Hugh Wallace
@tumshie.me
Tech / gov / design / occasional snark. Usually found queuing for coffee ☕️ Digital and data for public good ✊ CIO @rds-scotland.bsky.social Chair @cfgsocial.bsky.social ✍️ Sign up to my newsletter: https://tumshie.me
have wanted to see more beef lately and this is a good one: karlbode.com/why-is-naomi...
Why is Naomi Klein Funding Substack’s Hate Machine?
Writers of good conscience should not be building new media companies on the back of a platform that opportunistically coddles white supremacy.
karlbode.com
Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party? - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @financialtimes.com Possibly the most informative article I've read this year
Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party?
Our obsession with AI code-writing tools is overwhelming the web’s unsung human caretakers
giftarticle.ft.com
Whoop, the Society for Hopeful Technologists has arrived! Follow @hopeful.technology Our latest newsletter is out today full of hopeful things to read, listen and do over the summer: buttondown.com/society-of-h... Subscribe here: buttondown.com/society-of-h...
#6: The Summer 2026 Hopeful Tech Index
Updates from the Society for Hopeful Technologists, plus recommendations for summer reading, listening, and gaming
buttondown.com
Bad Services is out today and we’d like to take this opportunity to announce our unwavering support for services that don't work. So much so that we've launched our new sister company - The Bad Services Corporation Welcome to your Bad Services Corporation staff induction. badservicescorp.com
I started to write a tongue-in-cheek post about the way technology is portrayed in movies, and ended up with a fairly ranty piece on why the social media ban focuses on the wrong targets. Awkward juxtapose inc. tumshie.me/aliens-land-...
Aliens land, social media banned
What do Steven Spielberg's latest movie and the UK banning social media for under 16s have in common?
tumshie.me
So enjoyed the latest episode of Vergecast, particularly @davidpierce.xyz and @reckless.bsky.social's jovial talk of "wearable bullshit" and AR glasses "giving good demo" but little else of worth or value to humanity. www.theverge.com/podcast/9521...
Snap’s Specs look good on nobody
On The Vergecast: Snap Specs, Fox / Roku, and Facebook AI Mode.
theverge.com
It is also absolutely typical that Elon Musk can do whatever he likes and the way to get it around it is to suppress young people's access to information and relationships.
Another way to put it is... if you don't use AI platforms because you have a moral objection to them, but you publish your words on Substack, you haven't really thought about this stuff.
kottke.org@kottke.org · 4mo agoHey, look at Substack promoting Andrew Tate as the #1 new bestseller. The company's amoral leadership & backers will platform anyone, even ludicrously toxic rapists & human traffickers.
20 years since the very first tweet - unhappy birthday Twitter! tumshie.me/x-why-are-yo...
X: why are you still here?
Twitter is no longer with us, but X lives on. In the run up to what would've been Twitter's 20th birthday, why does X's influence endure?
tumshie.me
I'm volunteering as a parkrun marshall and scanner this weekend - the point about manual scanning promoting interactions is so true! 'Just enough technology' is a great mantra for life
Hugh Wallace@tumshie.me · 5mo agoI wrote some words about the joy of parkrun, the thoughtful application of technology, and (somewhat inevitably) AI. tumshie.me/its-a-run-no...
I wrote some words about the joy of parkrun, the thoughtful application of technology, and (somewhat inevitably) AI. tumshie.me/its-a-run-no...
It's a run, not a race
When I turned 50 last year, one of the most noteworthy things I did was rack up my 50th parkrun. I'd realised a few months earlier that if I timed it carefully, the two things would coincide nicely. ...
tumshie.me
This is the Society for Hopeful Technologists. Brilliant, kind and thoughtful individuals looking to bring hope back into tech. Join us for updates. societyforhopefultechnologists.org
Local government bods! Anyone with experience of getting permission for working in the open at your local authority? Need a couple of quotes from people who’ve done it before...
Really insightful explainer and update on the dreadful Glasgow fire and its impact which must have been challenging to write today. Kudos to @libbybrooks.bsky.social and @severincarrell.bsky.social
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 5mo agoGlasgow railway station fire again shows vulnerability of city’s older buildings
Absolutely gutting news about Glasgow - I got the train into Central Station on Friday night, and it's hard to fathom how much is now just gone. This photo from the 80s shows the extent: from the Irn Bru to the Bell's sign, almost completely destroyed by fire. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...
