All posts by tag

This is a list of every post on alexwlchan.net, organised by tag. You can browse the list:

• by date
• by tag (this page)
• by filtering to my favourite posts

You can subscribe to my posts as an Atom feed.

Tags

Jump to a tag:

• ableism
• accessibility
• acorn
• alfred
• alterconf
• amazon‑cloudwatch
• amazon‑dynamodb
• amazon‑ecr
• amazon‑ecs
• amazon‑eventbridge
• amazon‑s3
• amazon‑sqs
• apache
• applescript
• asexuality
• automation
• aws
• aws‑billing
• aws‑cloudtrail
• aws‑iam
• aws‑lambda
• aws‑secrets‑manager
• azure
• backblaze
• backups
• bash
• blogging‑about‑blogging
• bookmarklets
• books
• build‑automation
• cambridge
• code‑terrorism
• colour
• combinatorics
• community‑management
• conferences
• css
• data‑viz
• dates
• datetime‑shenanigans
• digital‑preservation
• docker
• documentation
• domestic
• fandom
• fiction
• finatra
• fish‑shell
• frustrations
• fun
• gender
• generative‑art
• git
• github
• glitch
• golang
• goodreads
• graph‑theory
• graphic‑design
• hardware
• harry‑potter
• health
• history
• html
• http‑2
• hypothesis
• icloud
• imac
• images
• inclusion
• instapaper
• interpersonal‑skills
• ios
• iphone
• ipod
• javascript
• jekyll
• keynote
• kindle
• language
• languages
• latex
• linux
• london
• macOS
• macos
• make
• markdown
• maths
• misc
• mysql
• notebook
• open‑life‑science
• os‑x
• pandemic
• pelican
• personal
• photography
• pinboard
• podcasts
• politics
• privacy
• productivity
• programming
• public‑speaking
• pyconuk
• python
• python‑pillow
• reading
• regex
• religion
• rust
• safari
• scala
• search
• security
• shell‑scripting
• skeletor
• slack
• slides
• software‑development
• spreadsheets
• svg
• swift
• taking‑notes
• talks
• television
• terminal‑tricks
• terraform
• textexpander
• textmate
• the‑good‑place
• time‑travel
• tnmoc
• trains
• travis
• tumblr
• twitter
• typesetting
• ui‑design
• uk‑politics
• unicode
• wellcome
• windows
• wolfram‑alpha
• work
• writethedocs
• writing
• youtube

ableism

accessibility

Aug 2021		Markdown’s gentle encouragement towards accessible images
Mar 2021		An AppleScript to toggle Voice Control
Jul 2019		Ten braille facts / ⠼⠁⠚⠀⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑⠀⠋⠁⠉⠞⠎
Feb 2019		Checking Jekyll sites with HTMLProofer
Jan 2019		Monki Gras 2019: The Curb Cut Effect
May 2018		A brief thought on Google Duplex

acorn

alfred

alterconf

amazon-cloudwatch

amazon-dynamodb

amazon-ecr

amazon-ecs

amazon-eventbridge

amazon-s3

Jun 2021		Amazon is discontinuing S3 BitTorrent
Apr 2021		Downloading objects from/uploading files to S3 with progress bars in Python
Aug 2020		S3 prefixes are not directories
Aug 2020		S3 keys are not file paths
Jun 2020		Large things living in cold places
May 2020		Illustrating lifecycle transitions in Amazon S3
Mar 2020		Finding the size and cost of each of your S3 buckets
Jan 2020		A deletion canary: testing your S3 bucket permissions
Sep 2019		Streaming large objects from S3 with ranged GET requests
Jul 2019		Listing even more keys in an S3 bucket with Python
Feb 2019		Working with really large objects in S3
Apr 2018		Two shortcuts for using S3 in the shell

