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Matt Eason

@matteason.me

Designer & developer working in digital government ambiph.one / govukvue.org / matteason.co.uk/scotbeats / stationlifts.org.uk He/him

1724 Posts609 Follower170 Folgt
Matt Eason@matteason.me · 6d ago

Kudos to HMRC for fixing this - they now randomise the results to ensure they can't be gamed with nonsense punctuation. And, entirely coincidentally, Coconut Free have decided their name actually doesn't start with a random exclamation mark.

Snippet of Making Tax Digital search results page reads "Results have been put in random order to ensure fairness when displaying software choices."Coconut Free listing on search results page reads: Coconut Free Price Free version Type of software Software that creates digital records, Software that connects to your records (bridging software) Income sources Sole trader, UK property Quarterly updates Ready now Tax return Ready now Find out what Coconut Free provide now and what they’re developing
Matt Eason@matteason.me · 6mo ago

Instead you have to pick from myriad commercial options via their search service, which providers are gaming by giving their products nonsense names like !Coconut, "untied" (quotes included) and #GoFile to get to the top of the alphabetical results

List of search results on Making Tax Digital search, including the products mentioned in the post text
Matt Eason@matteason.me · 2w ago

It's hardly the biggest issue in all of this but this machinery of government kerfuffle is going to expose the short-sightedness of tying the GOV.UK brand to a DSIT brand that's about to go in the bin - the horrible cyan was taken from DSIT's logo

Snippet of Department for Science, Innovation & Technology homepage on GOV.UK, with 'This organisation is changing' banner. The dot in GOV.UK is the same cyan as the coloured line down the side of the DSIT logo
Matt Eason@matteason.me · 3w ago

Spare a thought for our GDS friends, who look like they're going to have to endure yet another machinery of government change

Rachel Coldicutt@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 3w ago

Feels like the answer to improving DSIT is some decent policymaking, rather than retiring it (wch would be a huge drag - shuffling departments takes up a lot of time and energy). The problem ofc is that Labour doesn't have a v strong SciTech talent pool to draw on giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

As business secretary, he could be given greater responsibility for science policy at the expense of the existing Department for Science, Innovation and Technology set up three years ago. Some officials and party figures expect parts of DSIT will be moved to the business department with the rest shifted into the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. "It needs to be mainstreamed and there is the sense that DSIT has not been firing on all cylinders," said a senior Labour source.
Matt Eason@matteason.me · 4w ago

This is fantastic for accessibility - Wimbledon's Inclusive Feed adds spatial audio cues and a high-contrast overlay showing the ball's path, bounces, serve speed and calls, for blind and partially sighted fans On iPlayer here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

RNIB@rnib.bsky.social · 4w ago

This year’s Wimbledon is serving accessibility through the Hawk AR: Inclusive Feed, designed to make live tennis easier to follow 🎾 It works alongside the usual sports commentary and adds extra audio cues during a live tennis match. 1/3

UK Government Petitions@petitions.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New petition: "Reverse NHS England's decision to make its code repositories closed-source." Deadline 10 December 2026, created by Mr. Roke Julian Lockhart Beedell #NewPetition

New petition: Reverse NHS England's decision to make its code repositories closed-source.

Previously, the NHS Service Standard held that “public services are built with public money, so unless there's a good reason not to, the code they're based on should be made available for other people to reuse and build on.” This is what the current policy should be reverted to.

petition.parliament.uk

Matt Eason@matteason.me · 2mo ago

OK but consider: Ambient ScotRail Thomas the Tank Engine scotbeats.matteason.co.uk?yturl=https%...

Ambient ScotRail Beats - train announcements over ambient music

Train announcements over ambient music

scotbeats.matteason.co.uk

fesshole 🧻@fesshole.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Sometimes if I'm struggling to focus on work that needs doing, I put on a playlist of music from the original Thomas the Tank Engine series and it helps immensely. It makes me feel like a really useful engine

Matt Eason@matteason.me · 2mo ago

Hurrah! The lifts API has come back to life and stationlifts.org.uk is working again

Station Lifts - check if the lifts are working at any station

Check if the lifts are working at any train station in Great Britain

stationlifts.org.uk

Matt Eason@matteason.me · 3mo ago

Network Rail's station lifts API - which shows which lifts are broken - has itself been broken for a month That means that my site (stationlifts.org.uk), National Rail's official access map, and any other journey planner service which shows lift status have been completely wrong since 14 April

Matt Eason@matteason.me · 3mo ago

Network Rail's station lifts API - which shows which lifts are broken - has itself been broken for a month That means that my site (stationlifts.org.uk), National Rail's official access map, and any other journey planner service which shows lift status have been completely wrong since 14 April

Matt Eason@matteason.me · 3mo ago

BBC are experimenting with this nonsense again. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athlet... is gated behind a login, pointlessly There are two variants - the one on the left isn't closable. You're not allowed to read the story at all. The one on the right dismisses if you click the background or "Maybe later"

Popover on BBC Sport reads: Get the full story with your BBC account We’ll save your place while you sign in Sign in button or Register link Link: Don't sign in, find something elsePopover on BBC Sport reads: Get more with your BBC account We’ll save your place while you sign in Sign in button or Register link Maybe later link
Matt Eason@matteason.me · 2y ago

This is awful - BBC News are experimenting with gating some news content behind an unnecessary login It happens for me on every story linked from www.bbc.co.uk/news/bbcinde.... 'Maybe later' just takes you back to the homepage rather than letting you read the article.

A BBC news article obscured by a modal that reads: Sign in to read this InDepth article Thought-provoking analysis from BBC News that uncovers the stories behind the headlines Buttons: Sign in or Register Link: Maybe later There's a black and white image of four journalists with their arms crossed