Hi

I’m Jack Reid. Here I mostly update the blog and keep track of things I’m reading or watching. I post few photos as I take them.

I’ve worked in software engineering for a few years now and I’m a manager now. If you’re interested, you can read a bit more about my work history here. Something that’s a common thread through my whole time and BuzzFeed and earlier is a focus on accessible web technology, there’s a bit more about that on the work page too.

Recent posts

No swim

Havel Canal, Germany

2023-05-14

BuzzFeed News

links buzzfeed media capitalism

2023-05-10

I’d like to pour one out for BuzzFeed News, which was unceremoniously taken behind the woodshed this month. I have shared my thoughts about my time at BuzzFeed, much of which was spent with the News division, and most of which was motivated by that division. Now they’ve finally gone and killed it, the most worthwhile thing that media corporation ever did. I have a lot of fun and messed up memories from my time at the Fun Internet Company.

Links, May 2023

links indieweb art music nature berlin

2023-05-09

First, whimsy. I like it when people do something that could have been straightforward and to the point, but instead they inject a little bit of charming madness in there, the unpredictable human touch. Here is a band website that is old fashioned, simple, and yet deeply weird. Give it a minute. Here is a clock website that shows an excerpt from a book for every minute of the day, a bit like my favourite film installation, The Clock by Christian Marclay.

Woods

Potsdam, Germany

2023-05-07

Good screen, bad screen

media books music

2023-04-25

We are about to share a media experience together. Please switch off and put your phone away. Please switch off your smart watch and annihilate any other illuminated sources of time. Please strive to be entirely within the world created by the shared experience rather than in your own life or even your own body, whose use should be constrained to the sense organs need to consume the experience and the parts required for breathing, crying, and perhaps laughing.

Overwhelming good

journal berlin

2023-03-23

This morning I was sitting at my desk with my eyes half closed. I started to yawn and I stretched my arms out and back. Something in my chest, around my sternum, made a dull pop. I didn’t realise I had anything to pop in there. The last couple of weeks have been full of great new things, and I’ve totally worn me out. We moved into our new, more permanent home in Berlin.

Beachy

Rixdorf, Berlin

2023-02-26