Bill Glover

Your email is not secure enough

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 07:11:30 +0100

After a recent incident involving a missing delivery, Amazon sent me an email asking for help in following up with the courier company. I replied only to receive the following response moments later.

We received your email to Amazon Customer Service. For security reasons, we can only process emails from addresses that meet certain email security standards. This helps protect all our customers.

Here’s how you can reach us immediately:

File transfer made easy

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:59:46 +0100

My wife recorded several hours of audio during the Bologna Book Fair this week. We’d agreed that she’d send me the audio each evening and I’d run it through local transcription to give her an editable text version of the conversations.

When she tried to send me the files, she was presented with the following error.

attachment too long

2026 Week 15

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 19:07:58 +0100

Jet-lag is bad enough but jet-lag with children is a nightmare. Poor Ethan has been so confused over the last couple of days. He ignored a suggestion to sleep as it wasn’t dark outside, then we found him fast asleep on the sofa still in his shoes and jacket. I carried him up to bed and just left him to sleep. Around 4am this morning he got up and, realising he was dressed already, put his pyjamas on and tried to put himself to bed. As Alicia left for an early flight, he said she couldn’t go out because it was still dark. His confusion reflects how we all feel. We are back in the UK.

Why You Can't Change Anyone

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 08:46:02 +0800

Over on her Substack my friend Alicia writes about the quiet, often overlooked parts of being human. Her recent article Why You Can’t Change Anyone resonates with my own experiences supporting people in their tech careers.

I’ve always felt uncomfortable at the thought of advising others. Throughout my 13 years in consulting, the idea of offering advice from a position of ignorance always felt odd. I do agree that an outside perspective can be useful but all too often there is an expectation to associate the role with expertise, experience or knowledge. This was a mistake. The only way I knew how to approach consulting was from a place of discovery. The job as I saw it was more to listen and observe than it was to act.

2026 Week 14

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:14:05 +0800

This week has been a delight. We arrived back in Beijing after a weeks travelling and enjoyed our first rest day. We took the boys to the local park, the universal appeal of swings and slides keeping them entertained for far longer than expected. Ethan took great pleasure in trying to use the outdoor exercise equipment.

Last Monday we took the train to Nanjing. Alicia was speaking at an event on Tuesday and we came along for the trip. This meant I had the boys to myself for Tuesday. I gave them a couple of options; a walk around the lake then find somewhere nice to eat, or head to the zoo with unknown food options. Secretly I was hoping for the walk around the lake. That was the easy option, no travel, known food places, and easy reach of the hotel if they got tired. Of course they picked the zoo. Surprisingly undeterred by the unknown food options, Oscar insisted that zoos always have places to eat. And so I ended up taking the two boys to the Red Mountain Forrest Zoo, 红山森林动物园 (hóng shān sēn lín dòng wù yuán), for the day. Our adult to child ratios may have been way off (1:2) when compared with most others (4:1 or 6:1) but we had a great time.

2026 Week 13

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 22:00:00 +0000

This has been a whirlwind of a week. Monday morning, I was frantically bouncing between Zoom calls, trying to figure out what I could get done in a few days. I had to work this week. By Sunday I was in Beijing with the family preparing for a trip to Nanjing and Yangzhou. Somewhere in the middle of that, we secured tickets to EMF Camp in July, Oscar sat his piano exam, and finished school for the Easter break. Oh, and I finished the Kew 10km race hours before heading to the airport.

From / To

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 15:38:00 +0000

It started innocently enough.

“I’ve ordered us a couple of converters from English to Chinese. They will arrive by the time we land in Beijing.”

We are heading away and we couldn’t find our international plug converters. Both of us have packed them away somewhere that seemed sensible at the time but long since forgotten. Too late to pick something up before we left, Alicia ordered a couple to be delivered on arrival in Beijing.

Nothing is Safe on the Internet

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:14:00 +0000

I feel I’ve always known that things on the internet will get discovered eventually. Many years ago, I took my first foray into self-hosting. A discarded Windows PC became a Linux host, the Linux machine became a local network server allowing multiple machines to be online at once. And with the dedicated phone line, it kept the connection alive even while we slept. As my curiosity grew, I began hosting all the things; a simple website, a photo gallery, an email server, a shared calendar, and even my own attempt at an LDAP backed address book that worked with Nokia phones.

2026 Week 12

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 21:18:00 +0000

Work has been motivationally challenging this week. With my ability to effect change largely dependent on my powers of persuasion or inspiration, I’m sometimes forced to accept that some weeks priorities do not align. To keep myself useful, and sane, I’ve been trying to help others where possible; demos, environments, debugging or just acting as a sounding board.

It was good to get in to the city and see colleagues in person on Wednesday. I’m not sure I needed to stay out until the early hours of Thursday morning. It was fun though.

2026 Week 11

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:57:50 +0000

I missed the opportunity to publish a weekly recap last week. It was Thursday by the time I sat down to write, and by that point it felt like I’d missed the window.

At work last week I continued the theme of meeting application developers who use our platform. The feedback we’ve been given is interesting. We’re forever being told what developers want, developers need and how developers need to be measured. It has been quite refreshing to hear from development teams directly what they see as the benefits of an application platform and where they see some of the challenges.

2026 Week 10

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:56:57 +0000

Red sky in the morning

The dragon

Goodbye AWS

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 13:19:47 +0000

This week I managed to remove all remaining resources and close my AWS account. I’ve been receiving a bill for about $3 every month for a while but have long since stopped actively using the account.

When it came to closing the account, there were three things I needed to clean up.

DNS Entries with Route53 -> moved to Digital Ocean
BuddyBot (Lamda, s3, DynamoDB) -> service retired
s3 Buckets -> archived locally or self-hosted Garage

Of these, it is the retirement of BuddyBot that left me feeling most sentimental. Spun up over 10 years ago, it was a service that allowed Slack users to flag posts for admin attention without drawing public attention to the fact that they had done so. I built it as a way to learn more about building applications using AWS Lambda. It has run without maintenance for almost 10 years. It was designed to hover along within free-tier limits and other than the occasional reminder that I was always approaching those limits, or that the version of the Go runtime I’d used was no longer available on Lambda, I wouldn’t have known the service existed. It is a testament to the Lambda service that it has remind this stable for so long. That said, the application was terribly architected, built to explore patterns for orchestrating multiple Lambda services. If I were to build it today, I’d opt for a single service and eliminate the complexity of service-to-service overhead, particularly around error handling.

The maths behind speaking pens

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:17:37 +0000

Two of our book readers and a book of songs

A quick glance at the bookshelves in the boys rooms and it looks like we have as many Chinese as we do books in English. Ethan can’t yet read in either language and yet he spends hours engrossed in books. One of the ways he’s able to do so is with assistance of smart pens or a small smart speaker (pictured above). In this case, ‘smart’ doesn’t mean internet connected, it doesn’t mean they have a screen. I use the term smart because of delightfully clever way they work.

2026 Week 9

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 10:01:16 +0000

Burst of colour

This weekly wrap up is a little later than planned. I ended last week absolutely exhausted. A combination Zoom fatigue at work, coupled with more screen time than usual left me feeling drained. Come Sunday night I took stock; behind on admin, behind on prep for next week, behind on sleep.

Expectations of immediacy

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 10:10:13 +0000

We are obsessed with immediacy. At some point we started to expect that we’d all be notified, immediately, and then react to notifications for things that carry no urgency at all. Only this morning I was asked if I’d read an email only five minutes after it had been sent. This is not how I use email. It’s not how I use messaging apps.

More importantly though, this is not how I expect you to use messaging apps. Unless I explicitly indicate the need for a timely response then please don’t rush, take your time. Slow down.

2026 Week 8

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 06:03:12 +0000

This week was the first week of the Chinese New Year. The boys covered the house in decorations, many of them for previous years. Given the non-stop rain we’ve had here in the UK for 2026, the additional colour was more welcome than usual. It was also half term which meant Oscar wasn’t at school. Alicia and I are fortunate enough that work is flexible and we can work from whatever venue Oscar is at. This week that meant a bunch of work from the poolside.

2026 Week 7

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:35:49 +0000

I’ve spent some time this week experimenting with Claude Code. I’m not using the latest models from Anthropic, but rather keeping things local and trying out different models. I spent most time with gpt-oss:20b and qwen3-coder:30b. I’m routing all requests through Tailscale Aperture to keep an on how different models affect token usage. The results were surprising. Using the same tool, Claude Code, the two models result in significantly different token usage patterns. Model providers are in complete control over how many tokens we can expect to consume to achieve a given output.

Intersecting Interests

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 09:05:47 +0000

Weird Web October - Transparency

When we decide you want to learn something new it can feel incredibly daunting. Regardless of starting point or motivation, we are embarking on a journey into the unknown. Questions are everywhere;

What should I learn?
Where do I start?
How should I learn?
How do I measure progress?
What if I give up?

Back in 2019, I gave a talk at the London Gophers meet-up. The talk was titled: Beyond the Tour. I can remember feeling like a fraud for giving the talk. I was well in to a career working with technology and here I was, using up a precious speaking slot, talking as if I was a complete beginner. I hadn’t achieved anything groundbreaking with Go. I had no new framework or product to promote. This was a talk about learning, an approach to learning that embraced the fact that I had other interests outside the world of Go. At the heart of my journey to learn Go, a series of intersecting interests.

2026 Week 6

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 20:19:29 +0000

2026 W06

This week the weather has been miserable. I’m all for cycling in the rain but this week has been tough going. The rain and the wind are one thing, but the killer was the timing of high tides. It’s not so much the flooding that’s a problem, we have a couple of alternative routes. As the water subsides, it leaves the road covered in waste. There’s the mud, the twigs, the occasional tree branch, and of course the plastic. Cycling along in the dark it’s not easy to avoid and we’ve ended up with our fair share of punctures.

Thoughts on AI

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 18:08:38 +0000

As I look around the co-working space around me, ‘AI’ is everywhere. To my left, someone on Zoom discussing the future of AI powered financial advice. To my right, two people pairing. Pairing on unpicking the mess generated by code generation. Directly in front of me, someone with two laptops. On one, Claude Code is burning through tokens while on the other they watch a show on Netflix.

I’ve found myself increasingly conflicted about Artificial Intelligence (AI). There appear to be two camps; the AI fanboys and the AI haters. Forced to pick one, I’d be closer to a hater than a fanboy. But I’m not forced to pick. My thoughts on AI are more nuanced. Not only that, they vary constantly. I’ll be honest, I find it difficult to avoid falling victim to recency bias, over-indexing on the most recent thing I’ve read. Unfortunately exposing myself to both extremes hasn’t helped me develop my own nuanced position. It’s left me feeling exhausted, bouncing around without settling. What do I think about AI?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 13:38:37 +0000

AI coding agents are crude, but also beautifully simple. I’ve noticed a couple of things when working with both Antigravity and Claude Code. Their approach to debugging, or figuring out how to implement something involves dumping things into the context. This is why you often see coding agents adding fmt.Println() statements everywhere, running the code, and then subsequently removing them. This is how the agent “sees” what is going on.

The lost art of browsing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 10:24:32 +0000

Browsing the web is a lost art. Where we once lost countless hours to browsing, we now consume the infinite feeds of content being fed to us. How much control we have over these feeds is debatable. It is a tired refrain to remind you that it is less than we think.

I remarked to a friend that I’d been enjoying browsing individual sites again, enjoying re-discovering the quirky web that I grew up with.

2026 Week 5

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 20:57:20 +0000

I left this weekly note until Monday morning. Sunday was a hangover day after my brother and sister’s 40th on Saturday night. The last thing I wanted to do was reach for a keyboard.

The week has been exhausting, the usual routine punctuated with a brief trip to Edinburgh. I picked the worst day to fly with the UK being battered by a storm it took multiple attempts to land. The flight may have only be an hour but it ranks with one of my worst ever for travel sickness. By the time we eventually touched down the last thing in the world I wanted to do was spend an evening cooped up in a hotel.

Agent Skills

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:53:43 +0000

After seeing an ex-colleague release details of their AI second brain, I was curious. Not because I want to outsource the process of note taking, but because I wanted to know how he had any confidence in this process at all.

A quick look at their git repository shows very little code beyond some Python helper scripts for requesting page summaries from Gemini. I had questions:

Why did they require Google’s Antigravity to run the workflow?
Why was there no coordination code?
Why couldn’t I use a local model for this?

At the heart of the workflow are Agent Skills.

