Notes

Kick-offs move for television and away tickets arrive late, so supporters book rooms before they know the date or whether they are going. Why free cancellation is the correct way to book football.

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. Rooms there around eclipse night already cost many times an ordinary August night. Where the value actually is along the 15,000km path, with prices re-recorded every week until the day.