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

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

@anildash.com Since you keep talking about “better AI critique”, you might like this article by Chelsea Troy: chelseatroy.com/2025/05/14/t... It felt like a really thoughtful approach to helping students understand the limitations of genAI, better than a blanket ban or unconditional acceptance.

To close my bookmarks series on a lighter note, I wrote about some of my favourite websites: alexwlchan.net/2025/my-favo... Pages that change randomly, that mirror the real world, or even follow the moon and the sun, plus my all-time favourite website design. 🔖

What I learnt about making websites by reading two thousand web pages: alexwlchan.net/2025/learnin... When I built my web archive by hand, I saw how other people make websites. I wrote about what I learnt – writing thoughtful HTML, new-to-me features of CSS, and some quirks and relics of the web. 🔖

Building a personal archive of the web, the slow way: alexwlchan.net/2025/persona... I wrote about how I created a personal web archive of all my bookmarks, the tradeoff between manual and automated archiving, and what I learnt about preserving the web. 🔖

Creating a static website for all my bookmarks: alexwlchan.net/2025/bookmar... I’ve been tidying up my bookmarks, and I’ve moved them out of Pinboard into a static website on my local computer. I’ve written about why I still care about bookmarking in 2025, and how this new site works. 🔖

Creating a static website for all my bookmarks: alexwlchan.net/2025/bookmar... I’ve been tidying up my bookmarks, and I’ve moved them out of Pinboard into a static website on my local computer. I’ve written about why I still care about bookmarking in 2025, and how this new site works. 🔖

Did you know that JSON objects can have duplicate names? { "sides": 4, "colour": "red", "sides": 5, "colour": "blue" } This is unusual and discouraged – but it is valid syntax! I wrote about how to deal with these unfamiliar JSON objects in Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/duplica...

Did you know that JSON objects can have duplicate names? { "sides": 4, "colour": "red", "sides": 5, "colour": "blue" } This is unusual and discouraged – but it is valid syntax! I wrote about how to deal with these unfamiliar JSON objects in Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/duplica...

A faster way to copy SQLite databases between computers: alexwlchan.net/2025/copying... I wrote up a quick trick I learned: dumping a SQLite database to a text file can make it much smaller, which means you can download it faster.

@arborelia.net I used ftfy for a project today, and the fix_and_explain() function was so useful, thank you! 💚💖

A flash of light in the darkness: alexwlchan.net/2025/fix-dar... I wrote about a recent bug in dark mode on my website, where I forgot to set a fallback colour for a background image.

Beyond None: actionable error messages for keyring.get_password(): alexwlchan.net/2025/get-req... I have a wrapper for get_password() so that if it can’t find a password, you get an error that explains how to set the password, and what password to choose.

What a great day to live on terf island Much love to my trans siblings, especially my trans sisters, and good luck for the wave of extra crap that’s about to be flung our way 💚💖

Localising the <time> with JavaScript: alexwlchan.net/2025/localis... I wrote a quick post about using the <time> element and some JavaScript to display timestamps as human-readable, localised timestamps. Compare: Wed, 16 Apr 2025 at 06:31 BST (1 hour ago) vs 2025-04-16T06:31:27Z.

I try to be gracious when my travel is delayed by a person is struck by a train, because other people are almost certainly having a worse evening than me. But tonight is really quite miserable, because my journey home is being compounded by other delays that are unrelated to the incident.

Always running: alexwlchan.net/2025/always-... “When the fire starts, I am already running for the exit. I have always been running for the exit.” I wrote some fiction! I tried to capture the perspective of a character we’re all familiar with, but we rarely interact with.

Siblings, Software, and Sock Repairs: buttondown.com/alexwlchan/a... I just sent out my March newsletter, which is a roundup of all the stuff I’ve been writing and enjoying in the last month. Highlights: Monki Gras talk, a trip to the Netherlands, and three problems that sound simple but aren’t.

What I’ve learned by building to last: alexwlchan.net/2025/buildin... 🔮 There are patterns in what lasts 💖 People skills matter more than technical skills 🌱 Long-lasting systems cannot grow forever I had a lovely time speaking at #MonkiGras yesterday, and I’ve just posted my notes and slides.

Whose code am I running in GitHub Actions? alexwlchan.net/2025/github-... I strung together some Unix pipelines and text processing tools to find out what third-party code I’m using in my GitHub workflows, so I can decide if I trust it.

Between “Maybe Happy Ending” and “Why Am I So Single?” today is a great day to dance like nobody’s watching as you enjoy cast recordings of new musicals. 🥰

Fast and random sampling in SQLite: alexwlchan.net/2025/fast-sq... I tried four different approaches, and I wrote about the performance and tradeoffs of each. 🎲

We all lose when art is anonymised: alexwlchan.net/2025/anonymi... I was trying to track down the photographer behind some pretty traffic lights (Lucas Zimmerman), and I wrote a few thoughts about the widespread trend of removing or obfuscating attribution.

We all lose when art is anonymised: alexwlchan.net/2025/anonymi... I was trying to track down the photographer behind some pretty traffic lights (Lucas Zimmerman), and I wrote a few thoughts about the widespread trend of removing or obfuscating attribution.

An unexpected lesson in CSS stacking contexts: alexwlchan.net/2025/new-ban... How hard could it be to lay out two elements in CSS? Surprisingly difficult, if you’re me!

I wrote about some of the work I’ve been doing recently to create maps with a scatter plot of locations in Python: alexwlchan.net/2025/static-... This feels like something that should be possible with a data viz library, but I wrote my own lat/lon code using OpenStreetMap and Pillow instead. 🌍

✨ I just sent out my February newsletter, which is a roundup of stuff I’ve been writing and doing in the last month: buttondown.com/alexwlchan/a... (And unlike January, I remembered how many days there were, so I wrote it before the end of the month!)