James Darling @abscond.org · 08/01/2026Also each of the geojson files are here: github.com/james/london...github.comlondon/db/data at main · james/londonContribute to james/london development by creating an account on GitHub. 000
James Darling @abscond.org · 08/01/2026Click on the card that has the score and look at the map and you’ll see where I (slightly arbitrarily) drew the boundary 120
James Darling @abscond.org · 08/01/2026Most places inside the ancient wall. (Try Bank of England from the homepage). But I did consider if it was funnier if nowhere was. 110
James Darling @abscond.org · 07/01/2026I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the old 0181 and 0171 (020 no longer distinguishes between inner and outer) telephone exchange areas, but no luck. 010
James Darling @abscond.org · 07/01/2026Where does London begin and end? Some say you're in London if you're within the M25, others say London ends at Zone 2. These arbitrary lines are too simple. My Londometer uses data to create a much more complicated %. I'm sure this will settle things and not enrage anyone. london.abscond.orglondon.abscond.orgLondon 132110
James Darling @abscond.org · 04/12/2025a tidy GeoJSON file is a map not only of the earth, but of the soul 110
James Darling @abscond.org · 03/12/2025Methodist churches tend to have terrible websites, but for my very particular needs, they win a lot of points from me for having a clean, public geojson file of their districts on their website. Frustratingly rare for a civic institution. www.methodist.org.uk/_churchfinde... 220
James Darling @abscond.org · 23/11/2025I thought it would be a nice 30-minute Sunday morning activity to update this little API to use the new 2025 IMD data. The new geography data is also much higher resolution (nice!), but that means the SQLite file is now 500MB, so this little hack has broken (boo!) I have other things I need to do 030
James Darling @abscond.org · 09/11/2025Nice to learn the history of the place I went drinking as a teenager from @jim.londoncentric.media 030
Reposted by James DarlingSym Roe @symroe.bsky.social · 26/06/2025I've made a browser extension that replaces _that_ dot with a random emoji. github.com/symroe/GOV.U... 0277
James Darling @abscond.org · 26/04/2025Unfortunately, "vibe electronics" doesn't appear to be an option yet. Like humans, chatgpt struggles with how many fingers a transistor has. 010
James Darling @abscond.org · 26/04/2025I think a career doing Test Driven Development is unhelpful when you're doing electronics. Creating a failing test has cost me £60. 340
James Darling @abscond.org · 26/04/2025Did you know that putting 12v through the 3.3v rail on a Raspberry Pi would break it? I mean, I did, but electricity is invisible, so I don't know how I'm supposed to know where it's going. 240
James Darling @abscond.org · 23/04/2025I love getting to think and communicate in prototype code alongside designers, so this was a dream project to work on. 0101
James Darling @abscond.org · 24/03/2025Would anyone be interested in joining this software engineer at a policy event? I'm too scared of all the PPEs to go by myself. We can sort linked lists in the back if it's too much. www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/sprin...resolutionfoundation.org 023
James Darling @abscond.org · 13/03/2025Are you sick of American references in NYT Connections? I made a quick London-themed one: connections.swellgarfo.com/game/-OL9EiI...connections.swellgarfo.comConnections – LondonCreate custom puzzles based on the game popularized by New York Times 050
James Darling @abscond.org · 01/03/2025I would have been convinced that Remar charity shops used generative AI for product development if they hadn’t been running since the 90s. 020
James Darling @abscond.org · 05/02/2025It feels weird, but is it bad? The reduction of external dependencies and build complexity feels like it's worth it? 100
James Darling @abscond.org · 05/02/2025Committing a 65MB database file to version control still feels weird though. 210
James Darling @abscond.org · 05/02/2025Appreciated Mohamed Hassan's talk at @brightonruby.com and @simonwillison.net's datasette work for getting me to take SQLite more seriously. Talk: brightonruby.com/2024/litesta... Also <3 Simon's excellent work in the open that helped me debug my spatialite docker img: github.com/simonw/datas...brightonruby.comLitestack: Unleashing the power of SQLite for Ruby ApplicationsWhen a technology has it’s moment 100
James Darling @abscond.org · 05/02/2025I've repeatedly come across the need to find intersecting polygons for a location from a read-only source, but usually end knee-deep in PostGIS. Once I got it working, SQLLite with Spacialite is a lot more suited for this. The whole thing contained in a read-only docker image. 100
James Darling @abscond.org · 05/02/2025For a couple of work projects I've wanted an easy way to find out the English Indices of Deprivation for a location. This data is Open Government Licensed, but only available as a big download I put the data into an sqlite database and wrapped a micro-api around it: github.com/james/IMD_APIgithub.comGitHub - james/IMD_APIContribute to james/IMD_API development by creating an account on GitHub. 173
