Freelance (Web|System|Game) Developer. Builder of BlitHub, among other things. Can still be found @ahnlak on Twitter. Ex-Londoner Livin' la Vida Loca in Rural(ish) Wales. He/Him. 🏴
Public Key
npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga Profile Code
nprofile1qqs9jv0ynwyepkzq5ddsuskrwcau6tfp0g962a0p8dlu95ws7xuumuqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds6a6zd5
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Published at
2026-05-10T13:17:21Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 I know I'm on my first coffee of the day, but trying to work out which direction I even wanted them to vote makes my head hurt :-) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 @nprofile…z9l8 yeah, it's a tricky sum to work out - I think it was going to add a four-figure sum to the overall cost for us (but cheaper islands may be available, depending on supplier!) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 @nprofile…z9l8 out of interest, do you often get power cuts that outlast your UPS? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 this is the sort of post that reminds me I'm a few versions adrift, and I have to summon up the courage to try updating things 😉 npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 so somehow we're supposed to magically avoid gaining access to things like browser user agent strings, which are automatically sent with the request? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak UPS today are trying to be even worse than DHL. They've just declared that "the receiver is not listed in the building directory" which is... interesting, because being a rural detached bungalow I didn't know we *had* a building directory. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 been seeing a steady stream for a couple of weeks now - I've a nasty feeling that it's lingered because it's (at least partially) effective. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…65q8 I think you mean "mandatory id for all social media users" - I'm not sure people have quite realised that yet... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Finally got around to seeing Murderbot; I have to admit it's a pretty decent conversion of the book, even if he doesn't look or sound anything like I'd imagined... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 it's very cool stuff in that sort of situation, but the person at the tyre place once you limp there will not thank you - apparently it's horrible stuff to try and get off the wheel 🙂 npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 that's going to hurt micro businesses, I would imagine. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 out of interest, did you make any mention of the panel makeup, when you were on it and once you noticed? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 but they usually don't just say "do you promise?" at the door ;-) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I'm rather surprised that he was allowed to take his mobile phone into such a space, having known people who have done work there... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Stumbled across some ancient meeting notes; mostly normal things - "chase Neil re: blocks; confirm e2e dates to Mike" - but clearly one day in a distant April was not going well: npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 gave me a brief heart attack when it casually mentioned "search engines", but rummaging through the actual Act I *think* they're talking about a much more limited thing than the term actually... means. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 reminds me of the confusion from our guide when we went to Kenya with a "Holy Crap! Lions! Tour" sign to stick to our safari jeep... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 is it overly cynical that my first thought was "well at least *something* will read the responses now"? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I was dubious but generally impressed by bone conduction headphones (Shokz et al) - another ear protecting option npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…sszg potentially silly question, but do you offer a VPS configuration with both SSD and HDD, or is it all one or it the other? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 Javascript for analytics is a special case "on principle", or Javascript in general counts as "storing information on terminal equipment" just by virtue of being downloaded and executed? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 it certainly mentions the can of worms such an interpretation opens, but I read it as fairly unequivocal ("likely to be met"). npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 hmm, if your argument is that by downloading Javascript, you're "storing" is on a user's terminal equipment surely that applies to *everything else on the page*, including all text, pictures, and formatting. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 unfortunately that raises the possibility that at any time, parliament could throw a few more quid at Ofcom and tell them to go for the small guys. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I think you're almost certainly right - but what's the point of legislation that you declare you can't get bothered to enforce? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…fe8t @nprofile…sszg yes, github is a perpetual pain in my neck - makes deploying v6-only servers a pain (or rather, it did before I transitioned all I could to my own Forgejo) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak In the spirit of self-hosting everything, I'm trialling running my own authoritative DNS servers - although I remain unconvinced that this is a particularly good idea. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…fe8t @nprofile…sszg Plusnet have been saying "yeah we're working on it, Real Soon Now" for ... decades? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…sszg I'm slightly surprised, given the lack of enthusiasm certain major consumer ISPs have for it; mobile broadband perhaps? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…sszg is it possible your anti-AI battle has caught a few false positives? I have an uptime monitor that can't see websites on Oncilla, wondering if you have AS23470 blocked somewhere? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…93ny I would not take that bet 🤣 - but they could probably make a strong legal argument that they were "obviously" email anyway, which an issues tracker probably couldn't. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…93ny @nprofile…x759 not at all - they can fairly argue that it's all email (whatever that may be); Bugzilla probably can't, because you *can* interact entirely via the webUI in a way that doesn't touch anything... emaily, unless their back end stores it all in mail boxes npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I mean... if that argument holds water, you could take a forum entirely out scope by making all posts go via an SMTP step in the backend. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 hmm... well I suppose that rather depends on the official definition "email"; I'm *sure* Ofcom must have that formally defined, right? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…sszg @nprofile…dppe @nprofile…4tyn @nprofile…na0w I was very happy with BM but I've seen it often enough to jump ship as soon as they announced the "we've sold up but we promise nothing will change". npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Cleaning up some dark-mode themes on websites, and dragging them into the realms of accessible contrasts. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 @nprofile…70t9 oh absolutely! But it sounds like they're thinking of foreign providers like AWS - who will be persuadable to care - rather than smaller, more ... flexible companies who are more likely to be used by such enterprises. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 @nprofile…70t9 those providers, of course, are highly unlikely to be UK based or care one jot about what a UK court says... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 oh quite possibly (and frankly they were on the edge of pointless anyway); I just looked for the first time in ages today and they're certainly blaming it all on the OSA. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 another one for your 'in memoriam" OSA list - Ripple Energy have closed their community forums (despite them only being visible to registered users) - npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…sszg yes, I'm definitely a fan of letting the computer work out the formatting for me. Second best is some sort of tool tip flagging it up before submission. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…sszg tiny niggle on your domain registration/transfer page - it requires a telephone number in a very specific form (+cc.number) but doesn't tell you that until you try submitting... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I'm sure there *are* plenty of use cases, and it makes sense to have 'premium' models with all the extra goodies, but why not have a base model that .... just lets you read words? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 ok, the Kobo's aren't *too* outrageous, although they follow the "hey lets get rid of buttons and use a crappy touchscreen instead" approach, which is annoying. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak As my timeline seems to be talking a lot about eBooks today... what are the good choices of eReader these days? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I still remember in the early (pre-Kindle!) days of eBooks, we took them with us to the Falklands (because it was a month with a tiny weight allowance). npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 i would say that it's positively offensive that the same words are legal in written form but not in audio form, but history suggests that saying so rarely ends up getting resolved in the direction one would hope :-( npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I don't know what PornHub's UK numbers are like, but it seems to me that the UK justice system probably couldn't cope with everyone visiting it suddenly becoming criminals... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 @nprofile…sl7c I'm trying to think of a good excuse why I need two of them (well, I suppose it would be three, given I already have one...) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 wearing your own branded hoodie? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Just finished setting up the new guest / backup network (hat tip to @nprofile…x759 for the irresistibly-priced SIM). npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I'm more relaxed fiddling with electrics because at least if you get stuck you can tape off the scary end and call for a professional - it's not like electricity will leak onto the floor... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I'm assuming such tech draws some alarmingly big current... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 I mean it's a no brainer broadband backup at that price isn't it! npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 has it reset yet, so you know it isn't 50gb for the whole time? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @nprofile…x759 50gb for two and a half years? That's so cheap it's in "must be a scam" territory ;-) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Well this is just mad... https://www.decarpentier.nl/carpentopod npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj just rig it to point all requests to a web page explaining the dangers of handing all your DNS resolution to a complete stranger's server ;-) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj did the list include Umami? :-) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Quick question for HomeAssistant folks - how happy is it with having both LAN and WiFi networks enabled on a Pi? Most of my IoT-type things are on one network, but it would be handy to be able to access it from another (via LAN). npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Nice try, BBC but I'm pretty sure that to his constituents, the "T.C." in our MP's name stands for something less broadcast-friendly than Top Cat. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj crazy money for a serious laptop. I can only assume the "battery needs replacing" bit put everyone else off, but I generally have the laptop plugged in anyway npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak Partially inspired by @npub198t…hasj I have replaced our old Windows Surface - the disk of which had been dying even before the battery ballooned and pushed the screen off - with a very respectable (and much more openable) Thinkpad. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj I've used Debian on servers for years; for some odd reason I put Ubuntu on my main desktop, but maybe it's time to take the purer Debian path... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak So what's the best Linux desktop distro for cool cats with cheap Thinkpads? cc: @npub198t…hasj npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak In a bid to avoid re-inventing the wheel, does there exist a PHP library to add ActivityPub functionality *to an existing website*? npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj I spent far too long looking for the hidden message in there... npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj I hope they're going to publish their results somewhere public .. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj PLEASE tell me you get to drive the digger! npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj oh definitely; and it's a (relatively) painless job. npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub198t…hasj my gut feeling is that the gap between apache and nginx these days is much less substantial than it used to be; the weak point of the Pi for heavy-ish use tends to be storage (assuming you're not netbooting onto some fast network storage) npub1tyc7fxufjrvypg6mpepvxa3me5kjz7st5467zwmlctgapudeehcqeg00ga ahnlak @npub19lt…qfjk that price tag suggests you're burning through a lot of bandwidth/storage - or you're overspecced on your hosting.