amazon-sqs

apache

applescript

asexuality

Oct 2016

The A stands for Asexual

automation

aws

Sep 2021		Getting a monthly cloud costs report in Slack
Sep 2021		When is my EventBridge cron expression going to run next?
Jul 2021		Listing deleted secrets in AWS Secrets Manager with boto3 and the AWS CLI
Apr 2021		Downloading objects from/uploading files to S3 with progress bars in Python
Dec 2020		Creating short-lived, temporary roles for experimenting with AWS IAM policy documents
Nov 2020		A script to copy images from Docker Hub to Amazon ECR
Sep 2020		Two Python functions for getting CloudTrail events
Aug 2020		S3 prefixes are not directories
Aug 2020		S3 keys are not file paths
Jun 2020		Large things living in cold places
May 2020		Getting every item from a DynamoDB table with Python
May 2020		Moving messages between SQS queues
May 2020		Illustrating lifecycle transitions in Amazon S3
Apr 2020		Using DynamoDB as a calculator
Mar 2020		Finding the size and cost of each of your S3 buckets
Jan 2020		A deletion canary: testing your S3 bucket permissions
Jan 2020		Finding the CPU and memory bottlenecks in an ECS cluster
Dec 2019		November 2019 scripts: downloading podcasts, retrying flaky errors, Azure and AWS
Nov 2019		An AWS costs graph that works for me
Sep 2019		Streaming large objects from S3 with ranged GET requests
Jul 2019		Listing even more keys in an S3 bucket with Python
Feb 2019		Working with really large objects in S3
Jan 2019		Debugging a stuck Terraform plan
Dec 2018		Getting credentials for an assumed IAM Role
Nov 2018		Finding SNS topics without any subscriptions
Sep 2018		A basic error logger for Python Lambdas
Aug 2018		Implementing parallel scan in DynamoDB with Scanamo
Apr 2018		Two shortcuts for using S3 in the shell
Jan 2018		Getting every message in an SQS queue
Jan 2018		Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python, redux
Nov 2017		Downloading logs from Amazon CloudWatch
Jul 2017		Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python

aws-billing

Sep 2021		Getting a monthly cloud costs report in Slack
Nov 2019		An AWS costs graph that works for me

aws-cloudtrail

aws-iam

aws-lambda

aws-secrets-manager

Jul 2021

Listing deleted secrets in AWS Secrets Manager with boto3 and the AWS CLI

azure

backblaze

backups

bash

blogging-about-blogging

bookmarklets

books

build-automation

Mar 2019		Creating a GitHub Action to auto-merge pull requests
Aug 2018		Selective sudo on Travis
Mar 2018		The Hypothesis continuous release process

cambridge

code-terrorism

colour

Nov 2021		dominant_colours, a CLI tool for finding dominant colours in an image
Apr 2021		Drawing coloured squares/text in my terminal with Python
Jul 2020		Changing the accent colour of ICNS icons
Feb 2020		Adjusting the dominant colour of an image
Aug 2019		Getting a tint colour from an image with Python and k‑means

combinatorics

community-management

Sep 2018		Assume worst intent (designing against the abusive ex)
Apr 2018		(Anti) Social Media

conferences

Feb 2019		More advice on running inclusive and welcoming events
Jan 2019		Notes from You Got This 2019
Sep 2018		Signs of the time
Aug 2018		Ideas for inclusive conferences and events
Oct 2017		Lightning talks
Apr 2017		Accessibility at AlterConf
Sep 2016		Silence is golden
Sep 2016		Live captioning at conferences

css

data-viz

May 2018

Drawing ASCII bar charts

dates

datetime-shenanigans

digital-preservation

Feb 2021		Wellcome’s approach to digital verification
Oct 2020		Replicating Wellcome Collection’s digital archive to Azure Blob Storage
Jun 2020		Large things living in cold places
Jun 2020		Archive monocultures considered harmful
May 2020		How long is my data? 💾
Feb 2020		Storing multiple, human-readable versions of BagIt bags
Feb 2020		Building Wellcome Collection’s new archival storage service
Oct 2019		Digital preservation at Wellcome Collection

docker

documentation

domestic

fandom

fiction

finatra

fish-shell

frustrations

fun

gender

May 2020		Letter to my MP about Liz Truss and medical treatment for trans youth
Apr 2020		Thinking about your gender
Apr 2020		Adventures in euphoria and embodiment
Jun 2019		An inescapable conclusion
Jun 2019		Hey Apple, cycle tracking isn’t just for women
May 2019		Questions to ask when writing a trans inclusion policy
Oct 2018		Open consultation on the Gender Recognition Act
Nov 2017		How I ask about gender

