@simonwillison.net is this…?

Where does London begin and end? Some say you're in London if you're within the M25, others say London ends at Zone 2. These arbitrary lines are too simple. My Londometer uses data to create a much more complicated %. I'm sure this will settle things and not enrage anyone. london.abscond.org

Methodist churches tend to have terrible websites, but for my very particular needs, they win a lot of points from me for having a clean, public geojson file of their districts on their website. Frustratingly rare for a civic institution. www.methodist.org.uk/_churchfinde...

Nice to learn the history of the place I went drinking as a teenager from @jim.londoncentric.media

I've made a browser extension that replaces _that_ dot with a random emoji. github.com/symroe/GOV.U...

Did you know that putting 12v through the 3.3v rail on a Raspberry Pi would break it? I mean, I did, but electricity is invisible, so I don't know how I'm supposed to know where it's going.

I love getting to think and communicate in prototype code alongside designers, so this was a dream project to work on.

Would anyone be interested in joining this software engineer at a policy event? I'm too scared of all the PPEs to go by myself. We can sort linked lists in the back if it's too much. www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/sprin...

Are you sick of American references in NYT Connections? I made a quick London-themed one: connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-OL9EiI...

I would have been convinced that Remar charity shops used generative AI for product development if they hadn’t been running since the 90s.

For a couple of work projects I've wanted an easy way to find out the English Indices of Deprivation for a location. This data is Open Government Licensed, but only available as a big download I put the data into an sqlite database and wrapped a micro-api around it: https://github.com/james/IMD_API

I've been a Spotify user since it was invite only in 2008, and contemplating trying the switchover to Apple Music. I thought they'd have honed the switching process, but had to pay for a 3rd party app to transfer playlists, and still Apple Music thinks I want David Guetta & Harry Styles.

great piece by @abscond.org on making Co-op membership matter more. In the same 2017ish era my take was: detach membership from Co-op-customer transactions and federate it www.holdfastprojects.com/radical-co-o...

7 years ago I was asked by The Co-op to reimagine co-operative membership for the internet age. I think I had some nice ideas. I've published them in a blog post. abscond.org/2024/11/26/a...

I’ve used traintimes.org.uk for at least the last decade. There was a time I hoped it was the future, but now it… feels a bit hipster?

I'm very tempted to pay £85.50 to have an expert install these staples and see what happens.

Mildly triggering wordle

Studio life is good life

Claude Computet Use was very easy to get running, but out of the box it gets stuck on the Google cookie consent modal. I think because it requires scrolling? Suddenly we’re caring about the fold again?

A note, 1 week after the last note? What is this called? abscond.org/2024/10/20/n...

on.ft.com/3NpZNo3 I’m assuming private equity will shut down the Silvertown factory and I want to be the first to put in a bid to buy the huge tin of syrup.

Trying to host a small non-HTTP service somewhere was proving surprisingly difficult. I was staring down the barrel of old-school VMs or Kubernetes. But then I found you can just the [http_service] block from your @fly.io config toml. @fly.io is not a heroku replacement. It's better.

For those software developers worried that LLMs will make their programming language trivia worthless: I have some IE6 box model CSS hack trivia for you.

Done a note. Cladding, board game, work, and journaling with @revdancatt.com’s kitty. abscond.org/2024/10/13/n...

DDAT no longer works. Roles have become over-specialised, and current budgets no longer allow for the luxury of one person per skillset. We staffed the team with more generalist roles that resemble the 2010 design industry rather than the 2024 one. www.ff.studio/projects/spo...

This is slander. I vigorously deny any knowledge of this “PowerBI”. Keep it away from my CV. (I had fun too ❤️)

I have 1 night hyperfixating on bosanova, and I’m onto my third week of pure bosanova discover weeklies.

I'm in the beta to record.club (via @futurefabric.co) The premise appeals to the part of me fighting my older, discover weekly fed music existence and longing for a return of This Is My Jam. But I'm struggling to get into it. Anyone wanna be friends? https://record.club/abscond/

This is your regular reminder to pre-order Richard's forthcoming book on the future anatomy of public services. Free shiny stickers!

While some have been having a brat summer, I have found the band that I want to represent my autumn: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildlife #mildlife

I love that the generally fantastic digital transformation of McDonalds still appears to use a pretty ropey iframe for the payment gateway on the ordering consoles.

Is there a reason I can't find an Adium for the bsky/mastadon/threads era?

Give me canteens.

The parakeets of London give a pleasant lurch to my sense of existence. I don't remember seeing them growing up, then they were novel in my young adult life, and now every Summer evening I watch swarms and swarms fly over my garden. Nothing is permanent. Nothing is natural. I am watching it happen.

I've been sucked into Office365's successful (and possibly illegal www.theverge.com/2024/6/25/24...) reassertion of it's dominance in government IT. I've spent the last couple of months working in it on a day-to-day basis, and I've tried to keep an open mind. Two things I’ve loved about Office365:

oh hi. I am back from a fun weekend at We Out Here running Murmuration. It was a very slick festival, both front and back of house. Murmuration was a big hit, being consistently packed all night with happy people.

My yearnote for 2023: abscond.org/2024/01/05/y...

MPVs are a part of my personal brand now. Here’s my review of my Ford Grand Tourneo Connect, a people mover/van/camper combo. https://abscond.org/2023/08/12/ford-grand-tourneo-connect.html

I didn't have an Action Man or a Barbie as a child. I had this Cindy 4x4 because it had the most gadgets. Defying gender norms in the most normative way possible since the '90s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfB_57Kqihw

Despite an angry investor forum full of unanswered questions like "where are the financial projections", "why is turnover so low", and "what is the exit strategy", What3Words raised £4,530,890 from 6749 people today. Folks, this is not a good investment. You're propping up a nonviable business.

I’ll be in San Francisco and have no plans August 18-21. Who’s there now? Who should I catch up with, and who should I meet?

Just saw someone with a “data is the new bacon” T-shirt at Paddington, which is a flashback.