Blog

  • Lifehack: Family Brain

    2019-08-30

    An actual mind-reading trick for those who don't plan life down to every last car-refuelling and bathroom-cleaning.

  • The Week(s): 26th August 2019

    2019-08-26

    Gosh – no week notes since February! Partly this is because I wanted to automate the “Pins” part of making weeknotes, because it was a right bind to do manually, but also I just dropped the ball. But I love my weeknotes, they’re useful for me if no one else, and I’m keen to get […]

  • Innovation, Open Data and Citizen Engagement

    2019-07-03

    Technology presents so many opportunities for people to get involved in making public services data. And there are probably challenges too. If only the information was open!! Recycling data Our council here in Swindon recently changed the recycling rules. To inform people they produced a leaflet explaining which materials should go in which boxes. Now, […]

  • The Oikos Site re-build – Part 1

    2019-06-20

    I hate my own business website. I built it quickly with a page builder. Like this site it’s kinda deliberately minimalist because I’m not a designer, and yes, it’s better than previous iterations. But there’s so much I don’t like about it. And I’m working, behind the scenes, with Statamic, trying to get to a […]

  • Laravel: Going back() after form validation errors

    2019-05-17

    I’m SURE I must have done this before. Like…so many times. But this felt new today and is definitely worth remembering. When you’re using forms in Laravel, you sometimes want a “cancel” or “back” button or link that takes you to where you were before. And Laravel provides a handy url() helper that gets a […]

  • Speaker Tips from the wonderful WordCamp London folks

    2019-04-04

    I’m speaking at WordCamp London on Sunday. And I ALWAYS learn something new when public speaking. I’ve been chatting with other speakers in the Speaker’s Slack Channel and I popped in and asked for tips: Who has super speaker tips? Assume nothing. I want all the basics. I gave a couple of my own for […]