Electromagnetic Field 2026
Glastonbury for geeks (notes from a newbie).
ides.ws
ides.ws
Latest posts
The Cryotron Files
The strange death of a pioneering Cold War computer scientist.
The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
Shining a light on the Mercury Seven.
Amateur Radio Foundation Licence
On getting the RSGB Amateur Radio Foundation Licence.
Pi-hole Static IP Range for DHCP
It's always DNS, except when it isn't.
Books Read in 2025
A list of all the books I read in 2025.
Comments, Commits & Context
Comments shouldn't explain what a piece of code is doing, but why it is doing it.
They Live
A masterclass in missed opportunity.
The Burden of Responsibility
The one where AI takes all the good bits and leaves all the bad.
The Size of an Idea
The form in which an idea is presented should reflect the size of the idea.
Can't Get You Out of My Head
A documentary series from Adam Curtis.
Year 3000
No, not futurism, just a rant about a pop song.
Discovering PHP's yield Keyword After 10 Years
After working as a full-time PHP developer for a decade, how have I not heard of this before!?
Mouse Cursor Disappears After Xubuntu 22.04 Update
The case of the missing mouse cursor and why having multiple package managers is a bad idea.
Crocodile Conundrum
Solving a Conundrum of Dukes, Psalms and Crocodiles.
Hashing, Encrypting & Encoding
Understanding the differences, so we can stay out of the news.
The Swamp of Negative Utility
When a new technology is first introduced, it's often less useful than nothing at all.
The Pleasure of Hunting Bugs
Most engineers dislike tackling bugs, but maybe we just need to re-frame how we view them.
Books Read in 2024
A list of all the books I read in 2024.
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Almost thirty years after publication, the medium may have changed, but the message has not.
Escape Tour Oxford
Can you help Percy and Harriet escape Oxford without being caught by her father?
Combatting Credit Card Fraud
We recently spent some time battling credit card fraud. Here's a guide to the indicators and methods we used to fight back.
Jury Service
The article I wish I'd read before going to court.
Improving The Conference Hallway Track
Conferences are a great place to meet new people, especially in the spaces surrounding the talks. What can we do to improve the 'hallway track'?
Simple Business Ideas
Sometimes it can feel like every business idea you come up with has already been done, but not all the low-hanging fruit has been plucked.
Laravel Artisan Command Dependency Injection
Using the __construct() method for dependency injection in Laravel Artisan commands can have unexpected consequences.
Laravel Interview Questions
On the trail of better technical interview questions.
Books Read in 2023
A list of all the books I read in 2023.
Light Bulb Not Included
I keep searching for the piece that will unlock everything, even though I know it doesn't exist.
Using RDS Blue/Green Deployments to Change MySQL Table Row Format
We can utilise Blue/Green deployments to adjust table row formats in MySQL with minimal down-time.
Eat Some Pudding First
Getting a couple of simple tasks out of the way helps to get you moving, so don't eat your frogs first.
A Spoonful of Fiction Helps the Lesson Go Down
Fiction seems to be getting less popular, but can it teach us just as much?
The Spaceguard Centre
Your first, last and only line of defence against the worst rocks (and dirty snowballs) in the Universe.
Your Chance to WIN a Sinclair ZX81 Computer (in 1983)
Behold the unbelievable shelf-life of snack packaging from the 1980s. Environmentalists look away now.
Tales from the Loop
Some thoughts on the TV series.
LIMITing Loaded Relationship Records While Avoiding N+1 in Laravel
We can't eager-load a relationship with a limit, but we can do it in the same number of queries.
Reconstructing an SSL Certificate Chain Using the Browser
Plenty of tools exist for rebuilding a certificate chain, in-fact you already have one installed.
GitHub Copilot: Thoughts on an Alternative Workflow
GitHub Copilot is downright rude, how could we make it more polite?
Marking All Files in a GitHub Pull Request as Viewed
Marking files as viewed in a GitHub PR helps keep track of things, but GitHub doesn't allow you to mark them all at once. Here's how to do it.
Recommendation Anxiety
Like range anxiety, but for people with Spotify instead of an electric car.
Books Read in 2022
A list of all the books I read in 2022.
Deploying an S3 Terraform Remote Backend... With Terraform
Deploying an S3 bucket for Terraform state using Terraform needs to be done in two steps.