DanThornton

Tech, Geekery, Pop Culture, Miscellaneous

What I read, heard, watched and played: January 2024

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After not reading enough last year, I’ve set a target of 18 books to finish in 2024, and I’ve somehow managed to complete three of them in January. And along with tracking my progress on Goodreads, I’m also planning to write about them here, along with the music, TV, films and games I’ve been enjoying.

It’s mainly to aid my memory in the future, especially if I’m trying to pick out my highlights of the year for Disposable Media.

Books

What I read, heard, watched and played: January 2024
What I read, heard, watched and played: January 2024

I already had a large pile of books to read, but anyone buying me presents knows that there will always be an endless wishlist to choose from. And Christmas was no exception, with this being three of the many new titles I happily received.

Dopamine Nation by Dr Anna Lembke (Amazon link) is a readable collection of largely patient-based anecdotes about finding balance between modern sources of dopamine and other worthwhile pursuits. It’s a bit light on citations, and has a moral and religious undercurrent which isn’t exactly subtle, but if you want a handy prompt rather than a scientific or practical guide, it’s OK.

Command by Al Murray (Amazon link) is a little similar in that it covers 10 notable individuals from World War 2 as a way to explain how the military quickly evolved in the course of six years. If you’re familiar with Field Marshal Montgomery from a number of books dedicated to him, you’re probably not going to learn anything new. But each person does come together as part of a fairly coherent theory about how leadership and senior officers quickly transformed the armed forces, and there are a few lesser-known personalities you may not have heard much about before.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang (Amazon link) has been on my wishlist for ages, and is already a strong contender for the best book I’ll read in 2024. Short stories have always been a core part of science fiction, and these nine examples are all wonderfully written, thought provoking and re-readable examples which will make you think more about our current world as well as the future.

TV and Film

I was sad that the current second season of Reacher came to an end in a satisfactory fashion (Amazon Prime), but this month finally saw the arrival of Masters of the Air (Apple TV). The story of the 100th Bomb Group has a lot to live up to, coming from the same team behind Band of Brothers and The Pacific, but it’s off to a decent start. And in between each episode, we’ve finally got around to watching the TV version of Fargo.

Music

Two songs have been played repeatedly this month. First up is Nothing Matters by The Last Dinner Party, which has grown and grown on me over time.

The other is the cover of Jesus He Knows Me by Ghost. Originally recorded by Genesis in 1991, it gets new life by the Swedish rock band. And I’m linking to the Spotify audio, as the official video is very NSFW. It’s also led to me delving deeper into the Ghost back catalogue, as a band I’ve always been aware of but never really listened to closely. A similar thing has happened with Alter Bridge after being reminded of their song Metalingus, used as entrance music by AEW wrestler Adam Copeland.

Games:

I’m waiting for the opportunity to finally break out the awesome Stardew Valley board game I received for Christmas, but in the meantime I’ve been making the most of spending some Microsoft reward points on a PC Game Pass subscription.

I did it to have access to the disappointing new Forza Motorsport to write about it for OnlineRaceDriver.com, but the upside has been access to Football Manager 24, and finally getting to play both Chivalry 2 and Hell Let Loose. And there’s a lot to be said for both the mindless fun of medieval battles in Chivalry, and the World War 2 experience of Hell Let Loose, which lands somewhere between the arcade fun of Call of Duty, and hardcore military simulators like ARMA and Squad.

While the amount of fun and eventual success of each Hell Let Loose match depends a lot on who ends up in your squad, and as the overall commander, it does a great job of replicating the visceral nature of notable World War 2 locations, including the D Day landings at Omaha and Utah beach. It may be a videogame, but if the feelings of leaving the landing craft under machine gun fire and bombing runs is even a hundredth of what reality was like, it’s enough to inspire even more amazement and respect for anyone who was involved in the actual events.

I already have books lined up for February, and have a few films I’d like to try and watch, but I welcome any recommendations for any titles you think I’d enjoy or learn from in the comments, along with any other (spoiler free) opinions anything I’ve shared…

Fathers Day 2020 In Lockdown

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Everything has been a bit weird this year. And Fathers Day was no exception.

But I’m choosing to focus on the positives

By showing gratitude to my dad for everything he’s done for me over the years. Even though I couldn’t see him in-person, I could buy him some sweets and a book he’ll enjoy (and that I fully intend to borrow).

