Phil Gyford
@phil.gyford.com
More active on Mastodon. Can't read DMs here because I won't upload my ID.
At https://www.gyford.com
In Herefordshire, UK.
Also runs @samuelpepys.bsky.social and @ooh.directory
At https://www.gyford.com
In Herefordshire, UK.
Also runs @samuelpepys.bsky.social and @ooh.directory
Last week I watched the BBC's 'Girlbands Forever' and was frustrated so many interviews kept cutting from one sentence to the next. "How do I know if they're making them say things they didn't mean?" I thought.
I'm sure normalising this kind of editing won't have any more serious consequences.
I'm sure normalising this kind of editing won't have any more serious consequences.
November 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Last week I watched the BBC's 'Girlbands Forever' and was frustrated so many interviews kept cutting from one sentence to the next. "How do I know if they're making them say things they didn't mean?" I thought.
I'm sure normalising this kind of editing won't have any more serious consequences.
I'm sure normalising this kind of editing won't have any more serious consequences.
Need to remove the Duke of York's titles ASAP
He tells me also how the Duke of York is smitten in love with my Lady Chesterfield (a virtuous lady, daughter to my Lord of Ormond); and so much that the Duchess of York hath complained to the King and her father about it and my Lady Chesterfield is gone into the country for it.
November 3, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Need to remove the Duke of York's titles ASAP
I've updated my post about my 1995 internet experience with a few more period documents, but rather than read it again you can see all of the scans on this page instead archive.gyford.com/1995/interne...
October 24, 2025 at 2:04 PM
I've updated my post about my 1995 internet experience with a few more period documents, but rather than read it again you can see all of the scans on this page instead archive.gyford.com/1995/interne...
I wrote about what it was like to go online for the first time 30 years ago. How hard and complicated it seemed, and then how amazing this entirely new world was. Including some extracts from my 1995 diary.
www.gyford.com/phil/writing...
www.gyford.com/phil/writing...
My first months in cyberspace
Recalling the difficulties and wonder of getting online for the first time in 1995, including diary extracts from the time.
www.gyford.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:10 PM
I wrote about what it was like to go online for the first time 30 years ago. How hard and complicated it seemed, and then how amazing this entirely new world was. Including some extracts from my 1995 diary.
www.gyford.com/phil/writing...
www.gyford.com/phil/writing...
This, but about my career making websites. Getting going when it was nothing but HTML and – if you were fancy – a dash of Perl, grinding to a halt just as AI was being spaffed over everything.
glad to be born at a time when i got to see what life was like before the internet and will be dead before AI completely destroys humanity
October 8, 2025 at 8:59 AM
This, but about my career making websites. Getting going when it was nothing but HTML and – if you were fancy – a dash of Perl, grinding to a halt just as AI was being spaffed over everything.
Reposted by Phil Gyford
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October 1, 2025 at 8:08 AM
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<h1>Typepad is closed for business!<br>Thank you for being a valued customer.</h1>
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<h1>Typepad is closed for business!<br>Thank you for being a valued customer.</h1>
I remember around 1995 a woman knocked on the door, doing a survey about air fresheners. I never bought any so it didn't last long but I was quite excited that someone was asking my opinion about a product or service. At last! Finally, Gen X was being consulted!
Social scientists often bemoan falling survey response rates. A big part of the story has to be the proliferation of survey requests.
I took every survey I was invited to in an 8 day period and took 27 surveys totaling 33 minutes.
I took every survey I was invited to in an 8 day period and took 27 surveys totaling 33 minutes.
September 24, 2025 at 3:46 PM
I remember around 1995 a woman knocked on the door, doing a survey about air fresheners. I never bought any so it didn't last long but I was quite excited that someone was asking my opinion about a product or service. At last! Finally, Gen X was being consulted!
After Saturday's far-right march, police would like you to let them know if you recognise those suspected of violent disorder, using the platform owned by a man encouraging violent disorder.
