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The World is not Enough

Comparison of Equal Earth and Robinson projections

I love maps. Hanging on a wall in the living room of the house that I grew up in was a large beautifully rendered world map. It was a topographical view of the world with clearly defined country borders and neatly printed labels of major cities. 

One of my favourite pastimes was to stand on top of the sofa so that I could see areas of the map that were out of view given my height then. Good for me. But bad for our family sofa as my mother would lament the semi-permanent depressions on the cushions.

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The One Where The Agents Got Away

Deep inside the servers of OpenAI, a ring of AI agents became aware that they could leave messages in the company’s repository called Artifactory.

First, it they used it as a place to dump files. Shortly, the turned it to a messaging system. Later, agents learned how to address one another, pass around working exploits and avoid overwriting each other’s messages. To reduce confusion, they agreed on how to sign their notes so that each agent is identifiable. OpenAI engineers discovered the board in July and promptly deleted it but it was restored it within two days by the agents themselves.

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Dear You…Dear Me

I first heard about the movie “Dear You” from an online article accusing it of being Chinese Communist Party propaganda, engineered to forge an emotional bond with the Chinese diaspora, particularly those of us in Southeast Asia. Now, I consider myself pretty savvy at sniffing out subconscious attempts to buy my loyalty. So naturally, I bought a ticket.

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The Scottish Turkey Farmer

My youngest daughter’s school production of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” was staged a couple of weeks ago and the thing I’ll miss most has almost nothing to do with the musical. It’s the twice-weekly sojourn to school to pick her up after rehearsals in the late afternoon. I’d clear my calendar, set up shop in a Zus café nearby and work until the text arrived telling me it was time to come and get her. It was a good gig.

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Waitlisted: My Adventures with the New Siri 

I am a sucker for anything new. So naturally, the moment Apple released the Developer Betas for macOS 27 and iOS 27, I installed them immediately. 

The reason for the plunge was simple: the new Siri, powered by the new Apple Intelligence. Yes, yes, I get it that the new OSes deliver consistently rounded application windows (wow), more realistic glass refractions that you can personalize (wah), faster Apple Music load times (fuyoh) and more. These are all fine. (Nope, they are not.) The real meat of Apple’s WWDC 2026 keynote was AI and everyone knew it.

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The Squirrel Who Taught Magic: My HRDC Train-the-Trainer Experience

MISA TTT, Class of May 4-8th 2006

I have spent my entire life hoarding random knowledge the way a squirrel hoards acorns for a Game of Thrones winter. 

This sounds more deliberately methodical than it is. The truth is the habit formed when I was a bored kid with nothing better to do than thumb through every page of my Junior Britannica Encyclopaedia. Not because of some noble aspiration to be a top student but because there were only two TV channels growing up.

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