RSS Club is a series of posts which are only visible to RSS / Atom subscribers. Like you 😃

If I've done everything right⁰, this page isn't visible on the web. It can't be found by a search engine. It doesn't share to Mastodon or appear syndicated to ActivityPub.

Of course, that also means that I can't receive any comments or feedback about it. I'd love it if you dropped me a note to say you found this post. My contact details are on https://edent.tel/ - feel free to use whichever method you like.

So, what can you expect from this exclusive content? More of the same old nonsense - but probably stuff I don't want to argue about on Social Media.

As a first pass, let's talk about this "Let's write a constitution" post from Matt Ellery. In it, he discusses various fun / sensible things you could do with a written constitution. I particularly like the idea of having a "Prime Number Election".

In my modernist tweak, I'd set up something like this:

• Local council elections every 3 years.
• National MP elections every 5 years.
• Upper chamber elections every 7 years.

That ensures that no one party can dominate. Once every 35 years, the upper chamber elections would be brought forward by one year, with their next term lengthened to 8 years.

I'm less sure about having the locals be at the same time for every council. I think that could be a lot of work for democratic volunteers. Perhaps stagger them into thirds or quarters of the year?

Either way, I doubt we'll be getting a written constitution any time soon!

Odd.

Odd but good.

At the end of last year's post, I said:

I only have one goal. Stop.

A few weeks ago, Liz and I both quit our jobs. By the end of 2024, our careers will be on hiatus.

I want to have a big mental clean-out. Sort out what I enjoy doing and what I just do out of habit. Work out who I am when I'm not working.

And, yeah, I'm getting there! Quitting work (don't call it FIRE) wasn't as traumatic as I thought. It is a little weird shifting into indolence. And it is sometimes terrifying not to have a regular pay-cheque come in. But it has mostly been inconsequential.

Much like the Buddhist saying "Before Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment: chop wood, carry water" - life continues. The dishwasher needs loading, meals must be cooked, bills have to be paid. The rhythm of life beats on.

Have I got my delicious meaty brain into shape? I'm a bit less stressed about things. I was never one for bringing my work home with me - but I'm certainly less tense now I have fewer responsibilities. I've been able to exercise more and am (mostly) at my goal weight having (mostly) hit my daily step count.

I wrote something that got published in a magazine, and a bunch of my blog posts got lots of readers. I like it when the number goes up.

I'm volunteering on projects I believe in - but not too much. I was wary of replacing all my work commitments with voluntary ones. I intend to be a bit more involved in 2026.

It has been easier seeing friends and going on adventures knowing that we can stay up late without consequence.

On that point, we have been seeing a lot of friends. Which is nice. Not all of them - we still need to make plans to reconnect with people.

Travel

Our vague aim was to visit 12 countries in 12 months.

• Marrakesh in Morocco was lovely. Lots of lazing by a pool, wandering the Medina, gawping at museums. Perfect for a refreshing break.
• We did a 30 day Interrail tour across 10 countries. A little stressful at times, but a good way to exercise our travel muscles.
• I nipped back to Zagreb to speak at EuroBSDCon (work! Tsk!).
• Does a long-weekend in Wales count? Either way, it was lush!

And we're now preparing for a massive trip to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand. So we'll hit the 12 well before the end of the year!

What hasn't worked

The UK's housing market continues to be batshit insane. Part of our plan rested on selling our old house. This has not been straightforward. What should have been a simple, chain-free transaction has been ridiculously complicated and stressful. That put a crimp on many of our plans for the year, and dented our overall happiness.

I'm still doing bits-and-pieces of work. Mostly small bits for friendly organisations. I get to pick-and-choose, and turn down anything that looks like "expensive money". Liz says I'm doing retirement wrong - I say I'm just keeping my hand in. But she's probably right!

I was invited to speak at a prestigious conference. But, through a confluence of logistics and cost, I couldn't go. No one's fault, although rather annoying.

Sometimes I volunteer for things and then think "WHY!?!?!"

Video Games still elude me. I didn't get on with Obra Dinn and I'm worried that Blue Prince won't live up to the hype. I quite like watching Liz play Farm Factorio Stardew Valley.

Next Year

So, what are my goals for next year?

• Bits and pieces of work.
  • I don't want an N-days a week job, but I do like doing a few days or weeks here and there.
• Attend - but don't speak - at conferences.
  • I think people are a bit tired of seeing me on stage. At least, I'm a bit tired of being on it! So heading off to OggCamp, EMFCamp, and others in a strictly tourist capacity.
• More health - more exercise.
  • My silly smartwatch is good at reminding me to keep moving. So I guess I'd better keep moving!
• Travelling.
  • Possibly not another 12 countries - but some more trips to places that we've never been before. Maybe even another Interrail trip to bits of Europe unknown to us.
• Keep blogging.
  • I've settled down to a cadence of a new post every other day. That seems sustainable without being onerous. I still want to learn one new thing per day (on average).
• See more friends in person.
  • Hang out more with people. We did a bunch of this in Europe and it was lots of fun. If you'd like to catch up over a drink, drop me a line 😃

The world appears to be going mad. This is my way of coping. Perhaps delulu really is the solulu?