2026 Week 4

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 19:03:23 +0000

I caught myself dancing in my chair this week. I was having great fun working on a demo for a workshop next Friday. This is one of the more complicated demos I’ve pulled together and it’s in an area I’ve not historically felt comfortable, Java and Spring. After a week of limited progress, things started to fall into place and I started to get a feel for how I want to use the demo to tell a story. I’m genuinely looking forward to continuing to work on this for the workshop on Friday. I’m hoping to be able to make the demo public.

Spectrum Split

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 09:16:19 +0000

I love this piece by Root Kid entitled Spectrum Split (via The Register).

“Spectrum Slit is a sculptural installation that renders visible the otherwise imperceptible electromagnetic activity that permeates contemporary interior spaces. While a room may appear visually calm and silent, it is continuously traversed by dense fields of radio-frequency transmissions generated by wireless communication technologies.”

Spectrum Split (2026), by Root Kid - watch on YouTube

Me, Myself & I

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:14:18 +0000

Episodes from “Me, Myself and I”, a podcast I started with Jen Su. She has plans to revive the podcast with new themes and a new guests. I’ll update this note with a link as soon as it goes live.

🎤 001 - Hello World
🎤 002 - Reward and Accountability
🎤 003 - Self Promotion
🎤 004 - Intentions
🎤 005 - Intervention
🎤 006 - Asking for Help
🎤 007 - Giving Help
🎤 008 - Dealing with Frustration
🎤 009 - How to re-Learn
🎤 010 - Motivation in the Face of Rejection
🎤 011 - Styles of Communication
🎤 012 - Professional Networking
🎤 013 - Imposter Syndrome
🎤 014 - ChatGPT
🎤 015 - This Next Thing

If you are interested in speaking to Jen on a future episode, let me know and I’ll put you in touch.

On Success

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:49:14 +0000

I’ve often felt frustrated at the way we have come to define success. I’ve watched and admired those close to me run small businesses for many years. These businesses have taken no investment, survived economic shocks (the COVID-19 pandemic was not kind to business owners), and yet they continued to provide a stable income supporting employees and families. In my view these are the model of successful businesses.

Inevitably this feeling of success is challenged. Are profits increasing? Are they increasing faster than last year? Has the business taken a large investment? Are they growing? Hiring more people? When is the acquisition? All of these are seen as indicators of success. It doesn’t matter that the business has been stable, employees, and customers are happy and income is dependable. It doesn’t matter that the company has no debt, or that it can provide flexibility around family life beyond the bare minimum offered by larger employers. To be successful numbers need to go up at an ever increasing rate.

2026 Week 3

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 20:40:37 +0000

I had the pleasure of having my colleague DaShaun Carter join me for Spring Office Hours this week. He covers the concept of Office Hours in his post on Off-Stage Advocacy. We revisited the challenge of keeping software patched and up to date, a topic that we’ve covered many times before. But this time something clicked for me. I realised why some teams were finding it difficult to implement the patterns. It wasn’t a technical challenge at all. They were struggling to relate what we were showing them and their daily responsibilities. This felt like something I could help with and spent some time pulling together my own flavour of the demo. It’s not quite there yet, but I’m surprisingly excited to be talking about software upgrades and patching.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:59:14 +0000

Listening to People Watching by Sam Fender after seeing it mentioned on Doug Belshaw’s favourite music albums of 2025.

Need to listen to this one again before deciding if it has a place in my collection.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:51:06 +0000

I went into the office yesterday and found myself wondering whether I miss the commute.

I miss:

The opportunity to listen to audiobooks/podcasts
The chance to read a book
Watching other people and wondering what they are thinking

I don’t miss the commute.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:28:31 +0000

Found myself pondering a question:

“What would a course in AI look like at various stages of the education system?”

To be clear, I’m not thinking of this as a “learn ChatGPT in 10 minutes” style course. I’m wondering what coursework I’d set, what discussions I’d want to have. I’m curious what I’d learn by running such a course.

The old Brewery

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:44:02 +0000

Morning Walk

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:42:22 +0000

Heading in to London

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:40:21 +0000

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 14:25:18 +0000

The river was beautifully quiet this morning, the fog lingering long after the sun had come up.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 13:53:02 +0000

The excellent talk by bunnie and xobs cover what it takes to build an open operating system and manufacture the open processor required to run it. It turns out that you can squeeze open processor cores into the unused silicon on a typical SoC.

An incredible feat of engineering: 39c3 - Xous: A Pure-Rust Rethink of the Embedded Operating System

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:44:30 +0000

Beautiful walk along the river this morning.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:20:20 +0000

Really enjoyed this series of 100 photographs from 2025 by Hyde. He’s doing #the100pics challenge again this year and I’m looking forward to seeing what he releases. I love the raw humanity on display in his photographs.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:16:55 +0000

I’ve been working on a new way to publish notes here. The formatting is all out of whack, but this is my first note.

2026 Week 2

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 19:57:41 +0000

This week marked the transition back into a routine. The Christmas decorations came down, Ethan started back at nursery and Oscar returned to school. I even had the house to myself for a couple of mornings.

Despite the return to routine, I managed to enjoy spending time with the boys individually this week. Ethan is now an expert at lighting the fire and I got to witness his sheer delight as he managed to trace the numbers 1-10. He has started to express himself a lot more recently, wrapping up the week by declaring he wants to go to school not nursery. With Oscar I’ve been enjoying playing Monopoly Deal (think Monopoly but as a card game). It’s surprisingly fun. We’ve also made progress on that 1000 piece Oscar Piastri jigsaw.

2026 Week 1

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 20:37:06 +0000

It’s hard to believe the first week of the year is already over. Oscar still has a couple of days off before heading back to school but Alicia and I are both back to work tomorrow.

We celebrated the new year by making 饺子 (jiǎo zǐ). This has become something of a tradition for us after making them with Alicia’s family on our first new year together in China.

The week has been remarkably social. We had my parents over on new years day, bumped into an old school friend and his family in the London Wetland Centre the next, went to a bubble show with friends and their family. Given we spend most of the year on autopilot, it has been really nice to spend time with others.

December Festivities

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 13:19:43 +0000

We’ve had one of the busiest Decembers in a long while. With both Alicia and I travelling for work. We didn’t manage to wind down before walking headlong in to Christmas festivities.

homemade - dried citrus fruit as festive decoration

Notes from November

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 10:03:11 +0000

November is always a turning point in the year. The days start to get shorter, the weather begins to feel more wintery and people start to realise that the year is almost over. Work is invariably busy, but with people making plans for the festive season ahead motivation can be a struggle.

Weird Web October - Untold Stories

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 23:02:09 +0000

By the time I finished Weird Web October I’d had enough. I needed to close the laptop and do something else. I most definitely was not going to write a blog post about the experience. But Georgie’s post dropped today and that gave me an opening. For all the weird site created through October, I want to know more about the ideas that never saw the light of day.

LSO Family Concerts

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 02 Nov 2025 19:22:49 +0000

LSO Family Concerts

The London Symphony Orchestra

This weekend we attended the latest Family Concert by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) at the Barbican Centre. If are looking for something to do with children in London, I recommend seeing if you can get tickets. You’ll need to plan several months ahead as these sell out fast.

October Check-In

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 21:22:59 +0000

River Thames in London on a foggy day

The clocks have gone back, the temperature has dropped and it feels like winter is around the corner. With half-term in the UK coming to and end I find myself flitting between thoughts of cozy winters by the fire and an unusual enthusiasm for being creative.

Thunderbird & PGP

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:07:00 +0000

At some point (2020) Thunderbird stopped using Enigmail. Native support for GPG doesn’t (easily) allow you to use sub-keys stored on a Yubikey for signing or encryption. It is possible to tell Thunderbird to use one external key but this doesn’t work if you have separate sub-keys for both message signing and encryption.

This guide shows how to create and export a temporary key containing both the signing and encryption keys for use in Thunderbird.

What am I up to now?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The /now page is something proposed by Derek Sivers. The idea is to write something short, something “you’d tell a friend you hadn’t seen in a year.”

I’m working as a Solutions Architect with the Tanzu team at Broadcom. I spend my time helping customers get the most of the platforms they deploy. Much of that work is with Cloud Foundry which, despite the advent of Kubernetes, continues to be popular with developers who use it.

James at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 30 May 2025 21:30:59 +0100

James at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange

I was in Edinburgh for work, the same time as James happened to be playing a warm-up gig at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange. Despite Yummy being my album of 2024, James weren’t a band I had high up on those I needed to see live. The show was incredible and I’d jump at the chance to see them again.

Blue

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 30 May 2025 11:28:16 +0100

Track Listing

Live at the Acropolis

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 30 May 2025 11:27:15 +0100

Track Listing

Magic Bus (Live at the Acropolis)
We’re Going to Miss You (Live at the Acropolis)
The Shining (Live at the Acropolis)
Dust Motes (Live at the Acropolis)
The Lake (Live at the Acropolis)
Beautiful Beaches (Live at the Acropolis)
Say Something (Live at the Acropolis)
Space (Live at the Acropolis)
Ten Below (Live at the Acropolis)
Moving On (Live at the Acropolis)
Nothing But Love (Live at the Acropolis)
Born of Frustration (Live at the Acropolis)
Sit Down (Live at the Acropolis)
Love Make a Fool (Live at the Acropolis)
Medieval (Live at the Acropolis)
Someone’s Got It in for Me (Live at the Acropolis)
Alaskan Pipeline (Live at the Acropolis)
She’s a Star (Live at the Acropolis)
Hello (Live at the Acropolis)
Riders (Live at the Acropolis)
Laid (Live at the Acropolis)
All the Colours of You (Live at the Acropolis)
Many Faces (Live at the Acropolis)
Tomorrow (Live at the Acropolis)
Sometimes (Live at the Acropolis)
Top of the World (Live at the Acropolis)

From Mexico with Love

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 30 May 2025 11:22:02 +0100

Track Listing

Hanson Ghost
Look Back
CDMX
Put up with the weather!
Auto-Sabotage
Note to Self
Can’t Afford Psychoanalysis
The Hating
Collect Call
When I See Pigs Fly

On Blogging

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 07:52:13 +0000

I started blogging back when I was a teenager. I’ve long since forgotten what prompted me to start. Before blogging were the Geocities sites. Before that an interconnected web of html pages filled with tricks to break out of the hosting restrictions of free hosts. Before the days of Facebook or Twitter, it was exciting to be online.

Pages were permanently “under construction”, friends competed to come up with the most elaborate visitor counters, guestbooks became a thing. The web was a place full of curiosity and discovery. As backgrounds became increasingly psychedelic, midi tracks increasingly complex, the aim was to have fun.

A Taste In Music

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 01:15:00 +0000

I entered my 40s unable to describe my taste in music. Up until recently I was unable to answer a simple question;

“What music do you listen to?”

In this post I look back at some of the experiments I’ve done in order to develop, or at least understand, my taste in music. It’s a long one so if you don’t make it to the end, I’d love some help building my collection. Send me an album recommendation accompanied by a short story of what the album means to you.

9m88 Radio

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:19:31 +0800

Track Listing

Whatchu Gonna…? (feat. Rainbow Chan)
Tell Me (feat. DJ Mitsu the Beats)
Sleepwalking
Love Is so Cruel (feat. Arthur Moon)
A Merry Feeling (feat. Layton Wu)
:-D
Friend Zone (feat. starRo)
:’-(
Dark Night / Sunlight (feat. Chia-Lun Yue)
Prelude to A Star
Star (feat. Silas Short)

Turning 43

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 20:08:20 +0800

Turning 43

I recently turned 43, old enough that I had to double check my age when my son asked. This year was the second time I’ve been able to spend my birthday in Beijing. This time though, I was careful not to over-eat, at least not excessively.

