Ben Allen
@bn1n.bsky.social
Kiwi (from Christchurch) living in Japan, previously Sydney, London and HK.
Some of my favourite things:
Family and friends
Telling terrible jokes
Cycling and rugby
Python, the language, not the reptile
Reading good books
Some of my favourite things:
Family and friends
Telling terrible jokes
Cycling and rugby
Python, the language, not the reptile
Reading good books
PythonAsia 2026 is happening on March 21-23, 2026 at De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila, Philippines.
The call for proposals is already open - pretalx.com/python-asia-...
The call for proposals is already open - pretalx.com/python-asia-...
PythonAsia 2026
Schedule, talks and talk submissions for PythonAsia 2026
pretalx.com
October 6, 2025 at 4:36 AM
PythonAsia 2026 is happening on March 21-23, 2026 at De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila, Philippines.
The call for proposals is already open - pretalx.com/python-asia-...
The call for proposals is already open - pretalx.com/python-asia-...
Beat the Monday blues by bike. This is the last bridge on the Shimanami Kaido cycle route.
September 29, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Beat the Monday blues by bike. This is the last bridge on the Shimanami Kaido cycle route.
Here's my kanji lesson for today. Half way up a hill in the middle of nowhere! Kinda obvs tho'!
September 21, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Here's my kanji lesson for today. Half way up a hill in the middle of nowhere! Kinda obvs tho'!
Warm up game for the Wild Knights and North Canterbury, all the way from the mean streets of Kaiapoi.
September 20, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Warm up game for the Wild Knights and North Canterbury, all the way from the mean streets of Kaiapoi.
Rice field art on Gyoda, Japan
September 19, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Rice field art on Gyoda, Japan
Hey Tokyo Pythonistas - Join us at the Blink in Roppongi on Oct 9th from 6:30pm to connect, learn, and collaborate.
Yuichiro Tachibana, Hugging Face 🤗, and Streamlit contributor, will be speaking. You can speak too during the following hot-mic session!
Sign up at: www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
Yuichiro Tachibana, Hugging Face 🤗, and Streamlit contributor, will be speaking. You can speak too during the following hot-mic session!
Sign up at: www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
Tokyo Python Meetup, Thu, Oct 9, 2025, 6:30 PM | Meetup
Join us at the **Blink Community** co-working space in Roppongi to connect, learn, and collaborate with fellow developers, data scientists, and Pythonistas from across Toky
www.meetup.com
September 10, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Hey Tokyo Pythonistas - Join us at the Blink in Roppongi on Oct 9th from 6:30pm to connect, learn, and collaborate.
Yuichiro Tachibana, Hugging Face 🤗, and Streamlit contributor, will be speaking. You can speak too during the following hot-mic session!
Sign up at: www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
Yuichiro Tachibana, Hugging Face 🤗, and Streamlit contributor, will be speaking. You can speak too during the following hot-mic session!
Sign up at: www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
G has finally retired from the peloton. What an amazing career, TdF winner, Olympic gold medallist. Inevitable ups and downs along the way, I still remember him being blown off his bike in an early TdF appearance! Thanks for the memories sir, all the best for the next phase.
September 8, 2025 at 3:14 AM
G has finally retired from the peloton. What an amazing career, TdF winner, Olympic gold medallist. Inevitable ups and downs along the way, I still remember him being blown off his bike in an early TdF appearance! Thanks for the memories sir, all the best for the next phase.
On the way up the come back trail
August 29, 2025 at 1:43 AM
On the way up the come back trail
Tickets booked! Hope to see lots of you at the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit in Tokyo in December.
register.linuxfoundation.org/2Mmm1E?sms=7...
register.linuxfoundation.org/2Mmm1E?sms=7...
Open Source Summit + AI_dev + Automotive Linux Summit Japan 2025
register.linuxfoundation.org
August 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Tickets booked! Hope to see lots of you at the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit in Tokyo in December.
register.linuxfoundation.org/2Mmm1E?sms=7...
register.linuxfoundation.org/2Mmm1E?sms=7...
