@tomsteinberg.bsky.social
The Pocket app for saving articles to read later is being shut down. Does anyone have a favourite alternative?
May 30, 2025 at 2:47 PM
The Pocket app for saving articles to read later is being shut down. Does anyone have a favourite alternative?
FOREIGNERS! Want to know what the absolutely worst thing is about living in my country?
Never knowing whether a choose-your-country pull down menu will contain "Britain" or "Great Britain" or "UK" or "United Kingdom" or "The United Kingdom" or "England" or...
Never knowing whether a choose-your-country pull down menu will contain "Britain" or "Great Britain" or "UK" or "United Kingdom" or "The United Kingdom" or "England" or...
April 17, 2025 at 2:50 PM
FOREIGNERS! Want to know what the absolutely worst thing is about living in my country?
Never knowing whether a choose-your-country pull down menu will contain "Britain" or "Great Britain" or "UK" or "United Kingdom" or "The United Kingdom" or "England" or...
Never knowing whether a choose-your-country pull down menu will contain "Britain" or "Great Britain" or "UK" or "United Kingdom" or "The United Kingdom" or "England" or...
How did the world end up with so many dashboards nobody pays attention to?
March 21, 2025 at 5:36 PM
How did the world end up with so many dashboards nobody pays attention to?
If you're working at a home office as you read this, and you have a thermometer / thermostat in the room - what is the current temperature? Asking as I shivver.
February 19, 2025 at 12:10 PM
If you're working at a home office as you read this, and you have a thermometer / thermostat in the room - what is the current temperature? Asking as I shivver.
In mourning for an expired debit card number.
Farewell, old friend. Alas, it is time to learn a new three digital security code.
Farewell, old friend. Alas, it is time to learn a new three digital security code.
January 29, 2025 at 1:44 PM
In mourning for an expired debit card number.
Farewell, old friend. Alas, it is time to learn a new three digital security code.
Farewell, old friend. Alas, it is time to learn a new three digital security code.
A rare comment from me about civic tech - my old stomping ground. Forest Gregg's piece on departing DataMade contains some of the best articulations of the central strengths and weaknesses of that domain that I've read, and ends by pointing in a very constructive direction. Chapeau, Forest.
some professional news. after 12 years, i'll be leaving DataMade to join the labor movement.
i'm so proud of what I helped build at DataMade with Derek and Hannah.
this post contains some reflections on what i learned at this small and mighty company and why i'm excited to see what it does next.
i'm so proud of what I helped build at DataMade with Derek and Hannah.
this post contains some reflections on what i learned at this small and mighty company and why i'm excited to see what it does next.
A new era for DataMade and Forest
Over the past twelve years, it has been my great privilege to help DataMade grow to an established, successful company and an important actor in Chicago’s civil society. At the end of January 2025, I ...
datamade.us
January 18, 2025 at 5:38 PM
A rare comment from me about civic tech - my old stomping ground. Forest Gregg's piece on departing DataMade contains some of the best articulations of the central strengths and weaknesses of that domain that I've read, and ends by pointing in a very constructive direction. Chapeau, Forest.
A truly excellent example of explaining something very difficult, clearly, through a very good podcast - Ones&Tooze on economist Joan Robinson:
foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/one...
foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/one...
Heterodox Economists, Part 2: Joan Robinson
The second episode in Adam and Cameron’s latest miniseries.
foreignpolicy.com
January 18, 2025 at 5:22 PM
A truly excellent example of explaining something very difficult, clearly, through a very good podcast - Ones&Tooze on economist Joan Robinson:
foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/one...
foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/one...
Hot chocolate and pivot tables
November 8, 2024 at 4:25 PM
Hot chocolate and pivot tables
Microsoft Word just crashed on me and I actually lost some actual work! Having to work without using Google Docs is like returning to the 1990s.
October 31, 2024 at 4:22 PM
Microsoft Word just crashed on me and I actually lost some actual work! Having to work without using Google Docs is like returning to the 1990s.
Props to the designers at Miro - when you put down a set of identical sticky notes on your virtual desktop I note that the drop shadows are all fractionally different. I think this is to create a very subtle impression of reality, without going all the way there. Nice.
