Simon Smith

@sitorimon

Creator behind Higher Plain Music, Higher Plain Games, I Love Disaster Movies and various other indie creative projects. Content and service designer by day. Indie games / music for the soul.

929 Following292 Followers1,133 Posts

Website Website Website Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and sitorimon.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Jul 6

Voting with my wallet. I do not support the closure of the PS3 and Vita stores, revoking licences for content bought with a buy button, nor the end of physical media. I have bought every PlayStation device to date (even the PSTV). That ends now.

Photo showing my ps plus subscription cancelled next to some of my physical PS3 and PS4 games.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· May 12

Subvert.FM launched today, and I am one of the artists on the platform. Just one track today, but my entire back catalogue will be available by the end of the week. Subvert is a co-op music distribution platform that I'm super excited about. www.subvert.fm/sitorimon

Photo of Sitorimon, showing that he is a co-owner of Subvert.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Apr 3

Thank you Grammerly for trying to correct 'enshitifying' to 'enhancing'. This tool has become infinitely buggier and worse at correcting my terrible spelling since its AI integration.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Jan 20

DuckDuckGo running an AI public vote. So far it is looking very comprehensive. 93% say no.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Dec 24

Been wanting to watch A Place Further Than The Universe since I heard about it. Perfect festive eve cosy yet snowy anime watching. Loving it so far.

Blu ray of A Place Further Than The Universe with a thumbs up.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Nov 20

My YouTube views are up significantly and most of the jump seems to be down to YouTube advertising but not through me. Its other people advertising my videos. I am going to leave this experiment running to see what impact it has. The CPM is almost zero for these views which seems odd.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Nov 8

When YouTube very randomly promotes a niche video. Appreciate the exposure, but it is such a strange video to throw into the mainstream. First time in about 5 years anything has been picked up for a wider audience test.

Youtube analytics graphics showing my rhythm action Steam Next Fest video getting nearly a million impressions.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Oct 20

Muting ai art forever is one step closer towards better mental health today.

Screeshot showing #aiart is muted in my Blusky settings

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Oct 12

The enshitification of the community elements of YouTube continues as the comments box gets small and thin. Often, it looks totally empty on the latest update. I hate it. It is a UX study in real time. Also ShiliASMR is still goated.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Oct 8

The odd state of YouTube discovery where my video about a games handling model is well on course to get double the views of the initial review! I know its a shorter video, but I generally don't find video length to be a huge influence on my own channels views.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Oct 7

Trust my internet to conk out when a new Tori Amos album and tour are announced! The tour poster looks like a Final Fantasy side quest mega boss and I am here for it.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Sep 21

LinkedIn's hellscape gets even worse as it'll use your profile/data for gen-AI training. Seems easy enough to turn off, but I wonder how effective that really is in a morally bankrupt world...

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Sep 7

The #Enshitification of the internet continues. I don't own or use a VPN but in order to access any sports videos on YouTube, you are forced to share location data. A sad data claw, invasion of privacy, and step back to regional rules in a global world. Anti consumer. Anti trust.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Sep 6

Everybody's Golf Hot Shots has arrived! Wahoo. Hope it's another great entry in the series...

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Sep 5

E-On, just because the Ofgem price cap has increased, that doesn't automatically mean your prices should rise to match that cap. The way these email notifications are worded is deceptive and abhorrent. The email is titled "Simon, your prices are going up." What a sorry state of business.

E-ON email says "From 1 October, Ofgem's price cap is going up" from an email titled "Simon, your prices are going up."

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Sep 3

Wow. One more year, and I can take Higher Plain Games to the pub!

Youtube notification explaining Higher Plain Games is 17 years old today.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Aug 25

Accidently took a photo that I think is a future album press pic.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· May 20

I need this Vivi mug cup <3 The hat comes off and everything. I'll never drink from it, but it will be mine!

VIvi from Final Fantasy 9 as a cute mug where the hat can be removed and liquid put into the body.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· May 12

Goodbye Soundcloud. I will not support a product that is not transparent about its AI learning and generation practices.

Screenshot of the deleted account message from Soundcloud.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Apr 16

Part of my day job is content design, so I want to make more of an effort to talk about that field (user experience, service design etc). Today I received a survey and it's the first time I've seen the toggle function used for every question. Thankfully, you can only turn one option on at a time!

Screenshot of a question where a toggle turns the yes and no answers on and off.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Apr 8

It finally arrived! Tori and the Muses in book form. Plinky plonk.

Front cover of Tori and the Muses - a children's book - showing a young Tori and a magical piano.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Mar 3

I love accidently spotting things I've written quoted in the wild. I never know who reads any of it so when I see Higher Plain Music or Higher Plain Games quotes on websites, posters, press kits, game pages etc it makes it all worthwhile.

Poster for a gig by the band Tummyache, which uses a quote from Higher Plain Music "Grungy punk anthems for everyone tired of the modern day rat race" and it's 9 out of 10 rating.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Feb 12

This is my local MP's response to my request for support for creative artists who are being pushed aside in favour of AI. The UK Government's Generative AI / Copyright consultation for creative works is still open for comment. I'll post my submission publicly soon. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Dear Simon Smith

Thank you for contacting me about artificial intelligence (AI) and its use within the entertainment industry.

Arts and culture are central to our national story, yet the industry faces great uncertainty from emerging technologies. I know concerns have been raised about generative forms of AI, which have the potential to imitate artist’s voices and appearances, and about existing legislation covering intellectual property rights.

I am glad this Government is urgently considering the issues around generative AI training and copyright.

This is a complex topic, and it is important to recognise the value of human-centred creativity.

At the same time, I believe that the Government’s approach needs to support growth in both the creative industries and the AI sector. We must find a balance.

I am therefore very pleased that the Minister for AI and Digital Government and the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism have already held roundtables with the creative and AI sectors to discuss these issues. It is important to take the time to hear stakeholder views and carefully consider the issues and their impacts.

More broadly, I welcome the Government's commitment to supporting the creative industries. It was positive to see funding extended in the Budget for vital programmes and tax relief for creative organisations, as well as an expansion of the Creative Careers Programme.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this serious issue.

Yours sincerely,

Chris Vince
Member of Parliament for Harlow

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Feb 4

Love it when AI adds key moments to videos several minutes after the video finishes. The continued collapse of our Internet information is so depressing and completely avoidable if tech was being used responsibly.

Screenshot of YouTube showing a 3 minute 36 second video with key moments timestamped at 5:01, 5:37, and 5:42 being highlighted as the big wow moments.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Jan 4

I always think of Austin Wintry about to drop some kind of mega mix of his works to date when I see "Wintry Mix" on my weather app.

Weather app describing the weather today as "Wintry Mix"

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Jan 2

Last.FM stats showing my allegiance to all things Tori Amos. There aren't many things I'm in the top 1% on but listening to Tori's music will be one of them haha.

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Dec 6

Postie has delivered the goods. Time for a Tori Amos evening as I wade through about 300 Bandcamp Friday emails. It sounds so crisp and clear, I need more tours getting this treatment pretty please.

Tori Amos' new double CD Diving Deep Live on a table next to headphones

Simon Smith@sitorimon· Nov 28

My latest #vgm #gamemusic haul. I didn't even know the Final Fnatasy VII Rebirth Gold Saucer disc existed! Happy bunny and lovely to have some CDs too.