Recently updated blogs

I wrote a bit about the war of the zettlekasten as my last entry, and have been keeping two separate ones; one is a set of notes on Philosophy, thus far really just notes and nodes as I read Bertrand Russell, and another which is for… life stuff, the novel I am perpetually not writing, and so forth, It’s new, and filled with strange observations, one chapter from the novel, …

I’m running a bit behind getting this post written and uploaded this morning. It’s the last full day of PulpFest 2024. I didn’t make it to the Doc Savage gathering this morning at 7:30, but I did make it to the informal meeting of members of PEAPS, the Pulp Era Amateur Press Society. I will […]

My book about how comedy works, and why it matters, is available from good bookshops and truly exceptional coal merchants...Deeply analytical and utterly joyous.Robin Ince Joel Morris has finally invented ‘being funny whilst talking about being funny.Caitlin Moran It's made me a better writer. It's probably made me a better human too.Daisy Buchanan Joel knows what he’s talking about. And he’s sickeningly funny. Stop reading this sentence and buy this …

Where we started The first Government project I worked on was a licensing service, as part of the project, licence numbers were updated. That change stopped users from being able to log into a related service where they recorded their activity. In summary, our ‘service’ had broken someone else’s ‘service’. I’ve seen loads of examples of similar issues over the years. Usually the result of only designing parts of services …

This is a slight departure for Historical Ragbag, as I’ll be looking at a mythical figure. But it still involves research and a good story so I decided it still fit. In researching for my novel, it’s contemporary and with merpeople but based on Welsh history and mythology, I came across a figure who gets one tantalising mention in the Mabinogion. Dylan of the Wave. The Mabinogion is a series …

The fourth in the series about every year of Numberphile. Videos about Klein bottles, infinity, and coin flips.

Like a lot of you I first got interested in technology through audio equipment. More specifically, my Walkman. Growing up in a rural village being able to slip on some headphones and instantly transport myself to another world was magic. I was hooked as soon as I tried my mum’s Walkman. My parents gave me a cheap model of my own for my eighth birthday, and from that point I’ve …

Few alliance nations would ponder how the cadence of Netanyahu’s speech inside Congress put them under the spell of denial. This is akin to the Khmer Rouge (government in exile) that was invited to hold a seat in the United Nations until 1993. Continue reading »

Whether you're developer, DevOps engineer, SysAdmin, QA or in any other technical role, you're surely familiar with cURL - the command line tool and library for transferring data with URLs (as described in docs). Most of the time however, we all really only use curl for simple tasks, such downloading a file or checking if website is accessible, yet there's some much more curl can do! And in this article …

Making music on the Polyend Play+ with my new sample pack! TOY BOX - my sample pack!Check it out at polyend.com!

After 150 days and 3074.5 km of hiking (and also canoeing and cycling), I reached Bluff, the southern terminus of Te Araroa. Today was, I think, the first time daylight saving time changed for me on the trail, shifting sunrise (and sunset) an hour “earlier” than it was yesterday. Of course, when your day is driven by sunrise and sunset, and not the clock, this doesn’t have much practical difference. …

France, 1927: A rustic little cottageA 1.5-story house with a living/dining room, kitchen and a toilet on the first floor. The second floor contains two bedrooms.Maisons Pour Tous Vol. II - No. 12, 15 January 1927. (Paris, France) —from my library

Exploring different ways to make sense of OpenStreetMap data.

Reflections on my time as a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Elon University, North Carolina. 1. Elon University · 2. Flora and fauna · 3. Teaching technology ethics · 4. The sport · 5. Being a Fulbrighter · 6. Life in the North Carolina Piedmont · 7. The national future. I try to arrive in the US as non-judgemental as possible, determined to reappraise America from first principles. Unrealistic perhaps, but …