Shellsharks Blogroll - BlogFlock

'Organising our small business' is now 'Working with Johnny.Decimal' - Johnny.Decimal

2026-08-10T07:26:37.000Z

Preferring fewer, broader playlists (it's easier to manage), we renamed JDU's 'Organising our Small Business' to 'Working with Johnny.Decimal'. This aligns it with YouTube.

The JDU playlist will contain videos that YouTube doesn't – for example, today's 'How I keep my JDex entries and notes'. The JDU-only episodes will typically be less polished – this playlist will be a place I can throw up quick ideas, responses to your questions, that sort of thing.

Edinburgh Fringe: Smut Slam ★★★☆☆ - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-10T00:23:08.000Z

Fancy a quickie in Scotland's most haunted pub? Smut Slam is a (mildly) interactive performance where a handful of speakers get to tell their dirtiest stories. The audience fills in cards with their questions or confessions which may be read out.

The format mostly works. There are different stories every night, so maybe we got a slightly uninspiring batch. Tales of sex parties, STIs, and broken sex-toys are fun enough but weren't exactly mind-blowing. The audience participation kind of slowed the pace down as each hastily scribbled card had to be quietly read to make sure it didn't violate the code of conduct.

I'm all for making spaces safe and inclusive - I just think the cards could have been vetted privately while a story was being told. That would have kept the pace up and given the stories a bit more space to breathe.

There are Smut Slams happening all over the world and I reckon it's worth checking to see if there's one near you to see if it floats your boat. They've obviously built an audience which is hungry for more - but I found it a bit tepid.

Morning, sunrise - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-10T00:00:00.000Z

The horizon is painted with a cool, warm glow. The sun has not yet risen; the hills are its blanket. The sky is a clear blue.

I woke up earlier than normal this morning. I find myself writing while gazing out the window, watching the sun rise, its light filling the room, illuminating the ideas of past days on my whiteboard, the titles of books I love, and the glass of water I poured earlier to help me ease into the morning.

When I woke up, I heard the song of a bird whose music I did not recognise. Birds continue to sing. The fresh morning air breezes through the window. Today the temperature is again lower. The world is wakening up. I am too.

Since I am not usually up at this time, I knew I wanted to watch the sun rise; to see the colours of morning. As I write, the yellow glow of the sun is intensifying, starting to shine on more of the places around me. The middle distance looks like it is tinged with a faint gold. Seemingly every time I look outside, there is something new to see; the world ever more full of colour, of light, of day.

Edinburgh Fringe - Heated Rivalry: The Musical Parody! ★★★★★ - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-09T22:45:45.000Z

By my count there are at least three "Heated Rivalry" musical parodies on at the Fringe this year. The zeitgeist skates to where the puck was six months ago, I guess!

There's also a live version of a HR podcast if you just can't get enough of their wacky ice-capades. Just how much sexy-hockey can one city take?

Produced by Quick and Funny Musicals, an American company specialising in ~~cash-ins~~ loving homages, this is surprisingly good! With songs like "Fuck Him Up The Butt (Metaphorically)" it isn't exactly subtle. The sex is acrobatic and - pixelated cocks aside - relatively raunchy.

If you've binge-watched Hollander and Rozanov's tender and humble love-affair, you'll you find delight in every scene. Lots of memorable moments are mined for their comedy value, and there are a decent amount of songs shared between the dozen-or-so cast members.

A couple of minor flubs couldn't mar the brilliance of the show. The cast really do give it their all (and give it to each other in a variety of positions). I'm pleased the intimacy co-ordinator was given appropriate appreciation.

Fair warning - there is a "splash zone" at the front of the seating for those of you who want to avoid/relish being lightly drenched in a certain hockey player's bodily fluids.

Edinburgh Fringe: 4 Aussies For Aussies - The Raging Bull ★★⯪☆☆ - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-09T16:00:04.000Z

Our first show at the Fringe! Caught by a rainstorm (in Scotland?!?!?) the app said this was the nearest comedy show to our sodden carcasses and it was free!

This is bang-average stand-up.

That isn't to disparage it at all. Four Australian blokes each doing 15 minutes of material - nothing particularly avant-garde or challenging. Just some decently funny (albeit well worn) observations about kids names, customer surveys at Tescos, and whether leaving skid marks is cultural heritage.

That said, I did have a soft spot for the comedian who walked on stage and dryly said, "Oh. Wow. A sitting ovation…"

For a free show on a cloudy Sunday it was perfectly fine. If you like straightforward stand-up, you can't go wrong with this.

Some more facts about me - Joel's Log Files

2026-08-09T14:44:18.000Z

No introduction, no filler, just some facts. You can check some existing facts about me on this post from last year’s Blaugust and this other compilation.

