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Kind: Articles

Traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body.

  • Close-up of a skewed Google-style search bar with a query ending 'am i crazy?', with a prominent rainbow-bordered 'AI Mode' button.

    So Unbelievable it Sounds Like you Googled It

    DeGoogling is so... 2010s. Let's make the 2020s the decade where we redefine Google as a verb. In the age of AI-first search, "to Google" now ought to give a nod to the accuracy and ethical issues posed by making AI into people's first experience of Web search.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (480 words)

    • Article
    • 2 comments
    • posted 7 June, 2026
  • A large, L-shaped office desk with thick motorised metal legs lies on its edge, upright, in a bare concrete-floored home office.

    F-Day plus 113

    It's been 113 days since my house flooded and it's almost time for repair work to start! But first, I've got some repair work of my own to do: to a desk that needs moving and to a laptop that's misbehaving.

    Read more (391 words)

    • Article
    • 1 comment
    • posted 6 June, 2026
  • Screengrab from a YouTube video showing a white woman with brown-and-red hair saying "please see the FAQs for any questions you have have around deed polls[sic] and the rules." alongside a logo for "Change Names".

    The "ChangeNames.co.uk" Scam

    Today, somebody who's running a scammy personal information collection campaign hidden beneath the veneer of a buggy free deed poll service that competes with my better, ethical free deed poll service... emailed me to ask if I'd advertise theirs for them. Wow.

    Read more - about 5 minutes (963 words)

    • Article
    • 11 comments
    • posted 1 June, 2026
  • Screenshot showing a calculator deriving the EU flag emoji from the letters E and U.

    Converting ISO Country Codes to Flag Emojis

    Did you know that there's a simple formula you can use to convert from an ISO two-letter country code to the emoji of the flag of that country. I've made an interactive thingy to demonstrate it, and shared some other fun things I've learned while playing around with ISO 3166 and flag emoji.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (529 words)

    • Article
    • 6 comments
    • posted 31 May, 2026
  • Carl Person, an older white man with receding grey-white hair, wearing a smart three-piece suit, leans against a planter in an marbled ornamental garden.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Carl Person

    As I continue my 25-consecutive-days-of-Wikipedia, today's random article of the day was Carl Person, a lawyer with an interesting history.

    Read more - about 4 minutes (792 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 27 May, 2026
  • Orange-pink octopus with a long web skirting between its tentacles and a distinct butterfly-shaped elongated shell from its head.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Cirrothauma Murrayi

    Today, Wikipedia introduced me to a mysterious deep-dwelling octopus. So cool!

    Read more - about 4 minutes (725 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 25 May, 2026
  • Screenshot showing VSCode running in a web browser, being used to edit a static HTML website.

    A Selfhosted Static Site Editor

    Inspired by the way that Nekoweb's editor 'Nekode' works, I came up with a low-effort way to let my eldest get started with HTML and CSS editing, right from her browser, with the results selfhosted directly from the household NAS.

    Read more - about 3 minutes (535 words)

    • Article
    • 8 comments
    • posted 22 May, 2026
  • Several men stand on the bare concrete floor of a residential hallway with no furniture or skirting boards.

    F-Day plus 97

    It's been 97 days now since we were flooded-out of our home, and repair and rebuild work hasn't really even begun. But it's getting closer, and I'm looking forward to later this year sitting back in my own house (and probably at the piano!).

    Read more (291 words)

    • Article
    • 2 comments
    • posted 21 May, 2026
  • Monochome photo, presumably taken using a mirror, of a balding man operating a box camera.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Yousuf Karsh

    Wikipedia is 25 years old this year, and in celebration of that I found my way via a Mercurial crater to the article about Yousuf Karsh, one of the most-important portrait photographers of the 20th century.

    Read more - about 4 minutes (888 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 21 May, 2026
  • A line of rocky standing stones with sea birds perching on many of them.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Necker Island

    Today, thanks to Wikipedia, I learned a lot about a miniscule Hawaiian island with an interesting cultural and archaeological history... after I found my way there from a random page about a hip hop album!

    Read more - about 8 minutes (1705 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • 1 comment
    • posted 20 May, 2026
  • A group of Baikal seals bask on a rock.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Lake Baikal

    Today's random Wikipedia article was about a kind of seal that lives only in Lake Baikal in Siberia, which turns out to be a really, really big lake. Like: it's got about a fifth of the world's fresh water in it; that's how big it is!

    Read more - about 4 minutes (775 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 19 May, 2026
  • Boy playing yo-yo. Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 440 BC.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Yo-Yo

    This year is Wikipedia's 25th birthday, and as part of the celebrations I learned who Marcus Koh is... but that wasn't remotely as interesting as learning about the long history of the yo-yo!

    Read more - about 5 minutes (1075 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 17 May, 2026
  • AI-generated EP cover of Built In Obsolescence by PAIgan Wanderer Lu, showing a neon digital outline of Andy.

    Built In Obsolescence

    Pagan Wanderer Lu's released a cover album of his own music, where the cover artist is... AI. Some of the songs have come out quite well, and it gives me cognitive dissonance to enjoy art while disliking what its process represents.

    Read more - about 6 minutes (1312 words)

    • Article
    • posted 15 May, 2026
  • A long train snakes around hillside stepped farms in a tropical and mountainous landscape.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Rail transport in Indonesia

    Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and today I'm celebrating by discovering what the Argo Wilis is, along with a dive into a rabbithole about rail transport in Indonesia!

    Read more - about 5 minutes (981 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 15 May, 2026
  • Fanciful patriotic painting showing flaming wooden Spanish warships being bombarded by the guns of a line of steel American battleships.

    Wikipedia @ 25: Wesley Merritt

    Wikipedia is celebrating its 25th birthday, and somehow as a result I ended up reading about Wesley Merritt, who was the shortest-lived Governor-General of the Philippines!

    Read more - about 7 minutes (1628 words)

    • Article
    • with an accompanying podcast
    • posted 14 May, 2026

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