Jon Atkinson
@jon-atkinson.bsky.social
I feel that I'm increasingly becoming a data store minimalist. It's taken 20 years, but I've gone from "everything in RDBMS" to "SQlite is enough" to "I can just use Markdown with some front matter".
October 26, 2025 at 11:42 AM
I feel that I'm increasingly becoming a data store minimalist. It's taken 20 years, but I've gone from "everything in RDBMS" to "SQlite is enough" to "I can just use Markdown with some front matter".
The problem with microcontroller-negotiation cables (HDMI, DP, Thunderbolt etc) is that when negotiations fail you can never see the logs. Just silent failure.
September 13, 2025 at 12:33 PM
The problem with microcontroller-negotiation cables (HDMI, DP, Thunderbolt etc) is that when negotiations fail you can never see the logs. Just silent failure.
Now and again I forget to turn on my NextDNS resolver on a device, and kind of gaslight myself into thinking my internet connection is operating at 'normal' speed. When I remember to turn it on it's like a free fibre upgrade.
September 6, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Now and again I forget to turn on my NextDNS resolver on a device, and kind of gaslight myself into thinking my internet connection is operating at 'normal' speed. When I remember to turn it on it's like a free fibre upgrade.
A nice meeting at work today, in which we committed to converting 100-ish repositories to only use uv and ruff (from poetry/black/isort). Now to plan it.
September 2, 2025 at 6:01 PM
A nice meeting at work today, in which we committed to converting 100-ish repositories to only use uv and ruff (from poetry/black/isort). Now to plan it.
Startup idea: give me access to your inbox and I will ruthlessly delete all the "How did we do?" NPS begging emails before you even see them.
September 2, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Startup idea: give me access to your inbox and I will ruthlessly delete all the "How did we do?" NPS begging emails before you even see them.
Another HN thread about interesting Python developments descends into the same tired bunfight where people exchange pointless anecdata about packaging systems and their different priorities. Sigh.
August 14, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Another HN thread about interesting Python developments descends into the same tired bunfight where people exchange pointless anecdata about packaging systems and their different priorities. Sigh.
At the point in the week when I start closing more tabs than opening them.
June 26, 2025 at 2:39 PM
At the point in the week when I start closing more tabs than opening them.
I wrote a little today about how I'm using #Claude: www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/how-i-u...
Jon Atkinson | How I use Claude Code
How I use Claude Code - Jon Atkinson's personal homepage.
www.jonatkinson.co.uk
June 25, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I wrote a little today about how I'm using #Claude: www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/how-i-u...
I vibed out a Mastodon to Bluesky transfer tool this weekend. I decided I don't have the time to maintain my Mastodon instance, so here we are. I wrote about it here: www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/mastodo...
Jon Atkinson | mastodon-to-bluesky
mastodon-to-bluesky - Jon Atkinson's personal homepage.
www.jonatkinson.co.uk
June 16, 2025 at 6:22 PM
I vibed out a Mastodon to Bluesky transfer tool this weekend. I decided I don't have the time to maintain my Mastodon instance, so here we are. I wrote about it here: www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/mastodo...
I don't think enough people know about Trafilatura (trafilatura.readthedocs.io). It's such good software. If you ever need to extract text, from almost any source, Trafilatura will do it. I use it all the time to prepare content for LLMs and RAG, or just make things readable. SUCH good software.
A Python package & command-line tool to gather text on the Web — Trafilatura 2.0.0 documentation
Trafilatura is a Python package and command-line tool designed to gather text on the Web. Its main applications are web crawling, downloads, scraping, and extraction of main texts, comments and metada...
trafilatura.readthedocs.io
June 16, 2025 at 6:18 PM
I don't think enough people know about Trafilatura (trafilatura.readthedocs.io). It's such good software. If you ever need to extract text, from almost any source, Trafilatura will do it. I use it all the time to prepare content for LLMs and RAG, or just make things readable. SUCH good software.