Mid-week in central Beijing

Plans

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 21:39:57 +0100

Track Listing

Marching Bands of Manhattan
Soul Meets Body
Summer Skin
Different Names for the Same Thing
I Will Follow You Into The Dark
Your Heart Is an Empty Room
Someday You Will Be Loved
Crooked Teeth
What Sarah Said
Brothers on a Hotel Bed
Stable Song

KYORYU

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:17:53 +0000

Track Listing

Keys To Your Civic
N.P.D
Self-Serving Human Being
PARANOIA PARADISE
14 Occasions
Wait Your Turn
Elton
Slow
Yin and Yang
Afterlife
Walking On Ice
The Way You Are
Not From Here

Yumeno Garden

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:17:37 +0000

Track Listing

Eleven
Dominos
Bass God
Sense
Happy
Forget About
Italo Disco
Everything Relative
Shallow Boy
Non Lo So

Wellness

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:17:12 +0000

Track Listing

Take Your Time
Evie
Karma
Wurl
Wellness
Apollo
Always
Purist
Stream
Zero

In A Million Years

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:15:42 +0000

Track Listing

Zoom
I Can’t Help You
Sunday Night
Time & Place
Andy
Satellites
Weekend
I Can’t Decide
Used To Be Mine
Honolulu
Repair

Weezer (White Album)

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 20:02:22 +0000

Track Listing

California Kids
Wind in Our Sail
Thank God for Girls
(Girl We Got a) Good Thing
Do You Wanna Get High?
King of the World
Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori
L.A. Girlz
Jacked Up
Endless Bummer

SZNZ: Autumn

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:57:50 +0000

Track Listing

Can’t Dance, Don’t Ask Me
Get Off on the Pain
WHAT HAPPENS After you?
Francesca
Should She Stay or Should She Go
Tastes Like Pain
Run, Raven, Run

SZNZ: Winter

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:57:20 +0000

Track Listing

I Want a Dog
Iambic Pentameter
Basketball
Sheraton Commander
Dark Enough to See the Stars
The One That Got Away
The Deep and Dreamless Sleep

SZNZ: Summer

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:57:04 +0000

Track Listing

Lawn Chair
Records
Blue Like Jazz
The Opposite Of Me
What’s The Good Of Being Good
Cuomoville
Thank You and Good Night

SZNZ: Spring

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:48:26 +0000

Track Listing

Opening Night
Angels on Vacation
A Little Bit of Love
The Garden of Eden
The Sound of Drums
All This Love
Wild at Heart

The F1 Exhibition

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:53:06 +0000

The F1 Exhibition

The Sharknose Ferrari (Ferrari 156 F1)

I can remember where I was when I first watched an F1 race on TV. It was at a friend’s home in Putney. His dad was a fan, a Ferrari supporter. The three of us sat there glued to the TV for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Tech Talk: Caching

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 12:03:56 +0000

I gave a talk titled, Caching, Data Grids and More. The talk was targetted at Platform Engineers who were aware of caching solutions, supported them, but with little experience of having used them in application development. It was a fun talk to give.

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m trying something different. Enter your email address below to sign up for my newsletter and receive irregular musings on technology, parenting, and other curiosities.

European Alternatives

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 07:42:18 +0000

European alternatives for digital services and products, like cloud services and SaaS products.

Debugging Open Telemetry

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 14:32:06 +0000

Debugging Open Telemetry

I wanted to send metrics from an application platform to an observability solution using Open Telemetry (OTel). I believed everything was set-up but metrics weren’t flowing from the platform to our observability tooling.

This post outlines how I was able to replace our observability tooling with a second instance of the OTel collector and use it to debug the flow of metrics.

The Internet

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 11:21:51 +0000

If you’d asked me to define the internet, I’d probably have offered up something involving networks, computers, protocols and information. I prefer this definition by Winnie Lim.

“a medium that brings the strangeness of strangers together”
– i’m just as strange as you, Winnie Lim

Towards Kew

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:49:00 +0100

The Wall

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:48:00 +0100

Riches

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:47:00 +0100

Reach

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:46:00 +0100

London

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:45:00 +0100

Life

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:43:00 +0100

Left or Right

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:41:37 +0100

Passenger

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:41:37 +0100

FFmpeg Cheat Sheet

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:17:25 +0100

Using FFmpeg is more art than science. Every time I reach for it, I find myself trawling the internet for various incantations of the command that result in a playable video. These are commands that have worked for me.

Blu-ray

ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v libx265 -crf 18 -c:a aac -b:a 160k -tag:v hvc1 -ac 6 output.mp4

This results in an mp4 container with h265 video and aac sound. The file should be playable on Apple devices. The resulting file will also be significantly smaller than the original.

Melody

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:46:00 +0100

北沟村

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:36:00 +0100

高米店南

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 10:19:00 +0100

Pentax 17

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 28 Sep 2024 18:41:16 +0100

London - Pentax 17, Kodak Gold 200

Over the summer I picked up a Pentax 17, a new half-frame film camera. It has been an absolute delight to use.

Coming from (D)SLR cameras, the first thing that struck me was how quiet the camera is. I’m so used to the clunk of the mirror moving when taking a shot that the silence of the Pentax 17 was disconcerting. For a while I thought it was broken.

Me Aagain

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks

Me Again
Cowboys Cry
Kids
Glad You Did
Oxygen Mask
Highlights
Falling Out Of Like [feat. Ruston Kelly]
Tiny’s Song (demo)
Deep
Only You Can
Don’t Laugh I’ll Cry
Good enough
Picked First

It’s rare that lyrics in a song speak to me as much as ‘Kids’ on Me Again. A simple song, but this one hit me.

Sketch: Camera

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 20:08:59 +0100

I don’t know what prompted me to reach for the iPad and start sketching. The closest thing I had to hand was a camera. I’m quite proud of how this turned out. My approach; start with rectangles representing the faces of the camera, build up the 3D box, and then add some of the details.

The Art of Finishing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 12:22:00 +0000

In this excelent blog post Tomas Stropus explores The Art of Finishing. He concludes with some solid advice I can take into my next project.

“As long as you’re working on something, you feel productive. Jumping from project to project gives you a constant stream of “new project energy,” which can feel more invigorating than the grind of finishing a single project.”

I love this new project energy. It generally tends to coincide with those times when I really should be working on something else or have little time to start anything new. The excitement is real.

Foundational Skills

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 09:54:20 +0100

In his recent newsletter titled Two Wonderful Investments In Your Programming Career, Rob Conery talks about learning the “foundational” skills of the industry. This got me thinking; what would I include on my list of foundational skills?

In his newsletter, Rob lists five foundational technologies but calls out two in particular that stand out to him:

Your Editor
SQL

I’d agree on both counts. Pick a text editor and learn it well. It doesn’t matter if you don’t pick the most popular, or the one your colleagues use. Pick one you like and invest time in learning how to use it.

Turning the tables on AI

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 06:11:06 +0800

“With every thought we outsource, we miss out on a chance to grow. Love it or hate it, AI is here to stay. However we use it, we need to think more, not less.”

This is one of the best guides on how to use generative AI writing assistants that I have seen to date. It is practical, gives solid examples, and handles common objections that we are bound to raise. The team at iA not only build incredible software, but also write with a real sense of clarity. I love their work.

creative retail experiences, and warmth in tokyo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 07:45:21 +0800

Some of the best days travelling are those filled with the awkward experiences that come with a language barrier.

“But I love the experiences that can only come with travelling. The awkwardness of the language barrier, the grace that is being shown despite all the communication difficulties and misunderstandings, the challenges that come with navigating and being in unfamiliar environments.”

But why do we have to travel in order to experience this awkwardness? How can we afford ourselves these moments of awkwardness when surrounded by the familiar?

It's OK to lower the bar

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 06:45:46 +0800

In her Digital Garden, Rachel offers an important reminder, it’s OK to lower the bar. As someone who has mixed success with using streaks as a motivational tool, I can relate. Sometimes we just need to do enough to keep the streak going.

“I had to remind myself that it’s okay to lower the bar. That an average version of something is better than a perfect version of nothing. All I can do is have a go.”

Investigating HTTP 502 responses on Cloud Foundry

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 16:27:03 +0100

As a platform engineer working with multiple platform teams running applications on the Tanzu Platform for Cloud Foundry, I have been addressing intermittent issues that have been overlooked as quirks of the platform. These issues are what I like to call developer paper cuts. They are points of friction where something does not function as expected but occurs infrequently, leading to a lack of prioritization for investigation. One of these developer paper cuts is the occurrence of the HTTP 502 response code from services operating on the platform. In this post, I will detail our investigation into this issue, highlight some known causes of the 502 response code, and provide tips for debugging similar issues.

Dockerfile Revisited

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 16:08:00 +0100

For years I’ve been building container images by using the COPY command to bring files from my Docker context into the build container.

FROM golang:1.22 AS build

WORKDIR /src/build
COPY . .

RUN go mod verify
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -o /app .

FROM scratch
COPY --from=build /app .
CMD ["./app"]

Today I came across the following section in the Docker documentation.

“You’ll mostly want to use COPY for copying files from one stage to another in a multi-stage build. If you need to add files from the build context to the container temporarily to execute a RUN instruction, you can often substitute the COPY instruction with a bind mount instead.”

EMF Camp 2024

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 20:59:55 +0100

Family Cyanotype

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 19:59:00 +0000

Following on from my First Cyanotype, we tried to turn it into a family activity. When I’ve mentioned it to people, they’ve asked to see the prints, quickly followed with digging in to how we did it. This post answers both questions.

The Method

Equipment

Jacquard Cyanotype Sensitizer Set
Daler-Rowney Aquafine Smooth Hot Pressed 300gsm Watercolour & Gouache A4 Paper
A4 Acrylic Sheet Clear Perspex Sheet 3mm Thick
Paint Brushes
Protective Table Cloth
Objects to print; plants, leaves, etc.

Note: You can buy ready coated cyanotype paper. Whilst it may be more convenient, the results aren’t nearly as impressive. There is so much creativity in the coating of the sensitizer.

EMF Camp: Running the Tildagon Simulator

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 26 May 2024 20:44:03 +0100

EMF Camp 2024 kicks off later this week. I’ll be there with my eldest son. We don’t yet have our hands on our badges but I spent a little time tinkering in the simulator. It was a bit fiddly to get things up and running but this is my first App.

Running the simulator on Apple Silicon

First up, links to the official documentation and the code.

What is Progress?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 11 May 2024 08:32:10 +0100

I’ve often found myself frustrated at the way we define progress or success.

On the surface of it, the definition is pretty clear. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, progress is “movement to an improved or more developed state, or to a forward position”. But which way is forward? Given two states, how do we decide which is more developed than the other?

Given a starting point and a destination, the definition of progress feels fairly self-evident. If I am at home and I want to get to the office, then I make progress each time I move closer to my destination. Given the goal of being able to recognize 1,000 Chinese characters, then I have made progress if I recognize one new character. I have moved closer to my destination.

Yummy

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 27 Apr 2024 18:39:42 +0100

Track Listing

Is This Love
Life’s A Fucking Miracle
Better With You
Stay
Shadow of a Giant
Way Over Your Head
Mobile God
Our World
Rogue
Hey
Butterfly
Folks

First Cyanotype

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 15:29:00 +0000

I attended a half-day Cyanotype Printing workshop at The Darkroom in London. I knew nothing about the process going into the workshop, only that the images produced were typically a deep blue.

The workshop covered:

talking through some impressive examples of existing work
mixing chemicals
coating the paper
gathering things to print
prints in the sun
prints under UV light
washing prints
use of hydrogen peroxide
staining prints to alter the colour

I love the simplicity of the cyanotype process. Despite its simplicity, there are various options for creativity. Using different types of paper, brush strokes, or quantities of chemicals can result in a wide variety of images. Additionally, your choice of objects, the depth of the blue, and staining all provide opportunty for creativity.

ActivityPub: a decentralized social networking protocol

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Context

It isn’t often that you get to watch a new protocol go through real world growing pains. ActivityPub is the relatively young protocol behind many of the decentralised social networking initiatives available today. Sometimes collectively referred to as the Fediverse, these instances all rely on various implementations of ActivityPub to communicate.

Docker Desktop (Mac) Unix Socket

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 18:37:00 +0000

Two of the tools in my container toolkit stopped working at some point recently. To demonstrate the issue, I first make sure that I have an image pulled locally.

bg@Bills-MBP ~ % docker image ls
REPOSITORY   TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED       SIZE
golang       1.22      824aa3c1d42c   10 days ago   830MB
demo         latest    cf12555b1219   10 days ago   830MB

The first tool, Dive, started producing errors like this.

bg@Bills-MBP tmp % dive demo
Image Source: docker://demo
Fetching image... (this can take a while for large images)
Handler not available locally. Trying to pull 'demo'...
Using default tag: latest
Error response from daemon: pull access denied for demo, repository does not exist or may require 'docker login': denied: requested access to the resource is denied
cannot fetch image
exit status 1

The image was present locally and the docker daemon definitely running. I logged out, logged in again and tried different accounts. When I first hit this error I assumed that this was an issue with Dive. The workaround I used was to export the image to a .tar file and then use dive to browse the disk image. But then I hit this error with Trivy.

