Haven’t done any weeknotes in ages. Some times there’s things it wouldn’t be prudent to share openly, and some times it feels like there’s nothing valuable or that can be learned in what I could share.

Eyebrow-raising moment at Data Bites last night when a presenter from GDS wouldn’t answer a question about the National Data Library because they’d been told they couldn’t talk about it. If anything, that’s the one thing they should be more open about, not less.

A dream of mine is to start hiring and training digital talent in North Wales, so I’m very excited about this.

This is why ‘Local and open first’ is one of my positions on generative AI.

time to buy gilts, i guess

apple music automix sucks, please do not associate its blends with real djs

Bonk. on.ft.com/3K8fqSv

Well that’s my running route for Sunday sorted 😊 www.dezeen.com/2025/09/16/h...

i’ve never signed up for a half-marathon so fast

Using bug bounties as a way to invite external contributors is clever. Paying people $2,000 for a growth feature feels like a low ball offer though.

quite a few red flags in that tender, lads

Hey developers! Please add `<meta name="robots" content="noindex">` to all your prototypes shared online so I don’t have to add it later. Thanks.

Today is the 30th anniversary of Hackers

absolutely bloody love this

Barrister cites fictitious case (from ChatGPT). When challenged by Tribunal, uses ChatGPT to confirm the case exists. This does not go well. tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/utiac/2025-u...

two weeks into the latest training block and i forgot how much a long run could feel like a treat, after a week of short 30-minute runs

someone’s sent me a dm but i can‘t read it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Interested in what shifts need to happen so that property developers can hire and retain construction staff, similar to Tideway Tunnel, and how that may result in higher quality builds.

i want this but as an app on my computer that organises my files in my own folders.

I think if organisational leaders spent even a quarter of the time they appear to spend dreaming of where they’d like to be, on maybe possibly trying to understand where they are, we’d have a lot less confusion. Or a different flavour of confusion. Maybe more productive confusion

“gemini, tell me how i can avoid getting bitten by these zombies, and where is the exit to this hospital?” “sure, let’s pull up a list of zombie avoidance tactics…”

my lawyer girlfriend: “we don’t use gavels in this country tho?”

All product managers should be able to describe stateful versus stateless applications. Don’t @ me.

On which, incidentally, I've just had an(other) email exchange with a civil servant who really wants to present their work in public but is now blocked from doing so by the guidance Thanks and well done, Number 10!

Ahrefs is way better than Search Console or Webmaster Tools, innit?

I couldn't make it into the office today due to the strikes. Instead I'm working on a park bench in the glorious sunshine thanks to superfast #GovWifi from the local crematorium.

And people say public sector projects overrun their budgets...

pürcha has changed my mind about bubble tea because they do the tea bit _really_ well.

did parkrun today as a pacer, 26 minutes. finished in 26:07. not bad! but could be better.

it’s 5.30pm on a friday and i’ll push to production if i want to 💅

my decks are in HTML, blud

Had no idea Chrome shipped a Summarizer API, using AI to summarise text in the browser. H/T @ffconf.org developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

I really don't think it should be tenable for Labour government ministers to have still remained mute about such a visible, vocal rise of racist abuse in our country by this rally on 13th September, being held by Tommy Robinson, with the proactive support of Elon Musk, the radicalised X owner

On the topic of events - @debblanch44.bsky.social @visitmy.website and I are looking for a venue for the next Product for the People meetup - somewhere in the North East (maybe Newcastle) in late November. Any leads gratefully received!

If you’re a contractor in UK government unable to use Microsoft apps, including Teams and Outlook, and run into problems with Microsoft Defender: 1. Go to chrome://flags or edge://flags 2. Search for `quic` 3. Disable QuicAllowed 4. Restart your browser

Interesting on the pros and cons of new data centres. Will there be subsidies, tax breaks or legal requirements for businesses to use onshore data centres? blogs.bath.ac.uk/iprblog/2025...

🤖📰 Effective YESTERDAY: China has mandated a digital watermark for all AI-generated content. www.cac.gov.cn/2025-03/14/c... Translating in 🧵.

I'm quoted in this paper about the problems with #What3Words. arxiv.org/pdf/2308.160... W3W is a proprietary and for-profit system which shouldn't be used anywhere near government or emergency services. It is prone to catastrophic failure and their business model appears to be unsustainable.

There’s a lot of people saying ‘mission-driven government’, especially people in government, without there actually being a structure or operating model established for that. Nice that Nesta and other folks are suggesting models, but it feels like the time to implement one was 12 months ago.

this evening i learned 2 facts. 1. there is a captain britain in the marvel universe, given his powers by merlin and the lady of the lake (lol) 2. zimbabwean dancehall exists and one of its emcees is called captain britain

the first be-georged roundabout i saw was in farleigh, croydon, and clearly done with a whiteboard marker. 8 points for resourcefulness, but surely -2 points for pride in the flagshagging summer games

“Over the past 20 years, Paris has undergone a major physical transformation, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces. Part of the payoff has been invisible — in the air itself.” Leadership, strategy, real action, common sense. #Paris

Malaysia's data hub is very cool data.gov.my

befouled by some stomach bug. fever, headache, the ejections. feeling rotten. stay safe out there, kids!

This royal throne of kings, this sleptred isle 💤

ran from croydon to deptford and then along the thames path to london bridge. for tonight we dine in a restaurant and i want to eat all the things!

Just a headsup for data/tech engineering + policy ppl that Reform's proposed mass deportations bill/policy is expected to include stuff on mandated data sharing so that govt can look for "people that might be illegal immigrants" in the proverbial big data haystack www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

once again, it’s time for rally festival and lageritas with some of the public sector’s best designers, what you sayin’