Note to future self; the TSQL you probably want is CONVERT(DATETIME, [nz_date_str], 103)
August 21, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Note to future self; the TSQL you probably want is CONVERT(DATETIME, [nz_date_str], 103)
I'm travelling from Japan to New Zealand via Sydney (1 day) next month. My NZ passport will be 4 months short of expiry. Should be ok right?
August 18, 2025 at 4:03 AM
I'm travelling from Japan to New Zealand via Sydney (1 day) next month. My NZ passport will be 4 months short of expiry. Should be ok right?
Just pushed by first trixie container, 5Mb reduction in size from bookworm. Trixie Python images are now available at hub.docker.com/_/python/
hub.docker.com
August 13, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Just pushed by first trixie container, 5Mb reduction in size from bookworm. Trixie Python images are now available at hub.docker.com/_/python/
Drizzly weather on the bike today, but the lower temperatures are much more comfortable.
August 10, 2025 at 1:38 AM
Drizzly weather on the bike today, but the lower temperatures are much more comfortable.
Modern medicine - two months after knee surgery, I've been given the OK to start jogging 🏃, if only it weren't 38°C
August 4, 2025 at 7:41 AM
Modern medicine - two months after knee surgery, I've been given the OK to start jogging 🏃, if only it weren't 38°C
The cicadas, truly a sound of a Japanese summer, are molting.
July 29, 2025 at 10:39 PM
The cicadas, truly a sound of a Japanese summer, are molting.
Duolingo's AI loves adding new words to Japanese, today's was 幕いた 🥴
July 28, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Duolingo's AI loves adding new words to Japanese, today's was 幕いた 🥴
Post knee surgery, I decided to try out a tubeless road bike set up. Mind blown, it's so quiet and buttery smooth to ride - wish I'd done it sooner!
July 28, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Post knee surgery, I decided to try out a tubeless road bike set up. Mind blown, it's so quiet and buttery smooth to ride - wish I'd done it sooner!
I'm on a rather flash EC train going from Prague to Berlin. Let's see if it stays on time, but I'm impressed so far!
July 9, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I'm on a rather flash EC train going from Prague to Berlin. Let's see if it stays on time, but I'm impressed so far!
Super excited to be en route to Euro PyCon. If only as it means escaping Tokyo's sweltering heat at the moment. First stop is Berlin for a few days.
July 8, 2025 at 1:33 AM
Super excited to be en route to Euro PyCon. If only as it means escaping Tokyo's sweltering heat at the moment. First stop is Berlin for a few days.
Why have a daytime rugby test match in Japan in July?
July 5, 2025 at 4:58 AM
Why have a daytime rugby test match in Japan in July?
If you're mad enough to be in Tokyo in the sweltering summer heat AND you're mad on Python, then please join me next month for the next Tokyo Python Meetup.
www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
We'll be joined by Jim ONeil, speaking on Cloud-Powered Pandas: Unlocking AWS Services for Python Developers.
www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
We'll be joined by Jim ONeil, speaking on Cloud-Powered Pandas: Unlocking AWS Services for Python Developers.
Meetup | Find Local Groups, Events, and Activities Near You
Find Meetup events, join groups, or start your own. Make new friends and connect with like-minded people. Meet people near you who share your interests.
www.meetup.com
July 1, 2025 at 4:28 AM
If you're mad enough to be in Tokyo in the sweltering summer heat AND you're mad on Python, then please join me next month for the next Tokyo Python Meetup.
www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
We'll be joined by Jim ONeil, speaking on Cloud-Powered Pandas: Unlocking AWS Services for Python Developers.
www.meetup.com/tokyopython/...
We'll be joined by Jim ONeil, speaking on Cloud-Powered Pandas: Unlocking AWS Services for Python Developers.
Local sunrise is currently around 4:30am, and it's absolutely the best time to be outside too!
June 30, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Local sunrise is currently around 4:30am, and it's absolutely the best time to be outside too!
The Win11 experience compared to Win10 is a bit ordinary isn't it.
June 22, 2025 at 10:41 AM
The Win11 experience compared to Win10 is a bit ordinary isn't it.