This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.
I am increasingly of the opinion that the general software engineering adage “Don’t Repeat Yourself” does not always apply to web development. Also, I found that web development classes in CS academia are not very realistic. These two problems turn out to have the same root cause: a lack of appreciation of what browsers do…
This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.
This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.
I’ve been happy with my 2016 HTPC, but the situation has changed, largely because of something I mentioned in passing back in November: The Xbox One and PS4 are effectively plain old PCs, built on: Intel Atom class (aka slow) AMD 8-core x86 CPU 8 GB RAM AMD Radeon 77xx / 78xx GPUs cheap commodity…
Despite being only a short journey away (made even shorter by the new railway station that appeared near by house last year), I rarely find myself in London. But once in a while a week comes along when I feel like I’m there all the time.
On Friday of last week, Ruth, JTA and I took one of the London Transport Museum‘s Hidden London tours. Back in 2011 we took a tour of Aldwych Tube Station, probably the most well-known of the London Underground’s disused stations, and it was fantastic, so we were very excited to be returning for another of their events. This time around, we were visiting Euston Station.
But wait, you might-well say: Euston station isn’t hidden nor disused! And you’d be right. But Euston’s got a long and convoluted history, and it used to consist of not one but three stations: the mainline station and two independent underground stations run by competing operators. The stations all gradually got connected with tunnels, and then with a whole different set of tunnels as part of the redevelopment in advance of the station’s reopening in 1968. But to this day, there’s still a whole network of tunnels underneath Euston station, inaccessible to the public, that are either disused or else used only as storage, air vents, or cable runs.
A particular highlight was getting to walk through the ventilation shaft that draws all of the hot air out of the Victoria Line platforms. When you stand and wait for your train you don’t tend to think about the network of tunnels that snake around the one you’re in, hidden just beyond the grills in the ceiling or through the doors at the end of the platforms. I shot a video (below) from the shaft, periodically looking down on the trains pulling in and out below us.
No sooner were we back than I was away again. Last Saturday, I made my way back to London to visit Twitter’s UK headquarters in Soho to help the fantastic Code First: Girls team to make some improvements to the way they organise and deliver their Javascript, Python and Ruby curricula. I first came across Code First: Girls through Beverley, one of Three Rings‘ volunteers who happens to work for them, and I’ve become a fan of their work. Unfortunatley my calendar’s too packed to be able to volunteer as one of their instructors (which I totally would if it weren’t for work, and study, and existing volunteering, and things), but I thought this would be a good opportunity to be helpful while I had a nominally-“spare” day.
Our host tried to win me over on the merits of working for Twitter (they’re recruiting heavily in the UK, right now), and you know what – if I were inclined towards a commute as far as London (and I didn’t love the work I do so much) – I’d totally give that a go. And not just because I enjoyed telling an iPad what I wanted to drink and then having it dispensed minutes later by a magical automated hot-and-cold-running-drinks tap nearby.
And that’s not even all of it. This coming Thursday, I’m back in London again, this time to meet representatives from a couple of charities who’re looking at rolling out Three Rings. In short: having a direct line to London on my doorstep turns out to be pretty useful.
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My post You Don’t Have to Do It has been getting an inordinate amount of attention in the last few months. As is often the case about anything in my life, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I really do think that polyamory isn’t for everyone, that while it’s a way…
This checkin to GC6HN05 The BAD Horse reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Hurrah! I am here!
(who are all these people?)
If you’ve ever applied for a job with my employer, the University of Oxford, you’ll have come across recruit.ox.ac.uk, one of the most-frustrating websites in the world. Of its many problems, the biggest (in my mind) is that it makes it really hard to share or save the web address of a particular job listing. That’s because instead of using individual web addresses to correspond to individual jobs, like any sanely-designed system would, it uses Javascript hackery and black magic to undermine the way your web browser was designed to work (which is why, you’ll find, you can’t “open in new tab” properly either), and instead provides its own, inferior, interface.
Some day I might get around to writing e.g. a userscript and/or browser plugin that “fixes” the site – from a user’s perspective, at least. But for the time being, because this morning I needed to share via social media a link to a UX developer post we’ve just advertised, I’ve come up with a little bookmarklet to fix this single problem:
This tool makes it easy to get permalinks (web addresses you can save or share) for job listings on recruit.ox.ac.uk. It might be adaptable to make it work with other CoreHR-powered systems, if it turns out that this missing feature comes from the underlying software that powers the site: it could also form the basis of a future userscript that would automatically fix the site “on the fly”. Here’s how to use it:
If you have any difficulty with it or want help adapting it for use with other CoreHR systems, give me a shout.
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In May 2016 I was lucky enough to get to take a tour through the disused/non-public tunnels underneath Euston Station in London. The whole experience was fantastic, but a particular highlight was getting to stand in a ventilation shaft directly above the Victoria Line platforms, where this video was taken. Travelling the underground, it’s easy to be unaware of the network of tunnels around the ones you’re in, bringing air and electricity from the surface.
This checkin to GLN40D2N London NiKaJaDa Cache 8 - Fighting Candle reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found while on the way to a meeting this morning. GPSr was “off” and I spent a while looking up poles on the wing side of the road before I worked out where ought to be looking! TFTC.
Highlight of my visit to @TwitterUK with @CodeFirstGirls might be ordering an iPad to make me a drink. #easilyamused https://t.co/LDMobl4vOx
Feel like I should get a special sticker for tweeting from *within* @TwitterUK headquarters. https://t.co/LJgHBC40pS
A second day in #London: this time, I’ll be hanging out with @CodeFirstGirls at the @TwitterUK HQ.
This checkin to GLN3VWKF Squeezed in at the Tate reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Found while exploring London with fleeblewidget. Didn’t manage to squeeze in a trip to the Tate this time, though!
This checkin to GLN3VQQC Wobbly Bridge reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
Easy find while out exploring London with fleeblewidget. TFTC!