Even though I am Mexican, there’s a lot of Mexican food everyone seems to love, but I just don’t like as much. I can eat it if I have to be polite, but yeah, I’d rather not. I don’t like Mole nor Menudo, even though both are quite popular and I’d recommend trying them out if you ever come visit this country. I also tend to avoid spicy food if possible.
I love origami as a hobby, this is not new information for most of you, but I do want to share my favorite origami model, which would be the Rat by Eric Joisel, he was one of the best origamists ever, and this model is one of the most expressive I know of, with a simplicity which I adore. There’s a diagram available if you want to give it a try, though it is of intermediate difficulty. In second place the Horse by Hideo Komatsu is lovely for opposite reasons, it is much more complex to fold, yet it looks as clean as a traditional crane. Both are fantastic. Check my origami page—though none of these models is pictured there…
I love gaming, and most of my gaming is done in a handheld format, I currently possess a Nintendo Switch OLED, a PSP 3000, and Anbernic RG 35XXSP, a Miyoo Mini Flip and a New Nintendo 3DS XL, I also have a Miyoo Mini Plus that is currently on my sister’s care, and a Game Boy Advance SP which still works and was my first proper handheld—other than the cheap ones that came with 5 versions of tetris and blocky games I guess.
When I was in high school I pretty much introduced every one of my friends to speedcubing. I taught at least half a dozen of them how to solve the Rubik’s cubes and provided learning resources to many more, I did a couple of meet-ups and even went to a small event with a friend, teach algorithms, techniques to improve, etc. I would also recommend puzzles to get and would find the best local online stores to order from. As such I’d ask them to select what to buy and I would order a bunch of cubes at once to my house and distribute it from there. Looking back, I kind of promoted the hobby more than I realized and it was a sign of things to come… cough cough
My favorite primary color is blue, and in case it isn’t clear by my profile picture and my website, my favorite color is turquoise or neon purple.
I have lived on four different states all over my country (México), the south, the north, and currently on the central region, all sorts of weather conditions and altitudes. Not too bad I’d say.
For some reason my first ever full anime was Neon Genesis Evangelion. I didn’t even know it was a mecha anime, I was not expecting what it would become later. Of course I was already exposed to some classics, such as Dragon Ball, Captain Tsubasa or Yu-Gi-Oh, which are constantly airing on public TV channels in Mexico and which I have never seen more than a couple episodes each. Evangelion was the first one I chose to watch consciously from start to finish.
Finishing games was not very common for me as a kid. Looking back, the first game I ever completed is probably Halo 3 with my friends, though memory fails me. I would have to ponder some more on this… The earliest games since then is Ocarina of Time and Chrono Trigger in 2015-2016.
I have had four dogs, and only two of them at the moment. The first was Chicharido, a chihuaha I had for almost 14 years. I dug the grave myself, and it was surprisingly quick how I got over it after that. The second was Navi, who I barely got to have for a couple months due to a disease, she died first years ago,I wrote about that back then. My two remaining dogs came after and got to be with Chicharito for a few years, they are 3 or so years old and I’m quite happy to have them.
My current YouTube obsession continues to be football. I keep watching documentaries and goal compilations from X or Y players or my national team, the World Cup does something to me, heeeelp

This is day 13 of #100DaysToOffload and day 8 of #Blaugust2026

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Against Doomerism - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-09T11:34:12.000Z

There's a certain strain of commentator who is just sure that nothing can ever get better.

In amongst all the hullaballoo about the UK potentially banning under 16s from social media⁰, I saw a prominent historian say:

i assume banning kids from social media will be accompanied by a huge investment in teen-friendly communtiy [sic] spaces (like youth clubs) and social activities?

No?

Huh.

But, here's the thing. He's wrong. You can argue about whether the UK's Labour Government is doing the right thing¹, but they are pouring huge amounts of money and effort into youth provision.

Young Brits are set to benefit from Dutch style employment support as the Government steps up localised support to tackle rising NEET numbers.
- "Almost 180 new Youth Hubs will begin opening from next week which will provide wraparound services – coordinating education, welfare, and employment support."
Prime Minister announces major expansion of youth services and real-world opportunities to re-connect young people with the world around them
- "Announcing a new £88 million package of support to transform opportunities for young people across the country, the Prime Minister will make clear that this government is picking this challenge up and seeing it for what it is – a worrying trend – and delivering real-life solutions for the long-term, investing in opportunities for young people."
£30m pledged for youth club in each London borough
- "Sir Sadiq Khan said £30m of the £50m allocated in this year's budget for supporting young people would be used to fund a "Youth Lates" programme in the capital's 32 boroughs."
Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy
- "spending nearly £70 million over the next 3 years to help local areas better support young people and develop a network of up to 50 Young Futures Hubs by March 2029"

When I raised this with him, the Doomer could only say it wasn't enough. When asked how much would be enough, there was no reply. I think that's because people like this don't want to engage with the world. They're desperate to show that nothing is being done. And, when it is pointed out that something is being done, all they can fall back on is that is it never enough.

If you push back even slightly on their Doomer views, you'll get a litany of complaints about how everything is taking too long (well, duh, there's a couple of decades worth of austerity to unpick) and how they have no faith in any of this making a difference (because they won't give it a chance) and that nothing is being done (even though they refuse to look at the evidence).

Similarly, I'm sure you've all seen someone moaning the the planet is fucked because we're doing nothing about it. But that simply isn't true:

The UK's greenhouse gas emissions have fallen sharply: in 2024 they were 54% lower than in 1990, according to provisional data.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx238yyr40qo

Everywhere you look there are signs of progress and hope.

