iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 10/05/2026

Happy birthday Ewa! Here is Clarence interrupting a call with my mum to express his displeasure at the presence of Bandit on the landing. Bandit, aka God's Perfect Idiot, can be seen assuming one of his very normal positions.

Clarence, a large black cat with green eyes, is resting his paw on the keyboard of a laptop and staring straight at the cameraman with a slightly accusing expression.

Bandit, a medium-sized tuxie cat with stunning green eyes, is lying on a fluffy black mat on the landing of a house. He is in what can only be described as a very daft pose, on his back at his rearmost part, but then turning his body through 90 degrees by the time we reach the head. His expression could be read as annoyance, but for those who know him is simply his default expression of Zero Thoughts Only Vibes.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 05/01/2026

This is deeply misleading - you have to push a button to start recording. The "caution" in the quote only relates to storing recordings in the cloud. I think this product is dorky as hell, and I don't for one moment like it. But it's NOT recording all the time. JFC.

The ring from Vocci AI, which I saw at CES 2026, looks like any other smart ring, but it's designed to integrate with your professional life rather than your personal one. Notably, the Vocci ring isn't an always-listening, omnipresent device; recording starts only when you manually press a small button on the side of the ring. Once recording begins, it captures the meeting and generates a transcript when it's over.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 05/01/2026

Look. I hate the endless force-feeding of AI "features" as much as the next sane person. But the article - unlike the misleadingly selected quote from it - makes it clear the user has to push a button to start recording. Please can we lose our minds about the REAL stuff, and not fake problems??

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 26/11/2025

Please read the things you're citing. Please.

Quote from the Wikipedia article cited in the post above, from the 'Terminology' section of the page:

"The continent of Australia is sometimes known by the names Sahul, Australinea, or Meganesia to differentiate it from the country of Australia, and consists of the landmasses which sit on Australia's continental plate. This includes mainland Australia, Tasmania, and the island of New Guinea, which"

The words "and consists of the landmasses which sit on Australia's continental plate" are highlighted.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 19/11/2025

Maybe he's talking about it in a really stupid way, in a way that no-one in the sector ever would. But there's no good-faith reading of his words which concludes he's talking literally about the physics concept known as electrons - as the very next lines in the interview demonstrate:

COWEN: If you could have more of one thing to have more compute, what would the one thing be?

ALTMAN: Electrons.

COWEN: Electrons. Just energy. What’s the most likely short-term solution for that?

ALTMAN: Short-term, natural gas.

COWEN: Easing, not full solution, but easing of the constraint.

ALTMAN: Short-term, natural gas.

COWEN: In the American South?

ALTMAN: Or wherever. Long-term, it will be dominated, I believe, by fusion and by solar. I don’t know what ratio, but I would say those are the two winners.

COWEN: You’re still bullish on fusion?

ALTMAN: Very much, and solar.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 24/10/2025

Clarence wishes Daphne all the best for her arrival anniversary, and hopes the standards do start to rise soon...

Clarence, a large black cat, is curled up a bit like a prawn, with all the leggies pointing towards the camera. His eyes are slightly closed, and his tiny adorable fangs are poking out from his mouth.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 07/07/2025

.l,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,; ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| #ClarencePosting #proofofcat

Clarence, a large black cat, sits partially on the keyboard of a laptop. Behind him on the screen can be seen some of the text of this Bsky post.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 24/05/2025

Ooo just bought! FYI there might be something up with your checkout (or it just really hates Firefox), because the order summary box was stuck over the form - even with adblock and stuff turned off. I had to tab through the fields to fill everything in and click buttons, etc.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 13/04/2025

Terry Gilliam's Brazil has to be the reference work here: everything starts with an administrative error, and spirals (bureaucratically) out of control from there.

A scene from Brazil, where dozens of grey-suited people are working in an overcrowded office.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 12/04/2025

Here's Google searches for "prince harry" "prince william" and "prince charles" from 2004 to date. Harry is by far the most popular of the three, despite those being the former heir apparent (now king) and the current heir apparent.

