James B
jarofgreen.co.uk
James B
@jarofgreen.co.uk
Developer in Scotland https://www.jamesbaster.co.uk/
What I'm working on:

I've got Open Tech Calendar back, and I'm going to relaunch it to list virtual tech events that include community participation.

Follow @opentechcalendar.co.uk now, tho I'm sure I'll mention it a few times when it launches.
November 9, 2025 at 5:16 PM
For me "Person waiting for a friend to finish tying their shoes" is the clear winner
Japan's "Mundane Halloween" costume contest is back!

Each year website DailyPortalZ holds a contest where people dress up as something super duper ordinary.

Here's a thread of some of my favorites from the 2025 contest!

#MundaneHalloween
November 2, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Happy November! We released a new monthly challenge for our game. www.secondguessing.net
#SecondGuessing
Welcome - Second Guessing
A simple game where you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or the monthly challenge. Completely free!
www.secondguessing.net
November 1, 2025 at 9:38 AM
If I saw this on some map data I was working on I'd be worried something had gone wrong.

But no, I recently learnt that River Test, Test Road, Test Mews, Test Way, Test Valley and more are all actually real places.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_T...
River Test - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 25, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Put our game on Itch yesterday: teacaketech.itch.io/second-guess... Interesting to see the tools they have and how it all works.
Second Guessing by Teacake Tech
Press the button to start, count to however many seconds we tell you then push the stop button.
teacaketech.itch.io
October 20, 2025 at 6:50 AM
My fav bit of this is when they ask James Cameron (sorry, anonymous expert witness) a single question and he goes on for 2 and a half pages until:

CAMERON: And then we -- if I'm going into too much detail, stop me.
THEM: No. No, sir. It's great.

(Link to full transcript in comments to quoted post)
Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."
October 18, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Been making good progress on my next project.
I won't be ready to release it for a month or two as I have some other stuff to sort out first.
But if anyone sees me (in-person or virtually) please do ask, I'd like to show people and get feedback.
October 12, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Got a lot of coding on my own stuff done this weekend - looking forward to unveiling this!

Used Django's multiple database support for the first time - the flexible routing options are pretty nice docs.djangoproject.com/en/5.2/topic...

Also getting back into Ansible after years working in salt.
Multiple databases | Django documentation
The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.
docs.djangoproject.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:33 AM
It's October! (Yesterday, oops)

We released a new monthly challenge for our completely free web game ... all you have to do is count seconds.

#SecondGuessing www.secondguessing.net

This one is a challenge tho, so try the normal levels first!
Welcome - Second Guessing
A simple game where you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or the monthly challenge. Completely free!
www.secondguessing.net
October 2, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Well this is the oddest bunch of password requirements I've ever seen. No < > ? Are they scared people will HTML inject them through a password? They do one way hash these things right? AndNoSpaces?
September 11, 2025 at 5:53 AM
It's September!

We released a new monthly challenge for our totally free web game.

#SecondGuessing www.secondguessing.net

@patchworkbear.bsky.social
Welcome - Second Guessing
A simple game where you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or the monthly challenge. Completely free!
www.secondguessing.net
September 1, 2025 at 6:53 AM
Just watched Python, An origin story: The documentary on YouTube. Interesting, tho definitely for people with some existing tech knowledge.

Ironically the one advert YouTube kept interrupting me with was for an AI app builder tool :-)
August 30, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Another benifit of virtual tech events ... Storm Floris can't touch us!

Unless it knocks out our internet or power of course in which case it's totally postponed. Really shouldn't have said anything. That was just tempting fate wasn't it.

On Open Data Tonight: www.teacaketech.scot/event/2025-0...
Teacake Tech Scotland
A mostly virtual regular tech event based in Scotland, with talks and time for conversation.
www.teacaketech.scot
August 4, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Happy August!

We released a new monthly challenge for our game.

#SecondGuessing www.secondguessing.net
Welcome - Second Guessing
A simple game where you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or the monthly challenge. Completely free!
www.secondguessing.net
August 1, 2025 at 6:42 AM
Pulled together docs for a static website generator I've been working on in Python: docs.staticpipes.jmbtechnology.co.uk/latest/
Comments welcome... I'm sure I'll be working on the details, but does the general structure and type of information look like the kind of thing that would be useful?
- StaticPipes Documentation
docs.staticpipes.jmbtechnology.co.uk
July 20, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Do you use Azure?

You know reservations - the things that can give you big discounts if you commit to use a service for 1 or 3 years?

Well .... do you know you can (under some conditions and up to a limit) **cancel** reservations?

learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/...
Self-service exchanges and refunds for Azure Reservations - Microsoft Cost Management
Learn how you can exchange or refund Azure Reservations. You must have owner access to the Reservation Order to exchange or cancel/refund reservations.
learn.microsoft.com
July 15, 2025 at 1:20 PM
I'm thinking about a new tech event listing site ...

This one for virtual events, but emphasising a tagging system of what audience interaction there is.

Would anyone be interested in using this? Know of any good virtual tech events?

(Not just an excuse to market my own event, I am serious!)
July 13, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Virtual tech event tonight: Announcements from recent Azure Build event, and a discussion about how we use Cloud services (from all providers).

Free tickets at www.teacaketech.scot/event/2025-0...
Teacake Tech Scotland
A mostly virtual regular tech event based in Scotland, with talks and time for conversation.
www.teacaketech.scot
July 11, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Our next virtual Scottish tech event: Announcements from recent Azure Build event from Craig Nicol, and a discussion about how we use Cloud services (from all providers).

7:00PM Fri 11 Jul. Free tickets and info: www.teacaketech.scot/event/2025-0...
Teacake Tech Scotland
A mostly virtual regular tech event based in Scotland, with talks and time for conversation.
www.teacaketech.scot
June 30, 2025 at 2:42 PM
"I found the sneakiness at level two...!
with some budgie telling me "oh dear"
like it wasn't the one f***ing about on me"

Some great feedback on the game so far but so far I think this made me laught the most.

www.secondguessing.net #SecondGuessing
Welcome - Second Guessing
A simple game where you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or the monthly challenge. Completely free!
www.secondguessing.net
June 27, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Introducing our new game!

It's simple; you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or monthly challenge.

Totally free to play online at: www.secondguessing.net

#SecondGuessing #GameDev #IndieGames #indiedev #indiegamedev #CozyGames #cozygaming
Welcome - Second Guessing
A simple game where you are asked to count a certain number of seconds. Play normal levels, Zen levels for calmness, or the monthly challenge. Completely free!
www.secondguessing.net
June 27, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Arf an hour until we release our new game, Second Guessing!

#SecondGuessing
June 27, 2025 at 5:18 AM
It's the final cat-down ..... only one day to go till we release our new game! #SecondGuessing
June 26, 2025 at 6:18 AM
We'll be there in 2 shakes of a lambs tail ..... or a bit later, as this lamb has clearly grown up. Only 2 days till we launch our game tho! #SecondGuessing
June 25, 2025 at 5:54 AM
3 days till you can have a gander at our new game! #SecondGuessing
June 24, 2025 at 6:17 AM