My first Nintendo was the NES, followed by the GameBoy, the Nintendo 3DS and then the Wii.
It's been close to 20 years since my last purchase of a Nintendo console but I've been thinking about a Switch for a bit... With the Switch 2 on the way, maybe this is the year?
The bigger screen is not important to me at all, but the larger Joy-Con controllers looks great and would be more comfortable to hold when playing on the go.
I'd add it all to Good Gear Club but there's no pricing information available just yet.
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I have long been planning an iOS app since I picked up Swift development on my iPad mini. At the end of 2024, I decided to switch tact from my original app idea and onto another, simpler, one that I managed to build out fairly quickly. It took a few more days and weeks of refinement but it got to the point where it was usable and now it's in the App Store.
It's called Kop Quiz and there's a supporting website for it too.
Read the post from week 377
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Generative AI is impressive, and I use ChatGPT every now and then, but I much prefer finding web results where there is more context and discussion. I can't trust the output of an LLM as fact. If I ask a coding question, then I have to try the code to see if it works and ask follow up questions or provide additional context if it doesn't. That context is usually there if I am looking at an article or answer on the web.
For any topic, I will still verify that the AI results are correct. Let's say I ask what the best foods are to eat for a specific condition or desired outcome, I will get an answer, but I'll still pop the answer into Google to find articles to verify. Often the NHS has an article that will verify it, but given AI does not actually have the answer, it's just generating an answer it thinks is right I will continue to do so.
Why I'm an AI sceptic
The environmental impact also looks like it could be enormous.
Someone needs to come up with a sensible, and achievable, rate card for AI that limits how much energy can be used to generate the output. I am not qualified to speculate what that might look like, but if OpenAI is basically asking for unlimited money to continue operating then that doesn't sit well with me.
There has also been an insane amount of theft that has enabled OpenAI to achieve what it has so far. If anything, the money they raise should be used to compensate every author and artist that they have stolen from.
Are search engines any different to AI?
I've been thinking about search engines place in this argument and I think it comes down to the simple fact that a search engine is designed to connect you with the content where as an LLM/generative tool is effectively plagiarising content.
Google's shift to providing snippets so that you don't need to click through was always at odds with the function of a search engine but makes sense in some contexts. Opening hours for example, as a user the experience is great... but for the website it is taken from, how do I know it was useful for that user?
Enhancing products is all well and good, but Google have been prioritising money for years now and it shows. The experience is nowhere near what it was a decade ago and it's no wonder we're starting to see plenty of disruption around how people are 'searching' for answers. A recent episode of The Talk Show has an interview with Vlad Prelovac, found of Kagi, which is well worth a listen on the topic of web search.
Read the post from week 376
I wasn't sure how else to title this, but Howtown has a good video on the truth about Hot Ones sauces. When we watch episodes at home, especially recently, our biggest critique is that no-one seems to suffer much anymore. Hot Ones is at its best when the guest is really struggling!
Pepper X, the key ingredient in The Last Dab, is itself an extremely hot pepper but there's more to the sauce which surely brings the heat down.
I'm pretty sure I've had Da Bomb before, which currently sits at number 8 in the line up. The smallest amount caused plenty of pain and I'd still love to try The Last Dab at some point... but I don't think it will live up to the expectation.
Read the post from week 375
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As ever, we have watched quite a lot of TV over the past year. Below are some of the TV shows and movies that I enjoyed:
TV shows and movies on Netflix
- Mr. McMahon
- The Umbrella Academy
- Tires
- Baby Reindeer
- Trevor Noah: Where Was I
- Inside Man
- Never Have I Ever
- One Day
Mr. McMahon was a real walk down memory lane for me, well worth a watch if you're vaguely aware of any wrestling over the past 30-40 years.
The Umbrella Academy came to an end, fairly satisfyingly. Both Inside Man and Tires have been renewed for a second season.
TV shows and movies on AppleTV+
- Shrinking
- Bad Monkey
- Big Door Prize
- Severance
- Loot
Shrinking and Bad Monkey are both Bill Lawrence shows and both fantastic. Loads of great characters in Shrinking and Vince Vaughan is brilliant in Bad Monkey. More seasons please!
I really liked Big Door Prize, so it's a shame that I discovered it was not getting a third season. Loot is fun, but the first season is better than the second.
TV shows and movies on Prime Video
- The Grand Tour
- The Boys
- Invincible
After a long break from watching Top Gear and The Grand Tour, I decided to catch with the latter and realised I'd missed the chemistry between the three. It's all very obviously scripted but still good fun and it's a shame it's all come to an end.
TV shows and movies on other services (UK)
- Starstruck (BBC)
- Only Child (BBC)
- Ghosts (BBC)
- Ghosts US (BBC)
- Swiped (Channel 4)
- Dinosaur (BBC)
- Late Bloomer (Crave Canada)
Starstruck and Ghosts (UK) are complete, but Ghosts US has been a good watch. Late Bloomer got picked up for a second season which I'm really pleased about as a big fan of the star, Jasmeet Reina.
Other movies I watched this year
- Nope
- Carry-On
- That Christmas
- Moana 2
- Deadpool & Wolverine
I had wanted to see Nope for ages and it was really good. Carry-On was better than I expected, and That Christmas is a new film we can add to our Christmas rotation.
Moana 2 was also better than expected. What looked like it was going to be a Disney+ show eventually made it to the big screen and it's a good story to continue on a few years after the last... and it looks like there will be a third instalment.
