I've just release two more UCREL CRS videos for your delectation 😀 youtu.be/ySnJ8ZSyOKs An invited talk from Yann Le Beux and colleagues from Yux (www.yux.design/services)

UCREL CRS: Co-Creating & Evaluating AI Models in the African Context - Yann Le Beux & Colleagues

YouTube video by UCREL CRS

youtu.be

We were excited to host a well-attended workshop on Tuesday at CHI 2026 in Barcelona. The workshop explored how design and manufacturing expertise is shared in open-source hardware communities, including discussion of common challenges and solutions. Learn more: lnkd.in/e_3yPiFk #CHI2026 #HCI

2nd International Workshop on Low Carbon Computing The LOCO workshop provides a forum for radical ideas, early work, and critical perspectives that aims to reduce the emissions from computing. Open for submissions! lancaster-university.github.io/loco2026/

Now accepting applications for our 3½ day, hands-on summer school at @lancasteruni.bsky.social! 30 places available with accommodation, meals & course content for just £100, plus thousands in prizes. Open to all interested in low-volume device creation. Learn more & apply now: lnkd.in/etb-b6jC

Introducing Rib:bit! Our brand new wearable sensing badge for research. Made to be very versatile for many research projects. Documentation to come. Developed by @johnvidler.co.uk Watch us send emojis between badges!

Another UCREL Corpus Research Seminar upload before the end of the year :) "Trends in interpreting technology development and the role of AI" - Javier Lima youtu.be/oZ91nmgMuto

UCREL CRS: Trends in interpreting technology development and the role of AI - Javier Lima

YouTube video by UCREL CRS

youtu.be

I've recently started a project to provide stable identifiers for 'artifacts' (mostly maker/research/hobby electronics) to help combat link rot and aid discoverability. It works much like DOIs for papers, but is based on an open index maintained on GitHub - see hwidx.org for details :)

We have three new UCREL ( @ucrelnlp.bsky.social ) Corpus Research Seminar (CRS) videos out today; these were recorded some time ago, but our editor (me!) and approvals to release took a little while :)

We are excited to announce that our final speaker is... Elena Semino @elenasemino.bsky.social from Lancaster University! You can read more about Elena and her work here: www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/... #CAD2026

Today marks the start of the 2025 @prosquared.org Workshop at Lancaster University! See you all there soon 😁

Very proud to have been sponsors of this year's Open Hardware Summit in Edinburgh! Two action-packed days full of fascinating people and talks, including a presentation on an accessible one-handed keyboard by our very own @lmcunderwood.bsky.social @oshwassociation.bsky.social #OHS2025 #OpenSource

So excited that The Usuals will be joining us again at the 2025 Device Prototyping Summer School! Attendees can catch their rock/indie/pop cover show live on 15 July. Want a sneak peek before the show? Visit theusuals.co.uk #pro2summerschool2025 @lmcunderwood.bsky.social @lancasteruni.bsky.social

Ffffffff... I just spent many hours working on what I thought was an embedded serial port bug when in fact it was just using dead batteries the whole time. ... Aaaargh!

... So a "DHLEvri" company ... ? 😸

Well this quote from an article I'm reading this morning hits a _little bit_ too close to home 😬 "... I started a spreadsheet, which is what middle-class professionals do when faced with systemic problems ..."

#booksky

Registration now open for our 3.5 day, hands-on summer school at Lancaster University this July! 30 places available with accommodation, meals and all course content for just £50, plus £4000 in prizes. Open to all interested in low-volume device creation. Learn more & apply: buff.ly/mX7ihRV

What if the Earth rotated 90 degrees? Watch the latest What If? video collaboration with MinuteEarth! youtu.be/WH4g1ptJ-70

What if the Earth rotated 90 degrees?

YouTube video by xkcd's What If?

youtu.be

Save the dates! Learn to make refined digital devices quickly & easily with hands-on instruction from global experts. 🍎 Open to all experience levels ⚙️ 30 spots available for £50 including accommodation, meals, & instruction 🏆 Prize competition! Registration opens soon. Learn more: buff.ly/nZAawVm

Dr Underwood enjoying her first drink #PhD Passed my viva with minor corrections 🎉🎉

Exciting news: there'll be a wmatrix & PyMUSAS workshop at @cl2025.co.uk in Birmingham on 29th June run by me, @johnvidler.co.uk and Daisy Lal including discussions about open source software and #corpuslinguistics #CL2025

After a soft launch in the last couple of weeks, #wmatrix version 7 is now completely freely available worldwide for academic users plus UK government and NHS email addresses. This is the largest revision of the software since it was created 25 years ago: ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/

1. Don't code when you're tired. 2. Don't login as root on your Linux/Unix boxes when you're tired, guys. 3. See # 1 again. 4. With time you will forget these rules again. #programming #life #IT #devlife #wisdom

Very happy to be part of the CLARIN ParlaMint team which updated the parliamentary corpus recently, and our new paper is out now: doi.org/10.1007/s105... including the description of the #PyMUSAS semantic tagging of the whole corpus by @johnvidler.co.uk

ParlaMint II: advancing comparable parliamentary corpora across Europe - Language Resources and Evaluation

The paper presents the results of the ParlaMint II project, which comprise comparable corpora of parliamentary debates of 29 European countries and autonomous regions, covering at least the period fro...

doi.org

Merry Christmas! Hope your year has been a wonderful one!

Merry Christmas 🎄

🔈Job Alert 🔈 I’m looking for a Research Assistant to work with me part-time in Spring 2025 (ca. February to July) on my new Leverhulme Trust-funded project on LGBTQIA+ politicians and political polarization in Europe.

Just submitted a couple of lightning talks to @oshwassociation.bsky.social It's sooo close (geographically) in Edinburgh and plenty of time away (May 2025) for you to build the thing you want to talk about 😀 Doooo it! I know ALL of you can talk for 5 minutes about your cool open hardware projects

Finally had some time to progress the ACE+mk3s project and... it moooooves! I'm 'blind feeding' the filament through, but the combined runout/select sensor is in place, and the ACE can definitely keep up even with my terrible driver code: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pidx...

Initial tests integrating an Anycubic ACE Pro with a Prusa mk3s

YouTube video by John Vidler

youtube.com

Just found out about the "National Databank" - whereby folks with limited or no access to the internet can apply for free mobile sim cards: www.goodthingsfoundation.org/our-services...