This is my Louis XV chair, which with folies de grandeure I think of as my 'reading chair'. It's right below the window where the resident smokes his Galois and looks out at the Loire.

I went to La Souris Gourmande for lunch, and a fellow diner was a famous …

Brilliant!

He's allowed on the chairs at the café!

Through a great green front door, thick with decades of layers of paint. Up ancient, rickety, Dickensian stairs in the gloom, each step yielding a creak. Then into the apartment looking out onto the Loire in the dazzling sun.

I've renewed my friendship with the black Labrador called Jaeger at …

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Just remembered to vote in the Police Commissioner elections. My area is Avon and Somerset and my vote was:

Kerry Barker (Labour)
Chris Briton (Green)

I voted Barker because of his policy of helmet mounted cameras, and Briton for his drug decriminalisation stance.

Looking at the main points of the UK 2016 budget, I'm pleased that the Chancellor is cutting spending, but I'm not happy about where he's cutting it. Here are some comments on the specific items:

• Abolition of Class 2 National Insurance contributions. Good. National Insurance is a regressive tax, and …

Walking through Green Park Station in Bath, a man from the Leave the EU campaign saw me and proffered a leaflet. I said that I was in favour of remaining in the EU. He asked why and I explained that at the European level we've got democracy at the moment …

Trailing slashes

According to RFC 3986 the following two URLs are not necessarily equivalent:

• http://gigask.foo/organizations/3
• http://gigask.foo/organizations/3/

But most users would think the two were equivalent. What's to be done? I think the RFC should have said that the first should be normalized …

Here's the letter I sent to my MP Ben Howlett:

Dear Ben Howlett,

I am writing to urge you to vote against the bombing of Syria.

The onus is on those making the case for military action to show that it will do more good than harm. In my view …