Harry Winser.com

Apple Duo

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 21:08:20 +0100

On Wednesday Apple unveiled the industry’s worst-kept secret - the iPhone Duo. My thoughts on the Apple Duo

No, we've not reached AGI

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 17:31:18 +0100

President of OpenAI, thinks their new model Astra has reached AGI

Writing Tools

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:10:33 +0100

Sundays are a slow news day, so I thought I’d spend today’s “bloglet”* sharing what apps I use to write. I admit this is pretty self-indulgent but maybe, dear reader, you’ll find some kinship in these words.

First, my “daily driver”; Obsidian. It’s a free app (for personal use) that runs almost anywhere; phone, desktop, and tablet. It’s my stalwart companion as I write technical notes, documentation, and D&D campaigns, as well as where I draft these bloglets. It stores each note as a Markdown file, which is just plain text, and formats text as you write it. The Markdown format is excellent; it walks that line between enabling structured formatting, while not being so flexible that you can end up with a soup of complexity. I grimace whenever I receive a Word document that contains headers that have all been manually sized with indentations tabbed in, instead of using proper semantic formatting. Many colleagues feel similar, and it’s been easy to sell Obsidian and Markdown to them.

When you can 'tweet' but can't 'twitter'

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 19:04:26 +0100

Operation Bluebird attempts to roll out it’s own Twitter

OpenAI releases GPT 6 - Astra

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 14:18:17 +0100

OpenAI releases GPT 6 - Astra

HBO and the boy who prints money

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 18:00:21 +0100

A new trailer for HBO’s Harry Potter series has landed

1Password and their Donation to Omachy

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:30:00 +0100

1Password invests thousands of $ to the Omachy foundation, making everyone go ‘huh’?

New Style

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:16:44 +0100

Time to ressurect this blog… again. A quick intro as to how I plan to move forward

Frustrations with MacOS and Apple Journal

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 19:24:19 +0000

My frustrations with Apple Journal and MacOS

My Year With Apple Part 1

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:12:51 +0000

Part one of my experience in using Apple products for the last 12 months

What is this Corepack thing anyway?

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 21:11:45 +0000

Attempting to demystify Corepack

Looking ahead into 2026

Fri, 02 Jan 2026 22:25:18 +0000

Setting goals for 2026, as well my predictions

2025 Retrospective

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 11:16:18 +0000

A personal look back at 2025

Exception Handling in Java

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 21:56:36 +0100

Today i want to talk about exception handling in Java. I know a lot of folks have shared about this in the past, but I screw it here’s one more voice. This blog won’t be about if I think they’re good or bad in Java (it’s a complex subject, and ultimately they aren’t going anywhere), but instead how and where i think they should be used.

A refresher

For a quick refresher lets go over the two main types of exceptions in Java:

It's been a while

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:39:48 +0100

Wow it’s been a while!

So, where have I been? Well, I proposed to my partner in Rome, and they said yes! Honestly I’m an incredibly lucky guy.

I’ve been working a lot too. Gotta grease the wheels of capitalism. Oh and of course I’ve been riding the Guzzie a lot. Stunning weather this year! I’ve also been playing a lot of music - even had a slot at the Totnes show! So was pretty cool.

GeoTools - a simple geospatial tool

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 17:36:21 +0000

Geospatial tech is a deep, rich, and complex sector of the tech industry. I work for a small startup, Edozo, which handles Commercial Property Data and Mapping. What this essentially means is that for the past 5 years I’ve been working within the GeoSpatial sphere, using things like PostGIS and GeoServer to deliver products.

I’ve learned a whole lot on this journey (and will probably be the subject of a number of blog posts in the future) but today I want to share a little side project I’ve been working on: geo.harrywinser.com.

To Do More Do Less

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 20:40:36 +0000

To do more, do less

I’m not quite sure where this adage came from, but it’s become something I now ~~live~~ work by.

Let me explain.

5 years ago I joined Edozo, which is a start up focused on Commercial Property technology. I’d never worked for a start up before, but coming from Rightmove it was a fairly big shock. Suddenly gone were all of the guard rails. Code quality, deployments, infrastructure etc. were all things I needed to really focus on and align. But the biggest thing; Work Management. Gone were the well ordered Planning Sessions. The multiple teams breaking down a large task and sharing it. Gone was the deployment platform and multiple Tech Leads to bounce concepts off of.

This week in JavaScript - 31/01/2025

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 17:34:09 +0000

Over the last few months, I’ve moved more into the JavaScript / TypeScript realm at Edozo. This has been exciting for me, as it’s the first time I’ve written production, user facing, JavaScript code in “anger”. Sure, I’ve written code for loads of developers when I was at Rightmove, from Groovy, to Bash, to even a little bit of Kotlin. But for the most part, my core has been Java and writing code serverside.

Macbook Air M3 Review

Sun, 26 Jan 2025 19:41:50 +0000

Last September I purchased a Macbook Air M3, to replace my incredibly old 2013 Intel i5 MacBook Pro. It had been a trusted companion, but it was time to put it out to pasture. On top of that, I’d started to feel the desire to code and make fun silly projects (ED. which eventually lead to building thoughtstream.me & geo.harrywinser.com ). So, after some prompting from my partner, I decided to pull the lever and buy a second hand one.

My Moto Guzzi V7

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 21:15:09 +0000

I currently own and ride a Moto Guzzi V7 Stone - the 2021 model in burnt orange. And it brings me so much joy. I love the way it looks, feels, and corners. It’s a great all round bike; solid for highways, sneaking through traffic, carving switch backs, and having a burst of power on tap. It’s a fantastic first Big Bike, and one I plan to keep for a very long time.

3 Reasons Why I Love Java

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 16:36:17 +0000

I love programming.

I still do, 10 years in.

Those who follow me on Mastodon know I love to complain about code and tech, but they should also know that I only complain because of my love for it.

I love throwing myself at a problem over and over. I love the feel of typing on a keyboard. I love finding the random post on StackOverflow that is the exact issue I have, and discovering I’m not alone. I love attending meet-ups and finding so many people as passionate as I am.

Looking ahead into 2025

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 21:18:22 +0000

Lets talk about 2025, seeing as it’s the 1st January!

Below you’ll find an outline of what I hope to achieve next year and also my top three technical and political predictions. Hopefully we’ll all still be here next year to find out just how wrong I was!

Personal

From a personal stand point, 2024 has been about solidifying what I have. I’ve climbed further out of the “burn out” hole, my little house feels lived in and cosy, and I even got back into writing little side projects like thoughtstream.me (plug plug nudge nudge go check it out!). I even attended a meet up for the first time in roughly 5 years.

Quiz of the Year 2024 Answers

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:53:31 +0000

Answers for 2024 Quiz

Quiz of the Year 2024

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:48:46 +0000

My quiz for 2024! Categories include; News from 2024, a nerd / tech round, as well as a chaos round

Async Await Typescript Csv Parser

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 09:25:13 +0000

Example code for a TypeScript CSV parser with Async/Await

Initial release: Thoughtstream.me

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 19:38:49 +0000

The initial release of ThoughtStream.me!

Very Old Stuff

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 15:30:23 +0000

Very old content, purely for reference

About

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 07:52:52 +0000

A photo of me in black and white

Harry Winser is a software developer located in Devon, England.

When he’s at his keyboard, you can find him posting on Mastodon, writing Java and/or TypeScript, or playing music in and around the Plymouth area.

If you’d like to get into contact with him about anything on this site, working together, or something technical related, you can via:

Welcome

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 07:32:15 +0000

Welcome to my space