Pastel Blues

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 13 Apr 2024 18:22:32 +0100

Track Listing

Be My Husband - Live In New York/1965
Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out - Live In New York/1965
End Of The Line - Live In New York/1965
Trouble In Mind - Live In New York/1965
Tell Me More And More And Then Some - Live In New York/1965
Chilly Winds Don’t Blow - Live In New York/1964
Ain’t No Use - Live In New York/1965
Strange Fruit - Live In New York/1965
Sinnerman - Live In New York/1965

Underdressed at the Symphony

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:23:37 +0000

Track Listing

Thinking About You
But Not Kiss
Wanna Quit All The Time
Lego Ring
Feeling Good Today
Lifetime
He Loves Me Yeah!
eBay Purchase History
Underdressed at the Symphony
Tttttime

Mountainhead

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:22:08 +0000

Track Listing

Wild Guess
The End of the Contender
Cold Reactor
Buddy, Come Over
R U Happy?
The Mad Stone
TV Dog
Canary
Don’t Ask Me To Beg
Enter the Mirror
Your Money, My Summer
Dagger’s Edge
City Song
The Witness

Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:21:06 +0000

Track Listing

Générique
L’Assassinat de Carala
Sur L’Autoroute
Julien dans l’ascenseur
Florence sur les Champs-Élysées
Dîner au motel
Évasion de Julien
Visite du vigile
Au bar du petit bac
Chez le photographe du motel

Hole In My Head

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 10:40:50 +0000

Track Listing

Hole In My Head
I’m Not a Cop
Dysphoria Hoodie
Birds Talk Too
Punk Rock In Basements
Cuffing Season
Tacos & Toast
Mercenary
Keep Your Wheels Straight
Hard Feelings
Give Up The Ghost

love, k

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 10:21:26 +0000

This album appeared in my Apple Music recomendations list.

Track Listing

Fell First, Fell Hard
Could I Convince You
Really Mean It
If I Weren’t Me
Isn’t It Obvious
I Just Wanna Know
Like Me, Like Me
More Often Than Not

Cyanotype Printing Workshop

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 15:56:56 +0000

A Hopeful Sign

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 15:05:56 +0000

Track Listing

Empty Street
Southern Air
Ocean Avenue
Telescope
You And Me And One Spotlight
Waiting Game
Only One
A Place We Set Afire
Transmission Home

Editable Navigation Titles in SwiftUI

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 07:15:00 +0000

A common pattern in iOS applications is to present a list of items and allow the user to tap an item to view or edit it. This pattern is typically enabled by embedding a List view inside a NavigationStack. The NavigationStack then presents a detail View whenever an item in the list is selected.

The title of the screens displayed in the NavigationStack is controlled by the .navigationTitle() modifier. I’ve always passed a String to the modifier as shown on line #20 below.

Aventine

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:38:10 +0000

I used Dorian as the backing track for a number of early drone videos that I shot. At the time, I don’t think I knew the name of the track or the Artist. Aventine now finds its way into my music collection as an album instead of a backing track to shaky drone footage.

Track Listing

Chord Left
Fuel to Fire
Dorian
Aventine
Run Cried the Crawling
Tokka
The Curse
Pass Them By
Words Are Dead
Fivefold
Smoke & Mirrors

Tomorrow Corporation Tech Demo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:32:00 +0000

At work, I spend a lot of time listening to customers talk about their developer experience. Everyone is trying to improve it, but very few have a clear vision of what a great developer experience is.

I present you this video from Allan Blomquist at Tommorrow Corporation.

lightning fast compile times
hot-reloading after every keystroke or graphics update
sharable timestamps into any run

But there is more. Make sure you watch to the end of the video to see what a great developer experience could look like. Thanks to Nathan Manceaux-Panot for sharing this with me.

The Art of the Command Line

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:27:00 +0000

“Fluency on the command line is a skill often neglected or considered arcane, but it improves your flexibility and productivity as an engineer in both obvious and subtle ways.”

I’ve found that familiarity with the command line has been a real asset throughout my career. There were many times in my early career where I was pulled in to help triage and fix issues because I was familiar with the terminal. This GitHub repository is an excellent starting point.

Piano Practice While Travelling

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 21:55:00 +0000

Our eldest has been playing the piano for a year now. He enjoys it enough that when we decided to spend summer in Beijing he asked if he could bring his piano with him. We don’t have a real piano at home, but we’ve really enjoyed the Roland FP30-X. I’d highly recommend it. Whilst it detaches from the stand and is portable, it isn’t something that I fancy trying to check in at the airport.

Electromagnetic Field 2024

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 20:50:00 +0000

Setting the PATH variable on macOS with ZSH

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 20:30:00 +0000

The behaviour of the PATH variable in ZSH on macOS can be confusing. If you follow ZSH guidance, you should set your PATH variable in ~/.zshenv.

“ .zshenv is sourced on all invocations of the shell, unless the -f option is set. It should contain commands to set the command search path, plus other important environment variables. .zshenv should not contain commands that produce output or assume the shell is attached to a tty.”

Stick Season (We'll All Be Here Forever)

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 20:21:01 +0000

Track Listing

Northern Attitude
Stick Season
All My Love
She Calls Me Back
Come Over
New Perspective
Everywhere, Everything
Orange Juice
Strawberry Wine
Growing Sideways
Halloween
Homesick
Still
The View Between Villages
Your Needs, My Needs
Dial Drunk
Paul Revere
No Complaints
Call Your Mom
You’re Gonna Go Far
The View Between Villages - Extended

Open Source Supply Chain Security at Google

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 19:44:00 +0000

Customers often highlight supply chain security is a regular pain point. Very few would claim to state they understand the problem let alone how to solve it. All have heard from vendors (including my employer) who are offering to solve the problem. This talk by Russ Cox is excellent. It attempts to define, with examples, the problem of open-source supply chain security.

“Open-source supply chain security is the engineering of defences against both open-source supply chain attacks and open-source supply chain vulnerabilities.”

Tired of timelines

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 14:31:00 +0000

Rachel is not the only one who is tired of timelines. But it isn’t just timelines that have grown increasingly disapointing. The interaction models on supposedly social platforms leave a lot to be desired.

“Maybe it is just a case that if I want that interaction, I have to make more of an effort to get it: comment on people’s blogs, send emails to authors who don’t have comment forms and encourage people to do the same here.”

Reliability, constant work, and a good cup of coffee

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 11:42:00 +0000

When searching for items in an array, you might decide to stop your search as soon as you’ve found the item you’ve been looking for. At a first glance, that is the efficient thing to do. Who doesn’t want their code to finish as fast as possible? But is speed really the most desirable characteristic?

As any architect will tell you, it depends. Sometimes we value predictable behaviour over outright speed. This is never more true than in the event of a complex systems failure. This article by Colm MacCárthaigh introduces the idea of the constant work. He uses the analogy of a coffee urn to illustrate the desirable characteristics of such a system.

Diva

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I added this album after listening to Nostalgia.

Tracks

Why
Walking on Broken Glass
Precious
Legend in My Living Room
Cold
Money Can’t Buy It
Little Bird
Primitive
Stay by Me
The Gift
Keep Young and Beautiful

Reservoir

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks

Stealing Horses
Reservoir
Shoot Back
Everlasting
Bloodstain
Paul Gilley
Sunfisher
Silver Bullet
Outtakes
Called Away

SOS

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks

SOS
Kill Bill
Seek & Destroy
Low
Love Language
Blind
Used (feat. Don Toliver)
Snooze
Notice Me
Gone Girl
Smoking on My Ex Pack
Ghost in the Machine (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
F2F
Nobody Gets Me
Conceited
Special
Too Late
Far
Shirt
Open Arms (feat. Travis Scott)
I Hate U
Good Days
Forgiveless (feat. Ol’ Dirty Bastard)

How long is a blog post?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:08:00 +0000

This post by Winnie Lim caught my attention.

“telling myself repeatedly that a blog post doesn’t have to be lengthy”
– @wynlim@kopiti.am

I have a folder of unfinished blog posts that get purged every once in a while. Except, they aren’t blog posts. They aren’t long enough. They aren’t finished. To quote Alex;

“I don’t know where this barrier or expectation comes from."
– @alex@social.alexschroeder.ch

I tried creating /notes but sometimes feel these need to be longer to be worth publishing.

Nostalgia

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I discovered this album after my sister shared a video of her son dancing to Annie Lennox in our family WhatsApp group. I suspect I’ll be adding a few more Annie Lennox albums to my library over the coming days.

Tracks

Memphis In June
Georgia On My Mind
I Put a Spell on You
Summertime
I Cover the Waterfront
Strange Fruit
God Bless the Child
You Belong to Me
September in the Rain
I Can Dream, Can’t I?
The Nearness of You
Mood Indigo

A moment of pride: unexpected compliments

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 19:00:00 +0000

A rare moment of pride. My son picked out one of the slips in our family gratitude jar and read it without hesitation. His reading is really coming along. But it was conclusion that had me smiling more than anything:

“Mum your Chinese writing is so good.”

I have to keep working on it though. His writing (second strip) is catching up fast.

Sounds of China

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:00:00 +0000

I present these audio clips as a collection of sounds I heard in Beijing this winter. Recorded as voice notes on an iPhone they capture the ambient sound heard at different points during my trip. I didn’t aim to capture any specific sounds or situations, so what you hear is a fairly random sampling of sounds. The only trigger was my remembering to start recording.

When recording these, I didn’t know how they would turn out. But listening back to them I can place every single one. The sound takes me back to that specific moment. I can see the people, feel the motion of the subway cars, or picture the items on the isles in a supermarket.

We Know by the Moon

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 09:21:53 +0000

Tracks

The Moon Shines Bright
The Moon Shined on My Bed Last Night
Every Day is Three
Apprenticed in London
’s Fhada Leam an Oidhche Gheamhraidh
Are Ye Sleepin Maggie
The Wild Wild Berry
O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast
The Wife of Usher’s Well
The Hurdy Gurdy Man (Der Leiermann)
Oh, Watch the Stars

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 15 - Shougang

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 30 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

For our final day in Beijing, we met up with friends in the Shougang district. Shougang is an old steel district. Many of the factories have been converted to offices or retail spaces. The district underwent significant regeneration ahead of the Winter Olympics. Many of the old steelworks buildings are now home to offices and retail outlets.

A building in Shougang Park (首钢园).

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 14 - Skiing with a side of Dumplings

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

We are back in Beijing after a short break further north. This was our first family skiing trip, three days at the Thai Woo ski resort outside of Chong Li (崇礼区) in Hebei (河北). Chong Li was the home of skiing at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Much of the infrastructure remains, including a fast rail link from Beijing. But, as with many Olympic projects, significant portions of it appear abandoned.

Our eldest preparing to ski down from the hotel on our first day.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 8 - Packing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 23 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

We set today aside for packing. A quick weather check for tomorrow’s trip and it’s a high of -12ºC and a low of -24ºC. I suspect we’ve ended up over-packing as a result. We’ve not been able to break the habit of carrying stuff around to deal with unexpected scenarios.

What if our youngest gets hungry and we can’t find somewhere to eat. Mum will feed him. But what if mum is feeling unwell? Dad will make him a bottle. But what if we can’t boil some water in time? We’ll bring some ready made milk as well. And like that, we are carrying way more than we’ll ever need.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 7 - In search of biscuits

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

We are heading north to Hebei province on Sunday. We allocated today to get everything we needed for the trip, and tomorrow for packing. We’ve learned from experience that trying to pack too much into a day hurts us in the long run. Our youngest still doesn’t sleep through the night and so we trying to keep some semblance of rhythm in the days. By rhythm, I mean food and naps.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 6 - Home with food

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

We gave ourselves another rest day today. My eldest has spent a bit of time on homework and writing his own travel journal. Our youngest has been learning to pull himself up into a standing position. I tackled life admin; taxes, school registration, and a clear out of our family calendar for next year. 2024 sees several changes to family routine and we are taking whatever time we can to get ahead of things.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 5 - At home

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

Today was a pizza and puzzles day. We took one look out the window this morning and decided we need a rest day. When we have the heating on back home, I open the windows occasionally to keep the air indoors fresh. With better draft insulation and more of us living under one roof, I’ve been trying to do the same here. The only trouble is, I open a window and the whole thing freezes in position. My rest day became a constant battle against frozen window mechanisms.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 4 - The Forbidden City

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

Our eldest is old enough now that he remembers the places we take him. He loves making connections between things he sees in books and things he sees when out and about. One of the places that comes up often is The Forbidden City (故宫). We decided that winter would be a good time to take him based on a memory, now decades old, that it was quiet in winter.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 3 - We needed warm clothes

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

We had one goal today, and that was to get warm clothes. After a couple of days in these temperatures we are starting to know what clothes work and what don’t. One of the largest malls in this part of Beijing is a 35 minute walk away, but with a baby to carry, we took the subway.

