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As sure as eggs is eggs..

.. somebody will call me or reach out via LinkedIn to ask if my employers (or soon to be former employers) need X, Y or Z services.  Or the "buy our tat" sales pitch as I call it. Firstly, cold calls like this rarely, rarely lead to sales (or even an evaluation).  Secondly, I'm being made redundant alongside 36 other people.  It is public knowledge (see social media and many games sites reporting on it).  What does that say about the general state of a company and its finances?  Finally, why are you calling me on my personal mobile number?  I haven't given you permission.  I had THREE people reach out to me today (two by phone) to sell their tat.  The first was asking about our use of Kubernetes in the business.  The second one hurt: it was Cloudflare.  I had recently applied for a position there and I...

Swap Attention for Connection

I've fallen down a huge rabbit hole of late - investigating the idea of the tiny web, a pared down version of online tools, a less overwhelming way to engage. Fewer newsletter subscriptions, lighter weight apps, reduced input and increased output. It's not the first time - I've been here before. But, what I'm discovering, thanks to Lightpage and Sublime, is that there are others. I've been doing geeky, techie stuff for the past 30 years. But many of the women I know who are my age, didn't go down the same path. They are savvy in so many ways but not tech savvy. Women who might have decided to branch out when they hit 60. Or, post-menopause, had an urge to do something new, and that might involve building some sort of online presence. In the past, my initial reaction would have been to suggest a website - possibly...

Milan: sarà l'annata giusta?

Molti tifosi rossoneri si stanno domandando se quest'anno può essere quello giusto per il rilancio sportivo del Milan.  Essere fuori dalle coppe deve diventare una opportunità per non fare passi falsi in campionato.  Le incognite sono molte.  Nuovo allenatore, nuovi schemi, ma soprattutto una rosa completamente diversa da quella della scorsa stagione.  Intendiamoci, non si poteva fare diversamente vista la passata annata.  Le prossime settimane sapranno già dare i primi verdetti sulla bontà del nuovo corso milanista...

Your starter for 10

I both enjoy and fear job interviews.  I feel that I don't do enough to cover everything being asked.  I feel that I am rambling/repeating myself, or I forget vital experiences that could make or break getting the job.  It's incredibly nerve racking (especially having not done it for a while). I had two interviews yesterday for two jobs that I'd really like to get (not all at once, unless I pull a Foundation[1] and clone myself like Cleon I) and I couldn't tell you how they went other than one of them mentioned being over qualified, which from my experience over more than 29 years, generally means that I'm not likely to get the job.  It's a blessing and a curse.   So that's put the wind up me a bit.  And I may have even taken that out of context.  That's how much like a rabbit caught in...

📡✨ Forgetting

This morning, I happened to come across an article in my Craft documents that I had written about generative artificial intelligence but never published. As I reread it, I wondered if it was complete or if it was unfinished work. I went to check my website, and no, I had never published it. I made a note to rework and improve it, because I think it’s still relevant today. I can say the same thing about Scribble.pages. I sometimes forget about its existence.  Funny enough, this isn’t the first time I’ve forgotten things like that. I feel like a squirrel that forgets half the time where it buried its nuts.

How My Self-Hosted Server Fits My Mac Life

When I retired in February, one of the first things I did was set up a home lab using the various components that I've been socking away for years. For me, 2025 has been the year that I've left the tech giants in my rearview mirror. To that end, I wanted to experiment with Linux, even though I don't plan to abandon the Mac or iOS as platforms. After a couple of months fooling around with Ubuntu on an old Lenovo ThinkPad, I decided to build a self-hosted server using the same computer and a bevy of external hard drives that I had accumulated. I solicited advice on Mastodon and ended up going with Unraid, a NAS-based operating system based on Ubuntu. I know someone who has an Unraid server, and that played a part in my decision. Unraid is not free. I spent $49 for a license that allowed...