Diving in to history

Thanks for reading, if you have been. Future historians may be interested in previous years' reviews for 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014⁰ 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

British parents have this weird habit of giving their children long formal names which are routinely shortened to a diminutive version. Alfred becomes Alf, Barbara becomes Babs, Christopher becomes Chris - all the way down to the Ts where Terence becomes Terry.

And so, for most of my childhood, I was Terry⁰ to all who knew me.

There was a brief dalliance in my teenage years where I went by Tezza. A name I have no regrets about using but, sadly, appear to have grown out of.

So I was Terry until I entered the workforce. An overzealous IT admin ignored my "preferred name" on a new-joiners' form and, in a fit of bureaucratic inflexibility, renamed me "Terence". To my surprise, I liked it. It was my nom de guerre.

"Terence" had KPIs and EOY targets. "Terry" got to play games and drink beer.

While "Terence" sat in meetings, nodded sagely, and tried to make wise interjections - "Terry" pissed about, danced like an idiot, and said silly things on stage.

Over the years, as was inevitable, my two personalities merged. I said sillier things at work and tried a quarterly review of our OKRs with my wife¹.

I was Terry to friends and Terence to work colleagues. Like a fool, I crossed the streams and became friends with my colleagues. So some knew me as Terry and some as Terence. Confusion reigned.

Last year, I stopped working. I wondered what that would do to my identity. Who am I when I can't answer the question "What do you do for a living?"? But, so it seems, my identity is more fragile than I realised. When people ask my name, I don't really know how to respond.

WHO AM I?

Personal Brand is (sadly) a Whole Thing™. Although I'm not planning an imminent return to the workforce, I want to keep things consistent online². That's all staying as "Terence" or @edent.

So I've slowly been re-introducing myself as Terry in social spaces. Some people take to it, some find it disturbingly over-familiar, some people still call me Trevor.

Hi! I'm Terry. Who are you?

What is a broken link?

Every day, I look at the On This Day page of my blog and look at that day's historic posts. I click on every link to see if it is still working. If it isn't, I have a few options.

1. If the site is working, but the content has moved, I change the link to point at the content.
2. If the site is dead, or the content isn't there, I stick the URl into the WayBack Machine and pick the archive closest to the publication date.
3. If the archive doesn't have it, I try to find a link from around the same date and point it to that.
4. If not, I remove the link.

Why don't I just cURL the URl and see if it responds with a 2xx HTTP code?

I used to use an automated checker to test my links. But spam sites lie. Lots of the dead sites have been taken over by scammers, spammers, and AI grifters. They return an HTTP OK and then serve up advertising. Yeuch! So now I spend each morning Tending To My Digital Garden and manually checking the links.

So, let's scan through every link within my blog posts and see which ones have been archived.

Results

Here's a stacked chart showing blog posts from 2008 until today:

And, if you prefer percentages, here's another chart:

Rather unsurprisingly, the older posts have the most link-rot.

Here's the data if you want to play with it yourself:

Year,Total,Archives
2008,159,27
2009,1335,156
2010,1166,91
2011,1130,85
2012,1392,98
2013,1889,84
2014,1858,35
2015,3016,43
2016,2274,37
2017,1309,17
2018,1561,25
2019,1580,18
2020,3362,33
2021,3621,40
2022,2904,22
2023,2358,15
2024,2136,19

Deficiencies

There will be some links that I haven't spotted. There will be dead links in review metadata and in comments. My code might not have accounted for some weird edge cases in the HTML.

But, generally, it should be a roughly accurate assessment.

Generating the data

Using the WP CLI, this can be run with wp eval-file archive.php:

<?php
//  Load the WordPress environment
require_once( "wp-load.php" );

//  Loop through the desired years
for ( $year = 2008; $year <= 2024; $year++ ) {
        //  Initialise the counters
        $total_links   = 0;
        $archive_links = 0;

        //  Get all the published posts for that year
        $posts = get_posts( [
            "date_query" => [
                [ "year" => $year, ],
            ],
            "post_type"   => "post",
            "post_status" => "publish",
            "numberposts" => -1,
        ] );

        //  Loop through each post
        foreach ( $posts as $post ) {
            $ID = $post->ID;

            //  Render the content of the post
            $content = apply_filters( "the_content", get_the_content( null, false, $ID ) );

            //  Count total occurrences of "<a href="
            preg_match_all( '/<a href=/i', $content, $matches );
            $total_links += count( $matches[0] );

            //  Count total occurrences of "<a href=" which contain "archive.org"
            preg_match_all( '/<a href=["\'][^"\']*archive.org/i', $content, $archive_matches );
            $archive_links += count( $archive_matches[0] );
        }

    //  Display the results as CSV
    echo "{$year},";
    echo "{$total_links},";
    echo "{$archive_links}\n";
}

I started working full time before going to university. I worked part-time during my studies. Graduated into a crappy job. Got a place on a prestigious grad scheme. Worked my way up through the public and private sector. Start-ups and Ministries of State. Constantly working.