Heading out into the compound, still covered in snow.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 2 - The Temple of Heaven

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 17 Dec 2023 23:00:00 +0800

I’ll start with an admission. I spent all day shooting photos with the camera only to get home and realise that I had left the memory card at home. I’m kicking myself for disabling the warning in the camera. I’m even more annoyed that I didn’t review the images while out. I would at least have picked up on my error. I’m gutted. Photos today are the few I took on the phone.

Beijing, Winter '23, Day 1 - We stayed local

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 23:43:00 +0800

I’m often asked what it’s like to travel to Beijing. I’ve never known how to answer the question. Ask me what to do here and I’d have to reach for a guide book before making any suggestions. I’ve never turned up to this city as a tourist or an outsider. From my first visit over 17 years ago I was welcomed into the city as a local. I can still remember looking out an apartment window at a snow covered Beijing below. Everything was strange. I couldn’t speak the language and yet I felt so comfortable.

Andy Goldsworthy

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 19:07:00 +0000

Whilst walking around the Tremenheere sculpture park, my son collected an armful of fallen leaves. As we waited for the family to re-group he began to lay them out in a pattern on the stump of a tree. My sister asked if I’d ever shown him the work of Andy Goldsworthy. I’d not heard of Andy, but his work is incredible.

“Goldsworthy is rarely attracted to the idea of permanence — contradicting most artist’s concerns with permanence and endurance. But there is always a record with Goldworthy’s photographs being an essential part of the installation.

First Two Pages of Frankenstein

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks

Once Upon a Poolside (featuring Sufjan Stevens)
Eucalyptus
New Order T-Shirt
This Isn’t Helping (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)
Tropic Morning News
Alien
The Alcott (featuring Taylor Swift)
Grease in Your Hair
Ice Machines
Your Mind Is Not Your Friend (featuring Bridgers)
Send for Me

Carpenters

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I found this album when it appeared in a photo in Winnie Lim’s Japan travel journal: nostalgia in akihabara.

Tracks

Rainy Days and Mondays
Saturday
Let Me Be the One
(A Place To) Hideaway
For All We Know (from the motion picture Lovers and Other Strangers)
Superstar
Druscilla Penny
One Love
Knowing When to Leave/Make It Easy on Yourself/(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me/I’ll Never Fall in Love Again/Walk on By/Do You Know the Way to San Jose
Sometimes

Web Browser Engineering

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 13:30:00 +0000

“Web browsers are ubiquitous, but how do they work? This book explains, building a basic but complete web browser, from networking to JavaScript, in a couple thousand lines of Python.”

I stumbled across this book in Robin Sloan’s newsletter Attention Router. There is no need to go building your own web browser, but this strikes me as a project that would leave you with a deeper understanding of how the web works.

creative retail experiences, and warmth in tokyo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 18:00:00 +0000

In addition to some beautiful images captured on the streets of Tokyo, Winnie has this to say on travelling.

I wrote about my psychological health improving when I travel, I think a part of it is that travelling increases the opportunities for positive and warm human interactions. Because of all the awkwardness that exists due to language and cultural differences, there seems to be a special kind of grace reserved. We do have our fair share of negative encounters but in general there is warmth.

How to Learn Anything Easily

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 15:42:00 +0000

“the difference between students isn’t in their potential to learn particular things, but in how fast they can learn them”

I love this idea that anyone can learn anything, it just takes us different times to learn it. I used to hold the belief that I couldn’t learn languages. Yet I’m now (occasionally) able to survive social gatherings entirely in Mandarin Chinese. It has taken an inordinate time to reach this point though. I can learn, just slowly.

Can You Win this One-in-a-Million Game?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:45:00 +0000

This choose your own adventure style YouTube game from CGP Grey is a real labour of love. What starts as a video about Rock, Paper, Scissors quickly gets into large numbers and probability. If you don’t win the game (you won’t) it is well worth trying again and clicking through to the final video. Just what does it mean to say that something is improbable?

If you want to hear CGP Grey talk about the experience of making the video then this episode of the Cortex Podcast will reveal all.

Stillness

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 16:22:49 +0000

Developing Ilford HP5+

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 21:48:59 +0000

This note isn’t intended to be a guide on how to develop film at home. This is a collection of tips and notes from my development experience.

Tip: Download the Massive Dev Chart Timer App (£8.99).
The app will help lookup and calculate developer times and mix ratios. But the most valuable feature is the timer. I kept second guessing myself on everything until I started using the timer. With the timer I have the confidence to develop a tank and clean up as I go.

The Priming Effect: or my inability to follow instructions

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 12:47:32 +0000

We are in the process of introducing a single daily bottle of milk formula to our son’s diet. It’s been five years since we last did this, and all memories of how to approach this, or how it went have long since faded.

This blog post isn’t about the reasons for introducing formula or the approach we’ve taken. This is about how people make mistakes and our ability to dismiss these mistakes as simple human error.

Filtered Reality

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 12:12:35 +0000

My son spent the day walking around wearing heart shaped yellow tinted glasses. They were a gift at the end of a birthday party last summer. The day was freezing cold, but every time I look at this image it feels delightfully warm. It’s incredible how our senses can be tricked into convincing us of an alternative reality. We filter things all the time, not just images but sounds, text, smells, feelings. What do these filters do to our sense of reality.

Creating a Photography Gallery with Hugo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:11:53 +0000

Many years ago I left Instagram and stopped sharing any of my photography publicly. I would occasionally share photos privately within a WhatsApp or WeChat group, but I lost the urge to share more broadly. I considered posting here on my blog, but both the theme and the publishing process weren’t photo friendly. Over the last few months, I’ve tweaked this blog just enough to make it possible to share photos again. Inspired by Darek Key’s write up of building a photography website, this is how I enhanced my blog to share photos again.

What do you want to learn?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 09:16:48 +0000

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    '
    
        src="/2023/11/06/what-do-you-want-to-learn/IMG_3270.jpeg" 
    
     alt="Working through the Lego Education - Simple Machines lesson on Gears."/><figcaption>
        <p>Working through the Lego Education - Simple Machines lesson on Gears.</p>
    </figcaption>

On the way to school one morning, my son and I found ourselves waiting longer than usual at a level crossing. He has always enjoyed standing by the barriers and guessing which direction the train will come from, but this wait was longer than usual. We began talking about what he’d been learning at school. Like many children, he doesn’t particularly enjoy being peppered with questions about his school day. And, like many parents, I’ve been looking for ways to vary the conversation.

Contributing to OpenStreetMap

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:53:44 +0000

Assumed Audience: Anyone who has noticed a mistake in an online map or route.

I always tend to over-estimate how long it will take me to walk somewhere. Even on routes I walk regularly, I find myself arriving far too early. In an effort to improve my estimation I looked up walking directions for a local route and noticed something odd. Multiple maps suggested a walking route that took me through a private estate and a locked gate. The route would be ideal, if only the directions included the pin code for the gate lock. The directions were wrong.

Backyard

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 21:40:00 +0100

Temple of Heaven

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 21:36:00 +0100

Teamwork

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:33:00 +0100

The Desk

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 02:06:01 +0100

Fishing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 20:45:20 +0100

School Gates

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 20:45:20 +0100

A Moment Shared

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 19:03:49 +0100

The Kitchen

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 02:11:11 +0100

Flowers

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 22:50:40 +0100

Sent

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 10:46:53 +0100

Tracks

Hair
Look At My Way
Tsiok Kú Bô Kìnn
Sent
Fauvism
I love you only because I love you – What If?
Frenemy
Farewell Summer

5SOS5

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks

“Complete Mess”
“Easy for You to Say”
“Bad Omens”
“Me Myself & I”
“Take My Hand” (Joshua Tree version)
“Carousel”
“Older” (featuring Sierra Deaton)
“Haze”
“You Don’t Go to Parties”
“Blender”
“Caramel”
“Best Friends”
“Bleach”
“Red Line”
“Moodswings”
“Flatline”
“Emotions”
“Bloodhound”
“Tears!”

Zach Bryan

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Tracks

Fear and Friday’s (Poem)
Overtime
Summertime’s Close
East Side of Sorrow
Hey Driver (feat. The War and Treaty)
Fear and Friday’s
Ticking
Holy Roller (feat. Sierra Ferrell)
Jake’s Piano - Long Island
El Dorado
I Remember Everything (feat. Kacey Musgraves)
Tourniquet
Spotless (feat. The Lumineers)
Tradesman
Smaller Acts
Oklahoman Son

SRE vs. Platform Engineering

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 15:09:26 +0100

How application teams are organised

Organisation chart showing that multiple application teams are supported by both Platform Engineering and Site Reliability Engineering teams. Application teams measure success with business KPIs. Platform and SRE teams measure success with SLOs

@EmilyMBenderChatGPWhy2023

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:27:05 +0100

Author: Emily M. Bender
Full Title: ChatGP-why: When, if ever, is synthetic text safe, appropriate, and desirable?
Slides: Bender-GRAILE-2023.pdf
Talk: YouTube

Notes

There is a long list of examples of where the use of ChatGPT hasn’t turned out the way people expect.
Language form does not contain meaning and this explains why language models don’t understand.
Large language models are corpus models
Claude Shannon worked on early language models
Unigram language model models frequency of single words
Bigram language model models frequency of words given previous word
Trigram language model models frequency of words given previous two words
Good uses for language models include:
- Spell checkers
- Machine transcription
- Machine translation
- Text input
Neural networks are made of of perceptrons
A perceptron is a simplified model of a neuron
Transformer architecture is an arrangement or perceptrons
Language models use word embeddings
The number of words in training data determines the size of a language model
Generative AI is a mis-use of a classification and ranking tool
Generative AI produces plausible output not intelligence
In order to determine whether a machine can understand and infer meaning, we need definitions understanding and meaning.
Language competency makes it hard to separate form from meaning
Form refers to the marks on a page for language, the arrangement of pixels for images or video, etc.
Language meaning is the relationship between form and something external
Understanding is the recovery of communicative intent from form
Virtual assistants can understand limited instructions
Language models exposed only to form can never learn meaning
Language models do not learn the same way as babies
Babies learn the relationship between form (sound, mouth movement) and meaning by forming connections with external cues that hint at communicative intent.
The Octopus Paper show that form does not contain meaning
Large language models have a significant environmental impact
Environmental cost of large language models impacts marginalised communities
The contents of the internet do not represent a balanced view of humanity
The young and those from developed countries are more likely to have contributed to the volume of work available on the internet.
Sampling the internet without bias is hard
Large language models are too big
Generative AI output does not contain communicative intent
We bring our own understanding to language form
When reading generative text, it is important to remember that the inference of meaning is our own.
A Stochastic Parrot refers to the stitching together of form without meaning
Coherence is in the eye of the beholder
Synthetic text lacks accountability
There is no Who behind generative text
Generative AI pollutes the information ecosystem
Information retrieval is a terrible use-case for a large language model
The more accurate generative text becomes the more dangerous it is
Chatbots hide the sources of the information they regurgitate
Responsible use-cases for generative AI include:
- where the only thing that matters is form
- text must not confuse author with a person
- text needs to clearly articulate biases
- consider labor practices
- consider data theft
Good use-cases for generative AI include:
- a dialogue partner for language learning
- a non-playable character
- writing support
Good use-cases for generative text must consider the costs
Be a critical consumer of AI
We need to understand how the AI technology was evaluated in the context in which it is being used.
We need to understand who benefits from the use of AI instead of a human?
You are responsible for your use of generative text
We must insist on transparency of source material in the training data.
Talk to students about what generative AI is
Use of generative AI in education is a missed learning opportunity
Use of generative AI by students indicates broader problem

Further Information

Three podcasts worth subscribing to on AI:

Education

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 01 Oct 2023 13:43:26 +0100

Routine

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 07:57:25 +0100

Challenge

The theme was routine. The constraints were full manual, no editing outside of the camera.

Homework

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 10:34:13 +0100

Potential

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:52:07 +0100

Spider

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:47:27 +0100

The Field

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:28:56 +0100

Purpose

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:27:10 +0100

Brickyard

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 14:16:04 +0100

The Great Wall

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 17:37:03 +0100

Brickyard

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 14:35:19 +0100

Live Traffic Light Timing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:00:00 +0700

Assumed Audience: anyone with an interest in delightful technology or technical estimation

On a trip to Beijing, I saw navigation apps included real-time traffic light updates. They show the live countdown to a change in the lights. An audible prompt lets you know of an impending change. This is particularly useful when some sequences involve wait times over 99s. I’d not seen this before, but seeing it in action was one of those rare delightful moments with technology.

Inner Loop / Outer Loop - What's in a Translation?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 12:17:26 +0700

Assumed Audience: anyone with an interest in translation or Mandarin Chinese

Two photos of a map of Beijing Subway Line 10 showing the translations for directions of travel.