In taking pride in the wonderful young man my son has become. Smart, funny, and seemingly growing to appreciate how hard work makes things achievable.

And by remembering it marked the anniversary of my last cigarette 3 years ago.

It’s been a while since my last vaping-related update, so I figured I’d add some new totals, in the spirit of my first 12 months.

3 Years of Vaping – Saving and Stats:

  • 1096 days without a cigarette (including 1 leap year)
  • 16,425 cigarettes not smoked.
  • At £10 per pack for easy maths, that would be £8,212.50 not spent.
  • I’ve lost track slightly of my vaping costs, but the Aspire and iLeaf I started out with have both finally expired after 2.5 years of constant use. So I’m now using a donated Aspire NX75, and a new OBS Cube X , both with Nautilus tanks, and mainly Zeus Juice liquid. Average costs are around £40 per month still.
  • At an estimated 10 minutes of better life expectancy per cigarette, that’s 164,250 minutes, 2,737.5 hours, or 114 days. Or 16 weeks.

People often reply to anything I post about vaping asking why I don’t just quit that too? And it’s something I’ve thought about (especially knowing several smokers who switched to vaping, and then quit entirely).

But honestly, I don’t see much benefit beyond the financial saving. I don’t buy home-made liquid to get high with, so there’s no immediate risk. There’s no measurable passive risk to those around me. And it’s an enjoyable coping mechanism for the stresses of everyday life.

My only real vices are drinking too much cola and vaping. I don’t drink regularly, or much any more. I don’t smoke, gamble, or spend money on myself aside from the occasional sim racing related purchase…

My beloved Thrustmaster TMX wheel and pedals - bought in a sale...
My beloved Thrustmaster TMX wheel and pedals – bought in a sale…

Oh, and books. But they’re a good thing, right?

Latest Lockdown Entertainment

I might have treated myself to a few secondhand books as part of buying gifts for other people.

Fathers Day 2020 In Lockdown - and my survival kit along with food and drink...
Everything I need for lockdown survival (along with cola and snacks)

I’m currently reading “Inside the Nudge Unit” by David Halpern, which is a fascinating view inside the former Government Behavourial Insights Team.

Definitely worth reading if you’re interested in how small changes to documents or processes can result in big differences in response. And how that’s been increasingly used over recent years.

Next up will be “The Atrocity Archives” by Charles Stross, which I’ve hoped to get around to reading for ages. I’m a big fan of everything I’ve read, and always planned to get around starting The Laundry Files series, so I’m finally getting to it (along with also getting around to Halting State as well)

And after all that, there’s The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser, which is quite old in internet terms, having been originally published in 2011. But I think it’s worthwhile both to look at how algorithms and filters have evolved since then, and also to have a solid grounding in internet and technology history.

It’s easy to dismiss anything older than 6 months when you’re working or studying the internet, and lose some age old lessons in the process. As I was reminded by re-reading through The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling recently. A lot of the topics and points raised in the context of electronic crimes and the responses in the 1990s still seem relevant and important to note in the modern era.

Speaking of which, I also finally got around to watching Snowden, via Amazon Prime, which prompted some interesting discussions in my household about the widespread implications of tracking. Given the timing of track and trace, it’s weird to think about how much, and how little, has changed with regards to online privacy.

Other film view included the fascinatingly bizarre The Lobster, which is one of the odder films I’ve seen recently. I’m not sure I’d want to see it again, but I’m glad I watched it, as the premise, and cast, are both brilliant.

And Liz, my partner, has involved me in her obsession with both the cheesiest examples of horror (e.g. 500 MPH Storm – which we’ve watched so you never have to), and some actually good horror comedies. I can certainly recommend both Cabin in the Woods and Happy Death Day. Both of which contain plenty of bloodshed, but aren’t as gory or unsettling as unconventional love story of The Lobster…

Videogames have been limited recently, despite lockdown. It’s pretty much been all about the iRacing, aside from The Stanley Parable which was available for free recently. And counteracted any feelings of nostalgia for office cubicles…

Finally, there’s my constant audio background to work, which often features a classical playlist I put together with Max Richter, Dustin O’Halloran, Olafur Arnalds, Hania Rani and more… It’s much better for me than the ambient coffee shop noises I know that other people prefer.

