Week 230: dark mode

Monday 14 August 2023

• Some work. Learnt and remembered some things about front end web development. One slightly surprising thing is how many people – maybe it isn’t that many – have their devices in dark mode, you know, prefers-color-scheme: dark, but are then offended when websites respect that preference. I guess most websites with dark modes have a setting to override the setting, but it’s usually hard to find.

• The building here has communal bins. I’ve long made peace with people’s poor understanding of recycling – they seem to think you can recycle pot plants and chicken bones and so on – I’ll never understand it but I’ve given up being annoyed by it. But there’s a newer phenomenon, which is over-filling a rubbish bin when there are at least two other bins alongside with plenty of space left.

• 20 or so hours in Glasgow, mainly to take in James Acaster’s Hecklers Welcome, which as far I can tell is the only live entertainment in any of Scotland’s two largest cities this month ha ha. He did a bit of a Ken Dodd – not tax evasion but staying on stage for longer than billed – which was great value and fine cos I didn’t have any public transport to catch.

  An unusual number of people sporting Lidl merchandise in Glasgow, which I’m sure was to do with their sponsorship of the bicycle racing championships that had finished that day – I guess some branded tote bags had been handed out to locals to apologise for the inconvenience of the road closures etc, but the sweetest were the smart tops/jackets which I reckoned were for event staff.

  Overnight at the citizenM hotel (previously). Some bits felt on the verge of being dilapidated, like they’re cutting costs amid financial pressure – part of the complicated shower wasn’t working properly, which I didn’t mind, but they do use words like “boutique” and luxury. The extractor fan whistled loudly, which was just like being back at home.