I came across an interesting translation on the Line 10 subway in Beijing today.

Underground

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 14:44:46 +0100

Stillness

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 15:13:35 +0000

Purpose

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 14:48:59 +0000

Break Time

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 14:42:54 +0000

By Bike

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 14:39:53 +0000

Where To?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 14:32:57 +0000

Watermellon

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:04:24 +0000

Something Missing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 12:29:05 +0000

Private Property

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 11:47:13 +0000

The Stadium

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 08:21:19 +0000

History

The Polytechnic Stadium in London was built in 1938 on the Quintin Hogg memorial grounds in Chiswick, London. It suffered bomb damage in 1944 but was brought back into use. As a child, this is where we used to come for school sports days. The grandstand is a grade 2 protected structure but is currently cordened off and unused due to safety concerns. Plans are in place to renovate the stadium and bring it back into use.

Social Audio as a Vector For Engineering Wisdom

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 21:22:26 +0100

Assumed Audience: anyone working as an engineer or leading an engineering team

Back when I worked in consulting, it was frowned upon to talk in public about the work we did. This was especially true when things went very publicly wrong, but also true when near disaster was successfully hidden. There are many engineering stories behind some of the systems we take for granted; energy billing, same day retail deliveries, click and collect, digital banking, to name a few. It seems a shame that those stories remain the preserve of the few who happened to witness them unfold. Looking back on them, I’d have loved to share them with the world.

The Campsite

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 28 May 2023 06:47:03 +0000

Tanzu Application Platform (GitOps / SOPS) - create custom secrets

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 09:47:05 +0100

Assumed Audience: platform operators of the Tanzu Application Platform following the GitOps installation method

Tanzu Application Platform 1.5 includes beta support for GitOps installation. I’ve been using SOPS for secrets management with my installation. I quickly ran into the need to include custom secrets as part of the installation.

In this post, I outline the general process for including additional secrets with SOPS and then show how I used this to configure LetsEncrypt to issue a valid TLS certificate for the TAP GUI.

Timetable

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 12:43:06 +0000

Joy

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 15 Apr 2023 12:27:31 +0000

Realisation

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 17:52:06 +0000

Lessons from Drawing System Diagrams

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 17:42:21 +0000

Assumed Audience: anyone who has drawn a system or software diagram; architects, engineers, developers

I came across this list of common software diagraming mistakes by IcePanel and was reminded of the days when I used to spend much of my day explaining complex systems. Diagrams were always involved but not always successful. As a result, there are a few tips I’d add to the list.

State your assumed audience

💡 Tip: Clearly articulate your assumed audience for each diagram.

Reading from the Book of Wisdom

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Isabelle Glover 13th August 1928 - 13th December 2022

Book of Wisdom vv21 - 26 Read by William Glover

For great strength is always present with you; who can resist the might of your arm?

Indeed, before you the whole universe is like a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook sins for the sake of repentance.

2022 Rewind

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 23:59:59 +0000

Looking back across world headlines, it’s hard to see much positivity in 2022. Narrowing my focus to national issues and things look even worse. There is no one event that stands out. It’s the trend that worries me.

I’m not usually one for looking back over previous years, but as I sat in one of the friendliest bakehouses in London this morning, catching up with an old friend, I realised that 2022 has been a good year.

Las Uvas

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 25 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 25

Name	Las Uvas
Grower	Marina Ramirez
Origin	Honduras
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Silky
Hints of	Blackberry & black tes

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 97.5ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of a the vegetable isle in a Chinese supermarket. An earthy mix of smells that all felt alien.

El Durazno

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 24

Name	El Durazno
Grower	Venutra Family
Origin	Guatemala
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Honey
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Chewy
Hints of	Plum, brown sugar & liquorice

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 96.4ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of a sweet wood with hints of apple vinegar.

La Pedregosa

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 23

Name	La Pedregosa
Grower	Mauricio Vega
Origin	Colombia
Variety	Castillo
Process	Washed
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Round
Hints of	Raspberry cream chocolate

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 96.2ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of an apple wood. When wet the smell was creamy soft.

Muthua-ini

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 22

Name	Muthua-ini
Grower	A collective of smallholder farmers
Origin	Kenya
Variety	SL-28, SL-34
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Silky
Hints of	Blackcurrant coulis

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.4ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The grounds smelled like cloves. Not the strong fresh clove smell, but the weaker, more subtle smell of cloves that have been allowed to sit in the open for a while.

Chapanda

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 21

Name	Chapanda
Grower	Marcus Carvalho
Origin	Brazil
Variety	Sucupira
Process	Natural
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Heavy
Hints of	Dark chocolate & glaće cherry

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.1ºC. Measured 21g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds gave off a plum like fruitiness. When wet the smell was more chocolatey.

El Aguacate

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 20

Name	El Aguacate
Grower	Saturnino Bejarano Aguilar
Origin	Honduras
Variety	Catuai
Process	Washed
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Silky
Hints of	Panela/Muscovado Sugar

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.2ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of a sweet, spiced plum.

Cafeina Blend

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 16:00:00 +0000

Day 19

Name	Cafeina Blend
Grower	Adalgisa S.M. Vilela, Julia Figueiredo and Elza Leopoldino
Origin	Brazil
Variety	Mundo Novo, Acauã
Process	Natural
Roast	Medium/Dark
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Creamy
Hints of	Dark chocolate & apricot

Preparation

Time: 16:00

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 94.4ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Kimunye

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 18 Dec 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Day 18

Name	Kimunye
Grower	A collective of smallholder farmers
Origin	Kenya
Variety	SL-28, SL-34
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Juicy
Hints of	Blackberry

Preparation

Time: 12:00

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of a fruity bramble, perhaps freshly picked berries.

Finca El Zapote

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 17 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 17

Name	Finca El Zapote
Grower	Julio Roberto Meléndez Peréz
Origin	Guatemala
Variety	Caturra
Process	Natural
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Orange
Mouthfeel	Creamy
Hints of	Peach cheesecake

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 96.3ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The grounds smelled of pistachio with a sweetness that I attributed to rose.

Kaiguri

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 16

Name	Kaiguri
Grower	A collective of smallholder farmers
Origin	Kenya
Variety	SI-28, SL-34
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Round
Hints of	Blackcurrant

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of fresh kindling. A freshness about to be lost to the smell of a roaring fire.

El Silencio

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 15

Name	El Silencio
Grower	Oscar Ortiz Gonzalez
Origin	Colombia
Variety	Castillo, Colombia
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Syrupy
Hints of	Strawberry liquorice

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.6ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of toasted hazelnuts, in those moments just before they catch and burn.

San Jeronimo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:15:00 +0000

Day 14

Name	San Jeronimo
Grower	Bressani family
Origin	Guatemala
Variety	Caturra
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Orange
Mouthfeel	Creamy
Hints of	Orange cheescake

Preparation

Time: 10:15

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 96.9ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds convinced me this was a dark roast. There were hints of an acidic fruit but I couldn’t place which one.

El Zapote

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 10:15:00 +0000

Day 13

Name	El Zapote
Grower	Francisco Alvarado
Origin	Honduras
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Round
Hints of	Black tea & cranberry

Preparation

Time: 10:15

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 94.2ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds gave off a strong toasted nutty aroma.

Karango

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Day 12

Name	Karango
Grower	A collective of smallholder farmers
Origin	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Juicy
Hints of	Blackcurrant & apricot

Preparation

Time: 12:00

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.2ºC. Measured 21g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds smelled like the bark of a sour fruit tree. I couldn’t place the fruit.

Capim Seco

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 11:15:00 +0000

Day 11

Name	Capim Seco
Grower	Rafael Dias Pereira
Origin	Brazil
Variety	Icatu
Process	Pulped Natural
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Round
Hints of	Picnic bar

Preparation

Time: 11:15

Observation

The coffee grounds had a spicy but earthy smell that I struggled to place. When wet they reminded me of freshly turned earth in the spring.

La Esperanza

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 10 Dec 2022 10:15:00 +0000

Day 10

Name	La Esperanza
Grower	Javier Ortega
Origin	Colombia
Variety	Castillo, Colombia
Process	Washed
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Smooth
Hints of	Raspberry & green apple

Preparation

Time: 10:15

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 94.6ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The coffee grounds had one of the strongest aromas yet. A toasted bark smell with a hint of fruit.

Remera Natural

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 10:15:00 +0000

Day 9

Name	Remera Natural
Grower	A collective of smallholder farmers
Origin	Rwanda
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Natural
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Creamy
Mouthfeel	Creamy
Hints of	Strawberry & cream

Preparation

Time: 10:15

Observation

The coffee grounds reminded me of a sweet chinese plum, the sticky kind that are almost dry but still retain enough moisture to keep them soft.

Filadelfia

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 8

Name	Filadelfia
Grower	Roberto Dalton
Origin	Guatemala
Variety	Bourbon, Caturra
Process	Washed
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Coating
Hints of	Dark chocolate tiffin

Preparation

Time: 11:30

Observation

The coffee grounds had a distinct aroma of indian spices.

Buenos Aires

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 12:30:00 +0000

Day 7

Name	Buenos Aires
Grower	José Ramón Collazos & María Del Rosario Ariza Coy
Origin	Colombia
Variety	Caturra, Castillo
Process	Washed
Roast	Medium
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Round
Hints of	Ripe plum

Preparation

Time: 12:00

Observation

A very light smell, hints of apple and freshly sanded floorboards. It is entirely possible that recent floor sanding has clouded my sense of smell.

El Derrumbo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 6

Name	El Derrumbo
Grower	Joaquin Martinez
Origin	Honduras
Variety	Lempira
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Silky
Hints of	Peach, nectarine & white tea

Preparation

Time: 10:45

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 93.6ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

There was a dampness to the smell of the grounds. Sweet, fruity but distinctly the strength of aroma that comes off damp mossy wood.

Ndundu

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 5

Name	Ndundu
Grower	A collective of smallholder farmers
Origin	Kenya
Variety	SL-28, SL-34
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Grape
Mouthfeel	Tea-like
Hints of	Blackcurrant & bergamot

Preparation

Time: 10:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 94.2ºC. Measured 21g coffee and poured 50ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

The grounds reminded my of freshly pealed parsnip. Distinctly sweet but earthy, with a hint of apple. In the mug the armoa shifted, giving off a hint of berry or bramble.

Sertão

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 4

Name	Sertão
Grower	Nazareth Dias Pereira
Origin	Brazil
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Natural
Roast	Medium / Dark
Acidity	Creamy
Mouthfeel	Round
Hints of	Dark chocolate, cherry & almond

Preparation

Time: 10:30

Observation

This coffee smelled toasted, a dark roast. The smell ends with a syrupy sweetness. In the mug the smell shifts towards the middled of the nose. The sweet notes fade leaving a strong woody smell.

Muungano

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 3

Name	Muungano
Grower	A collective of smallholder famrers
Origin	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Variety	Bourbon
Process	Natural
Roast	Light
Acidity	Orange
Mouthfeel	Velvety
Hints of	Maraschino cherries

Preparation

Time: 15:30

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 98.6ºC. Measured 20g coffee and poured 25ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 300ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

If the smell of the coffee were a musical note it would be high pitched. The smell itself was subtle but with hints of an earthy bitterness. In the mug, the musical notes drop a few octaves and we start to detect smells of toasting.

Zaroca

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 2

Name	Zaroca
Grower	Gilberto Basilo
Origin	Brazil
Variety	Mundo Novo
Process	Pulped natural
Roast	Dark
Acidity	Apple
Mouthfeel	Creamy
Hints of	Dark chocolate & cocoa nibs

Preparation

Time: 11:40

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.6ºC. Measured 22g coffee and poured 25ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 260ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

Smelling the coffee when wet I was again reminded of smells that would put me right off coffee. A mushroom scent mixed with damp wood was something I couldn’t shake. This scent was interesting in that I could only sense it at the back of my nose right at the top. It’s rare to have such a localised sense of smell.

El Tolú

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 11:30:00 +0000

Day 1

Name	El Tolú
Grower	Manuel Duarte Orduz
Origin	Columbia
Variety	Castillo
Process	Washed
Roast	Light
Acidity	Orange
Mouthfeel	Silky
Hints of	Lavender & Honey

Preparation

Time: 11:00

Washed the filter, warmed the mug and prepared hot water. Water temperature was 95.6ºC. Measured 21g coffee and poured 25ml over the coffee to wet it. Waited 30s and pured over a further 250ml water, keeping the filter funnel about half full.

Observation

Smelling the coffee when wet I was instantly reminded of Chinese food which I couldn’t quite place. I eventually settled on something that reminded me of roast meat accompanied by radish. A description that, if it appeared on the side of a bag of coffee, would almost instantly put me off buying it.

