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Matthew Pennell

@matthewpennell.com
149 followers 77 following 405 posts

Designer, developer, writer, reader, feminist, atheist, optimist. I believe there is goo in everyone.

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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 27/09/2026
First game of the NFL season airing at a reasonable time of day. Not super optimistic @wshcommanders.bsky.social can beat the defending champions though.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 27/09/2026
Spotify have added a "Turn on mixing" button to their Radio-variant playlists, and it's the most godawful thing ever. Presumably there's an AI deciding how and when to mix songs into one another, but it's doing it with the finesse of a two-year-old mashing food into their hair.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 26/09/2026
Finally did what I've been promising myself I would do since we moved here, and cycled out to the coast.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 25/09/2026
#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
Movie posters for 25th Hour, Toy Story 5, Dog Day Afternoon, and Mile End Kicks
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 22/09/2026
Just bought The Expense: A Telltale Series game, because after watching all six seasons and reading all 10 books this year apparently I haven't had enough Expanse.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 20/09/2026
Gave the demo for the upcoming Hellraiser: Revival game a try. The graphics are certainly impressive, spot-on character models for some of the creatures from the earlier movies. Plus Doug Bradley is back voicing Pinhead, so that helps.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 13/09/2026
I'm partway through watching Mile End Kicks, and last night we went to see Stars, Broken Social Scene and Metric. Kind of want to move to Canada now.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 11/09/2026
Signed by Monty himself?
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Reposted by Matthew Pennell
Rob Delaney @robdelaney.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Initially I was frustrated with the rise of self-checkout but I appreciated how stores passed the savings on to me rather than pocket the money, fire armies of workers & make me do a job I suck at. It’s also why I’m optimistic about AI! I have been kicked in the head by several horses.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 04/09/2026
Mine are particularly awful this week :/ #LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
The Living Daylights, Class, Stalker, and The Bob's Burgers Movie posters.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 03/09/2026
Cal Newport's latest newsletter contains this fascinating snippet: "Research has shown that referencing the fact that an LLM is an AI system in a prompt increases the chances that the LLM’s output will reflect sci-fi style narratives about AI running amok..."
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 30/08/2026
Also, I love this post by @ohhelloana.blog that Jon linked to from his post. All the same conclusions I am belatedly coming to.
ohhelloana.blog
Towards a personal online third-space
Transcription of my talk for the MK Geek Night meet-up. Sharing my personal reflections on how, after years of chasing IndieWeb perfection, I just accepted my imperfect website
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 30/08/2026
A lot of this post by @snook.ca resonates with me. Blog commentariat back-and-forth was such an important part of my professional development in the early 2000s, and I do miss how much easier conversations were. Early Twitter felt like it was the logical next step ... until the algorithms arrived.
snook.ca
Connections, Part Two: Social Connections Without Social Media - Snook.ca
Maintaining and creating friendships without social media
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 30/08/2026
Thinking a lot about inspiration today. Remembered I had saved a bunch of blog RSS feeds in Inoreader. Found a new post by Rob Weychert reviewing the new Andrew WK album, in which he made a passing reference to Steve Reich. So that's why I'm listening to Music for 18 Musicians this afternoon.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 28/08/2026
letterboxd.com
A ★★ review of Legend (1985)
I think I must have blocked out just how bad this film was. Had a lot more singing and dancing than I remembered, too.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 28/08/2026
Toss up between watching Dolly in Nine To Five or Tim Curry in Legend tonight. Legend won out.
Tim Curry in devil makeup in Legend (1985).
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 21/08/2026
Must be a thousand people up on this hill waiting for the Harry Potter steam train to go past on the iconic viaduct.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 15/08/2026
1977: Once in a Lifetime 2026: Once in the morning, once in the evening
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 13/08/2026
Why?
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 06/08/2026
This new Johnny Marr single sounds like a Foo Fighters album track, just with less overdriven guitars.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 31/07/2026
#LetterboxdFriday #LastFourWatched
Masters of the Universe (2026), Dances With Wolves, K-Pop Demon Hunters, The Odyssey
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 18/07/2026
#LastFourWatched #LetterboxdFriday #ButOnSaturday
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 15/07/2026
I don't think there can possibly be a company with a worse account management website than EE. I don't remember it ever actually working properly at any point in the last 10+ years.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 11/07/2026
Now that I finally finished watching all six seasons of The Expanse, I can get back to my movie backlog. Top of the pile right now: I Like Movies, Pilgrimage, Clockers, Bird, and the rest of the Dollars trilogy that weren't on Prime.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 06/07/2026
