Following my last post, I’ve made some changes to the way in which I consume social media. I was feeling a bit shitty about social media. Honestly, I wasn’t getting a lot from it, so I decided to make some changes to the way I do things. In my last post on the topic I said: I don … | Continue reading
Most online services cost “a coffee per month” which seems like a great deal, but it soon mounts up. I’m sure you’ve all heard the sales pitch…ACME Corp. releases their latest digital wares to the world, and on their site it says something like… For the cost of just a coffee per … | Continue reading
I’ve had my Remarkable 2 for a couple months now, so I think it’s about time I shared some thoughts on it. I’ve been aware of the Remarkable devices for a couple years now - back when I was shopping for a new tablet and decided to go for an iPad Air with an Apple Pencil. I take a … | Continue reading
I’ve felt a bit…meh about social media recently so wanted to jot down some thoughts about it all. I’ve recently written about Micro.blog, having my own self-hosted microblog, and having a backup on the Fediverse. If it’s not clear by all my pissing about in that space, I’m not to … | Continue reading
I’ve been exploring Blot lately. It’s great, so I’ve decided to move this site over to it from Jekyll. I recently wrote about whether my current setup was good enough and whether I should move over to Blot for my blogging platform. Now, I really enjoy playing with new tools like … | Continue reading
✍️ Written by: Brandon Sanderson Genre: Sci-fi / Fantasy Published: 24 May 2011 Pages: 1,280 🧐 My rating: ★★★★★ / 5 stars The Voidbringers came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical wea … | Continue reading
I’m going down a platform rabbit hole (again!) and I don’t know what to do… A few days ago I wrote about how I’d spun up a self-hosted Microblog in favour of using the Micro.blog service. Since then – just a few days later, might I add – I decided to flip back to Micro.blog. Micr … | Continue reading
I’ve been struggling with Micro.blog’s offering for a little while, so I decided to build my own microblog. Think back a few weeks, dear reader, where I spoke about having a backup account on the Fediverse. In that post I talked about how I’d decided to go with Micro.blog (even t … | Continue reading
✍️ Written by: Steve Cole Genre: Kids Sci-Fi Published: 2005 - 2013 Pages: Usually around 120 pages 🧐 My rating: ★★★★★ / 5 stars Astrosaurs is set in an alternate timeline where the dinosaurs survived the extinction 65 million years ago by escaping into spa … | Continue reading
I’ve decided to re-join Twitter. I miss an awful lot about it and I might leave Mastodon too. Yes, you read that right. I’ve decided to re-join Twitter. There’s a lot of stuff I miss from the social network - the community, the threads, the hot takes. the fun. I feel like Mastodo … | Continue reading
I won't buy a YubiKey by Garrit Franke In this interesting post, Garrit talks about why he wouldn't buy a YubiKey and I get where he's coming from. Read Post → I own 3 YubiKeys that I have for personal use. There’s one that I keep connected to the USB hub on the desk in my … | Continue reading
I have been thinking about having a backup account on the Fediverse, but I’m struggling with which service to use. We’ve been having some challenges over on Fosstodon recently. Between availability issues thanks to large influxes of users, technology problems and DDoS attacks, it … | Continue reading
Should content on a personal site be edited, or should it be a snapshot in time? Here’s my thoughts… So I read this post by Manu Moreale yesterday, where he was talking about retrospectively editing posts, and why he thinks it’s a bad idea: I dislike the concept of editing old … | Continue reading
This is a list of design mistakes that I think too many blogs make. I’ve made some of them myself over years, so I’m speaking from experience here… What a click-bait title, right? Honestly, I couldn’t think of a better one, so please don’t judge me too harshly. This is just an op … | Continue reading
✍️ Written by: Tamsyn Muir Genre: Sci-Fi / Fantasy Published: 14 July 2020 Pages: 496 🧐 My rating: ★★★☆☆ / 3 stars Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an af … | Continue reading
I have added a way for you to subscribe to this blog via email. A while ago, back in 2021 in fact, I maintained a newsletter. But after some time I realised that newsletters are hard work, so I decided to ditch the whole idea. Since then, a number of people have emailed me asking … | Continue reading
I’ve managed to come up with a static site workflow that I think is as good as WordPress. Here’s the details… Cast your mind back to January 2022, dear reader, when I wrote a post about managing content with Jekyll. Shortly after writing it, I realised it was bloody hard to do, s … | Continue reading
I wanted a way to automate the git add, commit & push commands. Here’s how I did it… Since learning how to use Git, it has become an integral part of my workflow for things like publishing to this site, and updating my various projects, like Simple.css and That Watch Bloke. Howev … | Continue reading
I want to love Micro.Blog, I really do, but it’s just so bloody confusing to use! A couple years ago, almost to the day, ironically, I took Micro.Blog for a spin and my opinion of it back then wasn’t all that positive. But I recently read a post by Jason McFadden about his move f … | Continue reading
