Joe Innes Joe Innes's Blog https://joeinn.es/blog Quire My second app launch of 2025: Quire, a Goodreads alternative. https://joeinn.es/blog/quire https://joeinn.es/blog/quire Sun, 02 Mar 2025 13:46:00 GMT Neil Dring I woke up this morning with a heavy heart, knowing the world today is a worse place than it was yesterday because Neil Dring is no longer in it. https://joeinn.es/blog/don-t-think-twice-it-s-all-right https://joeinn.es/blog/don-t-think-twice-it-s-all-right Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:00:00 GMT NotesVac Soft launch of my first 2025 project launch: NotesVac, an AI-enhanced companion for your handwritten notes. https://joeinn.es/blog/notesvac https://joeinn.es/blog/notesvac Sat, 01 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT Sourdough—Updated! This sourdough bread recipe is based on Brian Lagerstrom's 'Easiest Actually Good Sourdough' video, and yields a nice loaf of bread with minimal manual input and plenty of oven spring. Works in cold(er) kitchens too! https://joeinn.es/blog/sourdough-bread https://joeinn.es/blog/sourdough-bread Fri, 27 Sep 2024 12:18:00 GMT Lemon Shortbread I had a few lemons handing around so I made these delicious lemon shortbread slices. Fantastic with a coffee or as a dessert. https://joeinn.es/blog/lemon-shortbread https://joeinn.es/blog/lemon-shortbread Tue, 24 Sep 2024 18:34:00 GMT Voter Power Calculator (2024 UK General Election) As has become my habit, posting my voter power calculator for the 2024 elections to highlight the unfairness of the First Past The Post system. While part of me is celebrating that Reform got so few seats, it's worth checking out how under-represented they are in parliament compared to the number of folks who voted for them. https://joeinn.es/blog/voter-power-calculator-uk-general-election-2024 https://joeinn.es/blog/voter-power-calculator-uk-general-election-2024 Tue, 09 Jul 2024 22:00:00 GMT I'm Impressed By Ryanair A pleasant surprise from what is widely considered to be one of the worst airlines going. https://joeinn.es/blog/i-m-impressed-by-ryanair https://joeinn.es/blog/i-m-impressed-by-ryanair Fri, 05 Jul 2024 17:36:00 GMT BADBADNOTGOOD BADBADNOTGOOD have released a new EP which sounds super jazzy and cool. https://joeinn.es/blog/badbadnotgood https://joeinn.es/blog/badbadnotgood Fri, 07 Jun 2024 17:45:00 GMT Planes ✈️ I wrote yet another web app which is a semi-augmented reality type app for identifying planes which fly across in front of my balcony. https://joeinn.es/blog/planes https://joeinn.es/blog/planes Thu, 06 Jun 2024 15:22:00 GMT Journalling Habit I have taken up journalling, and decided to make a few notes about why and how I started this, and how it's been going over the past couple of months. In summary though, it seems to be going pretty well, and I'm finding it a useful habit. https://joeinn.es/blog/journalling-habit https://joeinn.es/blog/journalling-habit Wed, 28 Feb 2024 18:15:00 GMT Thing Doer 💥 Keeping up with recurring tasks can be a challenge, but it doesn't have to be. Enter Thing Doer, a new mini-app designed to streamline the management of your everyday routines. Developed with simplicity in mind and powered by SvelteKit, Pocketbase, and Pico CSS, Thing Doer offers a straightforward solution without unnecessary bells and whistles. https://joeinn.es/blog/thing-doer https://joeinn.es/blog/thing-doer Tue, 20 Feb 2024 17:19:00 GMT It's Nothing or It's Awful Jean-Louis Gassée speaks on a recurrent customer service decision that resonates very strongly with my own personal mindset. https://joeinn.es/blog/it-s-nothing-or-it-s-awful https://joeinn.es/blog/it-s-nothing-or-it-s-awful Fri, 02 Feb 2024 16:30:00 GMT Fun-Free February Every February, I challenge myself to give up a bunch of different things, and 2024 is no exception. Will this be the hardest year yet? Probably not, but it certainly won't be easiest either. https://joeinn.es/blog/fun-free-february https://joeinn.es/blog/fun-free-february Thu, 01 Feb 2024 17:14:00 GMT Mount Everest Turns out, unfathomable tragic loss isn't very hard. It's easy, in fact. Easy in the same way that falling off a cliff is "easy"–gravity does all the work for you. It's not like climbing mount Everest, desperately putting one foot in front of the other. It's not like struggling to answer questions in a final exam. Tragic loss is just something that happens to you. https://joeinn.es/blog/mount-everest https://joeinn.es/blog/mount-everest Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:33:00 GMT CORS: Access-Control-Allow-Origin whut?! CORS can seem like a super tricky and complex topic to wrap your head around, but in reality, it's not as hard as it appears. https://joeinn.es/blog/cors-access-control-allow-origin-whut https://joeinn.es/blog/cors-access-control-allow-origin-whut Tue, 21 Nov 2023 17:45:00 GMT Stoic Quotes Stoicism is a way of life, a philosophy that advocates living a life well aligned with nature and reality. Often, stoicism is associated with not allowing negative events to affect you. https://joeinn.es/blog/stoic-quotes