johnsy.com
Pete Johns
Human being; just like you. He writes from Melbourne about software leadership, reliable systems, and building things that last, and he would rather publish here than chase engagement on social feeds. parkrun (volunteer, runner, ambassador) gets him outside; expect candour, craft, and the occasional grumble when the tech stack misbehaves. Moreover he doesn't like talking about himself in the third-person.
August 2026
September 2026
Top Words
- parkrun
- event
- conquer
- cancer
- hour
All posts (31)
One of the things that my career break has taught me is that I’m not yet ready to retire. This is good because the kids still need educating and that still needs financing. I also still enjoy playing with computers, much as I did when Dad first brought home a Philips G7000 and then a Commodore 16 with a spiral-bound...
I run an Arlo-based home security setup, and most of the time it behaves as expected. A few months ago, Arlo shipped a major app update that broke the automations we depended on. I reconstructed them, only to encounter a new problem: whenever we came home, our phones would hound us with alerts that somebody was in...
When Google killed Google Reader, I didn’t look for a replacement feed reader. Most of the blogs I followed since the early 2000s had died and their authors had switched to social media platforms. Posting to social media is a lot easier for most people than blogging, I suppose. And there’s that wonderful dopamine...
Last month, when two of Melbourne’s larger parkrun events were closed for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2026 and associated works in Albert Park, I was asked, “How many parkruns can you get to in Victoria by public transport?” I knew, from contributing to projects like the Running Challenges Chrome Extension,...
I recently received an email from a travel-related service announcing a “new login experience”: We’re letting you know about an update to how you log in to your account. Logging in is now faster and more secure on recognised web-browsers and devices. Instead of entering your account number and password every time...
This post started off life as a note in Obsidian but I figure it may be useful to others, and sharing is caring. Once a year I create a new project directory for my tax return with sub‑directories for the various components. Creating that structure by hand is tedious, but I only do it once a year, so I never...
On this week’s Merri Monday Run I was chatting with a fellow nerd about software development, and the topic of GitHub pull requests (PRs) came up; particularly the importance of including a meaningful description in a PR. As someone who reads a lot more code than I write (don’t we all, these days?), and having spent...
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