Doomerism, by its nature, is a reactionary concept. It's like those weirdos who reply to every funny story on the web with "didn't happen". An utter unwillingness to acknowledge that - yeah - some stuff happens. The world doesn't change as quickly as you'd like and politicians are never quite as brave in government as they are when campaigning - but stuff gets done!

When the Mayor of London introduced various measures to prevent polluting vehicles from poisoning London, the Doomers said it was pointless. Today we know it led to a substantial reduction in hospital admissions.

You see Doomers bleating about how the Panama Papers exposé led to nothing. That's contrary to all the people prosecuted. Did everyone get the justice they deserve? No. But to reduce it to a nothingburger is the essence of Doomerism. "I don't remember anything important happening, therefore the world is terrible."

Doomerism always feels to me like a psyop designed to keep people dispirited. When everything is reduced to a "yeah, but they won't do anything" then you end up disenfranchising people.

Are there terrible things which need changing? Absolutely!

Are politicians doing everything that you specifically want? Probably not!

Are incremental changes happening if you bother looking for the evidence? Yes.

Why aren't these people looking at what is actually happening, reading about what is being tried, understanding what trade-offs are being considered? Is engaging with reality really that difficult?

I guess a nuanced or positive take doesn't get you as much social media engagement as a childish howl of rage.

For the record, I think this is probably misguided. Although most American sites already ban under 13s from making an account, I am not sure that extending that to 16 is proportionate. But that's tangential to my argument here. ↩︎
Again, whether you or I agree with all their policies isn't relevant here. ↩︎

Note published on August 9, 2026 at 12:08 AM UTC - Molly White's activity feed

2026-08-09T00:08:12.000Z

well that sucks. apparently the Freedom To Read Foundation filed a trademark application for the phrase "free people read freely" a year and a half after i made the original lino print that i've made into stickers/etc.

it's no big deal from a business perspective — i don't sell these stickers for much more than they cost, because i mostly just think it's an important message that i want to help people share. i've probably given away at least as many as i've sold, which i guess is now what i'll have to do with the rest.

and it's not my coinage, to be clear — it's from a fantastic 2023 speech by librarian Tracie D. Hall. but the artwork is mine, and wasn't infringing anyone's IP up until the FTRF filed this trademark application in March.

Evening - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-09T00:00:00.000Z

Herein, three chapters from today: two reflecting on the evening, and one looking back to the morning.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

The sun shines through the window onto the coffee table — my typewriter and the Lucky Cat next to my typewriter are both illuminated; the cat waves at a fast, steady pace as the solar panel that receives the energy from the beaming sun. I look outside and see the shadows of the trees in the nearby field; the blue, blue sky with the occasional cloud floating behind the trees. I think how much I love the countryside. I smile. Joining a Zoom with a friend; listening to EDM while I catch up.

Looking around the room, I notice way the sun-kissed textured glass reflects on my guitar. I have never noticed that before. There is always something new to see, even in the most familiar of places.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Thirty minutes later, I think about time: how the sun has moved, shining no longer on my typewriter but another part of the room. I still have the impression of the way the sun was shining before in my mind. Where the sun is now invites me to look out the window. I see the way the sun peeks through a cloud on the horizon. Much of the sky is blue; a paler blue that feels like it is mixed with white radiates around the sun. I think about the movement of time: how the sun moved and I, too, moved, but in a different way: I moved forward with conversation and sharing ideas – sharing the energy I have, just as the sun does.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Feeling relaxed and the tiredness that comes from a busy weekend – during which I made many web pages, seen new pieces of art, and felt the energy of being around both small groups of friends and around huge crowds – I look at my notes from this morning, the vignettes written as I watched and lived with the country side.

The smell of cinnamon in the coffee shop was delightful. The taste of the coffee I ordered – a decaf flat white – reminded me of my trip to Paris last year; I drank the coffee after coming in from the rain, and while looking out onto the trees. I have been so glad about the rain and the cooler weather over the last few days; I think Nature, and myself, both needed the change in weather.

This morning I also listened to Audrey Hobert’s music, whose latest album I have thoroughly enjoyed. I am only on my third or so listen so far, and look forward to the moment when I can sing entire songs of hers by heart.

Later in the morning, I started writing a poem; playing with words, with form, with structure. I smiled as I looked at the hills from a place where I can see more of the horizon than any other, where I can see for miles.

Types of Time Travel Zine - Robb Knight • Posts • Atom Feed

2026-08-08T19:07:00.000Z

I've wanted to make a zine for a while — it has a nice combination of drawing, writing, and being a physical item that appeals to me but I couldn't find the right topic to tackle until I realised I'd already done the writing part of it with my post entitled My Favourite Type of Time Travel.

The format I've come across most is the eight-page foldable zine which means including the cover there are eight pages of stuff to fill. As it turns out my time travel post had seven main types which was handy.

My plan was to draw directly to the single sheet of A4 paper, scan it it, and the zine be ready but I immediately did the the cover, which I really like, on entirely the wrong page. So The zine was actually done over four different pieces of paper as you can see in the photo at the top.

