I’m an academic in the UK interested in social network analysis, social computing and the role of social media. In my free time, I like to explore the outdoors and attending church.
Social Media
Bluesky isn’t just a "left-wing echo chamber"—it’s a step towards sustainable, decentralised social media. While platforms like X face criticism for invasive policies and centralised control, Bluesky offers a future inspired by the open Web, driven by protocols like ATProto.
Social Media
I'm a huge supporter of decentralized social media, and after almost a week on Bluesky, and I love it! It feels like the future of microblogging—fresh, innovative, and better than Mastodon. Features like starter packs, custom feeds, and an open API make it a standout in the space.
Social Media
I'm passionate about self-hosting and want to run my own ActivityPub-powered network without relying on others. After struggling with Mastodon, I found GoToSocial—a lightweight, privacy-focused alternative. It’s easy to set up and shows promise for those wanting more control on the Fediverse.
Projects
After some trial and error, I set up my thermal printer using Node-RED, ditching CUPS for easier control. Using Node.js packages like readability and wkhtmltoimage, I convert articles into clean PNGs, making print layout adjustments simpler and manageable through a web UI—no SSH needed!
Projects
About a week or so ago now, I came across a compelling post from Hacker News about a guy who has configured a dot matrix printer to deliver his daily news. At first, I thought that this was a bit of a backwards idea considering we have smartphones for this
Work-Life
Considering a four-day compressed work week? After a year of experience, I’ve found it boosts productivity, improves work-life balance, and offers environmental benefits. While it’s not for everyone, if you get the chance, it might just be worth it!
Social Media
For what it's worth, Mastodon is a great platform and my general experience of it has been positive. Yes, I've experienced a lot of teething issues with self-hosting but overall, I much prefer it to Twitter/X. But, there are bigger problems at play which I
fediverse
As you may have seen from one of my previous posts, I tried to set up my on Mastodon server. While it worked for a short while, due to factors such as not knowing Ruby very well (the programming language used to build Mastodon) and trying to maintain work-life balance.
Academia
I had the privilege of attending a leadership conference a few weeks ago now designed for early career researchers such as myself. The topic was about what it means to be a future leader in my area of research. If I’m honest, I went into this event thinking that
Book Reviews
Me being the true millennial like I am, I think it’s fair to say that my phone gets a lot of use throughout the day. From reading emails in the morning to browsing Hacker News and Reddit in the evening, I dread to think how many times I would
This is just a quick post describing some of the changes to this site. Nothing major to report, although it involves a few changes in this site. 1) I have finally managed to get round to buying my very own .phd TLD domain. I thought I would do my best
Book Reviews
It’s been a while since I have last done a book review, so I thought I would write up my thoughts on a book I read fairly recently, as I feel that this topic is worth discussing. Have you ever heard someone say “Why would a good God allow