https://joeinn.es/blog/stoic-quotes Mon, 11 Sep 2023 16:31:00 GMT Drinks App I launched a little web app today to help track alcohol consumption. I'm calling it 'Drinks' which is a dreadful name for it. https://joeinn.es/blog/drinks-app https://joeinn.es/blog/drinks-app Tue, 22 Aug 2023 18:57:00 GMT Social Media vs Mental Health How does social media impact mental health? Well, since Instagram became a big thing, it seems pretty bad, especially for girls. https://joeinn.es/blog/social-media-vs-mental-health https://joeinn.es/blog/social-media-vs-mental-health Fri, 17 Mar 2023 22:20:54 GMT Social Life Stagnating? I came across an interesting article on 'Art of Manliness', which talks a bit about social anxiety and what we believe to be true about our social interactions which is actually not (and vice versa). https://joeinn.es/blog/social-life https://joeinn.es/blog/social-life Wed, 01 Feb 2023 18:00:00 GMT Focus is, of course, itself just another computation I read something interesting about light field cameras recently which completely changed my perception of how light, physics, and cameras work. https://joeinn.es/blog/focus https://joeinn.es/blog/focus Tue, 31 Jan 2023 18:19:00 GMT First Full Year In which I become a dad, an uncle, a brother-in-law, and miss my sister. https://joeinn.es/blog/first-full-year https://joeinn.es/blog/first-full-year Sat, 31 Dec 2022 23:59:59 GMT The Yard-Sale Model The 'trickle down' model doesn't work, and never has. All things being equal, the emergence of the 'super-rich' is inevitable. https://joeinn.es/blog/yard-sale https://joeinn.es/blog/yard-sale Fri, 23 Dec 2022 15:19:00 GMT Plague House After two years of ducking and diving, finally COVID-19 catches up with me. https://joeinn.es/blog/plague https://joeinn.es/blog/plague Fri, 23 Dec 2022 14:19:00 GMT A Curious Loophole An exploration of optimising car rentals to travel as cheaply as possible. https://joeinn.es/blog/limo https://joeinn.es/blog/limo Mon, 21 Nov 2022 19:19:00 GMT Signing Out of Twitter Elon Musk is ruining Twitter, and potentially the world. https://joeinn.es/blog/twitter https://joeinn.es/blog/twitter Sun, 20 Nov 2022 19:43:00 GMT Zug. A small town with charm, mountain and lake views, and 30% rich expats. What's not to like. https://joeinn.es/blog/zug https://joeinn.es/blog/zug Fri, 11 Nov 2022 17:14:00 GMT Going To Switzerland I'm going to Switzerland next week, and I'm super excited. https://joeinn.es/blog/going-to-switzerland https://joeinn.es/blog/going-to-switzerland Fri, 28 Oct 2022 18:40:00 GMT Just Call Someone In Next time, instead of watching a YouTube video and telling yourself 'that looks easy', call someone out. https://joeinn.es/blog/washing-machine-repair https://joeinn.es/blog/washing-machine-repair Thu, 27 Oct 2022 21:15:00 GMT Updating failed. Could not update in the database How to fix this annoying Wordpress error which stops you from updating posts on your site. https://joeinn.es/blog/updating-failed https://joeinn.es/blog/updating-failed Tue, 25 Oct 2022 20:40:00 GMT Sourdough The best sourdough loaf I've made so far showed me the importance of choosing the right flour, a long cold proof, and a shallow cut. https://joeinn.es/blog/sourdough https://joeinn.es/blog/sourdough Mon, 24 Oct 2022 16:29:00 GMT What Does An Early Pregnancy ACTUALLY Look Like? The Guardian have published a set of images that show what the early stages of pregnancy actually look like, and it's quite surprising. https://joeinn.es/blog/what-does-an-early-pregnancy-actually-look-like https://joeinn.es/blog/what-does-an-early-pregnancy-actually-look-like Fri, 21 Oct 2022 17:10:00 GMT How Much Time Do We Have? An exploration of how much time we might have left with those we love. https://joeinn.es/blog/how-much-time-do-we-have https://joeinn.es/blog/how-much-time-do-we-have Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:29:22 GMT Japanese Grand Prix 2022 After a wet and eventful Sunday morning, one thing that stands out clearly is that F1 is in trouble. https://joeinn.es/blog/japanese-grand-prix-2022 https://joeinn.es/blog/japanese-grand-prix-2022 Sun, 09 Oct 2022 12:19:00 GMT Falsehoods This Guy Believed About Names A peculiar feature of Hungarian birth certificates I discovered when I married my wife. https://joeinn.es/blog/falsehoods-about-names https://joeinn.es/blog/falsehoods-about-names Fri, 07 Oct 2022 20:34:39 GMT Every Key Is A String As it turns out, there are quite a few tricks that JavaScript plays on us all. One of those is pretending things are something they are not. https://joeinn.es/blog/javascript-object-keys https://joeinn.es/blog/javascript-object-keys Thu, 06 Oct 2022 18:10:00 GMT Better Colours Easily Using RGB values to define colours is difficult to wrap your head around, and requires a lot of mental effort to know how to develop a colour palette that will make your site look good. There's a better way. https://joeinn.es/blog/better-colours-easily https://joeinn.es/blog/better-colours-easily Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:06:51 GMT Lapsang Souchong An homage to a delicious, robust, smoked