trot with me if you want to pound

Work stuff: Kafka's hidden cost is cross-AZ (Availability Zone) replication fees - you pay for every byte that's replicated. Diskless topics (KIP-1150) fix that by using object storage instead of local disks (hence "disk-less").

I can't believe I haven't posted about this, but it's fantastic news that a basic income for artists looks to be going forward in Scotland. #UBI #UniversalBasicIncome www.scottishnews.com/articles/up-...

Up to 2,000 Scottish artists could receive £15,000 a year under new income pilot

Thousands of artists and creative workers in Scotland could receive almost £15,000 a year under plans for a new minimum income scheme. First Minister John Swinney confirmed that the Scottish...

scottishnews.com

I wrote about making a QR code quilt out of old conference shirts for my personal blog

Making a QR Code Quilt, Again

I really like projects that explore the overlap of traditional crafts and computing / digital technology. Some of my favourite examples of this include Madeleine Shepard's hacked knitting machine cellular automata, adversarial print that protects against surveillance cameras, and Charlie’s quiltagon project. Coming back from EMF camp (the most traditional

hughevans.dev

My post about Rocky Horror etc from a decade or so ago. share.google/LPMU6gfuOjV0...

Nostalgia, rape culture, thick texts and obsession

Back in 1973 I went to this musical I'd heard about that had just transferred from the Royal Court to a semi-derelict cinema. It was a strange year - I was trying to finish my BLitt thesis and was sta...

share.google

The Get Kafka-Nated Espresso for August is out. No podcast this month but we've still got a choice selection of blogs and all the latest discussions from the Apache Kafka dev mailing list. Read it here

Get Kafka-Nated Espresso: August 2026

Your concentrated shot of Apache Kafka® community news.

getkafkanated.substack.com

Places are going fast for the community tooling hackday luma.com/qn9exp2n Sign up for a day of talks and workshops with community organisers and platform builders

Community Tooling Hack Day #2 · Luma

Following on from our first event in May notanother.pizza would like to invite you another day of conversation and hacking about tools for community…

luma.com

❤️ Arrived today. I don't buy poetry often, but what I already have by @rozkaveney.bsky.social made these obvious to get.

If Dolly was our constant reminder that it was Good to be Good, Tim Curry was our reminder that it was Good to be Weird. Embrace your strangeness, sing with Muppets, wear your lingerie with a leather jacket, and fuck with uptight people who hate anything that makes them remotely uncomfortable.

Craig Calcaterra@craigcalcaterra.bsky.social · last mo.

RIP to a motherfucking icon.

"It's given a lot of people permission to be themselves, to not dream it, be it, which is the motto of the movie, really. I would like to be remembered for that." Farewell to Tim Curry (1946-2026) #RIP

Dolly Parton decided to cover "Stairway to Heaven" as a gospel song, and asked Robert Plant for permission to write a new verse for it, and Robert Plant basically said "of course you can, you're Dolly Parton" youtu.be/YhTvxVxXJLQ

Dolly Parton - Stairway to Heaven (Audio)

YouTube video by Dolly Parton

youtu.be

Their theological commitments are solid, for sure, but also if you want to know why quakers might stand with the queers and the trannies and the outsiders, you could do worse than remember that the British crown refused to recognize Quaker marriages for many decades.

M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧@marcusjdl.bsky.social · last mo.

The Quakers have always been real. They protested against slavery in 1688.

"...toilet facilities labelled with a 'female' sign remain available to cisgender women, trans women, and others for whom those facilities best align with their lived experience. Similarly, facilities labelled with a 'male' sign remain available to cisgender men, trans men, and others..."

Quakers reaffirm commitment to trans inclusion in the wake of EHRC Code of Practice

Quakers in Britain has refreshed and reaffirmed its commitment to providing trans-inclusive facilities across its buildings.

quaker.org.uk

ADHD Coping Mechanisms 101: ADRENALINE 1) Avoid starting 2) Panic sets in 3) Finally start 4) Get stuck on one detail 5) Rabbit hole 6) Meltdown about wasted time 7) Stay up as long as it takes (perfectionistic fear of failure) 8) Pull it off 9) Burnout recovery 10) Repeat

It's less than 20C outside, time for quilting. Only a test for now because I have neither the right colour machine thread or the right kind of interfacing

Built a new version of my map to include both PyData and Python Software Foundation groups, check it out now and find your nearest Python community! hevansdev.github.io/mapping-pyda...

How to win at most all things:

Many thanks to everyone who joined us in Kraków in July to celebrate the 25th anniversary of EuroPython. What fun it was! Here's to another quarter of a century together! 🐍

Work stuff... This Wed 19 Aug, 4pm BST | 5pm CEST, come see my colleague @hevansdev.bsky.social give his Kafka 101 webinar. Get an intro to what Kafka is and why it's useful, and hands on experience creating a Kafka cluster and sending/receiving messages. Sign up now at aiven.io/webinar/kafk...

Kafka 101: Getting Started with Apache Kafka | Aiven

Join our free webinar for a beginner-friendly intro to Apache Kafka. Learn the core concepts, then deploy a Kafka cluster on Aiven and send your first messages.

aiven.io

Curious about Apache Kafka but not sure where to start? Come along to my Kafka 101 webinar next week where I'll be digging into what Apache Kafka is, how it works, and why you might want to use it 🧵

Kafka 101: Getting Started with Apache Kafka | Aiven

Join our free webinar for a beginner-friendly intro to Apache Kafka. Learn the core concepts, then deploy a Kafka cluster on Aiven and send your first messages.

aiven.io

84 years ago, on the 11th of August 1942, actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr and composer/inventor George Antheil received a patent for a frequency hopping "Secret Communications System" which later served as a basis for wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi. #otd #history🗃️

oh my god I love her, you gotta watch this

Brandi Buchman@brandibuchman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Library funding is tied to usage.

Grumble grumble

Screenshots of my awesome colleague @kjaymiller.com will continue until ~morale~ signups improve: his webinar going through all the basics you need to get started with PostgreSQL is this Wednesday, sign up now to avoid missing out aiven.io/webinar/buil...

Aiven - Your AI-ready Open Source Data Platform

Aiven is an AI-ready open source data platform that combines open-source services to rapidly stream, store and serve data across major cloud providers — simply and securely.

go.aiven.io

Just a quick reminder: On Wed 5 August, 4pm BST | 5pm CEST, my colleague @kjaymiller.com is running a webinar showing how to use Aiven's MCP and PGStudio to get a PostgreSQL database up and running, so he can find the perfect restaurant for his wedding anniversary. aiven.io/webinar/buil...

Building a PostgreSQL database with Aiven & MCP | Free Webinar

Join our webinar for a tour of Aiven for PostgreSQL. See why PG powers modern web + AI, what fully managed adds, and a live build using MCP + PGStudio.

aiven.io

Need a database for your project but don't know where to start? My friend and colleague at Aiven @kjaymiller.com is running an online-session about all @postgresql.org tomorrow at 3pm GMT, sign up now via go.aiven.io/devrel-team-...

Start your week with a keynote that'll change how you think about resilience, failure, and complex systems. 🎥 Imogen Wright's How Complex Systems Taught Me To Fail from #EuroPython2026 is now available to watch! Watch here 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6m4...

I want to follow up on the means-testing thread with some thoughts on structural motivation. The premise of a welfare system is "some people need help." That's NOT the premise of means testing. THAT system's premise is "not everyone needs (read: deserves) help." 1/x