I've been a long time away from big website builds. It's great to be back doing them again, but sifting through feedback from branding agencies does bring this image to mind:

Does anyone know where the setting in iOS is that tells Apple I’m not interested in the F1 movie?

Watched the Rest is Politics interview with Polanski. It's the splash of cold water Zackolytes like me need, because we have to know where we've the most work to do. We've got the idealism and the hope. Now we need to work on the understanding of the economy we're looking to reshape.

Knocked out Pluribus ep1 last night. I think I’m either going to really love this show or be infuriated by it. I’m leaning towards the former as the climax of the episode was charming. And it’s Vince Gilligan. Might watch it again as I was very very sleepy.

For about 2 years I’ve been using the same starting word in Wordle. This past week or so I’ve wanted to change it up as I do from time to time. Today I didn’t start with that word, so I got Wordle in 3 with my usual starting word. Devastated.

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works and gimme 3 rings when you get home.

Oh god, someone needs to tell Chris Packham his ads on the Bold Politics podcast aren't as charming as he thinks they are.

Just watched “Together”. Phenomenally gross body horror with that nice young lady from Community. Genuinely funny in parts like a lot of recent horror has been. And an exquisite song choice for the final scene. Conjoined-nightmare-fuel out of 10.

Today’s Mini was 5mins of confused frustration followed by a moment of pure satisfaction. Well done, editor.

Anyone else got their Wordle streak cruelly robbed from them this week? I was working towards my second longest streak and despite completing Monday’s puzzle, my number got reset. Boo I say. And also yes, I’m still playing Wordle. 😉 Love you bye xx

Learning how easy it is to make your own Greggs style bakes at home is like a hidden power-up. I mean, the years of my life I would have saved by not eating them literally aren’t worth it. Scallop bake next?

Idiocracy is one of those films that isn’t as good as Americans think it is, but it’s hard not to think of it when watching the “president”’s latest AI masterpiece with him in a King Trump emblazoned fighter jet dropping shit onto protestors.

Settles in to some ice cream and the TV show Daddy Issues. Been meaning to watch it as I had a sneaking suspicion I’d like it. Then I discover it’s written by Danielle Ward who was a guest on a podcast of mine and who I listened to on the weekly. Good shit.

I wonder if all the Paddington musical sounds like Hamilton or if it’s jest that taxidermist’s song? Either way I don’t mind it.

Ta-da! Erin posing like they own the joint 😆

Part one of my Green Party adventure is up. Check it out. Consider supporting me. Or at least share this about a bit? open.substack.com/pub/probably...

I always bristled at those App Store screenshots that weren’t screenshots but were images of phones with marketing text. But now that my app is in the Store, the screenshots look shit so I see why people do it. Oh yeah, and I’m in the App Store, baby!

Watching an episode of House: "His blood pressure's already 160/110. Any higher and–" Mrfcker, I'd _kill_ for 160/110!

Dunno if this is neurodivergence but I once got asked by a kid, about my laptop, “Does it run apps?” My brain shorted for a sec because it had to recalibrate. I asked him if he meant little square icons in a grid. And then tried some lame-as thing about “app” being short for “application”.

If there is a sketch about this I will not watch it, but I’m suddenly wondering who was the first person to be like “Hey can you not chew with your mouth open? We’re not animals.”

We are now In Review. 😱

My first iOS app in 8 years is in Apple's hands now.

The Eye of the Bedlam Bride is my favourite DCC novel so far.

I used to read mentions of pop culture or pop sci in novels and go ”I get that reference!” Now, at 42, I’m still reading, but it’s blood pressure medications I’m recognising by name.

Our @hellosteadman.com has been busy making a mobile app. Here's a quick peek.

Hey, I know no-one really reads my posts, but I’ve capacity if anyone’s looking for a freelance Django/Wagtail SaaS or CMS developer. Includes WordPress if needed. Tired of being ghosted or forgotten by my podcasting clients, and I’m ready to get back to work.

Who’s the absolute try-hard singing quietly to himself as the original Tide is High is playing in the café, just so everyone knows he knows the original Paragons lyrics? Why that would be me!

