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63 April 2024 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

remind yourself

A bunch of things (which I added to my Tumblr) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on (as no longer on Twitter).

READ

“The vulnerability, which allows the keystroke data that these apps send to the cloud to be intercepted, has existed for years and could have been exploited by cybercriminals and state surveillance groups, according to researchers at the Citizen Lab, a technology and security research lab affiliated with the University of Toronto.”

Almost every Chinese keyboard app has a security flaw that reveals what users type | MIT Technology Review

“By 2013, Netflix had begun entering into a series of “Facebook Extended API” agreements, including a so-called “Inbox API” agreement that allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook’s users’ private message inboxes, in exchange for which Netflix would “provide to FB a written report every two weeks that shows daily counts of recommendation sends and recipient clicks by interface, initiation surface, and/or implementation variant (e.g., Facebook vs. non-Facebook recommendation recipients). … In August 2013, Facebook provided Netflix with access to its so-called “Titan API,” a private API that allowed a whitelisted partner to access, among other things, Facebook users’ “messaging app and non-app friends.””

Facebook let Netflix see user DMs, quit streaming to keep Netflix happy: Lawsuit | Ars Technica

“In 2001, a poet named Bart Droog began attending the funerals of people who had no one to attend them and honoring the dead with a poem based on whatever was known about their life. A year later, Dutch poet and artist Frank Starik took the idea even further, launching The Lonely Funeral project to ensure that someone who cares consciously acknowledges the life of a person who has died. The idea was to create a network of poets who would find out whatever they could about the person, write a custom poem about their life and read it at their funeral. As of 2018, over 300 “lonely funerals” had been attended by poets in Amsterdam and Antwerp (where Flemish poet Maarten Inghels launched a Lonely Funeral project seven years after Starik’s).”

The beautiful thing that happens in Amsterdam if you die and have no one to attend your funeral – Upworthy

“We find that for 2016–2021: (i) per coin climate damages from BTC were increasing, rather than decreasing with industry maturation; (ii) during certain time periods, BTC climate damages exceed the price of each coin created; (iii) on average, each $1 in BTC market value created was responsible for $0.35 in global climate damages, which as a share of market value is in the range between beef production and crude oil burned as gasoline, and an order-of-magnitude higher than wind and solar power. Taken together, these results represent a set of sustainability red flags. While proponents have offered BTC as representing “digital gold,” from a climate damages perspective it operates more like “digital crude”.”

Economic estimation of Bitcoin mining’s climate damages demonstrates closer resemblance to digital crude than digital gold | Scientific Reports

“Leaked documents show Tory executives discussed exploiting members’ personal data to build a mobile phone app that could track users’ locations and allow big brands to advertise to Conservative supporters. The party would take a cut of sales. The project was considered over several months last year, with the aim of launching the “True Blue” app in time for the party’s conference in October. The idea was developed by the boss of a cryptocurrency firm with a string of failed businesses behind him. Yet senior Conservative officials appeared so captivated by the plan that they prepared to provide the party’s database of members in order to move the proposal forward.“

Tories planned to make millions from members’ data with ‘True Blue’ app | Conservatives | The Guardian

“A new tool from OpenAI that can generate a convincing clone of anyone’s voice using just 15 seconds of recorded audio has been deemed too risky for general release, as the AI lab seeks to minimise the threat of damaging misinformation in a global year of elections.”

OpenAI deems its voice cloning tool too risky for general release | OpenAI | The Guardian

WATCH

EXPLORE

Make some melodies for free via MusicalBox.

Eyecandy is an exhaustive visual technique library.

Meow.Camera is a collection of livestreams of automatic feeders for streetcats in Japan.

Convert any web pages into markdown with images via markdowndown.vercel.app

Very clever little free tool to upload an image then add tilt and zoom: blurmatic.com

The ‘Creativity Pioneers (micro – up to €5,000) Fund‘ is from the Moleskine Foundation and is open (deadline is 27th May 2024, 11:00 pm CET).

Currently, this site boasts that they’ve “analysed 5667 AI Tools and identified their capabilities with OpenAI GPT-4, to bring you a list of 30257 tasks of what AI can do today.”

If you’re getting your head around automating AI and other platforms to craft / distribute content then check out this LinkedIn video.

Tim Berners-Lee gives predictions for future:
– Prediction 1: Everyone will have a personal AI assistant
– Prediction 2: We’ll take true ownership of our data across all platforms — including VR
– Prediction 3: A Big Tech company could get broken up

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.

