Ben Francis
@tola.me.uk
Krellian Founder. W3C Invited Expert on Web Apps and the Web of Things. Previously: Mozilla & Google. https://tola.me.uk
When addressing shortcomings of current models LLM advocates like to say that the models are the worst they are ever going to be, but what if the training data is the best it's ever going to be? #AI
This chart shows the total number of Stack Overflow questions asked each month. As you can see, AI summaries in Google and AI coding tools have nearly killed the site. It is only a matter of time before the site shuts down completely. The golden age of independent web is over.
![This result shows s the total number of Stack Overflow questions asked each month. THE SQL query is https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/1926661#graph:
```
SELECT
DATEFROMPARTS(YEAR(CreationDate), MONTH(CreationDate), 1) AS [Month],
COUNT(*) AS [Questions]
FROM Posts
WHERE
PostTypeId = 1
GROUP BY
DATEFROMPARTS(YEAR(CreationDate), MONTH(CreationDate), 1)
ORDER BY
[Month] ASC
```](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c2swjkkci7dljjizpgye45kv/bafkreifmonjn4eplva4uyfudo5bwc3u7axoxkuu6f3i44264xp64p3yysa@jpeg)
January 7, 2026 at 2:55 PM
When addressing shortcomings of current models LLM advocates like to say that the models are the worst they are ever going to be, but what if the training data is the best it's ever going to be? #AI
📢 Announcing WebThings Gateway 2.0 webthings.io/blog/2025/12...
Build your own smart home hub. The WebThings community are very excited to announce the WebThings Gateway 2.0 release, with a new groups feature and W3C WoT standards support.
Build your own smart home hub. The WebThings community are very excited to announce the WebThings Gateway 2.0 release, with a new groups feature and W3C WoT standards support.
webthings.io
December 19, 2025 at 6:17 PM
📢 Announcing WebThings Gateway 2.0 webthings.io/blog/2025/12...
Build your own smart home hub. The WebThings community are very excited to announce the WebThings Gateway 2.0 release, with a new groups feature and W3C WoT standards support.
Build your own smart home hub. The WebThings community are very excited to announce the WebThings Gateway 2.0 release, with a new groups feature and W3C WoT standards support.
Reposted by Ben Francis
Excited to welcome @jamiedriscoll.bsky.social to @nclgreenparty.bsky.social today
Jamie thinks deeply about how we tackle inequality and the impact of a broken economic system on people and planet
As former North of Tyne Mayor he brings so much to our teams working with our communities. Welcome!
Jamie thinks deeply about how we tackle inequality and the impact of a broken economic system on people and planet
As former North of Tyne Mayor he brings so much to our teams working with our communities. Welcome!
December 17, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Excited to welcome @jamiedriscoll.bsky.social to @nclgreenparty.bsky.social today
Jamie thinks deeply about how we tackle inequality and the impact of a broken economic system on people and planet
As former North of Tyne Mayor he brings so much to our teams working with our communities. Welcome!
Jamie thinks deeply about how we tackle inequality and the impact of a broken economic system on people and planet
As former North of Tyne Mayor he brings so much to our teams working with our communities. Welcome!
Hands off our BBC Donald. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d...
BBC to fight Trump’s $10bn lawsuit, saying it should be dismissed
Corporation will argue it did not have rights to air film in US and it did not cause serious reputational harm
www.theguardian.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Hands off our BBC Donald. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/d...
Copilot just correctly diagnosed that my regular expression wasn't matching because it contained invisible zero-width space characters. The problem? It put them there in the first place. #DontTrustAI
December 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Copilot just correctly diagnosed that my regular expression wasn't matching because it contained invisible zero-width space characters. The problem? It put them there in the first place. #DontTrustAI
📣 Strawman Proposal: Web Thing Protocol HTTP Sub-protocol w3c.github.io/web-thing-pr...
A dedicated HTTP-based application protocol for the Web of Things.
A dedicated HTTP-based application protocol for the Web of Things.
Web Thing Protocol
w3c.github.io
December 2, 2025 at 5:04 PM
📣 Strawman Proposal: Web Thing Protocol HTTP Sub-protocol w3c.github.io/web-thing-pr...
A dedicated HTTP-based application protocol for the Web of Things.
A dedicated HTTP-based application protocol for the Web of Things.
