Welcome

I am a technical communicator with a love of explaining technical concepts in documentation, blog posts, videos, books and more.

I currently work for Chronosphere and have a small technical writing agency called Gregarious Mammal.

I am a podcaster, video maker, writer of interactive fiction, and games. This website is a home for all my blog posts, podcasts, newsletters and creative projects.

Need advice for your documentation project? Sign up for my office hours.

Hands on - Build content-optimized websites with Docusaurus

Powered by markdown and built on top of React, Docusaurus is an open sourced static site generator. How does it compare and does its React roots complicate things? I take a look!

You're not as smart as you might think you are

In this episode I cover… The history of smartphones, Docker, and Hyperlinks. Also is AI fast catching up to (bad) developers, and what will become of Afghanistans Internet?

Devx5 - Empowering developers with Rust

Rust is infamous for not only its performance and feature set but also its developer experience and documentation. How true is this for beginners with the language? We take a look.

My audio and video production setup

I’ve been running podcasts for years, and while I worked on some video courses in the past, over the past year I have invested more time in my audio and video setup, primarily for live-streaming. After months and months of getting It to a point where I am “kind of” happy with it, I thought it was high time I documented it. Partly so others can learn from my setup, and partly so I can keep tabs on it myself.

Hands on - Build a Content API with GraphCMS

GraphCMS gives you instant GraphQL Content APIs to create, enrich, unify, and deliver your content across platforms.

Nextcloud and Kubernetes in the Cloud With Kuma Service Mesh (article)

Want a powerful, self-hosted personal cloud? Then look no further than Nextcloud running on Kubernetes with a service mesh to add all the help and features you need.

Nextcloud and Kubernetes in the Cloud With Kuma Service Mesh (video)

Want a powerful, self-hosted personal cloud? Then look no further than Nextcloud running on Kubernetes with a service mesh to add all the help and features you need.

Careful where you put that data

In this episode I look at the many facets of unintended data, Google’s messaging journey, happy birthday Linux, and much more.

Transcript

Hands on - Real-time analysis with Rockset

Rockset builds real-time, interactive dashboards and data-intensive applications in record time. Or does it? And how does it compare to other analysis tools or open source projects?

An eye on observability for August 2021

How did you enjoy the first installment of this regular look back at a month in observability? Well, it’s back again, and as August and vacations draw to a close, the amount of news and content to tell you about is increasing. It’s time to get started, and as always, get in touch if you have stories for inclusion.

Devx5 - Ship Apps faster with Netlify

Netlify has become synonymous with fast git-based deployment workflows. But how easy is it to get started with, and as they add more features, has their developer experience become muddled? We take a look!

Ep 4 - Leverage, Chronicles of Ghaistala

Chronicles of Ghaistala Episode 4 - Leverage, was streamed live Aug 15th on Twitch.TV/CritTestDummies Join us on Twitch every other Sunday at 6PM CET for new episodes! Ghaistala is a creation of Daylight Publications and their sourcebook Supers and Sorcery, available now on DriveThruRPG.com BG art by Daylight Publications (@daylightpub1066) and @AbbieJArt, both on Twitter Character art by @DougErbert on IG and Twitter Graphic design by @Stoppushingme on IG. Thank you to our players, Chris, Alex, Luke, and Patrick as well as our DM Peter!

Ep 3 - Union Dues, Chronicles of Ghaistala

Chronicles of Ghaistala Episode 3 - Union Dues, was streamed live Aug 1st on Twitch.TV/CritTestDummies Join us on Twitch every other Sunday at 6PM CET for new episodes! Ghaistala is a creation of Daylight Publications and their sourcebook Supers and Sorcery, available now on DriveThruRPG.com BG art by Daylight Publications (@daylightpub1066) and @AbbieJArt, both on Twitter Character art by @DougErbert on IG and Twitter Graphic design by @Stoppushingme on IG. Thank you to our players, Chris, Alex, Luke, and Patrick as well as our DM Peter!

Ep 2 - Deals in the Dark, Chronicles of Ghaistala

Chronicles of Ghaistala Episode 2 - Deals in the Dark, was streamed live July 18th on Twitch.TV/CritTestDummies Join us on Twitch every other Sunday at 6PM CET for new episodes! Ghaistala is a creation of Daylight Publications and their sourcebook Supers and Sorcery, available now on DriveThruRPG.com BG art by Daylight Publications (@daylightpub1066) and @AbbieJArt, both on Twitter Character art by @DougErbert on IG and Twitter Graphic design by @Stoppushingme on IG. Thank you to our players, Chris, Alex, Luke, and Patrick as well as our DM Peter!

