Creating a personalised bin calendar: alexwlchan.net/2026/bin-cal... I wrote a quick post about how I create my a fridge calendar that tells me about bin day. Python stdlib + CSS = 🚮 💚

Creating a personalised bin calendar: alexwlchan.net/2026/bin-cal... I wrote a quick post about how I create my a fridge calendar that tells me about bin day. Python stdlib + CSS = 🚮 💚

Some highlights and reflections from this year’s #monkigras “Prepping Craft” alexwlchan.net/2026/monki-g... Resisting ICE; stories of self-discovery; learning to be a parent of a trans child. So much fun; bring on 2027!

Some highlights and reflections from this year’s #monkigras “Prepping Craft” alexwlchan.net/2026/monki-g... Resisting ICE; stories of self-discovery; learning to be a parent of a trans child. So much fun; bring on 2027!

The selfish case for public libraries: alexwlchan.net/2026/selfish... I wrote about why I love and use public libraries, and how they help me be a better reader.

@grimalkina.bsky.social I don’t think you’re at Monki Gras today (if I’ve missed you around, sorry!), but your presence is being felt! Your work has received glowing mentions in two talks already, and it’s not even lunch ☺️

The selfish case for public libraries: alexwlchan.net/2026/selfish... I wrote about why I love and use public libraries, and how they help me be a better reader.

Dreaming of a ten-year computer: alexwlchan.net/2026/ten-yea... I wrote about my current Mac mini, and why I’m trying to make it last for at least decade – modern machines are so powerful, and this should be more than enough computer for me for a long time.

@jonnelledge.bsky.social Spotted in a bookshop next to London Bridge yesterday!

The bare minimum for syncing Git repos: alexwlchan.net/2026/bare-gi... I’m trying to reduce my dependency on GitHub and cloud services, and it turns out that in plenty of cases, syncing Git with a local folder is plenty good enough for my repos.

The Good, the Bad, and the Gutters: alexwlchan.net/2026/movie-p... In which I show you some cool CSS features like Grid layout and text-wrap: balance, explain it in a step-by-step guide to help myself learn, and have far too much fun with my placeholder data.

The Good, the Bad, and the Gutters: alexwlchan.net/2026/movie-p... In which I show you some cool CSS features like Grid layout and text-wrap: balance, explain it in a step-by-step guide to help myself learn, and have far too much fun with my placeholder data.

Using perceptual distance to create better headers: alexwlchan.net/2026/percept... I wrote about perceptually uniform colour spaces and how I’m using them to make nicer-looking header images for my blog.

I wrote about some of my personal security posture on my blog today: Where I store my multi-factor recovery codes: alexwlchan.net/2026/recover... The passwords I actually memorise: alexwlchan.net/2026/memoris...

I wrote about some of my personal security posture on my blog today: Where I store my multi-factor recovery codes: alexwlchan.net/2026/recover... The passwords I actually memorise: alexwlchan.net/2026/memoris...

I’d love to read a story about the security implications of bringing boatloads of explosives into central London, then setting them off on purpose. 🎆🎇

My favourite books from 2025: alexwlchan.net/2025/2025-in... In what’s now become a fun end-of-year tradition, I wrote about some of the books I enjoyed reading this year. Maybe something for your TBR pile in 2026? ☺️

Ignore AI upscaled YouTube videos with yt-dlp: alexwlchan.net/til/2025/ign... YouTube have started upscaling videos using AI. If you don’t want to download those versions, you can skip them by passing a --format option to yt-dlp. (But I know Bluesky loves AI so I’m sure nobody wants this… 😘)

Drawing Truchet tiles in SVG: alexwlchan.net/2025/truchet... I had some fun writing parametric templates to create Truchet tiles and drawing pretty pictures, even if I’m not sure what to use them for. 🤔

Drawing Truchet tiles in SVG: alexwlchan.net/2025/truchet... I had some fun writing parametric templates to create Truchet tiles and drawing pretty pictures, even if I’m not sure what to use them for. 🤔

The palm tree that lead to Palmyra: alexwlchan.net/2025/palmyre... I wrote a bit about a historical alphabet I’d never heard of, which I found while looking for the 🌴 emoji.

The palm tree that lead to Palmyra: alexwlchan.net/2025/palmyre... I wrote a bit about a historical alphabet I’d never heard of, which I found while looking for the 🌴 emoji.

Meeting my younger self: alexwlchan.net/2025/meeting... Rounding out this week’s trilogy on social media archiving, I looked back on 150,000 posts I’d saved from a decade of social media. Some fond memories I want to keep; some regrets and mistakes I’d rather forget.

Hard problems in social media archiving: alexwlchan.net/2025/hard-pr... I wrote about what I see as the key challenges to social media archiving in institutions – choosing what to save, the ethics of saving it, and searching what you’ve saved.

The Internet forgets, but I don’t want to: alexwlchan.net/2025/social-... I don’t trust platforms to preserve my memories, so I built my own scrapbook of social media. I wrote about what the scrapbook is, how it works, and some of the inspirations and influences.

