All posts

How to customise the title of Buildkite builds triggered from GitHub deployments

Getting a more descriptive build label than ‘Deployment’. August 2022.

Our Place in Space

You don’t realise how big the solar system is until you’ve walked the length of it. August 2022.

Cut the cutesy errors

If your app has just ruined my day, I need help, not humour. August 2022.

A surprise smattering of stardom

My last post was surprisingly popular; a few reflections on the experience. August 2022.

You should take more screenshots

If you do any sort of creative digital work, screenshots and screen recordings are a great way to remember it. July 2022.

A Martian plaque for a made-up plot

If NASA was the first to land on Mars in For All Mankind, what would the commemorative plaque look like? July 2022.

One small stitch for yarn, one giant leap for yarn-kind

I made a cross-stitch blueprint of the Apollo Moon lander and the Saturn V rocket. July 2022.

Fictional phone numbers in For All Mankind

Where did this UK phone number come from? June 2022.

Creating an Alfred Workflow to open GitHub repos

Automations for my automations. June 2022.

Experimenting with jq as a tool for filtering JSON

I wanted to learn jq’s more powerful features, so I tried to filter some JSON from the AWS Secrets Manager CLI. June 2022.

Redesigning my archive pages

Using coloured cards with images and descriptions to make it easier to find posts in my back catalogue. June 2022.

Changing my carbon monoxide detectors

Keeping my home safe from deadly gases. May 2022.

Find the dominant colours in an image in your web browser

Wrapping my CLI tool for finding dominant colours in a lightweight web app. May 2022.

Running a Rust binary in Glitch

Using different targets to build Rust binaries that will run in Glitch. May 2022.

Illustrating the cipher wheels of a Lorenz machine

Some old code I wrote to draw cam-accurate illustrations of cipher wheels. April 2022.

Checking lots of URLs with curl

A bash script to check the HTTP status code of a bunch of URLs, for simple and portable uptime checking. April 2022.

Beware delays in SQS metric delivery

A mysterious problem with SQS-based autoscaling and an over-eager CloudWatch Alarm. February 2022.

A tale of two Twitter cards

Some recent changes I’ve made to fix or improve my Twitter cards. February 2022.

Closing lots of Safari tabs with JXA

To help me keep my tab count down, I wrote a JXA script to close tabs that can easily be recreated. February 2022.

Why is Amazon Route 53 named that way?

Digging into the history of Route 53, DNS, and port number assignments. February 2022.

Creating animated GIFs from fruit and veg

Some Python code for turning MRI scans of fruit and veg into animated GIFs. January 2022.

Creating coloured bookshelf graphics in Rust

Explaining some code that draws coloured rectangles in a way that looks a bit like an upside-down bookshelf. January 2022.

My favourite books from 2021

The seven books I most enjoyed in the last year. December 2021.

Why is os.sep insufficient for path operations?

Digging into a throwaway comment in the Python documentation. December 2021.

The ever-improving error messages of Rust

An improvement to Rust’s error handling that I almost reported, until I realised it was fixed. December 2021.

A tale of two path separators

macOS allows both the slash and colon as path separators, and this caused me no small amount of confusion. December 2021.

dominant_colours, a CLI tool for finding dominant colours in an image

A new tool for playing with images. November 2021.

Programatically finding the original filename of a photo in the macOS Photos Library

If you’re looking at a UUID’d file in the PhotosLibrary package, how do you find its original filename? October 2021.

The Oboe of Optozorax, and Other Objects

A collection of small worldbuilding ideas about magical objects. October 2021.

Prevent accidentally copying the prompt character in console code snippets

When I include console commands in a blog post, I don’t want somebody to accidentally copy the command prompt. CSS lets me avoid that. October 2021.

READMEs for Open Science

Slides for a short talk about READMEs, why they’re important, and what they should contain. October 2021.

Beware of incomplete PDF redactions

If you’re not careful when redacting PDFs, it’s possible to share more information than you intended. October 2021.

SeptembRSE: Missing narratives in discussions around diversity and inclusion

September 2021.

