ssharwood

Work: APAC editor of The Register - enterprise tech, #virtualization, #cloud, tech news from APAC for a global audience. After hours: family, #auspol, #SciFi, footy, #cricket, #cycling. Once scored 100% rating at obscurifymusic.com. Posts aren’t employer's views. Or mine sometimes. ssharwood (npub1txw…qk0d) on the bird network … for now. Gadigal and Wangal lands.

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ssharwood_at_theblower.au@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-07-15 06:02:31 UTC

Tomorrow is some piece of stupid fuckery called AI Appreciation Day and to celebrate it the PR community has spammed me with canned quotes from low-level executives about how I should just cognitively surrender and use AI for everything.
FFS

2026-07-07 01:39:03 UTC

If Trump tries to overturn the result of USA vs Belgium, they might as well call off the world cup

2026-07-02 22:42:32 UTC

If it was possible to have pastries delivered by drone at minimal markup, I would be in heart surgery now.

2026-04-07 20:27:49 UTC

This was a pretty good April 1 gag and stands up in many ways beyond mere foolery https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9948.html

2026-04-07 18:06:52 UTC

Scenario: One Nation wins many seats in the 2028 QLD election and makes choosing one of its own as Olympics Minister a condiiton of supporting the government in a quasi-coalition. For ON it's a cunning plan to show it's not just a protest party - it can get big stuff done. The lightweight conspiracist doofus they put forward quickly displays rank incompetence and the IOC starts issuing very strongly-worded warnings about its powers to re-assign the games. Pauline turns that into a diplomatic incident. The LNP and Queensland Labor form a unity government for the sole purpose of not fucking up the olympics and making queensland a global punchline. This works so well that it spawns a new centrist party that wins the 2032 QLD election and leaves both the ALP and LNP as minor parties ... then goes to Canberra.

2026-03-19 03:44:56 UTC

SMH cartoonist Alan Moir is ill. I don't think he will mind me sharing this example of his excellent work, which you can acquire daily for the ridiculous sum of $4/month
https://www.moir.com.au/subscribe/
https://cdn.theblower.au/media_attachments/files/116/253/769/893/550/331/original/74b1cb06a5e59144.png

2026-03-08 01:28:25 UTC

Iran is a threat in two dimensions. One is kinetic. The other is as a proselytiser of hate. This war will likely deal with the kinetic threat for a few years but merely hopes that Iranians will somehow stop the nation spreading hate. Hope is not enough. You can't kill ideas. And those inspired by hate know how to use asymmetric warfare. So not many years from now they will express that hate by sending kids in suicide bombing vests onto buses, while trying to rebuild a state that can build ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. We get to see this who sad shitshow again in 20 or 30 years.

2026-01-25 22:56:27 UTC

Happy Australia day. This is a nation worth celebrating so I do, but FWIW I think we should change the day for two reasons. One is that it is hurtful to indigenous Australians. The other is that it is an historically peculiar day to recognize. The first fleet arrived in botany Bay around Jan 18 and made landfall. Some ships moved to the harbour later, and a few people came ashore briefly to raise a british flag on the 26th. A ceremony to formally proclaim the colony happened on Feb 7. IMHO Feb 7 is more significant than Jan 26 - which as a unilateral imposition of British rule rankles with me. At least proclaiming a colony has a sliver of the beginnings of Australia about it but it still marks invasion. I feel we need a conversation about alternative dates. Maybe may 27 1966 or others on which Australia belatedly acknowledged the rights of indigenous people and by doing so made us a more whole nation

2026-01-15 22:43:42 UTC

- reply

Yup. It's a shocker. I gather it is possible to turn this stuff off, several menus deep. I have long felt that MSFT fundamentally disrespects users (I've said no to OneDrive for a decade, please stop asking). This incident cements that feeling.

