All posts

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

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

You can subscribe to my posts as an Atom feed.

Jump to: 2022 / 2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018 / 2017 / 2016 / 2015 / 2014 / 2013 / 2012

2022

2021

31 Dec		My favourite books from 2021
24 Dec		Why is os.sep insufficient for path operations?
10 Dec		The ever-improving error messages of Rust
1 Dec		A tale of two path separators
30 Nov		dominant_colours, a CLI tool for finding dominant colours in an image
19 Oct		Programatically finding the original filename of a photo in the macOS Photos Library
16 Oct		The Oboe of Optozorax, and Other Objects
14 Oct		Prevent accidentally copying the prompt character in console code snippets
6 Oct		READMEs for Open Science
4 Oct		Beware of incomplete PDF redactions
1 Oct		How do you work with non-engineers?
29 Sep		SeptembRSE: Missing narratives in discussions around diversity and inclusion
28 Sep		An editing toolbar for alexwlchan.net
25 Sep		Getting a monthly cloud costs report in Slack
22 Sep		Operations on strings don’t always commute
21 Sep		Hiding favicons in Safari 15 (kinda)
14 Sep		When is my EventBridge cron expression going to run next?
6 Sep		Picking perfect planks with Python
28 Aug		How to ignore lots of folders in Spotlight
25 Aug		Markdown’s gentle encouragement towards accessible images
22 Aug		Finding misconfigured or dangling CloudWatch Alarms
9 Jul		A few useful GitHub searches
5 Jul		Listing deleted secrets in AWS Secrets Manager with boto3 and the AWS CLI
4 Jul		A wise choice of test strings
8 Jun		Amazon is discontinuing S3 BitTorrent
3 Jun		Visualising how often I write in my journal
30 Apr		Downloading objects from/uploading files to S3 with progress bars in Python
29 Apr		Drawing coloured squares/text in my terminal with Python
27 Apr		Building Wellcome Collection’s new unified catalogue search
18 Apr		Using AppleScript to detect if a Safari window uses Private Browsing
5 Apr		Finding the app/process that’s using Secure Input
12 Mar		Drawing inner/outer strokes in SVG (clips and masks)
7 Mar		Creating pairs of interlocking rainbow hearts 🌈
2 Mar		An AppleScript to toggle Voice Control
15 Feb		Wellcome’s approach to digital verification
15 Feb		Screaming in the Cloud: Using the Cloud to Preserve the Future
31 Jan		How KempisBot works
1 Jan		What year it it? (A tale of ISO week dates)

2020

1 Dec		Creating short-lived, temporary roles for experimenting with AWS IAM policy documents
24 Nov		“Non-technical users”
18 Nov		A script to copy images from Docker Hub to Amazon ECR
16 Nov		How I read non-fiction books
15 Nov		Maths is about facing ambiguity, not avoiding it
6 Nov		Remembering if a <details> element was opened
1 Nov		A Python function to ignore a path with .git/info/exclude
30 Oct		TIL: Using git check-ignore to debug your .gitignore
17 Oct		How do I use my iPhone cameras?
12 Oct		The importance of good error messages
12 Oct		A new README for docstore, my tool for organising scanned paperwork
9 Oct		Replicating Wellcome Collection’s digital archive to Azure Blob Storage
26 Sep		Using qlmanage to create thumbnails on macOS
8 Sep		Two Python functions for getting CloudTrail events
20 Aug		S3 prefixes are not directories
18 Aug		S3 keys are not file paths
6 Aug		Using fuzzy string matching to find duplicate tags
26 Jul		Getting a Markdown link to a window in Safari
22 Jul		Why do programming languages have a main() function?
20 Jul		Running concurrent Try functions in Scala
13 Jul		What does \d match in a regex?
12 Jul		How to do parallel downloads with youtube-dl
6 Jul		Changing the accent colour of ICNS icons
24 Jun		Using AppleScript to open a URL in Private Browsing in Safari
21 Jun		Fat shaming in The Good Place
20 Jun		Large things living in cold places
15 Jun		Always read your contracts
15 Jun		Archive monocultures considered harmful
6 Jun		Finding the months between two dates in Python
27 May		Getting every item from a DynamoDB table with Python
24 May		Showing human-friendly dates in JavaScript
17 May		The Sachsenhausen concentration camp
16 May		Moving messages between SQS queues
15 May		Downloading the AO3 fics that I’ve saved in Pinboard
14 May		Letter to my MP about Liz Truss and medical treatment for trans youth
13 May		Social media as a growth culture for opinions
12 May		Taking tuple unpacking to terrible places
11 May		The friends I lost along the way
10 May		Make it safe to admit mistakes
2 May		How long is my data? 💾
2 May		Give your audience time to react
1 May		Illustrating lifecycle transitions in Amazon S3
27 Apr		Using DynamoDB as a calculator
26 Apr		Exploring an unknown SQL server
22 Apr		Thinking about your gender
19 Apr		Complex systems have complex failures
19 Apr		Comparing JSON strings when testing in Scala
18 Apr		Look out for survivor’s guilt
17 Apr		Getting word count stats for my blog
16 Apr		Adventures in euphoria and embodiment
15 Apr		Access to information is a privilege
12 Apr		A snippet for downloading files with Python
5 Apr		Storing language vocabulary as a graph
25 Mar		Inclusion can’t be an afterthought
15 Mar		Rich enough to make bad choices
14 Mar		Sick leave while working from home
8 Mar		Creating striped flag wallpapers with Pillow
4 Mar		A Jekyll filter for adding non-breaking spaces
2 Mar		Finding the size and cost of each of your S3 buckets
25 Feb		A remote-controlled oven is a safety nightmare
23 Feb		Adjusting the dominant colour of an image
18 Feb		Storing multiple, human-readable versions of BagIt bags
6 Feb		Building Wellcome Collection’s new archival storage service
29 Jan		Excluding lots of folders in Backblaze
22 Jan		A deletion canary: testing your S3 bucket permissions
22 Jan		An interactive map of British railway stations 🚂
19 Jan		A Docker image to run LaTeX
16 Jan		Generating pride-themed Norse valknuts with Python 🌈
4 Jan		Finding the CPU and memory bottlenecks in an ECS cluster