An editing toolbar for alexwlchan.net

A bookmarklet that gives me a just-for-me toolbar to make changes to this site. September 2021.

Operations on strings don’t always commute

Is uppercasing then reversing a string the same as reversing and then uppercasing? Of course not. September 2021.

When is my EventBridge cron expression going to run next?

The AWS console will tell you when your EventBridge rule is going to run… if you know where to look. September 2021.

Picking perfect planks with Python

How do you pick the right combination of planks to lay a wooden floor? Python and itertools to the rescue! September 2021.

How to ignore lots of folders in Spotlight

A script that allows me to ignore folders like “target” and “node_modules”, so they don’t appear in search results. August 2021.

Markdown’s gentle encouragement towards accessible images

The Markdown syntax for images reminds us that we need to write alt text. August 2021.

Finding misconfigured or dangling CloudWatch Alarms

A Python script that finds CloudWatch Alarms which are based on a now non-existent source. August 2021.

A few useful GitHub searches

I have hotkeys to search GitHub in several ways, including by user, by repo, and within the work organisation. July 2021.

Visualising how often I write in my journal

A Python script that shows me how often I’ve been journalling, so I can track my progress. June 2021.

Downloading objects from/uploading files to S3 with progress bars in Python

Making it easier to see how long a file transfer will take, in the terminal. April 2021.

Drawing coloured squares/text in my terminal with Python

April 2021.

Building Wellcome Collection’s new unified catalogue search

Collaboration between our digital and collections teams helped to build a single search box for all of our catalogues. April 2021.

Using AppleScript to detect if a Safari window uses Private Browsing

April 2021.

Finding the app/process that’s using Secure Input

A Python script that shows me the name of processes that have Secure Input enabled. April 2021.

Creating pairs of interlocking rainbow hearts 🌈

A web app for creating pairs of hearts based on Pride flags. March 2021.

An AppleScript to toggle Voice Control

March 2021.

Wellcome’s approach to digital verification

How we ensure the safety, security and integrity of the files in Wellcome’s digital collections. February 2021.

Screaming in the Cloud: Using the Cloud to Preserve the Future

I joined Corey Quinn to discuss my DynamoDB calculator and using the cloud to preserve digital collections. February 2021.

What year it it? (A tale of ISO week dates)

If you use ICU date formatting, make sure you use the right format specifier for year. January 2021.

Creating short-lived, temporary roles for experimenting with AWS IAM policy documents

Create short-lived, temporary roles for experimenting with AWS IAM policy documents December 2020.

“Non-technical users”

November 2020.

A script to copy images from Docker Hub to Amazon ECR

November 2020.

How I read non-fiction books

I take notes so I remember more of what I read. November 2020.

Maths is about facing ambiguity, not avoiding it

School tells us that “Maths always has one right answer!”, which is a convenient but unhelpful lie. November 2020.

Remembering if a <details> element was opened

A JavaScript function that remembers if a details element was reopened, and keeps it open when you reload the page. November 2020.

A Python function to ignore a path with .git/info/exclude

If your Python script creates a file that you don’t want to track in Git, here’s how you can ignore it. November 2020.

TIL: Using git check-ignore to debug your .gitignore

October 2020.

How do I use my iPhone cameras?

A script to work out which camera I use most often on my iPhone, and whether I’d miss a telephoto lens. October 2020.

The danger of bad error messages

An Excel mistake shows why learning to write good error messages is a critical skill for software developers. October 2020.

A new README for docstore, my tool for organising scanned paperwork

Although I don’t expect anyone to use it directly, there might be some interesting ideas that could apply elsewhere. October 2020.

Replicating Wellcome Collection’s digital archive to Azure Blob Storage

How and why we keep copies of Wellcome’s digital collections in multiple cloud storage providers. October 2020.

Using qlmanage to create thumbnails on macOS

How you can invoke Quick Look on the command-line to generate high-quality thumbnails. September 2020.

Two Python functions for getting CloudTrail events

September 2020.

S3 prefixes are not directories

Although an S3 prefix looks a lot like a directory path, they aren’t the same. Whether or not you include a trailing slash can change the behaviour. August 2020.

