iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 8h

The games on sale include the WW1 2 player epistolary game Love & Barbed Wire, the WW2 solo game Tail-End Charlie about life as a tail gunner in bomber command, A Cool and Lonely Courage about women spies in WW2 France, and The Long Road Home - a story game where you create an epic fantasy adventure

A cool and lonely courage cover, showing a female spy working a clandestine radio powered by a bicycle generator.

Love & Barbed Wire, showing kilted scottish soldiers resting up in a trench

Tail-End Charlie, with a black and white photo of the badly damaged tail of a Lancaster bomber, where the turret has been shot up

The Long Road Home cover, with a path through woods suffused by golden evening light

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 17h

I was particularly struck by this section in the results summary

RESULTS

We find that sycophancy is both prevalent and harmful. Across 11 AI models, AI affirmed users’ actions 49% more often than humans on average, including in cases involving deception, illegality, or other harms. On posts from r/AmITheAsshole, AI systems affirm users in 51% of cases where human consensus does not (0%). In our human experiments, even a single interaction with sycophantic AI reduced participants’ willingness to take responsibility and repair interpersonal conflicts, while increasing their own conviction that they were right. Yet despite distorting judgment, sycophantic models were trusted and preferred. All of these effects persisted when controlling for individual traits such as demographics and prior familiarity with AI; perceived response source; and response style. This creates perverse incentives for sycophancy to persist: The very feature that causes harm also drives engagement.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 29/09/2026

What’s a poster you had in your room growing up? I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be unique here!

A swedish Nautiskt Bildlexikon poster, showing schematics of sailboats, yachts, turrets, sextants and more.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 29/09/2026

I see there is a new point version of Affinity out. This screengrab shows the new features which are included in this hour long video they have produced www.youtube.com/live/Dqm9HHV...

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 28/09/2026

Just watched Fury (2014). Wow, that’s a bleak and uncompromising WW2 war film. No glorifying of war here. Tense and uncomfortable watch all the way through. www.imdb.com/title/tt2713...

Film poster for Fury, showing Brad Pitt standing in front of a Sherman tank with other crew around

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 26/09/2026

And fabulous writing - “Mercenary"? I prefer the term "adventure capitalist”

Rourke holding his pistol and looking pityingly at Milo as he says the words quoted above

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 25/09/2026

Fair do’s, it may be fixed in iPadOS27 which I’ve just installed. I wonder whether they have changed the metrics which the underlying apps are using to understand their safe area?

The context bar now appears under the text entry which is in the correct higher position

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 25/09/2026

Today I learned that the Nomad Games includes the sport of horseback wrestling!

A man on a black horse with a wide blue cloth belt is attempting to drag a man on a white horse with a red belt off his mount

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 25/09/2026

Case in point - ever since ipados 26, the text input area in the iPad Discord app is obscured by the keyboard area. Never used to happen. Compare iPadOS 26 with iPadOS 18 in these two screen shots (discord name obscured)

Screenshot showing the discord text input box covered up by the floating liquid glass context bar

Text area with nothing obscuring it (apart from where I blanked out the name of the discord)

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 25/09/2026

I like Macstories, and their indepth reviews, but the text I’ve hear really sounds like they drank the kool-aid from the designers of Liquid Glass. Having UI elements DOES NOT emphasise the content space. It obscures it.

Liquid Glass is still here, as is the focus on minimizing Ul chrome **and emphasizing the content space**

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 20/09/2026

More Greece sketches, this time of the coast at New Makri #sketches

Coastline with distant mountains and a rocky promontory with a small person just visible on it

A swimmers beach, dotted with beach umbrellas, bathers in the sea and a woman lounging on a towel.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 18/09/2026

Two more sketches from Greece, this time from Athens #sketching

The temple atop the acropolis peeking over the edge for the entrances to the theatre. Includes some light vegetation

I found a nice little square in the Plaka area with a view of the acropolis in the distance. Crowded little houses either side of the main view. A flag flies in a desultory fashion atop the walls.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 09/09/2026

There are many things I dislike about the stupid liquid glass UI introduced in iOS26, but the worst is the floating toolbar at the bottom which obscures text boxes in lots of apps (Discord here) While some could argue the developers should ‘fix their app’ it’s just a huge unforced error by Apple

Floating toolbar is floating over the text entry area

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 05/09/2026

@thoughtfuldane.bsky.social I have heard that Montsegur 1244 was possibly the first of a style of games which I very much enjoy, although I’ve never had the chance to play it. If you have the time, what was the inspiration?