Published

Open Call To Play | Back On The Creative Market

Via the astonishing bleuje.com

The role I moved from NZ to the UK for wasn’t for me so am looking for new adventures—am a creative nomad hungry to add value in the world and I don’t do MUNDANE!

Here’s what I can do as a:

  • Speaker Coach : tutor leaders (1-2-1 & teams) in honing powerful spoken stories (in-person and online) via masterclasses in ‘purposeful storytelling’ (foundation and advanced learning experiences available, either half-days or full-days)
  • Creative Producer : consult and / or craft and deliver delicious learning experiences on a scale of 10 to 1,000 attendees with 5,000 people watching online plus do in-studio content creations like this
  • Speaker-for-hire : about the stuff I’ve done and am doing.

I’m driven to enable people find and have voice.

A fan of reaching beyond my grasp and taking others on that journey. About being bold and ambitious, shying away from business-as-usual and not being held back by fear or risk aversion (see Defining ROI | Exploring New Definitions).

Huge fan of working with people who know more than me and crafting space for them to excel. Collaboration is about combining skills in open spaces for people to shine and not dulling them because you have a lack (see People Are Awesome | The Hope Generator That Is TEDx).

When trying something new I look for those with pedigree and / or aligned successful processes, then either enable that person and get out of the way, or learn rapidly, to adapt / adopt via the evidence on show. Once experience is gained you can then iterate (see Crafting Creative Collisions | 100 Starts).

I spend a lot of time developing killer taste, curating tasty things and not being interested in good but in great. Maximising to excellence and surround myself with others who strive to ask / answer better questions (see CLNZ19 Talks Are All Live | Watch, Learn, Share).

I cherish difference. If that means you prefer drawing or moving as an expression of communication rather than just writing then I’ll do my best to protect that. Being inclusive means mentoring, celebrating, managing by doing, creating conditions for others to be them, defending your team members if you have the authority to do so, knowing that bringing opposites together for wonderful intersectional creations is what moves us all forward (see Wrapping Up Creative Welly | A Study In Human Intimacy).

One of the precious things I’ve learned in the last decade is that of self-respect. To challenge (always with kindness and politely) those who make you feel small and defend others without agency. If you don’t, toxic / muted environments bloom and those in “power” blame others for what they created (see Authority Doesn’t Come From Titles | Brave Leadership Summit 2023 Review blog post).

To illustrate, here are some highlights:

Check out the testimonials on the front page for a flavour of what people think about me.

So if anything sparks from above just holler at me via the contact page.

Published

The Subtle Art of Public Speaking | Stage, Page & Screen Podcast

Back in September of last year I had the wonderful honour of virtually chatting with Josh Shipp and Jesse Rice for the above podcast.

I’ve slept since then so had forgotten what we chatted about but boy did I love experiencing this conversation again as a listener.

There’s lots of insights here from my lived experience as a speaker coach and speaker myself plus how to present online effectively. I also got to ask some questions also of Josh and got some advice / insights from his brain.

I featured Josh in a MediaSnackers podcast back in 2009, met up with him a couple of times during the following years and kept in touch ever since. He’s one of my favourite speakers and humans on the planet. A mentor. Author. MTV advice star. TV personality. Now business leader / youth speaker agency founder. An exemplar of the practice of oratory.

Thank you Josh and Jesse (cohost / producer of the podcast) for their time, questions and wonderful (listen to their wonderful back catalogue of podcasts here).

Have a listen and let me know what you took away in the comments below.

Published

#62 March 2024 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

A bunch of things (which I added to my Tumblr) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on (as no longer on Twitter).

READ

“Regulators and lawmakers fail to make any changes to proactively protect the public, while allowing crypto firms to advertise and recruit new customers who seem far more likely to wind up as victims of yet another collapse as they are to become the next crypto-millionaires. How many people will have to lose how much money before we stop believing the lies from an industry that has preyed on people’s trust and hopes for financial miracles, only to dash them on the ground in failure after failure?Bankman-Fried is going to prison, but nothing has changed.”

