Month: July 2025
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Buldak
Based almost-entirely on seeing some folks on Nebula do a blindfold taste test challenge of some Korean ramen, JTA ended up importing some of the same brand and I ate some for my lunch. Here's what I made of them.
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Adding a feature because ChatGPT incorrectly thinks it exists
ChatGPT lied about the functionality of Adrian Holovaty's software tool, Soundslice. So rather than try to get ChatGPT corrected, he just... implemented the feature it had claimed he already had. Is this the first time in history that this has happened? It could be!
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Please Fix This Site? Okay!
PleaseFixThisSite.com is a funny web-based take on that XKCD comic about extorting graphic designers who hate your design choices. But you don't actually need to pay the extortionist to "fix" their site. Just have your userscript manager run a few lines of my code, and the effect is much the same.
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Zip It - Finding File Similarity Using Compression Utilities
I really enjoyed Computerphile's video about how ZIP tools can be used for abstract tasks that you might initially think were way outside their scope... like working out how close the genetic relationship between two species is, or which human languages are most similar to one another!
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Dan Has Too Many Monitors
My new employer sent me a laptop and a monitor, which I immediately added to my already pretty-heavily-loaded desk. Wanna see?
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Off to my first day at Firstup. Gotta have an induction: get my ID badge, learn where the toilets are, how to refill the coffee machine, and all that jazz.
Except, of course, none of those steps will be part of my induction. Because, yet again, I've taken a remote-first position. I'm 100% sold that, for me, remote/distributed work helps me bring my most-productive self. It might not be for everybody, but it's great for me.
And now: I'm going to find out where the water cooler is. No, wait... some other thing!
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As the UK's heatwave continues, the dog and I were delighted that this morning was sufficiently overcast that we could manage a proper walk without completely melting.
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A French Bulldog on a forested path, panting happily.
Her breed copes badly with the heat and we've lately had to keep her indoors or in the shade more than she'd like, so a chance to run around among the trees was very welcome!
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I know how I'm SUPPOSED to read it, but when I see this I can't help but imagine a conversation like...
"What shall we call our car wash?"
/waves hand/ "I dunno."
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Google Maps screenshot showing the location of a business seemingly called Waves Hand Car Wash Cheltenham.
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On our family Slack, Ruth and I have a tradition of reacting to one another's messages, where no other emoji seems appropriate, with a "person rowing boat" emoji.
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I can't remember exactly how it started. Possibly one of us was using the text search to find the "robot" emoji (probably in reference to our robot vacuum cleaner, which used to be more-frequently found hiding under the sofa than anywhere else in the world).
🤖
But whatever the reason, the game stuck. And because you can leave multiple emoji responses to a Slack message - and because Unicode permits a diversity of gender and skin tone options for this particular emoji - sometimes this results in a whole flotilla of rowboats parading beneath our messages.
And if an emoji armada isn't an excuse to demonstrate the fact that the <marquee> tag still works in most browsers, for some reason, I don't know what is.
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The Local Historian
This week I (again) helped share my knowledge about a nearby stone circle and henge with a group of children from the local school. And I was overjoyed to receive the most-delightful handmade 'thank you' card from the class.
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Doxxing an Imaginary Person?
This morning, Google pulled a video from YouTube belonging to my nonprofit Three Rings. This was a bit of a surprise.
Apparently the video - which is a demo of some Three Rings features - apparently fell foul of Google's anti-doxxing rules. I'm glad that they have anti-doxxing rules, of course. But in this case, the person we 'doxxed' lives on Some Street, Somewhereville. Which I'd like to imagine is clearly a made-up address, but maybe not! -
Found GCA6CCW Purple door
This checkin to GCA6CCW Purple door reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs. It's possible that cycling this path wasn't the wisest idea, I realised, as I dodged brambles on both sides. So focused was I on riding safely that I forgot which GPSr I'd brought with me and listening for …
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Found GCADCWF Treasure island
After an appointment in Witney I opted to divert my cycle home to find this and the other cache on the same path.
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Historical Tech Tree
Étienne Fortier-Dubois's excellent Historical Tech Tree is fun and informative, and worth an explore.
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The unrepentant bleppy face of a dog who, without fail, steals the warm spot I've left behind on the sofa within like three seconds of me standing up.
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A champagne-coloured French bulldog sits askew on a blue blanket atop a grey sofa, her tongue sticking out and to the side, as she looks at the photographer.