We told our five year old daughter that this box contains the missing matter of the universe, and now she won't let us get rid of it 😂 #H2G2
November 25, 2025 at 9:39 PM
We told our five year old daughter that this box contains the missing matter of the universe, and now she won't let us get rid of it 😂 #H2G2
The ambitious plans for a "forest city" east of Cambridge, where a million people would live in modular wooden buildings inter-weaved with pedestrian streets, tram lines, ancient woodland and 12,000 acres of newly planted native forest. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
How ambitious ‘forest city’ plan for England could become a reality
Cross-party coalition behind proposals hope eco-friendly scheme for million people could begin before end of decade
www.theguardian.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:49 AM
The ambitious plans for a "forest city" east of Cambridge, where a million people would live in modular wooden buildings inter-weaved with pedestrian streets, tram lines, ancient woodland and 12,000 acres of newly planted native forest. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
An average AI prompt consumes 0.3-3Wh of electricity (2-3g CO₂). 3Wh could power my LED desk lamp for an hour.
In the context of the average UK resident's daily power consumption of 12,000Wh that's not awful, but it's also not awesome. Use sparingly.
www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-foo...
In the context of the average UK resident's daily power consumption of 12,000Wh that's not awful, but it's also not awesome. Use sparingly.
www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-foo...
What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?
Very small compared to most of the other stuff you do.
www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
An average AI prompt consumes 0.3-3Wh of electricity (2-3g CO₂). 3Wh could power my LED desk lamp for an hour.
In the context of the average UK resident's daily power consumption of 12,000Wh that's not awful, but it's also not awesome. Use sparingly.
www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-foo...
In the context of the average UK resident's daily power consumption of 12,000Wh that's not awful, but it's also not awesome. Use sparingly.
www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/carbon-foo...
Twitter ("X") is down due to a Cloudflare outage. How exciting.
November 18, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Twitter ("X") is down due to a Cloudflare outage. How exciting.
Say hi to Kit. 🦊 www.firefox.com/en-US/kit/
Say hi to Kit
The Firefox brand is getting a refresh and you get the first look
www.firefox.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Say hi to Kit. 🦊 www.firefox.com/en-US/kit/
I currently have availability for part time consulting/contracting work. I'm a full stack Software Engineer with 15+ years of commercial experience, specialising in Web Apps and the Web of Things. Please let me know if I can help with anything. #OpenToWork tola.me.uk/consulting
Freelance Web Consulting - Ben Francis
Bespoke websites, web apps and web things.
tola.me.uk
November 11, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I currently have availability for part time consulting/contracting work. I'm a full stack Software Engineer with 15+ years of commercial experience, specialising in Web Apps and the Web of Things. Please let me know if I can help with anything. #OpenToWork tola.me.uk/consulting
An interesting new range of Matter smart home devices from IKEA www.theverge.com/news/814241/...
Ikea’s new smart home collection is entirely Matter-compatible
Ikea’s affordable smart home devices will now work with other brands.
www.theverge.com
November 7, 2025 at 11:11 AM
An interesting new range of Matter smart home devices from IKEA www.theverge.com/news/814241/...
New blog post: Introducing the Web Thing Protocol tola.me.uk/blog/2025/11...
A dedicated real-time protocol for the Web of Things.
A dedicated real-time protocol for the Web of Things.
Introducing the Web Thing Protocol
I am excited to share that the W3C Web Thing Protocol Community Group has published the first draft of the Web Thing Protocol WebSocket sub-protocol, a dedicated real-time protocol for the Web of Thin...
tola.me.uk
November 6, 2025 at 1:08 PM
New blog post: Introducing the Web Thing Protocol tola.me.uk/blog/2025/11...
A dedicated real-time protocol for the Web of Things.
A dedicated real-time protocol for the Web of Things.
Still within the margin of error, but an opinion poll showing the Greens ahead of both Labour and Conservatives is quite a moment in British politics. 💚
Westminster Voting Intention:
RFM: 32% (=)
GRN: 17% (+2)
CON: 16% (-1)
LAB: 16% (=)
LDM: 12% (=)
SNP: 2% (=)
Via @findoutnow.bsky.social, 29 Oct.
Changes w/ 22 Oct.
RFM: 32% (=)
GRN: 17% (+2)
CON: 16% (-1)
LAB: 16% (=)
LDM: 12% (=)
SNP: 2% (=)
Via @findoutnow.bsky.social, 29 Oct.