2019

11 Dec		This YAML file will self-destruct in five seconds!
6 Dec		Some useful spreadsheet functions: FORMULATEXT, MATCH, CONCATENATE and INDIRECT
2 Dec		November 2019 scripts: downloading podcasts, retrying flaky errors, Azure and AWS
27 Nov		How I scan and organise my paperwork
17 Nov		Saving a copy of a tweet by typing ;twurl
8 Nov		Preparing for Terraform 0.12: fixing module sources
6 Nov		An AWS costs graph that works for me
22 Oct		Digital preservation at Wellcome Collection
16 Oct		Adventures in Python with concurrent.futures
14 Oct		Sans I/O programming: what, why and how (PyCon UK talk)
11 Oct		Adding religious holidays to my calendar
6 Oct		The rough edges of filecmp
28 Sep		Experiment: GitHub code search with de-duplication
23 Sep		Drawing with triangular coordinates in SVG
13 Sep		Slides for PyCon UK 2019 “Sans I/O programming”
12 Sep		Streaming large objects from S3 with ranged GET requests
5 Sep		Iterating over the entries of a compressed archive (tar.gz) in Scala
19 Aug		Getting a tint colour from an image with Python and k‑means
12 Aug		Removing the DRM from my Kindle books
29 Jul		Finding divisors of a number with Python
18 Jul		Section 28, and LGBTQ+ people in UK schools
8 Jul		Creating preview thumbnails of PDF documents
3 Jul		Listing even more keys in an S3 bucket with Python
1 Jul		Ten braille facts / ⠼⠁⠚⠀⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑⠀⠋⠁⠉⠞⠎
18 Jun		An inescapable conclusion
15 Jun		A Jekyll filter for obfuscating email addresses
12 Jun		Reading a Chinese dictionary / 读一本中文字典
9 Jun		Converting Acorn images on the command-line
4 Jun		Hey Apple, cycle tracking isn’t just for women
4 Jun		A script for getting cover images from mobi ebooks
24 May		Questions to ask when writing a trans inclusion policy
15 May		Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time
13 May		Creating a locking service in a Scala type class
1 May		Finding unused variables in a Terraform module
28 Apr		Reversing a t.co URL to the original tweet
23 Apr		Some tips for conferences
11 Apr		Getting a transcript of a talk from YouTube
3 Apr		How I back up my computing devices, 2019 edition
25 Mar		Creating a GitHub Action to auto-merge pull requests
15 Mar		A day out to the Forth Bridge
11 Mar		Finding the latest screenshot in macOS Mojave
3 Mar		Atomic, cross-filesystem moves in Python
26 Feb		Checking Jekyll sites with HTMLProofer
9 Feb		Working with really large objects in S3
5 Feb		More advice on running inclusive and welcoming events
31 Jan		Monki Gras 2019: The Curb Cut Effect
29 Jan		Debugging a stuck Terraform plan
28 Jan		Notes from You Got This 2019
22 Jan		How much sunlight affects my mood levels
21 Jan		Thoughts on privacy and Oyster cards
16 Jan		A delightful store for speciality spreads: Paul Rothe & Sons

