search bots love slurping data from my website. Where do I send the bill, I wonder...
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/121/808/978/437/706/original/0b4b77965a08bdfd.png

2024-09-10 11:22:55

Sending Podnews. Crossed-fingers to see if I've fixed the issues and don't have to reboot the machine again...

2024-09-10 01:54:11

25,000 requests yesterday from a bot called "Google-Podcast", to URLs explicitly forbidden in robots.txt and in X-Robots-Tag.
I have deployed the firewall block of doom against it, whatever it is.

2024-09-08 04:12:33

Hello from the “Channel 7 Wheel of Brisbane”, where the good folks of Channel 7 talk about the Neville Bonner bridge “which will connect us” with the new Star precinct. Some re-recording is necessary!
#Brisbane
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/099/972/581/429/638/original/58ae055e771e24ce.jpeg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/099/974/717/064/793/original/00a288748864439b.jpeg

2024-09-08 02:12:25

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@npub1zek…f8vu I searched for “intel rug” here and found…
https://mastodon.online/@tomshardware/113073523487618829

2024-08-30 11:06:56

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@npub19hk…najs Where are you going?

2024-08-29 09:38:11

In case anyone's interested, and I've no real idea why anyone would be... here's what it's like being a guest on the BBC News channel.
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2024/live-on-bbc-news/

2024-08-24 03:07:51

I keep noting that it’s just part the top of the hour and I’ve, yet again, missed the new ABC News theme tune. Looking forward to it, whenever it happens.

2024-08-16 10:25:22

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@npub13my…tldu Pah, this is Australia, mate, none of your fancy EU 261 laws here, you drongo

2024-08-15 01:17:51

With clowns like this in charge, no wonder Google has lost its way.
From: @npub1p67…xh53
https://mastodon.social/@verge/112963210509815132

2024-08-12 23:04:16

Overheard at the coffee shop: “What’s that for?” I thought to myself - well, it’s obviously a bike stand. Except, on second thoughts… what is it for? What are the square bits? Why is it built this way? #brisbane
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/951/541/833/092/822/original/a44876bf74667402.jpeg

2024-08-12 06:40:06

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@npub1dzn…4dfn ... it integrates OP3 (for me!) as well. It's very lovely. Here's a look into it (with copious images) https://podnews.net/article/bumper-dashboard-podnews

2024-08-11 02:19:58

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I’d go for “Brisbane’s biggest hit music station”. Or “best”, though “biggest” has two syllables like Brisbane, so it works better. Both communicate more than #1.
@npub1xjq…d7rr one for Mr Brisbane perhaps

2024-08-11 02:11:44

Back in #brisbane and enjoying SCA’s B105 claiming it’s “Brisbane’s #1 Hit Music Station” meanwhile down the dial, ARN’s KIIS 97.3 claims it’s “Brisbane’s #1 Hit Music Station”.
I wonder whether the only thing this communicates is that #radio stations think the audience is dumb. Do they genuinely think audiences won’t notice? How does this do anything other than erode trust?

2024-08-10 23:58:44

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@npub1cnh…xm8p Yes, voice is never great for that. But at least Spotify won’t have merged “The Band” and “Band Aid” in its database!

2024-08-10 23:40:26

I use YouTube Music rather than Apple or Spotify, because it’s a family account and the video benefits are also good.
But its metadata is just bad. Today, it’s decided that Gomez (a laid back band from the early 2000s) is the same as Gomez (a relatively talent-free Christian rapper from 2024). Argh.

2024-08-10 23:29:19

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@npub10h7…l9gn Also the country isn’t full of racists oh wait

2024-08-10 23:08:02

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@npub1nej…m48v I’m not throwing away my shot, no.

2024-08-10 13:21:44

This evening in #Sydney I was here, in the room where it happened. This photograph was taken before it was about to happen, because we don’t get to take photos in this room when it happens.
Sydney was a *much* better production than London, which was a bit more cramped and much more robotic. #Hamilton
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/937/923/970/508/172/original/bd6ce76fe7466a42.jpeg

2024-08-10 06:14:31

1939’s AWA Building, in Sydney. AWA was instrumental in bringing #radio to Australia, and owned a number of stations. The tower is a 1994 reproduction; I can’t actually find any evidence that it was ever used to broadcast or receive radio transmissions (it must have been though).
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/936/233/207/409/957/original/3f4688a7f3ff3aa5.jpeg

2024-08-10 03:45:36

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@npub1m38…6p0r I’ve been! It’s a fun evening, though not sure how long it’ll be there given how quiet it was…

2024-08-09 23:45:34

I find myself in Sydney. A few hours to kill this afternoon in the CBD - do I walk aimlessly about looking at things, or is there something I should actually plan to do?
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/934/722/756/376/761/original/13de98a7ee01e4c8.jpeg

2024-08-09 23:35:26

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@npub1auh…u2le Are you upside down because I’m viewing this from Australia?
Also, do you take requests?

