🔗 Vanguard – The Government Project to get British Businesses to use the Internet – Terence Eden’s Blog

In that late 80s period Terence is writing about - I was part of Oracle and had email on my DEC terminal for communicating with others in the company around the world. Just gnashing my teeth over why people outside the company couldn’t see the benefit.

Probably because they understood that …

a single computer terminal was likely to set you back around £3,000 - and that’s before you take into account message transmission costs.

… better than I did

When Oracle moved me to California - I even had one of those terminals at home.

Of course - come the PC and laptop revolution they were so slow in adoption it was hard to understand that it was the same company.

It was kind of like how use of mobiles in geographies with bad landline coverage resulted in exponentially faster adoption

🔗 Ranked: The Most Valuable Sports Teams in 2026

Is it wrong of me to suggest that it speaks volumes about America’s challenges when you learn that not only are 19 of the most valuable sports teams in the world American - but that 13 of them are NFL teams.

🔗 Will They Inherit Our Blogs? | Kev Quirk

I’d love it if my sons took up blogging when they’re old enough to (that, and riding motorbikes!). But they’re their own people, and may not want to. If that’s the case, I just hope they’ll agree to keep my waffle online for a little while once I’m gone.

I have been known to think about this myself. Not holding my breath for my work to remain online - then again - who knows?

But - like Kev - pretty sure it won’t be my daughter 🤔

Finally ….

🔗 Manton Reece

developers will need to focus even more on polish and making an app feel like a finished product

Hopefully that will not only be about Design and Interface, but also navigation and simplicity and all else that drives me nuts with too many apps. (Most if I am honest - some I stick with.)

In December 🔗🎙️Lenny talked with Elena Verna - head of growth at Lovable - and on the way through commented that ‘Minimum Viable Product’ is now table stakes - we need to be building Minimum Loveable Products.

Ok - self serving naming - but it is the same kind of thinking.

🔗 National Transport & Toy Museum in Wanaka | Atlas Obscura

It’s impossible to describe everything that’s here: cars spanning the Morris Minor to a Ferrari 400I, Air New Zealand airplanes, almost every type of Lego set, a Barbie section, and vintage items like cast-iron banks and typewriters.

Not sure I understand how typewriters fit into the museums theme … but it continues to amaze how much stuff like this floats around New Zealand.

🔗 UK ETA Strict Enforcement Begins 25 February

When you submit your application - you should always ask

What is the ETA for my ETA.

🔗 Ranking CFO Compensation: The Top Earners

Click through and you read

What a CFO’s Hour is Worth

It’s not the first time I have had cause to highlight the langauge problem … the graphic reveals what they are being paid.

That does NOT equate to what they are worth.

🔗 Scripting News: Tuesday, February 3, 2026

I don’t understand the connection, other than RSS is always useful, as a way of formalizing the output of an app so other apps can use it as input.

I understand - it forms the foundation of one if my new modules in the Engagement Platform we are building.

A Public Service Announcement

🔗 Microsoft is Giving the FBI BitLocker Keys - Schneier on Security

Microsoft gives the FBI the ability to decrypt BitLocker in response to court orders: about twenty times per year

I mean I could have just pasted the whole article now I look down this post.

🔗 Why Tech (&) Media is complicated – On my Om

Obviously, he didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. Maybe he was worried that an old-school reporter like me would do my homework and ask basic, but tough questions. The kind of questions that used to be standard fare, but now they get you ignored.

and

I told founders to step back and think about why their stories mattered to anyone but themselves

and

We built systems that reward acceleration, and we act surprised when everything feels rushed, shallow, a little manic. The algorithm doesn’t care if something is true. It cares if it moves. Nothing moves like titillation, gossip, and startup psychodrama.

and

A16z’s backing no longer means what Sequoia’s meant in 2005, and a TechCrunch launch no longer means what it did in 2008. The technology ecosystem is noise. Its media outlets are just the outward expression of that noise

and

There are fewer than a dozen journalists I can name-check those who don’t disappoint. Nilay Patel of The Verge for example.

… totally agree. When he took his paternity break recently .. he had some good names stand in for him … don’t think I ever got to the end of any of them. A couple I knew not to even start.