What’s Mike Doing?

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May 17, 2026A long, long time ago I had an idea for a silly joke. Exactly when it hard to pin down, but the seeds were planted in the mid 1990s, in a file called bands.txt. This was a collaborative list of random phrases uttered by people we knew, that had been taken out of context on … [Read more …] [...]
February 15, 2025For those who’re just joining us, I’ve dusted off a two-decade-old project idea and have actually started working on it. There’s a working prototype which I’m not going to link in this post, because this text will likely be around long after it’s been and gone, either shelved for another 20 years or thrown online in some kind of working form. [...]

Chinwag Posts

Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]

I don't use the Apple app store much but I've apparently been well-conditioned to expect the top search result to be an unrelated ad.

I just reflexively hit the "install" button on the second item on the page, even though the paid spot actually was the thing I was looking for.

Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]

Update: answered!
mathstodon.xyz/@EdS/1167765096

Can anyone help me locate (not just READ) this address from my great-grandmother's birth extract?

The catch here is that even if I'm reading the text correctly, the street may not exist in 2026 so it may also need some local knowledge or old map searches to actually locate.

Her father is J. T. Williams, the entry date is April 29th 1886 - and the address is a bit inconclusive. I'm not going to type what I'm see it as so I don't influence anyone, but I can confirm we're in the confusingly ambiguous Bromley-by-Bow area which has been redeveloped a hell of a lot.

Small sections of birth record in old cursive with an address and date