Life Out of Order, a novel by Audrey Niffenegger, sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife

26 October 2026

Twenty-three years after writing The Time Traveler’s Wife, American author Audrey Niffenegger, has published a sequel, Life Out of Order.

The focus of the follow up moves to Alba, the daughter of Henry DeTamble, who had a rare genetic disorder that caused him to travel through time, often with little warning. In Life Out of Order, Alba has inherited her father’s disorder, and also finds herself moving back and forth through time.

You’d almost have needed to be able to travel through time when Niffenegger penned the original novel in 2003, to have been able to envisage the world of 2026:

Alba DeTamble is a time traveler, slipping unpredictably through decades like her father before her. But the hardest thing she carries isn’t the burden of futures she can’t understand, or pasts she cannot change — it’s a secret: she is in love with two different people.

Each of them offers a different life. Zach lives in the present and can’t follow her when she disappears. Oliver can travel through time, just like she can.

As Alba careens from time to time, moving from the riot-torn Chicago streets of her present to the eerie, timeless Yellow House, and into the digital corridors of the Museum of Lost Souls and a flooded future London, she must face a question she can no longer avoid: how is it possible to love, and live a meaningful life, in an increasingly troubled, fractured world?

Alba was seen as a child in the 2009 film adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife, directed by Robert Schwentke, which featured Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana.

Listen to iPod music on the 404 page of the Apple Music website

26 October 2026

It’s almost twenty-five years since the iPod arrived.

To mark the launch of Apple’s iconic digital music player in November 2001, music lovers can relive the early days of the iPod music listening experience on the Apple Music 404 page.

404 page? Read all about them here.

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X: the little social network with less than a billion members

23 October 2026

If social media/social network platforms were compared to planets, then X, previously Twitter, would be the Pluto of the solar system; a dwarf planet.

Because unlike its peers, X, twenty years after launching in 2006, is still well short — make that a long way short — of joining the one-billion-member club.

Should we take a leaf out of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) handbook, when they re-determined Pluto’s status? ¹ Should commercial social platforms with fewer than one-billion users, be classified as dwarf platforms?

According to Search Engine Land, X has about five-hundred-and-sixty million users. Facebook (FB), launched in 2004, has some three-billion members. Instagram, albeit a FB offshoot, has a similar user count. This from launching in 2010. TikTok, online since 2016, now has nearly two-billion members.

A chart of the top social media/social network platforms ², based on monthly active users, published by Salesforce, has X ranked at a lowly number twelve. On the other hand, it is twice as popular as LinkedIn. The news isn’t all bad for X.

Everyone loves dwarf planets

I don’t like bagging out dwarf planets, so I’ll go easy on X. For a social media platform, the old micro-blogging service — is X still considered a micro-blogging service? — punches above its weight.

The brand is ubiquitous. Only five-hundred-and-sixty million people call themselves members, but find me someone who hasn’t heard of X. Though we mustn’t forget X stands on the shoulders of a (somewhat) giant called Twitter.

Even before the current owner took over, resulting in what seemed like daily headlines for months, nearly everyone knew the Twitter name. Something someone said or did on Twitter, was often reposted in mainstream news reporting, and often as an embedded tweet.

As of January 2024, X was the sixth largest referrer of website traffic, although the figure sounds more impressive than it is. X accounted for a modest two-point-three percent of referrer traffic, but was still among the top platforms, albeit well overshadowed by Google.

There’s billion member potential here, but where is everyone?

Twitter and X, were, and are, well, different

The platform is two-decades old. Why has it not enjoyed the stratospheric-level success of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others?

When decentralised social platform Mastodon rose to prominence in 2022, people were hesitant to get involved. They found Mastodon was way too confusing. Why couldn’t it “be easy to figure out like Twitter”, was a common refrain a few years ago.

But if Twitter was so user-friendly then, why did so many people stay away?

Part of the answer lies in the platform’s early simplicity. In the beginning Twitter was a text only medium. Further, posts/tweets were restricted to one-hundred-and-forty characters. It was like text messaging for the web. A lot of people found the tweet limit as challenging as signing up to Mastodon. Others, of course, thrived on this brevity.

But there was no support early on for images and video. People didn’t like walls of text, even when they weren’t particularly sizeable. Things changed though. Today, you’d probably be hard pressed to find a post without a photo or animation. And X users who are prepared to pay for premium membership, can write posts containing up to twenty-five thousand characters.

Had X, while still Twitter, launched with imagery and a larger character limit, it could well be part of the billion member club by now.

Then there is the elephant in the room; the current owner. In taking the platform in the direction he did, some users, existing and potential, were put off. To say the least.

If I were to make the simplistic assertion that half of people are conservative in their politics, and the other half something else (not the way things really work of course), then possibly alienating potentially half of a user base isn’t clever.

This will probably be why X will not achieve a membership of one billion. X is a planet that may well be doomed to remain a dwarf.

1. In 2006 no less. Oh, the irony. ↩
2. If you consider the likes of YouTube, WhatsApp, and Telegram to be social networks. ↩

Sales of cappuccino sachets soar as cost of living bites in Australia

22 October 2026

Martin Brown, who is the general manager of Nestlé’s coffee and dairy business in Australia, said cappuccino sachets have been the “fastest-growing part of the market” since 2021.

We keep a few boxes of cappuccino sachets in the kitchen cupboard for days when we don’t want to walk all of five to ten minutes to a nearby cafe for whatever reason. Too hot, too wet, whatever.

Driving isn’t feasible either, unless we decide to go to a neighbouring suburb. Parking is a lottery where we are, and the only spot I’d find would probably be outside our building anyway.

