blog github · 2 comments · 600 words
This is a quick GitHub action to get alerted every time your website is mentioned in a GitHub issue. Doing it manually You can search GitHub for a URl, and sort the results with the newest first, like this: https://github.com/search?q=%22shkspr.mobi%22&type=issues&s=created&o=desc Using the API GitHub has a fairly straightforward API - although it uses slightly different parameters. …
Continue reading →Book Review history · 1 comment · 500 words
This is a marvellous and depressing book. Marvellous because it finely details the history, atrocities, and geopolitical strife of unfettered capitalism. Depressing for much the same reason. Dalrymple takes the thousand different strands of the story and weaves them into a (mostly) comprehensible narrative. With this many moving parts, it is easy to get confused between the various people,…
Continue reading →theatre · 6 comments · 1,950 words · Viewed ~259 times
I go to see a lot of theatrical productions. While most shows are good, the audience experience is usually dreadful. I'm not just talking about cramped seats and disgusting toilets (although they play a part) but that theatres haven't cottoned on to the idea that theatre is an immersive experience which can't be replicated by watching Netflix. There's an excellent article in The Stage about the…
Continue reading →css HTML · 5 comments · 300 words · Viewed ~729 times
"If it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid." I want to draw some vertical bar charts. I don't want to use a 3rd party library, or bundle someone else's CSS, or learn how to build SVGs. HTML contains a <meter> element. It is used like this: <meter min="0" max="4000" value="1234">1234</meter> Which looks like this: 1234 There isn't much you can do to style it. Browser manufacturers seem to …
Continue reading →Book Review · 200 words
This is a curious and mostly satisfying novel. It bills itself as a satire, but it is rather more cynical than that. A kid has been stabbed and the worst instincts of humanity descend. Race-baiting police, vote-grubbing politicians, and exploitative journalists. I can't comment on the accuracy of the satire of the press - but it feels real. It's full of the hungriest, nastiest people who will…
Continue reading →developers Free Software linux Open Source · 12 comments · 150 words · Viewed ~4,078 times
If you've spent any time using Linux, you'll be used to installing software like this: The README says to download from this link. Huh, I'm not sure how to unarchive .tar.xz files - guess I'll search for that. Right, it says run setup.sh hmm, that doesn't work. Oh, I need to set the permissions. What was the chmod command again? OK, that's working. Wait, it needs sudo. Let me run that again.…
Continue reading →fact check fake news newspapers quote Social Media · 9 comments · 1,000 words · Viewed ~18,665 times
I'm neither a journalist nor a professional fact checker but, the thing is, it's has never been easier to check basic facts. Yeah, sure, there's a world of misinformation out there, but it doesn't take much effort to determine if something is likely to be true. There are brilliant tools like reverse Image Search which give you a good indicator of when an image first appeared on the web, and…
Continue reading →ActivityPub fediverse mastodon MastodonAPI · 5 comments · 650 words · Viewed ~414 times
Quoting posts on Mastodon is slightly complex. Because of the privacy conscious nature of the platform and its users, reposting isn't merely a case of sharing a URl. A user writes a status. The user can choose to make their statuses quotable or not. What happens when a quoter quotes that post? I've read through the specification and tried to simplify it. Quoting is a multi-step process: The…
Continue reading →Book Review iplayer Netflix NetGalley · 3 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~252 times
This should be a fascinating look at how streaming services evolved and the outsized impact they've had on our culture. Instead it is mostly a series of re-written press-releases and recycled analysis from other people. Sadly, the book never dives in to the pre-history of streaming. There's a brief mention of RealPlayer - but nothing about the early experiments of livestreaming gigs and TV…
Continue reading →BlueSky gdpr OnlineSafety · 4 comments · 1,200 words · Viewed ~13,029 times
In the battle between the Online Safety Act and GDPR, who will win? FIGHT! I'll start by saying that I'm moderately positive on Online Safety. If services don't want to provide moderation then they shouldn't let their younger users be exposed to harm. The social network BlueSky has taken a pragmatic approach to this. If you don't want to verify your age, you can still use its services - but it…
Continue reading →css drunk HTML ui ux webdev · 3 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~21,756 times
A decade ago, I was writing about how you should test your user interface on drunk people. It was a semi-serious idea. Some of your users will be drunk when using your app or website. If it is easy for them to use, then it should be easy for sober people to use. Of course, necking a few shots every time you update your website isn't great for your health - so is there another way? Click the "🥴 …
Continue reading →Book Review nhs · 550 words · Viewed ~293 times
My pal Hayley has written a book - a graphic memoir about dealing with breast cancer. Graphic as in graphic-novel - although there are a large variety of sketched boobs dotted throughout the pages and some frank discussions of sex. I'm not very good with "medical stuff" - so I was quite proud of myself for only twice needing to take a break from reading it because I felt faint. It is the most…
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