Sam Bankman-Fried is going to prison. The crypto industry isn’t any better for it | Sam Bankman-Fried | The Guardian

“Use of the arts in healing does not contradict the medical view in bringing emotional, somatic, artistic, and spiritual dimensions to learning. Rather, it complements the biomedical view by focusing on not only sickness and symptoms themselves but the holistic nature of the person.When people are invited to work with creative and artistic processes that affect more than their identity with illness, they are more able to “create congruence between their affective states and their conceptual sense making.” Through creativity and imagination, we find our identity and our reservoir of healing. The more we understand the relationship between creative expression and healing, the more we will discover the healing power of the arts.”

The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature – PMC

“MSI Reproductive Choices (formerly Marie Stopes International) and the Center for Countering Digital Hate claim the platforms are restricting local abortion providers from advertising, but failing to tackle misinformation that undermines public access to reproductive healthcare. MSI, which provides contraception and abortion services in 37 countries, said its adverts containing information on sexual health, including cancer advice, had been rejected or deleted by the platform.”

Meta and Google accused of restricting reproductive health information | Global development | The Guardian

“A study published by a team of international researchers last month found that gravity batteries in decommissioned mines could offer a cost-effective, long-term solution for storing energy as the world transitions to renewable power. Scientists from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) found that the world’s abandoned mine shafts could store up to 70TWh of power – roughly the equivalent of global daily electricity consumption.”

This disused mine in Finland is being turned into a gravity battery to store renewable energy | Euronews

“For many, it’s not just about recognizing a global issue but feeling a deep, personal impact on their mental well-being. Especially for those with a strong connection to their environment or homeland, this pervasive anxiety and distress manifests in unique ways. Such feelings can give rise to “solastalgia,” which refers to the dread originating from environmental change. Unlike nostalgia, which is a longing for a place or time in the past that one cannot revisit, solastalgia is the experience of distress from belonging to a home that is undergoing change.”

A Psychologist Offers 3 Tips To Deal With ‘Solastalgia’

“Scholars might call it a philosophical treatise. But it seems familiar to us, and we can’t escape the feeling that the first text we’ve uncovered is a 2000-year-old blog post about how to enjoy life.”

Vesuvius Challenge 2023 Grand Prize awarded: we can read the scrolls! | Vesuvius Challenge

WATCH

EXPLORE

Curated list of games no betterverse.be to help you think critically and imaginatively about the future of society, and collectively imagine brighter tomorrows.

Love the way this muzzleapp.com demonstrates the problem it’s going to solve (see notifications examples on the right hand side of the screen).

Starting a couple of new projects soon and always good to get some inspiration from onepagelove.com.

Want to practice your typing? typelit.io does that for free, online, and gets you to type out classic books.

morss.it creates RSS feeds from websites and a whole lot more, check it out.

ambient.garden is an algorithmic audio landscape.

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
Published

#61 February 2024 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

(A good reminder, via What’s Your Gift?)

A bunch of things (which I added to my Tumblr) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on (as no longer on Twitter).

READ

“Google, especially, has relied on the open web RSS protocol to gain so much market share and influence, but continues to engage in behavior that exploits the open web at the expense of its users. As a result, Google has single-handedly contributed to the reason many users who once relied on RSS feeds have stopped using them.”

How Google helped destroy adoption of RSS feeds – Open RSS

“Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember, the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.” Zig Ziglar

99 Great Quotes That Will Help You Handle Criticism | Inc.com

“When writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns were far more elaborate than when typewriting on a keyboard, as shown by widespread theta/alpha connectivity coherence patterns between network hubs and nodes in parietal and central brain regions. Existing literature indicates that connectivity patterns in these brain areas and at such frequencies are crucial for memory formation and for encoding new information and, therefore, are beneficial for learning.”

Frontiers | Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom

“Put simply, the numbers don’t add up. Data from Patreon and Substack suggests the average conversion rate from follower to paying fan is about 5%. This means a creator would need a total fanbase of 20,000 followers to yield 1,000 paying supporters. And building a core fanbase of 20,000 engaged followers is extremely difficult in today’s crowded creative landscape.”

The creator economy can’t rely on Patreon. — Joan Westenberg

“A Vicar asks his congregation in the valleys the question “What would you do if Jesus returned tomorrow?”. A voice in the flock pipes up; “Move Barry John to inside-centre”!”

From the comment section of Barry John was ‘the King, a magician, my friend’ – Sir Gareth Edwards – BBC Sport

“Much furor has been raised in recent months over the unauthorized scraping of the web to train AI models; OpenAI even thanked the faceless “millions of people” who created the data to train GPT-3 in its paper describing the model. But when it comes to data willingly shared with Facebook and Meta, that Faustian bargain was struck long ago.”