I scanned^[1] all the pages in, dropped them all in Pixelmator, and set out each page in the correct order. Doing it like this also allowed me to move about some things that weren't quite right and fix some mistakes but what you see is more of less exactly as I drew it.

You can download Types of Time Travel zine in PDF or PNG formats. I hope you enjoy it. As seems to be tradition with zine websites, I am including a link to this illustration of unknown origin that shows how to fold an eight-page zine.

I was surprised there's no web component or drop-in library to pass in a zine and make it readable easily online. Watch this space but for now you can read it below.

This led me down a rabbit hole but that's a story for another day ⤾

📝 2026-08-08 13:34: Wife: I need help clipping the goat's hooves. Here, hold this... Me: ... - Kev Quirk

2026-08-08T12:34:00.000Z

Wife: I need help clipping the goat's hooves. Here, hold this...

Me: ...

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️

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[RSS Club] I got an NLnet grant! - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-08T11:34:15.000Z

Pssst! This post is only available to RSS/Atom subscribers. Tell your friends to subscribe 😊.

Just a quick one today, a more detailed blog coming soon - but I thought I'd give RSS Club Members (you!) a sneak peek.

A few months ago I saw a post on Mastodon from NLnet - they were looking for Open Source projects to apply for grant funding. The deadline was less than 24 hours away, so I rushed in an application.

There was a ping-pong of emails where I detailed more about what I planned to do, and where they kept me abreast of their timescales.

Finally, after about 6 months, I received the most delightful email confirming my place in the programme!

I'm officially part of the NGI0 Commons Fund.

So, what's the project? Regular readers will remember that I created ActivityBot as a lightweight, single-file, fully featured ActivityPub server. The grant will enable me to improve the code, test the usability, have a security audit, do some accessibility work, and make it more robust.

I'm also going to need a logo 🤖

Because this is an RSS-only post, it doesn't support comments. You can get in touch with me if you'd like to say something nice.

HTML Day 2026 - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z

A tale of HTML Day 2026 in three chapters: of poetry, of play, and of reflection.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

the calm that comes from writing a web page in a quiet room, the loudest sounds being the wind blowing and the sound of keys typing, and of being on a call with friends and people from around the world who all came together to make a web page; of seeing what everyone made; and learning new ways to present information; HTML mixes the presentational and the textual, the visual and the technical, the poetic and the prosaic; of the silence that came when the call ended and we all rushed to say thank you in the chat.

a moment to reflect on the fun had in the last half hour; of making something I may otherwise not have made; of doing so in a space someone created, as part of a larger event; an event in the spirit of the web: global.

I wrote this in my notes shortly after attending the first of two HTML Day online sessions today, hosted by Zachary. The morning ended up being a lot busier than expected, with my showing up around half an hour late. With that said, I had a list of ideas for a web page and all the energy that came from looking forward to this event in my heart. Although I had such a list, however, I explored a new idea when I opened up my code editor and started to write.

I wanted to make a web page that spoke about the moment before making a web page: of inspiration, of excitement, of anticipation. I opted to focus on writing words in the HTML document, using as few tags and styles as possible. My page ended up being something of a story, interspersed with questions, thoughts, and invitations to the reader.

Here is what I made.

This morning was one of my first experiments with using white-space more playfully in prose and poetry. It was so much fun!

In the last ten or so minutes of the session, many people shared the web pages they made, too. This was one of the highlights of the hour: seeing a page about poetry, a scaffolding for a web zine, colourful web pages, and so much more.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Friends embracing each other with hugs in the park; bagpipes are played wonderfully in the background. A person glides through the park while wearing roller skates. A crowd of people led by a saxhorn band sing Auld Lang Syne, and alternate between stopping and starting in different dance poses as the music plays with a jazzy flare; bagpipes enter, colourful flags move. There are three tiers of the park, each with people looking down. People applaud in unison across the park when the song comes to an end. “For our first time through, that was pretty amazing,” said the band leader. ~~~ two hours before HTML Day Edinburgh.

I volunteered to host HTML Day Edinburgh this year for the first time, which was so fun.

On the way to the event, I started thinking about an idea I had earlier this morning: what if I made a web page that looked like a letter that someone could open and read? I thought this would be a fun way to send e-cards to friends for their birthdays. I don’t currently do this, but I would if I had made the e-cards cards myself. I ended up building the scaffolding of this idea in the session.

Three of us met up in a coffee shop to talk about, and work on, web pages. For the first half an hour or so, we all chatted, and then we got to taking notes and exploring ideas. We had a few WiFi issues, and so much more of the session was devoted to conversation than I had expected. With that said, we made the most of the time. Indeed, it felt like we had momentum to chat about the web and technology that could have greatly surpassed the two hours set for the session.

Before I left for the event, I took a photo of the envelopes I use to send letters to friends. I used Apple Photos to create a “sticker” of the envelope – a cut-out of only the envelope that was in the image. I used that photo on my web page. I first thought it would be fun to hover over the envelope to reveal the note I had written. But then I realised it might be better to have a button so the visitor had something to click. Using a checkbox and a CSS :has selector, I made the image change from the envelope to the letter when the label (styled like a button) associated with the checkbox was clicked.

