By @edent · api developers · 3 comments · 300 words · read ~11,431 times.
M'colleague Charles has introduced me to the most spectacular phrase - "Time To 200". That's a measurement of the length of time it takes a new user to go from signing up to your API to getting their first HTTP 200 response. Think about the last time you started using a new API... Fill in […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Book Review Claire North · 1 comment · 300 words · read ~102 times.
Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age – a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven’s world, such material must be closely guarded, so that the ills that led to […]
Continue reading →By @edent · fraud phishing sms spam · 16 comments · 550 words · read ~4,007 times.
The UK is facing an epidemic of SMS fraud. Scammers know that we're all at home eagerly waiting for deliveries. So they send out phishing messages saying "Sorry we missed you" or "You need to pay a delivery fee". If you click on the link they send, you'll go to a very convincing website which […]
Continue reading →By @edent · meta twitter · 2 comments · 500 words · read ~204 times.
Every so often, a celebrity is castigated over their "youthful indiscretions" i.e. racist Tweets they sent when they were a teenager. I don't think I've posted anything too horrific, but I wanted to check. I searched Twitter for a variety of slurs sent from my account - and all seemed clean. But... there's a lot […]
Continue reading →By @edent · citation MSc zotero · 350 words · read ~246 times.
I use Zotero to manage my references. Instead of in-text citations of (Smith, 1984) - I want that to be hyperlinked to the academic paper referenced. For example ([Smith, 1984](https://doi.org/.....)) This is possible, if you're willing to hack around with CSL - the Citation Style Language. Here's a fragment of CSL that I've adapted from […]
Continue reading →By @edent · meta · 3 comments · 700 words · read ~283 times.
I don't often blog about my feelings. Mostly because I find them confusing. Three weeks after our first vaccination jab, my wife and I broke our lockdown to go on a date. In the last 15 months we've left the house a few times for doctor's appointments, a couple of visits to the post office, […]
Continue reading →By @edent · AI · 5 comments · 350 words · read ~970 times.
I have a cheap WiFi enabled vacuum cleaner. One morning, I barked "ALEXA! CLEAN THE HOUSE." The gynoid immediately responded with "Now playing songs by Crowded House." The future's ace, innit? So I opened the cleaner's app, hit a button, and heard the sound of a domestic-droid doing its thing. For two minutes. The app […]
Continue reading →By @edent · spam twitter · 8 comments · 450 words · read ~930 times.
Twitter has never really solved its spam problem. It is a constant irritation that ordinary people get booted off the service for minor infractions, while large spam rings go unpunished. For the past few months, some of my old tweets have been getting liked by random women. I'm sure you've see something similar. The idea […]
Continue reading →By @edent · name · 6 comments · 150 words · read ~275 times.
Back in the good old days, when men were real men - and people like you knew their place - the world was simple. There were three titles to choose from: Mr, Mrs, and Miss. Perhaps also Dr if you were feeling fancy. But these fucking millennials with their "Ms" and "Mx" - amirite?!!? Anyway, […]
Continue reading →By @edent · badvertising email marketing rail spam · 17 comments · 350 words · read ~2,876 times.
Marketing really is crap. Recently, SE Railways sent this piece of email drivel to my wife: We don't have any kids, thankfully - and are not having any in the future. My wife was literally recovering from a sterilisation procedure when the email arrived. So it seemed a bit weird that they'd send her a […]
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