Zuckerberg Boasts He Will Be AI God King Because We Already Gave Him All Our Data

WATCH

EXPLORE

This minimal, customisable typing online tool / test.

Check out the quietest places in the world’s loudest cities.

A nice Terminal-level workaround for applications hiding under the MacBook Pro notch.

Free ‘innovation’ posters for exploration / sharing / discussion (via Innovation illustrated – by Dave Gray).

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
Published

The Passing Of A Friend | RIP John Weekes

Introducing me to his staff for a masterclass session.

Missing you already!

Back in 2007, less than a year into my early entrepreneurial journey with MediaSnackers, I found myself in Portland, Oregon for the first time, speaking at a one day conference on ‘reshaping schools’ for the district, sharing the stage with Sir Ken Robinson, and being exposed to all the wonders that the city and wider region has to offer.

Portland quickly became one of my cherished places on the planet. Not just because of the intentionally weird city vibes, expressive culture and artistic openness, but also because the deep friendships I made there. It’s always been on my list of places to live one day…

…but the reason I was on that stage in 2007 in the first place was because of an invite from a chap called John Weekes (via a recommendation from pal Christian Long). At that time John was still involved daily as a founding principal of Dull Olson Weekes Architects (DOWA) and was one of the leads on the one day conference curating the speakers.

My early email interactions established his character as the living intersection of curiosity, encouragement and someone who asked all the right questions.

When we finally met that May it was further confirmed John was a true gentleman with a kindness of spirit which was cherished by all who met him.

I was lucky enough to repeat my visits to Portland over the years that followed and on most occasions stayed with John. We spent most of our time talking, laughing and troubling converging ideas with our enthusiasm for creative exploration. He introduced me to superb people, got me in front of other opportunities to extend my pedigree (and to enable me to pay the rent) plus I got to meet and spend time with his wonderful family.

John was a legend in the school architectural space, and in recognition of his work was elected to the Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2015. He, his company and his schools won many other awards, and in his later career got involved in bigger international consulting opportunities plus started teaching locally as well.

His soul delighted in the possibility and adventurous edges of things, at least that’s what he taught me: to keep playing at those boundaries. He was a dear friend and helped me through some tough times with his honest mentorship and simple solid friendship.

John garnered a respect in others through his bountiful generosity and wicked sense of humour.

He mattered to people because people mattered to him.

John showing me the brand new new Rosa Parks Elementary School he designed.

I’m so full of honour to have him still echoing in my life, influencing my approach in decision making and keeping hungry for the right questions to ask.

Rest in peace my friend.

Published

For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #12 | Video Store Chat, Blind Drawing Tutorial & Web Story

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Own one of the last remaining video stores in France, invite film-makers and actors in for a look around, strategically place films in-and-around the journey to spark conversation and story, film and share. Very simple and clever. Hats off to Konbini Video Club (who have a lot more fine actors / directors in their store doing the same walk and talk experiences). A fine example of situating the story in and around an array of the medium.

The cartoonist for the New Yorker (Zoe Si) taking a comedian, writer and voice artist through drawing one of her creations in this split screen journey. It’s a fun exploration of the creative process, starting with a brief, through to inking, ink wash, and caption, whilst neither of those involved can see what the other is doing (until the obvious end and reveal).

A written story about the rise and fall of Yahoo Pipes (loved playing with this platform back in the MediaSnackers days and showing clients of the possibility of mashing up web sources to create RSS feeds ). Have a scroll through this visual essay and see the story unfold.

Check out all the ‘For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories’ posts.

Image credit.
Published

#60 January 2024 | Monthly Digital Breadcrumbs

(via The 1944 CIA guide to sabotaging meetings — Authentic Comms Strategic Consultancy)

A bunch of things (which I added to my Tumblr) for your eyes and ears plus brain to spend time on (as no longer on Twitter).

READ

“I can get through this.” / 2. “I’m not going to let myself be a victim.” / 3. “Life is hard.” / 4. “This, too, shall pass.” / 5. “What can I learn from this?” / 6. “I need some time.” / 7. “I still have things to be grateful for.” / 8. “It is what it is.” / 9. “I’m letting this go.”

