James Cridland

Passionate about audio · Editor of Podnews https://podnews.net · Host of the Podnews Weekly Review https://weekly.podnews.net · Personal/radio blog: https://james.cridland.net · These messages self-destruct · ⚡[email protected]

I also have a thing for craft beer, and did so before it was quite as trendy as today.

I live in Meanjin/Brisbane QLD Australia - in Bardon 4065 - on the land of the Turrbul and Jagera people. I'm British and moved here almost seven years ago.

My website: https://james.cridland.net
Podnews: https://podnews.net

Public Key

npub13cgvw8v4hy7yr7ehc0hs27m4csaly2t9x4w60pjzqe0cfhesvhfqf4ck4q

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsguyx8rk2mj0zplvmu8mc90d6ugwlj99jn2hd8sepqvhuymucxt5spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds0hz5q9

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub13cgvw8v4hy7yr7ehc0hs27m4csaly2t9x4w60pjzqe0cfhesvhfqf4ck4q

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Last Notes

2024-09-12 12:44:52

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Heh! I once did a spreadsheet comparing prices of MacBooks for exactly this reason - the sales tax thing makes quite a difference.
In fact, here it is. Turns out that at the time, the UK was the most expensive place to buy.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JuV9V_ySkGrT4XrK_Veyz5kQjScV-8oRotsMXsxv6kA/edit?usp=sharing

2024-09-12 11:23:35

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$700 is £534. But £700 includes VAT, which is £140. So that's really £560.
And the US price doesn't include sales tax, which can be 7% extra on top.
So... actually they're the same price.

2024-09-09 08:09:29

Engaged by BigCo to present a session demonstrating generative AI tools.
Sent a contract by BigCo. Contract clause 3a says I cannot use generative AI tools in any part of my work with them.
It's a test to see if I read the contract, right?

2024-08-21 22:01:28

Someone is so annoyed at the background noise of Podcast Movement over the last two days that even though they really enjoy the podcast, they're unsubscribing.
The newsletter is entirely silent, so that's nice.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/113/001/787/969/583/831/original/746622f293e1c28c.png

2024-08-19 21:05:53

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Downloads are missing. No chapters. And no transcripts either. I wonder if downloads are actually possible in a web app? I’m assuming not.

2024-08-19 19:38:45

Well, then, @npub1fmx…wp74 - looks like I kind of won my bet?
https://podnews.net/article/apple-podcasts-android

2024-08-18 13:05:35

Any #css folks here, like [@sophie](https://social.lol/@sophie ) and others…
See that big logo soup at the bottom of Podnews.net ? Is there a “better” way of doing that that doesn’t require x100 different image calls? Needs to be responsive, and all images should be clickable.
I had considered a script that made one large image, and then cut it up somehow using backgrounds? Seems kludgy. Or perhaps simpler - one large image (but a few different sizes for screens)? How would you approach it?

2024-08-13 13:44:47

Hmm. My IPFS Podcast node seems to have decided that I've deselected all the shows I was sharing. Wonder why...

2024-08-13 01:13:07

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I’ve discovered the plans! This is a three bay bike stand.
https://docs.brisbane.qld.gov.au/standard-drawings/20171201_bsd-5052_b_multi-bike-rack_sheet-1-of-3.pdf
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/951/580/243/387/932/original/dfea931d291db0ff.jpeg

2024-08-13 01:04:16

Overheard at the coffee shop: “What’s that for?” I thought to myself - well, it’s obviously a bike stand. Except, on second thoughts… what is it for? What are the square bits? Why is it built this way? #brisbane
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/951/541/833/092/822/original/a44876bf74667402.jpeg

2024-07-23 05:36:12

iPhone users - is there a way to turn off the swipe-down gesture that moves the entire screen halfway down? Every single time I’ve invoked it, it’s been a mistake.

2024-07-19 11:24:35

I just saw a piece of video played on ABC News! #natureishealing

2024-07-19 10:52:17

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Loving Anna Jones on Sky News UK, closing her laptop and admitting "it doesn't work, it's just a prop".

2024-07-19 10:50:22

Sky News UK is back. No on-screen graphics, though. https://livenow.news/#skynews

2024-07-19 10:45:05

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Unless your employer uses CloudStrike, it's fine.