A screenshot of a Google Trends chart comparing searches for "prince harry", "prince william" and "prince charles" from 2004 to the present. Searches for "prince harry" are more frequent than the other two, with much larger spikes in search volume.

A screenshot of a Google Trends chart showing comparative interest in the search terms "prince harry", "prince william" and "prince charles" in the four nations of the United Kingdom. In all cases except Wales, "prince harry" is the most popular search term; in Wales "prince harry" appears to be approximately as popular as "prince charles".

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 02/02/2025

I understand where she's coming from. (Also, Sooty is a magnificent Orb!) Our Clarence is attempting to introduce a social media ban. It's only partially effective.

A large black cat sits on a laptop, preventing his human from using it - probably in an attempt to extort treats and/or ham. He does not look at all apologetic or ashamed about this.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 02/01/2025

This reminded me of Tumblr-famous artist Iguanamouth's Unusual Dragon Hoard project - they did some fantastic ones (including quilts!) All of them here (some NSFW, also pretty freaky): lizardshuffle.tumblr.com/tagged/hoards

Title: "Hoard of Chickens" by Iguanamouth. A contented-looking dragon with lavish moustache and eyebrows lies on the ground, covered with a couple of dozen chickens of various kinds.

Title: "Hoard of Soap" by Iguanamouth. A grey dragon with green hair sits in a foaming bath, looking down at hundreds of bars of soap surrounding the bathtub.

Title: "Hoard of Trees" by Iguanamouth. A proud-looking reddish dragon with large horns covered in moss sits amid a collection of various trees, its tail curled around them.

Title: "Hoard of Quilts" by Iguanamouth. A two-headed green dragon holds one quilt in its claws, while one of its heads is mostly covered by another. The dragon is sitting next to a large pile of quilts.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 16/12/2024

The only thing I can think of is the Gaia Atlas of Planet Management, which I was similarly absorbed by as a kid. I don't think that's what you are describing - but just in case: archive.org/details/gaia...

Cover of Gaia: An Atlas of Planet Management, edited by Dr Norman Myers, ISBN: 9780385190718

An image of pp120-121 of the Gaia Atlas of Planet Management, discussing water and water-bourne diseases. A link to the book at archive.org is available in the post.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 11/12/2024

I think your void went to the same school of elegance that ours did...

A black cat lies partially on its back, front paws curled up close to his body, back legs stretched out in th disdance. He looks quite silly.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 29/11/2024

Not only is it completely fascinating to see these records, but the links included in Dr Al-Rashid's posts include side-by-side transliteration and translation of the text - with each transliterated word hyperlinked and defined. (I'm sure this isn't new, I've just not seen this personally before...)

A screenshot of the parallel texts of transliterated Babylonian, and its English translation. All the transliterated words are hyperlinked, allowing the user to see the translation of each individual word, and its confidence. This text is available in the link in the quoted post.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 25/11/2024

The latest update from Clarence's bottom: "∆;lderw.jk////////....rrrrf˙∆˚˚˚˚˚˚ç√ §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§≈" #ProofOfCat

A chonky black cat sits on the keyboard and trackpad of a laptop, and stares off towards the right of the image. It is not visible to the viewer of the still image, but the laptop's screen is flickering wildly, thanks to the action of the cat's posterior on the keyboard and trackpad.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 12/11/2024

Clarence says good morning, but DO NOT TOUCH THE TUM. #ProofOfCat

A black cat lies on his back, looking up at the camera, his eyes mostly closed. His front paws are lifted up in that cute way cats do.

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Eliot Beer @eliotbeer.co.uk · 04/11/2024

Apparently this is something we're supposed to do. Bluesky, meet Clarence, adopted from the RSPCA in February after putting off everyone else by being distant and hissy. #ProofOfCat

A Large black cat lounges on a desk, between monitor and keyboard, his adorable black beans pushing against the latter, and his green eyes looking at the person holding the camera. Both these gestures seem to imply the picture-taker should be giving him treats instead of taking pictures or - heaven forbid - doing work.

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