Stop saying backslash when you mean forward-slash. Also stop saying forward-slash when you mean slash. It’s just slash, guys. Always has been. Only people on Windows use backslashes, and no-one needs to say Windows path names out loud ever. tl;dr: “/“ is always just the word “slash”.

Hi friends I did some writing. Please check it out and if you like it please share it about? It's so hard to get things out there. edgetrinkets.co.uk/2025/09/01/a...

I’ve had an unpleasant weekend so far, but the highlight is definitely when I dropped my Bluetooth speaker in the bath only for it to survive completely unscathed. Thank you, Anker.

The next episode of our podcast is out! 🎙️ Flurry wants to be an app https://podcast.hellosteadman.com/5

Gratitude postitude: Roscoe is sitting on his favourite blanket in my studio, and is chilled. (This is not the normal scenario for post-lunch Roscoe, hence the gratitude.)

How to bate a neurodivergent person into apoplexy: give them a task (they'll convince themselves it's the ONLY thing they intended to do that day, even with 5 minutes' notice), then put something arbitrary and opaque in their way which they can neither control nor affect.

Today I thought I'd get myself a shiny new Apple Developer account. Seems Apple aren't letting anyone verify their identities so they can enrol. It's cute how they think they're such a legit platform.

I’ve been enjoying the Button Boys podcast. Good LOLs about video games, from 3 professional funny people who like video games. pod.link/1827054353

Podcast idea (incase it doesn’t already exist): The Hills We Die On A bit like Room 101. Each episode, 3 guests bring their own personal 3 hills they’ll die on. They have to defend their hills and if they lose, they can’t be angry about that thing ever again because society has spoken.

The next episode of our podcast is out! 🎙️ Nudging a user when they've strayed off the path https://podcast.hellosteadman.com/4

That’s the noise I made when I got today’s Wordle.

Something I've realised over the last few years of freelancing is that people think "urgent" = "I need an answer to this question now". That's not urgency, that's panic, and I don't want it in my WhatsApp messages.

After emailing a customer with sight loss, it's just dawned on me that I should give a quick reminder of the context up-top, especially if it's been a few weeks. Many of us quickly scan an email thread to remind ourselves. Doing that with a screen reader is a nightmare, so this could be useful.

Might have to start muting AI discourse. Well done. You’re right. Whatever viewpoint you have on it, you’re right. Congratulations. Now put your phone away and do fucking anything.

Roscoe is unhappy or unwell again. With cats it’s hard to tell which. So back we go to 2018 and the separations of cats and the collections of the urines. DEFINITELY something I have time and emotional bandwidth for. I’ll always find bandwidth to make sure by babies are thriving. Just… y’know.

Alexa has been getting slowly worse at turning lights on and off. Why do I suspect there’s some amount of money I’m not paying them that would make my lights work correctly?

I’m currently re-reading The Strain. It’s such a good series, and was rather done over by the TV show, which was trashy as hell.

In the wake of Substack saying the quiet part out loud and sending push notifications to promote nazi blogs, now more than ever it’s incumbent on Ghost to open a free tier. I know I know different business model yadda yadda. Na. It’s time now. They have a responsibility to provide an alternative.

It’s adorable listening to an American tech podcast and hearing them wax lyrical about some sort of system that would allow you to send money to people regardless of whatever “app” they were using. Honey, it’s called banking, and it works literally everywhere else. M’awww

A race condition is when two things that are supposed to happen in XY or XX order end up happening in YX order. Like when the guy brought over my lunch and instead of saying “thank you” or “cheers”, I said “theee, kaa”.

I haven’t enjoyed today, but I just capped it off by buying some moccasins. Turns out I had a pair in 2017 that were my absolute goto shoe for almost all occasions. They got destroyed by snow and it only occurred to me recently to go looking through my Amazon orders to find a version they now sell.

It’s been a “watching Half-Life speedrun video” kinda evening. Impressive until you realise they had to hack and script the game to make it work. Plenty of skill, doesn’t really count.

Got any ideas on how I can punch this up so it maybe actually gets read? It’s about the whole goddamn mess that is the Online Safety Act, and the recent fight Wikipedia is having against potential government censorship. www.hellosteadman.com/a-letter-to-...