James Darling @abscond.org · 02/01/2025I've been a Spotify user since it was invite only in 2008, and contemplating trying the switchover to Apple Music. I thought they'd have honed the switching process, but had to pay for a 3rd party app to transfer playlists, and still Apple Music thinks I want David Guetta & Harry Styles. 050
Reposted by James DarlingRod McLaren @rodm.bsky.social · 11/12/2024great piece by @abscond.org on making Co-op membership matter more. In the same 2017ish era my take was: detach membership from Co-op-customer transactions and federate it www.holdfastprojects.com/radical-co-o...holdfastprojects.comRadical Co-op membership - Rod McLaren: Words that work11 December 2024 James Darling’s A Proposal to Transform Co-op Membership for the Internet Age is great. My favourite bits - local, community 053
James Darling @abscond.org · 07/12/2024www.londoncentric.media/p/drag-queen...londoncentric.mediaThe £4m fight for Bethnal Green Working Men's ClubAn in-depth London Centric investigation. Plus: A discounted penthouse flat at St Pancras; the person dragged by an Overground train with their fingers stuck in the door. 020
James Darling @abscond.org · 06/12/20247 years ago I was asked by The Co-op to reimagine co-operative membership for the internet age. I think I had some nice ideas. I've published them in a blog post. abscond.org/2024/11/26/a... 060
James Darling @abscond.org · 28/11/2024media.tenor.coma close up of a cartoon character 's face wearing glassesAlt: Clip from Pixar’s ratatouille of the critic remembering his childhood 000
James Darling @abscond.org · 28/11/2024I think it’s a very good view of your work, but more of a wistful view of a younger, more hopeful self. 030
James Darling @abscond.org · 28/11/2024I’ve used traintimes.org.uk for at least the last decade. There was a time I hoped it was the future, but now it… feels a bit hipster? 170
James Darling @abscond.org · 18/11/2024But a key thing to note: no matter how prodigious you are in your personal data production, it’s not close enough to being useful for training or tweaking a generative model with. You’ll be looking at prompt augmentation. 000
James Darling @abscond.org · 18/11/2024I have plonked my Apple reminders into my morning journal prompts, but haven’t had much of an effect yet. Needs more tweaking maybe: github.com/james/ducky/...github.comAdd my Apple reminders to the input · james/ducky@e2a589aUsing the reminders-cli to input my current todo list into the prompt for the questions. 110
James Darling @abscond.org · 08/11/2024I'm very tempted to pay £85.50 to have an expert install these staples and see what happens. 040
James Darling @abscond.org · 23/10/2024Claude Computet Use was very easy to get running, but out of the box it gets stuck on the Google cookie consent modal. I think because it requires scrolling? Suddenly we’re caring about the fold again? 120
James Darling @abscond.org · 20/10/2024A note, 1 week after the last note? What is this called? abscond.org/2024/10/20/n...abscond.org Note #10: Brain - James Darling The personal website and blog of James Darling 010
James Darling @abscond.org · 16/10/2024on.ft.com/3NpZNo3 I’m assuming private equity will shut down the Silvertown factory and I want to be the first to put in a bid to buy the huge tin of syrup. 040
James Darling @abscond.org · 15/10/2024Trying to host a small non-HTTP service somewhere was proving surprisingly difficult. I was staring down the barrel of old-school VMs or Kubernetes. But then I found you can just the [http_service] block from your @fly.io config toml. @fly.io is not a heroku replacement. It's better. 000
James Darling @abscond.org · 14/10/2024For those software developers worried that LLMs will make their programming language trivia worthless: I have some IE6 box model CSS hack trivia for you. 030
James Darling @abscond.org · 13/10/2024Done a note. Cladding, board game, work, and journaling with @revdancatt.com’s kitty. abscond.org/2024/10/13/n...abscond.org Note #9: Journals - James Darling The personal website and blog of James Darling 010
James Darling @abscond.org · 10/10/2024I think entrenched power–rather than bureaucratic inertia–is a more accurate description 110
Reposted by James DarlingEliot Fineberg @eliotf.bsky.social · 10/10/2024DDAT no longer works. Roles have become over-specialised, and current budgets no longer allow for the luxury of one person per skillset. We staffed the team with more generalist roles that resemble the 2010 design industry rather than the 2024 one. www.ff.studio/projects/spo... 363
James Darling @abscond.org · 09/10/2024This is slander. I vigorously deny any knowledge of this “PowerBI”. Keep it away from my CV. (I had fun too ❤️) 030
James Darling @abscond.org · 19/09/2024I have 1 night hyperfixating on bosanova, and I’m onto my third week of pure bosanova discover weeklies. 010
James Darling @abscond.org · 09/09/2024But now I'm here, I don't miss the anxiety and depression that accompanied the lack of sense of self that drove that sense of discovery. Yes, I explore less now, but I'm content where I am, which is something my 21 year old self could never say. Plus I have the memories of all of his advenures. 030
James Darling @abscond.org · 09/09/2024That said: I used to fear getting older, and having my desire for discovering new music shrink. When I briefly worked in the music industry I stared at stats of number of artists listened to shrink, and scoffed at the "£50 blokes" wanting to buy some taste. 100
