Notes

From no tests in April to 16,419 across 1,131 files — 217,000 lines of test against 136,000 of application. What that bought, and what it did not.

Gerardus Mercator, world map of 1569 — public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

27 years of owning a domain, thirty in the business, two earlier launches — and one week of finding my own mistakes. A distance filter that ignored the curve of the planet, one link that generated six million URLs a year, what a full team of AI workers does and doesn't replace, and why I am building this at all.

The hassle at places like Jemaa el-Fna and Giza is real, predictable, and largely solvable. What it actually consists of, what works against it, and my own footage of the medina at walking pace.

Photo: Turol Jones, un artista de cojones from Villanueva del Casca · CC BY 2.0

Wednesday's total eclipse crosses northern Spain. Inside the path, hotel rooms cost 3.4 times what they cost a week later — Zaragoza is eight times. Madrid and Barcelona, a few kilometres outside it, are cheaper than usual. A live price snapshot of a 290km-wide line.

Photo: Roland Unger · CC BY-SA 3.0

2 August 2027 brings 6m22s of totality over Luxor — the longest until 2114. A year out, a Luxor room costs 57 times what it costs a week later. Where the value actually is along the 15,000km path, with prices we'll re-record every week until the day.

Photo: kallerna · CC BY-SA 4.0

We priced the same kind of night in eight European cities across four months. The off-season discount is real and large — Venice 2.9×, Edinburgh 2.7× — but two cities broke the rule entirely, which is the useful bit.