So that’s my Fathers Day 2020 In Lockdown round-up… And do share any book, comic, film, videogame or musical recommendations I might enjoy – every suggestion is appreciated!

Why Television and Radio Won’t Die

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Last night I started watching The Wolverine. Before you judge, let me state that it happened to be on Amazon Prime, and I’ve read, re-read and indeed re-purchased the Wolverine Graphic Novel after mistakenly lending it to people over the years.

It was late and I was weak.

In fact it was late enough that about half of the way through the film I decided to take a break and get some sleep. So when I stopped working to grab some lunch today, it seemed like a good time to finish the film off. Except that I couldn’t.

The process went something like this:

  • Go to Amazon Prime Video and search for Wolverine, as the main pages only want to show me new films/TV shows.
  • Click to view.
  • Wait ages.
  • Get a Silverlight error message.
  • Try again.
  • Get the same Silverlight error message.
  • Sigh deeply, then go to Settings, and select the Flash player.
  • Go back to Amazon Prime Video and get a Silverlight error message. Return to settings, and back to the video and then it loads in Flash.
  • Watch approximately 2-3 minutes of the film with 60 second intervals for it to buffer.
  • Go back to Settings, revert to Silverlight and spend a minute or two reading the Troubleshooting Guide.
  • Download the Silverlight Diagnostic Tool as recommended and watch as it fails to find the problem.
  • Restart Router. Restart PC.
  • Realise that I’ve finished my lunch and gone way over the time I’d planned to spend.
  • Cry a little inside.
  • Decide to give it one last try just to see what happens. Silverlight etc doesn’t have a problem, but in the process I seem to be watching the film from the beginning again
  • Cry a little more inside.

And this is exactly why broadcast television and radio won’t die.

Television

In order of problems viewing:

  • Amazon Instant Video – 1-2 problems per month
  • Virgin Media Digital Box – 1 problem every few months
  • Broadcast TV and Radio – I can remember 1 problem when someone stole cabling supplying one of the transmitters in Peterborough a few years ago.

But it’s not as simple as blaming Amazon, Netflix, Hulu or Youtube for a poor video experience.

Or Silverlight, Flash or HTML5.

Or Virgin, Sky, BT or other ISPs.

Or someone else in the house using a different device for gaming, streaming or downloading Wikipedia en masse.

Or all the neighbours deciding this is the exact time they all want to stream something as well.

Because the problem with internet television and radio is that it could be any part of the chain that causes an issue, and generally it’s down to the individual to figure it out.

The rationale is easy to understand – no service can provide effective troubleshooting for every individual combination of internet, viewing device and browser. But even as someone who has picked up reasonable technical knowledge over the years, it’s a massive pain in the arse.

Is it the software, the browser, the PC,  the wifi, the router, or the ISP? The diagnostics told me it was Silverlight, my observations were that my connections seemed to be running slowly, and restarting an entirely different piece of hardware fixed everything, and Silverlight runs fine again.

*facepalm*

Meanwhile I can turn on a television or radio in a matter of seconds and enjoy whatever is available with simplicity and reliability. And if there’s a problem viewing, it’s either:

  • The TV is broken. Replace.
  • The transmitter is broken.
  • The end of the world has begun.

I love streaming films, TV and music on-demand, and accessing shows and artists I’d have never discovered and spent money on. But it’s hard to defend something which takes a working knowledge of IT to operate.

It’s why I worry about Net Neutrality, and the horrific idea that the EU could be moving towards accepting a two-tier internet. Access to a decent broadband speed is an infrastructure required by everyone – without it you limit the ability of individuals and startups in favour of the dominant players being able to mask the fact their services are inefficient.

It’s why I worry about curbing the BBC as a free-to-air service which is able to share information, education and news to anyone regardless of their devices or ISP.

And it’s why a part of me worries every time Spotify unveils new features, or Amazon tries to deliver a new technological innovation. Because it means that there are less people working in the boring ‘Just make it work’ department.

Years ago, I would have happily predicted the imminent demise of print and broadcast media in favour of digital services. All this time later, and I’m still waiting for something approaching reliability to make it conceivable.

On the plus side, the original comics are still awesome. And still work perfectly 33 years after they were first released.