Dug through the decaying cardboard box in the shed that contains our abandoned CD collection, looking for albums that aren't on Spotify. So today I'm listening to Imperial Teen's excellent first album, the full Pi and Magnolia soundtracks, and English Dogs' punk classic Bow To None. #music
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 04/07/2026
Terrible user signup experience on TfL - enter your email, choose a password, but then it asks you to sign in using a Customer ID that they haven't supplied to you.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 28/06/2026
Been getting W Social ads in my Facebook feed this week. Based on this deep-dive they sound more than a little hinky: blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-unc...
blog.elenarossini.com
W Social uncovered: the reality behind the hype
An article dispelling myths about W Social, the new European platform that aims to rival X: it is a fork of Bluesky that shares many similarities with Eurosky and requires government ID to sign up.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 27/06/2026
Thought I'd have a play with the ATproto/standard.site stuff. Wasn't as straightforward as I originally thought, but I think I got it working in the end. matthewpennell.com/blog/standar... #indieweb
matthewpennell.com
Standard.site and ATproto publishing
The newest thing that one should be using is Standard.site, a shared lexicon for long-form publishing on AT Protocol, making content easier to discover, index, and move across the ATmosphere. Sounds cool, right? Wasn't as easy as I thought it might be.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 10/06/2026
Is that Mulligans?
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 10/06/2026
I've deliberately booked out of town next time I'm over there, so I can run through the beautiful Amsterdamse Bos instead of dodging the early morning delivery trucks in the centre of town.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 10/06/2026
Accomplished all of today's goals early by successfully buying tickets for a gig in December when they went on sale at 10am.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 07/06/2026
Have you seen Luke Dorny's Now Playing section? lukedorny.com/nowplaying
lukedorny.com
NowPlaying
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 04/06/2026
Just heard that John Blanche died earlier this week. His art brought so much of Warhammer to life.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 03/06/2026
I was just looking up who wrote the Velvet Underground song, "I'm Sticking With You," but thanks Gemini. #ai
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 29/05/2026
This is really cool and I need to find an excuse to use it: franktisellano.github.io/datatype/
franktisellano.github.io
Datatype — variable font that turns text into charts
An OpenType variable font that turns simple text expressions into inline charts. No JavaScript, no images — just type.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 26/05/2026
First day back at work after two entirely AI-free weeks. I'd almost forgotten what it was like, before.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 23/05/2026
It's a bit gaudi for my taste
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 19/05/2026
How is it that the Mortal Kombat movie looks terrible, but somehow the Street Fighter movie looks AMAZING?
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 14/05/2026
fwiw that's how it has always worked for me - the toggle in the top bar controls the visibility of the sidebar. Not sure where the default option lives though.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 12/05/2026
The Vueling members club ad hits different when you watched Weapons last night.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 10/05/2026
If you visit Rob Weychert's website on a Sunday, it just has a sign saying, "This site is closed on Sundays." robweychert.com
v7.robweychert.com
Rob Weychert | Art & Design
I make art and design, obsess over film and music, hoard trivial archival data, and share it all on this here website. Enjoy your stay.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 04/05/2026
Reinstalled Microsoft Flight Simulator to see if I could get it to play nicely across all three of my monitors. It did, and looks pretty cool. Still not interesting enough to play for any length of time though.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 30/04/2026
Bit of a lack of Umbrella Corporation too. Also it feels like Paul Walter Hauser is in literally EVERYTHING at the moment.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 30/04/2026
File under Cloud > Silver lining: www.theregister.com/2026/04/30/m...
theregister.com
Met's Palantir deployment turns heat on its own officers
: Federation warns members to ditch work devices off duty as force uses AI to probe 600+ cops
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 26/04/2026
Been out on the bike this weekend, for the first time this year. #Norfolk #cycling
matthewpennell.com
Cycling: Fakenham-Sculthorpe-Barsham-Walsingham
I decided the warm weather and light winds this weekend justified my first bike ride of 2026, up to the historic pilgrimage site of Walsingham and back.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 26/04/2026
Amazing results at the London marathon, new world records in both the women's and men's races.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 25/04/2026
"This is just like my record collection ... except mine is CDs." Is there anyone who feels more like old Woody Allen than Noah Baumbach?
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 25/04/2026
Hey, I want to be in American Graffiti too! It's just that I'd be cruising the strip in a 2013 Skoda.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 25/04/2026
Classic car show in town this morning. Seems to be very much a baby boomer hobby; I have no interest in cars as long as they get me from A to B.
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Matthew Pennell @matthewpennell.com · 24/04/2026
Started an audit of every little #UX annoyance on our site that I want to fix. So far I've covered the top 25 pages by average monthly traffic, and written ten pages of bullet points.
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