POWER USER

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...

How did the world end up with so many dashboards nobody pays attention to?

I've heard that one before somewhere...

Updates like this are why I cannot allow myself to install it.

And there I was thinking there was no friction in capital flows

Are you serious? How many layers are you wearing?

I can only dream

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.

I grew up with my mum's copy of this in the livingroom. I didn't know it was of ancient origins until I was quite old.

In mourning for an expired debit card number.

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.

Heterodox Economists, Part 2: Joan Robinson The second episode in Adam and Cameron’s latest miniseries.

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...

Perfect

Just about to go to work - I'll read about 10x and ping you later.

Haha - this is extremely similar to the original super early pitch for what mySociety became! @jamescrabtree.bsky.social

I've never heard anyone suggesting that slow loading, bloating pages are a policy failure before. But you've got an interesting case there!

I guess a factor we didn't have to think about then was whether the MPs would be tech-weary, thinking "not another new thing". If a city recieved a message saying "1000 people want you to move to Bluesky" would it be a compelling message, or just look like... spam?

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.

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.

Fighting Microsoft Word bugs on my birthday.

@jamestplunkett.bsky.social

I'm with you. I feel like there's an iconic "Market for Lemons" style famous economics paper to be written about how they totally dominate despite this.

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"

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.

That feels like it's probably the right approach.