Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.

Blog post at

Some people play #mahjong as a game of skill, others   play it as a game of luck. An interesting PhD thesis on Chinese players in Manchester explores the latter. In my blog I try to summarise the various key points & reconsider my approach. In the modern style, link follows.

I read a PhD thesis on Chinese mahjong players in Manchester. Here's my interpretation of it - https://t.co/xLvZF1WyT8 - many interesting points to consider... #mahjong

Interested in being a WRC certified ref? Or just want to understand the WRC rules better? We're offering a FREE seminar! Spaces are limited so please do register by visiting our website. WRC Rules > Rules Seminars.

Whole event has been excellent so far, balanced and thoughtful - definitely worth your time to watch the recording later (link in thread).

Consider this: if Digital ID becomes mandatory in the UK, you could need government approval to sign any petition at all. This could be your last freely signed petition. I've signed it, please join me. Petition link: Do not introduce Digital ID cards https://t.co/1Kr8z5tLRF

For 48 hours you can get 45% off any of my books on the @pragprog website. There are usually only one or two chances in an entire year to get a discount like this, so act fast. All books are DRM-free and available in a number of digital formats. Go, go, go!

48 hour FLASH! 45% off with code FLASHSALE @pragdave felt like stirring things up - he just put nearly every title on sale!

Competitive #excel is strangely compelling - definitely worth watching the world championship in December.

Current musical obsession: Buckethead. Just — wow.

On how the man who played Leatherface in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" taught me the meaning of life: https://t.co/kPbRX7AVHf

Over the past 6 months, I had the opportunity to try out lots of different mahjong rulesets. Of course I played lots of WRC rules Riichi, M-League rules Riichi, and various 3 player rulesets. But I also got to play JPML-A rules, MCR ("standard" Chinese rules), Taiwanese mahjong

IMHO - Open AIs strategy is to spread their faulty GPT chatbots into as many parts of the US & UK govts as possible so that when the AI bubble bursts - govts will keep paying & bail them out. Govts should renege on their deals w/OpenAI now, before the AI bubble bursts.

Being seduced by the AI business pitch takes 1 hour: "We will put AI into everything in your organisation to improve all productivity". Investment in the LLM tech takes a few weeks to organise and - few months to integrate. Realising that the AI tech you invested in creates

Yes, we are at peak AI. But the AI companies are attempting to push their faulty models into all aspects of govt and industry to spread out the impact from the AI bubble bursting.

GenAI isn't just a technology; it's an informational pollutant—a pervasive cognitive smog that touches and corrupts every aspect of the Internet. It's not just a productivity tool; it's a kind of digital acid rain, silently eroding the value of all information. Every image is no

I remember being excited about AI. I remember 20 years ago, being excited about neuroevolutionary methods for learning adaptive behaviors in video games. And I remember three years ago, mouth watering at the thought of tasty experiments in putting language models inside

In 1990, Kyrgyz writer Chinghiz Aitmatov popularized the term "mankurt": a former human with an enslaved mind. Big Tech wants to make us mankurts and AI is their weapon. https://t.co/n0RM6qkUNH

I don’t want to panic anyone in Bristol but