What’s Mike Doing?

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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. [...]
February 9, 2025In April 2005, I registered a domain name. I had a plan, and it was an ambitious one. I had read an O’Reilly book on XML (cover-to-cover) a couple of years beforehand, and it did something to my brain and I thought I could see through time. Weblogs were ascending fast, the web was exciting, … [Read more …] [...]

Chinwag Posts

Four years ago today, I found a phone box at Arkaroola that still had Telecom branding. It was still in service. Even more, it was allowing calls to be made for free. A few weeks later it was announced that all remaining public phones would be set to allow free calling, so I may have stumbled across a phone that was simultaneously in the past and also in the future.

If you're ever passing by, perhaps you should call someone and make enquiries about lottery numbers.

A public phone in a glass booth with banners on the windows reading

Four years ago today, I paused by the side of a long, straight, deserted road to photograph the remains of the Parachilna Fettlers' Cottages. I didn't realise at the time that this was going to become one of my favourite desktop background images. I wish I'd spent more time in person soaking this place up.

Two ruined buildings, roofless, in a barren desert landscape. A blue sky above, and some light clouds in the distance along the horizon