tea with a taste that tells tales of autumn evenings. https://joeinn.es/blog/lapsang-souchong https://joeinn.es/blog/lapsang-souchong Mon, 03 Oct 2022 19:31:39 GMT MusicKit A short post about where Apple goes wrong in encouraging hobbyists to build for their ecosystem. Or maybe that's what they want? https://joeinn.es/blog/apple-developer-programme https://joeinn.es/blog/apple-developer-programme Sun, 02 Oct 2022 15:00:00 GMT Avenir A comparison of beautiful geometric sans fonts, starting with the satisfyingly proportioned Avenir. https://joeinn.es/blog/avenir https://joeinn.es/blog/avenir Sun, 02 Oct 2022 13:30:00 GMT Singapore Grand Prix 2022 Predictions Could this be the weekend that Verstappen clinches the 2022 championship (a few days before we learn whether he gets to keep the 2021 championship)? https://joeinn.es/blog/singapore-grand-prix-2022-predictions https://joeinn.es/blog/singapore-grand-prix-2022-predictions Sun, 02 Oct 2022 09:00:00 GMT Taking Care of My Blog For about the millionth time, my interest in blogging has been renewed, and I'm planning to start blogging again. https://joeinn.es/blog/taking-care-of-my-blog https://joeinn.es/blog/taking-care-of-my-blog Sat, 01 Oct 2022 14:45:40 GMT The Queen Died Today Queen Elizabeth II died on 8th September 2022, and it hit me, an anti-royalist, harder than I expected. https://joeinn.es/blog/the-queen-died-today https://joeinn.es/blog/the-queen-died-today Thu, 08 Sep 2022 21:58:31 GMT Loved You A Little Charlotte Sands, The Maine, and Taking Back Sunday collaborated and produced my favourite song of 2022 so far. https://joeinn.es/blog/loved-you-a-little https://joeinn.es/blog/loved-you-a-little Mon, 28 Mar 2022 14:29:04 GMT Christmas 2021 For someone who's lived abroad most of his adult life, Christmases have always been a time for going home and seeing family. I skipped 2020 because of COVID and will forever wish I hadn't. https://joeinn.es/blog/christmas-2021 https://joeinn.es/blog/christmas-2021 Sat, 25 Dec 2021 22:52:00 GMT 14 Aug 2021 No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/14-aug-2021 https://joeinn.es/blog/14-aug-2021 Fri, 20 Aug 2021 12:19:00 GMT Bit of Bassline DJ De Layna has been soundtracking my Saturday evenings for a while now. https://joeinn.es/blog/bit-of-bassline https://joeinn.es/blog/bit-of-bassline Sat, 24 Apr 2021 10:45:14 GMT Blob Opera This little experiment from Google is brilliant, fiddle about with singing blobs and see what you can generate. https://joeinn.es/blog/blob-opera https://joeinn.es/blog/blob-opera Sun, 31 Jan 2021 09:55:26 GMT Terrified of Tech? You’ve been dropped in at the deep end without any training? Or you got some training but it was all done by your IT person and you couldn’t keep up? Drop me an email at joe@joeinn.es [joe@joeinn.es] and I’ll reach out to you discreetly to arrange a one-to-one session where I… https://joeinn.es/blog/terrified-of-tech https://joeinn.es/blog/terrified-of-tech Mon, 04 Jan 2021 23:31:39 GMT Privacy I believe in ensuring your privacy online. You can opt in or out of tracking at any point. You can also see what data I have about you at https://offen.joeinn.es [https://offen.joeinn.es] If you need some more assurances, or to share any concerns you might have, please get in touch (joe@joeinn.es [joe@joeinn.es]), and… https://joeinn.es/blog/privacy https://joeinn.es/blog/privacy Fri, 04 Dec 2020 22:21:25 GMT Serum - Know How No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/serum-know-how https://joeinn.es/blog/serum-know-how Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:50:40 GMT Knife Prty–DeftonesxPurity Ring No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/purity-ring https://joeinn.es/blog/purity-ring Thu, 05 Nov 2020 12:33:54 GMT BMTH ft BABYMETAL This new track from Bring Me The Horizon and BABYMETAL is super cool https://joeinn.es/blog/new-bmth https://joeinn.es/blog/new-bmth Sat, 31 Oct 2020 07:38:53 GMT #endchildfoodpoverty I [/] built a little something on my day off after the UK government decided not to extend free school meals to children during the October half-term. Although children do not normally receive free school meals outside of term time, the unprecedented economic situation caused by COVID-19 and mass layoffs means… https://joeinn.es/blog/endchildfoodpoverty https://joeinn.es/blog/endchildfoodpoverty Sun, 25 Oct 2020 11:29:24 GMT The beginning of the end of advertising? Once upon a time, Google sat in the middle. You had a question, and Google could help you find someone who knew the answer. Google built an ecosystem around advertising. There were (and still are) other advertising networks, where you can dedicate a portion of your website to the highest bidder.