From shkspr.mobi
1 1
The scream of a hundred days drew to a close and silence covered the land. The choir of villagers were delirious with exhaustion. Some of them had been at the chant for a week without sleep in order to draw God ever closer. The last few months had been spent screaming in a foreign tongue […]
#nanowrimo #writingmonth #revengeofthemutantalgorithms
21h ago
From shkspr.mobi
Introducing ActivityBot - the simplest way to build Mastodon Bots
1 15
As you may have read, BotsIn.Space is closing down, I have lots of automated bot accounts living on the Fediverse - and I want them to continue posting. Installing and maintaining an entire Mastodon instance sounds like hard work. Paying people to host my stuff feels like putting my fate in...
#fediverse #activitypub #weekinfediverse
on Sun, 12PM
From shkspr.mobi
Set your domain name as your handle for a BlueSky bot which is bridged from the Fediverse
0 2
If you've found this page, it's because you are me in the future and want to remember these instructions! Create an account on the Fediverse using a domain you control For example @user@bots.example.com Follow the Fediverse-ATProto bridge @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy Your account will need to be...
on Thu, 1PM
From shkspr.mobi
Tell me, what did you eat last night?
0 2
"The electric tongue says the soup needs more salt." "It got more salt!" Mothers and daughters have been bickering about seasoning ever since the stone age. One person's "too salty!" is another person's "you call that flavour?!" It is amazing kitchen knives are only ever rarely used to dispatch...
on Wed, 1PM
From shkspr.mobi
0 1
I spend every day crying for men I've only just met. Way back when, the selling of emotions was a complex affair. My grandmother was a lust seller - although she wouldn't have described herself like that. Bedecked in feathers and fake jewels, she gyrated on celluloid. She's in the background of...
on Tue, 1PM
From shkspr.mobi
0 1
Earlier this year, I won the BlueLightCamp Hackathon. Usually prizes are a token of appreciation - vouchers, a books, maybe even a new phone if you're lucky. This, however, was a "money can't buy" prize - a trip through the Thames Barrier. And so, during one of London's delightfully wet summer's...
on Tue, 8AM
From shkspr.mobi
0 2
Finding the root cause of an incident will always come to a dead-end at some point. We can use various investigatory techniques to ascertain why a part failed or who installed it incorrectly, but that doesn't get to the heart of the systemic failures which led us here today. This has been a...
on Mon, 1PM
From shkspr.mobi
Down at the Bottom of the Garden
0 3
The AI was getting increasingly stressed. The lights flickered as it failed to retain its calm. "I just need you to watch the video again! Please!" it implored. Navid sighed. This was exasperating. The AI had been a reassuring presence when he first installed it. Now it was screeching about...
on Sat, 1PM
From shkspr.mobi
A Visitation of Long Gone Cats
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All dogs go to heaven, that's just science. But cats are contrary buggers and hang around long after their nine lives are up. My cat, Busby, was the scourge of squirrels. The menace of mice. The dispatcher of rats. Legend tells of the day a dozen foxes ran screaming from the bushes, being chased by […]
on Nov 9
From shkspr.mobi
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A few weeks ago, I was clearing out some ancient backup CDs and floppy disks from my attic when I made a curious discovery. Pressed between a copy of Windows ME and a box-fresh copy of the original Duke Nukem Forever, I found a scratched and decaying Compact Flash cart. It was sticky and oozing […]
on Nov 8
From shkspr.mobi
Revenge of the Mutant Algorithms! No Time To Speak
0 0
Saint Chibubalah held the unique distinction of being canonised by the Catholic Church before his death. Although it was undoubtedly an unprecedented honour, it was of very little use to him while stuck within the confines of a miserable cell. Technically, it wasn't a dungeon. The UN's special...