Buona la prima

In poche parole questo sarà un blog nel quale perderò passerò del tempo a blaterare cose di poco senso.  La mia intenzione è quella di pubblicare brevi pensieri, ma per il momento non ho idea se le mie divagazioni avranno un filo conduttore oppure no. In fin dei conti se non è importante per me lo è ancor meno per voi, giusto? 😅

Amazon Photos

I’m downloading my photo and video backups from Amazon Photo. We’re going to move to a different solution.  I have them all backed up in various locations, so I thought it would be easier to just download them all and upload as one batch. I’ve been downloading for three days. Almost 70,000 files. Yeesh. 

Two new Ruby podcasts from Rails Foundation and Ruby Central

In case you missed this in the last period, there are two new podcasts in #Ruby world:  On Rails - a podcast produced by the @Rails Foundation and hosted by @robbyrussell 👇 https://onrails.buzzsprout.com Ruby Gems Podcast produced by @rubycentralorg and hosted by David Hill and Marty Haught  👇 https://www.buzzsprout.com/2509083PS: Both of them are hosted https://www.buzzsprout.com/ - built also with Ruby on Rails

Back to School

The wife is a teacher. She started back this week; students start next week.  Our adult kids surprised her at work today with a coffee treat! We’ve raised some pretty good humans. 

Ding Dong

I live in Alexandria, Virginia. It’s a city of about 160,000 people. I rarely feel like I live in a city when I’m at home though. I live in Old Town, which is the historic district.  This morning’s dog walk felt like a little European village. No cars were out. Brick sidewalks. And the Catholic Church bell was ringing the time. Dong dong dong …

Typo of the week!

"Huge wife breaks out at Edinburgh's Arthur's Seat" - as seen on Sky News' YouTube channel.

Brats, Tots, and Squash

It was a lovely day today. Weather was nice. We walked the sidewalk sale in Old Town. Then we ended the day by grilling some (vegan) brats, tater tots, and squash. We ate out on the patio with the kids and my son’s partner.  Just a lovely day. 

This week has ended on a high note!

Several more rejections came through this week.  One really hacked me off because it was something that I was a subject matter expert on (email delivery) and apparently I didn't have the relevant experience (which I do).  Got to love templates and push-button rejections.  When technology takes humanity out of the process, you're doing it wrong even though it may still be beneficial to your organisation.  What was even annoying was a Civil Service job which paid extraordinarily well and was based in London.  Spent 45 minutes filling in the form (and having to anonymise everything and copy and paste lots of stuff).  After that was done, about 20 minutes later an email came in to say they screwed up the locations at which the job was offered and if I were interested, please apply again.  *Inaudible scream that only dogs can hear* Anyway, robotic, impersonal rejections aside, there has...

My Life at a Glance Notebook: A Journal and Planner System for Seeing Life Clearly

My pocket-sized notebook isn’t like a traditional diary or a paragraph-heavy journal, nor a typical bullet journal or planner. Instead, it builds on those concepts but with a unique purpose: to view one’s life from a bird’s-eye perspective, and review it with a broader outlook. I call this my “Life at a Glance System.” Why Other Methods Didn’t Work for Me as a Life Reflection Tool I started my journaling practice with the Bullet Journal Method because it aligned with my goal of living intentionally and recording life as it unfolds. The basics of the Bullet Journal Method (not the decorated, elaborate versions often showcased by influencers) are straightforward: the Future Log for reference, the Monthly Log for tracking and scheduling, and Rapid Logging for capturing moments and thoughts. While Rapid Logging is helpful in the moment of jotting things down, it became cumbersome over time: retrieving information was challenging, and...

Kinky

The wife and I went to see Kinky Boots at The Little Theater of Alexandria tonight. Community theater, but amazing performances. Lola was professional quality for sure.  And the story is so important right now. I’m glad we supported the message, local theater, and doubly glad every performance is sold out. That’s amazing. 