… https://joeinn.es/blog/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-advertising https://joeinn.es/blog/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-advertising Sat, 17 Oct 2020 14:00:00 GMT Idris Elba DJ Set No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/idris-elba-dj-set https://joeinn.es/blog/idris-elba-dj-set Wed, 23 Sep 2020 18:10:00 GMT Team Are Online > Goal: Enable teams to work remotely more effectively by displaying a ‘status’ which can be set easily STACK Back End Platform: OctoberCMS [http://octobercms.com/], running on a Ubuntu 20.04 server (Linux, Apache, SQLite PostgreSQL, PHP) Front-end: Water.css [https://watercss.kognise.dev/] Picnic.css [https://picnicss.com/] BASIC TECHNICAL OVERVIEW A custom plugin will add two new models: ‘Projects’ and ‘States’, as… https://joeinn.es/blog/team-are-online https://joeinn.es/blog/team-are-online Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:48:00 GMT What's So Funny About Brexit? No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/whats-so-funny-about-brexit https://joeinn.es/blog/whats-so-funny-about-brexit Fri, 18 Sep 2020 18:46:00 GMT Sorry, You're Not A Winner No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/sorry-youre-not-a-winner https://joeinn.es/blog/sorry-youre-not-a-winner Thu, 17 Sep 2020 22:20:54 GMT Collaboration Interesting article I came across on collaboration and motivation - David Relph’s Bristol Scale: > C1 — The ‘what’s in it for me motivation?’ I collaborate because I/my organisation benefits. My motivation is personal. > C2 — The ‘I need others to do something that will help me’ motivation. I collaborate because… https://joeinn.es/blog/collaboration https://joeinn.es/blog/collaboration Wed, 05 Aug 2020 21:17:43 GMT Music Quiz Like everyone else in quarantine, my family has been doing Zoom quizzes to try to fill the days. In case anyone’s interested, I’ll publish some music quiz rounds that we’ve been doing! House rules are below, but feel free to make up your own: 1. 10 questions, a maximum of 11 points… https://joeinn.es/blog/music-quiz-3 https://joeinn.es/blog/music-quiz-3 Fri, 24 Jul 2020 17:23:00 GMT Music Quiz Like everyone else in quarantine, my family has been doing Zoom quizzes to try to fill the days. In case anyone’s interested, I’ll publish some music quiz rounds that we’ve been doing! House rules are below, but feel free to make up your own: 1. 10 questions, a maximum of 11 points… https://joeinn.es/blog/music-quiz-2 https://joeinn.es/blog/music-quiz-2 Fri, 17 Jul 2020 17:15:00 GMT Music Quiz Like everyone else in quarantine, my family has been doing Zoom quizzes to try to fill the days. In case anyone’s interested, I’ll publish some music quiz rounds that we’ve been doing! House rules are below, but feel free to make up your own: 1. 10 questions, a maximum of 11 points… https://joeinn.es/blog/music-quiz-1 https://joeinn.es/blog/music-quiz-1 Sun, 28 Jun 2020 11:41:24 GMT Why My Facebook Is Empty I’ve been pouring my life into Facebook for almost 15 years. I’ve invested countless hours in making myself look ‘cool’, showing my best side, curating my image. And so has everyone else on my friends list. https://joeinn.es/blog/why-my-facebook-is-empty https://joeinn.es/blog/why-my-facebook-is-empty Wed, 17 Jun 2020 18:21:00 GMT I'm Not On Facebook... Anything I want to share will be on this website (https://joeinn.es [/]) I’M NOT ON INSTAGRAM… I’M NOT ON WHATSAPP… Instant messaging platforms in order of preference: * Signal [https://signal.org/download/], Apple Message, FaceTime, phone, SMS using my number Or you can drop me an email: [my first name]@joeinn.es https://joeinn.es/blog/contact https://joeinn.es/blog/contact Wed, 17 Jun 2020 16:22:25 GMT What is Signal? Signal [https://signal.org] is a free, end-to-end encrypted, open source messaging platform. OH, LIKE WHATSAPP? Sort of. Functionality-wise, yes. WhatsApp is also free and end-to-end encrypted. SO WHATSAPP IS GOOD? It’s better than Facebook Messenger (unless you use secret conversations, in which case Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are essentially equivalent). In fact, WhatsApp uses the Signal… https://joeinn.es/blog/what-is-signal https://joeinn.es/blog/what-is-signal Fri, 05 Jun 2020 22:11:22 GMT Crumpets Apparently, the below is Warburton’s crumpet recipe… something fun for me to try out (just need to find a biscuit cutter): https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/warburtons-shares-secret-famous-crumpet-18248844 [https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/warburtons-shares-secret-famous-crumpet-18248844] INGREDIENTS: Bakes six * 150g plain white flour * 200ml water * ½ teaspoon salt * ½ teaspoon sugar * 1 teaspoon baking powder * 1 teaspoon dried yeast METHOD: … https://joeinn.es/blog/crumpets https://joeinn.es/blog/crumpets Mon, 18 May 2020 16:23:00 GMT The Lighthouse No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/the-lighthouse https://joeinn.es/blog/the-lighthouse Fri, 15 May 2020 16:30:00 GMT Skywalker Check out this cool Czech band who’ve published a whole live set on YouTube: If you’re into a bit of post-hardcore, you’ll enjoy this. https://joeinn.es/blog/skywalker https://joeinn.es/blog/skywalker Sun, 12 Apr 2020 15:27:04 GMT COVID-19 Hungary So, I built an app for the COVID-19 ‘pandemic’ - it’s hosted at covid19.budapestpulse.com [https://covid19.budapestpulse.com] by Glitch - check it out! Tech info: * It’s