Is anyone else finding this Rachel Reeves / OBR / dishonesty business increasingly reminiscent of the Dominic Cummings / Barnard Castle thing? 1/

Felt cute, might delete later.

@simonwillison.net Have you ever tried your pelican benchmark with PostScript instead of SVG? I've just been playing with Gemini 3 Pro thinking and it's really good at PostScript, but it definitely can't one-shot it.

I was today years old when I realised why it's called firmware.

@drmaciver.bsky.social I enjoyed your email this morning. I too am a fountain pen user who had previously never thought about the principles of operation of the cap. It made me think of this Tim Harford post. timharford.com/2019/07/how-...

Has anyone got any experience of seriously using a vintage text terminal with modern Linux? I'm giving it a go, but I'm not sure if it's really viable today. 1/

It would be a small but meaningful improvement to the world if shoeboxes were built to be large enough for A4 paper. I've got lots kicking around, but they seem to be just slightly too narrow.

PyCon UK is in a couple of weeks, and it won't be the same without Michael. RIP.

Is it me, or is it getting harder and harder to find a beer mat in pubs these days? Some pubs seem to want to have them on the bar (why?), but it seems increasingly common for them not to exist at all. I'm in a 'spoons and people are using menus, lottery tickets, magazines. Madness.

Despite housing atomic clocks, GPS satellites have to have their time reset every day.

Just finished watching the Toolroom Takeover playlist on YouTube, and it's fantastic. Every one of the items they made is incredible. If someone gave you any of them it would instantly become your most treasured possession. #toolroomtakeover2025 youtube.com/playlist?lis...

I sometimes get asked why my terminal has reminders of tools installed on my system, so I wrote a short blog post about why and how I did this. www.judy.co.uk/blog/using-f...

My relationship with these issues is growing more nuanced as I get older. Today I would say that most conservative values are respectable and even admirable. Fine values to live by. It's when you try to use them as a basis for public policy that you end up with the wrong answer.

📣 Got a favourite must-see Manchester spot? Tell us! 📣 PyConUK2025 is coming to Manchester — and we're putting together a blog post of our favourite things to do and explore! 🖼️ Museums, 📚 libraries, 🌿 parks and more! 💬 Got suggestions? Tell us below! 👇 #PyConUK2025 #citylife #Manchester #tech

The use of the word "delve" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party aka - how to observe the effects of ChatGPT on legislative staffer work.

Why is it that there seems to be a large and active campaign for the Oxford comma, but not for putting the el (or perhaps ells) in shan't.

Just randomly browsing the source for the new Microsoft edit.exe. It's pretty wild, containing specialised SIMD search routines, and an implementation of Oklab colour blending. A simple application in concept, but someone obviously cares a lot about doing it well.

I saw this in the cinema, and it was a real experience. The ending provoked a gasp of frustrated anticipation followed by a sad sigh from the whole audience, who then all laughed when they realised everyone else had done the same. If you watch it you'll understand.

1. Open the cupboard and see a cake or biscuit. 2. Think 'That would go well with a cup of tea' 3. Make a cup of tea 4. Realise I've long since finished the cake or biscuit

AI - Artificial Intelligence BI - Business Intelligence CI - Continuous Integration DI - Dependency Injection EI - Emotional Intelligence FI - ??? GI - Gastrointestinal ... - ??? MI - Michigan NI - National insurance OI - ??? PI - Private Investigator QI - ??? RI - Royal institution ...

Never gets old youtu.be/M_ZRsf9sneQ?...

We're nearing the end of the cling film. It's getting hard to pull off the roll. The box has collapsed and torn. The cutter no longer cuts. Every piece I get is ragged, the wrong size and doesn't fit the sandwich. It's been weeks like this. To bin it would be a mercy, to it and to me.

I've only just realised that ice-creams are included in the Sainsbury's meal deal.

here's an old school pen plot of the chip layout of a 555 timer! each mask layer is on a separate sheet of transparency film.

Thanks, I hate it.

I'm certainly not complaining, but does everyone else get a surprising amount of fox and fungus photos in their discover feeds? If not, I guess I'm lucky! I'm kinda pleased that the anatomically implausible drawings of manga girls seem to have gone now though.

I recently saw an amazing Navajo rug at the National Gallery of Art. It looks abstract at first, but it is a detailed representation of the Intel Pentium processor. Called "Replica of a Chip", it was created in 1994 by Marilou Schultz, a Navajo/Diné weaver and math teacher. 1/n

I’ve been exploring pen plotters for over 10 years (more if you count my first plotter, a Commodore 1520). What started as a curiosity has kept me engaged as a retro computing enthusiast and captivated as an artist. Lets go back in time with some of the plotters I’ve used in various ways. 🧵

Just saw a post about companies returning to the office. It was couched, as these things often are in terms of "How can management be so stupid", and lots of responses were basically conspiracy theories (e.g. it's about property prices)... 🧵

Because some damn fool asked, here's a thread about Baxter. This was taken on the day I brought home Baxter and threw away all hope of an easy life. Look at him. Absolutely irresistible. And that's how they get you, the utter bastards

I have one of these. The way the pen appears to skip from position to position without moving through the intervening space is not an artefact of the video.