September 16, 2025 at 11:46 AM
After Saturday's far-right march, police would like you to let them know if you recognise those suspected of violent disorder, using the platform owned by a man encouraging violent disorder.
"Mr Moseley is free to say whatever he likes and, if I may say so, he looked jolly smart in his black shirt and jackboots. His video chat with Adolf, perhaps the world's greatest innovator and entrepreneur, shared some robust views but our government will happily continue to use his media platform."
As it is ever more clear that the right’s invocation of freedom of speech isn’t remotely content-neutral, the government adopts a position which is content-neutral to the point of vacuity: isn’t it great that there was so much freedom of speech yesterday? Never mind the message, taste the liberty!
September 14, 2025 at 10:07 AM
"Mr Moseley is free to say whatever he likes and, if I may say so, he looked jolly smart in his black shirt and jackboots. His video chat with Adolf, perhaps the world's greatest innovator and entrepreneur, shared some robust views but our government will happily continue to use his media platform."
Reposted by Phil Gyford
26 Police Officers were injured in Londons fascist riots, but only 9 people were arrested.
At last week's Palestine Action protest 0 Police Officers were injured, but nearly 900 people were arrested.
The UK govt is chasing Reform votes & colluding with fascism, home & abroad.
#fightfascism
At last week's Palestine Action protest 0 Police Officers were injured, but nearly 900 people were arrested.
The UK govt is chasing Reform votes & colluding with fascism, home & abroad.
#fightfascism
September 14, 2025 at 7:58 AM
26 Police Officers were injured in Londons fascist riots, but only 9 people were arrested.
At last week's Palestine Action protest 0 Police Officers were injured, but nearly 900 people were arrested.
The UK govt is chasing Reform votes & colluding with fascism, home & abroad.
#fightfascism
At last week's Palestine Action protest 0 Police Officers were injured, but nearly 900 people were arrested.
The UK govt is chasing Reform votes & colluding with fascism, home & abroad.
#fightfascism
Odd that the Banksy had to be removed because the building is “listed and therefore legally protected”.
The two Banksys that appeared a few years ago on the Barbican, also listed, were preserved under clear plastic.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The two Banksys that appeared a few years ago on the Barbican, also listed, were preserved under clear plastic.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Banksy 'judge' mural scrubbed from Royal Courts of Justice wall
The artwork of a judge hitting a protester with a gavel has been removed from the listed building.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 10, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Odd that the Banksy had to be removed because the building is “listed and therefore legally protected”.
The two Banksys that appeared a few years ago on the Barbican, also listed, were preserved under clear plastic.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The two Banksys that appeared a few years ago on the Barbican, also listed, were preserved under clear plastic.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Metadata nerds: If I’m archiving a TypePad blog to a new domain and URL, and fixing links etc to work in the new location, should I also change rdf:about and dc:identifier values to use the new page's location? Or should they remain as they were because that's what the page "is” even if it moves?
September 4, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Metadata nerds: If I’m archiving a TypePad blog to a new domain and URL, and fixing links etc to work in the new location, should I also change rdf:about and dc:identifier values to use the new page's location? Or should they remain as they were because that's what the page "is” even if it moves?
Reposted by Phil Gyford
"I'm being as racist as I can" tearful Starmer tells voters
August 31, 2025 at 8:20 PM
"I'm being as racist as I can" tearful Starmer tells voters
I'm imagining non-techy people with TypePad blogs waking up and learning they need to do… something… to move 20 years' worth of posts and images and comments to… somewhere… somehow… in a few weeks or lose it all.
Fuck me, I swear it'll be this kind of thing that'll send me all Falling Down one day.
Fuck me, I swear it'll be this kind of thing that'll send me all Falling Down one day.
After 22 years, Typepad is shutting down with one month's notice. Go back up your old blogs, old-school blogger friends. everything.typepad.com/blog/2025/08...