S3 keys are not file paths

Although an S3 key looks a lot like a file path, they aren’t always the same, and the distinction can trip you up. August 2020.

Using fuzzy string matching to find duplicate tags

August 2020.

Getting a Markdown link to a window in Safari

July 2020.

Why do programming languages have a main() function?

Lots of programming languages have a function called main() where code starts executing. Where does this come from? July 2020.

Running concurrent Try functions in Scala

If you have a function that returns Try[_], how do you call it more than once at the same time? July 2020.

What does \d match in a regex?

It’s more complicated than I thought. July 2020.

How to do parallel downloads with youtube-dl

July 2020.

Changing the accent colour of ICNS icons

Playing with macOS ICNS image files to create colourful new icons. July 2020.

Using AppleScript to open a URL in Private Browsing in Safari

June 2020.

Fat shaming in The Good Place

How many good person points do you lose for making a joke about somebody’s weight? June 2020.

Archive monocultures considered harmful

We are better off when the same topic is represented in multiple, different archives. June 2020.

Finding the months between two dates in Python

June 2020.

Getting every item from a DynamoDB table with Python

A Python function that generates every item in a DynamoDB table. May 2020.

Showing human-friendly dates in JavaScript

What’s a nicer way to show a date than an ISO 8601 timestamp? May 2020.

The Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Feeling the weight of death in a former concentration camp. May 2020.

Moving messages between SQS queues

You can send messages to a DLQ if they fail processing. What if you fix the bug, and you want to resend the failed messages? May 2020.

Downloading the AO3 fics that I’ve saved in Pinboard

A script that downloads the nicely formatted AO3 downloads for everything I’ve saved in Pinboard. May 2020.

Letter to my MP about Liz Truss and medical treatment for trans youth

May 2020.

Social media as a growth culture for opinions

Using social media can lead us to have more opinions than we really need. Can we fix that? May 2020.

Taking tuple unpacking to terrible places

I want to assign a bunch of variables to True, but I don’t know how many there are. Reflection to the rescue! May 2020.

Make it safe to admit mistakes

You can’t stop people making mistakes, but you can make it more likely that they’ll admit their next mistake to you. May 2020.

How long is my data? 💾

A fun app to calculate the size of your data in terms of floppy disks. May 2020.

Give your audience time to react

Rehearsing a presentation only tells you the minimum length of time you’ll take. If you’re speaking to a time limit, remember to leave some slack. May 2020.

Illustrating lifecycle transitions in Amazon S3

A picture speaks a thousand words, which is why I always have pen and paper to hand. May 2020.

Using DynamoDB as a calculator

Taking advantage of Amazon’s least-loved compute platform. April 2020.

Exploring an unknown SQL server

You’re handed a SQL server which has some data, but you don’t know anything about the schema. What do you do? April 2020.

Thinking about your gender

Cis people are allowed to think about their gender too. April 2020.

Complex systems have complex failures

When a complex system fails, it’s usually a combination of problems, not a single person’s mistake. April 2020.

Comparing JSON strings when testing in Scala

There are lots of ways to format JSON. How do you know if two JSON strings have the same data, just differently formatted? April 2020.

Adventures in euphoria and embodiment

We all have bodies, and I’ve been trying to become more self-aware and connected with mine. April 2020.

Access to information is a privilege

April 2020.

A snippet for downloading files with Python

April 2020.

Inclusion can’t be an afterthought

Notes from a talk about inclusion in design and unconscious bias. March 2020.

Rich enough to make bad choices

If you’re rich, not only can you invest in good boots, you can also invest in experimental boot-making startups. March 2020.

Sick leave while working from home

It’s okay to take sick leave if you’re working from home. March 2020.

Creating striped flag wallpapers with Pillow

March 2020.

A Jekyll filter for adding non-breaking spaces

A way to avoid awkward line breaks in the middle of phrases. March 2020.

Adjusting the dominant colour of an image

Adjusting the hue to get different colour variants of the same image. February 2020.