2018

27 Dec		Notes on reading a UTF-8 encoded CSV in Python
23 Dec		Iterating in fixed-size chunks in Python
13 Dec		Getting credentials for an assumed IAM Role
5 Dec		A script for backing up Tumblr posts and likes
13 Nov		Keeping track of my book recommendations
8 Nov		My visit to the Aberdulais Falls
2 Nov		Finding SNS topics without any subscriptions
29 Oct		How do you hide a coin for 400 years?
28 Oct		How to set the clock on a Horstmann Electronic 7 water heater
22 Oct		Custom 404 responses in Finatra
11 Oct		Open consultation on the Gender Recognition Act
30 Sep		Content warnings
24 Sep		Assume worst intent (designing against the abusive ex)
22 Sep		Building trust in an age of suspicious minds
17 Sep		Signs of the time
13 Sep		PyCon UK 2018
5 Sep		A basic error logger for Python Lambdas
26 Aug		Making the venue maps for PyCon UK
25 Aug		Implementing parallel scan in DynamoDB with Scanamo
20 Aug		Avoiding the automatic redirect on Tumblr posts
13 Aug		Ideas for inclusive conferences and events
7 Aug		Finding slow builds in Travis
5 Aug		Do Not Distract while driving
2 Aug		Selective sudo on Travis
28 Jul		Moving my calendars from iCloud to FastMail
19 Jul		A robot leaked my SSH keys
15 Jul		A tip for travel instructions
1 Jul		My favourite iMac accessory
26 May		Drawing ASCII bar charts
14 May		A brief thought on Google Duplex
4 May		Beware of logged errors from subprocess
27 Apr		Two shortcuts for using S3 in the shell
18 Apr		(Anti) Social Media
17 Apr		24 hours or bust
13 Mar		Notes on A Plumber’s Guide to Git
2 Mar		The Hypothesis continuous release process
1 Mar		Keep an overnight bag in the office
24 Feb		A working from home experiment
25 Jan		Getting every message in an SQS queue
20 Jan		Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python, redux
18 Jan		IP and DNS addresses for documentation

2017

18 Dec		Your repo should be easy to build, and how
11 Dec		Armed police officers don’t make me feel safer
27 Nov		Pruning old Git branches
22 Nov		Downloading logs from Amazon CloudWatch
20 Nov		My favourite WITCH story
20 Nov		Don’t tap the mic, and other tips for speakers
9 Nov		A plumber’s guide to Git
8 Nov		How I ask about gender
3 Nov		Using privilege to improve inclusion
28 Oct		Lightning talks
27 Oct		PyCon UK 2017 resources
25 Oct		Displaying tweets in Keynote
20 Oct		Using hooks for custom behaviour in requests
17 Oct		Control Centre: one step forward, two steps back
11 Oct		Four ways to underline text in LaTeX
9 Oct		Using pip-tools to manage my Python dependencies
8 Oct		NPR: Graduation Readers At MIT Go The Extra Mile To Pronounce Names Correctly
3 Oct		What happens when you overengineer a static site?
18 Sep		Some useful Git commands for CI
11 Sep		Ode to docopt
2 Sep		A Python module for lazy reading of file objects
31 Jul		Backing up full-page archives from Pinboard
18 Jul		Backing up content from SoundCloud
18 Jul		Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python
7 Jun		A visit to the Crossness pumping station
4 Apr		Accessibility at AlterConf
25 Mar		A few examples of extensions in Python-Markdown
11 Feb		A script for backing up your Instapaper bookmarks
8 Feb		A script for backing up your Goodreads reviews
14 Jan		A Python interface to AO3
7 Jan		Experiments with AO3 and Python

2016

28 Dec		A tool for backing up your message history from Slack
1 Dec		Another example of why strings are terrible
30 Nov		Some low-tech ways to get more ideas
16 Nov		Use keyring to store your credentials
30 Oct		The A stands for Asexual
22 Oct		Creating low contrast wallpapers with Pillow
21 Oct		Tiling the plane with Pillow
8 Oct		Why I use py.test
1 Oct		A shell alias for tallying data
30 Sep		My travelling tech bag
23 Sep		aspell, a command-line spell checker
19 Sep		Silence is golden
17 Sep		Live captioning at conferences
31 Aug		Python snippet: dealing with query strings in URLs
19 Aug		Python snippets: Is a URL from a Tumblr post?
7 Aug		Python snippets: Cleaning up empty/nearly empty directories
28 Jul		Python snippets: Chasing redirects and URL shorteners
4 Jul		Clearing disk space on OS X
23 Jun		A subscription for my toothbrush
16 Jun		Reading web pages on my Kindle
9 Jun		Introduction to property-based testing
7 Jun		Introduction to property-based testing
16 May		Finding 404s and broken pages in my Apache logs
10 May		A Python smtplib wrapper for FastMail
5 May		Safely deleting a file called ‘-rf *’
1 May		“The document could not be saved”
16 Apr		Hiding the YouTube search bar
8 Apr		Treat regular expressions as code, not magic
29 Mar		Get images from the iTunes/App/Mac App Stores with Alfred
27 Mar		Exclusively create a file in Python 3
8 Mar		Backup paranoia
24 Feb		How I use TextExpander to curb my language
9 Feb		Saved by the Prompt
25 Jan		The Harry Potter Collector’s iPod
20 Jan		The Skeletor clip loop, 2015 edition
17 Jan		A cautionary tale about Fusion Drive repairs

2015

2014

2013

2012