Blog
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Thanks to the community's invention of a "Region unlocked" achievement, I've been able to instantly (and retroactively!) tick another one off my geohashing list, for my expedition on Trinidad early this year!
(Possibly I've achieved it other times, too: I haven't yet determined whether anybody successfully hashed in County Mayo or County Galway before I did last year, on account of both counties spanning multiple graticules and so requiring more research!)
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Do you know the story of how Tom Lehrer hid an Easter Egg in an academic paper he wrote at the NSA, and his joke wasn't discovered for almost six decades?
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Clapham South Deep Shelter
This weekend I once again found myself underground beneath London; this time exploring the Camden South Deep Shelter with the help of the Hidden London folks. And it was pretty damn cool.
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Went to Wagamama. Accidentally made the "Order of the Beast".
(Plus a similar side, for those who read binary.)
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Wagamama restaturant placemat on which the waitstaff has written my order item numbers: 110, and 666.
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Seventy years ago, residents of this part of London would take shelter from V1 and V2 bombs in a tunnel beneath my feet. And today, I'm going down there to take a look!
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Dan, a white man wearing a Goo Goo Dolls t-shirt, stands in front of a sign describing the history of The Drum in South Clapham.
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ArtificialCast
ArtificialCast is a lightweight, type-safe casting and transformation utility powered by large language models. It allows seamless conversion between strongly typed objects using only type metadata, JSON schema inference, and prompt-driven reasoning.
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I got kicked off LinkedIn this week. Apparently there was "suspicious behaviour" on my account. To get back in, I needed to go through Persona's digital ID check (this, despite the fact that I've got a Persona-powered verification on my LinkedIn, less than six months old).
After looping around many times identifying which way up a picture of a dog was and repeatedly photographing myself, my passport, and my driving license, I eventually got back in. Personally, I suspect they just rolled out some Online Safety Act functionality and it immediately tripped over my unusual name.
But let this be a reminder to anybody who (unlike me) depends upon their account in a social network: it can be taken away in a moment and be laborious (or impossible) to get back. If you care about your online presence, you should own your own domain name; simple as that!
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Found GC94GEM Brize Adventure
QEF (once we started paying attention to the right host object!) for the geopup and I on a morning dog walk after an errand in the village. TFTC, now better get off to work!
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I've eaten "doughnut holes", but I've never seen anybody market "bagel holes". Untapped opportunity? 🤔
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Lock All The Computers
I wanted a button on my desk that, when I pressed it, would simultaneously lock every computer connected to my KVM system. Here's what I came up with.
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Wrote note for GCB8W6H In Memory
Checked-in on this cache as it's had surprisingly-few visits yet. Reassured to find that it's all still in place and findable. Second-to-find's still up for grabs.
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DOGWALK
DOGWALK is a free, open-source Godot game for Windows, MacOS and Linux, produced and given to the world by Blender Studio as a way of showcasing some of their video lessons. And it's adorable.
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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.