Alasdair Watson

I haven't yet had an obviously fake worker get to interview stage, but it's definitely getting harder to weed them out at CV and code test stage – in fact, AI has made code tests all but meaningless. But at least the good old fashioned "just talk to someone" still works…

I knew there'd been some of this with regard to iOS apps, but this is the first I've heard of Mac apps doing it. Given that one of my most common actions is coping a password from my password manager, this is a screaming security hole, and I'm very glad Apple are moving to plug it. Going to see if I can find a list of apps that are at this to check I'm not running them.

It's a very dry paper, but here's the highlight: "The improvements in air quality induced by these policies have translated in wider productivity impacts as we demonstrate that [U]LEZ has reduced the probability of taking sick leave by 18.5%."

As someone with a modertately iffy respiratory system (my asthma isn't generally serious, but a cold will reliably do a number on my lungs), the combination of working from home full time post-pandemic (yes, I know, not over) and ULEZ has done more than anything to reduce my sick days. Earlier in my career, I'd be sick like clockwork 2-3 times a year, needing on average 2-3 days recovery time. Since 2020, I think I have taken 2.5 sick days total.

Broadly: more of this. All over the world, please.

Like the writer of this piece, I don't believe our current Labour government is "just like the Tories" (although in some areas…) but this piece does a really good job of nailing why they *feel* like they are.

A genuinely solid write up, that explains how we got here, and what I very much hope will happen next – and/or the possibly scary consequences of further political cowardice from the Labour Party.

A judge in the US has just ruled that Apple have to drop a lot of the measures that prevent apps from linking out to alternate payment methods, and that payments processed externally don't need to have a cut paid to Apple. I find myself quite happy about this. Gruber's analysis is, as ever, pretty bang-on.

Fun insights into Chinese food culture.

So, on the one hand, they're not saying it'll stop working. Just that it'll only have more or less the same features that a non-smart thermostat has. But still – I'd be pretty irked, if I had one. This is, broadly, the peril of buying smart home gadgets. and why my rule of thumb is that I want them to be able to perfom most of their functions without internet access – in case the company behind them goes bust, and the infrastrcuture vanishes. But Google haven't gone bust. There's no suggestion that the couldn't, if they chose, keep these running. They're just not. Unimpressive.

Because, well, yeah, it really is. It's justghastly stuff, and I just do not understand these people with hate in their hearts who are determined to drag us all backward. On this issue, and so many others.

A thread of mostly-90s RPG covers redesigned to gently mock the game they're commenting on. Niche interest, but it's my niche, and why yes, I have bought many of these.

Upgraded version of the spatial library I've used for years (that the original maintainer seems to be ignoring), working with Laravel 12, useful for migrating systems to modern laravel, and of no use to anyone not working with Laravel and GIS.

A way to use PHP to extend an LLM and give more context, this could be very useful at work

I'm mostly just interested in the way this feels both madly granualar and weirdly arbitrary. What's a "Christmas children & family films for ages 5 to 7", and where's the line between that and "Goofy christmas children & family films". And what if a christmas film is both British *and* Goofy? And are there really so many "hijacking movies" that they need their own subcategory? Apparently so…

Quite a good set of rules for living a slightly more private and secure digital life on the modern internet. Very little here I would not recommend doing.

I really hope this works out to replace the US govt as part of globally-critical IT security infrastructure.

Oh god, I'm never going to be able to unsee this. I'm going to have to use nothing but Deepseek from now on.

I quite want a bunch of these. Useless but lovely.

Do not create The Colour Out Of Space in remaining eye!