October 21, 2024 at 3:25 PM
Props to the designers at Miro - when you put down a set of identical sticky notes on your virtual desktop I note that the drop shadows are all fractionally different. I think this is to create a very subtle impression of reality, without going all the way there. Nice.
AI will truly have arrived when I drag a spreadsheet box to extend a set of cells containing dates or other numbers, and what it puts in the new cells is what I was actually expecting it to do.
Then it will be the end times.
Then it will be the end times.
October 18, 2024 at 11:20 AM
AI will truly have arrived when I drag a spreadsheet box to extend a set of cells containing dates or other numbers, and what it puts in the new cells is what I was actually expecting it to do.
Then it will be the end times.
Then it will be the end times.
September 23, 2024 at 4:44 PM
I think Missions really are a lot more important than Visions. I think there's quite a lot of organisations that could happily succeed without a vision written down anywhere.
September 9, 2024 at 5:08 PM
I think Missions really are a lot more important than Visions. I think there's quite a lot of organisations that could happily succeed without a vision written down anywhere.
Delightful clunky translation on european ticket buying website:
"We question your bank"
"We question your bank"
September 3, 2024 at 3:52 PM
Delightful clunky translation on european ticket buying website:
"We question your bank"
"We question your bank"
I have just cancelled my Zoom subscription. I think that's yet another way the pandemic is behind us.
September 3, 2024 at 7:40 AM
I have just cancelled my Zoom subscription. I think that's yet another way the pandemic is behind us.
If I have to manually edit the URL of your website to find the 'About' page, you've got comms problems.
September 2, 2024 at 4:21 PM
If I have to manually edit the URL of your website to find the 'About' page, you've got comms problems.
Reposted
If the government is going to force me to fill in an identical form every three months (to claim tax free childcare – www.gov.uk/sign-in-chil...), then I am going to write something to do it for me: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez-V...
Childcare account login
YouTube video by Matthew Somerville
www.youtube.com
August 31, 2024 at 4:30 PM
If the government is going to force me to fill in an identical form every three months (to claim tax free childcare – www.gov.uk/sign-in-chil...), then I am going to write something to do it for me: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez-V...
Loving this account!
We have reached E for Elections in our #1832AtoZ. We have lots of blogs on this theme. This one from our editor Philip Salmon looks at the system of open voting used at 19th century elections until the secret ballot was introduced in 1872: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/e...
Elections before the secret ballot
This month marks the 141st anniversary of the first use of the secret ballot to elect an MP, at a by-election in the Yorkshire borough of Pontefract. Before the 1872 Ballot Act, and throughout the per...
victoriancommons.wordpress.com
August 20, 2024 at 3:34 PM
Loving this account!
A simple win for the unfussy type of government transparency tonight. Went into a restaurant, smelled something a bit wierd, checked it out on the Food Standards Agency website - bingo 1 out of 5 rating. Left prompty. Not rocket science but so valuable.
August 19, 2024 at 9:25 PM
A simple win for the unfussy type of government transparency tonight. Went into a restaurant, smelled something a bit wierd, checked it out on the Food Standards Agency website - bingo 1 out of 5 rating. Left prompty. Not rocket science but so valuable.
Does Bluesky have the ability to mute all posts that mention a keyword? I'd quite like to read less about Elon Musk please.
August 17, 2024 at 9:50 AM
Does Bluesky have the ability to mute all posts that mention a keyword? I'd quite like to read less about Elon Musk please.
When using Google calendar to create an event with a Microsoft Teams video call in it, it takes 10-15s for Microsoft's Teams plugin to add the call link to the event.
I think it's an intentional dark pattern, slowly and successfully driving me away from using my preferred calendar towards MS. Sad.
I think it's an intentional dark pattern, slowly and successfully driving me away from using my preferred calendar towards MS. Sad.
August 16, 2024 at 10:27 AM
When using Google calendar to create an event with a Microsoft Teams video call in it, it takes 10-15s for Microsoft's Teams plugin to add the call link to the event.
I think it's an intentional dark pattern, slowly and successfully driving me away from using my preferred calendar towards MS. Sad.
I think it's an intentional dark pattern, slowly and successfully driving me away from using my preferred calendar towards MS. Sad.