Despite the rampant popularity of sachet and instant coffee though, none of the cafes I go seem to be adversely effected. They’re trading, and appear to have the same number of staff working there.

We are talking about a busy retail and residential precinct though. But it’s the same story on the NSW Central Coast. None of the places we go to there have closed or reduced staff. Not so far anyway.

And may it stay that way.

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The Last Best Place On The Internet, a book about Wikipedia, by Richard Cooke

21 October 2026

Sydney, Australia, based author and journalist Richard Cooke explores the inner workings of online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is his recently published book, The Last Best Place On The Internet:

In this entertaining book, journalist Richard Cooke delves into Wikipedia’s fabled creation, its extraordinary success and its profound effects on politics, business, literature and society. He explores the site’s shifting role in establishing fact in a time of deep uncertainty about truth and authority; the often hilariously fierce debates between ‘Inclusionists’ and ‘Deletionists’ about what is worth knowing and preserving, and who gets to decide; and the great peril Wikipedia faces today from bots, political division and artificial intelligence.

The challenges confronting Wikipedia are certainly pronounced. Let’s hope Cooke’s work does not become a commemoration for the venerable online repository of knowledge and information.

Cloudstreet by Tim Winton wins number one in Top 100 Australian Books poll

20 October 2026

Listeners of ABC Radio National recently voted Cloudstreet, the 1991 novel by Fremantle based Australian author Tim Winton, to the top spot in the Top 100 Australian Books poll.

Cloudstreet won a number of literary awards, including the 1992 Miles Franklin prize for Australian literature, and went on to be adapted for stage and television. It is quite the yarn:

After two separate catastrophes, two very different families leave the country for the bright lights of Perth. The Lambs are industrious, united and — until God seems to turn his back on their boy Fish — religious. The Pickleses are gamblers, boozers, fractious, and unlikely landlords.

Chance, hardship and the war force them to swallow their dignity and share a great, breathing, shuddering joint called Cloudstreet. Over the next twenty years they struggle and strive, laugh and curse, come apart and pull together under the same roof, and try as they can to make their lives.

Other titles among the top ten include The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden, and The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

Meta subscription plans are turning links into gold

20 October 2026

Charlotte Tobitt, writing for Press Gazette, about subscription plans Meta introduced last month, that effectively monetise the posting of links from some Facebook and Instagram pages:

Under the Meta One trial, those restricted from posting links would have to pay $49.99 (£37.65) per month to post eight links, $149.99 (£112.98) to post 20, or $499.99 (££376.60) for an unlimited number (alongside the other perks included).

These are monthly fees, not annual. Three-hundred-and seventy-pounds — for the “unlimited” monthly plan — equates to more than seven-hundred Australian dollars.

Seven-hundred Australian is considerably less than the annual hosting fees I pay for this website, on a yearly basis. Not to mention I have the option to host multiple websites under the same plan. And obviously post as many links as I want. It could be though Meta subscribers on the unlimited plan can post unlimited links across an unlimited number of Meta hosted pages. Good for them.

But the premium for convenience, that is, not having to pay to for website hosting, a domain name, nor oversee website maintenance procedures, seems exorbitant to say the least.

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Taika Waititi film adaptation of Klara and the Sun slammed by critics

19 October 2026

Not the news I wanted to hear: Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Klara and the Sun, has been slammed by critics at preview screenings. The consensus seems to be the New Zealand/Aotearoa filmmaker overdid his signature whimsy bringing Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, which I liked, to the big screen.

This was something I wondered about after seeing the trailer in June. At the time I wrote if Taika Waititi is directing, we’re going to get Taika Waitit. But his flamboyant style is perhaps not ideal for a novel such as Klara and the Sun, the tone of which could be best described as sombre.

Other adaptations of Ishiguro novels better — perfectly in fact — reflect their haunting source material. The Remains of the Day, and Never Let Me Go, directed by James Ivory, and Mark Romanek respectively, among them. The book is better than the film? Seems the case for Klara and the Sun.

AI, absence of Eisenberg, Fincher, see The Social Reckoning flop

16 October 2026

Brent Lang writing for IndieWire:

With only one member of its creative team returning, Sony Pictures shied away from selling it as a sequel, but the studio still sprinkled bits of “The Social Network’s” DNA into promotional materials.

The Social Reckoning, directed by Aaron Sorking, a continuation of sorts of 2010’s The Social Network, is poorer, it seems, for the absence of David Fincher, and Jesse Eisenberg. Fincher’s obligations to Netflix kept him away, while Eisenberg, among other things, didn’t want to repeat himself.

Recent controversies surrounding AI, the Hugging Face hack, and claims the technology could result in humanity’s extinction, have also apparently proved to be significant distractions.

You can’t do anything without AI somehow meddling. Despite The Social Reckoning not doing too well at the box office, I’d still like to see it, though that will probably be by streaming.

Richard Linklater to spend twenty years making another film

15 October 2026

The American director, whose credits include Boyhood, and the Before trilogy, began filming Merrily We Roll Along in 2019. The story spans twenty years, and Linklater wants the characters, portrayed by Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein, and Ben Platt, to be seen ageing over this time.

He has to be commended for not trying to achieve this some other way.

Stories playing out across lengthy time frames are Linklater’s forte. Boyhood, was filmed over twelve years, while the three Before stories were made nine years apart, between 1995 and 2013.

With Merrily We Roll Along we have to wait until around 2040 to see if the two decade time investment was worthwhile. I doubt Linklater will disappoint though.

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