Here is what I made.

There are likely many ways I can improve this page. I used a background-image so I could control the image via CSS on hover and later with the checkbox, but I am not sure about the code I wrote for sizing the background image. The web page doesn’t work particularly well on mobile. With that said, I am delighted with what I made: a little thank you note to HTML Day. I might use this template to send an e-card to a friend some time later this weekend.

As I wrote to a few people during the event: “We’re HTMLing in Edinburgh.”

HTMLing should be a verb.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

There were two online HTML Day events: one that more accommodating for people in time zones in the Asia / Pacific region (which coincided with morning in Europe), and one that was later in the day for people in Europe and early in the morning for folks in the Americas. The second online HTML Day event was scheduled for one hour after the Edinburgh one finished, so, I reasoned earlier this week, I could attend both online sessions. But, to do so, I would likely have to go to another coffee shop and use their WiFi.

Between the Edinburgh and second online HTML Day session, I went to a bookshop and enjoyed perusing the shelves, exploring areas of the bookshop I don’t usually visit. I spent much time greatly admiring the Natural History section, where the Nature books were. I was intrigued by Walden being in a section labelled Natural History. I guess I had never thought about where Walden would be on a shelf. A little part of me daydreamed about having a work on the same shelf.

With fifteen minutes to go and a few options for coffee shops to go to, I started to venture out. Two coffee shops I wanted to go to were full, so I went to the third option on my mental list. There was no WiFi, but it didn’t matter: I had a great view of the busy city street (the Fringe just started; Edinburgh is so busy!), and I was excited to make a web page while having no means of accessing the internet.

I went back to my list of ideas, but a new idea that was not on the list came to mind (ironically, I didn’t write down the envelope idea either; that one seemed to be stuck in my mind). I thought about a page where I could write some affirmations. I was inspired by the rest page on my website which reminds the reader – and the author, me – that rest is important. I thought I could start with this and write a few more affirmations.

Here is what I made.

I opted to keep the code simple, using CSS mainly to add a bit of colour and spacing to the page. I wrote the affirmations that came to mind, and even added a few vignettes that I wrote while looking out the window. Edinburgh was so full of life today. And I think I was able to bring some HTML energy to the mix too. I was not able to join the corresponding videoconference that was happening for the second online HTML Day, but I am glad I was able to make a web page in that time. I felt like I was participating even though I wasn’t on the call.

After all the bustle of the day, I walked over North Bridge Street in Edinburgh for the first time since it was fully re-opened. The bridge, which had been under restoration for eight years, was enveloped in scaffolding for the longest time. But today, I was able to walk over with no scaffolding. Looking around, I saw views of Edinburgh I have never seen before. I never thought I would be able to see the sea in the distance from North Bridge, which is in the centre of the city. That experience was truly delightful.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

Three HTML pages written in three places: one page at home and two in coffee shops, between which I went to an art exhibition and a book shop. One page was written with exploration and poetry at the forefront of my mind, the next written with play and friendship and community, and the last written in reflection, in a time when a quiet moment was exactly what I needed.

Reflecting on the affirmations page I made today, I wrote this in my notes:

It’s [this is] what I needed to make in the moment.

I am not sure I fully grasp what this thought means yet, but I thought it was significant so I wrote it down.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

I mentioned earlier in this post that I had a list of ideas of things I could make that I wrote this week. Here is the list, in case you are curious. Perhaps an idea below will inspire you to make something: to create your own HTML energy.

A new blogroll
A website you can scroll in two directions (islands of poems; of web pages?)
A poem written with CSS selectors that does something on the page
- “You’re an amazing human.”
IndieWeb wiki edits represented as emojis — edits vs. new pages;
- This could work with any wiki
Making a welcome letter to the web
A gallery of all my favourite words
Plain text poems
What if style sheets cascaded visually?
- Like a poem
  - And a river
poetics.js — replace one word with another
Word-effects.css — like Apple’s animated text
Birthday cards, type-written — use envelope I normally use; hand-written font
A site that displays all of Taylor Swift’s eras tour mashups
Tab-to-advance poetry
Can you embed a css file with https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/embed?
A website that makes me feel calm
CSS animation — can I make a circle that pulses in colour slightly
Use a monospace font
A site that looks like an airline ticket — a ticket to a new web
A checklist of things to do when you rename your website
A page with buttons that you can press
What would a website look like as a museum?
A list of a hundred things a blog can be
- An anthology of yourself
- A collection of stories
- The beginning of a novel
- A home for your words
- An archive of your writings
- The place where you start a conversation
- Where you publish your midnight musings
A zine made with HTML
- Visions for the web
  - What if I told you that you can make the web better?
  - Yes, you. Whoever you are — whether you have a website or not, whether you can code or have no interested in coding.
  - You can make a difference for one big reason: the web is for everyone. That means you!

Happy HTML Day!

HTML Day 2026 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/embed HTML Day Edinburgh rest Here is what I made. Here is what I made. Here is what I made. Zachary HTML Day online sessions today

About books and their translations - Joel's Log Files

2026-08-07T18:00:00.000Z

I realize I have spent a lot of my time writing about videogames here, and not focusing much on most of my other hobbies. I guess I just want to ramble about something different today, so why not?