Not any more!

Yesterday was my last day in the office. Laptop and lanyard handed back. Out-Of-Office on permanently. Today is my first full day of being… what? Free? Unemployed? On extended sabbatical⁰? Retired?

I've tried to explain this to various people. But it is hard when I can't quite explain it to myself.

Internally, I'm calling it FIRE.

But I'm worried that I'll get bored and come crawling back to the world of work. If I tell people I'm retired, and then change my mind, I risk a humiliating climb down.

So I'm telling people it is a year off. An adult gap year. I have caring responsibilities¹. I want an escape hatch in case things don't go as planned.

"Ah," said a friend who is much wiser than I, "You're soft-launching your retirement!"

In the sitcom Frasier, there's a wonderful scene featuring ultra-feminist Ros losing her shit at a party guest. Ros, a high-flying career woman, is dating a guy who drives a garbage truck. She's deeply uncomfortable that his low social status will reflect badly on her.

How do I introduce myself in this brave new world? "Hi, I'm Terence. I don't work."

Do I just go with the generic "I'm an IT consultant"? It has the advantage of moving the conversation onto something less dull!

Will people resent me²? Will I get frustrated that friends can only meet at weekends? Will my mind turn to jelly³?

Throughout this, I've been referring to myself. But I is really We.

Liz quit her job at the same time. So we're a pair of bums off on an adventure together.

There's no non-wanky way to say "we want to find ourselves".

We're not travelling East to ingest mystic herbs in search of a great spiritual revelation.

But who are we without work? What are we like as people when we're not assaulted by the alarm clock, stressed from a commute, and dulled by endless Zoom meetings?

Unlike some couples, our relationship thrived during the confines of lockdown. It turns out, we really like each other! We'll go hand-in-hand, stepping into the future.

So this is it. Our last pay cheques are deposited at the end of December, and then it is the first day of the rest of our lives.

We're off to see Paul McCartney at the O2 tonight. That seems like a pretty good way to kick things off.

What will 2025 brings? Time to find out.

It's traditional to end these sorts of posts with a hearty "Onwards!" - but, instead, I think I'll finish with "Offwards".

Regular reader will know that I've titled all my big job moves as "regenerations" - I started the tradition when I left Vodafone, as I went to GDS, and then was lured to NHSX, before heading back to GDS, and then shuffling sideways to CDDO, after which I bounced to Our Future Health

So what's a good video for going on hiatus?

Ah, of course!

Of note, for the first time in ages I read a couple of paper books! Like some kind of old-fashioned cave-man!

• Myself When Young from 1938 is astounding. If you want to understand proto-feminism or how society viewed itself, it is a must read.
• The Intergalactic Omniglot was a book I first read in the last century. I bought it as a house-warming present for my mate Jess but couldn't resist re-reading it.

This was a good year for reading books written by people I know!

• The Modern Bestiary is VERY RUDE and funny.
• The Pursuit of Purpose gave me a lot to think about as I go into my mid-life crisis.
• Dystopia X is good knockabout sci-fi fun.
• Somewhere To Be is a brilliant fantasy novel with a quirky twist.

Stats!

• About 60% female authorship (depending on how you count compilations). I've written before about trying to address my gender bias in reading.
• About 50% non-fiction. I try to alternate between the two. So I'm pretty consistent with that!
• My average score is 4 stars. Either I am overly generous or I only read above-average books.
• Male authors get an average score of 3.9, whereas female authors do slightly better at 4.3.
• I rate fiction and non-fiction about the same.

Feel free to grab the metadata from my archives if you want a deeper dive.

I'm not really sure what happened to the last year. As the philosophers once said, "the years start coming and they don't stop coming".

The biggest personal item was snapping a tooth and the long journey to getting implants. I've had my head drilled, and now I'm just awaiting for the crowns.

I haven't read as many books as I wanted - fewer than 50. I'm finding that if I'm not enjoying a book I end up simply not reading rather than dropping it.

OpenUK, OggCamp, EMFCamp, and BarCampLondon have filled my volunteering time. Some have been as simple as heralding people on stage, others setting up conferences. I've discovered that I hate organising stuff. If you want me to fix a thing, or do a specific task, or present - I'll jump at the chance. Ask me to organise speakers, work with suppliers, or herd cats and I'll run away.