a Node.js/Express app * It fetches data the koronavirus.gov.hu site, and parses it to read out key data points * It saves that to an NEDB… https://joeinn.es/blog/covid-19-hungary https://joeinn.es/blog/covid-19-hungary Wed, 11 Mar 2020 22:45:19 GMT A Few Snaps From My Birthday No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/a-few-snaps-from-my-birthday https://joeinn.es/blog/a-few-snaps-from-my-birthday Wed, 22 Jan 2020 21:32:44 GMT UK Winter 2019-2020 No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/uk-winter-2019-2020 https://joeinn.es/blog/uk-winter-2019-2020 Wed, 22 Jan 2020 21:31:39 GMT Meat Coin I wrote a PWA to help reduce meat consumption. It’s a fairly simple app - you install it, and for every plant-based meal, you get one ‘meat coin’. For every meal with meat, you use one ‘meat coin’. A meal with dairy costs half a meat coin. All data is stored… https://joeinn.es/blog/meat-coin https://joeinn.es/blog/meat-coin Fri, 10 Jan 2020 21:57:36 GMT Most Interesting Christmas Presents A list of some of the best Christmas presents of 2020 https://joeinn.es/blog/most-interesting-christmas-presents https://joeinn.es/blog/most-interesting-christmas-presents Tue, 31 Dec 2019 10:00:51 GMT We got engaged! No excerpt https://joeinn.es/blog/we-got-engaged https://joeinn.es/blog/we-got-engaged Sat, 21 Dec 2019 22:00:00 GMT Weather Display App to display current weather in your location https://joeinn.es/blog/weather-display https://joeinn.es/blog/weather-display Sat, 09 Nov 2019 23:13:46 GMT Screen2Vid An app using the MediaRecorder API to record a screencast in WEBP format. Great for quick demos of ‘how to’ questions. Includes a countdown timer, and the possibility to record audio (sometimes - browser support seems a bit sketchy for this). https://screen2vid.joeinn.es [https://screen2vid.joeinn.es] https://joeinn.es/blog/screen2vid https://joeinn.es/blog/screen2vid Tue, 18 Jun 2019 22:00:00 GMT T-Mobile Austria's Customer Service Car Crash It all started on April 4th when a well—meaning tweet was sent to T-Mobile Austria: CLAUDIA PELLEGRINO @C_PELLEGRINO APRIL 4, 2018 Does T-Mobile Austria in fact store customers’ passwords in clear text @tmobileat [https://twitter.com/tmobileat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]? @PWTooStrong @Telekom_hilft [https://twitter.com/Telekom_hilft?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] https://t.co/ydFdVRWgE4 [https://t.co/ydFdVRWgE4] [https://twitter.com/PWTooStrong?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] [https://twitter.com/c_pellegrino/status/981409466242486272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] T-Mobile sent the following alarming response: T-MOBILE AUSTRIA @TMOBILEAT APRIL 4, 2018 Hello Claudia! The customer service agents see… https://joeinn.es/blog/t-mobile-austrias-customer-service-car-crash https://joeinn.es/blog/t-mobile-austrias-customer-service-car-crash Sat, 07 Apr 2018 12:15:20 GMT Bubi Bikes I created an app which interacts with the Budapest Public Transport company’s API to fetch the number of available bicycles at each rental station, and displays them on a map. Check it out at https://bubi-bikes.joeinn.es [https://bubi-bikes.joeinn.es]! https://joeinn.es/blog/bubi-bikes https://joeinn.es/blog/bubi-bikes Mon, 04 Dec 2017 08:41:00 GMT Now for real: The UK Tax System Explained in Beer An article posted on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/uk-tax-system-explained-beer-fraser-kerr] has been gaining popularity as a simplified explanation of the UK tax system. At first glance, it seems quite interesting and well thought through, so I did some fact checking. This is what it really looks like. Suppose that once a week, ten men go… https://joeinn.es/blog/now-for-real-the-uk-tax-system-explained-in-beer https://joeinn.es/blog/now-for-real-the-uk-tax-system-explained-in-beer Tue, 20 Jun 2017 15:11:00 GMT Voter Power Calculator (2017 UK General Election) I voted for: ConservativesLabourSNPLib DemsDemocratic Unionist PartySinn FeinPlaid CymruGreen PartyIndependent Unionist YOUR VOTE WAS WORTH 0.97× THE AVERAGE! Your party got 262 seats with 12874985 votes (40.0% vote share) An average candidate needed to receive 47911 votes to get a seat. Your party required 49141 votes per seat. If everyone's vote counted equally, then your… https://joeinn.es/blog/voter-power-calculator-uk-general-election-2017 https://joeinn.es/blog/voter-power-calculator-uk-general-election-2017 Sun, 18 Jun 2017 22:00:00 GMT The Silver Yaris The alarm clock rings, but I’m already awake. I know it’s 6:45 now, and I’ve been awake for probably about twenty minutes already. I hit snooze anyway, because the air is cold in the flat. Nine minutes later, I drag one leg after the other over the edge of the… https://joeinn.es/blog/the-silver-yaris https://joeinn.es/blog/the-silver-yaris Mon, 01 May 2017 15:10:00 GMT The AWS Outage—What Happened and Why Does It Matter? Yesterday, one of Amazon’s data centres suffered some kind of catastrophic failure, and their S3 service went down. The US-EAST-1 DC is one of the data centres the