2026-01-15 22:12:27 UTC

My mum is elderly and on her bad days, easily confused. Yesterday her PC booted into a 'Buy A M365 subscription now' screen which totally obliterated the Windows UI and used dark patterns that made it hard - even for me! - to understand how to get access Windows.
I have remote access to Mum's PC. It couldn't cut through the MSFT ad.
I'm currently researching how big tech vendors serve elderly users. They mostly answer 'Use accessibilty mode, which follows W3C standards'.
Accessibility modes are mostly amazing. Getting to them not so much. And they're not tuned to the needs elderly users with declining cognitive capabilities. If you know more, I welcome pointers and comment

2025-12-24 08:21:01 UTC

It begins. Whether you're from the People's Front of Judea, or the Judean People's Front, may the season bring you peace and joy
https://cdn.theblower.au/media_attachments/files/115/773/562/668/261/779/original/af46da3eaabf06bb.jpg

2025-12-08 21:58:15 UTC

WTAF microsoft? booted my PC - which I've used for 2 years and have configured just as I like it - and it goes into a 'Finish setting up your PC' routine that basically tries to dark pattern me into resetting default apps.
Disrespectful bullshit.

2025-11-20 22:04:00 UTC

OK Fediverse, help me out here please. I'm looking for examples of established brands using AI in customer-facing applications that aren't related to customer or tech support. Just out of curiosity for now

2025-11-20 21:33:05 UTC

Just recevied an email inviting me to meet at a trade show that happened 12 weeks ago.

2025-11-20 03:18:37 UTC

Drop bears are real, real, I tell you https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/31/drop_bear_killer_koala_science_fun/

2025-11-17 21:59:06 UTC

Kitteh sits on a fence post
https://cdn.theblower.au/media_attachments/files/115/567/278/806/469/690/original/be42a7582ca33100.jpg

2025-11-17 21:49:26 UTC

Ohhh.....kayyy. Apparently gravity is the reason our brains age ...
https://www.continue.com/gravity/origins

2025-10-31 03:14:39 UTC

#Halloween
https://cdn.theblower.au/media_attachments/files/115/466/598/141/434/273/original/45d46181c8f261f3.jpg

2025-09-17 21:42:28 UTC

Oops. PR left comments and corrections on the press release they just emailed me
https://cdn.theblower.au/media_attachments/files/115/221/811/396/686/179/original/cd7498a689cfefab.png

2025-07-27 06:13:37 UTC

Scariest take on AI I've heard yet - imagines AI companies as hoarding their best models-the ones that are more sophisticated than best practice at industry giants. Big AI therefore becomes big everything else ... a concentration of power and capital at vast scale, all driven by tech bros who refuse to be regulated... and maybe cannot as investors wait for their pay-off

2025-04-03 20:44:55 UTC

Dutton to Trump: Drop tariffs or we might not let you access our military facilities.
Trump: No. And you’re very nasty. I’m going to end all military collaborations because you are so rude. You disrespect America.
Dutton: But we help keep you safe!
Trump: We’re America. We can keep ourselves safe without you
Dutton: But you can’t spy on half the world without Pine Gap!
Trump: We have methods.
Dutton: Will you honor the ANZAS treaty?
Trump: The what? I might, but first I’m going to raise tariffs to 20% so you pay for the all the military assistance we give you in the past.

2025-03-31 09:15:44 UTC

I think I see an AI #bubble forming in my inbox
I'm getting daily daily pitches from AI startups I’ve never heard of, from PR peeps and agencies I’ve never worked with before.
I’ve even spotted a PR company that used to specialize in blockchain rebrand itself to de-emphasize all things crypto.
I’ve seen this before with the #metaverse, #blockchain, #virtualreality and several other waves of tech hype.
It seems to me that when a market heats up, many funded companies spend some of their money on hashtag#PR. Almost none of those companies survive. PR companies score some dumb money and grow, then shrink again.
Their PR isn't pretty because the startups don’t have a lot to say and their pitches tend to follow a formula of mentioning the VC that funded them, the fact their founder worked at Big Tech companies, and their intent to revolutionize/democratize something.
If I'm right, I'm in for about 2 years of this junk