on Nov 7
From shkspr.mobi
Job leaving rituals in the WFH era
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One Friday last year, I posted some farewell messages in Slack. Removed myself from a bunch of Trello cards. Had a quick video call with the team. And then logged out of my laptop. I walked out of my home office and sat in my garden with a beer. The following Monday I opened the […]
on Nov 7
From shkspr.mobi
A simple and free way to post RSS feeds to Threads
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Threads is Meta's attempt to disrupt the social media landscape. Whether you care for it or not, there are a lot of users there. And, sometimes, you have to go where the audience is. Here's how I build a really simple PHP tool to post to Threads using their official API. This allows you to […]
on Nov 6
From shkspr.mobi
Please stop using CDNs for external Javascript libraries
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I want to discuss a (minor) antipattern that I think is (slightly) harmful. Lots of websites use large Javascript libraries. They often include them by using a 3rd party Content Delivery Network like so: HTML<script src="https://cdn.example.com/js/library-v1.2.3.js"></script> There are,...
on Nov 6
From shkspr.mobi
Revenge Of The Mutant Algorithms - The Guerilla Information Team
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Throughout November I'll be releasing new weird sci-fi short stories. Each one is a campfire horror yarn, with a technological twist. Your feedback is highly appreciated. Everything you read is possible - there's no magic, just sufficiently advanced technology. Chapter 4 - The Guerilla...
on Nov 5
From shkspr.mobi
Revenge of the Mutant Algorithms - Universal Soldier Bin
0 0
I gently lowered my face into the autoshave. A hundred AI blades started re-sculpting my beard into this month's mandatory fashion. The snug rubber vacuum seal held tight against my skin while the microbots collected the discarded hairs and applied antiseptic to the few areas where the blades...
on Nov 4
From shkspr.mobi
Using Soundex to find Duplicate Database Entries
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Our community website - OpenBenches - has over seventeen thousand crowd-sourced entries. The nature of user-generated content is that there are bound to be duplicates. Especially around popular walking routes. Here's how I culled around 200 duplicates using the awesome power of SOUNDEX! Soundex...
on Nov 3
From shkspr.mobi
Yes, but what does your startup *do*?
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I recently signed up for a hackathon. Part of the deal these days is that sponsors get to send promotional messages to the attendees. Fair enough. The only problem is, most of these messages are rubbish! Here's the verbatim message I received - there were no links other than to Twitter. See if...
on Nov 3
From shkspr.mobi
A Cheap and Lazy way to create Mastodon Bots using… BlueSky?!
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With the sad news that BotsIn.Space is closing down, I needed to find a new way to host some of my automated accounts. I didn't want to spin up an entirely new instance, or self-host anything. So here's what I ended up doing. RSS → BlueSky → Bridgy → Mastodon RSS to BlueSky I set […]
on Nov 2
From shkspr.mobi
Revenge Of The Mutant Algorithms! Are Memories Made Of This?
0 0
Throughout November I'll be releasing new weird sci-fi short stories. Each one is a stand-alone story. Think of them as technological campfire horror yarns, each with a little twist. Your feedback is highly appreciated. Everything you read is possible - there's no magic, just sufficiently...
on Nov 1
From shkspr.mobi
Reflections on "30 Predictions for Twitter"
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It's always fun to look back at the predictions ancient man made about life in the future. 11 years ago today, Loïc Le Meur wrote 30 predictions for the future of Twitter (Video of the talk). This is a non-snarky look at those predictions. Not to ridicule his ideas, but to understand the errors made […]
on Nov 1
From shkspr.mobi
Using phpList for a blog's newsletter
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Some people like to receive this blog via email. I previously used JetPack to send out subscriber messages - but it became increasingly clear that Automattic isn't a good steward of such things. I couldn't find any services which would let me send a few thousand subscribers a few emails per...
on Oct 31
From shkspr.mobi
Is this a bug in every Markdown (Extra) parser?
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Markdown is, I think it is fair to say, a frustrating "specification". It's origins are a back-of-a-fag-packet document and a buggy Perl script - and we've been dealing with the consequences ever since. There are now multiple Markdown parsers, each with their own idiosyncrasies. To make matters...
on Oct 30
From shkspr.mobi
Highly Predictable Interactions
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I remember the first time as an adult I ordered a takeaway. I picked up the phone, menu in hand, and prepared to do battle. The person on the other end of the phone didn't speak English, my menu was out of date, they couldn't understand my address, and I didn't have the right money […]
on Oct 29
From shkspr.mobi
Using a CSS cursor to show the external link's favicon
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How do you know where this link goes to? If you're on a desktop, you might notice that hovering your mouse over it displays the destination somewhere on your screen. If you're a geek, you could view the source-code of a page. Can we improve the experience for users? Here's an attempt. Try...