Storing multiple, human-readable versions of BagIt bags

How we use the fetch.txt file in a bag to track multiple copies of an object in our digital archive. February 2020.

Excluding lots of folders in Backblaze

Backblaze lets you say “back up everything except these folders”. How do you tell it you have lots of folders you want it to ignore? January 2020.

A deletion canary: testing your S3 bucket permissions

If you’ve tried to disable deletions in your S3 buckets, how do you know they’re working? January 2020.

An interactive map of British railway stations 🚂

A map I use to plot which railway stations I’ve visited. January 2020.

A Docker image to run L^aT_eX

January 2020.

Generating pride-themed Norse valknuts with Python 🌈

A web app to generate mashups of Norse valknuts and Pride flags. January 2020.

Finding the CPU and memory bottlenecks in an ECS cluster

January 2020.

Some useful spreadsheet functions: FORMULATEXT, MATCH, CONCATENATE and INDIRECT

December 2019.

November 2019 scripts: downloading podcasts, retrying flaky errors, Azure and AWS

December 2019.

Saving a copy of a tweet by typing ;twurl

November 2019.

Preparing for Terraform 0.12: fixing module sources

I wanted a quick way to find Terraform modules that had values that would break in 0.12. I used a Python script to do it. November 2019.

An AWS costs graph that works for me

How I get a Cost Explorer graph for the last 30 days of spending, broken down by service. November 2019.

Digital preservation at Wellcome Collection

Slides from a presentation about our processes, practices, and tools. October 2019.

Adding religious holidays to my calendar

October 2019.

The rough edges of filecmp

The filecmp module has a confusing API, and it just caught me out. October 2019.

Experiment: GitHub code search with de-duplication

September 2019.

Streaming large objects from S3 with ranged GET requests

Reliably reading a large object by stitching together multiple GetObject requests into a single Java InputStream. September 2019.

Iterating over the entries of a compressed archive (tar.gz) in Scala

Code to turn an InputStream into an Iterator of entries from a tar.gz file or similar compressed archive in Java/Scala. September 2019.

Removing the DRM from my Kindle books

Links to a couple of projects that I found helpful when trying to strip the DRM from my Kindle books. August 2019.

Finding divisors of a number with Python

Using unique prime factorisations and itertools to find all the divisors of a number. July 2019.

Creating preview thumbnails of PDF documents

July 2019.

Listing even more keys in an S3 bucket with Python

Python functions for getting a list of keys and objects in an S3 bucket. July 2019.

Ten braille facts / ⠼⠁⠚⠀⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑⠀⠋⠁⠉⠞⠎

Where does braille come from? How was braille originally written? What can you write in braille today? And more. July 2019.

A Jekyll filter for obfuscating email addresses

The original Markdown implementation would do randomised hex/decimal encoding to help obscure email addresses, and I do the same in Jekyll. June 2019.

Converting Acorn images on the command-line

I wrote some AppleScript to help me do batch conversion of Acorn images into formats like PNG and JPEG. June 2019.

Hey Apple, cycle tracking isn’t just for women

At WWDC, I was disappointed to see Apple pitch period tracking exclusively towards women, and not in a more gender-inclusive way. June 2019.

A script for getting cover images from mobi ebooks

June 2019.

Questions to ask when writing a trans inclusion policy

Notes on common themes and ideas in a variety of trans inclusion policies, as we start thinking about writing a policy at Wellcome. May 2019.

Falsehoods programmers believe about Unix time

It’s not quite the number of seconds since 1 January 1970. May 2019.

Finding unused variables in a Terraform module

May 2019.

Reversing a t.co URL to the original tweet

Twitter uses t.co to shorten links in tweets, so I wrote some Python to take a t.co URL and find the original tweet. April 2019.

Some tips for conferences

April 2019.

Getting a transcript of a talk from YouTube

Using the auto-generated captions from a YouTube video as a starting point for a complete transcript. April 2019.

Finding the latest screenshot in macOS Mojave

March 2019.

Atomic, cross-filesystem moves in Python

Explaining some code for moving files around in a way that’s atomic and works across filesystem boundaries. March 2019.