Tanzu Application Platform, Pinniped and Auth0

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 09:18:10 +0000

This post documents adding authentication to the Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) using Auth0 and Pinniped.

I often take shortcuts with authentication when demonstrating technology. In-part this is because setting up authentication and authorization can be difficult. That said, there are benefits to the flexibility of an administrative user. Like many who work with short-lived Kubernetes clusters, my default is Cluster Admin.

One downside to using cluster-admin is that I’m unable to explore RBAC capabilities. The capabilities and limitations of RBAC influence the experience of a product. The Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) is no exception. If real world use sees users mapped to one of the four default user roles that come with TAP, why do I use cluster-admin? I needed an instance of TAP configured with an identity provider that allowed me to map users to roles.

Docker and LetsEncrypt

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:14:45 +0100

If you are running a private container registry and using a certificate provided by LetsEncrypt, make sure you are using fullchain.pem and not cert.pem. If you miss this, the Docker CLI will report that your certificate is signed by an unknown authority.

I have an instance of Harbor running as a private container registry. The certificate used by this instance is provided by LetsEncrypt and yet the Docker CLI refused to let me log in.

My First Marathon

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 13:13:16 +0100

Last weekend I completed the Richmond Marathon in a time of 04:52:11.

A colleague once joked that I couldn’t run 10km. First thing the next morning, I got up and ran 10km around the Exeter waterfront. I didn’t do it to prove them wrong, I did it because I believed they were right and wanted to prove myself wrong. Many years later, I set myself a new challenge, to run a marathon. I crossed the finish line slower than I’d have liked, but I made it. This post is my way of celebrating the achievement. It also serves as a collection of notes should I, or anyone else, consider something like this again.

Backup and Restore AKS Clusters with Tanzu (Azure File storage)

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 11:25:00 +0000

Context

A customer asked how I might backup and restore workloads running on AKS using Azure File Premium storage. Azure Files mount an SMB share backed by an Azure storage account to pods running on AKS. For more details on storage options on AKS see the Azure documentation.

Migrate between Kubernetes clusters with Tanzu (Rancher to Azure)

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 11:20:00 +0000

Context

A customer asked how I might approach the challenge of migrating applications running on one Kubernetes cluster and restore them onto a new cluster running a different Kubernetes distribution. Assuming you don’t need to migrate the applications under load, backup and restore is a reasonable option.

Contact Me

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 11:15:00 +0000

The best way to reach me is email. With the appeal of social networks waning, I’ve returned to an old favourite, email. I’ve been in touch with a few of you over recent weeks and found the exchanges to be far more personal, engaging and altogether human.

Email: hello@bill.dev
Mastadon: @bill@hachyderm.io

I can also be found on:

WhatsApp
WeChat

Meet

I’ve temporarily removed the ability to book slots in my diary whilst I navigate the return to work and settling children into new school and nursery. I’ll open them up again soon.

Migrate between Kubernetes clusters with Tanzu (Rancher to Tanzu)

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 11:15:00 +0000

Context

Use the Kubernetes downwards API to set GOMEMLIMIT

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 21:10:06 +0100

Go 1.19 introduced the ability to tune the way the garbage collector works by setting a soft memory limit. One recommendation is to use this new memory limit when deploying in a container environment. This post looks at using the Kubernetes Downward API to set this soft limit.

Do I need a Soft Memory Limit

Do take advantage of the memory limit when the execution environment of your Go program is entirely within your control, and the Go program is the only program with access to some set of resources (i.e. some kind of memory reservation, like a container memory limit).

How to upgrade Ubuntu on Digital Ocean

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 21:32:13 +0100

How to upgrade Ubuntu on Digital Ocean

When canonical release a new version of Ubuntu, you are prompted to run this command to upgrade.

do-release-upgrade

Running this command on a Digital Ocean droplet will give you the following warning.

“Some third party entries in your sources.list were disabled. You can re-enable them after the upgrade with the ‘software-properties’ tool or your package manager.”

You can continue the upgrade but it will fail and roll-back to the previous version. The error you are given includes the following phrase.

Use a forked Go module

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 11:19:16 +0100

Whenever I want to work with a forked Go module, I have to look up how to do so. It doesn’t feel immediately obvious what to change. This note documents my current approach.

I need to do this when a third party module I depend on doesn’t include features I need. I fork the third party module and make some changes. But these changes are only available in my fork. These may get merged into a new version of the module but in the meantime I want to continue working off my fork.

Copy Files to and from a Container

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 24 May 2022 09:56:32 +0000

Problem: I needed to copy some database files into a container running on Kubernetes without modifying the image or restarting the parent Pod.

Solution: The Kubernetes CLI includes a sub-command for copying files into and out of a running container: kubectl cp /tmp/foo <some-pod>:/tmp/bar

Background

I’ve never found the need to copy files into a running container without issuing an updated image. This is somewhat of an anti-pattern as modifications to containerised filesystems that aren’t mounted externally are lost when the container process terminates.

Working in the Dark

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 23 May 2022 19:06:51 +0000

In episode 114 of Darknet Diaries, Jack Rhysider talks to HD Moore the creator of Metasploit. The whole episode is worth a listen, but wanted to share this section from the last few minutes of the episode (no spoilers) where Jack summarises the skills HD has demonstrated developing Metasploit. One skill in particular stands out for being hard to quantify, and often overlooked; working in the dark.

Jack begins:

“I find this particular skill to be one of the most important skills when dealing with technology: Which is being comfortable doing things in the dark, in areas that you have no knowledge of or visibility into. Because when working in IT you are constantly faced with new challenges or problems that you have no idea how to solve. The problem might even be so weird that you don’t even know what to Google.

Update Trivy Database in Harbor

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 19 May 2022 14:56:00 +0000

I recently deployed Harbor and Trivy with automatic updating disabled. I hadn’t realise that this would prevent images from being scanned at all and so needed to trigger a manual update. This note describes how to manually trigger an update to the Trviy database in Harbor deployed on top of VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid.

Demo

Instructions

Switch context to the cluster where you have deployed Harbor.

Diy Traffic Lights

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 01 May 2022 17:32:04 +0100

The imagination of a child can bring a Lego city to life. I can still remember my dad helping me build an automated “Mind the Gap” announcement for the 12V Lego railway system. It was a classic case of over-engineering; completely unnecessary but so much fun.

A microswitch carefully placed at the end of a station platform joined two pins on a parrallel port cable (the wide ones that we used to use to connect printers). A BASIC program running in an infinite loop handled switch de-bouncing and then started a sequence of beeps accompanied by text on an orange display to warn the little Lego figures they needed to Mind the Gap when leaving the train. I loved it.

Build Multi-Architecture Docker Images

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 19:22:32 +0000

Back in 2018, I wrote about Multi-Architecture Docker Builds. My main aim then was to run the occasional container image on a Raspberry Pi. Apple’s transition to M1 based machines has increased demand for multi-architecture container images. In this post, I document an improved approach to building multi-architecture images.

I’ll use a Go application to show the build process. It prints the current runtime OS and CPU architecture to the terminal and then exits.

Writing multi-line strings into a text file in bash script

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 22:36:19 +0000

Problem: I wanted to use a shell script to write multi-line strings into a text file. I didn’t want parameters or commands to be substituted in the text being written.

Solution: You need to quote the limit string when specifying your here-document.

References

My fist discovery was that the pattern for doing this in a shell script was called a “Here Document”. I don’t think I have ever looked up the bash manual before. But this is where I found the solution.

Replace Environment Variables in a File

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 20:17:59 +0000

Every now and again you stumble across a command that solves a problem you didn’t realise you had. Recently, I discovered envsubst.

“Substitutes the values of environment variables.”

I’ve found myself substituting environment variables in configuration files increasingly often (see: Kubernetes). On more than one occasion I’ve tied myself in knots trying to do this with scripts. It turns out that envsubst does most of what I need.

Take the following file, example.yaml:

Learning to write Chinese: Emoji to the Rescue

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 09:00:00 +0000

秋、秋、愁、利、揪、香

During lockdown I’ve been learning to write Chinese characters. I’ve been making slow but consistent progress. More importanly, I’ve been enjoying it again. Some characters are definitely easier to recall than others. As it turns out, emoji can be a great way to represent the stories I’ve used to get some of the characters to stick.

秋： 🌾 🔥

Think of the farmer who spends “autumn” throwing left over rice on the fire to burn it before it rots during winter.

What I Read

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Towards the end of last year, I picked up the habit of spending time in the park before work each morning. I’d take a book, find a quiet bench and settle in. When the current restrictions on movement are lifted, this is a habit I intend to pick up again.

One morning, it struck me that the majority of what I read gets pushed in front of me. I don’t mean push notifications, I’ve long since turned those off. I’m thinking of the continuous news feed of articles pushed in front of me for attention. My reading starts with a list. I have lists for everything;

Oblivious DNS: Practical Privacy for DNS Queries

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 09:00:00 +0000

I’ve decided to start reading more technical papers. First up, is the paper that introduces Oblivious DNS, a privacy centric alternative to DNS. These are my notes.

The Domain Name System (DNS) works wonders for the modern internet. Created in 1983 by Paul Mockapetris, DNS provided a scalable way to map names to addresses on the ARPANET. When DNS works well we take it for granted. Yet there are scenarios when threats to the integrity of DNS can cause havoc.

Use Harbor to Avoid Docker Hub Rate Limits

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 11:00:00 +0000

In November, Docker implemented new rate limits for anonymous and free use of Docker Hub. They added two new limits:

Anonymous: 100 container image requests / six hours
Free Authenticated: 200 container image requests / six hours

If you find yourself operating above these limits, you have a few options. You can sign up for a Docker Pro or Team account, or you can reduce image request frequency below thresholds.

2020 Delightful Tech

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 21:15:00 +0000

I don’t often make recommendations for apps or services. It’s rare that technology fills me with delight to such an extend that I have the urge to recommend it to others. I’m all too aware that your needs may be different from mine.

For example, I love my 2015 MacBook but I’ve never been able to recommend it to anyone. It’s slow, has one port, and was expensive. It has been an absolute delight for me and remains the best laptop I’ve ever owned. But that doesn’t make it right for you. So much so, that Apple no longer offers it for sale.

Remote Pairing Made Easy

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 15:37:00 +0000

We have many options for remote pairing on code. Each brings different trade-offs to the challenge of remote productivity.

Screen Sharing (e.g. Zoom, Whereby, etc.)
Shared IDE (e.g. VSCode Live Share)
Dedicated collaborative coding tools (e.g. GitDuck)
The good old fashioned terminal

I’m not going to go into which of these is the best pairing option, each have their merits. COMBINE.. But the last of these, the terminal, is often overlooked. If considered, the perceived set-up costs often push us towards an alternative solution.

My Toolbox: Octant

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 10:00:00 +0000

We are constantly presented with new tools all the time; scripts, themes, or even code editors. We try them, we forget about them, and before you know it a brew update take minutes rather than seconds to run. The few tools that do tend to stick around are those that solve a real need. Octant is one such tool. It’s not just the latest addition to my toolbox, it’s one that I’m turning to with increasing regularity.

Instrument Go applications with Wavefront

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 06:00:00 +0000

In the Part One of this series, I looked back at my experience with using application logs to gain insight into application and system performance. Despite the wealth of information these logs contain, much of it goes untapped. The advent of log analytics saw a step change in the information we were able to retrieve from his goldmine of untapped data. This served as a catalyst, prompting both development teams and businesses to demand more insight from their applications. But this didn’t come without challenges. The performance challenges and the coordination required to reliably obtain business metrics from log-based solutions are not insignificant. This has given rise to a new era in observability, the era of the metric.

Logging & Metrics: It’s a Journey

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 06:00:00 +0000

The Power of Logs

A few years ago, I did some work for an online retailer. The systems were complex. Over the years, the business had layered an online presence atop of systems built to serve the needs of disconnected physical stores. Change was hard. Despite this complexity, the data used to assess eCommerce performance were remarkably simple. Most prominent were the Requests Per Second (RPS) served by the web servers. Traffic patterns were so predictable that morning dips, lunchtime spikes and absolute numbers were all familiar to the business.

Conveying Context at the Terminal

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 06:00:00 +0000

I’ve run a few workshops recently that have involved streaming live terminal sessions to remote participants. During these workshops, we explore how different personas interact with Kubernetes.

The Infrastructure Admin - provides compute and storage
The DevOps Engineer - provides clusters and capabilities
The Application Developer - builds applications

These workshops are good fun to run, but it is difficult to balance the narrative with typing into the terminal. As we work through the topics, we switch between various personas. Participants often try to relate what they see on screen to the role they perform at work?