tech giant have on the Eastern seaboard (it’s in North Virginia, to be precise). A large portion of the internet was affected,… https://joeinn.es/blog/the-aws-outage-what-happened-and-why-does-it-matter https://joeinn.es/blog/the-aws-outage-what-happened-and-why-does-it-matter Wed, 01 Mar 2017 16:04:00 GMT Pomodoro Timer A pomodoro countdown timer. Nothing too fancy and probably full of bugs. https://joeinn.es/blog/pomodoro-timer https://joeinn.es/blog/pomodoro-timer Sat, 03 Dec 2016 23:04:00 GMT Voter Power Calculator (2015 UK General Election) I voted for: ConservativesLabourSNPLib DemsDemocratic Unionist PartySinn FeinPlaid CymruSDLPUlster Unionist PartyUKIPGreen Party YOUR VOTE WAS WORTH 1.16× THE AVERAGE! Your party got 232 seats with 9344328 votes (30.4% vote share) An average candidate needed to receive 46757 votes to get a seat. Your party required 40277 votes per seat. If everyone's vote counted equally, then… https://joeinn.es/blog/voter-power-calculator-2015 https://joeinn.es/blog/voter-power-calculator-2015 Mon, 21 Nov 2016 23:00:00 GMT Top Tips For Getting Hacked [https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/2000/0*ZWZjZu5eC0Mxjz2O.jpg] Here is a step-by-step tutorial for anyone who would like to get hacked. * When you install OSMC on your Raspberry Pi, be sure to leave the default user as osmc and the password for that account as osmc * To make sure that hackers can gain access to your… https://joeinn.es/blog/top-tips-for-getting-hacked https://joeinn.es/blog/top-tips-for-getting-hacked Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:02:00 GMT Javascript Testing For Idiots Who Don’t Understand Anything They’ve Read About It So Far So, I’ve heard a lot about ‘testing’, and why it’s a great thing, and I’m fully on board. I’ve read all the ‘red, green, refactor’, I understand the main principles behind Test Driven Development, and I’ve wanted to start for months. But, I’ve never been able to wade through the hipster… https://joeinn.es/blog/javascript-testing-for-idiots-who-dont-understand-anything-theyve-read-about-it-so-far https://joeinn.es/blog/javascript-testing-for-idiots-who-dont-understand-anything-theyve-read-about-it-so-far Tue, 20 Sep 2016 15:00:00 GMT How To Trick Everyone Into Thinking You're Not A Racist Top tips for pretending you voted ‘Leave’ because you’re not a racist! Not a single immigrant in sight! (that’s just how you like it, isn’t it?) You say: “The Common Agricultural Policy is not fair, and is very expensive to the UK”. Your opponent says: “Do you like Italian wine and French… https://joeinn.es/blog/how-to-trick-everyone-into-thinking-youre-not-a-racist https://joeinn.es/blog/how-to-trick-everyone-into-thinking-youre-not-a-racist Thu, 23 Jun 2016 14:54:00 GMT Why Accessibility Matters, Even When You Think It Doesn't When designing for the web, accessibility is often forgotten, and this is a bad thing. It’s bad because it means that users with screen readers and the like are not able to use your site. This is unprofessional, and may even be legally classed as discrimination. There is precedent for companies… https://joeinn.es/blog/why-accessibility-matters-even-when-you-think-it-doesnt https://joeinn.es/blog/why-accessibility-matters-even-when-you-think-it-doesnt Mon, 09 May 2016 14:50:00 GMT Delegating my Job to VBA In my work, one of my major embarassments is falling behind my colleagues. I work with one other person on our Knowledge Base, and one of our goals is to have every document reviewed once every 6 months. I’m responsible for making sure that 250 or so articles are up… https://joeinn.es/blog/delegating-my-job-to-vba https://joeinn.es/blog/delegating-my-job-to-vba Sat, 07 May 2016 14:48:00 GMT My Four F's of Effective Email Management I work for a multinational company, and I’ve tried every to-do list manager going, I’ve even tried to write a few myself. I inevitably stick with it for a week or two, and then give up. There’s a very simple reason for this. My mailbox is my to-do list. I rarely have… https://joeinn.es/blog/my-four-fs-of-effective-email-management https://joeinn.es/blog/my-four-fs-of-effective-email-management Mon, 04 Apr 2016 14:44:00 GMT Migrating from Meteor Hosting (.meteor.com) to my own VPS Sad news — the free and simple hosting provided by Meteor is coming to an end (as do all things), and so if you want to keep your apps, you need to migrate them to another host. I followed the steps below with a brand new Digital Ocean droplet, but this should work… https://joeinn.es/blog/migrating-from-meteor-hosting-meteor-com-to-my-own-vps https://joeinn.es/blog/migrating-from-meteor-hosting-meteor-com-to-my-own-vps Sun, 13 Mar 2016 15:40:00 GMT Setting Up My Home Server So, I’ve got an old laptop kicking around, and I decided to spend an afternoon making it into a home server. CHOOSING AN OS The Windows key on the bottom has run dry, so I’ve decided to spin up Xubuntu [http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/] on it. I want a graphical interface because it will make… https://joeinn.es/blog/setting-up-my-home-server