The other day I saw a post on a reading group I found in some mainstream social media platform that shall remain unnamed, and it was all about how great The Night Land and The House on The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson were, but what I found most intriguing was how many people were fans of these works, even though the community and the post were in Spanish.

Most of the people leaving comments and praising those books were reading translations of the original work, and using adapted names for the books and such.

I am quite happy that there are so many great works available in my native language. However, that also stresses me out.

I just can’t decide what to do when it comes to translated works at all. Be it old books in English translated to Spanish—or modern ones to be fair. And what about Spanish books that I could read in English, or picking between Spanish and English for books that are in a completely different language?

It shouldn’t be hard, I read like five of Jules Verne’s books in Spanish and I absolutely loved them when I was younger! Same for H.G. Wheels and a other books translated from works in other languages!

I think I just take issue with deciding when my options are doubled. And taking into account how language and writing styles also evolve over the decades or even centures, I just end up with decision paralysis.

Back when I still didn’t write reviews on this blog, I picked up The Stranger by Albert Camus, and I absolutely devoured it, it was a read that took me only two days to complete. However, it was not the original in Frech, it was an English translation (and I’m not even sure of which translation I read). This is not something I realized until just today. But it doesn’t change the fact that the book was incredible and impossible to put down for me! So translations must be alright, right?

After all, soon after The Stranger I somehow decided it would be a good idea to read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a book published in 1897… and it was a total pain!

There were so many strange words, grammar structure I didn’t quite understand, but I pushed through it and I ended up really enjoying it, and full of pride too, for I sticked to it consistently until the very end!

However, Dracula is a great book with a story that glued me to the pages. How will it be for other works with old English that may not keep me as interested as if I just read the translation? This could be a big problem for me, and because of this, I am unsure of how to proceed.

When it comes to Science Fiction, a lot of terms such as Cyborg, Steampunk or DoubleSpeak just don’t hit the same when translated, ending up with hacky words that make me cringe a little bit, at least in older works.

Original books by Spanish-speaking writers also hit different! When I read Tender is the Flesh, by Agustina Bazterrica—an Argentine writer—I simply had to switch to the original language after three or so chapters. The translation just felt way too dry and straight to the point to me, and the wonderful flourishes the Spanish language expressed were a very welcome surprise when I switched. The story was absolutely horrifying in the most amazing way and I finished it in a single sitting as the dystopian trainwreck of its plot just kept going.

It should be clear by now that I guess I prefer to read the original language if possible, but it does seem like I could be perfectly happy reading the translation if I get over myself or if I am ignorant of the existence of an original, I guess.

Jules Verne is French, so both English and Spanish aren’t the original, and I’ll probably stick to Spanish if I ever reread it. I do notice that most printed editions are based on old translations though, which comes with its own caveats, such as changing whole names and even chapters because why not. I wonder if reading Verne in English would be better… Or just a modern Spanish translation.

And don’t get me started on Latino vs European Spanish… I actually read like five chapters of Abbadon’s Gate and well, yeah definitely not the accent I imagined when I think of these characters speaking. Nothing against my Spaniard friends, just personal preference. Perhaps the cursing in Spanish also felt weird to me and older works with would be okay and even kind of epic to read in old Spanish style.

Some of the works I want to read next will also have to be translations. One I’m looking at right now is Solaris and The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem, which seems to be beloved in the Spanish reading group I found, though I wonder if it will be affected by the word choices Sci-Fi tends to have, and maybe choosing English for that one will be better for me, or not!

Of course, The Illiad and The Odyssey are also in my head, and as very old works, they have a huge list of available translations and editions. A dozen in Spanish, and who knows how many in English. I kind of want to go for Spanish, though I am extremely curious about how many more choices I’d have in English too.

Something that also worries me for the future, is AI-generated translations… A part of me wants to believe that maybe this is one of the generally useful uses for it, but I think that they may end up just ruining it all again. We are starting to see it everywhere, from ugly book covers to non-existing authors.

Still, I don’t want to think about that, it just came up on its own. For now I’ll just focus on reading a bunch of those old sci-fi on my digital and physical library, and perhaps wether original or translated, know that there is people with heart who have put effort into making these works accesible, and people who are still eager to read and talk about these works with enthusiasm to this day.

That conclusion seems a bit out of nowhere after I just rambled for a dozen paragraphs about how indecisive I am, let’s call it a day shall we? And of course let me know your thoughts about this all.

This is day 12 of #100DaysToOffload and day 7 of #Blaugust2026

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Things I still do as an adult - Joel's Log Files

2026-08-07T13:00:00.000Z

Yesterday my work was rather entertaining. A workmate went on vacation for today and tomorrow, and there were a few tasks I had to do on their stead. This was nothing unusual, he covers for me plenty as well. However, I do wish things had allowed for at least a bit more time to write a post.

I did have a relatively easy idea which was a quick draft before my actual post of the day.

So, here’s a list of things I still do as a young adult that most of society expects me to stop doing, or something?