I tried to stop publishing a new blog every day and, well, turns out there are still a lot of words in my head fighting to get out.

Aside from a relaxing winter break in Cape Verde, and a brief visit to Brussels, I've not been on any glamorous international jaunts. That feels a bit odd. But I've had a few nice trips to Manchester, Birmingham, and Brighton.

Oh, and I appeared on the BBC's Points of View to talk briefly about The Cleaner. My life continues to be a little surreal.

A minor health scare (I'm fine) got me a CT Scan which I could view in 3D. So now I know what my brains look like!

Signed up to some cheap theatre ticket sites and saw loads of shows for not much cash.

But, overall, it feels like a year without much achievement.

OKRs KPIs, Retrospectives, and Reflective Behaviour

I set myself a few challenges last year. How did I do against them?

How do I reconcile working less with taking on more work? Answers in the comments box, please.

This has been pretty good. I've had a few clients that I'm managed to fit in to my Fridays. I've mostly kept it low key, and it seems to have worked.

With the upcoming General Election, perhaps I will get a bit more involved in politics - both local and national.

I did some volunteering for the Labour Party, helping phone-bank for the General Election. It looks like they didn't need my help though! I haven't had much time to dedicate to political work though.

We've hit over 30,000 submissions to OpenBenches. Have we hit the limit? Is it worth promoting it more?

Now on over 34k!. I've done a few talks about it, and it seems to be going strong.

I am terrible at playing with all the toys I have. I want to spend a bit more time playing the games I have on the Oculus and Switch.

Urgh. I managed a few Oculus games and completely wimped out of Obra Dinn on the Switch. I always want to play more, but it always feels like there's something else which needs my attention.

After several years of intensity, I think I want to throttle back a bit.

Achieved! I spoke at fewer conferences, attended fewer events, and wrote less.

Goals for 2025

I only have one goal. Stop.

A few weeks ago, Liz and I both quit our jobs. By the end of 2024, our careers will be on hiatus.

I want to have a big mental clean-out⁰. Sort out what I enjoy doing and what I just do out of habit. Work out who I am when I'm not working.

I don't want to burn down my life or have an extensive / expensive mid-life crisis, but I do want to have a little bit of a reset.

If you've done something similar and have any advice - please do let me know.

And that's a wrap!

Thanks for reading. If you'd like to see how I've grown as a person (or not), you can read previous years' reviews at 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014¹ 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

Today, I am very hungover. Although I usually write a bunch of posts a few days and weeks in advance, I find myself looking at my publishing calendar and seeing it blissfully empty.

Part of the reason I blog is that I truly want to learn something new every day - and I want to share that knowledge. Whether it's a cool programming trick, and interesting book, or thoughts on the world - I enjoy lifelong learning.

But I am tired. Also hungover - but mostly tired. Perhaps it is a little burn-out. Perhaps it is a little disillusionment with the state of the tech world. Perhaps I'm spending too much of my energies elsewhere. Either way, despite the little dopamine hit I get when my posts go viral, or when new friends leave comments, I think now is the perfect time to throttle back.

So, this is the 3,094th post that I've published on this site - and it is likely to be the last one for a little while. I'll still be writing when the mood strikes. And I'll still be wittering away on Mastodon.

Thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing.

Be seeing you!

I've always been told that success isn't always about what you know, but more about who you know. So how does someone who is introverted, bad at small talk, and terrible at sending follow-up emails get to know people?

The answer, as always, is to let other people do the hard work.

I realise that asking lottery-winners for advice on how to pick your numbers is not a reliable method for becoming a millionaire - but I'd like to explain how I network and where it has got me.

Several years ago, I lost my job. I knew it was coming, but it still felt shitty. At midday, I rang my wife, told her what had happened and said that I was coming home.

"What about your presentation tonight?" she said. I'd forgotten that I had a Mobile Monday talk in my diary. Frankly, I couldn't think of anything worse than standing up in a room full of employed people and bleating on about my side projects.

"Nah. I'm just not up for it," I said.

"Look, you never know who is going to be there. You can enjoy your unemployment tomorrow."

So, I did the talk. I chatted with people (whose names I instantly forgot), picked up business cards (which are still in a pile somewhere), and drank a bit too much free wine. Then went home to cry.

A few days later, I had an interview with a trendy new startup! The very first thing that the CEO said to me was "Nice to meet you - I loved your talk at Mobile Monday last week!"

I got the job. Not necessarily because of how awesome a speaker I am - but it certainly helped that I received a round of applause from people in the industry.

Several months later and I was touting for work again. A casual acquaintance told me her firm was hiring. I went in to meet the manager and, again, almost the first thing she said was "We saw your talk at Mobile Monday - it was great!"

Two birds - one stone :-)

More recently, I've got speaking gigs because people have said that they've watched my talks online. I've had more interviews where people have asked for me by name after reading one of my blog posts. I've had journalists call me up for "expert commentary" because they've seen that I've been posting on social media knowledgeably about a specific subject.