✍️ Written by: Patrick Rothfuss Genre: Sci-Fi / Fantasy Published: 30 March 2012 Pages: 1,008 🧐 My rating: ★★★★★ Picking up the tale of Kvothe Kingkiller once again, we follow him into exile, into political intrigue, courtship, adventure, love and magic ... … | Continue reading
I’m going to be having some fun on the Fediverse over the next few days/weeks. If you’re comfortable doing so, please join in, as the more people who take part, the better. What is FediPoll? Well, I have a fair number of followers on Mastodon, around 20,000 last time I checked. S … | Continue reading
Twitter is on fire, but is an algorithm better than a chronological timeline? During my regular perusal of Mastodon I’ve seen a number of people publishing posts like these… I didn’t hear about X in my timeline, that’s a failure on Mastodon’s part. Not having an algorithm lea … | Continue reading
I nearly fell for a run of the mill phish recently. Just goes to show that they can get anyone. Just to give you some context before we get into this, I’m a senior leader at Bank of America, where I work in the information security team. The team I run is in the identity space an … | Continue reading
Ten years ago today, I started this blog. I can’t believe it’s been a decade already! Here’s some stats from the last 10 years, as well as some lessons I’ve learned along the way… When I started drafting up this post, I thought it would be a good idea to have some stats, so I wen … | Continue reading
Here’s how to build a responsive navigation menu using absolutely no JavaScript. So you want to build a navigation menu for your site, but you don’t want to add unnecessary JavaScript, or implement any checkbox hacks, which are bad for accessibility. Then this post may be for you … | Continue reading
Some people prefer home work, others like to be in the office. Here’s my opinions on the whole debate. I was having a virtual chat with Chris Wiegman yesterday about home vs office working, following a post on Mastodon by him: I can’t understand people that want to sit in their … | Continue reading
I’m often asked about integrating a blog with X service, does it really need to though? Yesterday I published a fun little website called Start a F**king Blog. I think the premise is quite obvious, but go give it a read - it’s fun. As I often do with stuff I write online, I poste … | Continue reading
While trying to setup a new Microsoft account for my son, I got stuck in a CAPTCHA loop. It’s annoying AF. It’s Christmas morning (Merry Christmas BTW) and like most parents, my wife and I have been busy setting up (and playing with) various presents for our sons. One of my sons … | Continue reading
✍️ Written by: Patrick Rothfuss Genre: Fantasy Published: 12 June 2008 Pages: 672 🧐 My rating: ★★★★★ / 5 stars Told in Kvothe's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.S … | Continue reading
One of the things I really miss from my days using Jekyll, is the use of data files. Can this be done in WordPress? So what do I mean by ... More --> | Continue reading
Having all this tech is great, but what happens to it after we’re gone? Archive it? Delete it? Have someone else manage it? I was perusing my Mastodon timeline the ... More --> | Continue reading
I recently moved to a house that has an open fire (my first one), and I’ve quickly fallen in love with the whole process of maintaining an open fire. A ... More --> | Continue reading
So Elon is completely screwing Twitter, I get it. But for many, many people it’s not newsworthy. Can we move on now, please? I want to start by saying this ... More --> | Continue reading
Back in the 1990’s I wanted a G-Shock watch, so my nan bought me one for Christmas. Here’s the story of what happened to that watch… So cast your mind ... More --> | Continue reading
Just a quick post to say that I’m still alive, but very busy. I haven’t posted in a little bit because I’ve been so busy. I’ve got some personal stuff ... More --> | Continue reading
I recently stopped wearing my Apple Watch in favour of the classic Casio F-91W. This humble little watch is the best smartwatch on the market in my opinion. A little ... More --> | Continue reading
I’ve flip-flopped between a number of blogging platforms over the years, because none are perfect. Here’s my blogging utopia… For regular readers of this blog, it’s almost a meme at ... More --> | Continue reading
A few people have asked how I created my notice boxes, so I thought I’d write about how I did it. Hint – it’s just a bit of CSS, folks. ... More --> | Continue reading
I think there’s a gap in the market for a smartphone that’s designed for teenagers. Let’s look at why… Uncle Ben once said; with great power comes great responsibility. Never ... More --> | Continue reading
I’m sick of the black mirrors we have today – remember back in the day when the phone designs were cool and unique? I do, and I miss it. I ... More --> | Continue reading
Back in 2018 I decided I was ditching Android for an iPhone. Since then my Apple devices have continued to grow. Have I become a fanboy? I recently bought my ... More --> | Continue reading
Cast your mind all the back to yesterday, dear reader, where I published the Ban the Spam post. In that post I talk about combatting spam, yet having my contact ... More --> | Continue reading
I’ve had long-term problems with spam after publishing my email address on my contact page. So I’ve taken steps to Ban the Spam. I’ve had the same email address on ... More --> | Continue reading
I had a look around Twitter the other day. It really is a dumpster fire of people desperate for attention. Right up front I want to say that I’m not ... More --> | Continue reading