On Brushes

Introduction

When I lived on the Wirral in the 1980s, I was lucky enough to live close to an art shop called Tapley's run by the very knowledgeable Irene Brown. One day I was chatting to her and mentioned that, no matter how careful I was, my brushes didn't last very long; be they sable or synthetic. She reached under the counter and produced a small box of "special" brushes from Isabey of France. This was my introduction to the wonders of Kolinsky sable brushes: I've never looked back.

Current situation

Decades later I've still using Isabey brushes, but my main source of Kolinsky sable brushes has shifted to Rosemary's Brushes.

DuckDuckGo, Firefox And Containers

Introduction

I make a lot of use of Firefox containers in my daily workflow via two extensions:

• Multi-Account Containers. This allows users to separate different online identities into colour-coded tabs, keeping cookies and data isolated for each account. This helps manage multiple accounts, such as work and personal, without needing to switch browsers.
• Temporary Containers. This allows users to open tabs in disposable containers, isolating data like cookies and storage for enhanced privacy. These containers are automatically deleted after use, helping to prevent tracking across different websites.

In particular, I use it to open all my DuckDuckGo searches in a specific container. It's not because DuckDuckGo is likely to be tracking me, but just to be doubly sure they can't.

I have DuckDuckGo set as my default search engine. Every time I open a new tab I can type a search query and the results are shown in a specific container. When I follow a search link it's opened in a temporary container which is deleted when I close the tab: ideal for preventing the build up of cookies and site data.

Until recently, that is.

AI And Event T-Shirts

Introduction

I've seen lots of event t-shirts & polo shirts: both printed and embroidered. I began to wonder just how hard could it be? To find out, I designed, and had printed, something for this year's King in the North at Haxby in October.

The main problem was the artwork. I'm not really gifted with a pencil, so I had to turn to the new AI tools to compensate for my lack of skill.

Now read on all the gory details.