Relentless self-promotion is exhausting and - I think - off-putting to most of your audience. That's not the aim here.

So here are my vague thoughts on how to get people to know you:

• Don't talk about yourself - talk about what interests you.
• Don't insert yourself mindlessly into a conversation - build up a rapport with people you admire.
• Don't be a "brand" - people see through that.
• Do put yourself out there - go to events where you have only a vague interest in the subject.
• Do ask. Tell people you'd like to present, or write a blog post, or help them organise.
• Do be prepared to fail. Most people won't remember the things which go wrong; but the effort pays dividends.

I kept up the blogging for a few months, then it trickled off. I preferred posting on Usenet and other primitive forms of social media. But, by 2007, I was back to blogging on my own site again, and I never really stopped. This blog fluctuates between being a diary, an excuse to rant, and technical writing. It's my site and I can do whatever I want with it. That's rather freeing.

I have an "On This Day" feature of my blog. Every morning I check what I was writing about on this day in years gone by. I find it informative and meditative to see how much I've grown² and what topics I keep returning to.

I'm not big on milestones or anniversaries. But it does feel rather nice to know that I started something a few decades ago that is still a going concern.

Here's a little treat to thank you for reading:

My life is weird. Again.

Looking out over London from the top floor. The Eye is glittering and the Palace of Westminster is glowing.

Someone pours me a glass of (very expensive⁰) champagne, as the Secretary of State laughs at my witty bon mot.

Is this my life now? People of distinction and influence listening to what I have to say? It isn't an oak-panelled room, with deep armchairs, where cigar-smoking men carve up the world. It's a modest and plain office where men (and women!) have gathered for a bit of mutual backslapping. But I am here. I'm in the room and being thanked.

And why not! We've all worked hard on launching NHSX and are rewarded with a little audience. The chit-chat is awkward - despite the geniality, we're all aware that the boss is here.

Naturally, I believe someone is going to tap me on the shoulder and ask me what the hell I think I'm doing in a room full of proper grown-ups. But, no, people keep asking me questions and telling me their well-practiced anecdotes.

It is simultaneously amazing and banal. I've been at this work-party several times in my career, with dozens of companies, with a parade of CEOs. This feels different. A tiny glimmer of "I've made it a difference!"

I eat my fill of crisps - I am driving later - and slip out. I want to savour the moment, but know too well the perils of outstaying my welcome. I float all the way home.

Proximity to power is a powerful glamour. I understand why some are drawn to it, and some are seemingly addicted.

But I'll be different, I'm sure, as I bask in the experience.

I've read and reviewed around 300 books over the last few years. So I wrote a scrap of code which goes through all my book reviews, grabs their cover and rating, and displays them in a nice grid. You can visit it at shkspr.mobi/blog/library

You know how when you're at a friend's home you rummage through their bookshelf? That's the same idea here. You get to poke through the stacks and, hopefully, pick out something entertaining to read. Or, perhaps, you'll be warned off something truly dreadful.

All the code for my blog is open source - and I'd be delighted if you did something interesting with it.

This was heavily inspired by Dave Rupert's bookshelf.

I quit my Civil Service job. Started my own consultancy. Then took on a new job working 4 days a week. Busy!

I wrote a 50,000 word set of sci-fi short stories for NaNoWriMo. Contributed to lots of Open Source projects and did a few responsible disclosures - but got no bounties. Got sent some weird gadgets to review. Went to some splendid restaurants. Saw some decent shows - including The Who!.

I did a few interviews for magazines and podcasts - but nothing like as much as previous years. I did get involved with some Doctor Who props which was pretty cool!

Oh, and I died.

Here's how I did against last years hopes and dreams (not goal or OKRs)

• Graduate from MSc (and regain my free time).

Done! MSc Managed. I scored a distinction and have vowed to not do anything academic ever again. Until I change my mind.

• Go on a proper relaxing holiday where all I do is sip cocktails and read books (and maybe a little sightseeing).

Done! Spent a week in Cape Verde swimming up to the bar and reading books (not simultaneously). Visited Berlin (gorgeous). Kuala Lumpur was an incredible city, I think I'm still full from all the food. And a couple of weeks driving around New Zealand's South Island was just perfect.

• Put more effort into things like OpenUK and BCS (I need to give back more to the community).

I've been doing more things with OpenUK - both attending board meetings and meet-ups - but the BCS work has been harder. I keep suggesting things but they never get much traction. I have to admit to myself that I'm not a very good organiser of events and lack the ability to convince people to engage with them. Consequently, I'll be resigning shortly.

• Consider joining a Worshipful Company (looks like it could be a fun way to get more involved with charities).

