I really enjoyed Computerphile's video about how ZIP tools can be used for abstract tasks that you might initially think were way outside their scope... like working out how close the genetic relationship between two species is, or which human languages are most similar to one another!

This post is secret; you can only find it via my RSS feeds (and places which syndicate them). It's okay to talk about it or link to it, though. Thanks for being part of RSS Club! I spent most of a day getting my new development environment set up, because I kept hitting issues that […]

My new employer sent me a laptop and a monitor, which I immediately added to my already pretty-heavily-loaded desk. Wanna see?

Off to my first day at Firstup. Gotta have an induction: get my ID badge, learn where the toilets are, how to refill the coffee machine, and all that jazz. Except, of course, none of those steps will be part of my induction. Because, yet again, I’ve taken a remote-first position. I’m 100% sold that, […]

As the UK’s heatwave continues, the dog and I were delighted that this morning was sufficiently overcast that we could manage a proper walk without completely melting. Her breed copes badly with the heat and we’ve lately had to keep her indoors or in the shade more than she’d like, so a chance to run […]

I know how I’m SUPPOSED to read it, but when I see this I can’t help but imagine a conversation like… “What shall we call our car wash?” /waves hand/ “I dunno.”

Ruth and I sometimes send one another the 'person rowing boat' emoji when no other emoji seems to fit, and I can't even remember why we started.

This week I (again) helped share my knowledge about a nearby stone circle and henge with a group of children from the local school. And I was overjoyed to receive the most-delightful handmade 'thank you' card from the class.

This morning, Google pulled a video from YouTube belonging to my nonprofit Three Rings. This was a bit of a surprise.
Apparently the video - which is a demo of some Three Rings features - apparently fell foul of Google's anti-doxxing rules. I'm glad that they have anti-doxxing rules, of course. But in this case, the person we 'doxxed' lives on Some Street, Somewhereville. Which I'd like to imagine is clearly a made-up address, but maybe not!

This checkin to GCA6CCW Purple door reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. It’s possible that cycling this path wasn’t the wisest idea, I realised, as I dodged brambles on both sides. So focused was I on riding safely that I forgot which GPSr I’d brought with me and listening for […]

After an appointment in Witney I opted to divert my cycle home to find this and the other cache on the same path.

Étienne Fortier-Dubois's excellent Historical Tech Tree is fun and informative, and worth an explore.

The unrepentant bleppy face of a dog who, without fail, steals the warm spot I’ve left behind on the sofa within like three seconds of me standing up.

Have I posted this joke before? It's all a Blur.

I'll soon by starting in my new role at Firstup, after a rollercoaster of a recruitment process that rocketed through all the usual tech job steps... but in barely over a week. What a rush!

Sometimes LinkedIn’s approach to anonymising who looks you up isn’t very effective. I wonder who that could be? 😂

Fellow Nightline enthusiast James Buller has written a stirring piece about his decades of volunteering for and around Nightlines, and - as usual - underplays the importance and significance of his work. Here's my take.

The court ruling that declares Anthropic's use of (purchased) books as training material leaves a curious sorites paradox. If we assume that an LLM trained on only one book (and so only capable of producing content directly inspired by that book) would necessarily be copyright-infringing, at what number of books does that cease to be the case?

This week, my friend Boro shared a poem that he'd written. It's simple, and energising, and insightful, and I really enjoyed it.

Sometimes all you need to complete the perfect offset geocache is a GPSr, some hand tools… and the willingness to unilaterally declare a remote bench to be a memorial to a fictional person, just to get a particular set of numbers out into the world!

Pretty sure there isn’t a prize for Throwing Wet Sponges At Children during the graduating year’s “fun run” at the school sports day… but just like the kids are asked to, I’m going to try my best. 😁

Recently, I got to answer a technical interview question with "Coincidentally, I implemented exactly what you're describing two weeks ago. For fun. Can I show you the code and the blog post I wrote to explain my design choices?"

Not just a global issue but a local one too. A local one… almost everywhere. #ShowYourStripes

This checkin to GC81KDC Standardisation Roundabout reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. Deciphered this puzzle when it was first published: so long ago that I’d forgotten the specifics of how exactly I did so (although I’m pretty confident I remember the gist of it). But I don’t find myself over […]

This checkin to GC7ZA2Z My Friend Dotty reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. In Marston on an errand, I found myself with enough free time to try to find another few local caches. This puzzle wasn’t as easy as Dotty’s other one, fir me, because for a while I was […]

Shortly after I found myself redundant, the other month, my former colleague Kyle wrote some inspiring words on LinkedIn that I've re-read about once a week ever since then. So now I'm going to keep a copy here for posterity.

As part of the Village Festival, there's a scarecrow competition around my way with a televisual theme. I love that my local community works so hard to carve out an individual identity and personality for itself!

Happy Stone Circle Sunday! The youngest and I went out to Avebury Henge, the world’s largest neolithic standing stone circle and henge.

Note to future self: when you want git to tell you all the files you’ve modified, but not those you’ve deleted (e.g. to pipe through xargs and feed to your linter for bulk-linting), the command you’re looking for is – git diff –name-only –diff-filter=M

Third time's the charm. I don't live too far away and I'm often found cycling to, from, or through Eynsham. As a result, I've on two previous occasions come to this GZ with a view to finding this cache... and both times have been glorious summer weekend days when the adjacent café has been brim full of guests, and I've declared it "too muggley" and backed off.
Today, though, is a gloomy and overcast day, with rain on the way and a threat of thunderstorms. So as I cycled by, on my way home from the dentist, I stopped by. I quickly found and retrieved the cache, signed the log, and returned it to its spot.
Now I'd better see if I can pedal all the way home before the clouds burst! TFTC.