My Battle with Subscription Fatigue: Mid-Year Update

I figured I’d give an update on my ongoing battle with subscription fatigue. This is a mid-year check-in, and I might start doing these quarterly just to keep myself accountable. Over the past few months, I’ve whittled down my subscription list by several more services. Most were dropped by choice because of price or lack of use, while one disappeared on its own when my cell phone plan changed. Gone by choice are Netflix, SiriusXM, Yahoo! Mail Plus, Mail.com, Pocket, Peacock, and Protopage. The only one I lost due to my Verizon Wireless legacy plan was Google Play Pass. Why these services? Mostly, they became too expensive or the promotional deals ended. For example, I had the Netflix/Peacock bundle through Verizon Play+. I not only let it lapse, but Verizon also shut down the entire service. It was a good idea to have everything in one place, and it could...

Return to the Centre

It's the early days of my return to Web 1.0. It wasn't intentional, more a feeling. Here's what I've noticed already. I'm having more ideas - I use a number of tools to log ideas on the hoof. Twos is the main one. Voicenotes is the app I use for quick audio jottings. I've also been using Apple Notes as a published digital garden. Some of the ideas there will make it on to this blog. I think I'm having more ideas because I'm consuming less. The excess input isn't fogging up my brain. I've got more room in there to contemplate. I've backed away from Substack. When I have popped on to the site, there seem to be two camps. 1. I'm leaving. 2. This is a great opportunity (buy my eCourse to find out why). I exaggerate (only a little). I deleted Bluesky and Mastodon. I've seriously pared...

Cake

Wow, where did the last two days go? I really did mean to post something, but got sideswiped by work and then exhausted when I got home. Today I went in to the office late. I helped my wife deliver a cake this morning. She volunteered with an organization that makes cakes for underprivileged kids, kids in foster care, etc. Her undergraduate degree is in Social Work and her first job was with CPS. I love that she gives so much of herself to help children. Anyway, here’s the amazing cake she made. I like to think of the smile on the girl’s face that’s going to wake up to this.

It seems I'm not posting here since a very long time...

若い友人が生活費が足りず工面するのに苦労している。この人は学校を出てから真面目に働いていて、節約をしながら暮らしているが、飼い猫の世話や扶養している家族の分などでどうしても毎月お金が足りない。手取り給与額を聞いてみると僕が20代の頃とほとんど変わりがないので驚いてしまった。ほとんど30年前のままなのだ。物価は上がっているし（主食の米の価格が倍になった！）、スマートフォンを誰もが持つようになったから通信費が余分にかかるようになった。でも貰える給料の金額は全く変わっていない。どうやって暮らしていけというのだろう。 都会では違うのかもしれないが、地方では昔も変わらず実家で親と同居していることを想定している。男女とも結婚して自分たちの家庭を持つようにならないと暮らしが成り立たない。この考え方に沿って生きるか、社会を変えていくかの極端な二択しかないのが問題なのだろう。

While the number of rejections increases (slowly)..

.. there is some light at the end of the tunnel.  I have a first interview tomorrow about the job that I'd really like to do that's a bit different from a regular sysadmin job, and for a very prestigious company in the world of gaming.  The other potential position has been delayed a bit - probably because of the summer hols as people are away.  But at least the application hasn't been outright rejected - yet. There is also some rustling noises from recruitment agencies, so that's a good sign (my Supermassive Games and KPS positions were all through recruitment agency placements).  I reckon more movement will occur (good or bad) towards the end of the month, which is when - if I am made redundant - is when I spread my wings and.. go splat.

Running all tests from the current branch

I enjoy creating small automations using Ruby and Bash. While it might be simpler to use Bash, I like #Ruby so much that I want to use it more. Here are two examples of how to run all the tests that have changed in the current branch: an example for Minitest and one for RSpec You can, of course, modify this script to become an MCP, enabling tools like Claude Code or Cursor to run tests at the end of an implementation. During multiple rounds of test runs and fixes, when focusing on each test individually LLMs may pass the most recent test they fixed but fail previous ones.

Update: July 2025

We've decided to make a few changes and have migrated from Substack. Instead we will be using this blog and a simple newsletter for once monthly updates, and ad hoc news. You can visit the website for Chris' story, to book him as a speaker or to get in touch.  Farm LifeOver at the smallholding, we still have nine hens and one cockerel. Between them, the hens are laying 4-5 eggs a day. At some point this year, we will rehome our hens and acquire some new point of lay hens to get back up to full egg production. The chicken run was extended earlier this year and the hens love all the extra space. We have a pair of red legged partridges visiting regularly, and this week, for the first time, a Mum and her three babies found their way into the run. Last weekend we spent a day...

