Stuart Langridge
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sil.kryogenix.org
Stuart Langridge
@sil.kryogenix.org
Builds stuff for computers, advises other people how to do so, plays PBP D&D, makes the occasional solo game, eats sandwiches. Part of Open Web Advocacy. Runner of the Critical Role transcript search. In the People’s Republic of Brum. https://kryogenix.org
Anybody got any suggestions about how to find and batch delete duplicate photos in google photos without downloading them all? Search results on this are uselessly overrun by bullshit. Note: this is exact duplicates: I don’t need AI detection of similarity, just photos that are in there twice.
December 26, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Trying to patiently explain to my mum that yes, the Exif metadata in this huge collection of her photos from 2003 probably isn’t completely reliable and no, they don’t have gps locations because the only people who had gps back then were tanks. I’m not making much headway.
Still fun though.
December 26, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
Cylinder seals from ancient Mesopotamia — tiny objects carved with images and text — were early signatures.

People rolled them over wet clay tablets and envelopes, and they tell us a lot about identity and authenticity. Interesting, brief read by Serdar Yalçin theconversation.com/signatures-m...
Signatures meant more in Mesopotamia than they do now − what cylinder seals say about ancient and modern life
Cylinder seals were intimately tied to their owner, showcasing their identity, beliefs and social status.
theconversation.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:56 PM
The Luddites were not actually opposed to progress or innovation: they were opposed to being exploited. But the term "Luddite" as most people understand it -- a stick-in-the-mud who dislikes change and cleverness for their own sake -- is really useful! Can we have another word which does mean that?
December 22, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
He's got a two day head start on you, which is more than he needs. Wally's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan, he speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again.
December 21, 2025 at 1:50 PM
I have just gone through a weird mental journey from “never heard of these things” through “hang on just making stuffing as a snack, is that even allowed?” to “I must have this, immediately, where can I get some panettone” in the space of about forty seconds
December 20, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
December 20th. A partially rubberised torso stands on the corner of Edward Street and screams for thirty seconds before vanishing.
Signs and portents
December 20, 2025 at 6:51 PM
My MP is Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary. I don’t agree with a lot of her stances on immigration. But as a constituency MP for Birmingham, good job Ms M.

shabanamahmood.org/2025/12/17/g...
Government announces £650 million boost for Birmingham - Shabana Mahmood
Birmingham is set to receive a £650 million boost to its finances – thanks to a Labour government. The money is part of the first multi-year funding Settlement in over a decade, giving councils three ...
shabanamahmood.org
December 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
My dad's best mate is a bloke called John. But people who've known him for a long time call him Jumbo, because he was a bit fat. When he was at school. Sixty years ago.
I know a bloke called Bonnie (53 years old, real name Jonathan), who has this nickname because he had curly hair in 1982 during the World Cup when Poland's Zbigniew Boniek scored a cracking hat-trick against Belgium, and also had curly hair.
Thinking about my mate Sausage today, named that since a teenage camping trip when he wanted his sausages cooked for longer than anyone else. You never know when life is going to ambush you with something that sticks forever. Sausage is in his 50s now.
December 18, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
Changes to iOS in Japan to comply with the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA). Developers can distribute apps on alternative app marketplaces, process app payments s outside of Apple In-App Purchase, use alternative web browser engines. developer.apple.com/support/app-...
Changes to iOS in Japan - Support - Apple Developer
developer.apple.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
Listen, I’ll grant you this thing sucks ass and doesn’t work, and employees and customers hate it and by extension us for using it. I’ll grant you all that. But what if it doesn’t? Wouldn’t we look foolish? I think my logic is sound.
December 17, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
I've been asked for information about UK-based researchers with interest in TTRPGs and Actual Play.

I have a half-dozen names off the top of the dome, but would be happy to hear of more to pass along for Schemes.
December 16, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Looks like zero hours contracts will be gone, now that the Employment Rights Bill is through the Lords. Bunch of other good stuff coming too. I’m not particularly happy with the Labour government I voted for, but this is a good day.
(www.acas.org.uk/employment-r... has a reasonable summary I think)
December 16, 2025 at 7:37 PM
random idea for a tabletop game just popped into my head, where you have a big pile of (worthless) rings in the middle and your turn involves putting rings on various of your fingers, or using those rings to... do something? attack? cast spells? maybe some sort of binary count on fingers? dunno?
December 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
It took a while (mainly due to the huge quantity of data collected on some questions!), but the #StateOfHTML 2025 survey results are now live!

2025.stateofhtml.com/en-US/

Big thanks to @lea.verou.me who not only designed the original survey back in 2023, but then came back this year to update it.
State of HTML 2025
The 2025 edition of the annual survey about the latest trends in the HTML ecosystem.
2025.stateofhtml.com
December 16, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Name an actor who you think has an iconic voice.

Eartha Kitt.
December 8, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I am neither lucky nor smart, but I have a smart friend who told me to do this and he was completely right and I’m very glad I did. Cheers @wimpys.world
I'm feeling more lucky than smart that I bought a new laptop three months ago and won't need a new one for a while, and that my two desktops have 64GB and 128GB RAM, respectively

youtube.com/shorts/VIjpp...
Why Is RAM so Expensive?
YouTube video by Linus Tech Tips
youtube.com
December 8, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (either War or Trek), LOTR, or Marvel
December 7, 2025 at 8:53 PM
you know how when I get asked what I want to see in CSS, one of the things I say is a fictional "font-size: fit-container"? It's this. This is the thing I wanted. hooray!
Fit width text in 1 line of CSS
`text-grow: per-line scale;`

nerdy.dev/css-text-grow

(prototype in Canary 165+)
December 5, 2025 at 4:12 PM
today I solved a problem with SSIs. Yes. Server-side includes in HTML.
I had to explain what they were to the team first.
Sometimes the old stuff is still fine, y'know?
Party like it's 1999.
December 4, 2025 at 8:48 PM
I’ve got my problems with JavaScript, and its creator, but it’s quite fundamental to a lot of what I do and a lot of what everyone does in my industry and beyond. And it’s pretty good, these days. Thanks for a big chunk of my career, JavaScript and those who make it. Here’s to the next 30 years.
30 years ago today (1995-12-04): “Netscape and Sun announce JavaScript, the open, cross-platform object scripting language for enterprise networks and the internet”
web.archive.org/web/20070916...

#JavaScript
Press Release
web.archive.org
December 4, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
This tracks. Most proud that "friends" and "y'all" are on there

1. "11ty" (60×)
2. "shopify" (50×)
3. "webperf" (44×)
4. "meetup" (43×)
5. "performance" (41×)

See which words you used the most here: anisota.net/harvest
December 2, 2025 at 12:08 AM
My box of Bold washing pods was weirdly sticky inside: one of them leaked. So I thought, I’ll rinse out the box with hot water to get rid of the spillage. And then I thought, but the pods are all sticky as well, I’ll rinse them off too.
Don’t do this.
The outsides, obviously, dissolve in hot water.
December 1, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Stuart Langridge
I remember Dawning Realization Month for the NFT people too. Think this is going to take much longer because of how wrapped up the whole economy is in this, but it really feels like it's happening.
Anecdotally on twitter seeing a big shift the last few days from every AI slop account saying every other creative field is “over” and they’re in control now to now posting about how nobody likes them and it’s not fair and they’ll persevere and real artists respect and uplift eachother
November 30, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Nice! Gotta listen to this

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
November 27, 2025 at 10:26 PM