iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

And then you have the weird subtype of games that license another gaming franchise.

The cover for the Nintendo GameCube game "Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix".

Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Waiting at the bus stop and I've never seen a movie poster try so hard to hide that it's a sequel while still technically putting a number on it.

A photo of a bus stop with a poster for the movie "Practical Magic", except there is a very faint "2" behind the title.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Oh I immediately recognised that font! It's Shin Go, probably most recognizable for being the go-to font for the UI in every other Nintendo game (although they use a very slightly modified version).

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Reddit can be hit or miss but sometimes you find a post that makes it all worth while. I really admire the way they don't talk about the name at any point.

A Reddit post to r/MildlyInfuriating titled "Made hundreds of wristbands for a conference that suddenly got renamed". The body of the post reads:
"I run a small company, and designed and printed hundreds of high quality rubber wristbands for my cousin's Crypto conference. I had to do different colours for the different levels of entry.

Out of nowhere yesterday he suddenly announced he was renaming the conference and moving it partially online. And could only afford to pay me if I produced more with the new name. Ive spent a week on this so far and was already giving him family rates."
The image shows an assortment of black, white, and green wristbands with the name of the event printed on them.
The name of the event was "Noncefest 2026".

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Ventured into the baking sun for some Strawberry Magic.

Another photo of rows of strawberry plants.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Nothing beats hitting credits on a game and getting the sweeping vistas of pixelated airports.

Four screenshots from the end credits Nintendo DS game "Air Traffic Chaos". The lower screen shows the staff credits while the upper screen portrays the various levels from the game.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

I don't think this one is AI, the image linked in the thread as proof is just one of the default scenes provided in a Synty asset pack from a slightly different angle and different lighting.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

It's literally just a grainier version of this preview image with a filter over it.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

It might be worth checking out sponsorblock. It's a browser addon that marks out and lets you skip over a parts of the video that you're not into (and has per channel settings). It can be a bit spotty with the smaller channels but for the larger ones people have been very thorough.

A screenshot of the settings menu for SponsorBlock. It's divided into categories, with options to skip over sponsors, self promotion, exclusive access content, interaction reminders, intros, end credits, previews/recaps, intros, tangents, and mark videos that have been given exclusive access or showing video highlights. All of them can either be disabled, automatically skipped, or show a prompt to skip.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

That would at least explain this.

A screenshot of a Tumblr post by user "3000s". The first part shows a screenshot of a Microsoft OneDrive notification saying "Look back at your memories" dated November 20, with an image of The Property Brothers. It's been captioned with "wait a minute..... these arent my memories". The second part of the post is the same user saying "ughh. why does my head hurt".

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Fascinated by Drill Bird's Steam page just playing bird documentaries with lofi beats.

The Steam page for the videogame Drill Bird, with the top of the page showing footage from a bird documentary.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Someone has shown me what has to be both the most expansive yet disorganised title selection menu I've ever seen. And yes, you can select a row of dashes. At some point surely it's easier to just let people type it in?

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

On a whim I decided to see how much it would cost to build my computer today Vs. when I built it last October (except for the GPU which I got just a few months ago) and that's what made it really sink in how messed up prices have gotten.

An image of pc parts picker comparing the prices of a computer build. The first represents the original price of the pc, with a total of £1634.11 (with the RAM priced at £154.99), and the second set representing the current day price, totalling £2214.05 (with the RAM costing £510.73).

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

The y is a dead giveaway that it's Myriad, which is a font that really gets around (I think it is/was the default in a few Adobe applications, and used heavily by Apple for a decade or two).

Screenshot of an Adobe font page for Myriad Pro with the sample text "game player", highlighting the font's distinct "y".

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Congrats on @northerniion.bsky.social being featured in the latest LTT video!

