Connor Gurney

Blog

  • There’ll always be an England

    What a sobering privilege it is to share my birthday with the day on which we remember the very reason that my parents were free to conceive me, that I’m free to live my life as I damn well please, and that I’ll one day be free to have a family of my own.

    There’s so much that could be said on why those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for each and every one of us matter now more than ever, but a look around the world at any point in the last five or so years will tell you more than I ever could.

    Let me say instead that I’m grateful every day to live in a country where we can sleep soundly at night, because there still exist people willing to lay down their lives, should the need arise, to defend our freedoms both at home and abroad.

    There’ll always be an England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

  • Challenge Fifty Two: Week 45 of 2026

    Challenge Fifty Two: Week 45 of 2026

    As ever, my personal challenge to do something new at least once a week continues, as does the year itself. It’s hard to grasp that it’s merely 6 weeks or so until Christmas, but particularly so when I barely recognise my life compared with this time last year.

    This week has been a brilliant one for several reasons, but the one thing that stands out was helping my dad at an event that he was hosting at a lovely local pub in North Wales last night.

    Whilst I’ve been to his events on occasion before, I’ve always stuck on the sidelines, but I made a point this time to help out as much as I could, to entertain the crowd, and, more than anything, to bloody well enjoy myself. I think I can tick that one off!

    Spending time with my dad and his friends was great, as was eating some of the best garlic chicken and bacon pasta that I’ve ever had, but I think the highlight had to be the young lady who decided during the interval that she wanted to dance.

    Anyone who was there need not comment on my dancing skills, as I’m sure that we’re all thinking the same thing, but suffice to say that I really rather enjoyed myself. My dad’s face when he saw us was also most certainly the cherry on top!

    It was a good night and I, for one, will be throwing caution to the wind more often.

  • Indigestion, not starvation

    I was reading through an Ask Me Anything post from Grindr’s CEO, George Arison, earlier, and he gave a fantastic analogy for the pitfall that companies all too often fall into when they see all user feedback as equal:

    One of my favorite investors has a saying, companies die from indigestion, not starvation, and she is absolutely right.

  • Sudan I: a sketch by Simon Eldritch

    I came across this comedy sketch from Simon Eldritch in my once-local newspaper many years ago, and it still makes me giggle every time:

    Customer: Worcester sauce crisps please.

    Shopkeeper: Sorry, can’t, it’s off the shelves, cancer scare.

    Customer: Oh right, Chinese chicken wings?

    Shopkeeper: Ah that’s the same. Cancer scare.

    Customer: Hamburger relish?

    Shopkeeper: Cancer scare.

    Customer: Sausage and Mash?

    Shopkeeper: Cancer scare.

    Customer: Cottage pie?

    Shopkeeper: Yes. No wait, cancer scare.

    Customer: So they’re all off the shelves because of a cancer scare?

    Shopkeeper: Yes.

    Customer: (sigh) Just give me a packet of fags then.

    Shopkeeper: Certainly. That’ll be £4.50 please.

  • Tonight, the streets are mine

    Tonight, the streets are mine

    I don’t think that I’ll ever get fed up of this city, man. 🐝

  • The Cell Site of Theseus

    Whilst undertaking training on the mobile products and services that my employer offers this week, I found myself deep in thought with ChatGPT*, and it brought me an amusing philosophical question:

    If every antenna, every radio, every cable, every cabinet and every computer has been replaced over the years, is it still the same mobile site?

    From an operator’s perspective, yes. It has the same site ID, the same lease, the same grid reference and often the same role in the network.

    From an engineering perspective, almost none of the original technology remains.

    As my trainer said when I showed him this post, it’s like the modern-day equivalent of Trigger’s broom from Only Fools and Horses!

    * Other large language models are, of course, available.

  • It’s not often that I’m shocked…

    Trump has now posted an AI-generated video of himself winning a fight with a tiger following the incident at Yorkshire Wildlife Park this weekend just gone.

    Where does one even begin to address the cruelty of one of the most powerful people in the world mocking the brutal death of an ordinary man with mental health issues?

  • In memory of Margaret Hamilton

    Like anyone with even the remotest fondness of either the science of computers or the universe that wraps around us, I was gutted to hear this morning of the death of Margaret Hamilton.

    Whilst her obituary in The Times describes her vast contribution to our understanding of who we are better than I ever could, I’ll say one thing loudly and clearly: we know more now than we ever have before, and she played a key role in getting us there.

    Quite the loss.

  • There’s still some good in the world

    It’s hard to remember, sometimes, given the amount of negative things that are happening, but there’s so much good too.

    bbc.co.uk/makeadifference/awards

  • September 11, 25 years later

    September 11, 25 years later

    Every time that the anniversary of a well-known terrorist atrocity rolls around once again, I think of the words of a woman whose son was killed in one such attack on UK soil and how she “broke the cycle” of hatred by forgiving the men who murdered her son.

    Today, as we mark 25 years since a day in which time seemed to stand still, I shall be a little kinder than is necessary to the people around me and follow in her footsteps in breaking the cycle of hatred that it’s far too easy to get caught up in. I invite you to join me.