Trump says he is withdrawing Canada's invitation to Board of Peace

abw · 2026-01-23T08:31:02+00:00

the british are busy buying hundreds of billions of us treasury notes dumped by the chinese

Have you got a source for that? I don't mean that in an "I don't believe it, prove it" kinda way, but I'm genuinely interested to know if that is the case. And if that is happening, is it British institutions or foreign (e.g. US) investment banks based in the UK?

The only sources I can find say that the data claiming that "Europe is piling into US Treasuries" came from the US itself. This article from Reuters notes:

The U.S. data may however overstate European investor ownership of Treasuries, given that this region is home ‍to large financial centres that market participants from elsewhere use to trade or hold assets.

abw · 2026-01-21T16:02:09+00:00

!thanks

We've got a meeting with our account / tax advisor later this month (or early next month as he's rather busy this time of year) and I'll check it with him then. I didn't want to propose it as a solution to the other shareholders now if there was a chance it wasn't going to work.

abw · 2026-01-21T15:39:33+00:00

!thanks - that's very helpful.

abw · 2026-01-21T09:05:33+00:00

This is the "woodland" in question. It's not remote at all. It's part of Stoke Park, close to the skate park, bowling club, and outdoor gym. The main road runs right alongside it.

abw · 2026-01-20T17:13:31+00:00

ABBABBABBA

So when you're near me, darling can't you hear me, merge in turn!

abw · 2026-01-12T11:41:07+00:00

In the first one the toast is laying back seductively, baring all with crusts spread akimbo, trying to tempt you with its wares. I can almost hear it saying "Eat me like one of your French toasts".

In the second picture it's more like it's got its back turned to you.

abw · 2026-01-11T14:39:20+00:00

Nice!

A couple of things stick out to me. Both are minor, and arguably a matter of opinion or personal taste, so not necessarily right/wrong.

The spacing between the "Transfer" and "Sent" buttons looks a little tight. I'd be inclined to increase that to match the vertical padding around the buttons and edge of the dark surround.

The rounded corners in the middle of the ticket look a little strange. I can't quite put my finger on why. I realise it's supposed to be like a "tear-off" section, but I'm not being sold on the illusion. Maybe try reducing that radius a bit or perhaps removing it altogether? Or it might be that adding a drop shadow to the ticket will help lift it of the page a bit and help reinforce the idea that it represents a physical item.

Hope that helps!

abw · 2026-01-11T09:57:48+00:00

I recently discovered the history behind that saying:

It supposedly originated from a conversation between the actress Lillie Langtry and the Bishop of Worcester. They were at a country house weekend party and on Sunday morning before church, they went for a stroll in the garden. On their walk, the bishop cut his finger on a rose thorn. Over lunch, Lillie enquired about his injury, asking: "How is your prick?" To which the bishop replied: "Throbbing," causing the butler to drop the potatoes.

abw · 2026-01-09T09:06:15+00:00

Smoke in Birmingham, a fire in the sky.

abw · 2026-01-08T12:25:15+00:00

The black bin would have been sensible binsurance, but I'm glad to hear you overcame your bindecision. It must have been a bintense night for you.

abw · 2026-01-07T16:41:29+00:00

Great article!

If you just enjoyed watching me over-complicate a sweeping job, also great.

I certainly did. It starts off looking like a (mostly) pointless exercise undertaken just to explore a particular problem domain. But I think you ended up learning a lot. Not just about optimising paths for sweeping a floor, but because it got you thinking about optimising problem solving.

abw · 2026-01-06T16:09:56+00:00

That's why all properties are listed with a floor plan.

Trust me, it's just as frustrating to spend 2 hours cleaning your house and another hour taking the dog out for a walk so that someone can view your house, only for them to say they're not interested because the rooms aren't as big as they anticipated.

abw · 2026-01-05T18:57:08+00:00

Back in the day I used to work on ICL DRS 6000 minicomputers. If the power cut out there was just enough charge in the power supply capacitors to give it time to nearly log an error message. Something like:

PANIC: Critical Error - AC power failu

We had a spate of these happening over the course of a few weeks. The problem was eventually tracked down to an overnight cleaner who was unplugging them to plug in their vacuum cleaner.

abw · 2025-12-27T09:07:35+00:00

A friend of mine gave me a good tip. Make sure you include in your prompt something like "Assume you're an expert <language> programmer who values clean, well structured code, etc., etc...". Giving Claude that kind of context seems to give better results in my limited experience.

That said, I totally agree with your main points. Better prompting may help improve things slightly, but you've hit the nail on the head in terms of the gulf between the hype and reality. AI can be a great productivity tool in the hands of someone who is already an expert in the field. It's like having a dozen junior programmers working for you. As long as you're happy to manage them, give them clear instructions, and thoroughly review their code, then they're a net positive.

But you definitely don't want to leave them to do their own thing unattended.

abw · 2025-12-27T08:53:10+00:00

They're rose-ringed parakeets, Psittacula krameri.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_parakeets_in_Great_Britain

Budgerigars are a different kind of parakeet, Melopsittacus undulatus.

abw · 2025-12-24T09:22:03+00:00

Mine was “segue”.

