Via the Hacker News discussion on Pinboard: "For beginners, a useful startup option is --safe-updates (or --i-am-a-dummy, which has the same effect)." ... "You are not permitted to execute an UPDATE or DELETE statement unless you specify a key constraint in the WHERE clause or provide a LIMIT clause (or both)."

I was one of those kids who read the dictionary. Start at Aardvark. Would the Aardvark be as famous if he didn't start the dictionary?

Simon Winchester, quoted in the article: "Until six months ago I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad I am now wholly convinced otherwise. The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed. I have two complete OEDs, but never consult them – I use the online OED five or six times daily. The same with many of my reference books – and soon with most. Books are about to vanish; reading is about to expand as a pastime; these are inescapable realities."

Available variables for use with Tumblr's custom themes. (Goodness knows why I'm looking at this when I still have a blog and photo site to reskin.)

Guess who's trying to upgrade MT?

How to squeeze the best performance out of a Squid caching layer.

Americans don't seem to know what the phrase "keep mum" means. This might help. Or it might be an excuse to link to 1940s artwork. (Gouache, it turns out, is another way of saying "poster paint".)

How to add a map function to a JavaScript

How to use the Wii remote as a JavaScript event generator in Opera

Not recently updated, but could be useful nonetheless. I wonder how much MT4 has changed things.

A templating engine for Java, as used by the Guardian (amongst others). Don't like the look of the syntax much, but it beats JSTLs.

I don't have an E series phone, and I'm not likely to. This is entirely for Mark.

Old, but I think I might want some of this for groupr

Flickr added the 'farm' parameter a few days ago. Also explicitly documents the /photos/me/sets behaviour.

I never realised there was a shortcut for multiplying with Roman numerals

Very pretty. Moon's back to being an evening object for the next two weeks. I suppose that means it's time to buy a tele-extender.