HOWTO: Add sponsorship to a GitHub project

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on · · 1 comment · 350 words · read ~1,057 times.
Sponsorship options for OpenBenches.

I've just seen that I can now add sponsorship to my GitHub projects. Here's a quick guide to how it works: Repo settings There's now a new option in your repository settings. Tick the box and click the button. Easy! WTF is YAML? This is a bit of a weird one. To set up sponsorship, […]

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102KB ought to be enough for any email

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on · · 11 comments · 400 words · read ~4,250 times.
Raw HTML in the middle of an email.

Another day, another Gmail bug which won't get fixed. The original Android phone - HTC Dream - had 192MB of RAM. The latest Android phones tend to have 6GB. A 32 times increase in a decade. Laptops have also leapt forwards in speed and memory. Sadly, no one on the Gmail team has noticed. It's […]

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How to run a tech swap shop at a conference

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on · · 400 words · read ~221 times.
A bearded geek holding a mysterious cube. A sign in the background says "Swap Shop".

At the recent BarCampLondon Ⅺ I decided to run a little experiment. Anyone coming to @barcamplondon fancy doing a Tech Swap Table with me?Bring bits of (working) kit and old gadgets that you don't want in the hope they find a loving home.Let me know if you want to take part 😁#bclxi — Terence Eden […]

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Invisible Pink Unicorns - a Firefox emoji rendering bug

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on · · 7 comments · 250 words · read ~202 times.
The upper image is partially transparent. The lower image is completely opaque.

Here's a curious bug I just discovered in Firefox 67 for Linux. Can you see this unicorn: →🦄 ← What happens if you use CSS to change the opacity of an emoji? Here's a unicorn, with a pink font colour: 🦄 Unicorn Let's wrap that in this scrap of CSS to make it 50% opaque. […]

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Warning - do not click on Twitter ads

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on · · 2 comments · 750 words · read ~3,235 times.
Picture of Richard Branson, encouraging people to deposit £250.

It seems that Twitter has lost control of its advertising system. This blog post will show you why it is dangerous to click on any Twitter advertising. Twitter ads have always been a bit crap, but I've seen a recent influx in outright scams. Let me step you through a couple of examples. A typical […]

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Review: Scatter, Adapt, and Remember - Annalee Newitz

By
on · · 300 words
A small house, smoke rising from the chimney. The house in nestled in a crater on the moon.

In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?

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Adding Sign Language to HTML5 video

By
on · · 5 comments · 650 words · read ~1,083 times.
Video with overlay.

I watched this video from my colleagues in NHS England - it's the first time I've seen a Sign Language overlay on a Twitter video. Need help fast, but not sure what to do? Go straight to https://t.co/8VfK81f9u3 . To find out more about NHS 111 including how to use the NHS 111 BSL interpreter […]

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How much would it cost to buy every domain name?

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on · · 1 comment · 700 words · read ~1,303 times.
Glowing computer text showing dot com dot info etc.

The ridiculous proliferation of TLDs (Top Level Domains) continues unabated. I wondered how much you'd have to spend to secure your name on every TLD. tl;dr;tld Over $300,000! (Roughly €280.000 / £245,000.) But... This estimate is pretty rough. A few caveats: This only covers one version of your domain name - it doesn't cover misspellings. […]

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A report from the AMP Advisory Committee Meeting

By
on · · 15 comments · 900 words · read ~7,192 times.
A lightning bolt logo.

I don't like AMP. I think that Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages are a bad idea, poorly executed, and almost-certainly anti-competitive. So, I decided to join the AC (Advisory Committee) for AMP. I don't want them surrounded with sycophants and yes-men. A few weeks ago, a bunch of the AC met in London for our first […]

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Review: 84K by Claire North

By
on · · 1 comment · 300 words
A blue blutterfly shatters into a million pieces.

Theo Miller knows the value of human life to the very last penny. In the Criminal Audit Office, he assesses each crime that crosses his desk & makes sure the correct debt to society is paid. But when his ex-lover is killed, it's different. This is one death he can't let become merely an entry on a balance sheet. Because when the rich are getting away with murder, sometimes the numbers just don't add up.

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