I’d like to start by directing you to the left hand side of the blog (providing you’ve come in on the front page, I guess). Yes, it’s a list of my books that you can purchase from all good retailers. Currently, it’s just Instant Zepto.js, but who knows what the upcoming months will bring (well, I suppose I do, so don’t get too excited, but something might join it there eventually)?

My first conference as a proper tech person this week - All Things Open, a celebration of all things Open Source. The most surprising part of the conference? That the most interesting talk was given by a Microsoft employee. Who’s also the current President of the Apache Software Foundation. That he was British was also a surprise, but not quite as the presentation itself, which was a thirty minute talk that left you feeling that they’re trying hard to be friendly with the Open Source movement. In any event, it was better than the rah-rah-we’re-awesome keynote provided by Google. Anyway, it was a good day out, and I even managed to find another beer that I can drink. The common property of these beers seems to be including a lot of fruit (so far, strawberry, raspberry, and apple seem to work).

I’ve also been testing out a new chocolate mold, a prototype I’ve had laser-cut from Ponoko. I want to offer a ‘flight’ of chocolates for ordering this Christmas (because nothing signifies a hipster chocolatier more than calling a sampler a ‘flight’, does it?), and for that I want a way of making lots of bars quickly. So the mold is little more than a block of acrylic with rectangular holes punched up of it, but it works pretty well.

Never serve Neko Case Tabasco sauce. Ever. Consider this a pubic service announcement.

And yes, somehow I ordered twenty-four packs of ramen today. I’m planning on hibernating this winter, obviously.