My week of Monday 13 to Sunday 19 July 2026 was moderately productive. I posted a podcast, did some client work, continued working on my compensation claim — it’s so close to being ready to file! — and even spent a lovely afternoon riding Sydney’s train network with David Feng.
You’ll remember David from a recent podcast. I should’ve taken heaps of photos, but I didn’t. I left that to him. But I went to the pub afterwards, so there’s a photo of that.
On Sunday night I launched a new seasonal crowdfunder, The 9pm Spring Series 2026, but it was taken down because GoFundMe doesn’t allow rewards for supporters. Until I sort out a new platform, well, you can always throw me a tip. Stay tuned for updates.
Update 6pm AEST: The crowdfunder is now live on Ko-Fi.
Podcasts
- The 9pm Half-time Bingo Card Update 2026 with Snarky Platypus, recorded back on 27 June and posted on Sunday evening.
Articles
- The Weekly Cybers #125. Albanese talks up a content-free AI “framework”, Telstra gets grilled over last week’s outage, and sexbots are repurposed as robot teachers. No, really.
Photos, Videos, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse
None of these, although I have a few little videos that I might post soon. Yes, I’ve said that before. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear and when the occasional livestreams are scheduled.
Some Interesting Links
I’ve finally cleared out some browser tabs!
- “British ‘First Fleet’ brought smallpox to Australia — and may have killed millions,” reports Science. “Two papers pin the deadly disease’s introduction on British colonists and suggest the continent held far more people than previously believed.” The smallpox we knew about. What I find interesting are the updated estimates for the pre-colonial population.
- The most Japanese thing I’ve seen all week. Like me, you may not have known that these gymnasts are dressed as the anime character Detective Conan.
- From Korea, new Balming Tiger.
- I do so enjoy some of Thailand’s imperial history, such as this story explaining why there’s a replica of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat in Bangkok’s Grand Palace.
- A brief video which shows what it sounds like to be shot at from a mile away.
- New skink just dropped!
- A Brief History of Kids Today Are Selfish.
- An intriguing if a little overwritten piece about the band Pseudo Echo. Kinda.
- This bloke thinks that Adelaide’s much-loved O-Bahn is stupid. He’s also quite easy on the eye, although I wish he didn’t use that stupid software that removes out all the gaps in his speech and instead inserts a hailstorm of jump cuts.
- This week’s suggested follow: It’s a Bluesky feed this week, although you might be able to find it elsewhere. Angry People in Local Newspapers does what it says on the tin: weird news and bizarre headlines, mostly from local newspapers, mostly with people complaining about everyday life. Fun.
The Week Ahead
I’m keeping this week as flexible as possible because I’m likely to get some random client work at short notice. But my initial priority is finding a new crowdfunding platform and filing that compensation claim, in that order. I’m also planning to post the podcast episode I recorded with Carol Duncan in Newcastle.
The Weekly Cybers newsletter will appear on Friday afternoon as usual.
On Saturday I’m going to Bankstown Bites, as well as the Campsie Special Entertainment Precinct consultation. Bankstown Bites is also on Friday night, however, so you might want to go then. It all looks rather fun.
Further Ahead
- Six-month checkup, 11 August 2026. This is part of the medical trial I’m taking part in, the one for a new trivalent vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human metapneumovirus (hMPV), and human parainfluenza virus type 3 (HPV-3). Given that I came down wth RSV in May, I’m guessing that whatever I was injected with didn’t contain the RSV vaccine component.
- TechLeaders 2026, Bowral, 23–24 August 2026.
[Photo: The General Gordon Hotel in Sydenham, Sydney, photographed on 14 July 2026. Yes, this time I went inside.]