Deadpool & Wolverine was really good fun. Maybe even the best of the three movies.
It's been a good year for TV but my list for 2025 is already growing!
Read the post from week 374
over the past few weeks I’ve been sharing some of my favourite photos from various holidays and outings and it’s been nice to share them with a new audience. You can see what I’ve shared on Bluesky and feel free to comment.
Ive mostly shared from a new album I created which has these memorable photos but I need to go back through my library and find some more. It’s always fun to look back through photos you’ve taken and this is just a reminder to myself to do it more often.
Read the post from week 373
I remember doing this, back in the 90s. More likely for TV shows we tapped rather than movies.
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Hasan Minhaj is a fantastic stand up, one of a handful of Asian comedians who are doing great things on Netflix and on YouTube. If you watch nothing else, then check out Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know.
His recent stand up special, and previous ones, on Netflix are very good as his sit down chat/podcast with Mehdi Hasan for Zeteo.
Read the post from week 372
I am on this particular journey with my son at the moment. He's graduated from doing the basics indoor with a club to playing outdoors. I'm less involved than I was with the indoor version where we had 15 minutes each week to tire each other out and it's more about him getting to grips with the elements, proper studded boots and using all of the skills he has.
In his previous club, or class, it was obvious the challenge was no longer there so we tried to create some. That meant me intervening, like Rory did, but now that he's somewhere new it's all up to him and the instructions he gets from the coaches. My interventions were more about bringing his team into it the game with him, and I get the sense that there's an aspect of that in the article. Keeping the ball in play is one thing, but you want it to go to a team mate so it stays alive.
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After starting with Swift Playgrounds on my iPad mini earlier this year, I've now graduated to working in Xcode and I am not enjoying it.
Nothing seems as straightforward as it should be. Google and ChatGPT both fail to bring the right answers. Stumbling across bugs all the time.
But I'm making progress! I need to bite the bullet and actually release the first app I'm building but that also requires me to just accept the back-end is where it is and to deal with a potential migration later...
So watch this space, there may be a native iOS app that I've built in the App Store soon enough!
Read the post from week 371
If Front Row was still a thing, then a Mac Mini as your media hub would actually make a lot of sense.
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My podcast backlog was getting out of control, my focus was on a select few podcasts and their latest posts. As I get through them, more come through meaning other podcasts get neglected and the backlog grew to over 12GB in size.
So a couple of months ago, I decided to start from the back and work my way back to the front. My catalog sits at about 9GB now, but I'm now in the summer of 2024 and catching up quick!
I've found some real gems, grown to love other podcasts and am eagerly awaiting the point at which I catch up with the latest episodes of Fake Doctors, Real Friends and Off Menu. The former, I haven't even gotten to their post-Scrubs rewatch episodes so it will be great to hear how that podcast has evolved.
Read the post from week 370
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After a long wait, I finally have myself a new MacBook Pro. Apple announced the M4 family of chips at the end of October bringing the series to the Mac lineup, after debuting in iPads, and expanded from the regular M4 to the M4 Pro and M4 Max.
While I'd have loved to have settled for a M4 or gone all out with the M4 Max, the M4 Pro sits perfectly in the middle and is the version I opted for.
Nano-texture display
I was in store around the time they announced it and saw that the Nano-texture display was coming to the MacBook for the first time. In store, it makes a huge difference to the glare and amount of reflections but it also makes the picture a little duller. I decided not to opt for the finish and having gone and seen the new display in store over the weekend, I am not regretting my decision. If anything, HDR content really pops and while the MacBook Pro means I'm not tied to a desk, I've used my previous laptop outside only a few times over the time I had it.
Upgrading from Intel
I was upgrading from an Intel MacBook Pro, so the jump feels huge in performance. Overall, it is very familiar which is a problem with devices that last for ages and get updates for years. Replacing them isn't as exciting as you think, but genuinely the jump is massive.
Having said that, I bought my last MacBook Pro in October 2013. 11 years is a long time and it's held up well but the battery was close to useless and the fans... the fans just never stop. To be honest, they were spinning from day one but it's only ever gotten worse. It was when I started 1 Thing A Week, back in 2017, when I first seriously thought about the need to upgrade but I've muddled along until now.
Read the post from week 369
As Twitter continues to burn to the ground, I look at Bluesky as the true successor to once great platform. The problem is, news and sports organisations haven't really adopted it well enough yet, if it all.
Twitter (X is a stupid name) continues to be a great place to follow sports, Bluesky is sorely lacking apart from a handful of fans. Twitter continues to have a community to enjoy events with, plus the addition of official accounts and reputable organisations sharing content.
From a tech, development and design point of view there are plenty of people to follow and converse with, it will just take time for us all to naturally, purposefully or subconsciously pick one over the other but I hope the momentum continues and we get there soon.
Verification is fantastic on Bluesky, no need for ticks (although verified accounts could easily be given an obvious marker), your online presence can be brought back to a domain that you own. You can even have subdomains so if you were a reporter for the BBC, you could have @yourname.bbc.co.uk as your handle. Almost as good as a public email address.
As these networks continue to build out ATProto and ActivityPub, you'll be able to find me @cchana if I get there early enough or @cchana.dev wherever that format is accepted.
When I remember, I'll cross post too. This past week, Bluesky announced that threading is now possible. One of the features I actually missed from Twitter.
Read the post from week 368
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