Gareth Powell
@gmmapowell.bsky.social
One of the few who recognize the total and complete pointlessness of life.
Reposted by Gareth Powell
I was just in the pub having lunch and then... #whammaggeddon
December 7, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I was just in the pub having lunch and then... #whammaggeddon
November 19, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Er, if you'd been listening at the time, you'd find that 99% of intelligent people predicted exactly this, because *checks notes* ah, yes, that is what a customs union is there for.
To reduce red tape.
So, er, fairly obviously, leaving a customs union is going to increase that.
To reduce red tape.
So, er, fairly obviously, leaving a customs union is going to increase that.
November 10, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Er, if you'd been listening at the time, you'd find that 99% of intelligent people predicted exactly this, because *checks notes* ah, yes, that is what a customs union is there for.
To reduce red tape.
So, er, fairly obviously, leaving a customs union is going to increase that.
To reduce red tape.
So, er, fairly obviously, leaving a customs union is going to increase that.
Why? What was I watching? Child porn?
Oh, I see those words are the title of a programme that should be in quotes.
Oh, I see those words are the title of a programme that should be in quotes.
October 7, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Why? What was I watching? Child porn?
Oh, I see those words are the title of a programme that should be in quotes.
Oh, I see those words are the title of a programme that should be in quotes.
I'm pleased to announce the release of Ziniki Deployer, the first (pre-beta) release of our cloud deployer tool.
It needs a lot of work, only supports AWS, but is open-source and extensible, although that needs refactoring. ☹️
The journey starts at deployer.ziniki.org
It needs a lot of work, only supports AWS, but is open-source and extensible, although that needs refactoring. ☹️
The journey starts at deployer.ziniki.org
Ziniki Deployer
deployer.ziniki.org
September 26, 2025 at 11:39 AM
I'm pleased to announce the release of Ziniki Deployer, the first (pre-beta) release of our cloud deployer tool.
It needs a lot of work, only supports AWS, but is open-source and extensible, although that needs refactoring. ☹️
The journey starts at deployer.ziniki.org
It needs a lot of work, only supports AWS, but is open-source and extensible, although that needs refactoring. ☹️
The journey starts at deployer.ziniki.org
Where do I get one of these Project Manager jobs?
September 22, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Where do I get one of these Project Manager jobs?
What is stopping you futzing with CSS layouts like this?
September 8, 2025 at 1:40 PM
What is stopping you futzing with CSS layouts like this?
Finally we need to connect our two codepaths together: the webapp code needs to use the neptune/dynamo code.
And then we need to get it working.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/coup...
And then we need to get it working.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/coup...
Coupling up Neptune
I claim that all the "hardcore" code we need has now been written; all we need to do is couple the two halves together. Flicking back to w...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com
August 15, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Finally we need to connect our two codepaths together: the webapp code needs to use the neptune/dynamo code.
And then we need to get it working.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/coup...
And then we need to get it working.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/coup...
Now we need to be able to publish updated prices to the cloud and have them be delivered to our client.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/publ...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/publ...
Publishing New Stock Prices
The next step in the process is to enable the sending of updates from the cloud to our webapp. This is essentially very simple, but as wi...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com
August 15, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Now we need to be able to publish updated prices to the cloud and have them be delivered to our client.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/publ...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/publ...
But, unfortunately, we have connectivity issues because our lambda is inside a VPC. Let's fix that.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/acce...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/acce...
Accessing Services from a VPC Lambda
We reached the point where I claim that we have all the code we need in order to have our stock watcher update from the lambda. But nothin...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com
August 13, 2025 at 11:57 AM
But, unfortunately, we have connectivity issues because our lambda is inside a VPC. Let's fix that.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/acce...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/acce...
The next thing to do to is to put a lambda up in the cloud with an APIGateway and connect to it via a websocket.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/deli...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/deli...
Delivering Prices from a Lambda
Step two is to assemble all the infrastructure in the cloud to deliver prices. For now, we are just going to deliver one price, statically...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com
August 13, 2025 at 11:56 AM
The next thing to do to is to put a lambda up in the cloud with an APIGateway and connect to it via a websocket.
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/deli...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/deli...
OK, it's time to carry on with exploring neptune. I'm ready to build a web application. Step 1 is to build a client:
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/buil...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/buil...
Building a Stock Watching App
Carrying on from where we left off, it's time to build an app to watch these stock prices in Neptune. This consists of three parts: a ...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com
August 12, 2025 at 10:36 AM
OK, it's time to carry on with exploring neptune. I'm ready to build a web application. Step 1 is to build a client:
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/buil...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/08/buil...