Nope! I went to a couple of events, and they were... fine, I guess? I don't think I'm sociable enough to benefit from them. I don't have the hustle to pick up work from them. And I'm not sure how much time I want to devote to something like that.

• Blog more. I'm not introspective enough to keep a diary of how I feel - but I do enjoy looking back at what I thought. Probably not daily - but we'll see.

Done! Daily, as well. I find it a tremendously cathartic outlet. I do not have a rich emotional inner life - but it is nice to get my thoughts out.

• Read more. I have too short a commute to get into a good book. So I'm going to have to proactively set aside some time.

Done! 52 books this year.

• See more friends. I'm conscious that I've been keeping to myself rather a lot. If you fancy a beer and a natter, please get in touch :-)

Well, mostly. Again, I need to put more effort into arranging things and seeing people.

So, what's up for 2024? More of the same, with a twist.

I have two contradictory goals. I've moved to 4-days-a-week in order to glide down to FIRE / FILE. But I'd also like to grow my own consultancy. I've already had several clients who are happy with me doing ad-hoc work for them. So how do I reconcile working less with taking on more work? Answers in the comments box, please.

With the upcoming General Election, perhaps I will get a bit more involved in politics - both local and national. After being politically constrained by my job for so long, it'll be interesting to see how that feels.

We've hit over 30,000 submissions to OpenBenches. Have we hit the limit? Is it worth promoting it more?

I am terrible at playing with all the toys I have. I want to spend a bit more time playing the games I have on the Oculus and Switch.

After several years of intensity, I think I want to throttle back a bit.

No doubt life will throw the usual amount of twists and turns. Let's see what happens!

If you'd like to see how I've grown as a person (or not), you can read previous years' reviews at 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014⁰ 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

24 by women - although that doesn't include compilations which had a mixture of genders. So fairly even handed.

As per usual, I alternated between fiction and non-fiction. I find my brain gets confused otherwise. I also set my eReader to have a different font per book so they don't start bleeding in to each other.

This year, I deliberately set out to read some older books - not just those on the modern best-sellers list.

At some stage I'll have to take all the review data and see if I prefer fiction to non-fiction, men to women, or older books to newer ones. But, for now, here are some of the highlights:

• There Is Nothing for You Here - Fiona Hill - this has stayed with me longer than I thought it would.
• Theory of Bastards - Audrey Schulman - an excellent hard sci-fi romp.
• The Premonitions Bureau - Sam Knight - just a bonkers bit of history.
• The Constant Sinner - Mae West - pure exploitation trash, I loved it!
• The Cuckoo's Egg - Clifford Stoll - an entertaining retelling of cybersecurity history.

What's Next?

I wrote a Python script to get alerted when my Amazon wishlist books drops in price. As such, I have 30+ books on my reading list for 2024!

Nevertheless, if you want to recommend something you've read (or you've written) please stick a note in the comments.

Previous years

• 50 books read in 2019
• 42 books, all by women, in 2020
• 85 books in 2021
• 42 books in 2022

I was chatting to a friend about what it is like running a blog, finding new topics, keeping up with a daily schedule, moderating comments, etc. And they asked, quite reasonably, "who are your readers?"

And, honestly, I have very little idea! The only analytics I have on here is basic WordPress JetPack statistics. I can see which posts are popular. I get a sense of which countries you are in. If you leave a comment, I know the name you choose to give. If you link back to my posts, I know what your website is.

But, that's pretty much it. I don't know your age, height, gender, dietary needs, or the date of your last colonoscopy. Frankly, that's the way I like it! I write, you read. You don't have to pay me in fiat, crypto, or your personal data.

It is nice if you subscribe and/or share my posts. But there's never going to be a big pop-up asking for your email address, or trying to make you sign in with a social network. I don't need to know anything about you.

And yet… I'm curious!

About 500 of you subscribe by email. A few thousand of you subscribe by RSS. Even more come via links from social media.

If you're comfortable, I would love it if you dropped a note in the comments of this post. You can either just say "hello", or you can tell me why you read, or what you like, or what you'd like to see more of. Leave a link to your blog, if you have one. Or just say what part of the world you're from.

So, who are you?

Blogging like it's 1972 I also finally realised that there's nothing stopping me from adding journal posts dated from before I started blogging. So I'm going to start adding key life moments as much as I can.

A blog isn't an immutable chain of events. There's nothing to stop us travelling in time. When I go digital sperlunking though my history, I often find interesting things I wrote before I blogged. So I bring these "back from the dead" and publish them as Necroposts.

It's pretty simple. I copy and paste the text, set the published date to be in the past and - presto chango - history is rewritten.

My oldest necropost so far is from 1987. I found an old diary entry I'd typed up on our BBC Micro - and now it's on the web. I've found old photos and letters to video game magazines. There are some old USENET postings and things I wrote for old university magazines. Yesterday, I published a post I'd written which had been deleted by my former employer.