2024-07-19 10:37:42

ABC News doing an amazing job. Really impressive, given they have no access to any video playout system. https://livenow.news/#abcnews

2024-07-19 09:25:15

ABC News has worked out how to get a caption on the screen. That's not their standard font - I almost wonder if that's someone's computer running the <marquee> tag.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/811/957/731/343/961/original/dcadec1b7e6dccb9.png

2024-07-19 09:23:17

This CrowdStrike issue causing havoc with computers everywhere means that computers don't boot. So every single computer needs a human being to fix them. Good luck IT teams everywhere. You weren't doing anything this weekend, right?

2024-07-19 09:04:08

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(Actually, Virgin Australia has just started again)

2024-07-19 09:03:44

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Yep, there's a ground stop on flights in Aus as well. Astonishing scenes.

2024-07-19 08:59:16

Sky News UK.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/811/858/285/747/315/original/aa12822982319c38.png

2024-07-19 08:55:57

Sky News UK has now failed entirely. Sky News Australia (different ownership) appears to be limping back on-air but no studios: https://livenow.news/#sky-news-australia

2024-07-19 08:31:32

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Yes, Sky News Australia mentions Crowdstrike on their emergency rotating 3-minute clip. I've no idea what that is (not having used Windows since 2009). What a monumental screw-up if that's the case.

2024-07-19 08:28:15

This computer issue is a massive problem for Australian security. Almost all media companies affected. Payment systems similarly.

2024-07-19 08:23:07

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Yep. Aware.

2024-07-19 08:17:59

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Sky News UK (a separate unconnected company from Sky News Australia) is also unable to broadcast, and is running documentaries. https://livenow.news/#skynews

2024-07-19 08:04:33

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Also entirely down is Sky News Australia (which you can watch here - https://livenow.news/#sky-news-australia - which has just given up, running a rotating piece of video recorded seemingly on an iPhone.

2024-07-19 07:59:06

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You have to hand it to them. They literally have nothing other than a set of people to talk to camera, and they're filling quite happily.

2024-07-19 07:50:06

Want to see a television network running under severe stress? https://livenow.news/#abcnews is ABC News from Australia, where none of the computers are working. Seemingly, no captions, no reports, no graphics, and just someone talking to camera...

2024-07-19 07:23:05

Another killed service from the awful idiots at Google. Don't build or depend on Google, it will never end well. https://9to5google.com/2024/07/18/googl-links/

2024-07-19 02:59:38

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I mean, I put that on a private Slack group for the lols! I wasn't going to post it publicly... :)
Anyway, I'm loving the eye makeup.

2024-07-18 14:36:17

Stolen from Facebook - BBC News interviews a guy in a bed called Amin Abed. That’s nice.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/807/514/511/553/798/original/0083a203238751eb.jpeg

2024-07-18 09:30:22

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Tidy code, boring person... ;)
I should remove CURL from there, and use file_get_contents instead really

2024-07-18 06:48:03

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Here we are in vanilla PHP. It could be even more compact and elegant too! ;)
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/805/677/728/991/196/original/c6bb3dd4b896be4b.png

2024-07-17 23:51:29

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That’s how it used to work - now it downloads the entire thing first. A slight regression but it means everything works well.

2024-07-17 11:09:32

Important calendar news in @npub1j34…e2z5 today.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/801/045/682/198/045/original/6cf1cac0cce5952f.png

2024-07-17 10:27:51

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Looks like you can turn it off (for now) here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/beta/join

2024-07-17 08:04:59

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Yes - it fixes a lot of problems doing that. I don't know how @npub1fjr…v786 does it, but podcast episodes download lightning-fast on Overcast. It's really not a loss.

2024-07-17 07:59:08

@npub1fjr…v786 In ATP you say: “I've had all these requests for things like a mono down mix” - no need, it's baked into the OS, and also you can just wear one AirPod for automatic mono only. #savedyouajob https://podnews.net/article/mono-listening-for-podcasts

2024-07-17 07:03:22

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Ta, interesting. As ever with change, it'll take a little time to get used to - and I'm sure it'll make more sense with whatever's coming on TV.