Harvard psychologist: If you use any of these 9 phrases every day, ‘you’re more emotionally resilient than most’

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today unveiled its new Street Level Surveillance hub, a standalone website featuring expanded and updated content on various technologies that law enforcement agencies commonly use to invade Americans’ privacy.“

(via Street Level Surveillance)

“The possible consequences of a changing concentration of the CO2 in the atmosphere with reference to climate, rates of photosynthesis, and rates of equilibration with carbonate of the oceans may ultimately prove of considerable significance to civilization,” Epstein, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology (or Caltech), wrote to the group in November 1954.

Experts say the documents show the fossil fuel industry had intimate involvement in the inception of modern climate science, along with its warnings of the severe harm climate change will wreak, only to then publicly deny this science for decades and fund ongoing efforts to delay action on the climate crisis.”

‘Smoking gun proof’: fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954, documents show | Fossil fuels | The Guardian

“The act of entering an airport starts with the removal of personal sovereignty. If you linger at a curb, you will be ticketed. If your bag is overweight, you are screwed. Inside, you are scanned, told explicitly what you can and cannot take with you, and people must submit or be punished. Often surly people are yelling at you about your laptops, shoes, and belts. It is now also taken for granted that if you wish to consume anything at an airport, it will cost 2-3X what it does in the wild.”

The Oppressive Culture of Air Travel

“One significant anniversary in 2023 passed almost without mention. In May 1923, the Welsh women’s peace petition was initiated – a plea from the women of Wales to the women of the US, urging the US to take its place in the newly formed League of Nations and encouraging its full participation in the permanent court of international justice, which had come into being in 1922. The text refers to American-Welsh cooperation in the 19th century, and welcomes the steps taken after the first world war to control the arms trade and tackle what we now call human trafficking and the movement of illegal drugs.”

Remember the tenacity of 400,000 Welsh women a century ago. Then use your power to shape events today | Rowan Williams | The Guardian

WATCH

How to draw shadows correctly
byu/Remarkable_Bit_9887 inoddlysatisfying

EXPLORE

Watch YouTube without the ads via YewTu.be.

This list of 50 types of Science Fiction is interesting.

Nearly 300 (unicode) arrows. Which are your fav(s)…?

4131 free icons for your games & other creative projects via game-icons.net.

This open source app: GitHub – MrKai77/Loop: MacOS window management made elegant.

At templatemaker.nl, you can create and download custom sized papercraft and packaging templates for free!

Play around with this Text to Speech & AI Voice Generator – ElevenLabs to see how far this technology has come.

A specific problem which I’ve been having with my Mac solved with this open source app: Blue Snooze: Sleeping Mac = Bluetooth off.

At Techcopes, you can access a variety of font generator tools to customize and enhance your text in different styles for different social media platforms.

All monthly digital breadcrumbs posts.
Published

500,000 TEDxNelson Talk Views | Celebrating With A Giveaway

Half a million views equates to 19mins x 500,000 = 9,500,000mins / 158,333hours / 6597days / 942weeks / 18years of watching time.

That’s quite a juicy number in a little over a year and by way of thanks to the community I thought I’d create a fun offer to further aid the promotion of the talk…

…so if you:

  • share the YouTube video of my talk on LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram / Threads (or any social media platform), and / or
  • feature it on your blog, and / or
  • shout it out in your email newsletter, and / or
  • leave a comment on the YouTube video

…you will go into the draw for the following package:

  1. 1x 75mins of 1-2-1 speaker coaching (for you or whomever you gift the time to); or
  2. 1x 75mins Presenting Engagingly Online masterclass for a group (whether it be a bunch of souls you bring together, your own leadership group in the organisation you work for or again gifted on to another deserving project);
  3. 2x codes for free access to the Presenting Engagingly Online course;
  4. 5x ebook / audiobook codes for free access to the Speaking With Purpose bundle;
  5. My thanks!

Deadline for participation is Valentines Day 2024, February 14th and winner chosen by random.

And if you’re new here or haven’t seen the talk here it is:

Small print: Winner will be drawn at random. My ball, my rules, my final say. (#1) 1-2-1 and / or the (#2) online masterclass to be completed 6-11.30pm GMT weekdays or on a Monday or over weekend, before 31st March 2024. You either must tag me into your LinkedIn post or send me a link to it / other social media platform shares / features in blog posts / email newsletters etc. via my contact form. Many thanks and good luck.

ADDENDUM 14.2.24: thanks to all who participated. Winner has been chosen.

Published