Mastodawn

RE: https://chaos.social/@Foxboron/116170859737134271

Of all the things that would cause Mark Pilgrim to have to return to the internet, it would of course have to be the worst timeline, AI licence laundering.

Matthew Feb 28

mhoye Feb 28

What if I could convince you that taking the same time to explain detailed requirements and carefully validate results with a junior colleague instead of a chatbot would not only give you two people who understood the code instead of zero, but if you do it a few times in a row you eventually get a senior colleague out of the deal for free.

Matthew Jan 25

I tried out a cryptic crossword clue in Google:
“Endless, crap, odd cereal produce (5)”
It never gets it right, and the fifth time I made it *very* sad

Matthew Jan 10

robinhouston Jan 10

The following is much more personal than I usually choose to be on this account, but I am sure some of you would like to know it, sad as it is.

My friend and colleague @mhl20 died last night after a short illness. Characteristically he announced the news of his illness on his blog, illustrated with a relevant graph. https://longair.net/blog/2026/01/03/health-update/

Although his death was announced in a comment on that blog post this morning, I suspect many of his friends have not yet heard of it.

I have no additional information not mentioned here, but I know many of you will share my sadness at this tragic turn of events.

Health update – Mark's Blog

Matthew Jan 10

Alex Russell Jan 9

The Verge is actually doing it. Actually connecting the dots between the fascistic tendencies of app stores with the profit motives of their proprietors.

FINALLY.

The open web has been roadkill in the profit games the mobile duopoly has set up, muscled out of view with policies and choices that were designed to leave no fingerprints. But we can all see it clearly now:

https://www.theverge.com/policy/859902/apple-google-run-by-cowards

Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards

Apple and Google have left X in their app stores, despite its AI-generated images that violate their own rules. There are no principles left in Silicon Valley.

The Verge

Show thread

Matthew Jan 4

I’ve also updated the list of my fully justified commits, which I hadn’t done since 2021. A little frisson of joy:
https://dracos.co.uk/made/justified-commits/

Justified commits - Matthew Somerville

Matthew Jan 4

Matthew Jan 3

A year in review: https://dracos.co.uk/wrote/2025/

Well, a year of some things I did or made or saw, not really reviewing any of it if I’m honest :)

2025 in review - Matthew Somerville

Matthew Jan 3

A year in review: https://dracos.co.uk/wrote/2025/

Well, a year of some things I did or made or saw, not really reviewing any of it if I’m honest :)

2025 in review - Matthew Somerville

Matthew Dec 24

A colleague had made a “sunlight optimism” spreadsheet, another colleague suggested there should be a postcode lookup version, I have the day off, the kid has gone swimming, and so, I present:

The Sunlight Optimism Calculator: https://dracos.co.uk/made/sunlight-optimism/

Matthew Nov 28

Hugh Nov 27

Shoutout to @dracos and all those at MySociety who continue to champion citizen services so excellently.

I don't remember a time before They Work For You and What Do They Know, but I think it's fair to say they've contributed significantly to our democratic fabric and improved citizen engagement within the UK.

We take it all for granted now, but we didn't always have it this good (and some places still don't) 🙂

Brought to you by someone that uses MySociety services more regularly than gov.uk

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