2024-07-17 06:38:14

The ABC appears to be testing a new version of the ABC News website. The new one (rounded edges, blue) appears to be being tested for one of @npub1npy…c82u 's browsers (over on X), and he thinks there's not enough stories above the fold. Looks a) quite fancy, b) nobody was ever fired for copying design ideas from the BBC, especially that serifed headline font!
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/799/968/413/678/035/original/8162bc158bc936b2.jpeg
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/799/968/615/532/641/original/bf9521d6bcda0c1e.jpeg

2024-07-16 12:35:30

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As a "by the way", this also means that - for the first time - Podnews was entered into a CMS screen today, rather than directly into a SQL database. (There's a copy button for stories 2,3,4 and a prompt, and a way to open a GPT program and paste the prompt in.)
I still need to use the SQL database to schedule the ads though... one step forward though.

2024-07-16 11:47:45

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Ah, brilliant, thank you.

2024-07-16 11:47:05

Exciting times - @npub1j34…e2z5 now uses AI, in a very (very!) limited way - to summarise each daily edition for our podcast description and a few other places. https://podnews.net/about contains all the not-very-juicy detail.

2024-07-16 07:14:23

Wondering what that nice USB interface was called that @npub1fmx…wp74 has been playing with recently. I haven't linked to it yet, and someone was wondering what it was.

2024-07-16 07:11:18

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Yes, I (mostly) don't do them...

2024-07-16 02:11:36

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Turns out the Podroll redirector twice is actually yes, a thing, if you're both a buyer and a seller. https://intercom.help/podroll/en/articles/7210995-podroll-prefix-links

2024-07-16 02:01:56

The Kyle & Jackie O podcast's RSS feed comtains 5,857 episodes and is 16.51MB. Impressively, the audio goes through Podroll's redirector *twice*. I'm sure they know what they're doing.

2024-07-16 01:59:42

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Tom - S3 buckets are not public-open by default, and every part of Amazon S3's infrastructure will whine at you if you work out how to make them public-open. I'd absolutely not recommend using a fuse mount (been there, done that).
AWS's pricing - for Glacier Deep Archive - is very, very cheap. Hence the reason it's a good plan.
AWS's command line tools come with a sync command. By default, the sync command will sync changes/additions, but does not sync deletions.

2024-07-16 01:56:49

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I've successfully done a restore from Glacier. It's a pain, but it's doable.
Michael, what would you recommend?

2024-07-15 13:22:14

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Fun fact - if you're supporting podping (as a creator) then supporting IndexNow (and Websub) is literally one more line that does the same thing

2024-07-15 13:20:11

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Not sure I want to share my secrets!
https://www.indexnow.org/
Google has an equivalent, but it's not this.

2024-07-15 12:20:15

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Also obviously congratulations @npub138a…pj84 !

2024-07-15 12:19:51

Quite impressive how Google grabs this story almost instantly. And I'm immediately #1 for a search for "Dave Jackson Libsyn" (even in an incognito window). (I implemented IndexNow, not that Google uses it, for Podnews updates today as well).
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/789/988/268/156/790/original/993ac389c61e1f4c.png

2024-07-14 13:28:55

Radio's place in breaking news - a look at how radio reacted, or didn't, to the breaking news on Saturday evening. And, why a station in Seattle broke car radios. https://james.cridland.net/blog/2024/radio-breaking-news/

2024-07-14 12:50:50

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I think The Beatles' "Love" is their best album - which is, I know, heresy. But it's all killer, no filler, and much better produced than the originals.

2024-07-14 00:44:47

When big news happens, there’s always https://livenow.news/ for all the big news channels in one place #trump

2024-07-13 12:26:46

If you use Sendy as your email sending app for mailing lists - and you (correctly!) have "double opt-out" selected for your lists - then it doesn't work properly with the "unsubscribe" link in Gmail, Yahoo or Apple Mail. Here is a temporary bugfix until they fix it themselves: https://james.cridland.net/blog/2024/sendy-double-opt-out-fix/

2024-07-13 06:40:01

My six month Apple Music trial is up, and while it’s been good (and the integration into the Apple ecosystem is extensive - I can see why Spotify is irritated about it), I don’t think it’s a justifiable cost when I have YouTube Music as well. (YTM is a surprisingly good music service, though as with any Google product, lacks editorial polish).

2024-07-13 05:02:06

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This is sobering. (All my flights since 2009)
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/776/950/653/438/460/original/7fe3114284b27edf.png

2024-07-13 05:00:13

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Nicely written, Barry.