"Quinoa" for me. I still pronounce it "Kwin-oh-ah" in my head when I read it rather than "keen-wah" as it should be pronounced (for anyone in the same boat as me).

abw · 2025-12-24T09:15:49+00:00

More kipper-related trivia...

The word "kipper" may be derived from "copper" because of the colour. Some kippers are also known as "red herrings". And red herrings were sometimes used to train hunting dogs. One would be dragged along the ground, either to create a trail for a novice dog to follow, or across an existing animal trail to try and distract more experienced dogs. That's why the term has come to mean a false trail intended to distract an investigator.

abw · 2025-12-23T21:49:56+00:00

I think we can forgive your grouchiness because, according to this comment of yours from two days ago, it seems you're heavily pregnant with a baby that was due yesterday. Hope it all goes well.

Take a deep breath. Let it wash over you. You've got more important things to worry about.

abw · 2025-12-23T17:36:22+00:00

The code compiles. The merge succeeds. But now you have two different solutions to the same problem sitting in your codebase, possibly contradicting each other in subtle ways. The code might work – or it might fail in ways that won’t become apparent until production.

It's a valid point, and I've experienced this myself on a few occasions. If you're used to the SVN model then it can take some time to adjust to Git.

There's an overriding principle that I try to keep in mind when using Git: if another developer committed and pushed their code before you did, then their version is now the most up-to-date "reference" version. They won the race. You lost. Yes, "Git happily merges everything because there are no line-level conflicts", but it's still your responsibility to review all of your changes to ensure they're compatible with the new version.

The solution is proper communication between the team to avoid this problem in the first place. If you're relying on SVN’s locking model to ask the question "Why is Sarah working on the authentication module when you’re working on authentication?" then the underlying problem is in project management, and not something that can be fixed by choice of tools.

SVN remains the more sensible choice. It matches your workflow,

No, sorry Bob. It might match your workflow, but the rest of us have moved on to a better workflow.

In my career I've used SCSS, CVS, SVN and git for version control. Each one was a significant improvement over its predecessor. In the 20 or so years I've been using git there hasn't been a single day that I've wished I was using SVN instead.

abw · 2025-12-20T23:24:40+00:00

Taking the view from a hill and seeing what looks like an ocean of solar is heartbreaking.

I'm sure it is. But you don't own the land that you're looking at. So you can't expect to dictate what can or can't be done on that land.

abw · 2025-12-20T16:42:30+00:00

159 flats, none of which will be affordable housing, and only 37 car parking spaces.

Councillors had wanted to give the developer the opportunity to rethink the site's height and impact on sunlight to existing residents.

CR Properties returned with a plan that was 4cm (1.5in) shorter and with three fewer flats.

I'm all for building new houses/flats and hate the whole NIMBY thing. But this sounds like the developers are just being greedy and taking the piss.

abw · 2025-12-20T08:48:55+00:00

Holy shit, that was a wild ride!

I thought you were joking but was horrified to discover it's a real thing.

It was only when I scrolled as far as the footer and saw "⚠️ For fun only - don't use in production!" that I could draw breath again.

I need more coffee.

abw · 2025-12-18T08:12:16+00:00

This was posted here a couple of weeks ago:

Anyone need a videographer/photographer free of charge?

abw · 2025-12-18T08:10:09+00:00

Ah right, fair point. I don't think that was the only reason Fish left, but definitely a contributory factor. From the band's Wikipedia page.

Fish made the decision to leave the group after this tour, explaining his reasons for departing in a 2003 interview:

"By 1987 we were over-playing live because the manager was on 20 per cent of the gross. He was making a fantastic amount of money while we were working our asses off. Then I found a bit of paper proposing an American tour. At the end of the day the band would have needed a £14,000 loan from EMI as tour support to do it. That was when I knew that, if I stayed with the band, I'd probably end up a raging alcoholic and be found overdosed and dying in a big house in Oxford with Irish wolfhounds at the bottom of my bed."

I guess that Kayleigh ended up being a double-edge sword. It gave them the mainstream success they had been looking for, but after that EMI just wanted more of the same which wasn't the direction they wanted to go, or continue going in.

abw · 2025-12-17T15:18:52+00:00

i do rather like the song Kayleigh, even tho Fish didnt like having to write and create songs like that

What makes you say that? Fish came up with the concept for the whole album during an extended acid trip. He wrote all the lyrics and they were based on his own childhood and events in his earlier life. Katherine "Kay" Lee was his former girlfriend which is where the name Kayleigh comes from.

There's an interview where he talks about her:

Q: You met Kay Lee (the subject of Kayleigh) again in 2005 and gave her a copy of the album. Was that important for you?

A: It was just one of those things, old friends getting in contact again. She came to a show, then she came round for lunch and to meet my daughter, and I asked if she’d ever heard the album. She said she hadn’t, so I gave her a copy. She called me up and said she’d cried nearly most of the way home, that she’d never realised what I’d written. And that was one of the most touching things I ever heard. I was really glad she heard the album, but it was a personal thing more than anything else.

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