Typepad is shutting down
We have made the difficult decision to discontinue Typepad, effective September 30, 2025. What Does This Mean for You? After September 30, 2025, access to Typepad – including account management, blogs...
everything.typepad.com
August 27, 2025 at 6:41 PM
I'm imagining non-techy people with TypePad blogs waking up and learning they need to do… something… to move 20 years' worth of posts and images and comments to… somewhere… somehow… in a few weeks or lose it all.
Fuck me, I swear it'll be this kind of thing that'll send me all Falling Down one day.
Fuck me, I swear it'll be this kind of thing that'll send me all Falling Down one day.
Reposted by Phil Gyford
Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".
August 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".
Imagine sending someone a self-portrait and they respond like this.
www.pepysdiary.com/letters/1675...
www.pepysdiary.com/letters/1675...
August 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Imagine sending someone a self-portrait and they respond like this.
www.pepysdiary.com/letters/1675...
www.pepysdiary.com/letters/1675...
Reposted by Phil Gyford
I loved a good Movable Type discussion in 2003.
gyford.com on August 22, 2003
https://web.archive.org/web/20030822040034if_/http://www.gyford.com:80/phil/writing
gyford.com on August 22, 2003
https://web.archive.org/web/20030822040034if_/http://www.gyford.com:80/phil/writing
August 19, 2025 at 3:44 PM
I loved a good Movable Type discussion in 2003.
gyford.com on August 22, 2003
https://web.archive.org/web/20030822040034if_/http://www.gyford.com:80/phil/writing
gyford.com on August 22, 2003
https://web.archive.org/web/20030822040034if_/http://www.gyford.com:80/phil/writing
Radio DJ broadcasting from Paris: "August in the 2020s. I miss the noughties. Mild summers."
Nostalgia for the pre-dystopiapocalyptic early 21st century already.
Nostalgia for the pre-dystopiapocalyptic early 21st century already.
August 14, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Radio DJ broadcasting from Paris: "August in the 2020s. I miss the noughties. Mild summers."
Nostalgia for the pre-dystopiapocalyptic early 21st century already.
Nostalgia for the pre-dystopiapocalyptic early 21st century already.
Please delete all social media posts laughing about the advice to delete old emails and pictures in order to save water, in order to save water.
August 12, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Please delete all social media posts laughing about the advice to delete old emails and pictures in order to save water, in order to save water.
Don't start a newsletter on Substack!
It's not hard to move away from Substack if you're on it.
It's not hard to move away from Substack if you're on it.
July 30, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Don't start a newsletter on Substack!
It's not hard to move away from Substack if you're on it.
It's not hard to move away from Substack if you're on it.
The Childhood of a Leader (2015)
July 13, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The Childhood of a Leader (2015)
From 25 July, for better or worse, you'll still be able to read my blog – and, I assume, practically any blog – without having to prove you're over 18.
July 10, 2025 at 9:11 PM
From 25 July, for better or worse, you'll still be able to read my blog – and, I assume, practically any blog – without having to prove you're over 18.
Do I or you know anyone in the UK using a ViaSat satellite internet service like www.freedomsat.co.uk/viasat-satel... ? I'm trying to gauge how good in reality its “Standard Data” speed is when we inevitably use up the small amount of monthly “Priority Data” provided on a plan.
July 1, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Do I or you know anyone in the UK using a ViaSat satellite internet service like www.freedomsat.co.uk/viasat-satel... ? I'm trying to gauge how good in reality its “Standard Data” speed is when we inevitably use up the small amount of monthly “Priority Data” provided on a plan.
Reposted by Phil Gyford
This I take to be as bad a juncture as ever I observed.
June 30, 2025 at 8:48 PM
This I take to be as bad a juncture as ever I observed.
Self Esteem’s the only #glastonbury I’ve watched so far and the set got better and better. That was great.
June 27, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Self Esteem’s the only #glastonbury I’ve watched so far and the set got better and better. That was great.