iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Now with a working link.... Do you like cryptic crosswords that have a message all the way round the edge? That have some yellow squares in them? That mention Yazoo? Then this may be for you. greengrocergames.uk/xwrds/answer... Share and enjoy - and let me know how you do. #crossword

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 9h

Mr Gumpy's Outing as 30 near-identical 20 minute episodes where the same thing happens over and over again - but a bit differently

040

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 9h

Thanks - copied the link from a Facebook post. *shakes fist* Zuckerberg!

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 14h

Do you like cryptic crosswords that have a message all the way round the edge? That have some yellow squares in them? That mention Yazoo? Then this may be for you. greengrocergames.uk/.../answerim... Share and enjoy - and let me know how you do. #crossword

A crossword grid with retro clip art on it showing a ringing telephone, a 1940s woman talking on the phone, a shopping list and some pens and stars and question marks.

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Miles Davis is a lot more accessible than I expected. Sounds like background music on Bargain Hunt or something

051

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The Scritti paradox. Had the artists he liked sounded like Scritti Politti, he would not have felt the need to write heartfelt homages about them

021

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Also never read more than one book by the same person. Or poem, or listen to more than one nasally sung dirge

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The Remains of the Day is really good and quite short.

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Not Ishiguro? I'd read him and Vargas Llosa before winning (but MVLl only because I did a degree in it)

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Per Reddit, all US cops have poor hearing because of the gun training. True? Mad country if so

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Sorry Last Exit, Ellington's Law still applies and you ain't got that swing

011

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Pato Banton's coke vs weed wars continue here. Going with the righteous UB40 over Richie and the white powder brigade

021

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I'm still not seeing an answer to, if AI is so brilliant and useful, why the companies are giving it away for a loss rather than using it themselves to do useful things that would make them money

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

At which stage it will be revealed that 99% of what people are doing with AIs isn't worth the 10p it will cost them to do it

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The big AI companies can't reach the try-to-make-money-from-this stage soon enough IMO

100

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

AI does seem to be good at industrialising various forms of annoying, exploitative or trust-abusive online behaviour, to the point where useful systems will/have become unusable unless they have big ditches dug round them

112

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Please do put the seven minute version if you like (proud nominator here)

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Siedah Garrett has had quite the career. Helped make the two best tracks on Bad in her 20s, then joined the Brand New Heavies (???), popped up on various funky house classics in the 00s and helped write Dreamgirls. Hats off.

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You have to know the Odyssey really well I think. Of course when Joyce was writing all the good ol' Oirish folk lived and breathed it like that guy in Brian Friel

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

David Mitchell is great at writing evil characters who casually step over boundaries in jaw-dropping ways. Then in retrospect you think, of course they would do that

150

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Thanks, I was at Saint Etienne's last gig of their last tour and just got in!

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Ugh the whole point of getting relegated is to get away from guys like them

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Main: Mel and Kim - Respectable (1987) Also: UB40 - Rat In Mi Kitchen (1986) Billy Ocean - Get Out Of My Dreams Get Into My Car (1988) Pato Banton - Pato's Opinion Part 2 (1989) Bonus Bonus: Aswad - Don't Turn Around (1988) Thanks!

160

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I always felt bad for the monitors. Everyone shouts and shakes their fists at the monitor but the real culprit is the CPU

031

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai was number 1 in it towards the end of June

111

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

There is a sales chart incidentally. It's here: www.officialcharts.com/charts/singl... The top 5 is kind of plausible, but then again Alex Warren is still number 8 after 84 weeks so it's not the good old days exactly

officialcharts.com

Official Singles Sales Chart | Official Charts

Compiled by the Official Charts Company, the UK's biggest selling singles of the week, based on sales of downloads, CDs, vinyl and other formats, across a seven day period.

210

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If it got so widespread that it was literally uneconomical for shops to stock singles, or for record companies to produce them, they might have had to think about it

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Going to see my favourite ever band Saint Etienne on their last ever tour at the weekend. Thrilled. One final chance to try and work out what Bob does

020

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I don't think you can exclude streaming because such a high percentage of people never buy any music (the weirdos). I'm wondering if maybe additions to playlists would be a better metric than plays. Prob opening the door to massive rigging by bots though.

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Have you heard Pepper, the song the Butthole Surfers made to satirise Loser and other Beck songs, which they hated, but which became their most enduring track?

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm told that Spotify doesn't have the data to make this distinction, but if it did/could/would, that's absolutely what's needed.

110

Reposted by James BC

John Henderson @enigmatistelgar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Did you know that @the-independent.com is planning to shelve its cryptic crossword at the end of October? Get involved, by contacting the Indy directly, by retweeting this post and/or by commenting at fifteensquared.net/2026/09/21/i.... Save the Indy #crossword!!

fifteensquared.net

Independent Cryptic Crossword – the future – Fifteensquared

22830

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Listeners have always played the same songs over and over again (with streaming, choices might even be slightly more varied) but crucially it didn't count for the chart - so why does it now?

BBC news extract: "But critics say that streaming services are increasingly encouraging listeners to play the same playlists of familiar songs over and over again, creating a bottleneck that makes it harder for new music to break through."

120

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

If I don't like the way I'm treated at the shopping centre you know I can just phone up the boss and get my way. That's right! ONE RING TO RULE THE MALL

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

My debut as a published (cryptic) crossword setter! 🖊️⬜⬛🎉🍾 www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

churchtimes.co.uk

Crossword No. 1790

The Church Times

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I don't think the lead news story on Radio 1 should be "some rich b-hole is moaning about Britain"

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

It's pretty obvious a hefty chunk of US Spotify accounts are wrongly marked as British for chart purposes. Ella Langley is one clue but the smoking gun is Iris being the third most reliable evergreen chart entry, after only Mr Brightside and Dreams. No way are British people that crazy for Iris.

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I think it's because it's Scottish in origin - equivalent to MacLemore

110

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Shame DVDs have gone, this would be an A+ deleted scene

010

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Bob Vylan flying out to replace Macklemore last minute

021

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Beating Penta in Mexico City is probably Roman Reigns's most impressive victory since he beat Brock Lesnar in 2022.

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

How about a nice not-too-challenging themed cryptic crossword this afternoon? greengrocergames.uk/xwrds/rabbit... Share and enjoy, and let me know how you got on.

A crossword grid covered in retro clip art of rabbits.

012

Reposted by James BC

Wrestling Brain @wrestlingbrain.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Will be posting this every year for the rest of my life

8469139

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Latest #TOTP on the iPlayer has the most incredible coup de theatre. Lisa Lopes's silhouette on a video wall for most of the performance, then it comes to her verse and... it wasn't a video wall! It was just a screen! She's here! Never seen anything like it

131

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

It's daft. If Colin Jackson got cancelled there would be people saying he was never any good at hurdles

000

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Borges would write about a guy doing that (but not do it himself) (or produce an interesting story)

010

Reposted by James BC

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 01/09/2026

god I'm actually quite gobsmacked by Starmer's decision, it's just so......small, so revealing of his complete and utter lack of interest in Parliament and parliamentary politics, until the very end

1081094120

James BC @jbcworldwide.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Hot Chip but they are nothing like any era of Radiohead

010