2024-08-09 08:03:51

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@npub1hte…dr40 New corporate flannel says July or August. https://help.amber.com.au/hc/en-us/articles/27903392414989-Energy-Bill-Relief-Rebate-2024-25

2024-08-09 07:11:38

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…etc
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/930/815/383/633/783/original/c999ac3c99ef27d3.jpeg

2024-08-09 06:55:03

“Fake videos” never get recommended by YouTube, they say.
Also - my YouTube.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/930/747/060/851/030/original/1c278dc65131f057.jpeg

2024-08-09 01:47:34

Long post from a guy annoyed that his podcast wasn't appearing as high as it could be in the Podcast Index. Alleges "shadow banning".
He has more than 15 duplicates, because his website spews out RSS feeds and 302 redirects like crazy. That's why we can't find your real feed, dude. Go fix it.

2024-08-09 01:42:17

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@npub1mvg…sjsx The HTML <s> tag, surely?
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/s

2024-08-08 23:29:28

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@npub1hte…dr40 Maybe we just need to wait until they screw up mine! They normally send my bill on the 5th of the month; but no bill yet.

2024-08-08 23:08:38

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@npub1hte…dr40 No July bill yet.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/928/916/525/974/522/original/8bf63cf9acf20acc.png

2024-08-08 23:05:10

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@npub1hte…dr40 I use Amber. What am I looking for?

2024-08-08 23:00:31

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@npub1dzn…4dfn Also - this is an interesting edge case. Apple doesn't handle it cleanly either.

2024-08-08 23:00:00

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@npub1dzn…4dfn Yes, please do

2024-08-08 05:53:21

Ah, ha. It turns out that "Farage" is an upmarket clothes designer in Australia. Oh dear.
https://farage.com.au/

2024-08-08 04:03:15

Just added links to episodes(dot)fm, and episode notes, to the Podnews podcast episodes pages. Almost all the hard-graft is done in the browser; it parses the RSS feed directly.
https://podnews.net/podcast/i8xe9/episodes

2024-08-07 12:39:30

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@npub10fp…qqev I believe it won't appear in the most obvious place, but in a dusty corner of the app where people won't see it...

2024-08-07 06:02:14

@npub1hj9…777d I love Ice Cubes (and have donated money!) but have had to remove it from the Mac, because it has a memory leak that leads to freezing and the Dreaded Beach Ball Of Death. :(
I hope it's fixable... I'm a particular lover of the "hyperlegible" font that you can display everything in.

2024-08-07 05:56:02

A man from Telstra rings me, with worrying news - my IP address "is in public mode". He gets me to check "what is my ip address .com" which contains scary language about my "public" IP address.
I wasted 15 minutes of this chap's time (I'm with Aussie Broadband and Vodafone), and he was most keen to "fix" my computer, but I got bored with talking to him.
Imagine if you're a pensioner with only a vague grasp of the internet - what a minefield.

2024-08-07 00:11:47

Sniffing around an interesting story in podcast land. If you know anything about The Interesting Story (Why? Who next?), do get in touch! Not hard to find my SMS, or DM here, or email…
#mysteriouspost

2024-08-06 03:29:36

Lunch out today, celebrating wedding anniversary. Pretty view of #Brisbane too!
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/912/952/971/951/112/original/807b8189df01fdf0.jpeg

2024-08-06 03:24:20

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@npub14cp…c5d7 Would love to catch up. I’ve got about 6,000 events to go to on Tuesday night already; but either 4pm Tue or 10a Wed?

2024-08-05 21:52:26

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@npub1dzn…4dfn I killed it. AWS Polly cost quite a bit, and your reflections service was good.
I tried something interesting with the feed yesterday and found a bug in Apple (I think)

2024-08-04 13:06:25

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@npub1fsz…cvat On an Android keyboard, it’s in the symbols.
iPhone users are too cool to worry about degrees, it appears

2024-08-04 11:45:31

Just played (and finished) @npub107w…vhcd ’s Thank Goodness You’re Here - wonderfully silly and very excellent.

2024-08-04 10:53:06

Interesting discovery from the RAJAR figures (the UK radio audience numbers) - radio listeners are now listening to an average of 20.6 hours a week. That’s the highest figure for five years, and has nothing to do with the increase in population fuelling other, more spurious, claims. Yay!
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2024/rajarq224/

2024-08-03 12:29:50

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@npub1qj7…ech2 Good grief.