Please Take Me With You Next Time

Had to leave the house for a few hours and this is how the puppy greeted me when I got home.

僕らはどこまで行っても搾取され続ける。ほんの10年前に今の仕事を始めたが、その後業界全体が貧弱になっていった。自分の後から入社した人たちは考えられないくらい安い賃金で働いている。僕は彼らに自分が貰っている金額を教えることはできなかった。彼らが辞めてしまうかもしれなかったからだ。自分が働いている会社だけではなくて、業界全体がそうなってしまった。つまり僕自身もかつての良い時代を知っている人たちからしたら、驚くほどの薄給で働かされているのかもしれない。

Greener on the other side: why I’ve switched to Android and why it stuck this time

My iPhone 15 Pro is a marvel, but after over a decade of iPhone use, I am, frankly, bored. Apple products have become familiar to the point of monotony. And, having spent weeks using the betas of the upcoming version of iOS, I can’t shake the feeling that Liquid Glass is a design language at war with itself, contradicting its own mandate to put your content first by drawing attention to itself at every turn. So what, it’s a phone—just change it. You’re right, and I did. Twice, actually. I spent a bit of time with the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL a few months back and the OnePlus 13 a little after that. But…at the time, RCS was just rolling out, and since most of my social life relied on iMessage, the friction was too great—if not for me, certainly for my friends and family who I had no...

Should've Stayed Home

I went into the office later this morning because I had to have blood drawn. Therefore, traffic was terrible so I ended up even later than I expected. When I got to the office, the building had just lost power. It was about 45 minutes before it was restored. Then another 20-30 minutes before the network was working properly.  Half my day essentially gone and I felt like nothing had been done. I should have just stayed home; I would have gotten more done!

Reliving the Good Old Days of the World Wide Web

The good old days of the Internet, around the mid 1990s, were a heady time. Every day was an adventure, falling down rabbit holes, uncovering new websites, finding kindred spirits, being superglued to the screen until the wee small hours. It was the era of the blogger, blogrolls and a sense of community. I loved it. Before long I had a blog of my own, initially hand coded in HTML, later moving on to sites like Blogger and then WordPress. I can’t remember the exact words but one of my blogs was described as quirky and eccentric by a reader. I was flattered. That was exactly the style I was aiming for. Random jottings, highlighting moments from my life, and sharing the things I loved to do. It’s been bubbling under for a while but I miss those days. Before everything became commercialised, about business, or selling stuff. Those early...

• 👾 Added the ability to show unique hits for your main hit counter. Just add `hits=unique` to your embed script to bring across the unique count. • 👾 Added the ability to use a browser beacon approach to sending hits back to Tinylytics. Just add `beacon` as a parameter to your embed script if it something you might want. I'll keep this hidden for now in the docs as it's very specific. • 👾 Attempting to better handle referrer data when recording hits, so you get better path info on a case by case basis — I am still looking at this to see if anything else needs doing.

Left the house this morning only to discover..

.. that the lock on my front door had something jammed in it.  Initially I thought somebody had tried to put superglue in the lock mechanism, but thankfully I was able to scrape away whatever rubbish was in there with the key and turn the lock without too much difficulty. I've no idea who might have done it, or whether it's just "a thing" (how?), but should I discover if it was deliberate and who it was, or if it happens again, the police are going to be called.   I'm also for the first time considering getting a Ring doorbell for security purposes (my neighbour directly opposite has one - so I may well ask them if they have any footage of anybody attempting to fiddle with my door).  In the immortal words of Shaun Taylor: "Keep 'em peeled!"

• 🔐 You can now enable two-factor authentication for your account. Head on over to your account page and then Login & Security to get started. • 🌎 Added the ability to set up more details for the webring listing, you can read about it here. • 👾 Fixed an issue with updating the site widget when switching between different widgets like Uptime, Insights etc. • 🧹 Tidied up various parts of the site, for example the account pages now all link easily and are cleaner, kudos set up info now matches other part of the app. And some other subtle tweaks.