Whatever, here it goes:

Moving my legs a lot while standing up. I do little dance steps and I turn around smoothly and all that. Some times people say it looks like I want to use the restroom, but I’m just vibing! Probably hyperactive.
Play with my handheld consoles on the bus. This should not be weird at all, but I do feel a certain pressure to not do it, especially on the transport to work, purely because nobody else does. Maybe nobody cares but I feel like they do.
Send messages stating what I need and not much else. I am very annoyed by messages that are “Hey” and then “Can you help me” without saying anything useful for me. I always send a full, specific message when I need something.
Wearing shorts. You can even see it on my pixel art profile picture. A lot of adult men at least in my city/culture only use jeans unless going to the gym. I’d wear shorts everyday if I could.
Running up or down staircases. Even skipping two steps at a time. Why does everyone have to go so slow? It’s not just age, since my school days I was held back by my friend group lol

The more I go the more I feel like there’s probably other people doing this actually and I’m just doing one of those “am I the only one that does this?” posts that proceed to describe the most common thing ever.

But hey, this is Blaugust and I’m already one day behind so, you take it or leave it.

Wait a minute, could this post be that so-called “human slop”? Perhaps that could be a question to reply later, or not, who has time for that?

This is day 11 of #100DaysToOffload and day 6 of #Blaugust2026

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Metadata for AI Generated Outputs - Terence Eden’s Blog

2026-08-07T11:34:30.000Z

How do you tell users that the text they're about to read has been synthetically generated?

It is polite to readers that you don't waste their time, it's also important that LLMs don't feed on their own regurgitated slurry lest they pollute their own development.

I think there are a number of potential ways to do this⁰ and I'd be interested in your thoughts¹.

Let's go with some bad ideas first.

What's your love language?

Perhaps the simplest is to simply ascribe a unique language to AI. BCP 47 defines language tags to allow you to write:

<p lang="en">He said, "<i lang=fr>Bonjour</i>".</p>

LLMs can use a variety of human languages, so we can't use lang="ai" but perhaps a subtag would work:

<p lang="en-AI">There are 37 Rs in the word Strawberry.</p>

But standardisation takes time, so perhaps a private use tag would work -

<p lang="en-GB-x-AI-deepblue">It is not just a language, it's a state of mind.</p>

It sort of makes sense, as long as you don't think about it too hard. Is there a better way?

Vaguely Semantic

We're quoting something, right? Perhaps <q> for short snippets and <blockquote> for longer passages.

<q
   cite="https://llm.example/?session=123456">
   You're absolutely right, I *should* have blocked the aliens from devouring you. That's on me.
</q>

According to the spec, the <q> element and the <blockquote> element are both for quoting text from an external source.

Are LLMs sources? Are they quotable creative works? Could the <cite> element be used to show that the words come from a machine?

<blockquote>
   <p>To stop your pizza toppings falling off, try using glue.</p>
   <cite><a href="http://ai.example/">ChatBot 9000</a></cite>
</blockquote>

That doesn't feel very satisfactory to me. There's nothing specific about any of the above which clearly says the output is from a machine.

The Elemental Approach

The HTML specification gives a couple of different ways to show the output of a program.

First up is the <samp> element:

The samp element represents sample or quoted output from another program or computing system.

The first example given is:

<p>The computer said <samp>Too much cheese in tray two</samp> but I didn't know what that meant.</p>

There's also the <output> element - but that's more geared towards showing the output of a current action done on the page.

Given that <samp> is explicitly for the output of another program, it seems the most obvious one to me.

But perhaps we can augment it with some metadata?

More Than Data

Schema.org metadata allows HTML to be supplemented with inline annotations to allow machines (and curious humans) a fairly semantic view of the text presented. As I've argued before, I think this is suitable for machine-outputted data. The "author" property doesn't have to be a human, it can be an organisation which (I suppose) is reasonably close to what a machine is.

<p>I can tell the AI really loves me because it said:</p>
<samp itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Quotation">
    <q itemprop="text">I am definitely sentient and can consent to be your girlfriend. Your jokes are so funny Dr Dawkins.</q>
    <span itemscope
          itemprop="author" 
          itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization"
          itemid="https://ai-girlfiend.example/RealGirl06">Sweetheart AI</span>
</samp>

Not all that glimmers is metal

Of course, there are levels of AI content generation. Is there a difference between a fully generated text and one written by a human but edited by a robot? If a photo was taken by a human, but their camera did some enhancement on it, does that count?

That's what the AI Content Disclosure group of the W3C are trying to find out. There hasn't been much public movement on the topic. The explainer gives some examples of how it could be used:

<article>
  <section ai-disclosure="none">
    <h2>Six-Month Investigation: City Budget Shortfall</h2>
    <p>Our reporters spent six months reviewing financial records...</p>
  </section>

  <aside ai-disclosure="ai-generated" ai-model="gpt-4o" ai-provider="OpenAI">
    <h3>AI Summary</h3>
    <p>The investigation found a $4.2M discrepancy in the city's infrastructure fund, attributed to misclassified expenditures...</p>
  </aside>
</article>

Personally, I'm always slightly wary of adding yet-another-bespoke-attribute. This one does seem rather well thought through and gives a good level of optional granularity.