2025-02-19 05:57:40 UTC

If you ever find me collapsed on the floor unable to express myself other than in anguished gibberish that includes many references to MS Word autocorrect, here is why.
I use some Word autocorrect macros to change short strings into HTML - for example 'HRE' turns into <a target="_blank" href="LinkHere">TextHere</a>. This speeds up my typing!
But Word sometimes decides the strings are case sensitive. So I have macros for 'HRE' and 'hre'.
Even with both strings set to trigger the autocorrect, Word sometimes doesn't recognise them. I never know if I should use HRE or hre and what the results will be. This problem has been present in MS word for at least 15 years AFAIK.
It may yet break my brain.
Yes, I shoud probably use FOSS instead. But I used OpenOffice for a few years and its rough edges and eventually did my head in, then it died, and Office was an easier migration path for reasons I can't remember.

2025-02-09 00:10:01 UTC

Wondering if the Whitlam 72 experience has useful parallels with Trump 2025. In both cases a new government moved very fast, ignored convention, made seismic changes. In the case of Whitlam, some of those changes were transformative and remain important today. But the Whitlam government was shambolic and voters quickly realized it.
(for non-Australian friends Gough Whitlam was leader of the Australian Labor party which won an election in 1972. Spolier alert: It didn't end well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitlam_government )

2025-02-03 19:51:20 UTC

So the US has decided to destroy its soft power. Let's see who fills the vacuum.

2024-12-28 08:32:20 UTC

Chatted to a friend today who manages nurses. She told me some of her team need a certification that requires treating a bullet wound. There were NONE to treat in this part of Australia for 18 MONTHS. So her nurses couldn't get the certification they need to do other important work. They seriously contemplated visiting the USA where they were promised they would have e the chance to treat multiple bullet wounds within 24 hours of arriving. Before that became necessary a wound caused by an accidental discharge occurred in the local area. But they weren't many weeks away from making the trip.

2024-12-21 23:47:41 UTC

Musk and Murdoch have essentially the same agenda now.

2024-12-07 01:19:26 UTC

I've often seen people moving house on rainy days. Today it's my turn

2024-11-25 21:43:42 UTC

New incompetence record: PR email to a writer who last worked with us in 2006

2024-10-03 23:35:20 UTC

- reply

Missing the blink tag is like going back to Canberra for the weekend. On day one it feels awesome. At lunchtime on Day 2 you're bored outta your mind and wanna go somewhere real.

2024-10-03 23:18:10 UTC

Indian news websites are the worst. They load with a blizzard of ads that make them all-but unusable.And many gov.in websites feel like relics that might be using the <blink> tag

2024-09-18 02:31:16 UTC

In the next 24 hours I will receive 10-15 pitches from #mediarelations pros representing #infosec and #cybersecurity vendors to offer comment on the exploding #pagers incident. None of those pitches will contain any information or opinion that is not already in the public domain. Most will offer the chance to speak to someone in Europe or the USA - the PR folk won't bother to check where i live. Many will offer things we don't do, like the suggestion we run weaksauce editorial written by a PR company. All will come from firms that claim they are experts at building media relationships, but waste their first contact with me on this junk. So if I'm a little more bitter and frustrated than usual tomorrow morning, that will be why.

2024-09-17 21:39:21 UTC

So now the question is whether Israel can blow up phones, too.

2024-09-13 00:10:42 UTC

Delighted at the prospect of "They're eating the dogs" being Donald Trump's political epitaph. TBH "I have concepts of a plan" should be - he's had 9 years to develop an Obamacare alternative and hasn't, an eloquent illustration of his deeply unserious approach to governing

2024-09-01 06:01:04 UTC

File under weird AF - it's emergency services day at the football and the riot squad just did a demo
https://static.theblower.au/media_attachments/files/113/060/771/450/938/029/original/b39d067b251c8664.jpg