generative-art

Mar 2021		Creating pairs of interlocking rainbow hearts 🌈
Mar 2020		Creating striped flag wallpapers with Pillow
Jan 2020		Generating pride-themed Norse valknuts with Python 🌈
Oct 2016		Creating low contrast wallpapers with Pillow
Oct 2016		Tiling the plane with Pillow

git

Nov 2020		A Python function to ignore a path with .git/info/exclude
Oct 2020		TIL: Using git check-ignore to debug your .gitignore
Mar 2018		Notes on A Plumber’s Guide to Git
Nov 2017		Pruning old Git branches
Nov 2017		A plumber’s guide to Git
Sep 2017		Some useful Git commands for CI
Jun 2015		Useful Git features: a per-clone exclude file (.git/info/exclude)

github

Jul 2021		A few useful GitHub searches
Sep 2019		Experiment: GitHub code search with de-duplication
Mar 2019		Creating a GitHub Action to auto-merge pull requests
Jul 2018		A robot leaked my SSH keys

glitch

golang

goodreads

graph-theory

Apr 2020

Storing language vocabulary as a graph

graphic-design

hardware

harry-potter

health

history

html

http-2

hypothesis

icloud

imac

images

Jan 2022		Creating animated GIFs from fruit and veg
Jan 2022		Creating coloured bookshelf graphics in Rust
Nov 2021		dominant_colours, a CLI tool for finding dominant colours in an image
Oct 2021		Beware of incomplete PDF redactions
Jul 2020		Changing the accent colour of ICNS icons
Mar 2020		Creating striped flag wallpapers with Pillow
Feb 2020		Adjusting the dominant colour of an image
Sep 2019		Drawing with triangular coordinates in SVG
Aug 2019		Getting a tint colour from an image with Python and k-means
Oct 2016		Creating low contrast wallpapers with Pillow
Oct 2016		Tiling the plane with Pillow

inclusion

Mar 2020		Inclusion can’t be an afterthought
Oct 2019		Adding religious holidays to my calendar
Jun 2019		Hey Apple, cycle tracking isn’t just for women
Feb 2019		More advice on running inclusive and welcoming events
Aug 2018		Ideas for inclusive conferences and events

instapaper

interpersonal-skills

Oct 2021

How do you work with non-engineers?

ios

iphone

ipod

javascript

jekyll

keynote

kindle

language

languages

Apr 2020		Storing language vocabulary as a graph
Jun 2019		Reading a Chinese dictionary / 读一本中文字典

latex

Jan 2020		A Docker image to run LaTeX
Oct 2017		Four ways to underline text in LaTeX
Jul 2014		Getting plaintext LaTeX from Wolfram Alpha

linux

london

macOS

macos

make

markdown

maths

Sep 2021		Picking perfect planks with Python
Nov 2020		Maths is about facing ambiguity, not avoiding it
Jul 2019		Finding divisors of a number with Python
Oct 2016		Tiling the plane with Pillow
Mar 2015		Some exam advice
May 2014		Some Part IA exam advice
May 2014		Brief advice for Part II
Feb 2013		Darwin, pancakes and birthdays
Jan 2013		Zero

misc

mysql

notebook

open-life-science

os-x

pandemic

pelican

personal

Jun 2020		Always read your contracts
May 2020		The friends I lost along the way
Apr 2020		Adventures in euphoria and embodiment
Nov 2019		How I scan and organise my paperwork
Jun 2019		An inescapable conclusion
Mar 2019		A day out to the Forth Bridge
Jan 2019		How much sunlight affects my mood levels
Nov 2018		My visit to the Aberdulais Falls
Apr 2018		24 hours or bust
Feb 2018		A working from home experiment
Oct 2016		The A stands for Asexual
Sep 2014		My new standing desk

photography

pinboard

podcasts

politics

privacy

productivity

Nov 2020		How I read non-fiction books
Oct 2020		A new README for docstore, my tool for organising scanned paperwork
Nov 2019		How I scan and organise my paperwork
Apr 2018		24 hours or bust
Nov 2016		Some low-tech ways to get more ideas