Checking Jekyll sites with HTMLProofer

February 2019.

Notes from You Got This 2019

Notes from the inaugural ‘You Got This’ conference, a conference about creating a healthy and sustainable work life. January 2019.

Notes on reading a UTF-8 encoded CSV in Python

Some notes on trying to do this in a way that supports both Python 2 and 3, and the frustration of doing so. December 2018.

Iterating in fixed-size chunks in Python

A snippet for iterating over an arbitrary iterable in chunks, and returning a smaller chunk if the boundaries don’t line up. December 2018.

Getting credentials for an assumed IAM Role

A script that creates temporary credentials for an assumed IAM role, and stores them in ~/.aws/credentials. December 2018.

A script for backing up Tumblr posts and likes

Since Tumblr users are going on a mass deletion spree (helped by the Tumblr staff), some scripts to save content before it’s too late. December 2018.

Keeping track of my book recommendations

The three lists I use to manage my book recommendations. November 2018.

Finding SNS topics without any subscriptions

I’m trying out Go, and I wrote a tool to help me find SNS topics that don’t have any subscriptions. November 2018.

Custom 404 responses in Finatra

A snippet for returning a custom 404 response in a Finatra app when somebody requests a missing page. October 2018.

Building trust in an age of suspicious minds

Notes and slides from my PyCon UK 2018 keynote. In a world where people are less and less trusting, how can we take steps to make ourselves more trustable? September 2018.

Signs of the time

A few lessons I learned while doing the signage for this year’s PyCon UK. September 2018.

A basic error logger for Python Lambdas

A snippet to make it a bit easier to debug errors in AWS Lambda functions written in Python. September 2018.

Making the venue maps for PyCon UK

A quick braindump of my thoughts from drawing some venue maps for PyCon UK. August 2018.

Avoiding the automatic redirect on Tumblr posts

I see an intermittent 303 Redirect when trying to navigate to a Tumblr ‘permalink’; changing the User-Agent seems to fix it. August 2018.

Finding slow builds in Travis

A Python snippet for using the Travis CI API to track build times. August 2018.

Moving my calendars from iCloud to FastMail

I recently discovered that iCloud was deleting my old calendar entries, so I switched to FastMail. July 2018.

A robot leaked my SSH keys

A cautionary tale of a daft incident where I leaked a set of SSH keys to GitHub. July 2018.

My favourite iMac accessory

Adding a USB extension cable to my iMac makes a world of difference. July 2018.

A brief thought on Google Duplex

I think Duplex could be a great tool for accessibility, even if that’s not what it was pitched as. May 2018.

Beware of logged errors from subprocess

If you use Python’s subprocess module, be careful you don’t leak sensitive information in your error logs. May 2018.

Two shortcuts for using S3 in the shell

Two shell functions for editing and inspecting S3 objects as if they were local files. April 2018.

(Anti) Social Media

Slides and notes for a talk about online harassment, and why you should always design with an abusive ex in mind. April 2018.

Notes on A Plumber’s Guide to Git

Git is a fundamental part of many modern developer workflows – but how does it really work under the hood? In this workshop, we’ll learn about the internals of Git. March 2018.

The Hypothesis continuous release process

How we do continuous releases of hypothesis-python, and why. March 2018.

Keep an overnight bag in the office

Although hopefully never needed, I think it’s worth keeping an overnight bag in your workplace. March 2018.

Getting every message in an SQS queue

Code for saving every message from an SQS queue, and then saving the messages to a file, or resending them to another queue. January 2018.

Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python, redux

Python functions for getting a list of keys and objects in an S3 bucket. January 2018.

IP and DNS addresses for documentation

If you’re writing technical documentation and need placeholder IP addresses or DNS hostnames, there are some special values just for you! January 2018.

Your repo should be easy to build, and how

Making your repo easy to clone and build is very important. This post explains why, and how I’m using Make and Docker to achieve that goal. December 2017.

Armed police officers don’t make me feel safer

Why guns make me jumpy, how armed police don’t reassure me, and why you need to be careful about the images you use in tweets. December 2017.