DC Fountain Pen Supershow 2025

I spent a couple hours at the DC Fountain Pen Supershow, the largest fountain pen show in the world (their words, not mine). This is the third year I've been and it doesn't get any less overwhelming. There are hundreds of vendors and booths. If you want it, you'll find it! I didn't go with an agenda or a list of things I wanted. I just wandered and let things "speak" to me. My wife asked for a specific pen, which I found. It's always a fun and jaw-dropping event. I scored a new Diplomat Aero pen, five new inks, and some stickers. I also picked up the pen the wife wanted and a pen case for her. All-in-all, not bad; I could have done a lot more damage! Here's a photo of the whole weekend's haul (Stationery Day at Penny Post and the DC Supershow): And here are my...

Expanding the Webring

Tinylytics already includes a delightful opt-in webring feature, which lets users embed a simple widget on their websites to showcase a random site from the ring. It's a fantastic way to discover our cozy corner of the indie web and stumble upon some truly inspiring personal sites. Today, I'm excited to announce the groundwork for expanding this feature. While the full rollout is planned for later this year, you can start adding more details about your site right now. This gives everyone plenty of time to prepare before we launch.Here's what's new: • Website Categories: You can now assign a category to your site (like "Personal Blog"). This will enable filtering in integrations, so you can retrieve only sites that match specific categories — great for tailored recommendations or themed explorations depending on your mood or showing similar categorised sites to yours. • Site Descriptions: Add a brief description of...

• 🐛 Fixed an issue that wouldn't correctly update downtimes after a website came back to the up state.

"Motivation is weather, discipline is climate"

Why are we lying to young people about work? The pendulum continues to swing, from the post-war grit of our parents' values, to the easy-going idealism of our own upbringing, perhaps back now, toward a more measured perspective on what it takes to succeed. Here’s what I highlighted: “We tell them that if they just find their passion, work will magically transform into endless joy, as if difficulty is just a symptom of being in the wrong job rather than an inevitable part of doing anything worthwhile.” “We've convinced an entire generation that if work feels hard, they must be doing it wrong.” “Everything worth having lives on the other side of effort. Everything good requires tending. Everything beautiful demands maintenance.” “The people who understand this most deeply are often the happiest, because they've made peace with the beautiful burden of nurturing. They know that the dishes exist because they've...

Why I ditched my Apple Watch

A few weeks ago, I decided to review how I use technology and if I needed to be glued to a screen all day. It was clear - I was using my phone and other devices to paper over a void I had been experiencing for several years. This realisation came after a chance encounter with some notes I had taken on the Slow Tech movement.  The Slow Tech movement is cultural and philosophical response to the rapid rise of technological development, which has overwhelmed us for many years now. The movement advocates for using technology deliberately, rather than compulsively. I was certainly a compulsive user. I lost count of the times I picked up my phone or logged into my MacBook only to forget why I had done so in the first place. The Slow Tech movement emphasises on quality and intentionality. More importantly, it promotes long-lasting, repairable and...

Stationery Day

This weekend is a busy weekend for me! Today is Stationery Day and this weekend is the DC Fountain Pen Supershow! Almost exactly 10 years ago I tried switching to notebooks more in my life and relying less on technology. To help, my wife bought me a stationery box subscription. In the very first box I received my first fountain pen and I was immediately hooked. It was quirky, different, and fun. Suddenly pens weren't just a boring black or blue plastic rod. There were thousands of styles, thousands of ink colors, and an almost endless combination of the two. I'm not an avid collector and it's never been anything more serious than a hobby. I've never had a custom nib ground or spent (what I consider) a ridiculous amount on a pen. But I still have fun, I still attend shows, and I look for stationery shops whenever we...

• 🧹✨ Reworked some settings with dedicated Webring, UI Settings and Danger Zone pages, that allows for better info and also simplify the main site settings. • 🧹 Other general tweaks to wording throughout some parts of the site.