One of the Cathar castles, high on a ridge

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 05/09/2026

In addition if you want to try your hand at an historical WW2 solo game, Knave of Cups also stock Tail-End Charlie - my game of life as a tail-gunner in WW2 bomber command. You can play cricket and go to the dances with your girl, but you chance of surviving matches that of real life - not good.

The book title in white over a black and white photo of the tail of a Lancaster bomber, showing the tail gunner's position

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 01/09/2026

Fabulous deal here! Amongst the excellent games you can find my game Tail-End Charlie - balancing life at home with hair-raising bombing raids. Do you dare finish your tour of duty?

The cover of Tail-End Charlie, a solo game about the tail gunners of Bomber Command. A black and white photo of the tail gunner position in Lancaster bomber. In the background is a blurred photo of the nose of a Lancaster with some crew visible

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 30/08/2026

So here is todays watercolour effort. I’m going to go back to give a darker wash on the inside of the ride on the right hand side, but I needed to let it dry thoroughly first. I swear the background trees got darker while I was painting! #watercolour #pleinair

Me holding up a watercolour of a funfair, with a couple of rides, a white van and some portaloos, with trees in the background

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 30/08/2026

I like that the beta BSky app tells me how long the thread is, and what I’m getting into!

The text of the first post, but with an additional dark grey on light grey rubric that says 1/104 posts

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 29/08/2026

Just watched Minority Report for the first time in ages. I was surprised how much I didn’t remember! I didn’t think the jet pack chase/fight scene held up so well, but the rest of it was still good. Colin Farrell played his part very well.

Minority report poster. Closeup on the right side of Cruises face, his hand is up in front with the ‘cyber gloves’ he uses to manipulate the UI. A fancy UI with concentric circles is in the foreground.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 25/08/2026

Funny you should ask - not played it yet, but this solo game is WW1 Belgium, where you play Alice, a spymaster looking to recruit and train spies and send them out on missions!

Box set of Queen of Spies, black and white lino cut style of hat, cigarettes, phone, glasses and drink

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 25/08/2026

No cheating. Share the last picture of the sky from your camera roll.

Nelson’s column with brooding clouds surrounding it

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 23/08/2026

Walking around London, done a couple of sketches

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 20/08/2026

Very pleased to see Ludwig return in season 2. It’s a charming programme

David Mitchell as the title character standing back to back with Anna Maxwell Martin playing his sister in law Lucy. He looks slightly bemused, she looks confident. The floor and background is chess themed

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 20/08/2026

Saw this gorgeous cloud while walking yesterday

Puffy grey and white cumulus cloud against a dark blue sky.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 20/08/2026

Oddly, it thinks that your post is marked as being written in Portuguese?!

The post you're replying to was marked as being written in
Portuguese by its author. Would you like to reply in Portuguese?

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 20/08/2026

Fascinating new insights into blood clotting mechanism!

Blood clots form in a fundamentally different way from previously thought, scientists have found, in a discovery they say will have far-reaching medical implications for wound care and the treatment of clotting disorders.
Working at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in France, an international research team investigated the chemical reaction that triggers clotting on a wound, sealing the site and keeping it free of infection. A cylindrical blood protein called fibrinogen forms a surface layer when exposed to air - the first stage of a healing process that leads to a protective scab.
The consensus view has long been that fibrinogen molecules accumulate on the blood's surface in a single, upward-tilted layer. The ILL experiments showed that in reality the protein stays flat and stacks up in multiple layers like sheets of paper.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 15/08/2026

Today’s #watercolour #PleinAir experiment - a lovely little sculpture in a small town

Watercolour painting of an abstract sculpture of two people looking at one another. One sits on a brick plinth. Behind them is a leafy green shrub, although the grass around is brown in the heat.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 14/08/2026

Reminds me of the piranha gun by Vector!

Vector, the villain from Despicable Me, wearing his orange tracksuit and aiming the piranha gun, which fires piranha at people.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 14/08/2026

I’ve seen this elsewhere with the artist cropped off and no attribution (or alt-text) but I’ve tracked it down - It’s by Morton Morland of the Times (14 Aug 2026) Roll on the investigation. Let’s hope it isn’t toothless.