on Oct 28
From shkspr.mobi
Review: The Cheapest USB-C Headphones I Could Find
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Ever since phone manufacturers killed off the headphone jack, there has been an epidemic of people blasting sounds from their shitty speakers in public. Music, TikTok, phone calls - it seems some people want the whole world to share their sonic experience. Forget that noise! I have a...
on Oct 27
From shkspr.mobi
A Brief History of Killing the Headphone Jack
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Is it the end-of-days for the humble headphone jack? As Apple prepare to remove it from their next iPhone - with Android manufacturers no-doubt following suit - I thought now would be a good time to look at the previous occasions when smartphone makers have tried to kill the headphone jack. This...
on Oct 27
From shkspr.mobi
Adventures with ultra-cheap ZigBee lightbulbs
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The people who built my kitchen were idiots. They designed it to be lit with a dozen recessed GU10 spotlights. That's not so terrible - GU10 LED bulbs are only about £1 each - but because I am a bigger idiot, I decided I wanted remote-controlled bulbs. And ZigBee bulbs are expensive! Five years ago, […]
on Oct 26
From shkspr.mobi
Mixing Hue and Innr Smart Lights
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I really wanted to write a rant about how incompatible smart lights are ruining the world. But... errr... Everything just works. Previously on my smarthome adventures, I kitted my house out with LIFX Bulbs and some WisQo Switches. I've moved home and none of my bulbs are compatible with the...
on Oct 26
From shkspr.mobi
Gadget Review: Lotus XR6 Recliner Chair
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People like to send me gadgets to review. My motto is "if it has a USB-C port, I'll review it!" So the good people at Flexispot have sent me a chair with a USB-C port. Fair play! This is the Lotus XR6 Recliner Chair - the electric variant of the XC6. Here's what it looks […]
on Oct 25
From shkspr.mobi
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I've written over 3,000 blog posts throughout the years. This blog has become a repository of my thoughts, feelings, experiments, hopes, and creations. It has also become outdated, buggy, and suffers from link-rot. So, every day, I tend to my digital garden. I go in to old posts and check that...
on Oct 25
From shkspr.mobi
Opening Compact File Set (CFS) files in Linux
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I was sent some medical images in a password-protected CFS file. Here's how to open them in Linux. You can't. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration. It's complex, but here's how to do it. The Linux software for the Compact File Set hasn't been updated in years and only works with ancient versions of […]
on Oct 24
From shkspr.mobi
Theatre Review: Coriolanus at the National Theatre
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What is the city but the people? What indeed? David Oyelowo is a powerhouse. His Coriolanus is a shitheel teetering somewhere between Trump and Mugabe. He isn't a noble character with a fatal flaw; his flaws are his character. The citizens celebrate him, turn on him, fear him. It isn't about...
on Oct 23
From shkspr.mobi
Book Review: Ira Aldridge - The African Roscius by Bernth Lindfors
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Ira Aldridge -- a black New Yorker -- was one of nineteenth-century Europe's greatest actors. By the time he began touring in Europe he was principally a Shakespearean actor, playing such classic characters as Shylock, Macbeth, Richard III, and King Lear. Although his frequent public appearances...
on Oct 23
From shkspr.mobi
Book Review: The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race - Ayanna Thompson
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The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race shows teachers and students how and why Shakespeare and race are inseparable. Moving well beyond Othello, the collection invites the reader to understand racialized discourses, rhetoric, and performances in all of Shakespeare's plays, including the...
on Oct 23
From shkspr.mobi
Movie Review: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
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There are some movies - like Snakes On A Plane - where the title simultaneously tells you the whole plot and compels you to watch it. Similarly, how can you resist something called "Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant"? Like the darkest of chocolates, the bitterness only accentuates...
on Oct 22
From shkspr.mobi
You can use text-wrap: balance; on icons
0 1
A fun little CSS experiment! There's a new(ish) feature in CSS which allows you to set the way text is wrapped. Ordinarily, a long line of text might be split at an inopportune time. For example: This very long headline ends with a single word Having a dangling word doesn't always look great....