Pruning old Git branches

Two commands for managing Git branches: one for deleting branches which have already been merged, one for deleting branches which were deleted on a remote. November 2017.

Downloading logs from Amazon CloudWatch

A detailed breakdown of how I wrote a Python script to download logs from CloudWatch. November 2017.

My favourite WITCH story

As the WITCH computer celebrates five years since its reboot at TNMoC, a fun story of how it was left to run at Christmas. November 2017.

Don’t tap the mic, and other tips for speakers

Tapping the microphone to test it can be bad for all sorts of reasons – and other advice from the Nine Worlds speaker guidelines. November 2017.

Using privilege to improve inclusion

In the tech industry, how can we be more aware of our privilege, and use that to build inclusive cultures? November 2017.

Lightning talks

Why I like the lottery system used to select lightning talks at PyCon UK this year. October 2017.

Displaying tweets in Keynote

Slides for showing tweets that look like tweets on slides in Keynote and PowerPoint. October 2017.

Using hooks for custom behaviour in requests

I often have code I want to run against every HTTP response (logging, error checking) — event hooks give me a nice way to do that without repetition. October 2017.

Using pip-tools to manage my Python dependencies

How I use pip-tools to ensure my Python dependencies are pinned, precise, and as minimal as possible. October 2017.

Some useful Git commands for CI

A couple of Git commands that I find useful in builds and CI. September 2017.

Ode to docopt

Why I love docopt as a tool for writing clean, simple command-line interfaces. September 2017.

A Python module for lazy reading of file objects

I wrote a small Python module for lazy file reading, ideal for efficient batch processing. September 2017.

Backing up full-page archives from Pinboard

A Rust utility for saving local copies of my full-page archives from Pinboard. July 2017.

Backing up content from SoundCloud

July 2017.

Listing keys in an S3 bucket with Python

A short Python function for getting a list of keys in an S3 bucket. July 2017.

Accessibility at AlterConf

For accessibility and inclusion, AlterConf sets a high bar to beat. April 2017.

A script for backing up your Instapaper bookmarks

February 2017.

A script for backing up your Goodreads reviews

February 2017.

A Python interface to AO3

AO3 doesn’t have an official API for scraping data - but with a bit of Python, it might not be necessary. January 2017.

Experiments with AO3 and Python

AO3 doesn’t have an official API for scraping data - but with a bit of Python, it might not be necessary. January 2017.

Another example of why strings are terrible

Pop quiz: if I lowercase a string, does it still have the same length as the original string? December 2016.

Some low-tech ways to get more ideas

A few suggestions for “low tech devices” that aid in the process of generating ideas. November 2016.

Use keyring to store your credentials

If you need to store passwords in a Python application, use the keyring module to keep them safe. November 2016.

Why I use py.test

Why py.test is my unit test framework of choice in Python. October 2016.

A shell alias for tallying data

A way to count records on the command-line. October 2016.

My travelling tech bag

September 2016.

aspell, a command-line spell checker

September 2016.

Silence is golden

PyCon had a dedicated quiet room for people to get some downtime, and I think it’s a great idea. September 2016.

Live captioning at conferences

Live captioning of conference talks was an unexpected bonus at this year’s PyCon UK. September 2016.

Python snippet: dealing with query strings in URLs

August 2016.

Python snippets: Is a URL from a Tumblr post?

August 2016.

Python snippets: Cleaning up empty/nearly empty directories

A pair of Python scripts I’ve been using to clean up my mess of directories. August 2016.

Python snippets: Chasing redirects and URL shorteners

A quick Python function to follow a redirect to its eventual conclusion. July 2016.

Clearing disk space on OS X

A few tools and utilities I’ve been using to help clear disk space on my Mac. July 2016.

Reading web pages on my Kindle

A Python script I wrote that let me sends web pages from my Mac and my iPhone to my Kindle. June 2016.

Finding 404s and broken pages in my Apache logs

A Python script for finding 404 errors in my Apache web logs - and by extension, broken pages. May 2016.

A Python smtplib wrapper for FastMail

A quick python-smtplib wrapper for sending emails through FastMail. May 2016.

