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I’ve asked ChatGPT ……
I’ve asked ChatGPT (chatgpt.com) to ….
- summarise my reading in 2025
- review a piece of coding for my chess game
- review my blog
- identify the artist of a painting I own
- find out the history of a local cycle shop sign
- categorise my favourite books of 2025
- create a comic book image of an elderly man playing chess with his 11 year old granddaughter
- summarise my favourite books of 2025 and to recommend some books
- report on the performance of a pension fund
- report on the performance of an alternative pension fund
- perform a compound interest calculation
- provide information on a medical diagnosis
In addition, I asked Claude (claude.ai) to ….
- Review a piece of coding for my chess game.
How did ChatGPT do?
ChatGPT did brilliantly – I’ve become an enthusiast. Being able to ask supplementary questions, provide more information, to re-phrase and to expand the query – it’s like communicating with a very smart human who has near-infinite knowledge!
How did Claude do?
Claude misidentified the programming language I used. Once corrected, it mistakenly identified a bug but made some useful formatting suggestions.
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An old textbook is ready for pulping
I bought the book An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming by Timothy Budd, three years ago for a mere £3.90 from Wob.com. I’ve always been interested in object-oriented programming but struggled to use the technique when designing my own code. Sadly, this book was no more successful than other books I’ve looked at.
Published in 1991 (30+ years ago!), I’m sure there are far better textbooks on the subject. It’s an old, university library book and withdrawn from the library in the early 2000s by the look of it.
It has a great cover but I think it’s had its day!
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Marty Supreme
A loud, shouty and messy film set around games of table tennis, with an odious, delusional hero. What’s to like? Not a lot! Far too long at 2½ hours, it went on and on and on. There wasn’t any story development just a series of noisy scenes leading nowhere.
A tale about a loud and delusional American – no thank you.
However, Gwyneth Paltrow was delightful. She was in one of my favourite films, Hard Eight, and was also delightful in the film Sliding Doors.
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Honeywood Museum, Carshalton
On a horrid, grey and drizzly day I visited the Honeywood Museum in Carshalton, Surrey. It’s a small, delightful and quirky museum and well worth a visit. There’s a mix of subjects over several floors. There’s a fabulous billiard room!
I visited specifically to see the Cinemas of Sutton exhibition. In a small room there are a handful of displays. Whilst not worth going out of one’s way to visit, the rest of the house certainly justifies making the effort.
All photos taken with an iPhone – they aren’t great. I had low expectations given the weather, and indoor pictures taken without flash (I never use flash!) are usually disappointing.
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Nonsuch Park / Ewell
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Beddington Park on a grey day
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Some snow is better than no snow
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Greyscaling your iPhone
I read an article in the New York Times over Christmas (I Killed Color on My Phone. The Result Shocked Me – subscribers only). The author had discovered that you could use a greyscale colour scheme with your iPhone rather than the usual colour scheme. Why would you do this? Well, to make the phone less addictive! Colour is attractive, greyscale is not.
So I thought I’d give it a whirl. Step 1 switches the iPhone to greyscale (or to switch it back to colour). Step 2 enables you to switch back and forth between greyscale and colour by triple-clicking the side button. Early days but I’m still in greyscale mode and only switching temporarily when using the Photos app.
1. How to Enable Greyscale on iPhone
Open Settings
Tap the Settings app on your iPhone.- Navigate to Accessibility
Scroll down and select “Accessibility.” - Select Display & Text Size
Under the “Vision” section, tap “Display & Text Size.” - Turn On Color Filters
Find “Color Filters” and toggle it to “On.” - Choose Grayscale (ie greyscale!)
Select “Grayscale” from the options available.
2. Creating a Greyscale Shortcut to switch between colour and greyscale
To easily switch between colour and greyscale, you can set up a shortcut:
- Go to Accessibility Shortcut
In the Settings/Accessibility menu, select “Accessibility Shortcut”. It’s right at the bottom. - Set Up Color Filters
Choose “Color Filters” to allow quick toggling by triple-clicking the side button.
- Navigate to Accessibility
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My favourite books of 2025
Author Title (13 fiction) My comments Jacob M. Appel The Man Who Wouldn’t Stand Up Described in 2013 as “The funniest, wittiest, nicest book you could hope to read.” It still is. Alexander Baron The Lowlife A 1960s tale of a low-life gambler living in a rented room in London’s East End. Absolutely brilliant. Elizabeth Day Scissors, Paper, Stone Wife and daughter of a man in a coma face up to their relationships. A fabulous read. Louise Doughty A Bird in Winter Middle-aged woman goes on the run from a corrupt boss. A tense, well-written thriller. A fabulous read. Anne Fine Raking the Ashes Tilly struggles with her partner’s dishonesty. A superb read. Margaret Forster Over A father’s obsessive research into his daughter’s accidental death wrecks his marriage. A powerful tale of grief. Claire Fuller Unsettled Ground Fifty-year-old brother and sister living with their mother struggle with past and present. A terrific tale. Tessa Hadley After the Funeral Superb collection of short stories. Meena Kandasamy When I Hit You A shocking, thought-provoking account of an Indian woman’s experience of domestic violence. A shattering read. Sue Miller The Good Mother Recently divorced mother with a 4-year-old daughter finds sexual happiness but runs into trouble. John Niven The Fck-it List* A dying man seeks revenge in Trump’s America. A fabulous read. Liz Nugent Unravelling Oliver Why did writer Oliver assault his illustrator wife Alice? A fabulous tale. Cornell Woolrich I Married a Dead Man A train crash and a case of mistaken identity. Despite improbabilities, a fabulous tale. Author Title (6 non-fiction) My comments Rory Carroll Killing Thatcher Fabulously detailed account of the plot to kill Margaret Thatcher at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Eugenia Cheng Is Maths Real? A really interesting book about maths. Dunt & Lynskey Conspiracy Theory A brilliant history and psychology of conspiracism. Abi Morgan This Is Not a Pity Memoir Superb memoir of dealing with the consequences of her partner’s brain injury. Christine Negroni The Crash Detectives You should feel safer flying after reading this — but you might not. Matt Taibbi Divide American Justice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. A terrific and shocking read. 
Summary of my favourite 2025 books by author gender (using ChatGPT)
Female-authored books: 12 (63%)
Male-authored books: 6 (32%)
Co-authored books: 1 (5%)
Strong tilt toward women writers, especially in fiction and memoir—very consistent with your interest in emotional acuity, relationships, and moral complexity.
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Found on a walk to Banstead
On a six or more miles walk, through the woods to Banstead and back, my son and I picked up some odd items.
At Café Chai my abruptness re how long we had waited to have our order for coffees to be taken narked the waitress who had just started her shift. Merry Christmas!
We noticed an old shop sign in Belmont, near the the California pub, but I’ve been unable to find out anything about it.
ChatGPT couldn’t locate it but came up with this mildly interesting observation:
The hand-lettered sign, cream/yellowed background, and serif/swash lettering strongly suggest mid-20th century, roughly:
- 1930s–1960s (possibly lingering later if never updated).
The heavy weathering and paint ghosts imply it closed a long time ago and the sign was simply painted over rather than removed — very typical of small high-street shops.
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