2024-07-12 13:50:43

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Here's the Bluesky code too.
I prefer to do things myself if I can, rather than inject a third-party into the mix.
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2023/php-posting-to-bluesky/

2024-07-12 06:30:01

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Links would be a great start, but screenshots too. I don’t actually know whether ART19 allow you to add any old prefix - I wonder if we know someone hosting there?

2024-07-12 02:02:33

ART19 now lets you add your own measurement prefixes. https://art19.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/27491057389325-Managing-Measurement-Prefixes
One for @npub1g2v…achf - particularly useful for OP3.

2024-07-12 01:42:08

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To me, these very basic things are obvious candidates for PSP certification. If that team doesn’t want to do that, it gives me another concern about that group’s effectiveness.

2024-07-11 13:37:28

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I wrote my own tweet and Masotodon bot (and BlueSky one).
It checks every minute if there are any unsent tweets/posts and posts them, marking the database accordingly.
https://james.cridland.net/blog/2023/twitter-api/ is the Twitter code.
I also use Zapier to post into Facebook and LinkedIn, via RSS feeds.
I’m probably not doing it right.

2024-07-11 07:10:29

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Ah, I just used the CORS Tester to discover that both Podtrac and Captivate correctly set the CORS headers. Hmm.

2024-07-11 07:08:35

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Spark gives me pause as well - it gets full access to my email. (Unlike Mimestream, it isn't certified for Google Protected Accounts, which I use). I'm quite fussy about user security, partially because I hold 30,000 email addresses myself.

2024-07-11 06:55:40

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(I'm using Chromium, but I've had this successfully play in Firefox, Safari as well. Is there a known audio file that doesn't have the cors headers set?)

2024-07-11 06:54:19

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Hmm.
https://podnews.net/_pages/test-grumet.php seems to work. I don't think the audio has any CORS headers on it - sec-fetch-mode is set to "no-cors", which I think says it doesn't?

2024-07-11 04:12:55

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You know - I've never seen any advertising in Gmail. I used to use the web view all the time. I still use the mobile apps (now using iOS). My main email has, for the last five years, been a gmail.com free account, too. Now, I block ads on my home network, so perhaps there's that - and I'd not see whether AdSense is using my Gmail (they say they don't).
Fastmail has fired lots of people recently, and I trust it less.

2024-07-11 04:04:38

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Just nervous about the privacy implications. But, you're right - the spam filtering is excellent, and I couldn't deal with Apple Mail's flakiness for IMAP/SMTP. Mimestream is the thing for me; so back to that.

2024-07-11 03:31:06

Interesting. I thought that CORS issues meant that I could only display WebVTT subtitles on web pages if both the AUDIO and the SUBTITLES were from the same domain. Turns out, that's not true - the SUBTITLES must be from the same domain, but the AUDIO can be hosted anywhere.
Which means that I should be able to add display of transcripts from anywhere - particularly since I've just cobbled-together a SRT->VTT translator.

2024-07-10 08:23:25

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Actually, also... since my new inbox wasn't spam filtering, that was also a pain. Will try again later!

2024-07-10 08:20:35

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Thanks, Graham! Yes, Thunderbird does look pretty good. I think I'm having trouble doing BOTH multiple inboxes AND learning a new email program (with different keyboard shortcuts, arg) and just want to simplify life for now.

2024-07-10 08:09:03

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It took less than two days for me to realise that I've done two things here: a) separated my email; b) migrated to a new email system (Apple Mail) for my personal stuff, and using IMAP rather than Gmail's goodness.
a) was a good idea. b) was not. Mimestream is such a good desktop program for Gmail, I'm keeping it. So, shifted my personal email to run through my neglected Google Workspace account (which I pay for anyway). No weaning off Google quite yet for email then.

2024-07-10 07:40:07

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Indeed. Am doing so! :)

2024-07-10 07:26:32

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Over 30 minutes. But theoretically it means I can just upload the Podnews Weekly Review and it'll translate both @npub1thg…zq23 and my voice.

2024-07-10 05:59:52

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This'll be in @npub1j34…e2z5 today - let's see if we can find a good set of people for you!

2024-07-10 04:45:20

This is blissful madness. But brilliant. (I've long suspected that airline wifi systems are easy to hack, but this is... not how I would do it). https://robertheaton.com/pyskywifi/

2024-07-10 04:41:39

Sigh. Podchaser info for my podcast is randomly incorrect, but I can't edit it even though I've claimed the podcast itself. And I can't see the information hidden under "Pro", not even to check how wildly inaccurate it is. Annoying.