programming

public-speaking

pyconuk

Sep 2018		Assume worst intent (designing against the abusive ex)
Sep 2018		Building trust in an age of suspicious minds
Sep 2018		Signs of the time
Sep 2018		PyCon UK 2018
Aug 2018		Making the venue maps for PyCon UK
Nov 2017		A plumber’s guide to Git
Nov 2017		Using privilege to improve inclusion
Sep 2016		Silence is golden
Sep 2016		Live captioning at conferences

python

Jan 2022		Creating animated GIFs from fruit and veg
Dec 2021		Why is os.sep insufficient for path operations?
Oct 2021		Beware of incomplete PDF redactions
Sep 2021		Picking perfect planks with Python
Aug 2021		How to ignore lots of folders in Spotlight
Aug 2021		Finding misconfigured or dangling CloudWatch Alarms
Jul 2021		Listing deleted secrets in AWS Secrets Manager with boto3 and the AWS CLI
Jun 2021		Visualising how often I write in my journal
Apr 2021		Downloading objects from/uploading files to S3 with progress bars in Python
Apr 2021		Drawing coloured squares/text in my terminal with Python
Jan 2021		How KempisBot works
Nov 2020		A Python function to ignore a path with .git/info/exclude
Aug 2020		Using fuzzy string matching to find duplicate tags
Jun 2020		Finding the months between two dates in Python
May 2020		Getting every item from a DynamoDB table with Python
May 2020		Downloading the AO3 fics that I’ve saved in Pinboard
May 2020		Taking tuple unpacking to terrible places
Apr 2020		Using DynamoDB as a calculator
Apr 2020		A snippet for downloading files with Python
Apr 2020		Storing language vocabulary as a graph
Mar 2020		Creating striped flag wallpapers with Pillow
Feb 2020		Adjusting the dominant colour of an image
Jan 2020		Generating pride-themed Norse valknuts with Python 🌈
Dec 2019		This YAML file will self-destruct in five seconds!
Dec 2019		November 2019 scripts: downloading podcasts, retrying flaky errors, Azure and AWS
Nov 2019		Saving a copy of a tweet by typing ;twurl
Oct 2019		Adventures in Python with concurrent.futures
Oct 2019		The rough edges of filecmp
Sep 2019		Drawing with triangular coordinates in SVG
Aug 2019		Getting a tint colour from an image with Python and k-means
Aug 2019		Removing the DRM from my Kindle books
Jul 2019		Finding divisors of a number with Python
Jul 2019		Listing even more keys in an S3 bucket with Python
Mar 2019		Atomic, cross-filesystem moves in Python
Feb 2019		Working with really large objects in S3
Dec 2018		Notes on reading a UTF-8 encoded CSV in Python
Dec 2018		Iterating in fixed-size chunks in Python
Dec 2018		Getting credentials for an assumed IAM Role
Sep 2018		A basic error logger for Python Lambdas
Aug 2018		Finding slow builds in Travis
May 2018		Drawing ASCII bar charts
May 2018		Beware of logged errors from subprocess
Jan 2018		Getting every message in an SQS queue
Jan 2018		Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python, redux
Nov 2017		Downloading logs from Amazon CloudWatch
Oct 2017		Using hooks for custom behaviour in requests
Oct 2017		Using pip-tools to manage my Python dependencies
Sep 2017		Ode to docopt
Sep 2017		A Python module for lazy reading of file objects
Jul 2017		Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python
Mar 2017		A few examples of extensions in Python-Markdown
Feb 2017		A script for backing up your Instapaper bookmarks
Feb 2017		A script for backing up your Goodreads reviews
Jan 2017		A Python interface to AO3
Jan 2017		Experiments with AO3 and Python
Dec 2016		A tool for backing up your message history from Slack
Dec 2016		Another example of why strings are terrible
Nov 2016		Use keyring to store your credentials
Oct 2016		Creating low contrast wallpapers with Pillow
Oct 2016		Tiling the plane with Pillow
Oct 2016		Why I use py.test
Aug 2016		Python snippet: dealing with query strings in URLs
Aug 2016		Python snippets: Is a URL from a Tumblr post?
Aug 2016		Python snippets: Cleaning up empty/nearly empty directories
Jul 2016		Python snippets: Chasing redirects and URL shorteners
Jun 2016		Reading web pages on my Kindle
Jun 2016		Introduction to property-based testing
Jun 2016		Introduction to property-based testing
May 2016		Finding 404s and broken pages in my Apache logs
May 2016		A Python smtplib wrapper for FastMail
Mar 2016		Get images from the iTunes/App/Mac App Stores with Alfred
Mar 2016		Exclusively create a file in Python 3
Dec 2015		Simpler syndication, by Dr. Drang
Nov 2015		Export a list of URLs from Safari Reading List
Nov 2015		Beyond PEP 8: Best practices for beautiful intelligible code
Nov 2015		Python and the BBC micro:bit
Oct 2015		Getting Started Testing, by Ned Batchelder
Sep 2015		Review: Effective Python
Jun 2015		Persistent IPython notebooks in Windows
Jun 2015		Safer file copying in Python
May 2015		Previewing notes from nvALT in Marked
Mar 2015		Pygmentizr
Mar 2015		Adding Python to the OS X firewall
Feb 2015		A Flask app for taking notes
Dec 2014		RSS linkposts in Pelican
Dec 2014		A script for exporting from iMessage
Dec 2014		Acronyms
Nov 2014		Unpacking sets and ranges from a single string
Sep 2014		Playing with 404 pages
Aug 2013		Finding untagged posts on Tumblr
Mar 2013		Automatic Pinboard backups
Feb 2013		Darwin, pancakes and birthdays