Your Other National Drink - Renfield Street early eighties
flickr.com
As is tradition, here are my highlights from February a week later than intended (accompanied by a fitting photo to sum up the general state of things) tumshie.me/monthnote-fe...
Monthnote, February 2026
Various goings-on during the shortest month.
tumshie.me
Powerful, provocative keynote on AI from @elmosmoe.bsky.social at today’s ‘Power and participation in public tech’ conference in Manchester. So good to have the ‘this is inevitable’ narrative challenged with many pertinent examples.
In a v rare moment of tapping into the zeitgeist 😂 my Happy 20th Birthday Twitter post covers a lot of similar ground to John Oliver’s takedown tumshie.me/x-why-are-yo...
X: why are you still here?
Twitter is no longer with us, but X lives on. In the run up to what would've been Twitter's 20th birthday, why does X's influence endure?
tumshie.me
Blue Georgia@bluegeorgia.bsky.social · 5mo agoJohn Oliver did a brutal exposé of how Elon Musk destroyed Twitter and turned X into a cesspool of right-wing misinformation. Oliver hasn't posted in over a year: "I will be going back there tomorrow to post a link to this piece before going silent again." Worth a watch.
Twitter would have been 20 years old next month, but it didn't make it beyond its teenage years 😢 I've written about the fact X still exerts a lot of influence over our public discourse, and why that's bad for all of us. tumshie.me/x-why-are-yo...
X: why are you still here?
Get your party clothes ready people: next month would have been Twitter's 20th birthday! 🥳 For so it came to pass, on 21 March 2006, Jack Dorsey posted "just setting up my twttr" and an era-defining ...
tumshie.me
Episode 1 is OUT!! 🥳 🙌 This week on The Interface, we discuss: * That insane Superbowl ad for Ring * The US TikTok takeover * And the beef that launched ChatGPT Listen wherever you get your podcasts: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...
The Interface
Listen to The Interface
app.magellan.ai
Karen Hao@karenhao.bsky.social · 6mo agoI'm co-hosting a new BBC podcast! It's called The Interface, and it's all about how tech is rewiring your week and your world. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
Here's my take on that big dumb post about AI going viral on X right now. www.garbageday.email/p/a-comfort-...
how do you write this story without noting there was a campaign literally called SUBSTACKERS AGAINST NAZIS in…2023
Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters
Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism
theguardian.com
The slightly bonkers backstory to the Opalite video (and the music vid itself) have made we smile today. www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...
Taylor Swift casts ‘insanely charismatic and lovable’ Graham Norton in music video
Opalite video reunites host and guests including Domhnall Gleeson and Lewis Capaldi from Swift’s October chatshow appearance
theguardian.com
A monthnote for January. Musings on data, language, context, AI, and keeping occupied while it’s dark and dreich 🌧️ tumshie.me/monthnote-ja...
Monthnote, January 2026
What is this? This is my monthnote for January, a post where I reflect on the previous month's work, alongside other life stuff. The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed I wrote a few of these at...
tumshie.me
Started 2026 a bit too focused on the doom and gloom, so found a bunch of links that feel more glass-half-full 🥛 tumshie.me/2026-go-pop/
2026 go pop 🎉
Kicking off the new year with links about Blue Monday, Buttondown and various musings on values.
tumshie.me
A round-up of some splendid sounds of 2025, if you fancy… tumshie.me/2025-mixtape/
2025 mixtape
TL;DR: I've selected a bunch of my favourite tracks from 2025 and put them in one sparkling playlist. All were released, or remixed, this year: * listen on Apple Music * listen on Tidal * listen o...
tumshie.me
Back in the day, I used to work on some delightful self-contained projects. I wrote a piece about one of them - Capture the Museum - and reflected on the stuff we got right, the stuff we had to chop and change, and how 'innovation' funding works. Sometimes. tumshie.me/capture/
The legendary Capture the Museum
As we crawl towards the end of the year, I thought I’d write about a nice digital thing. A little seasonal sparkle rather than my usual "bah humbug" vibe. It's a glass-half-full account of developing...
tumshie.me
I absolutely love @chriscolin3000.bsky.social's concept of an Admin Night, and am enthusiastically making it a priority for 2026. So if you're in Edinburgh and fancy tackling those never-get-done jobs... tumshie.ghost.io/admin-night/
Admin Night, right?
As much as it feels like a clunking old cliché to be fired up by two men talking on a podcast, I got terribly excited when I listened to a recent episode of Roman Mars' always-engaging design and arch...
tumshie.ghost.io
