alexwlchan.bsky.social
168 posts
315 followers
38 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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wes anderson really leaned into darker shades for his sequel to asteroid city, huh
(I am one of those blessed people who have no idea what you’re talking about, this is the only vaguely topical reference I can think of for asteroids)
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what I’m hearing is that Cornwall is going to set up their own instance of Bluesky, which seems like a very Cornish thing to do so tbh
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What I learnt about making websites by reading two thousand web pages: alexwlchan.net/2025/learnin...
When I built my web archive by hand, I saw how other people make websites. I wrote about what I learnt – writing thoughtful HTML, new-to-me features of CSS, and some quirks and relics of the web. 🔖
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also if it’s built in Belfast, it should be south of the Lagan
I know nothing about Belfast geography but putting it south of the river would upset the Londoners even more
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Great, Northern Ireland can get its own deposit library, and to get them started give them all the BL’s books about the history of London
Make the Londoners travel for a change
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Counter-offer: everything in the branch is transferred to the National Library of Ireland, they keep what they want, and toss the rest
See how the British like it when somebody else takes their stuff
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What I learnt about making websites by reading two thousand web pages: alexwlchan.net/2025/learnin...
When I built my web archive by hand, I saw how other people make websites. I wrote about what I learnt – writing thoughtful HTML, new-to-me features of CSS, and some quirks and relics of the web. 🔖
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the dead wasp’s nest was a fun day!
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*spray bottle*
Jess is amazing also!
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Building a personal archive of the web, the slow way: alexwlchan.net/2025/persona...
I wrote about how I created a personal web archive of all my bookmarks, the tradeoff between manual and automated archiving, and what I learnt about preserving the web. 🔖
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There is no algorithm stripping fluff, just me editing HTML by hand. I’m not sure if/when I’d redo that process, because I’m happy with the result after the first pass.
If there are conflicting asset names, I rename them so they don’t conflict any more.
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Building a personal archive of the web, the slow way: alexwlchan.net/2025/persona...
I wrote about how I created a personal web archive of all my bookmarks, the tradeoff between manual and automated archiving, and what I learnt about preserving the web. 🔖
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Sadly I have no roles to offer or suggest 😭
But sending good vibes your way, you deserve to work on awesome stuff! 💚💖
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Oh, and because I know what all you Bluesky users are like: I make dismissive comments about generative AI not once but twice in this article 😘
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This is the first of a four-part series about my bookmarking – over the next three weeks, I’ll post about creating a local archive of each web page, what I learnt about building websites by reading 2000+ web pages, and some of my favourite sites. Stay tuned! 😊
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I wonder how blatant they’ll be
If they plaster the interior with signs in Arabic saying “we are listening” or “there’s a bug in the fruit bowl” and say it’s actually a Qatari proverb
How many years because any of these geniuses figure it out
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Off Book is a podcast where two people improvise a musical each week, and they come up with some amazing songs given they have zero notice.
Here’s a personal favourite, about the invention of mass transit and friendship in a town that confuses foxes and snakes: overcast.fm/+AAO57zCXVj8
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In my neighbourhood there was only a single house that put out their bins on the wrong day, because we’re just cool that way 😎
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And unlike most people, the new Pope has a degree in mathematics, which means he can precisely describe the hyperbolic parableloid on which you plot Papal politics.
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Time to use ChatGPT to tailor my CV for this job ad
“Alex has 15 years of experience in slop farming, working with a variety of crops, including mAIze, promptatoes, and tomatokens”
Think I’ve nailed it
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It’s pink, it’s about libraries, it features the world’s best storage media. I humbly submit howlongismydata.glitch.me
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How far away is the Cambridge rowing club’s boathouse
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Criminal gangs are now hiring for get-us-there drivers.
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you should have multiple moderators for fairness, and I nominate Tâf
her posts should entirely be about the best places to find sticks in the village
encourage other dogs to post
you’ll have more followers in an hour
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as your friend, I want you to stop
as somebody who’s busy setting up a popcorn stand* in the village, I don’t
*which I’m not allowed to advertise on the Facebook group, of course
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That is excellent news 💚
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the bankes-y hols, you say
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Happy anniversary! 💚💖
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and the number of pitches I receive for “we can keep this digital object frozen in time forever, with zero maintenance or plan for financially supporting it”
uh huh
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one of the little joys of organising my home is that all my boxes have handwritten labels with icons I drew myself
are they as neat as labels printed on a computer?
no, but personality and joy isn’t judged my neatness
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Being trans is so often a source of joy in my life, a joy that does not affect or impede anybody else
And then days like today happen, and I’m reminded that there are strangers who hate me, who will dedicate their life to undermining me, because I’m trans
And it’s exhausting
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Instagem
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imagine if somebody bottled the spirit of chaos house, and put it in a computer
you may think I’m joking, but “unpredictable and mildly malevolent entity that looks smart but is actually three bad ideas in a trench coat made by smart people who should know better” is not a million miles away
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soon it will be, just in the other direction
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Kub-eh-netes
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“Calls cost 10¢ per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge and international dialling tariff”
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The British rail network feels like a poster child for what happens when you keep cutting in the name of “efficiency”.
Everything works on the happy path, kinda, but it turns out all that unused capacity was your resilience buffer and now your system falls to bits at the slightest disruption.
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my computer person says I should change my name every 90 days for security reasons /j
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Exciting, congratulations!