2024-08-03 12:20:00

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@npub1qj7…ech2 I assume that a VPN will get round the block?

2024-08-03 04:51:54

An hour’s cycling - the first for some time. Now treating myself to a little self-care, before the return journey (which won’t be an hour, primarily because I’ll not get lost this time)
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/896/288/164/976/970/original/9cd53b551e831710.jpeg

2024-08-03 02:34:00

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Here’s a probably rather too clickbaity article explaining why. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/why-its-illegal-to-take-pictures-of-the-eiffel-tower-at-night

2024-08-03 02:30:04

An interesting quirk of copyright law is that photographs of the Eiffel Tower at night are copyright, and (rather amazingly) someone at the ABC will, at some point, be sent a bill for this image. As might I, for republishing it.
From: @npub163d…j6ra
https://social.chinwag.org/@abc_bot/112895711222368095

2024-08-02 23:17:39

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@npub12rn…fpl8 That’s certainly one way to put it. The figures also don’t include any community radio, which is big here, and would push the numbers up even higher - which I find interesting.

2024-08-01 21:44:51

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@npub12rn…fpl8 Brisbane is around 94% weekly reach. They don’t release hours though.

2024-08-01 12:47:52

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@npub12rn…fpl8 Weekly reach is 88.1% which is the lowest ever for Q2 as far as I can see.
But yes, it’s still impressive - just not best-ever…

2024-08-01 12:41:32

UK radio figures have come out and the industry is crowing about “best ever figures”.
The percentage of the population listening per week is the lowest ever for Q2, at 88.1%. The time spent listening per week is 20.6 hours; in 2017 and 2018 it was 20.8 hours. But the highest ever number of people listening, because there are 1.3mn more adults who live in the country, and every Q2 they adjust the population numbers accordingly.

2024-08-01 11:58:33

Client wondering why his sponsorship stopped running in mid July.
I’ll tell you, Mr Client - because the invoice said you had bought a slot until 12/7/2024.
Ah.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/886/638/887/676/705/original/8437230bb96e72ed.jpeg

2024-08-01 04:51:47

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@npub1nej…m48v I’ve now disallowed there as well, good shout. Should probably flush the cache…

2024-08-01 01:12:21

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My fault, really, for not putting these in a background service, rather than holding up the server response. Here’s iHeart slowing things down for everyone (the numbers here are when these timing events happen in the script).
podnews.net/podcast/ib06p includes:003ms cachecheck:003ms podcastindexapi-byid:190ms itunes-pi-crosscheck:948ms luminaryapi:1.376ms iheartcheck:2.469ms globalapi:2.708ms rssfetch:2.796ms apple-channels-api:3.032ms updateapi:3.039ms

2024-08-01 00:58:45

The Amazon Music API that I have access to seems to take more than five seconds to return data. Hmm.

2024-08-01 00:47:50

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@npub1nej…m48v It’s my best Hmm.

2024-08-01 00:07:13

Harry Morton talks about Lower Street buying Pacific Content in the Podnews Weekly Review tomorrow. Here’s that in image form in Hindenburg PRO.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/883/846/126/681/128/original/8a6efedadfad7874.jpeg

2024-07-31 02:39:45

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@npub1df6…ns3a Yes, exactly.
(The station uses the Great British Pound, but the same thing)

2024-07-30 12:17:15

In this post (on Reddit!) a man follows an #AWS article and gets charged $130 more to serve less. Sigh.
Does anyone know the answer?
https://www.reddit.com/r/aws/comments/1efrtx5/what_is_best_practice_to_block_hotlinking_images/

2024-07-30 11:22:14

Great news, but also, no, not great news. Is the amount of ads in podcasting beginning to be a worry for the growth of the medium? I wrote a thing on LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jamescridland_so-today-with-this-slightly-ridiculous-activity-7224010379679424512-YUno
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/875/175/451/622/345/original/47c436b79f1ee171.jpeg

2024-07-30 08:08:14

Invited to a thing at a conference (in Washington DC next month).
The only way to RSVP is to call a telephone number. That telephone number is in New York, so I have to either stay awake until 11pm tonight, or set the alarm before 7am tomorrow. I responded to the email, but am told to call the telephone number.
It must be brilliant to be American, and to ignorantly forget that the rest of the world exists.

2024-07-30 01:07:41

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@npub19hk…najs Tell that to Karmala

2024-07-30 01:01:21

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@npub19hk…najs …. fill in… some CIRCLES?
You lot are weird.

