iamcal.com Since May 2000

Jan 27th: 13,000 regular expressions seems like a great solution to this particular problem - how the Guardian built an automated style guide checker

Jan 18th: A blast from the past - Achievement Unlocked is a fun parody of achievements in modern games. The link for hints is broken, but the solutions can still be found here

Jan 18th: I've updated my 2020 reading list. In contrast to 2019, where I finished 116 books, I only completed 72 in 2020. This is largely due to the pandemic, no longer having a daily commute, but also not traveling around the world.

My favorites of the year:

• Agency - Drones, Book 3, by William Gibson - Excellent finale to his latest trilogy and set in San Francisco.
  • Edit: Simon Wistow points out that it's really book 2, and that Archangel is 'book 1.5'. A third book might still happen
• Billion Dollar Whale, by Bradley Hope - Incredible story of the man who stole billions of dollars from the Malaysian government and has evaded justice

Jan 5th: I created a couple of google maps helpers when I was working on personal projects a few years ago, but this tutorial on adding custom tooltips to overlay shapes was super useful.

Jan 5th: I can't remember who linked me to blocks, but it's pretty fun. The sound effects are... something else. Unfortunately it seems to sometimes lose your progress.

Sep 16th: This is a really fun write up of what you can do with someone's airline boarding card information, and a long journey to ensure responsible disclosure.

Aug 31st: A few months after I imported the crazy Japanese toaster, the Balmuda finally went on sale on the US. I've only tried the Mitsubishi TO-ST1-T, but I can definitely confirm it makes some amazing toast.

Aug 27th: If you're missing the soothing sounds of being in an office with coworkers, sound of colleagues is a good fill-in