I'm hoping that, one day, I'll find all the 5¼ floppy disks I had as a kid so I can treat you to the terrible song lyrics and abysmal BASIC code I wrote back then. Won't that be a lovely treat for you all?

This year I was doing lots of reading for my MSc - which was mostly academic papers. I also didn't have any long relaxing breaks. But, nevertheless, I'm happy to have read 42 books. Not bad!

A few stats. The gender split was roughly 50:50. Some of the books were compilations and I think a few of the authors are non-binary. I'm pretty happy with that balance.

As per my usual reading habits, I alternate between reading fiction and non-fiction. A straight split down the middle.

There were a couple that I didn't finish - I'm reading for pleasure and don't need to slog through turgid prose. Well, that's what I tell myself. I still feel guilty!

So, what did I learn?

• The UK's involvement in the US Civil War was... complex. And politics hasn't changed much since then.
• Sci Fi is still my favourite genre. I just want to go to the stars.
• There are some interesting scholarly works on Shakespeare and race but I'm not always clever enough to follow them.
• I don't remember reading about the antimemetics division. How did that post get on my blog?!
• IBM were in league with the Nazis and are apparently unrepentant.

This year? MORE READING! I've got a stack of unread eBooks which give me guilty feelings every time I open up my eReader.

If you have written a book - please let me know and I'll try to get to it by this time next year.

You can read previous years at 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013⁰, 2012, 2011, and 2010.

If all goes well, at this very moment I will be in San Francisco having just attended Twitter's Chirp conference. I've visited SF a few times and, I'll be honest, it isn't my top destination for spending a birthday. But Twitter paid for the flights, so it would be churlish to complain! I'm missing my wife and it feels odd not spending the day with here.

I was due to be in SF today. But Alan the Hyperprat cancelled the conference at the last minute - leaving me a couple of hundred quid out of pocket, and disappointing all the friends I'd arranged to see. Truly it is the worst thing that he has ever done to anyone ever. Anyway, follow me on Mastodon

The last year has been reasonable. Obviously COVID is still casting a long shadow. Gigs are still being cancelled, and some friends are still cautious about meeting up. But we've been able to go to a few concerts and plays. The Elizabeth Line opening up has been transformational. A 15 minute ride to work! 25 minutes from Central London! Brilliant!

A weird highlight of the year was getting my beard trimmed. I've always done it myself, but fancied getting a professional to shear me before a photoshoot (more on that next year). So I got a recommendation for a Turkish barber near the office. It was a decidedly odd sensation - but I look less feral now.

Anyway, here's how I scored against last year's hope's and dreams:

As I said in a previous post, I don't know what I'm doing with my so-called career. I plan to stay in the Civil Service for at least another 12 months in order to get my MSc. I've recently been regraded, which takes off some of the financial pressure. The work is still interesting and important.

Still don't know what I'm doing. My MSc is entering the end-game. A few more words to write, a viva, then done. Hopefully within the first month of January.

I'm hoping the world opens up a bit more so I can continue exploring it.

It did, and I have! Went to Rotterdam, Dan Haag, and Nicosia. It felt good to go exploring.

Come the 1st of January 2022, I'll have been blogging every day for 2 years. I'm not sure if I want to keep up that pace!

I did not! The pressure of work and the MSc were too much. I'm still blogging regularly (some might say incessantly) and I'm still enjoying it.

I need a proper holiday. Sitting around at home doing nothing isn't a great way to relax and recharge.

Nicosia was a great place to visit. Lots of delicious food, beautiful scenery, and many museums. Similarly the Netherlands was a fantastic minibreak. What they weren't was relaxing. Running around a city trying to see everything is fun. But I need to sit by a pool and not have to think about anything more complex than my tan lines.

But it felt like rather a muted year. Perhaps that's age or the state of the world talking.

There were some lovely highlights. As well as holidays, we went to Canada to see a friend get married. I love a good wedding!

I met an excellent cat!

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

Dear @thecatreviewer,
I have made a most wonderful discovery.
Sphynx cats *love* to scritch on beards.
I mean LOVE.
10/10 for snuggles from this little hairless friend. pic.x.com/uxJJPtFTpO

---

Got an Oculus and took my first steps into the Metaverse. It's a bit rubbish.

Met Bruce Perens and got to show him around TNMOC.

Read some pretty good books.

Presented at a few conferences - including in person!

Work has been tough - taking on a new job, while studying, and many events occurring with those a few steps above my pay-grade.

And I am nearly done with my MSc. I'll be handing in the final project in a couple of weeks.

So, what for 2023?