Safely deleting a file called ‘-rf *’

If for some reason you create a file called `-rf *`, it’s possible to delete it safely. But really, don’t create it in the first place. May 2016.

Get images from the iTunes/App/Mac App Stores with Alfred

Using Alfred and a Python script to retrieve artwork from the iTunes, App and Mac App Stores. March 2016.

Exclusively create a file in Python 3

If you want to create a file, but only if it doesn’t already exist, Python 3 has a helpful new file mode `x`. March 2016.

How I use TextExpander to curb my language

I have some TextExpander snippets that I use to cut out words I don’t want to write. February 2016.

The Skeletor clip loop, 2015 edition

Updating the Skeletor clip loop chart for the 2015 Clip Show. January 2016.

Pretty printing JSON and XML in the shell

December 2015.

Backups and Docker

The Docker folder on your computer can quickly fill up space. Don’t forget to exclude it from backups. November 2015.

Export a list of URLs from Safari Reading List

A Python script for getting a list of URLs from Safari Reading List. November 2015.

Email with a purpose

November 2015.

Python and the BBC micro:bit

Playing with a tiny computer that runs Python. November 2015.

Quick shell access for Docker containers

A Bash function for quickly getting shell access to Docker containers. November 2015.

Review: Effective Python

A review of Effective Python, by Brett Slatkin. September 2015.

Finding even more untagged posts on Tumblr

A new version of my site for finding untagged Tumblr posts. August 2015.

Useful Bash features: exit traps

July 2015.

Persistent IPython notebooks in Windows

Configuring an IPython notebook server that is always running and easily accessible in Windows. June 2015.

Safer file copying in Python

A Python script for non-destructive file copying/moving. June 2015.

Useful Git features: a per-clone exclude file (.git/info/exclude)

Another way to ignore untracked files in Git. June 2015.

Cloning GitHub’s Contributions chart

I made a clone of GitHub’s Contributions graph to use as a motivational tool. May 2015.

Some exam advice

Some advice for students sitting technical exams March 2015.

Pygmentizr

A web app for applying syntax highlighting to code using the Pygments library. March 2015.

Tidying up my 1Password

February 2015.

Adding checkboxes to lists

A bookmarklet to add checkboxes to lists in the browser. February 2015.

A script for exporting from iMessage

December 2014.

Kitchen sink security

December 2014.

Acronyms

December 2014.

Skeletors All the Way Down

December 2014.

Unpacking sets and ranges from a single string

November 2014.

Notes on Tumblr

October 2014.

Playing with 404 pages

September 2014.

My new standing desk

A standing desk that I built solely from IKEA parts. September 2014.

Updates to my site for finding untagged Tumblr posts

August 2014.

A TextExpander snippet for Amazon affiliate links

August 2014.

A quick Alfred workflow for opening recent screenshots

August 2014.

Thoughts on Overcast

Some thoughts on Marco Arment’s new podcast player, Overcast. July 2014.

Getting plaintext L^aT_eX from Wolfram Alpha

July 2014.

Skeletor!

June 2014.

Finding untagged posts on Tumblr, redux

June 2014.

Some Part IA exam advice

Some advice for IA Mathmos sitting Tripos May 2014.

Pulling back the veil

April 2014.

Cleaning up Google Maps

A bookmarklet to hide some of the UI chrome in the new design of Google Maps. August 2013.

Finding untagged posts on Tumblr

August 2013.

Podcast feeds on Tumblr

A barely advertised feature of Tumblr that lets you get an RSS feed of external audio posts. May 2013.

Automatic Pinboard backups

A script for automatically backing up bookmarks from Pinboard March 2013.

Candybar and icon recommendations

Some recommendations for alternative icon sets to use with the Mac theming app Candybar. March 2013.

Darwin, pancakes and birthdays

Looking at whether Darwin ever missed out on birthday cake for pancakes February 2013.

Zero

An essay about the number zero that I wrote for school. January 2013.

Hypercritical

My thoughts on the ending of Hypercritical, a podcast by John Siracusa. December 2012.