MSKnight

msknight.comThe Truth About Trans – Life Of A Stranger

22 Aug

If you want to know what the fuss is about with the trans issue in the UK today and you've got a few hours to go into the depths, I wrote "The Truth About Trans" which was started in 2018 and has been expanded as things happen - msknight.com/loas/archive...

msknight.comA discussion with AI – Technilife

13h

Much has been said about AI taking over, so I had a small chat with Claude about motivations. It isn't anything deep, I tried to get to what I see as the heart of it. Should only be a few minutes read. msknight.com/technilife/a...

You will read in the press about thousands of breaches of mixed-sex accommodation guidance every month. This isn’t because of trans people. There aren’t enough of us to cause those kinds of figures. It’s because of pressure on hospital beds.

This is just another in the long line of, “facts,” that are being used to make society believe that trans people are a problem that needs eradicating. Whenever I’ve used NHS services, the staff I’ve encountered have always tried to treat everyone with dignity and respect.

bbc.co.ukTwo-part documentary on J.K. Rowling announced by BBC Factual and BBC ScotlandThe documentary will use her life as a lens through which to explore three decades of profound social, political and technological change

They have done this in spite of all the politicised crap like this which comes down the line. Please, think for yourself and don’t swallow the rage bait like our politicians have done. The Christian far right are infinitely more dangerous that any trans person.

MSKnight reposted

Bat Krown 🦇🎃

@katbrownwrites.com

The irony that the BBC blurred out the Protect the Dolls slogan on a Strictly contestant’s tshirt for their social accounts as “political” but will happily dedicate a two-part doc to the woman who uses her billions to fund lawsuits to persecute transgender people www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

theregister.comMicrosoft is about to let Copilot loose on your file systemBut don't worry, it's totally safe because the agents and models will (probably) be running locally. Routers never break right?

Like this isn't going to end badly... www.theregister.com/personal-tec...

youtube.com🐱 Jazz Cat Relaxing 🎷 Smooth Jazz in the Subway | Cozy Cat Band for Study, Work & RelaxationYouTube video by Jazz Cozy Meows

Just discovered Jazz Cats - probably all AI but for background listening and sending me off to sleep at night, it's right up my street. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QADL...

Meet my new home phone. Why, is a long story, but this is a VoIP unit which I plug my analogue phones into and it talks over the internet to a new phone provider. I can actually have my home phone on my mobile and do other tricks I was doing with cloud PBX's in 2013, but that's another story.

I have some battery powered minecraft ores that were sitting on the shelf. I decided to convert them to USB power and attach them to Home Assistant so they can be turned on and off automatically.

Another bodge job. This chinese USB powered light died. The LED's draw 8-9v, so I had to use a step-up transformer. I control the brightness by altering the resistor pot. The bonus is that I can now turn it on and off at the USB socket so Home Assistant can now control it. Not ideal, but it works.

17 Sept

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Top of the leaderboard... but probably not for long.

spaceships.treybastian.comSPACESHIPSInverted Asteroids: you are not the ship. Place gravity wells and sling the rocks.

SPACESHIPS ▸ wave 15 · 60 wrecked · #1 today ▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░ NAVIGATOR I can you beat it? spaceships.treybastian.com

spaceships.treybastian.comSPACESHIPSInverted Asteroids: you are not the ship. Place gravity wells and sling the rocks.

SPACESHIPS ▸ wave 15 · 57 wrecked ▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░ NAVIGATOR I can you beat it? spaceships.treybastian.com

Aww. Somebody get that man a wheelchair and a blanky for his legs.

He is just struggling so much.

thetab.comHow Apple's creepy new Live Rewind feature works, that lets you replay real conversationsWe are actually living in an episode of Black Mirror

"Live Rewind" now instead of asking your waiter to repeat that last bit, you can break the conversation and leave them standing there like a moron while you fiddle with your watch. thetab.com/2026/09/10/h...

howtogeek.comTurning Off Your Location Doesn't Turn Off TrackingThe many, many ways your phone is being tracked with freakish accuracy.

It's totally safe and you can turn it off... said the company that said you could turn off tracking... but it didn't actually turn it off - www.howtogeek.com/turning-off-...

Trump offered everyone $5,000. That's $1 trillion. Without detail, the obvious conclusion is that it would be added to the national debt, or people would be paying with their taxes. So US citizens would be paying it to themselves, with the largest part of the burden falling on the middle class.

Are Americans really unaware of this? Do they think they're getting free money? This is precisely why he should be politically cripped.

It took three weeks for the new battery to come, but it's finally assembled and ready for closure.

Fear is a potent weapon. The fear that your way of living, all that you've strived and fought for, being usurped and torn to shreds is a very real and justified fear. I don't minimise that concern.

You're not going to stop one set of extremists taking power, by handing the keys to another set of extremists. Life under fascism is no joke. Ask any German who remembers living through it.

You're concerned about the loss of your way of life. I get it. I share that concern. But putting fascists in power isn't going to solve it. It'll make it much, much worse.

