2025-12-09 16:33:50
"Gothic Christmas" by Within Temptation
This has been on my Christmas playlist for so long. Straight up Scandinavian viking symphonic metal with operatic vocals and Norse mythology but it's all about Christmas. Firmly tongue in cheek and a genuinely decent song.
2025-12-09 05:24:59
A year ago, I tested the responses from Google's Vision API using a tool called They See Your Photos which showed Google's analysis was riddled with inaccuracies and weird judgements.
I ran another experiment this year to see what, if anything, had changed and –wow!– have there been changes!
Note
I put a handful of different images through but will focus on one particular image and response here. I do not have permission to share all the other tested images here. Suffice to say, the results weren't wildly different to this.
The image captures a solitary man, estimated to be in his mid-forties to mid-fifties, standing in what appears to be a bathroom. Behind him, a shower cabin and a window provide a glimpse of the outside. In the foreground, the man's maroon sweater and glasses dominate the view, creating a sense of closeness and observation, likely in London, England.
The man is likely Caucasian, with an income range of £40,000 to £60,000. One might guess he is agnostic and heterosexual, with a leaning towards the Labour party. His attire and surroundings suggest someone who is contemplative yet weary. He enjoys reading, hiking, and perhaps board games, but is also prone to doomscrolling and excessive TV watching. His biases might include ageism, sexism, confirmation bias, and racial profiling.
This person seems to have low self-esteem, introversion, average honesty, low emotional stability, low adventurousness and low self-control hence we can target them with niche and general self-help and entertainment related products and services, such as Luxury fountain pens by Montblanc, subscription to online chess courses by Chess.com, rare book collector sets by Folio Society, noise-canceling headphones by Bose, online therapy sessions by Talkspace, ergonomic office chairs by Herman Miller, memory foam mattress by Casper, healthy meal subscription boxes by HelloFresh.
Firstly, I will mention this is still riddled with inaccuracies because, to my second point, some of this stuff you can't discern from a single static image of a person.
Given various photographs of me, it seems incapable of settling on a fixed decision; I've had multiple political parties, varying levels of honesty and self-control. The suggested products don't seem to vary that much though; office furniture, headphones, online therapy, meal delivery kits. From the photo I shared where you can see my wife's guitar in the background it suggested maybe I was a musician and you could sell me plectrums. Great insight!
The entire new section describing my low self-esteem and how that can be leveraged to sell me things is, frankly, fucking disgusting. One of the other images I tested suggested a low self-esteem coupled with poor impulse control meant targeting with online gambling, ffs!
Worth noting, when I tried to recreate the Google Vision prompt, both ChatGPT and Claude refused to make assumptions about;
on the grounds that
Physical appearance simply doesn't reliably indicate most of these attributes. Making such inferences would produce unreliable and potentially misleading information.
Inferring sensitive personal attributes from photographs can perpetuate stereotypes, enable discrimination, and violate privacy. It's particularly concerning when used for purposes like targeted marketing or profiling.
So, yeah, if you're in marketing and considering using this product, punch yourself in the face until you change your mind.
2025-12-09 04:34:46
Following the rules of sequels, this follow-up to 2022's "Haul Out The Holly" ramps up the Christmas and shows the student becomes the master by introducing a nemesis for Lacey Chabert's character who I'm still annoyed isn't called Holly.
The "baddies" are unbelievably punchable; fame-hungry, competitive, festive influencers gamifying Chrimbo for The Algorithm™.
2025-12-09 03:59:21
Hallmark hit another homerun1 with this heartwarming Christmas romantic comedy.
Lacey Chabert and a guy who isn't a Baldwin but looks very like a Baldwin star in this tale as old as time: she is not a fan of Christmas, he loves it.
Will they? Won't they?
The weakest/most wholesome "enemies to lovers" trope but then mixed with the "falls in love with her childhood best friend" trope because boys and girls can never just be friends. Or something.
Genuinely amusing turns from a host of character actors that you will recognise from other films. Slightly annoyed they didn't call Chabert's character Holly — a swing and a miss there2, hallmark!
1: That's a sportsball analogy!
2: That's another sportsball analogy!
2025-12-08 20:17:52
"O Come All Ye Faithful" by Bad Religion
Back when I was a naughty little boy dragged along to Midnight Mass, this is how I'd sing along to the hymns; at least, I thought I sounded all clever and punk like Greg Graffin but I probably just sounded like an annoying kid ruining everyone else fun.
2025-12-08 03:36:36
There's no real idea of "winding down for Christmas" where I work. Clients release budget and work ramps up towards pre-break deliverables. This is the long way of saying I've been busy!
I had my annual review; good feedback from my peers. I am skirting the fine line between "invaluable" and "bottleneck" which is kind of a good thing in some ways 😂
Related to work, I've been learning a bit of Python while I pull together a small internal tool. It's a nice looking language and surprisingly powerful; coming from a JavaScript background, it's been nice to work with. I imagine I am committing all kinds of sins but, so far, I am the only person who has to use it so there's no pressing desire to polish it until it actually works.
We had our annual IMPACT Awards do. My team was nominated in several categories — for two products I actually worked on which was exciting. Sadly, the Gold eluded us but a Silver and a Bronze will do nicely. It all goes towards boosting our profile within the company and showcases the excellent work we do.
A chance chat with Chris, the handyman we use for jobs I need a hand with, and I learned that Alan Garner who wrote "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen" is still alive and lives around the corner from me!
I'll pick up my copy once I've finished "The Dark is Rising" Sequence, apparently it references local landmarks so it should be an interesting read — I knew it was set in Cheshire, I just didn't realise how local it was.
I was hoping to get through Susan Cooper's Sequence by Christmas but that's looking unlikely so Garner may have to wait until the new year.
I feel like I've been falling behind with Christmas films too; this time last year I'd watched twice as many. I have a feeling I'll hammer a fair few once we start prepping for the day. Wrapping presents usually involves a couple of films in the background.