Michael Williamson
@zwobble.bsky.social
Depends on the build, but I'd say no. I find the cast useful if you want to keep enemies away while you make a slower attack, but some combination of careful positioning, high instant damage and status effects can also work. Quite common for me to not use the cast at all for bosses.
December 8, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Depends on the build, but I'd say no. I find the cast useful if you want to keep enemies away while you make a slower attack, but some combination of careful positioning, high instant damage and status effects can also work. Quite common for me to not use the cast at all for bosses.
Ted Heath, I believe!
November 15, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Ted Heath, I believe!
If it were to happen, one bonus of Starmer leaving Downing Street before the next election is that it preserves an excellent pub quiz question: who was the last prime minister to both become and stop being prime minister as a consequence of a general election?
November 15, 2025 at 11:24 AM
If it were to happen, one bonus of Starmer leaving Downing Street before the next election is that it preserves an excellent pub quiz question: who was the last prime minister to both become and stop being prime minister as a consequence of a general election?
Is it not also counter to the (defunct?) messaging around sticking plaster politics? In my ignorance, GP appointments seem like the sweet spot for landing that message: doing something upstream that's more cost-effective, while very visible given it's the most common NHS interaction (and complaint?)
October 2, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Is it not also counter to the (defunct?) messaging around sticking plaster politics? In my ignorance, GP appointments seem like the sweet spot for landing that message: doing something upstream that's more cost-effective, while very visible given it's the most common NHS interaction (and complaint?)
I thoroughly enjoyed Some Desperate Glory, so this is more than enough of a nudge for me to put The Incandescent on my list! Although I need to read the sequel to the Tainted Cup first.
September 19, 2025 at 9:08 AM
I thoroughly enjoyed Some Desperate Glory, so this is more than enough of a nudge for me to put The Incandescent on my list! Although I need to read the sequel to the Tainted Cup first.
Contradiction: Spot The Liar is an absolute delight, although admittedly a different beast to the FMV cut scenes in Red Alert 2 (one of the contenders for games I've sunk the most hours into)
July 10, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Contradiction: Spot The Liar is an absolute delight, although admittedly a different beast to the FMV cut scenes in Red Alert 2 (one of the contenders for games I've sunk the most hours into)
Given the state of the official opposition, having Labour MPs who are willing to scrutinise and challenge legislation seems like something that might actually help the government, if only they worked with them, rather than lurching between stubbornness and desperate, last-minute concessions
July 4, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Given the state of the official opposition, having Labour MPs who are willing to scrutinise and challenge legislation seems like something that might actually help the government, if only they worked with them, rather than lurching between stubbornness and desperate, last-minute concessions
Having just watched an advert at the cinema showing someone screwing up a recipe and having Gemini tell them how to turn it into something else, I was (1) horrified (but not surprised) at the suggestion of blindly following the instructions (2) pondering: how could you regulate this, if so inclined?
June 15, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Having just watched an advert at the cinema showing someone screwing up a recipe and having Gemini tell them how to turn it into something else, I was (1) horrified (but not surprised) at the suggestion of blindly following the instructions (2) pondering: how could you regulate this, if so inclined?
That last line is one of my favourite lines of writing in any video game. The whole game is so full of character without feeling overwrought.
June 5, 2025 at 10:25 PM
That last line is one of my favourite lines of writing in any video game. The whole game is so full of character without feeling overwrought.
Description becomes prescription becomes (ossified) ideology?
May 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Description becomes prescription becomes (ossified) ideology?
Reposted by Michael Williamson
it feels almost indecent to say this since the primary reason for removing children from poverty is simply removing children from poverty. but it is really well established fact that child poverty is extremely expensive in the long term and this policy costs money.
Ministers privately ruling out scrapping two-child benefits cap.
Sources says government is ‘not going to find a way’ to ditch cap despite predictions that child poverty levels will soar.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Sources says government is ‘not going to find a way’ to ditch cap despite predictions that child poverty levels will soar.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Ministers privately ruling out scrapping two-child benefits cap
Sources says government is ‘not going to find a way’ to ditch cap despite predictions that child poverty levels will soar
www.theguardian.com
April 22, 2025 at 8:32 AM
it feels almost indecent to say this since the primary reason for removing children from poverty is simply removing children from poverty. but it is really well established fact that child poverty is extremely expensive in the long term and this policy costs money.
Reposted by Michael Williamson
Hands down my fabourite thing I’ve read this week. I laughed, I cried a bit (I lost my own dad recently), I will be quoting this next time someone says something pompous about what it means to be British. Enjoy your eccentric parents while you still have them substack.com/@tomcox/note...
