Terry Boon
terryboon.bsky.social
Terry Boon
@terryboon.bsky.social
Games & stories; maths & language; technology & risk; and thoughtful politics & law. Living in London, UK.

Views my own, not representative of employer or anyone else, & reposts and follows are not endorsements.

Also on Mastodon: @[email protected]
As a former mathematician, I also like this exchange in Arcadia between Valentine and literary academic Bernard:
B: I'm sorry - did you say trivial?
V: It's a technical term.
B: Not where I come from, it isn't.

(And a nice article on 'trivial' in maths: shreevatsa.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/o...)
On “trivial” in mathematics
One aspect of mathematicians’ vocabulary that non-mathematicians often find non-intuitive is the word “trivial”. Mathematicians seem to call a great many things “trivial&#82…
shreevatsa.wordpress.com
February 1, 2026 at 5:01 PM
For roast potatoes, most of the literature encourages only brief parboiling. But I took inspiration from @ishankolhatkar.com (www.ishankolhatkar.com/food/roastpo...), boiling them until nearly falling apart, before drying and adding to *hot* oil - for a good result, worth trying again!
My love of roast potatoes & how to make them, my way — Ishan Kolhatkar
I love roast potatotes. Really, I love them. In my spare time I write them poetry and sometimes catch myself drawing a heart with IK 4 RP. Okay, so that’s something of an exaggeration (I don’t draw he...
www.ishankolhatkar.com
February 1, 2026 at 4:24 PM
(In case anyone surprisingly reads my posts for cooking advice, I picked the "high heat first, then turn it down" approach to roast the pork belly, & that - & rubbing the crackling with crushed fennel seeds along with the salt - did the trick. But other methods might have done well too, of course!)
February 1, 2026 at 4:24 PM
With the best CGI an Acorn BBC Master can conjure up?
January 16, 2026 at 11:36 PM
My own copy of The British General Election of 2024 arrived today - and the back cover recalls the surprising, rainy May afternoon which started it all.
January 16, 2026 at 10:44 PM
I'd seen that 3G networks are being / have already been switched off in the UK. But I hadn't previously realised the older 2G network, probably what that phone wants, might (depending on provider) be around a few years longer. www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-b...
Switching off the UK’s 2G and 3G mobile networks: what you need to know
The 2G and 3G mobile networks are gradually being switched off over the next few years. Here’s what this means for you as a customer.
www.ofcom.org.uk
December 30, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Yes, I remember saving HTML files (no CGI allowed, no PHP!) in ~/public_html on the university's server - and remembering the then-cryptic-looking chmod invocation to set the permissions and publish them to the world. (Useful experience for a few hobby projects over the years!)
December 27, 2025 at 11:58 PM
I didn't know either, now learned it was prohibited only relatively recently by Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004, introduced (as a Government-supported Private Member's Bill) apparently after some chains tried/considered Christmas openings in early 2000s. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-bri...
Shops opening on Christmas Day
This short briefing paper summarises the background to the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 and its main provisions. It also outlines the position in Scotland under the Christmas Day and New Year’s Da...
commonslibrary.parliament.uk
December 23, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reminded of hypothesis in "You and Your Research" (Hamming): researchers who closed their office door were less interrupted & more productive on their focus in short-term, those who left it open stayed more aware of what's happening & big in the field so did more *important* work over their career
You and Your Research
www.cs.virginia.edu
December 22, 2025 at 9:01 AM
The version of this question seeking non-trivial integer solutions of x^y=y^x came up in my maths undergraduate admission interview - after being invited to sketch the curve y=ln(x)/x (which also illustrates the result you mention). And then re-appeared during a third-year course on number theory!
December 9, 2025 at 8:24 PM
The most memorable line from an advert which was, of course, *not* for the chips.
November 28, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Happily, the Internet does suggest newsagents "Honey's of the High" - handily across the road from Univ, and once home to a budget-priced photocopier where I'd churn out college music society fliers etc. - is still going.
November 15, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Reposted by Terry Boon
Rule 57 is an unfortunate error and should be disregarded
October 27, 2025 at 10:08 PM