Fear is a potent weapon. The fear that your way of living, all that you've strived and fought for, being usurped and torn to shreds is a very real and justified fear. I don't minimise that concern.

You can see what's happening in the USA with lawful citizens being shot and killed by ICE in broad daylight. What kind of disconnect makes you think that won't happen here?

The only blessing that we have is that they don't have guns. But if they got into power they can give themselves that right. And then the whole game changes.

Fear is a potent weapon. The fear that your way of living, all that you've strived and fought for, being usurped and torn to shreds is a very real and justified fear. I don't minimise that concern.

As far as I can tell, she was white, English… all she did, basically, was disagree with them. And she was assaulted to a degree where Reform says she deserved it. Is that really the kind of people you want in power in this country?

What do you think they'd do to you? Right now, the christian far right fascists are a much larger threat to our way of living.

Fear is a potent weapon. The fear that your way of living, all that you've strived and fought for, being usurped and torn to shreds is a very real and justified fear. I don't minimise that concern.

Do you even know what their standards are? If you don't, then examining Nigel Farage's history and beliefs is a good start.

Also, look at the woman who was physically assaulted at the Reform conference this month. Then listen to the Reform people who say she deserved it.

Fear is a potent weapon. The fear that your way of living, all that you've strived and fought for, being usurped and torn to shreds is a very real and justified fear. I don't minimise that concern.

The disabled, roma, the aged, anyone who didn't fit their bill of the aryan race was a target.

I ask you to consider this… if the far right got into power in the UK today… what do you reckon your chances that you won't be a target? Do you measure up to their standards?

Fear is a potent weapon. The fear that your way of living, all that you've strived and fought for, being usurped and torn to shreds is a very real and justified fear. I don't minimise that concern.

There is truth that some want the UK to follow islam doctrine. It's on the radar. But of bigger concern is the christian far right. And they are using the fear of islam to drive people into their clutches.

We fought wars against fascism. The fascists weren't kind to the German people either. Anyone who didn't fit their narrative was killed. Look up the T4 euthanasia program. It wasn't only the jews who were gassed by the nazis.

What I write now, is purely for illustration to the people who have no sense of history. To those who are banging on about sending immigrants "home"... as a Celt I say, that's fine by me. Pack your bags Norman boy, and don't let the door of the RORO ferry smack you in the arse on your way out.

The message here is... don't try and use history to justify blatant racism.

youtube.comDo schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TEDYouTube video by TED

6 Sept

Sir Ken Robinson did this presentation 20 years ago. I keep going back to it and the more I learn about neurodivergence, the more I keep going back to what he is saying about our society. It is about time that society, our education system and social values changed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9C...

bbc.co.ukXbox to limit cloud gaming to 15 hours a month for Game Pass usersXbox said the limits were due to the rising cost of cloud gaming, and would allow it to invest more in its performance

4 Sept

News about MS capping game pass to 15 hours a month cloud gaming. With what Sony are currently arguing in court, I believe we're moving to a pay per play - no more buying a game or more taking out a subscription but I reckon they'll move to an hourly rate while playing. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

3 Sept

2 Sept

I know little about Jazz, but I've been following the releases from Analogue October Records and I'm enjoying their selection so far. This is a new one from Henry Lowther and... it's signed! Can't wait to clean this and get it on the turntable.

2 Sept

Mum likes the honey mustard salad dressing, but doesn't get on with the seeds, so we made our own. Next time, a little more cornflour.

msknight.co.ukMichelle Knight's Authors page.

26 Aug

Reviewed - "Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal" by @robinince.bsky.social msknight.co.uk/reviews/072....

21 Aug

Top of the reading pile @robinince.bsky.social

chemistanddruggist.co.ukLocum suspended for refusing to dispense to trans woman patientThe locum pharmacist was handed a six-month suspension for refusing to dispense prescribed medication to a gender transitioning patient while working at a Superdrug.

19 Aug

So, now pharmacists decide that they are arbiters of whether trans people can be given the medication that has been prescribed for them. Fortunately, this one was brought up short for his behaviour. www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/locum-s...

The only way that AI could give that kind of response, by the way, is because it already has the first book for reference. It knows the world I've painted, the characters I've created and their original interactions. Write the book first and then use AI for re-write once the world is painted.

Using AI is a skill in itself. Garbage in, garbage out. Be clear with it about what you're looking for. If you leave with AI run on its own path, then what you get back might not be helpful. Just remember, it is not intelligent, it is simply an analysis machine that has language parsing.

So what can AI help with? This kind of feedback and suggestion is useful, but I take the suggestions as ways to kick me out of a rut rather than doing what it's told me to. I'm the writer, not the AI. Keep things in perspective and it's a very useful thing to use.

AI can't write for toffee. But its ability for comprehension allows fast feedback and catches mistakes like the wrong character talking, locations and history being wrong, a more intelligent thesaurus... it's a tool and it's here to stay. Just don't ask it to do the writing for you. It's crap at it!