The Internet forgets, but I don’t want to: alexwlchan.net/2025/social-... I don’t trust platforms to preserve my memories, so I built my own scrapbook of social media. I wrote about what the scrapbook is, how it works, and some of the inspirations and influences.

When square pixels aren’t square: alexwlchan.net/2025/square-... I wrote about a recent bug where my videos weren’t displaying properly, because I was looking at the storage aspect ratio – not the display aspect ratio.

Can you take an ox to Oxford? alexwlchan.net/2025/ox-in-o... I decided to work out exactly when you need to pay Oxford’s new congestion charge.

@oldenoughtosay.com i found more things to procrastinate on

Can you take an ox to Oxford? alexwlchan.net/2025/ox-in-o... I decided to work out exactly when you need to pay Oxford’s new congestion charge.

Cleaning up messy dates in JSON: alexwlchan.net/2025/messy-d... I’ve been cleaning up some messy data, and it includes timestamps written by a variety of humans and machines, which don’t use a consistent format. I wrote a Python script to help me clean things up.

Cleaning up messy dates in JSON: alexwlchan.net/2025/messy-d... I’ve been cleaning up some messy data, and it includes timestamps written by a variety of humans and machines, which don’t use a consistent format. I wrote a Python script to help me clean things up.

Detecting AV1-encoded videos with Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/detecti... I wrote a Python test to find videos that are encoded with AV1, so I can convert them to a codec my iPhone can play.

Why can’t my iPhone play that video? alexwlchan.net/2025/av1-on-... I wrote about a recent issue playing a video on my iPhone, the AV1 codec that caused the problem, and some web APIs I learnt while debugging.

Doing my own syntax highlighting (finally): alexwlchan.net/2025/syntax-... I’ve redesigned the syntax highlighting on my blog to use a smaller colour palette, so I wrote a bit about what I’ve changed, how it works, and why I think it’s better.

Creating a personal wrapper around yt-dlp: alexwlchan.net/2025/yt-dlp-... I’ve written a new script which calls yt-dlp with my preferred options, so I don’t have to copy my configuration across different projects.

@jonnelledge.bsky.social Spotted in St Pancras Waterstones 👀

@anildash.com I thought of you as I read this article; it’s a UK version of an idea I know you’ve had: takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/starmer-co... (Unless I’m misremembering, in which case sorry!)

Linking to text fragments with a bookmarklet: alexwlchan.net/2025/text-fr... I’ve written a bookmarklet that lets me link to specific text on a web page.

@garius.bsky.social I vaguely remember reading one of your threads where you said somebody like “so-and-so had no experience, and by the end of the night, nobody who witnessed their actions would believe it” – but I’m struggling to find it. Any chance you remember what I’m talking about?

Resizing images in Rust – now with EXIF orientation support: alexwlchan.net/2025/create-... I wrote about a new version of Rust’s image crate, which adds support for EXIF orientation. Now I can resize images without mangling their rotation. 🥳

Resizing images in Rust – now with EXIF orientation support: alexwlchan.net/2025/create-... I wrote about a new version of Rust’s image crate, which adds support for EXIF orientation. Now I can resize images without mangling their rotation. 🥳

On a lighter note, I did some digging around the history of Morse code: alexwlchan.net/til/2025/aro... * The @ symbol was added in 2004 * It’s probably the first symbol since WWII * It has a delightful name in French * Punctuation in Morse code has some surprising other omissions

Using vcrpy to test HTTP interactions in Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/testing... How I record HTTP requests to get fast, reliable, and consistent tests, and the patterns I use in a production codebase. 📼

Create space-saving clones on macOS with Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/cloning... I talk a bit about what space-saving clones are, and why they’re important, then describe two ways to create them in Python: 1. Shelling out to `cp` with subprocess, or 2. Making a syscall using `ctypes`

Create space-saving clones on macOS with Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/cloning... I talk a bit about what space-saving clones are, and why they’re important, then describe two ways to create them in Python: 1. Shelling out to `cp` with subprocess, or 2. Making a syscall using `ctypes`

Slipstitch, Queer Craft, and community spaces: alexwlchan.net/2025/slipsti... I wrote about the closing of my favourite yarn shop, what the fortnightly crafting meet-up meant to me, and why I’m a bit sad at how many spaces like this are disappearing.

A bit of personal news: today was my last day at the Flickr Foundation. I’m very proud of what I did there, but now it’s time for something new – with a break first! More here: alexwlchan.net/2025/leaving...

I was unpacking new laundry pods this evening, and I saw a scary warning: “If swallowed immediately contact a POISON CENTER/doctor.” which led me down a rather interesting (if morbid!) rabbit hole about poison centres, something I’ve not come across in the UK: alexwlchan.net/til/2025/poi...

Recreating a bird animation: alexwlchan.net/2025/swift-b... I learnt a bunch about animation on the web by reading the Swift.org source code, like: ✨ Using a dash pattern to draw partial paths ✨ HTML5 Canvas and globalCompositeOperation ✨ Anime.js ✨ MutationObserver ✨ prefers-reduce-motion: reduce