2024-07-10 02:21:28

Good news, everyone! The @npub1j34…e2z5 Daily podcast is now on the SiriusXM app, I believe.
/cc @npub1g2v…achf
https://www.siriusxm.com/player/show-podcast/entity/eddb23f0-56db-3b85-a7de-010917cfab4c

2024-07-10 01:38:44

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It clones the original voice (like the examples from Podnews). A few times it missed that there was a different voice talking, but I listened for about 15 minutes and it was pretty flawless.

2024-07-09 13:39:20

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We got 2,900 plays from Apple last month. I suspect it's either a) Apple Podcasts is broken, or b) Apple Podcasts analytics are broken

2024-07-09 12:07:56

Trouble at t'mill? Apparently nobody uses Apple Podcasts to listen to the @npub1j34…e2z5 Daily podcast. Sniff.
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/755/975/182/209/475/original/ddf1249bef7d6dda.png

2024-07-09 04:01:16

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Thanks. Switched them to a 200, as you suggest.
Too many 4xx errors gives wasted crawl budget in Google, and I get email errors every so often...

2024-07-09 03:55:32

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I'm currently using Mimestream for Gmail (my Podnews stuff), and Apple Mail for my IMAP account (my personal stuff). Not loving the IMAP experience.

2024-07-09 03:53:59

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Mmm. "Google Podcasts" is kind of wrong now. How about "Google service" - so it doesn't get confused with the search engine? I'm thinking that these names are consumer-facing in podcast host dashboards...

2024-07-09 03:41:10

So last week I gave Wondercraft the Podnews newsletter and asked it to translate it to other languages.
I wondered... what would happen if I gave it half an hour of French radio, to get it translated into English?
AMAZING.
https://files.james.cridland.net/france-inter-breakfast-show-jul8-english.mp3

2024-07-08 13:25:23

Today, @npub1j34…e2z5 sent an email (which even works in dark mode in some email clients) and we mentioned @npub138a…pj84 - but the link through to his blog is wrong. Bah. https://podnews.net/update/wnyc-100 has the correct link. "Sorry Dave Jackson - this link's for real" as the song goes

2024-07-08 13:06:15

I think I've hacked Podnews into having dark mode today in the emails. But slightly worried about it all. Waiting for the Gmail version to come to me, so I can check. (Looks lovely in Apple Mail though)

2024-07-08 10:58:16

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Congrats.
Now, I'm curious. In July, the podcast sees 12.9% of downloads from... Google Podcasts. I wonder how those episodes are actually getting played... smart speakers? Would it make sense to change that user-agent now to Google Assistant?

2024-07-08 07:46:33

Question, best-practice #ux #webdev #seo people.
A job ad that has closed. It's no longer linked from anywhere. The page still exists. I currently return the full text with an "HTTP 410 Gone" header, and an error that you can't apply any more.
Should this be an HTTP 200 OK response, rather than a 410 Gone? The page exists, after all. Wondering if too many 40x results is a bad thing.

2024-07-08 03:41:04

Separated my business email from my personal email. Personal email now going nowhere near Google (at least, my @crid.land address is). Will be interesting to see what happens and whether it helps my horrible email inbox.

2024-07-07 12:04:12

Closures in NZ and Canada, and some election tech from the UK in my latest radio trends newsletter. https://james.cridland.net/blog/2024/election-tech/

2024-07-07 11:38:55

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I speak a lot at conferences. https://james.cridland.net/biography

2024-07-06 14:50:01

“What food did you have in Kuala Lumpur? It’s a foodie heaven!”
I had this. It’s a Nasi Lemak pizza. It was amazingly good, but probably not that traditional. But it absolutely hit the spot…
#travel #malaysia
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/739/619/199/008/416/original/6b6515a6cb13af51.jpeg

2024-07-06 14:46:21

Rude.
#travel #malaysia
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/739/611/982/590/601/original/fde55e329634a869.jpeg

2024-07-06 14:44:03

The view out of my hotel window earlier in the week in Kuala Lumpur. Quite the contrast!
#travel #malaysia
https://assets.bne.social/media_attachments/files/112/739/601/842/728/454/original/eb1849e1443e0be4.jpeg

2024-07-06 13:34:17

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Avoid any podcasts that call themselves "pods"