python-pillow

Mar 2020		Creating striped flag wallpapers with Pillow
Aug 2019		Getting a tint colour from an image with Python and k-means
Oct 2016		Creating low contrast wallpapers with Pillow
Oct 2016		Tiling the plane with Pillow

reading

regex

Jul 2020		What does \d match in a regex?
Apr 2016		Treat regular expressions as code, not magic

religion

rust

safari

scala

Jul 2020		Running concurrent Try functions in Scala
Apr 2020		Comparing JSON strings when testing in Scala
Sep 2019		Streaming large objects from S3 with ranged GET requests
Sep 2019		Iterating over the entries of a compressed archive (tar.gz) in Scala
May 2019		Creating a locking service in a Scala type class
Oct 2018		Custom 404 responses in Finatra
Aug 2018		Implementing parallel scan in DynamoDB with Scanamo

search

security

Feb 2020		A remote-controlled oven is a safety nightmare
Jul 2018		A robot leaked my SSH keys
May 2018		Beware of logged errors from subprocess
Nov 2016		Use keyring to store your credentials

shell-scripting

skeletor

slack

slides

Jan 2019		Monki Gras 2019: The Curb Cut Effect
Sep 2018		Assume worst intent (designing against the abusive ex)
Sep 2018		Building trust in an age of suspicious minds
Apr 2018		(Anti) Social Media
Nov 2017		A plumber’s guide to Git
Nov 2017		Using privilege to improve inclusion
Sep 2017		Ode to docopt
Jun 2016		Introduction to property-based testing

software-development

spreadsheets

svg

Mar 2021

Drawing inner/outer strokes in SVG (clips and masks)

swift

taking-notes

talks

television

terminal-tricks

terraform

textexpander

textmate

the-good-place

time-travel

tnmoc

trains

travis

tumblr

twitter

Jan 2021		How KempisBot works
Nov 2019		Saving a copy of a tweet by typing ;twurl
Apr 2019		Reversing a t.co URL to the original tweet

typesetting

Oct 2017

Four ways to underline text in LaTeX

ui-design

uk-politics

unicode

wellcome

Apr 2021		Building Wellcome Collection’s new unified catalogue search
Oct 2020		Replicating Wellcome Collection’s digital archive to Azure Blob Storage
Jun 2020		Large things living in cold places
Feb 2020		Storing multiple, human-readable versions of BagIt bags
Feb 2020		Building Wellcome Collection’s new archival storage service
Oct 2019		Digital preservation at Wellcome Collection

windows

wolfram-alpha

work

Oct 2021		How do you work with non-engineers?
Mar 2020		Sick leave while working from home
May 2019		Questions to ask when writing a trans inclusion policy
Mar 2018		Keep an overnight bag in the office
Feb 2018		A working from home experiment

writethedocs

writing

youtube