https://joeinn.es/blog/setting-up-my-home-server Sun, 02 Aug 2015 09:57:00 GMT A Punch in the Teeth for UKIP and the Greens If you voted for UKIP, I feel sorry for you. Politically, I’m so far way from you, you’d need a telescope to see me. Still, you deserve better representation. I wrote a little calculator to show how powerful your vote was. Check it out below. Play with it. Go ahead, I’ll… https://joeinn.es/blog/a-punch-in-the-teeth-for-ukip-and-the-greens https://joeinn.es/blog/a-punch-in-the-teeth-for-ukip-and-the-greens Sat, 16 May 2015 09:43:00 GMT Registering a Domain Name The first step in becoming a webmaster is choosing a domain name. Some domains are easier to register than others. .com TLDs are the easiest. My own TLD (.es) is supposed to be used for Spanish websites, and so I chose a Spanish company to buy the domain from. Now, I… https://joeinn.es/blog/registering-a-domain-name https://joeinn.es/blog/registering-a-domain-name Wed, 08 Apr 2015 09:06:00 GMT Designing My Web App I’ve found a gap in the market. This is going to earn me billions. I’ve already chosen my Ferrari. All I have to do now is actually make the damn thing. WHAT IS IT? It’s an employee training tracker. Yes, we can use Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, and pen and paper, but… https://joeinn.es/blog/designing-my-web-app https://joeinn.es/blog/designing-my-web-app Wed, 08 Apr 2015 09:01:00 GMT Choosing a VPS Provider I use VPS Dime [http://vpsdime.com/], and have been very please with the price and performance, but you could just as easily use AWS [http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/], Digital Ocean, or any other VPS provider. The instructions provided here are for VPS Dime’s cheapest VPS, but once the server spins up, it makes no difference… https://joeinn.es/blog/choosing-a-vps-provider https://joeinn.es/blog/choosing-a-vps-provider Wed, 08 Apr 2015 08:57:00 GMT Setting Up Your DNS You don’t want to have users typing in your IP address to access your server, you want them to be able to access your server via the name you paid for. The exact steps to follow will depend on your registrar. First though, a little background. When you register your domain,… https://joeinn.es/blog/setting-up-your-dns https://joeinn.es/blog/setting-up-your-dns Sun, 15 Mar 2015 09:54:00 GMT Setting Up Your VPS So now you have a server in the cloud. Nice! But at the moment, it’s not doing anything. It’s connected to the internet, sure, but it’s not actually ready for you to do anything with yet. In order to do that, you’re going to need to get used to the… https://joeinn.es/blog/setting-up-your-vps https://joeinn.es/blog/setting-up-your-vps Tue, 08 Apr 2014 09:34:00 GMT Crimea in Crisis—How the West Has Lost Russia and Ukraine have always felt a very close unity. Indeed, Russia’s name places it as the descendent of Kievan Rus, which unsurprisingly had its capital in Ukraine. It’s worth mentioning that this is not a one-way thing. Many Ukrainians support Russia, and support forging closer ties with them. In… https://joeinn.es/blog/crimea-in-crisis-how-the-west-has-lost https://joeinn.es/blog/crimea-in-crisis-how-the-west-has-lost Thu, 03 Apr 2014 08:48:00 GMT Ukraine on Fire as Protests Turn Violent It was to be a decisive move that put an end to the Euromaidan protests. After three months of protesters camping on Ukraine’s main city square, pro-Yanukovich forces moved in thousands of protesters. Although they were not the first casualties during the past quarter of the year, the 28 people… https://joeinn.es/blog/ukraine-on-fire-as-protests-turn-violent https://joeinn.es/blog/ukraine-on-fire-as-protests-turn-violent Thu, 20 Feb 2014 09:46:00 GMT ASBO 2.0 Rejected—But the Problem Remains The Ipnas were conceived to broaden the powers the police have to prevent annoying behaviour. That’s not a joke, by the way, it’s there in the name. The full name of the Ipnas was “Injunction to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance”. Fortunately, the proposal was rejected by the House of Lords… https://joeinn.es/blog/asbo-2-0-rejected-but-the-problem-remains https://joeinn.es/blog/asbo-2-0-rejected-but-the-problem-remains Fri, 14 Feb 2014 09:41:00 GMT No Benefits Please, We're British I am, as are many others my age, in something of a pickle. I have just escaped the 18–25 age bracket, and almost simultaneously have found myself without a job. Now, I’m not expecting sympathy and I’m not asking you to get out the chequebook. My prospects are relatively good and… https://joeinn.es/blog/no-benefits-please-were-british https://joeinn.es/blog/no-benefits-please-were-british Wed, 12 Feb 2014 09:37:00 GMT François Hollande Caught With His Trousers Down… But So What? France’s least popular president since France began having that sort of thing has experienced an unlikely boost in his ratings. It would seem all you need to do to impress the French is to fornicate with somebody other than your designated life partner. The French are some of the biggest perpetrators… https://joeinn.es/blog/francois-hollande-caught-with-his-trousers-down-but-so-what