Ross Hori

writer | designer | photographer

#Digital Culture

Commentary, observations and discussions on different aspects of digital culture, and how it is affecting our everyday lives.

Are we asking too much from AI? Probably.

Work: writing, research and design
Wednesday, August 9th, 2023

Sturgeon's law says 90% of everything is crap. With AI involved [keep reading...]

Graphic showing a neon figure deep in contemplation

How I improved my personal productivity using Apple Reminders

Work: writing, research and design
Thursday, August 3rd, 2023

Every few months I review my approach to personal productivity. It keeps me fresh and offers a different perspective on how to organise my work. The change also stops the process from becoming stale.

My last iteration involved a Ninox based database that wasn't as easy to use as I hoped. Ever one to use whatever tools are freely available, I decided to adopt Apple Reminders. Reminders is a task app much the same as Microsoft's ToDo, or Google's Tasks. You add items to lists, which you can add notes, due dates and other bits of information to. It's freely available across the Apple [keep reading...]

Screenshot of the Apple Reminders app, showing task lists and activities

SEO murdered decent writing (then danced on its grave)

Work: writing, research and design
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2023

I wasted an hour looking for something interesting to read.

Every page opened, every paragraph read was an incomprehensible nightmare. Stories didn't flow. Repetition interrupted thoughts. A mass of meaningless words thrown [keep reading...]

Graphic illustration showing silhouetted shadowy figures clustered around a memorial

Glamour Bulgaria shows us the way forward with their AI generated magazine cover

Work: writing, research and design
Thursday, July 27th, 2023

The July '23 issue of Glamour in Bulgaria features Lisa Opie in a shocking pink Barbie inspired outfit. Except it's a photo that was never taken. Instead it was generated in a machine.

As I understand it, Opie supplied a tonne of photos, which were used to train an AI and prompted to generate images. These were then vetted (check the hands - [keep reading...]

Cover image from Glamour magazine in Bulgaria

Why I dropped out of social media’s “expat” communities

Play: photography, road trips, art etc
Wednesday, July 26th, 2023

When I moved overseas I found myself in a swirl of "ex-pat social media". Join in, went the advice, interact with people. Connect with people on Twitter. And dutifully I obeyed.

Yet within a few weeks I realised the whole experience was dragging me down. I grew tired of reading about another misunderstanding with language. Another "top 10 tips to learn the culture". The general negativity that came with it. Conversations weren't. Like any other form of social media they were just people venting and expecting others [keep reading...]

Photograph of a Mario soft toy left abandoned on a street in Nagasaki, Japan

Is Bing’s image creator depressed?

Work: writing, research and design
Wednesday, July 19th, 2023

I'm a bit worried about Bing's Image Creator. I tried to generate an image of a happy young girl and her father. After a couple of near misses, it finally decided it had detected content that goes against its own [keep reading...]

An AI generated image of 4 silhouetted figures contemplating life

Meta’s Threads is here. Is it the end for Twitter?

Work: writing, research and design
Thursday, July 13th, 2023

After weeks of speculation, it finally happened. With much fanfare, Meta launched its Twitter competitor - Threads - and the world of social media caught fire.

Within 24 hours of the app appearing, it had tens of millions of users. Countless words were written about how Musk's bizarre purchase of the Internet's town hall was finally unravelling. Some people yelled with joy. Others screamed with frustration. Most telling of all, "experts" in this new ecosystem promised to show you how [keep reading...]

Illustration of a blue bird sitting on a thread of rope, which is on fire.

Experimenting with Bing Image Creator: is there a time limit for saved creations?

Work: writing, research and design
Thursday, June 8th, 2023

After a week and a half away having fun, I opened Bing's image creator to see what "I" could come up with. What I found was some of my early creations had vanished.

It looks as if it keeps about 2 weeks worth of images, although I can't be certain. I will take a look back in a few days and [keep reading...]

Panasonic LUMIX: an old camera makes a return

Play: photography, road trips, art etc
Monday, June 5th, 2023

With my Nokia Smartphone starting to look a little tired, thoughts turned to a new camera. I love my FujiFilm X-T20, but it can be a bit bulky and inconvenient. I wanted something small and compact, good enough for a bit of ad hoc snapping. Maybe some [keep reading...]

Black and white photo of a while kei van parked in overgrown thickets

You’re not that interesting

Play: photography, road trips, art etc
Monday, May 29th, 2023

Once I was an avid people watcher and street photographer. I'd catch those quiet, yet public moments we so like to see and dwell on. I had walking routes and lenses and the skills to make a decent fist of it. Throw me in somewhere unfamiliar and I'd bag a shot [keep reading...]

A black and white photograph of two men in an Osaka street rushing from right to left

How to stop inaccurate content from harming your brand

Work: writing, research and design
Thursday, May 25th, 2023

34% of Generation Z have quit social media completely.

This stat is doing the rounds again and being used to justify everything from why mental health breaks are [keep reading...]

Graphic showing the effect of relevance on a statistic

The selfie post on LinkedIn

Update
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023

I think I’m going “selfie blind”.

I barely notice them now as they drift past the timeline.

Experience has taught me the post is likely to be self-indulgent, shallow and lacking in any real insight. The poster is chasing “engagement” through pithy self-revelation that lacks any meaning or depth. Far more effective if they happen to be young, “conventionally attractive”, female.

There’s more insight in the posts that share charts, illustrations and photos of work completed.

Which begs the question…

Is it just me, or has the age of the selfie started to wane?

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