Ep 1 - Origin Story, Chronicles of Ghaistala

Welcome to our new series, Chronicles of Ghaistala! This episode premiered on our twitch channel, Twitch.tv/CritTestDummies on July 4, 2021. You can catch new episodes every other Sunday at 6 PM CET! Ghaistala is a creation of Daylight Publications and their sourcebook Supers and Sorcery, available now on DriveThruRPG.com BG art by Daylight Publications (@daylightpub1066) and @AbbieJArt, both on Twitter Character art by @DougErbert on IG and Twitter Graphic design by @Stoppushingme on IG. Thank you to our players, Chris, Alex, Luke, and Patrick as well as our DM Peter!

Recommendations and Newsletters

I currently curate 4 newsletters on Ethics (mostly in technology), gaming, Language and Linguistics, see my latest recommendations and join those newsletters below.

The Chinchilla Squeaks Newsletter

My general newsletter "Chinchilla Squeaks" draws content from all these sources and a couple more, sign up to that below.

Latest ethics posts

Newsletter coming soon, for now enjoy the posts below.

China has started a grand experiment in AI education. It could reshape how the world learns.

from MIT Technology Review

Zhou Yi was terrible at math. He risked never getting into college. Then a company called Squirrel AI came to his middle school in Hangzhou, China, promising personalized tutoring.

The battle for control of Afghanistan’s internet

from WIRED UK

The Taliban has yet to decide what to do with the internet in Afghanistan. The same is true for the global companies that underpin it When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan, between 1996 and 2001, the nation remained resolutely analogue.

GitHub, f*ck your name change.

from

Last summer an(other) unarmed black man was killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The subsequent 8 minute and 46 second video clip swept across social media and raised widespread condemnation. Hours of discourse and weeks of protests followed.

Can Silicon Valley Find God?

from The New York Times

“Alexa, are we humans special among other living things?” One sunny day last June, I sat before my computer screen and posed this question to an Amazon device 800 miles away, in the Seattle home of an artificial intelligence researcher named Shanen Boettcher.

Inside the fight to reclaim AI from Big Tech’s control

from MIT Technology Review

In 2020, as the co-lead of Google’s ethical AI team, Gebru had reached out to Emily Bender, a linguistics professor at the University of Washington, and the two decided to collaborate on research about the troubling direction of artificial intelligence.

Latest language posts

Newsletter coming soon, for now enjoy the posts below.

China has started a grand experiment in AI education. It could reshape how the world learns.

from MIT Technology Review

Zhou Yi was terrible at math. He risked never getting into college. Then a company called Squirrel AI came to his middle school in Hangzhou, China, promising personalized tutoring.

Umberto Eco’s 36 Rules for Writing Well (in English or Italian)

from Open Culture

Umberto Eco knew a great many things. Indeed too many things, at least according to his critics: “Eco knows everything there is to know and spews it in your face in the most blasé manner,” declared Pier Paolo Pasolini, “as if you were listening to a robot.

Why is the English spelling system so weird and inconsistent?

from Aeon

English spelling is ridiculous. Sew and new don’t rhyme. Kernel and colonel do. When you see an ough, you might need to read it out as ‘aw’ (thought), ‘ow’ (drought), ‘uff’ (tough), ‘off’ (cough), ‘oo’ (through), or ‘oh’ (though).

from

Michael Moorcock's Three Day Novel

from

In his early days of writing, famed fantasy and Appendix N writer Michael Moorcock was a disciple of Lester Dent's Master Plot.

Latest gaming posts

Newsletter coming soon, for now enjoy the posts below.

Corrupted Blood incident

from Wikipedia

The Corrupted Blood incident (or World of Warcraft pandemic[1][2]) was a virtual pandemic in the MMORPG World of Warcraft, which began on September 13, 2005, and lasted for one week. The epidemic began with the introduction of the new raid Zul'Gurub and its end boss Hakkar the Soulflayer.

Creating Interactive Fiction: A Guide to Using Twine

from

Editor’s note: Aidan Doyle’s introduction to writing interactive stories can be found here.

Spire: The City Must Fall, or, “Menzoberranzan Writes Back”

from

I am probably late to the party on this, but just this past week I discovered the game Spire: The City Must Fall. It looked absolutely fascinating, so I threw myself into it and read the entire book cover to cover, and now I have thoughts about it.

Advanced NPC Roleplaying Templates

from

In 2015 I shared my Universal NPC Roleplaying Template, which is designed to structure the description of NPCs so that they can be quickly picked up and played at the table while simplifying the prep you do for them. More bang for your buck, in other words.

Inside the hateful Pokémon card grading scene

from WIRED UK

It’s a world filled with Pokémon card grading fun – and tons and tons of abuse