on Oct 21
From shkspr.mobi
WordPress - Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
0 0
Why do so many vastly-wealthy tech personalities go mad? My ideal job involves being employed by a millionaire tech-bro. Just before they get on stage, or moments before they file a lawsuit, or an instant before they publish their thought leadership - I will appear to them. I will be dressed in...
on Oct 21
From shkspr.mobi
Book Review: The Appeal - Janice Hallett
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I was 25% of the way through reading this when I purchased the sequel. It is an utterly compelling murder mystery - not least because the death doesn't occur until well after the halfway point. Who dies? Why? Who did it? Why?! With every paragraph I felt myself trying to decipher the characters'...
on Oct 19
From shkspr.mobi
Import JetPack Statistics into Koko
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I've quit JetPack stats. I've moved to Koko Analytics. All the stats code is self hosted, it is privacy preserving, and the codebase is small and simple. But I am vain. I want all my old JetPack stats to appear in Koko so I can look back on the glory days of blogging. Koko has […]
on Oct 18
From shkspr.mobi
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One of the things I love about Private Eye is the columns I don't read. Corners of the magazine dedicated to the gossip of the classical music world, the perils of modern architecture, positively incomprehensible reports about big business buying into football. I care for none of these...
on Oct 18
From shkspr.mobi
Theatre Review: The Duchess [of Malfi]
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After seeing one Doctor Who on stage, it was time for another! I was lucky enough to get preview tickets for Jodie Whittaker in "The Duchess [of Malfi]". The Duchess is… dark. No, darker than than you're imagining. I've seen plays with content warnings. This is the first I've seen where they...
on Oct 18
From shkspr.mobi
Collaborative discussions at an unconference
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Unconferences are brilliant. Rather than a set agenda, people come up with their own sessions. A dozen Post-It® Notes are slapped on a wall, everyone writes down what they want to talk about, they're slotted into a grid, and - BAM! - you've got yourself an unconference. At the recent OggCamp...
on Oct 17
From shkspr.mobi
Liberate your daily statistics from JetPack
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Because Ma.tt continues to burn all of the goodwill built up by WordPress, and JetPack have decided to charge a ridiculous sum for their statistics, I've decided to move to a new stats provider. But I don't want to lose all the statistics I've built up over the years. How do I download a day-by-day […]
on Oct 17
From shkspr.mobi
Should Journalists Bother Checking Sources?
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OMG WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!111!! (Subsequently deleted but still available at Fadah Jassem's tweet) Let's take a look at the article and see if we can determine if this is a trustworthy source... Hmmm... I see "9/11 Truth", "Bilderberg", "Chemtrails" right next to the image. There's a...
on Oct 17
From shkspr.mobi
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My name is Terence(/ˈtɛɹəns) Eden(ˈiːdən/). Modern HTML allows the user to use <ruby> to annotate text. This is usually used for furigana - which allows pronunciation to be placed above words. For example: "シン・ゴジラ (Shin Godzilla)" shows you how to pronounce both words if you are unfamiliar with...
on Oct 10
From shkspr.mobi
DVD Review: Doctor Who and The Planet of The Spiders
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I had never seen Pertwee's final story. So I was overjoyed when an anonymous reader got it for me from my wishlist. It is an utterly bonkers story which nearly makes sense. Let's address the elephant in the room first. The "yellow face" isn't acceptable now and shouldn't have been acceptable...
on Oct 9
From shkspr.mobi
The Cleaner 🆚 Der Tatortreiniger - Series 3
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Did you know that Greg Davies' BBC comedy series The Cleaner is a remake of a German comedy series called Der Tatortreiniger? Last year I compared the English episodes to their German counterparts. Only one episode was unique to the UK version - the rest were more-or-less faithful remakes. What...
on Oct 8
From shkspr.mobi
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VoteUK is no more. In order to precisely show you where your electoral registration office was, I needed to take its postcode and covert it to latitude and longitude. That's the service Ernest Marples provided. A few days ago, the Post Office - in their infinite wisdom - set their legal dogs...
on Oct 8
From shkspr.mobi
WebMentions, Privacy, and DDoS - Oh My!
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Mastodon - the distributed social network - has two interesting challenges when it comes to how users share links. I'd like to discuss those issues and suggest a possible way forward. When you click on a link on my website which takes you to another website, your browser sends a Referer0. This...
on Oct 7