https://joeinn.es/blog/francois-hollande-caught-with-his-trousers-down-but-so-what Tue, 04 Feb 2014 09:32:00 GMT Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished Tonight, riot police line the streets of Kiev. Protestors are bedding down in tents on the Ukrainian capital’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the big square, and there’s no sign of either side backing down. For the most part, the protests and the police reaction have been peaceful, but tensions are high, as… https://joeinn.es/blog/ukraine-has-not-yet-perished https://joeinn.es/blog/ukraine-has-not-yet-perished Tue, 10 Dec 2013 09:30:00 GMT Nelson Mandela On 5 December, 2013, Nelson Mandela passed away in Johannesburg, South Africa, the country he helped to shape and reform following his 27-year incarceration. The world is celebrating his life — and there is much to celebrate. Mandela was an instrumental figure in demolishing apartheid in South Africa, and a campaigner for… https://joeinn.es/blog/nelson-mandela https://joeinn.es/blog/nelson-mandela Sun, 08 Dec 2013 09:28:00 GMT The Financial Transaction Tax, The EU, and You As we continue to live through the media’s caterwauling of austerity, cuts, and double-dip recessions, we find ourselves in a position of power over the financial institutions whose machinations ultimately led to the crash itself. The government has a significant stake in a number of banks, and owns some outright.… https://joeinn.es/blog/the-financial-transaction-tax-the-eu-and-you https://joeinn.es/blog/the-financial-transaction-tax-the-eu-and-you Wed, 27 Nov 2013 09:17:00 GMT Zero-Hour Contracts One of the ways retailers have fought off the recession is by saving on staffing costs. Obviously, nobody likes to hear about companies making people redundant, or closing shops that are performing worse, but I can’t help but feel that some of these options are better than the zero-hour contract… https://joeinn.es/blog/zero-hour-contracts https://joeinn.es/blog/zero-hour-contracts Sun, 24 Nov 2013 09:15:00 GMT The EU Debate As the next elections loom in the distance, we face a real possibility of having our say on EU membership in the imminent future. However, we as a country are woefully unprepared to make that decision. Only 37% of Brits claim to have a good understanding of the EU (according… https://joeinn.es/blog/the-eu-debate https://joeinn.es/blog/the-eu-debate Sat, 09 Nov 2013 09:11:00 GMT Pussy Riot Denied Access to their Own Parole Hearing As Maria Alyokhina lay in a hospital bed, newspapers reported that she was upbeat and positive. Her hunger strike began when she was told she would not be allowed to attend her own parole hearing, a fate that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was to share. Both were denied parole in their absence. The… https://joeinn.es/blog/pussy-riot-denied-access-to-their-own-parole-hearing https://joeinn.es/blog/pussy-riot-denied-access-to-their-own-parole-hearing Wed, 26 Jun 2013 08:09:00 GMT The Abstraction of Warfare War is hell. People around the globe are widely in agreement on this simple statement, which is pretty impressive, seeing as we can barely agree on the day of the week most of the time. And yet, for some reason, we’ve only managed about three years without war since WWII. We’ve… https://joeinn.es/blog/the-abstraction-of-warfare https://joeinn.es/blog/the-abstraction-of-warfare Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:05:00 GMT Le Hashtag Earlier this month, L’Académie Française issued a diktat that from this day forward, there was to be no more le hashtag and from now on it is to be referred to as a mot-dièse. This was picked up fairly widely in the media, and laughed off as another example of… https://joeinn.es/blog/le-hashtag https://joeinn.es/blog/le-hashtag Mon, 04 Feb 2013 08:54:00 GMT COVID Christmas 2021 OK, so assuming that each person only tested once, and considering all new cases in the ten days up to and including 27th Dec, it looks like it was 1 in 65 people in the UK (1 in 60 in England). According to this article: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-thrives-airways-not-lungs-new-data-asymptomatic-cases-2021-12-15/ [https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-thrives-airways-not-lungs-new-data-asymptomatic-cases-2021-12-15/], approx 40% of cases… https://joeinn.es/blog/covid-christmas-2021 https://joeinn.es/blog/covid-christmas-2021 Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT FSB Visit 5th December 2012 https://joeinn.es/blog/fsb-visit https://joeinn.es/blog/fsb-visit Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT So Let Me Get This Straight... Some hedge fund were so confident that GameStop were going under, they short sold 140% of the available shares in the company, thinking they’d never have to fill them if GME went under. Then some people worked out that all they had to do was own some of the 100% of… https://joeinn.es/blog/so-let-me-get-this-straight https://joeinn.es/blog/so-let-me-get-this-straight Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT