Hello world, and welcome to my corner of the web. This is where I write words about what I'm working on, and post photographs of things I've seen.
I'm a Software Engineer at the Wikimedia Foundation, and so of course my personal website is a wiki (running on MediaWiki). In my spare time I volunteer with WikiClubWest to work on Wikimedia projects, mostly around my family's genealogy and local Western Australian history (especially to do with Fremantle). I try to keep up with issues on all the things I maintain (but usually fail).
I also try to find time to work in my workshop on various woodworking projects. Recently, that's been focused on restoring a chest of drawers and building a metalworking bench.
Travel features in my life, not because I really hugely want to go elsewhere but because I just do — and also because then I can do some more interesting mapping on OpenStreetMap.
I'm currently reading Dreaming in Code (Scott Rosenberg, 2007), and Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living (Carrie Tiffany, 2005), and Fathers of Men (E. W. Hornung, 1912).
To contact me, you can email me or find me on the Freenode IRC network (as 'samwilson'). If you want to leave a comment on this site (by creating an account), you need to know the secret code Tuart (it's not very secret, but seems to be confusing enough for most spammers).
Recently, I've been doing this stuff:
- A blog post was written: Under construction blogs #
- A photo was taken: File:Upstairs loung at the Bentley Reserve.jpg #
- Hobgoblin Amber #
- We're heading to Mission Burrito. #
- A photo was taken: File:20190130 071910.jpg #
- A photo was taken: File:All hands 2019.jpg #
- A photo was taken: File:Bar in San Francisco.jpg #
- A photo was taken: File:20190127 165946.jpg #
- Why do so many photo storage systems not have a facility to store the timezone in which a photo was taken?! Makes for annoying workarounds when trying to list photos in date order. #
- A photo was taken: File:St Joseph the Worker Church, Berkeley.jpg #
- I've been watching the sun set against the bay bridge. Nice to breath a bit and slow down. #
- I think SVG Translate is nearly actually functional. All the bits are working, I just need to tidy up. #
- The PD-heirs template on Commons is useful when you're uploading deceased relatives' photos and things. #
- I don't think I like working on software that isn't used by other people. #
- Lunch time at the Musical Offering and Café on Bancroft Way in Berkeley. geo:37.8684,-122.26071 #
- A photo was taken: File:Freeway in Oakland in the morning.jpg #
- Cargo gets a nice shout-out at around 1:08:00 in http://betweenthebrackets.libsyn.com/episode-25-denny-vrandei #
- Finally figured out the weird bug in the tests for MissedPages. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/MissedPages/+/481633 #
- Right, for about the 4th time in the last few years, I've nuked my WordPress site and replaced it with a peculiar MediaWiki install. We'll see how long it lasts this time (till I get bored). #
- A photo was taken: File:Rear of Berkeley post office.jpg #
- "only two Australian coins — the holey dollar and dump coins — have had their legal tender status removed." —An obscure coin law let a shop refuse service to an Adelaide mum #
- This (normal suburban) bus has seats that recline! Crazy. #
- How have I only just learned about
nvm? # - A blog post was written: Options should NOT have additional properties #
- No one is ever going to read anything I write on this site. Oh well. #
- I'm heading out to NYE in Oakland. #
- It should probably be called MissedPages instead. #
- Hooray for the heater! Suddenly, things are looking better (I turned the heater on). #
