Hello!

Even in the most extreme timezones, it’s now April. I apologise for the delay; a combination of Easter plans and illness meant I kept getting delayed writing this. (Or at least, even more so than usual!) This newsletter will be short and sweet.

I’ve been taking advantage of the spring weather by getting outside. I’m still planning to move from Hertfordshire to London, and so I’ve been trying to visit all the bits of rural Hertfordshire I’m about to leave behind.

The Hertford East branch line follows the River Lea, which allows me to walk by the water in one direction, then catch the train back. I’ve been ticking the stations I had yet to visit on this line:

I also went on another adventure in London with my partner, where we explored part of London and learnt some new BSL signs. I got to introduce her to the DLR and parts of East London, which we enjoyed, and we both tried the London Cable Car, an experience we’re in no hurry to repeat.

Finally, I rounded out the month by visiting my family for Easter, including their cats.

What have I been writing?

March was a great month for writing – all the work I did in January and February to rebuild my blog’s backend means I’m writing more than ever.

• Dreaming of a ten-year computer is about trying to run my personal computer for longer than the norm, and I was pleased by the number of people who replied to say they do something similar.
• The selfish case for public libraries is about why you should use libraries, not just support their existence. They make me a happier and more adventurous reader.
• March also saw the return of the Monki Gras conference, and this year’s theme was “Prepping Craft”. I wrote some reflections and notes.
• Gumdrop, a silly app for messing with my webcam is about a way to use my webcam and big monitor to take silly pictures of myself.
• Creating a personalised bin calendar is a Python script I use to help me remember bin day.

And a bunch of notes:

• Drawing an image with Liquid Glass using SwiftUI Previews
• My randline project is tested by Crater
• The file(1) command can read SQLite databases
• What's the main prefix in SQLite queries?
• AirPlay Receiver can interfere with Flask apps
• How to truncate the middle of long command output
• Useful type hints for Python
• Why can't Python connect to example.com?
• The red-lined bubble snail

What’s making me smile?

👑 Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland was the February book club book, which I missed because I was in Vancouver. I caught up on it in March, and I’m glad I did. It’s a love triangle set against the backdrop of early Britain and an invasion of undead kings that’s slow to start but finishes with a bang.

🧱 Building Andor in LEGO is a YouTube series by Hypolite Bricks which I’ve been enjoying as I do my crafts. I don’t make my own custom LEGO models, but I like seeing somebody else do it and hearing their thought process.

💻 I liked Not the computer for you by Sam Henri Gold, an essay about how people get into computers.

Have a wonderful April, and I’ll speak to you soon.

Best,
~ Alex