• Graduate from MSc (and regain my free time).
• Go on a proper relaxing holiday where all I do is sip cocktails and read books (and maybe a little sightseeing).
• Put more effort into things like OpenUK and BCS (I need to give back more to the community).
• Consider joining a Worshipful Company (looks like it could be a fun way to get more involved with charities).
• Blog more. I'm not introspective enough to keep a diary of how I feel - but I do enjoy looking back at what I thought. Probably not daily - but we'll see.
• Read more. I have too short a commute to get into a good book. So I'm going to have to proactively set aside some time.
• See more friends. I'm conscious that I've been keeping to myself rather a lot. If you fancy a beer and a natter, please get in touch :-)

Right, let's see what adventures the next year brings.

1. Launch a product to great fanfare
2. Spend a few years hyping it as ✨the future✨
3. Stop answering emails and pull requests
4. If you're lucky, announce that the product is abandoned but, more likely, just forget about it.

Open Graph Protocol (OGP) is one of those products. The value-proposition is simple.

• It's hard for computers to pick out the main headline, image, and other data from a complex web page.
• Therefore, let's encourage websites to include metadata which tells our services what they should look at!

OGP works pretty well! When you share a link on Facebook, or Twitter, or Telegram - those services load the website in the background, look for OGP metadata, and display a friendly snippet.

Facebook Meta were the driving force behind OGP - and have now left it to fester.

• The website - https://ogp.me/ - still works.
• But the Facebook OGP Discussion Group is now full of spam.
• The Developer Mailing List is broken.
• The Google Documentation links to a dead Google+ page.
• And the GitHub Page has been archived.

Is OGP finished?

And, that might be fine. Facebook Meta are a small company with limited resources. They can't afford to fund standards work indefinitely. And, anyway, OGP is complete, right? It has all the tags that anyone could ever possibly want. Why does it need any improving?

Well, that's not the case. We know, for example, that Twitter have created their own proprietary OGP-like meta tags. Similarly, Pinterest have their own as well. And even Google are going their own way with Rich Snippets.

This is annoying for developers. Now we have to write multiple different bits of metadata if we want our links to be supported on all platforms.

Standards work is never "finished". Developers want to add new features. Users want to interact with new forms of content.

Tomorrow someone is going to invent a way to share smells over the Internet. How does that get represented in an Open Graph Protocol compliant manner?

<meta property="twitter:olfactory" content="C₃H₆S"> or <meta property="facebook:nose" content="InChIKey/MWOOGOJBHIARFG-UHFFFAOYSA-N"> or <meta property="og:smell" content="pumpkin spice"> or...

We know from bitter experience that having several mutually incompatible ways to implement something is a nightmare for developers and provides a poor user-experience.

So we create standards bodies. They're not perfect, but a group of interested folks can do the hard work to try and satisfy oppositional stakeholders.

This is my plea to Facebook Meta. If you're no longer interested in improving OGP, OK. You do you. But hand it over to people who want to keep this going. Maybe it's the W3C, or IndieWeb, or Schema.org or someone. Hell, I'm not busy, I'll take it on.

Remember, if you love something, let it go.

The form asked me if I'd ever had a previous visa for Canadaland. As it happens, yes! I spent a year studying in Ottawa.

Well then, said the form, you'd better tell me your old visa number.

Ah…

In amongst the various shoe boxen which serve as my ersatz filing system lay a tatty old passport. Crumpled in it was a fading visa, the ink smeared with a barely legible reference number. I entered it, and mighty Eunomia - goddess of paperwork - seemed satisfied with my offering and let me continue with my journey.

Flicking through the leaves, I noticed my entry stamp for my original visit to the Canada.

Today. Twenty-three years ago.

Coincidences are meaningless. But that doesn't mean we can't try and find meaning in them.

I wonder how I've changed in the intervening years? I'm still a long-haired nerd who only wears jeans & t-shirts. I still stay up too late reading and programming computers. I'm probably happier now - despite being less carefree. More assertive while also being more thoughtful. Less internalised misogyny and a greater sense of equality. I became vegetarian while in Canada - and still am. I feel like I was better at making friends back then, but that's the nature of throwing teens together in a strange environment. I'm better at self-directed learning, and probably just as bad as I ever was at procrastinating.

Is that enough? Do I have to change? Can't I just be 19 forever?

By yet another coincidence, today is also my 6 year anniversary of joining the Civil Service.

I wonder how I've changed in the intervening years? I'm still a long-haired weirdo who only wears jeans & t-shirts in meetings with ministers and other senior bods. I feel more confident in challenging things that I think are wrong, but less certain of my deeply held beliefs. Some of the shine has rubbed off - but I still feel pride telling people what I do for a living. My subject-matter expertise has grown, but I wonder if I'm making the best use of it. I feel like I'm better at making connections with people - but still just as bad as I ever was at remembering names.

All of which is to say that time marches on inexorably. But "meaningless" coincidences help me compare and contrast what my life was like and what it is like.

Perhaps those two data-points are enough to extrapolate what my life will be like? Or, more importantly, what I want it to be like?