Before and after of my holiday DIY project.
Maybe it doesn’t look like much. And I know I keep going on about it. But I’m not a carpenter or DIY-er by any means. And yes there’s gaps to fill and paint to paint. But I think this is quite the transformation – especially given how NOTHING in our house is straight or flat! – and I’m very proud of myself.
…
Apparently this offer, even though clearly labelled “You're upgrading <MY NUMBER>" only applies to getting an additional SIM.
The help person asks their manager who “agreed to match this for you as an exclusive offer”… like, OF COURSE YOU DID, you don't get kudos for literally giving me a plan that your website offered me and is in my basket awaiting checkout and I'm trying to make it cheaper and easier to do by not sending a SIM and doing a number port.
Sheesh!!
Wow. I'm trying to upgrade my SIM-only phone plan, and the whole thing is a disaster.
They offer me an upgrade on my existing number. But want to send me a new SIM? Weird.
I try to contact someone.
I hit redirect loops on the help page.
I find terminology that doesn't existing in the help (in fact, you can't search the help).
To get to speak to someone I had to track down a button in the iOS app that called a number that sent me a link to a web-based chat.
…
We once spent about three hours going back and forth between our car and the cafe with a screaming baby at Bridgewater Services on the M5. So we bring our own trauma. But good to see it's still the worst services on the M5!
And I love the quote:
"To get to Bridgwater Services from the M5, there are two roundabouts to navigate. This is your chance. Turn around. You don’t deserve this. Nobody deserves Bridgwater.”
😂
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/motorway-service-stations/article/best-and-worst-motorway-service-stations-aw3Ww9F9pEIw
Honestly, this new website my friend @keithdevon built might just save the forthcoming rainy school holiday week. It's SO good.
https://rosswintle.uk/2025/05/activities-website-makes-school-holidays-bearable-offline-kids/
For Pocket replacements, I use this weird (but works-for-me) combination of:
– Feedbin for RSS and Newsletters (on mobile I put Reeder Classic on top of it)
– Raindrop for bookmarking
Both could be used for Read Later. Though in reality I mostly use browser tabs 🫣. (Though there’s this app called Flyleaf for iOS and Mac that I’m trying to get into the habit of using for actual read later!)
Oh, and for YouTube, the “Play” app is amazing. My curated video feed!
Such great indie software.
What? Pocket is closing down too? Wow.
Oh well. At least we have AI-enhanced everything coming our way. 😬🥴🙄
The Decoder Podcast with the head of product at Workday is fascinating.
https://pca.st/episode/07314687-d051-4f38-9078-c75d609b6576
But I feel like they don’t answer the question of why enterprise software is so bad, which to me has always been because the tools try to be all things to all people, and tend to get implemented by consultants working for too many stakeholders on fixed contracts who are not invested in the long-term future of what they build.
It’s software that encourages implementation by committee!
Oh what‽ Glitch hosting is going away?
https://blog.glitch.com/post/changes-are-coming-to-glitch/
I’m wondering what I have bookmarked that’s on Glitch.
This “Infinite Conference” schedule is funny…
Day 4 of “me week”.
My plan for this week was to do a ton of reading, learning and coding, close all my tabs. Bookmark all the useful links. Clean out my inbox. Hang out in my garden office. Visit all the local coffee shops and eat all the donuts. Play a ton of Balatro.
Instead… I have some nice new shelves in my kitchen and a large, B&Q-shaped hole in my wallet!
This is probably a good thing.
It’s not perfect, and there’s a ton of finishing to be done. But this DIY-dunce is pretty chuffed with this!
DIY project update. This will be tough to tidy up around the edges. But I can’t lie, I’m prettt chuffed with my boxing and the first shelf. I have planed a LOT of wood today!!!
YES! YES YES YES!!! A "National Parking Platform”.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-teams-with-parking-giants-to-ensure-drivers-can-use-preferred-apps-in-all-car-parks
Can I get all this "not-parking" shit out of my enshittified parking app??
Can we compete on user experience instead?
PLEASE!!!!
Reading the tech news these days is so dull.
I’d say 90% of my news feed is “company X has managed to shoe-horn the mediocre ‘more machine’ into their product that really doesn’t need it”.
Make it stop!!!!
Tomorrow I’m having a life coaching session.
I’ve always been very cynical about the coaching industry. It feels very pyramid-schemey. And it’s expensive, and I’ve never been convinced that I would get value from it.
But the person I’m speaking to has proven themselves again and again and has some specific expertise that I really want to tap into.
Hoping it works out!!!
I am ACTUALLY doing this build myself.
This is the old back door of the original house. It’s now an alternative doorway to our “futility room”, but we don’t use it.
I’ve had the idea for ages to make it a little set of “pantry” shelves.
And despite nothing in this godforsaken house being straight – the doorway height varies by 27mm front to back! – this thing is LEVEL IN BOTH DIRECTIONS!!!! 🙌💪
Oh yes. We had about 6 weeks of perfect, dry, warm weather.
Then it’s early summer school holidays. And so…
Day 2 of "me week". A coffee chat this morning, then a swim. A nice morning start! Then…
I am terrible at DIY. Just SO bad. But every now and then I get an idea for a little project that I think I can do and I go for it. So I now have several metres of furniture board and a load of grab adhesive, and chaos WILL ensure this week. 🤣
Day 1 of my "ME WEEK”. I started with a trip to the local-ish arboretum that we recently (in a stroke of complete middle-agedness) became members of.
It was AMAZING how fast my thoughts clarified as I walked around and admired the beauty and awe and diversity of the trees.
The return to my town was, frankly, a jolt.
I'd love to start every week like this.
#WordPress folks are owed an update on my Turbo Admin browser extension!
I'm still at work on it. I've had a bit of a break to do some other things.
Here's a post with an update, and some ideas for the future (including how I was kinda thinking about model-context-protocol type things and something like the WordPress Features API 2 years ago)