Tom

@uncreativetom If your flexible, look at Eurostar snap, can get cheap tickets on a morning or afternoon of your choice 1-2 weeks in advance, they will tell you which train you are on 48 hours before travel… I guess unfortunately the demand has skyrocketed since the plane cancellations though.

This monopoly cannot be brought down soon enough

DON'T BUY TRAIN TICKETS IN ADVANCE! On 1 April, govt is quietly changing the National Rail Conditions of Travel. Off-Peak & Anytime tickets become non-refundable after 23:59 the day BEFORE you travel. If you wake up & find your event cancelled, NO REFUNDS, even on £100+ tickets.

@PolitlcsUK This mainly comes from the fact that Netflix is doing more and more live content, which is strictly governed in the uk for quality, commercial minutes and content. All other broadcasters, UK or international who broadcast into the UK are already subject to it…

🚨 NEW: Streaming services like Netflix will now be subject to Ofcom's Broadcasting Code Users must be “protected against harmful or offensive material” and can complain to Ofcom

@ideanoc17 Also what you get when you don’t tie your grid prices to Gas, even when gas is the minority supply these days…

this is what you get when you invest in fucking nuclear

I applaud spiteful customer service agents sometimes, with their malicious compliance… Broken part for a high chair and missing tool. They sent the replacements to allow me to assemble them, but wrapped like I had to play “pass the parcel”, 4 layers to the part, 5 to the tool!

The UK's 12 busiest railway stations (according to data just released)

The FFMPEG stuff is pretty crazy because it's a tiny poorly funded Open Source project which underpins basically every large, multi-million dollar or billion dollar video based company, all of which contribute very little except "urgent" bug reports. Literally XKCD 2347.

GatTwix bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Early in my DevOps career, I deleted a 5GB log file from a production server that was running out of space. I ran df -h expecting to see the disk usage drop. It didn’t. Still showed 100% full. No errors, no warnings. Just the same disk usage as before I deleted anything. That’s when I learned that deleting a file doesn’t always free up space immediately. In Linux, what we think of as a “file” is actually two separate things: the filename (which is just a pointer) and the inode (which contains the actual data and metadata). When you delete a filename, you’re only removing the pointer. The inode and its data remain on disk as long as any process still has the file open. In my case, the web server was still writing to that log file. Even though I had deleted the filename, the server process kept its file handle open. The inode stayed alive, invisible to normal file listings but still consuming disk space. The space was only freed when I restarted the web server, which closed all its file handles. This is why you need different commands to see the full picture: # Check filesystem usage - df -h # Check actual directory sizes - du -sh /var/log/* # Find deleted files still open by processes - lsof +L1 The du command shows you what’s actually using space in directories, while df shows filesystem-level usage. When they don’t match, you often have deleted files still held open by running processes. This is also why proper log rotation doesn’t just delete files. Tools like logrotate rename files and send signals to processes so they can close and reopen their file handles cleanly. Three key takeaways: 1. Filenames are just pointers to inodes 1. Deletion only happens when no processes reference the inode 1. Always check both df and du when troubleshooting disk space It’s a small detail, but understanding it can save you from confusing production incidents.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ P.S. This post is adapted from a post written by @devops_inside

My two cents on how to stand out in the tech job market as a DevOps/SRE/Platform engineer. Hands-on experience and evidence of skills are two factors that truly differentiate tech candidates. Certificates? IMO, not so much. They often focus on trivia and muscle memory, which are of questionable day-to-day utility. Showcasing software development skills is somewhat easier - devs can create GitHub repositories and even deploy demo sites with their work. But how to prove your DevOps/SRE/sysadmin skills? This is precisely the problem online Linux playgrounds could solve. When you encounter an interesting DevOps problem, I recommend setting up a custom iximiuz Labs playground to demonstrate it and the solution(s) you've come up with. Some examples: - Set up Kubernetes the Hard Way - Configure a HA Kubernetes Cluster - Configure an etcd Cluster (often overlooked!) - Compare two alternative projects (e.g., OpenBao vs Vault) - Set up an ELK Stack But don't stop at scripting! The playground is only done when other people can understand how (and why) to use and learn something from it. Prepare a good problem description, add a diagram or two, and write helpful welcome messages that people will see when they log in to your playground VMs. On the one hand, it'll make the playground much easier to share on social, with teammates, or even include a link to it in your resume. And on the other hand, it showcases another key skill hiring managers are looking for - clear communication. Happy hacking!

To all the people (and they are legion) saying we should get rid of tube drivers and automate the trains to avoid strikes... today, the famously driverless DLR is also on strike.

@IntotheNowX @PrisonPlanet We don’t need rescuing, you all just need to learn how to be street smart and not show off all your possessions / be distracted by your phones… Simple as really, don’t give the punks an easy steal, and everyone, except the criminals, have a good day…

@PrisonPlanet When are you Brits gonna step up and do something about it then? Don’t wait on the USA to come to the rescue again this time, we’ve got a big enough fight on our hands already cleaning up the mess your globalist forced onto our doorsteps.

Wife visits London. Told her to be constantly aware of her surroundings and not display any possessions. Wife goes shopping. Wife nearly gets mugged outside Selfridges. Wife is now scared to leave the hotel. Wife says it's the last time she's visiting London.

Before AWS existed, one company ran the servers for Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook's entire app ecosystem. They owned Node.js, invented containers 8 years before Docker, and Peter Thiel even backed them. Then something happened...

If you're a mid-career .NET developer and want to skill check yourself, answer honestly: when are base classes necessary + helpful and how frequently should I be using them in my code?

Apologies to customers affected yesterday by various issues especially the fire at Herne Hill which resulted in a loss of signalling. After working through the night, signalling has now been restored and services between Orpington and Victoria will resume shortly👇

Damning report for National Grid. Heathrow closure caused by “catastrophic failure” of equipment at substation. Highlighted as far back as 2018 & not acted on. Maintenance deferred in 2022. Fire systems at substation“inoperable” in 2022. Serious questions for National Grid. 1/2

Heat pumps that work as AC units: - are heavily discouraged by building regs - don't benefit from the £7k heat pump grant scheme - and will give you a lower EPC rating (making your mortgage more expensive).

What if I told you there was a city that has built a new tramway 🚋 in eight weeks for just £15m/km? 💷 You'd no doubt assume it was in China 🇨🇳, Spain 🇪🇸, or France 🇫🇷 But what if I told you that city is Coventry, right here in good old England? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🦁

A better world is possible, and it begins in Coventry. capx.co/coventrys-tram…

I have a 100% trade deficit with Tesco. I pay them infinitely more than they have ever paid me. This doesn’t mean I’m in terrible debt, or should resort to growing my own food, because happily I have a 100% trade surplus with my employer.