Go on ARM: why struct field alignment matters

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 14:00:00 +0000

I’d assumed the Go compiler provided a robust abstraction across CPU architectures. Code that ran on one CPU architecture would run on another. It turns out I was wrong. In this post, I provide a minimal example application that demonstrates the importance of field alignment when using sync/atomic and 64-bit values.

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Hello, 世界")
}

We can build and run this program on our local machine (in my case a MacBook) with the following command.

How I Manage Kubernetes Config

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 06:00:00 +0000

If you work with Kubernetes, you’ll be aware of the config file that defines contexts. This config is what kubectl uses to gain access to a cluster. I work with a large number of ephemeral clusters and have found that this config is difficult to manage. This post shows how I’ve switched to using individual config files for each cluster.

Your Path to Production

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 06:30:00 +0000

A simplified path to production

So you’ve done the Kubernetes thing, you have micro-services, and use all the frameworks. You’ve rolled out one or more continuous thing doers and have more metrics than you know how to dashboard. Despite all this, you are struggling to release products as fast as the business would like.

For many organisations, the path to production is more complex than you may realise. Approvals, compliance controls, and standards boards, are some of the things you’ll encounter.

Keep Your Tech Discussions on Track with Fish Bones

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 21 May 2020 21:20:35 +0000

As a child, I had a nasty experience involving pizza, anchovies and a small fishbone. I’ve never touched anchovies since and it has taken me a long time to get used to the idea of eating fish at all. But that’s not what I’m here to write about. I’m here to share a different experience of fish bones.

Recently I was preparing for a conversation with a customer where they’d asked to discuss a broad range of technologies. With these discussions, I’ve found that it is easy to get sucked into technical detail and lose sight of the main agenda. This is particularly true if the discussion involves a technical demo. I enjoy these types of discussion, but have been looking for ways to help keep things on track.

The importance of Health Probes

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 20:35:35 +0000

Introduction

Organisations of all sizes are now deploying applications to platforms such as Kubernetes. Many of these applications do not adopt cloud native practices. Often the excuse is application age or product limitation.

Many teams invest in platform infrastructure but failed to capitalise on these benefits. So what gives? Are platforms overhyped? Are the complexities of the enterprise too much for modern platforms?

Engineers deploy applications to Kubernetes to take advantage of common platform features. Many of these features claim to help maintain service availability including:

Privacy Conscious Web Logs

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 20:16:35 +0000

Anyone looking for statistics on their blog will find themselves pushed towards the big names in web analytics. In return for statistics, you are encouraged, if not required, to gather more information about your readers than strictly necessary. Even if you gather statistics from your server logs, you are almost certainly logging unnecessary information about visitors. It doesn’t have to be this way.

I’ve been attempting to revive my blog recently and wanted some insight into the posts I’ve published. Inspired by Laura Kalbag’s commitment not to track her readers (see “I don’t track you”), I wondered if I could achieve the same results with my Nginx hosted blog.

Chinese Practice Sheets

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 21:16:35 +0000

I’ve been looking to start practising my Chinese more deliberately than I have been, particularly my character recognition. I couldn’t find any character practice sheets that I liked and so I made a couple of my own.

Chinese character practice sheets

Both standard and dark mode are available below in PDF format and can be printed out or used as the background to many iPad drawing apps.

Dive Through the Layers

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 06:16:35 +0000

Dive Through the Layers

I’ve been working with a container image for a Django application and was surprised to find that an image for a simple application was 1.2 GB. This was particularly jarring as, coming from the world of Go, I’m used to images that come in at under 20 MB.

It’s not the size of the container image that’s the problem. Layer caching and re-use means that you are rarely transferring the full image around and that storage on disk is usually less than the sum of all your images. The worry I have with an image that is 1.2 GB is that everything that makes up that image needs to be maintained, patched, watched for security vulnerabilities, etc. 1.2 GB is a lot of software.

Docker Compose: Conditional Services

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 06:16:35 +0000

I recently added a docker-compose definition of services to make it easier for people to contribute to the new CodeBuddies back-end. This addresses some of the pain new contributors were feeling with setting up a local development environment. The CodeBuddies backend is an API built using the Django REST Framework. PostgreSQL provides the data store. Everything is fronted by an Nginx reverse proxy. This is often referred to as a three-tier architecture.

The Sidecar Pattern

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 08:16:35 +0000

The sidecar is a multi-container pattern used to provide additional functionality to a containerised-application without requiring changes to the application itself. The sidecar is the foundation of popular tools like the Istio service mesh. But how does it work?

In this post, I will demonstrate how to use the Sidecar pattern to add TLS termination to an existing application using a custom-built proxy server. In reality, there should be no reason to build everything from scratch, I’ve done so here to validate my understanding of how things work. This post has been written so that you can read along without implementing the examples, but if you want to get your hands dirty and code along, I’ve made a few assumptions:

WireGuard - the most stable VPN yet

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 05 Jan 2020 09:06:51 +0000

WireGuard - The Best VPN Yet

There are two reasons I regularly use a VPN connection on my portable devices; to give myself some privacy when using untrusted networks and to get around network filtering or censorship when traveling abroad. Over the years I’ve switched between running my own VPN endpoint and paying for a subscription with one of the popular providers. I’ve recently settled on a new favourite, WireGuard. I’ve found it to be fast, stable, and unusually tolerant of an unstable network. In this post I’ll take you through how to get set-up with your very own WireGuard VPN.

Server Timing Client-Side

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 21:16:35 +0000

I still remember the days when it was common to include database query details and page render times in the footer of PHP sites. They were a badge of technical prowess. They screamed complexity. They let everyone know how dynamic the site had become.

Performance wasn’t given much of a thought and as long as your pages rendered reasonably quickly, things were good. Most never noticed these footers. If they did, there was little they could do with the information. It wasn’t long before these vanished from site footers, into HTML comments at the end of the page. Web development has moved on and I struggled to find an example of this practice used today.

OSX Terminal.app Ignoring $PATH Variable

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 09:06:51 +0000

Over the last couple of days I lost the ability to copy and paste from Vim using the macOS system clipboard. I hadn’t knowingly changed my Vim configuration and the only major change I’d made was to upgrade to macOS Catalina. This post points outlines how I resolved the issue and points the finger squarely and Full Disk Access on Catalina.

TLDR: Granting Full Disk Access to Terminal.app resolved the problem.

Learn Go: by Concatenating Strings

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 13:02:49 +0000

Joining strings is so common that many of us take it for granted. While working through the exercises in ‘The Go Programming Language’ book as part of the London Study Group, I wanted to understand the differences between the various approaches for joining strings.

If you are looking to concatenate strings in Go, here is what I’d do:

Outside a loop: use the + operator: e.g. `“a” + “b”
Inside a loop: use strings.Join([]string, string)

If you want to know why read on. The notes that follow are primarily for my own understanding. They chart my attempt to explain the results of exercise 1.3 and explore different options for string concatenation.

Beyond the Tour

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 20:28:46 +0000

I love watching talks on technical subjects. However, I often find myself in a position where I understand the topic but am far more hesitant when it comes to the importance of the conclusion. As someone who tends to learn the most from practical experience, this lack of confidence often stems from the fact that I haven’t faced similar challenges to the speaker. This presents hurdles when self-learning, as it can be difficult to create complex technical setups required.

Multi Architecture Docker Builds

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 00:02:59 +0000

Docker has had the ability to build multi-architecture images for a while. I’ve never had cause to use it, until now. In this post I’ll walk through building a docker image that should work on your laptop and a Raspberry Pi.

We’ll cover the following:

A simple test application
Building docker images for each architecture
Wrapping images in a multi-architecture manifest
A small gotcha
Testing our images

The Application

Before we can begin building our containers, we need an application to package. We’ll use this small Go program. When executed, it displays the operating system and CPU architecture it. In this example, we expect to see arm (Raspberry Pi) or amd64 (MacBook). In both cases we’ll be running on Linux.

Go App Engine

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 13:56:58 +0100

Google recently announced an update to App Engine that brings support for the Go 1.11 runtime. This release also enables the deployment of standard Go applications on App Engine. In this post, I show you how.

Our Application

The application we’ll be working through is simple. It returns the IP address of the user, nothing more.

Requirement #1: As someone who wants to allow others access to my home network, I need to know my external IP address.

How Expensive Is a Go Function Call?

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 14:30:00 +0100

I was recently benchmarking various implementations of an algorithm and noticed that the recursive implementation of an algorithm performed worse than its inline equivalent. I didn’t know if it made sense to attribute this overhead to the cost of the additional function calls in the recursive implementation. I set out to see if I could see behind the scenes of a Go function call and determine just how expensive each function call is.

Art in The Age of Computers

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

My wife and I recently visited the V&A and stumbled across Chance and Control: Art in the age of computers, a small display celebrating 50 years of computer generated art. Tucked away in the corner of the second room was Schotter, a piece by Georg Nees.

“Nees was fascinated by the relationship between order and disorder in picture composition. To create this work, he introduced random variables into the computer program, causing orderly squares to descend into a heap.”

Go: HTTP Testing

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 22:01:39 +0000

My recent experience with writing APIs in Go has forced me to confront something that many seasoned developers would consider obvious: Writing tests and writing testable code are two very different challenges. Specifically, I have struggled to write tests involving HTTP interfaces.

Approaches to testing that seemed obvious in the context of countless examples consistently seemed alien when applied to my own code. Then it struck me, the examples I’d been reading were focussed on demonstrating how to write tests and not how to write testable code.

Google App Engine: Private Services

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 22:16:51 +0000

Google App Engine projects can contain multiple services. By default all services are exposed publicly. In this post we explore ways to restrict access to certain services to ensure that they can only be called internally within our project.

Consider the three services used in my previous post on Service Discovery. We want to ensure that all of our users request their greetings from the default service and directly from either the hello or nihao services.

Google App Engine: Service Discovery

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 22:47:51 +0000

It is possible to run multiple services within a single project on Google App Engine. In this post we explore the use of ModuleHostname to implement rudimentary service discovery within a simple App Engine project.

<tldr> Use hostname, err := appengine.ModuleHostname(ctx, svcName, "", "") to return the URL based on a service name, svcName.

When developing a multi-service application using Google App Engine, I found myself having to change URLs for services as I moved back and forth between my local development instance and the live service. Additionally, the local instance of App Engine varies the URLs allocated to your service depending on the order they are started. Implementing basic service discovery has alleviated the need to maintain separate service URLs during local development and left me free to develop each service in isolation.

Creative AI

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 21:42:23 +0000

Luba Elliott opened the Cloud & Machine Learning track at the recent Google Developer Group event at UCL in London with a talk on the Creative Applications of Machine Learning. It was her closing question that motivated me to look into some of the artists she mentions.

“What is the best way for an AI to dream?"

– Luba Elliott, #GDGLondon 2017

Ask someone to explain why a reasonably complex neural network arrived at a particular decision and you will likely be met with a shrug of the shoulders. If you are lucky, you will be met with a generic explanation of how neural networks work. Rarely will you hear anything specific to the outcome in question. The same could be said about dreams. There is the theory, but nothing that allows you to determine why an individual dream took the turn it did.

Writing to a Full Channel in Go

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 06:53:02 +0100

When attempting a simple circuit-breaker package (billglover/breaker), I wanted to surface state changes to users. In the course of implementing this feature I tried three approaches.

Allow users to query the current state of the breaker
Allow users to provide a callback function
Provide users a channel for callers to receive notifications

Whilst all three solutions are workable, using channels felt like the most idiomatic. During the implementation I learned two new tricks for preventing deadlock when writing to buffered channels. Before I share them, a quick bit of context to show users of the package subscribe to notifications.

pgp

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 10:06:57 +0000

My PGP public key is shown below.

Fingerprint

FC62 F023 5BDF 6D07 A757 DAA9 EC2B EBE6 B09D 0939

Key

Expires: 2023-01-30

The success of Apple Pay in China

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 08:46:34 +0000

Introduction

As I flew back from China earlier this week, Apple pulled the trigger and launched Apple Pay in China, initially partnering with China UnionPay (中国银联) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ICBC (中国工商银行). Other banks are sure to follow soon.

“Apple Pay launching in China today. Can’t wait for you to try it and see how incredibly easy it is to use! Apple Pay 于今日正式登陆中国。欢迎大家踊跃尝试，体验它卓越的便捷性！”

– Tim Cook, Apple CEO, via Sina Weibo

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bill Glover

hello@bill.dev (Bill) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Goodbye AWS

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From Mexico with Love

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