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on this and as a Brit it'd never made me more thankful for decimalisation.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

In what must be one of the most interesting performances I've ever seen on TV, here's 3 minutes of Ideal World trying to sell you on Dubai chocolate. There's so many emotions just in these two bites, but I'm not sure I want to feel any of them while eating.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

At 3am one night I suddenly got struck by the idea that puzzle games can be broken down into 3 categories, and in a frenzy came up with this. I'm not taking questions at this time because I don't have any answers (but game names are in the alt).

A triangle plot that graphs puzzle games as being broken down into three categories: reflex, deduction, environmental.
From top to bottom, left to right:
Tetris, Dr Mario, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Bejewelled, Outer Wilds, Limbo, Satisfactory, The Witness, Portal, Blue Prince, Fez, Picross, The Room, Machinarium, Return of the Obra Dinn, Samorost, Professor Layton, Myst.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

#0028: Madness - The Rise & Fall Aside from the blackface on the cover, this is a pretty fun album! Our House is a classic but I'd never heard the other tracks on here before, and there's some good stuff. If you want more Madness though you're probably best off sticking to a greatest hits release.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

#0027: Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade The most modern country album so far and it shows, with this being my favourite country album so far. However, that's not to say I loved it. I know it's a lot of the genre/era, but I'm happy to not be listening to wall to wall songs about dead marriages/people.

Cover for Joe Ely - Honky Tonk Masquerade

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Week #003 Recap: Pulp and Santana act as bookends for a pretty solid week, with four albums entering my running top ten.

Week 3's ratings, showing:
Pulp - Different Class - 5
Santana - Abraxas - 5
Anohni and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now - 4
Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun - 4
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - 3
Hariprasad Chaurasia - Call of the Valley - 2
The Louvin Brothers - Tragic Songs of Life - 1.5

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

#0026: Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway This one was hard work. The first double on the list, and towards the end I was feeling it. It took a few days for me to get from start to end and while I enjoyed it on the whole (Side B was a standout), it's not something I'll be coming back to.

Cover for Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

#0024: Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brij Bhushan Kabra, and Shivkumar Sharma - Call of the Valley Not as much of a chore as yesterday's album, but still definitely not for me. Exactly what you expect it to be when you hear the phrase "Hindustani Classical Music". Not how I'd choose to go into the weekend.

Cover for Hariprasad Chaurasia, Brij Bhushan Kabra, and Shivkumar Sharma's Call of the Valley

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

#0023: The Louvin Brothers - Tragic Songs of Life I've been slower on posting recently as I don't really know what to say about them. I feel like a bunch of these 50s and 60s albums are more formative than they are "good" by modern/my standards. We have to get some country I'll like eventually tho.

Cover for The Louvin Brothers' Tragic Songs of Life

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

#0022: Anohni and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now I get why this isn't for everyone, but there are some really powerful tracks on here that I'll definitely be listening to again, and some tracks which I'm so-so on. A distinctive voice and style though that I'd recommend listening to the opener.

Cover for Anohni and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

#0021: Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun A gorgeous album, a great collection of soundscapes and pieces, but sadly some of them are a little too droney/drawn out. That doesn't detract from how good the rest are though! Perfect stuff to just have on in the background as Music to Study To.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

Oh and as per usual, the ratings/rankings of last week's albums

The Jam - All Mod Cons - 4
U2 - Achtung Baby - 3.5
Paul McCartney - McCartney - 3.5
Bad Company - Bad Company - 3
Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) - 2.5
Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Shaka Zulu - 1.5
Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind) - 1

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

#0020: Pulp - Different Class An A+ start to the week, easily outclassing everything from last week. I vibed with pretty much every track here, sometimes in spite of how sex crazed Jarvis can be. "Common People" was always a GOAT contender, but I was completely taken by the scale of the whole album.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

It does! And I don't know what they do! It's an Keychron K5 Pro QMK/VIA, which it's a low profile keyboard which I've really fallen in love with.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

I've had this deskpad for 3 weeks now and these guests still haven't returned the boat hire yet. Some things never change...

Photo of a Rollercoaster Tycoon desk pad, showing a boat just outside the returning point of the boat hire.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

#0019: U2 - Achtung Baby I'd always kind of struck U2 off for just being middle of the road radio rock for dads growing up, but this was a bit of a surprise? It was definitely U2's sound, no surprises there, but I liked it more than I thought I would! Or maybe I've just always liked dad rock...

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

#0018: Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Shaka Zulu Honestly I don't know what to say about this one, it was a nice listen but with it being an a cappella album in a different language, I just could not connect with it.

Cover for Ladysmith Black Mambazo's Shaka Zulu

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

#0017: Simple Minds - New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) It doesn't get more 80s than this. I only knew them from Don't You, which wasn't here, and I don't think anything really matched up to that. A little too samey, nothing stood out but nothing was bad. At least you could always hear the bass.

Cover for Simple Minds' New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84)

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

#0016: The Jam - All Mod Cons Now this is the energy I've been missing all week! I've enjoyed a few of their tracks but I've not heard any from this, so it was fun to explore more of their work. English Rose was a pleasant if not jarring detour, but otherwise just a solid set of 70s punk rock songs.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 15/01/2025

#0015: Bad Company - Bad Company The most middle of the road radio rock album I've ever heard. Another one that feels strange on this list considering in the years prior bands like The Who, Led Zep, etc. were redefining hard rock. I still enjoyed the listen but I couldn't name any standout tracks.

The cover for Bad Company's self-titled album

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

#0014: Paul McCartney - McCartney A sprinkling of 3 or 4 great songs aren't enough to save this album from being nothing more than fine, which probably isn't good enough for your first album post-beatles. Definitely feels like something Paul made to keep himself busy while dealing with the breakup.

Cover for Paul McCartney's album "McCartney"

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 13/01/2025

#0013: Loretta Lynn - Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind) How was this released over a decade after the Elvis album and on the list? After the opening title track, I just found this an absolute slog to get through. And sadly, maybe the only woman in the list until almost March?

Cover for Loretta Lynn's Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Two weeks down, here's the current ranking! Going forward I'll probably just provide ranks of the current week. Anything with the same score could porbably be swapped around, it's a very tight fight for the top two. Glad I'm not doing this list chronologically, it's really helped keep things fresh.

Current ranking list:
1 Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners - Too-Rye-Ay
2 Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords
3 Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
4 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
5 James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
6 Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
7 Common - Be
8 Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours
9 Slint - Spiderland
10 The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
11 Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
12 The Electric Prunes - The Electric Prunes

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

#0012: Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley I feel like I've heard too much of Elvis's future work to get much enjoyment out of the offerings here, as catchy as it is with stuff like Blue Suede Shoes, Tutti Frutti, and I Got a Woman. It does make me want to watch the Luhrmann movie again though...

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

#0011: Common - Be A well made album that feels ahead of it's time for 2005 but it just it sadly just didn't click for me. This might be one I have to re-listen to when I'm in a different mood, and hope it hits different. Really enjoyed the bonus track at the end though!

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

#0010: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication The album I'm the most familiar with so far, with the opening half almost all being hits, but I think over the years I’ve become RHCP’d out. Porcelain and Road Trippin' were sides of them I hadn't heard before which I enjoyed, love that mellotron sound.

Cover for Red Hot Chili Peppers' Californication

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

#0009: Genius/GZA - Liquid Swords I’ve never really listened to anything Wu-Tang before, but I knew their reputation and unsurprisingly this completely lived up to it. Incredible from start to end, loved the samples, and I could probably listen to it 100 times and still get something new out of it.

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Howling Techie @howlingtechie.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

#0008: Slint - Spiderland Another set of slow jams, and maybe I’m not in the right mood for it but this post-rock malaise just isn’t working for me :( The long runtimes and consistent vibe made it hard for me to not zone out while listening, but maybe that’s intentional? Washer’s pretty good though!

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