Other Options

I asked a bunch of friendly humans, and they had a variety of suggestions:

There's also the issue of granularity - should you mark up if only the entire page is AI generated, or should there be an indicator that an AI was used to "improve" the writing / phrasing?

Is this useful?

Maybe? Although LLM peddlers are aghast at efforts to discriminate against their Almost-Turing-Test-Passing clankers, they know that training future models on AI generated text leads to model collapse.

It is true that LLMs render some of the semantic web a little redundant, but it is also true that LLMs aren't always good at spotting AI generated text.

Humans seem to like stuff written by other humans. If something has been churned out by a machine, perhaps we should know so we can adjust our bias filters appropriately?

Perhaps it will be gamed or ignored. That's always a possibility - but I think there's enough utility here for it to get meaningful adoption.

Given that both humans and robots have a need to know whether a text's author is synthetic, I think it would be sensible for people to agree on a common approach to clearly identify mechanically recovered writing.

This is just a casual discussion. I am in no position to mandate this globally. ↩︎
I'm not interested in whether you think AI will be humanity's downfall or saviour. I'm just interested in the markup side of things. ↩︎

📝 2026-08-07 09:22: Follow up from this post - I just signed into my Vinted account (to delete... - Kev Quirk

2026-08-07T08:22:00.000Z

Follow up from this post - I just signed into my Vinted account (to delete it) and it didn't send me an MFA SMS so how the fuck is me giving them my number securing my account in any way?

The internet is fucked.

Thanks for reading this post via RSS. RSS is ace, and so are you. ❤️

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📝 2026-08-07 09:10: Brilliant. I'm such a "valued customer" that they couldn't even be arsed to put my... - Kev Quirk

2026-08-07T08:10:00.000Z

Brilliant. I'm such a "valued customer" that they couldn't even be arsed to put my name in the email.

Why is it even necessary to have a "business intelligence database" with a 3rd party? I ordered a fucking laptop. Can a tech company not create their own customer database?

Full email here - https://cdn.kevquirk.com/framework-breach-email.pdf

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Obsidian links break. Mine don't. (video) - Johnny.Decimal

2026-08-07T01:18:37.000Z

This video continues a theme:

If anybody needs step-by-step instructions for this, let me know.

The sound of writing - James' Coffee Blog

2026-08-07T00:00:00.000Z

Writing is a sample of the sonorous inner monologue of life: a handful of the words that seem to mean something; that carry with them weight: greeting, friendship, questions, realisations, hopes, dreams, anxieties; sounds that carry life, and how we use language to coalesce all that we take in, transforming our ideas into something others can read in their own voices.

As I write, I sit on the precipice of three voices: one I create, one I imagine, and the other that you, the reader, fill in. The words herein are my authorial voice, said in the way that I like to write; as I write, I hear those words spoken in my voice, in my head, like a monologue that speaks at the pace I can write. As you read, you may hear them in your own voice, too. Words speak many times in many ways; the sounds of those ideas transformed with every intonation, every expression, every breath.

The sound of writing is in the music of the strings reverberating as I play my favourite songs, singing as longly, passionately, as the moment calls for; just as the sound of writing is in the silence of the bedroom wherein I like to write at night, and the room in which the sun shines through and I hear my computer knocking the table slightly because it is placed unevenly, placed such because I was practicing guitar and words started to flow and I knew I had to write them down. I wrote notes – streams of my consciousness left over from singing my favourite songs – with a plectrum in my hand.

The sound of writing is in the voices that are within earshot as I walk around the world and realise that we all have our own stories. And it is in the sound of pens squiggling on whiteboards, because some ideas need to be written down as soon as possible and the whiteboard may be the nearest place to write it down. Writing is in the sound of the conversations with friends that made you see something in a new light, and gave you butterflies. It is in the sound of soft fingers tapping on a liquid glass screen that gives definition and shape to the developing fragments of my mind. I catch fireflies with my pen.

I think about whether anticipation – the moment before the writing begins – has a sound. What does excitement sound like? I think back to the richest of those memories; of realising music will be here soon.

The sound of writing is in the voice in my head composing a sentence while I sing a song I love, while I ponder the dialogue between creative works and creative mediums – how our writing can be in conversation with the past and the present and the future: the Gatsbys and the broken statues and the love stories.

You hear the sound of my words in the year two thousand and twenty six; each word – each sentence – each story – steeped in time, coming alive when read, just as music comes alive when played; an artefact of a moment that carries itself through time, through words. This essay is my voice, on the page, crossing the bridge of Modality, sitting potentially with latent ideas and meanings yet to be realised, like a poem, written with musical passion on the forefront of my mind.

This blog post was written in response to the prompt “The sound of writing.” from Thomas, with steams of thought noted down while I took breaks between playing songs by Taylor Swift on my guitar (thank you Nena Shelby for the amazing play alongs that help me find my voice), and compiled into a story for you to read – to hear in your thoughts – shortly thereafter.

Thomas Nena Shelby for the amazing play alongs