1/ Confessions of a lazy tech person:
Something weird is going on for me locally with the mkdocs-rss-plugin. It doesn't fail, but it produces an empty feed. BUT only when I try to limit it to certain directories.

I'm baffled by companies who have adverts enabled on their YouTube videos. You're making content promoting your product but also trying to monetise that content. It looks cheap, distracts viewers from YOUR product, and there's always a risk of adverts that clash with your message.

I came across a blog post today that really grabbed me, and made me want to write a response. So here it is: on the 'spikyness' (or not) of developing and expressing your own opinions in your professional domain.

starfallprojects.co.uk/blog/spiky-o...

Some serious questions for the Python Software Foundation: pythonafrica.blogspot.com/2023/12/an-o...

What a novel idea—not laying off your staff as soon as a project's over, and letting them cook the next game with all that hard-earned experience, chemistry, and pride.

From @jasonschreier.bsky.social's latest Bloomberg newsletter:

I wish I hadn't made such a mess of a Habermasian reading of cyberpunk. Every time I see something like this it reminds me of my strong sense that there's something there - but also my complete failure to really get to grips with Habermas.

Watching the RAF "fix" a Typhoon by turning it off and on again is both amusing and disconcerting.
www.channel4.com/programmes/t...

A quick write-up of how I added a "beta" status tag to n8n's Material for MkDocs-powered website: starfallprojects.co.uk/blog/materia...

n8n, the company I work for, has released a really cool thing: a low-code way to build AI functionality with LangChain: docs.n8n.io/langchain/

In my opinion, this massively lowers the barrier to entry for building AI-powered apps. Now all you need to learn is the AI concepts (!)

@anjakomatar.bsky.social yay! Welcome aboard! (Debs here, if you couldn't tell from the cat picture)

In a small way, I am currently creating for me (a blog & YouTube about a hobby: spaciousplanning.com )

It is utterly joyous to be writing with the only criteria being "do I want to write this".

I'm going to broadcast this once again because new people are here now.

I have a shared and self curated mute list to filter out A.I. / NFT / Crypto accounts for those who want an improved bsky experience.

I investigate them all personally, but if you find someone I missed, you can reply or @ me.

If Microsoft Copilot doesn't have a clippy easter egg, I'll be deeply disappointed.
blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/09...

A study suggesting AI works best to upskill people (like newbies) but can create over-reliance leading to mistakes when you don't know the boundaries of what AI is good at. H/T Aaron Collier www.oneusefulthing.org/p/centaurs-a...

I was today year's old when I discovered GitHub's light theme high contrast mode. Liking this.

Write the Docs Atlantic is a few days away. In past years I've tweeted heavily. Wondering about doing that here this time instead. But first I need a verb . . . bskying? Blueskying?
I kinda like bskying. That sounds like something someone in a William Gibson novel does.

We don't get better at doing tech stuff. We get better at figuring out how to do tech stuff.

(new Windows PC setup: all my old knowledge is irrelevant, except as a pointer to the new knowledge I need)

I can spend my weekend consuming caffeine & gaming late, then fall asleep near-instantly, but on a Sunday night after sensibly ending the caffeine & computer session early I'm heading into a predictable insomnia session. I reckon 90% of my "sleep" problems are actually work problems.

I now have two friends who came to me for advice when they first wanted to try programming, and are now engaging with stuff at a level way beyond me. I absolutely love this.