Changes w/ 22 Oct.
October 31, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Still within the margin of error, but an opinion poll showing the Greens ahead of both Labour and Conservatives is quite a moment in British politics. 💚
Dia is still the best attempt at this "AI Browser" thing so far IMO. Despite my serious misgivings about the whole concept, it kind of feels like what a web "user agent" was meant to be all along.
October 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Dia is still the best attempt at this "AI Browser" thing so far IMO. Despite my serious misgivings about the whole concept, it kind of feels like what a web "user agent" was meant to be all along.
Only just noticed Firefox now has a chatbot sidebar to chat with Claude, ChatGTP, Gemini and Mistral. But unlike Dia, Comet and Atlas it cannot use open tabs as context for prompts - which is by far the most useful feature of chatbots in a browser. support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-...
Client Challenge
support.mozilla.org
October 23, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Only just noticed Firefox now has a chatbot sidebar to chat with Claude, ChatGTP, Gemini and Mistral. But unlike Dia, Comet and Atlas it cannot use open tabs as context for prompts - which is by far the most useful feature of chatbots in a browser. support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/ai-...
"This Jen, is the Internet." #AWSOutage
October 21, 2025 at 10:44 AM
"This Jen, is the Internet." #AWSOutage
Reposted by Ben Francis
So Nvidia has now invested billions in both OpenAI and xAI... to enable them to buy Nvidia GPUs. The deal has a "unique deal structure, backed by the GPUs as opposed to the company".
I can't see any way this could possibly end badly... 🫧 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
I can't see any way this could possibly end badly... 🫧 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
xAI to Raise $20 Billion After Nvidia and Others Boost Round
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is raising more financing than initially planned, tapping backers including Nvidia Corp. to lift its ongoing funding round to $20 billion, according to ...
www.bloomberg.com
October 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM
So Nvidia has now invested billions in both OpenAI and xAI... to enable them to buy Nvidia GPUs. The deal has a "unique deal structure, backed by the GPUs as opposed to the company".
I can't see any way this could possibly end badly... 🫧 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
I can't see any way this could possibly end badly... 🫧 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Proud to have Krellian featured in the ICC's “Opportunity of a Lifetime” campaign.
"The climate crisis is not only the defining challenge of our time, it is also the greatest opportunity to build a more sustainable and inclusive future." iccwbo.org/news-publica...
"The climate crisis is not only the defining challenge of our time, it is also the greatest opportunity to build a more sustainable and inclusive future." iccwbo.org/news-publica...
Empowering startups to seize the climate opportunity of a lifetime - ICC - International Chamber of Commerce
Sage Foundation is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime. In partnership with Village Capital, it welcomes 165 purpose-driven startups...
iccwbo.org
October 3, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Proud to have Krellian featured in the ICC's “Opportunity of a Lifetime” campaign.
"The climate crisis is not only the defining challenge of our time, it is also the greatest opportunity to build a more sustainable and inclusive future." iccwbo.org/news-publica...
"The climate crisis is not only the defining challenge of our time, it is also the greatest opportunity to build a more sustainable and inclusive future." iccwbo.org/news-publica...
"Why I gave the world wide web away for free" www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
"If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders." -- Tim Berners-Lee
"If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders." -- Tim Berners-Lee
Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee
My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for
www.theguardian.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:57 AM
"Why I gave the world wide web away for free" www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
"If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders." -- Tim Berners-Lee
"If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders." -- Tim Berners-Lee
Android is eating the world. www.theverge.com/news/784381/...
It always seemed inevitable that Android and Chrome OS would eventually converge in some way, but I was cheering for the other team. The one built on the open web.
It always seemed inevitable that Android and Chrome OS would eventually converge in some way, but I was cheering for the other team. The one built on the open web.
Google’s Android for PC: ‘I’ve seen it, it is incredible’
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon teases his first look at Google’s merger between Android and ChromeOS.
www.theverge.com
September 24, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Android is eating the world. www.theverge.com/news/784381/...
It always seemed inevitable that Android and Chrome OS would eventually converge in some way, but I was cheering for the other team. The one built on the open web.
It always seemed inevitable that Android and Chrome OS would eventually converge in some way, but I was cheering for the other team. The one built on the open web.