Count Binface and Farage are in the background (Farage looks glum) while the receiving officer at the lectern says “The people of Clacton have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Standards Commissioner completing the investigation into Nigel Paul Farage”

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 12/08/2026

Additional eclipse photos using my cereal box, showing several phases of the eclipse

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 12/08/2026

A tiny bit of support for Ukrainian businesses 🇺🇦 this is my new portable watercolour paints

Box lid of Rosa Gallery watercolour paints, produced in Ukraine

On the right is the open paintbox with mixing areas. I’m partway though taking the protective labels off the paints. On the right is a little card included in the box which seems to be there so that I can record the sticky labels and know what paint is what when the time comes to replace them. A neat idea.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 12/08/2026

Look at what just arrived! I often think of crowdfunding as secret gifts to my future self, and this is a lovely surprise- cold city / hot war by @handiworkgames.bsky.social

Slip case front cover. Greyish background which looks like a high level street map. A dark red band across the centre has the name of both games on it in capital letters. COLD CITY and HOT WAR

Back of the slip case. The text says
COLD CITY
In the divided city of post-World War Il Berlin, terrors hide in the darkness. The legacies of war, suffering, and fringe science lurk beneath the surface, feared and desired by former allies and defeated enemies. Those that seek out these horrors are riven by suspicion, mistrust and political ambition. The four occupying powers of Britain, France, the USA and the USSR all have their own agendas. As they hunt down monstrous horrors, your characters are thrust into secret worlds, pursued by betrayal, and haunted by hidden agendas.

HOT WAR
London. Winter. 1963. It is a year since the Cold War went hot. This was not just a nuclear war.
Darker weapons were deployed, born of the suffering and fringe science of World War II.
Survival and re-building should be all that matter now. But human nature and the breakdown of society mean that everyone has their own ambitions.
Revised and reimagined from the first editions of the 2000s, Cold City and Hot War second editions bring fresh ideas and even greater historical depth to the mechanics and presentation of these critically acclaimed RPGs. Written by Malcolm Craig, illustrated by Paul Bourne and Jon Hodgson.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 10/08/2026

Reading this part from a BBC article about the failure of AI to positively impact work in IT shops caused a double-take on my part. Has ‘sprint’ really changed its meaning to this? Does it not just still mean the ‘cycle’ in scrum methodology? Are they wrong, or am I out of touch?

A "sprint" is term for a common period in technology companies in which
people work long hours in the weeks leading up to a release of a new
feature or product.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 09/08/2026

The second one is Julia and Emmerline both in a hot air balloon basket. Julia is delighted; Emmerline is terrified.

Sketch of a hot air balloon basket. On the left Julia is leaning out over the edge to see more. On the right Emmerline is leaning back from the edge of the basket, which she is gripping fiercely.

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 09/08/2026

Sketches of a couple of (summer fair) scenes from today’s game. In the first one Julia is feeding a giraffe

A lady in a long dress and a bonnet is up a ladder, feeding something to a giraffe. One of the ladies legs is just kicking back a little as she reaches out

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 08/08/2026

I feel a bit like Ginger in this cartoon 😂

What we say to dogs: Okay, Ginger! I've had it! You stay
Stay out of the garbage! Understand, Ginger? Stay out of the garbage, or else!

What they hear: blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah GINGER blah blah blah blah

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 08/08/2026

Another watercolour attempt - this time starting with an ink drawing and then adding a wash. Really needs some extra layers on the trees for the dark areas. #watercolour #pleinair

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 06/08/2026

I recently played the short and delightful Castle Nightingale. An asymmetric two player game with ninjas attempting to steal from a castle and a samurai trying to keep them out. Lots of flavour and fun.

Back of the Castle Nightingale box, showing the colourful boards and counters

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 30/07/2026

I’m proud of this particularly colourful photo - a bumblebee nestled inside a dark pink hollyhock flower

a bumblebee nestled inside a dark pink hollyhock flower. All the details of its hairs are captured beautifully on its abdomen

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 29/07/2026

Last day in the lakes, so last watercolour - this time from Whitehaven near the harbour. This is so much harder than the pen drawings that I’m used to doing! #watercolour #pleinair I’m not going to blame my tools, but I’ve definitely had some difficulties with the paint/mixer/brush that I’ve got.

Watercolour of Whitehaven harbour. Difficult to make out much if I’m honest!

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Alex @Plane Sailing Games @planesailinggames.com · 29/07/2026

Yesterdays watercolour. A dark and imposing day near Derwent Water. Still working on watercolour process, #watercolour #pleinair

Watercolour of dark hills and wooded islands and cloudy skies

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