Claude Code getting a plan/implement mode is sure saving me a lot of typing. I've probably typed the phrase "show me your plan, don't implement any changes until I approve the plan" a thousand times in the last few months.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Claude Code getting a plan/implement mode is sure saving me a lot of typing. I've probably typed the phrase "show me your plan, don't implement any changes until I approve the plan" a thousand times in the last few months.
Using 20GB of GPU VRAM to OCR and extract your ridiculous PDF format API docs into some readable Markdown. 2025.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Using 20GB of GPU VRAM to OCR and extract your ridiculous PDF format API docs into some readable Markdown. 2025.
Claude Code wastes so many tokens on figuring out what folder it's currently in. This happens regularly when it's prefixing commands with `cd whatever &&`. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is there some local quirk with my project layout?
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Claude Code wastes so many tokens on figuring out what folder it's currently in. This happens regularly when it's prefixing commands with `cd whatever &&`. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is there some local quirk with my project layout?
This is because I am trying to factory-reset a Thinkpad, using the Lenovo recovery tools. Despite my ~25-year career in technology this task has taken me almost a full day at this point.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
This is because I am trying to factory-reset a Thinkpad, using the Lenovo recovery tools. Despite my ~25-year career in technology this task has taken me almost a full day at this point.
When you stumble across a manufacturer support forum and there's some random person with 115,000 posts. What motivates those people?
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
When you stumble across a manufacturer support forum and there's some random person with 115,000 posts. What motivates those people?
SaaS products that lock SSO behind their highest pricing tiers (or worse, "Contact Sales" forms)... stop that, please.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
SaaS products that lock SSO behind their highest pricing tiers (or worse, "Contact Sales" forms)... stop that, please.
There's something so nice about hearing the CPU cooler spin up when running a large test suite.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
There's something so nice about hearing the CPU cooler spin up when running a large test suite.
I wrote something earlier about the recent bubbles, and AI. https://www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/four-bubbles
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
I wrote something earlier about the recent bubbles, and AI. https://www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/four-bubbles
I'm selling a Thinkpad but to factory restore the Windows installation I need to run the Lenovo recovery tool which only runs on Windows so I am installing Windows in a VM and figuring out how to bypass the TPM requirements and I am glad this is how I am spending my time.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
I'm selling a Thinkpad but to factory restore the Windows installation I need to run the Lenovo recovery tool which only runs on Windows so I am installing Windows in a VM and figuring out how to bypass the TPM requirements and I am glad this is how I am spending my time.
I wrote a quick thing last night, after spending the last couple of weeks away from work (but very much thinking about work): https://www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/the-future-of-agencies
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
I wrote a quick thing last night, after spending the last couple of weeks away from work (but very much thinking about work): https://www.jonatkinson.co.uk/blog/the-future-of-agencies
The <meta generator> tag in the age of AI.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
The <meta generator> tag in the age of AI.
I'll say one thing for vibes-based coding; it's exposing me to a lot of new Python packages. Quite a few of my prompts end with "... you decide which Python package to use, just pick something mature". This is a weird way to discover software, but it's interesting!
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
I'll say one thing for vibes-based coding; it's exposing me to a lot of new Python packages. Quite a few of my prompts end with "... you decide which Python package to use, just pick something mature". This is a weird way to discover software, but it's interesting!
I just upgraded my Mastodon instance for the first time since I set it up back in October. There is some very rusty old Rails knowledge in the back of my brain, and it really wasn't as difficult as I feared.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
I just upgraded my Mastodon instance for the first time since I set it up back in October. There is some very rusty old Rails knowledge in the back of my brain, and it really wasn't as difficult as I feared.
I have never understood newsletters.
Privacy and spam aside, are people really consuming blogs that way? How do you manage them? Do you setup rules and filters?
I don't understand the pattern at all.
Privacy and spam aside, are people really consuming blogs that way? How do you manage them? Do you setup rules and filters?
I don't understand the pattern at all.
June 14, 2025 at 9:09 AM
I have never understood newsletters.
Privacy and spam aside, are people really consuming blogs that way? How do you manage them? Do you setup rules and filters?
I don't understand the pattern at all.
Privacy and spam aside, are people really consuming blogs that way? How do you manage them? Do you setup rules and filters?
I don't understand the pattern at all.