Tom Cox on Substack
Some Notes About My Dad That I Have Made In My Notebooks:
My dad has come to an arrangement with the public pool in Nottinghamshire where he swims: after everyone else has got out of the pool, he is ...
substack.com
April 11, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Hands down my fabourite thing I’ve read this week. I laughed, I cried a bit (I lost my own dad recently), I will be quoting this next time someone says something pompous about what it means to be British. Enjoy your eccentric parents while you still have them substack.com/@tomcox/note...
One thing I keep meaning to read up on is Japanese railway companies that (as I (mis)understand it) make their money from real estate / investment around the train stations, and why that model isn't used more widely. In my ignorance, that seems like a natural way to fund rail investment?
March 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
One thing I keep meaning to read up on is Japanese railway companies that (as I (mis)understand it) make their money from real estate / investment around the train stations, and why that model isn't used more widely. In my ignorance, that seems like a natural way to fund rail investment?
Reposted by Michael Williamson
Really important and moving account of state failure in this weekend's @financialtimes.com that is free to read for all here:
My brother, the NHS and the inquest into a needless death
My brother spent the last hours of his life trying in vain to get basic help from the NHS. Why?
www.ft.com
February 22, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Really important and moving account of state failure in this weekend's @financialtimes.com that is free to read for all here:
Maybe I should come back and atone for my sins.
February 11, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Maybe I should come back and atone for my sins.
In meetings where a group has to pick from a bunch of options, I've found reframing the question as "For each option, what would need to be true for it to be a good idea?" to be so much more constructive than the default mode of "Let me explain why my idea is right and yours is wrong"
February 5, 2025 at 10:38 AM
In meetings where a group has to pick from a bunch of options, I've found reframing the question as "For each option, what would need to be true for it to be a good idea?" to be so much more constructive than the default mode of "Let me explain why my idea is right and yours is wrong"
Having played Dark Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring, I think Sekiro is the one that is the most consistent and where the fights always feel fair. I still died hundreds of times, but I always knew what I did wrong, rather than feeling wronged by a weird hitbox or some janky attack.
January 23, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Having played Dark Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring, I think Sekiro is the one that is the most consistent and where the fights always feel fair. I still died hundreds of times, but I always knew what I did wrong, rather than feeling wronged by a weird hitbox or some janky attack.
I loved playing this. It really feels like a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and executes it brilliantly without any filler. I think the only other game I've played that felt as tight is Hades (which is maybe my third favourite game of all time?)
January 23, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I loved playing this. It really feels like a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and executes it brilliantly without any filler. I think the only other game I've played that felt as tight is Hades (which is maybe my third favourite game of all time?)
I just read the pasta interview, and it's a delight
January 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
I just read the pasta interview, and it's a delight
My only knowledge of Robert Pattinson comes from the stalker anecdote and this glorious interview fragment
January 21, 2025 at 11:57 PM
My only knowledge of Robert Pattinson comes from the stalker anecdote and this glorious interview fragment
Reposted by Michael Williamson
Just incredible things from the VLC folks
January 11, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Just incredible things from the VLC folks
Reposted by Michael Williamson
This is the important part.
January 9, 2025 at 8:19 PM
This is the important part.
It's possible that I may have played too much Sekiro.
A truly impressive feat of beating Genichiro on the first battle by @zwobble.bsky.social 😎
#sekiro #gaming #respect #shinobi
youtu.be/fw-ai3-eo_8?...
#sekiro #gaming #respect #shinobi
youtu.be/fw-ai3-eo_8?...
Sekiro: Genichiro Dies Once
YouTube video by Michael Williamson
youtu.be
January 9, 2025 at 8:34 PM
It's possible that I may have played too much Sekiro.
As ever, I have mixed feelings about having a company with a 3 trillion dollar market cap using my free project. Ah well, too late to change the licence now!
January 5, 2025 at 6:39 PM
As ever, I have mixed feelings about having a company with a 3 trillion dollar market cap using my free project. Ah well, too late to change the licence now!
One of my open source projects converts Word documents into HTML, since Microsoft's own conversion tends to be unusable for many use cases.
Today, I discovered one of the users of the project is: Microsoft! github.com/microsoft/ma...
Today, I discovered one of the users of the project is: Microsoft! github.com/microsoft/ma...
markitdown/src/markitdown/_markitdown.py at main · microsoft/markitdown
Python tool for converting files and office documents to Markdown. - microsoft/markitdown
github.com
January 5, 2025 at 6:34 PM
One of my open source projects converts Word documents into HTML, since Microsoft's own conversion tends to be unusable for many use cases.
Today, I discovered one of the users of the project is: Microsoft! github.com/microsoft/ma...
Today, I discovered one of the users of the project is: Microsoft! github.com/microsoft/ma...