2024-07-30 00:58:31

Just watched a helpful video (on Elon’s hate site) on how to pronounce Kamala Harris’s first name. “Comma-la” (as she has written) is actually wrong if you’re British/Australian, because we pronounce “comma” very differently to Americans.
The way to think about it is “Karma”, it turns out. It’s good karma to pronounce someone’s name right. And her name is correctly pronounced “Karma-la”, no matter which version of English you speak.
#kamalaharris #karma

2024-07-30 00:30:40

Not a particular fan of this, but due to “recent events”, I’ve now produced a one-click Alfred shortcut to add a watermark to an image before uploading it. This is 5% opacity and I think it might still be a little much, but let’s see.
https://podnews.net/uploads/goog-podcasts-subs.png

2024-07-29 12:15:12

I saw this little monster over the weekend in #brisbane
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/869/722/060/116/068/original/715d846262c6eb48.jpeg

2024-07-29 04:44:44

@npub1rk3…43sg A memory leak, I suspect. Quit and reload, and it’s dropped to 116MB. Is there a way to report this to you better?
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/867/949/630/951/833/original/e540b729807286ea.jpeg

2024-07-29 00:16:11

New "podcast" launched on Audible on Jul 28.
I'm sent a press release with all the details, embargoed to 9am ET on Jul 29.
I have politely suggested to the hapless PR that this is not how any of this works. (And that it isn’t a podcast).

2024-07-28 13:28:58

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@npub1acg…qy64 “couched”
I see you

2024-07-28 12:02:42

Had GBNews on for some noise while I was doing other things in the house.
They started proudly promoting a feature called “The Racist Briton”, where they choose someone special each day to highlight.
I looked up at the screen, a bit startled.
Oh.
“The Greatest Briton”.

2024-07-28 08:19:56

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@npub14xq…afu2 Sure - linked from Podnews on Fri.

2024-07-27 03:06:11

Ah, #brisbane, you never disappoint with your random things you deposit into our garden. Today, this carpet python came to visit. He’s next door’s property now.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/856/232/479/826/769/original/c50a69eea22b9273.jpeg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/856/232/517/073/626/original/2bfb0df9b0549dbc.jpeg

2024-07-27 02:00:00

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@npub15k8…d496 a) it’s the British Royal Mail; b) AusPost does exactly the same. https://aucustomsclearance.com.au/australia-post-customs-clearance is a company that helps with incoming AusPost customs bills.

2024-07-26 11:10:24

A pandemonium of parrots.
(That’s the collective noun for them, which is very excellent, isn’t it?)
They’re King Parrots, and I saw them a few weeks ago.
#brisbane
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/852/478/915/440/074/original/159c050273700888.jpeg

2024-07-26 11:02:03

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Nicher post: it turns out that the BBC is feeding us the African version of the channel. Spot the programme trails promoting shows in “CAT”, “EAT” and “GMT”, rather than the more usual times for Asia.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/852/447/194/303/578/original/4511ca4cd457952c.jpeg

2024-07-26 01:50:26

Hmm.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/850/278/622/011/102/original/3f6a1e31ada17239.jpeg

2024-07-26 01:00:43

Niche post: the BBC app in Australia now has the BBC News channel’s live video in it. Just hit the “live” tab.
No BBC World Service. And the video is a webview, so isn’t the most technically good thing (and you can’t listen with the screen off). But it’s there, which is something. Would have been nice to have had it for the General Election, but, still, it’s there now.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/850/085/026/310/530/original/a59569cb9178ffba.jpeg

2024-07-26 00:50:44

Wow, @npub1rj9…6rnv - this is quite the advice. Congratulations on the pivot to full influencer. Nice new beard, too.
Oh, it’s not you? That’s a relief
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/850/039/468/437/154/original/b9bb01354475d17b.jpeg

2024-07-25 04:57:18

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@npub142u…w5fu I think StreetComplete is funded by European grants. Would be great, but I suspect that’s considerable cost for someone!

2024-07-25 04:48:50

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@npub142u…w5fu It’s the one app I miss now I’ve switched to an iPhone

2024-07-25 03:36:25

Interesting. Proton launches a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet. https://proton.me/blog/proton-wallet-launch

2024-07-24 11:30:25

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@npub1nam…l3t5 I would like to turn my MacBook Pro into an Ubuntu machine (or similar), but wifi isn’t supported. :(

2024-07-24 11:09:24

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Who knows, by the next time, I might learn how to spell his name right. It’s Keir.

2024-07-24 11:04:38

First PMQs for Sir Kier Starmer. https://livenow.news/#skynews

2024-07-24 04:49:28

Huh. Another thing killed by Google - this time, it’s their “dark web report”, which was a feature of their paid-for Google One service. They killed the VPN it offered earlier this year.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/839/656/856/403/371/original/baf08ed130f82796.jpeg