Phil Gyford

Finally! It's been way too hot.

I do interaction design, mostly prototypes in code, sometimes for GOV, health but also fintech and startups. Portfolio here: neuromantics.net/portfolio/

I wrote down my thoughts on the bad arguments in favour of the UK's proposed social media ban because they were clogging up my brain www.gyford.com/phil/writing...

Behind every great man is an LLM they think is a great woman.

There's not much info online about Wired's brief (1996-7) foray into book publishing with HardWired, so I've put together what I can find along with a list of all their books, published and not. www.gyford.com/phil/writing...

@lccmunicipal.bsky.social I thought you might like this commemorative plate I found at my parents’

World War I, World War II, the collapse of the British Empire, any of the tiny embarrassing things I did or said that have lived in my brain ever since. What an odd, vague question.

Ofcom is becoming a retirement home? :)

I always liked the Simon Munnery line: “Many are willing to suffer for their art. Few are willing to learn to draw.” Now you could replace the last three words with “do anything but instruct an AI”. No, not as catchy but still.

My Dad's memories of visiting the Festival of Britain as a child, and working as a planner when Seifert's Space House was being developed. www.gyford.com/phil/writing...

On the one hand this is a silly Godwin’s Law bit of satire. On the other, I think about the truth of it daily.

I did not expect my find myself on the Royalist side in the second English Civil War and yet

@thebeautyoftransport.com The "click here to find out how to join in" link near the bottom of stationheritageartefacts.org.uk/about/ is broken. I love the project!

One of the Barbican's maintenance staff and his family – two adults, three young kids – lost their home and all their belongings in a house fire in Leyton. www.gofundme.com/f/help-for-n...

Everyone: The government should leave X, the extreme-right-supporting platform. Starmer: Welcome to my Substack! keirstarmer.substack.com/p/politics-t... Everyone: FFS.

@yoz.bsky.social I'm sorting through old photos and found this happy memory.

Original sin, 2005.

I like the Apple Weather app but even if its daily summaries of precipitation chance are statistically accurate (although I don't understand how) I'd say they usually give a less-than-useful impression.

It's tempting to rejoin the Labour Party just so I can have the satisfaction of canceling my membership and burning my membership card.

I hope to finally make it to this one.

Last week I watched the BBC's 'Girlbands Forever' and was frustrated so many interviews kept cutting from one sentence to the next. "How do I know if they're making them say things they didn't mean?" I thought. I'm sure normalising this kind of editing won't have any more serious consequences.

Need to remove the Duke of York's titles ASAP

I've updated my post about my 1995 internet experience with a few more period documents, but rather than read it again you can see all of the scans on this page instead archive.gyford.com/1995/interne...

I wrote about what it was like to go online for the first time 30 years ago. How hard and complicated it seemed, and then how amazing this entirely new world was. Including some extracts from my 1995 diary. www.gyford.com/phil/writing...

This, but about my career making websites. Getting going when it was nothing but HTML and – if you were fancy – a dash of Perl, grinding to a halt just as AI was being spaffed over everything.

View source <!-- Replace with Bev's actual image --> <img src="./brand_closed.png" alt="Closed for Business"> <h1>Typepad is closed for business!<br>Thank you for being a valued customer.</h1>

I remember around 1995 a woman knocked on the door, doing a survey about air fresheners. I never bought any so it didn't last long but I was quite excited that someone was asking my opinion about a product or service. At last! Finally, Gen X was being consulted!

After Saturday's far-right march, police would like you to let them know if you recognise those suspected of violent disorder, using the platform owned by a man encouraging violent disorder.

"Mr Moseley is free to say whatever he likes and, if I may say so, he looked jolly smart in his black shirt and jackboots. His video chat with Adolf, perhaps the world's greatest innovator and entrepreneur, shared some robust views but our government will happily continue to use his media platform."

26 Police Officers were injured in Londons fascist riots, but only 9 people were arrested. At last week's Palestine Action protest 0 Police Officers were injured, but nearly 900 people were arrested. The UK govt is chasing Reform votes & colluding with fascism, home & abroad. #fightfascism

Metadata nerds: If I’m archiving a TypePad blog to a new domain and URL, and fixing links etc to work in the new location, should I also change rdf:about and dc:identifier values to use the new page's location? Or should they remain as they were because that's what the page "is” even if it moves?

"I'm being as racist as I can" tearful Starmer tells voters