Now another 40 years have passed. But once again, it doesn't feel we'll make another 40.
August 6, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Now another 40 years have passed. But once again, it doesn't feel we'll make another 40.
"Right to Buy" was always a flawed - if not outright bad - policy. It should have included a clause requiring replacement social houses to be built with the money raised.
Given Thatcher's overall policies, though, I have to assume she wanted homeless people.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Given Thatcher's overall policies, though, I have to assume she wanted homeless people.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Right to buy in England ‘fuelled housing crisis and cost taxpayers £200bn’
Common Wealth report calls discounted sales of council homes one of the ‘largest giveaways in UK history’
www.theguardian.com
August 3, 2025 at 3:59 PM
"Right to Buy" was always a flawed - if not outright bad - policy. It should have included a clause requiring replacement social houses to be built with the money raised.
Given Thatcher's overall policies, though, I have to assume she wanted homeless people.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Given Thatcher's overall policies, though, I have to assume she wanted homeless people.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Yes. A consultation and debate. Point out the self interest of those who oppose it.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Starmer and Reeves should prepare UK for wealth tax, say top economists
PM could raise ‘tens of billions’ while positioning Britain as progressive, say Thomas Piketty and others
www.theguardian.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Yes. A consultation and debate. Point out the self interest of those who oppose it.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Tail. Wagging dog.
Summary: we all need to be forced to work until we drop dead to keep the economy afloat.
Guardian readers deserve better.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Summary: we all need to be forced to work until we drop dead to keep the economy afloat.
Guardian readers deserve better.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Get early retirees off the golf course and back to work – why early retirement isn’t good for UK plc
Giving up work in your 50s is a wealthy indulgence that should be discouraged – the new pension commission needs to widen its remit
www.theguardian.com
July 26, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Tail. Wagging dog.
Summary: we all need to be forced to work until we drop dead to keep the economy afloat.
Guardian readers deserve better.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Summary: we all need to be forced to work until we drop dead to keep the economy afloat.
Guardian readers deserve better.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Coding went well on my transatlantic flight yesterday. Even though planes have wifi these days, I still like to have a project I can work on without any internet access. So I wrote the precednce parser for my deployer. I tried something radical and different and it fell out really easily.
July 19, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Coding went well on my transatlantic flight yesterday. Even though planes have wifi these days, I still like to have a project I can work on without any internet access. So I wrote the precednce parser for my deployer. I tried something radical and different and it fell out really easily.
If the new regulator does not have the power to guillotine directors of failing water companies, it will be a failure.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Ofwat to be abolished as ministers look to create new water regulator
Exclusive: Move follows intense criticism of utilities over sewage spills, shareholder payouts and ballooning debts
www.theguardian.com
July 18, 2025 at 12:45 PM
If the new regulator does not have the power to guillotine directors of failing water companies, it will be a failure.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
I read some rando's post on LinkedIn the other day which really annoyed me. Asking one of those stupid trolling questions about "how do you know how done an agile project is?"
My thoughts in full are here: gmmapowell.com/technology/a...
My thoughts in full are here: gmmapowell.com/technology/a...
gmmapowell.com
July 17, 2025 at 11:03 AM
I read some rando's post on LinkedIn the other day which really annoyed me. Asking one of those stupid trolling questions about "how do you know how done an agile project is?"
My thoughts in full are here: gmmapowell.com/technology/a...
My thoughts in full are here: gmmapowell.com/technology/a...
Last week, while I was stuck on my Tax Return project, I finally got around to exploring Graph Databases (AWS Neptune in particular). My write up of the experience begins today, and can be found here:
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-gr...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-gr...
A Graph Database
This may be an uncommon opinion, but I like relational databases. In fact, when they were first around (possibly even first being mooted) t...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com
July 16, 2025 at 6:16 AM
Last week, while I was stuck on my Tax Return project, I finally got around to exploring Graph Databases (AWS Neptune in particular). My write up of the experience begins today, and can be found here:
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-gr...
ignorancemaybestrength.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-gr...
Wow, I just learnt *about* three whole linguistic moods that I'd never even heard of before: optative, cohortative and desiderative. I think I may even have an understanding of what they're for.
July 15, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Wow, I just learnt *about* three whole linguistic moods that I'd never even heard of before: optative, cohortative and desiderative. I think I may even have an understanding of what they're for.