Matt Eason
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Matt Eason
@matteason.me
610 followers 170 following 1.8K posts
Designer & developer working in digital government

ambiph.one / govukvue.org / matteason.co.uk/scotbeats / stationlifts.org.uk

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matteason.me
Matt Eason @matteason.me · Nov 12
Hi BSky, here are three things I made that you might like

Thing #1: Ambient ScotRail Beats

ScotRail made all of their tannoy announcements available under FOI and I put them over an infinite stream of ambient lofi beats. You can add your own music too
Ambient ScotRail Beats - train announcements over ambient music
Train announcements over ambient music
matteason.co.uk
matteason.me
WHO IS BUYING THIS SHIT

WHY DOES IT HAVE FINGERS

WHERE IS ITS BODY
Awful AI image of a highland cow reading a newspaper on a toilet, framed in a shop. It has weird hoof fingers and the paper dips into the bowl, implying its body is sitting behind the aperture of the toilet
September 11, 2026 at 4:23 PM
matteason.me
TIL Nintendo uses @nuxt.com
Google results page for 'Nintendo UK'. First result is Nintendo's UK homepage but the title is 500 - Internal Server Error | Nuxt - Nintendo
September 9, 2026 at 9:32 AM
matteason.me
Switch 2 Zelda edition console preorders are live at Smyths for those in the UK: www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/gam...
www.smythstoys.com
September 9, 2026 at 9:03 AM
matteason.me
Is Purple Tuesday no longer a thing? They haven't updated socials since April and this very final-sounding statement is the only thing on purpletuesday.co now. They'd usually be ramping up for November by now.
Purple gradient over group photo of lots of people in London. Text: Thank you. Thank you for your incredible support of the Purple Tuesday campaign over the past eight years. Together, we've made a meaningful impact on the lives of millions of disabled people around the world by raising awareness of the importance of accessible and inclusive customer experiences. We are truly grateful for the passion, commitment, and advocacy shown by our community. Please keep championing accessibility and inclusion for disabled people in everything you do. With thanks, The Purple Tuesday Team
September 3, 2026 at 6:56 PM
matteason.me
Am I overreacting or is this incredibly fucked up?
Email with some information redacted, subject heading redacted - student project, from a goimpactconsulting.com email address Quick one, Matt, hope you don't mind me reaching back out... What if Redacted's next project was handled by a university team at no cost, as part of their degree? Open to a quick look? Redacted
September 2, 2026 at 12:49 PM
matteason.me
Baffling that this can happen and it really exposes what a shitshow both DVLA's systems and the Single Justice Procedure are
Sir Sadiq Khan convicted for not taxing car he denies owning
City Hall officials say the Nissan Micra does not belong to the mayor or Transport for London.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 2, 2026 at 9:45 AM
matteason.me
In case you missed it (I missed it), WhatsApp can transcribe voice notes. It's not enabled by default and you have to do it individually for each message but it's _something_.

Settings > Chats > Voice message transcriptions

faq.whatsapp.com/241617298315...
Two phones running WhatsApp, on the left a popup reading 'Read your voice messages with transcripts' and a choose language button, on the right a 'Transcript language' list of radios and a 'Set up now' button
August 29, 2026 at 8:35 AM
matteason.me
One downside of putting Things on the internet is a lot of the time you'll only know that people like the Thing and use the Thing when the Thing stops working
August 24, 2026 at 5:56 PM
matteason.me
Does make it sound like the cake is full of bugs though
Poster in National Trust cafe reads "Nature isn't just out there, it's in here too" with a bee and butterfly flying around the words. Below is a rustic looking cake
August 24, 2026 at 4:07 PM
matteason.me
Stupid sexy pencil
A pencil costume used in a Guinness world record attempt at the London Marathon, worn by a mannequin with a sultry expression
August 20, 2026 at 12:52 PM
matteason.me
@brianbutterfield.bsky.social FINALLY has some competition
Me holding a book titled "Keep Going For It! Living the life of an entrepreneur" by Victor Kiam. Victor is on the cover, one hand showing an "ok" sign, the other holding a copy of this book, which recursively shows the same cover. Back of the book. Blurb reads: How to succeed as an entrepreneur-and keep on succeeding! What should be done when your tangible assets are exhausted and your project still won't rise off the ground? What happens when a potential buyer for your brilliant new idea can't see past the first hurdle? What should you do if a new scheme falls flat-even crashes into failure? Who should win when your home life and business life are set on a collision course? In Keep Going For It! Victor Kiam offers hardnosed solutions to each of the above-and more-with specific examples drawn from a lifetime of successful risk-taking. If you are a true entrepreneur then business is the great adventure-but only if you Keep Going For It! Inside jacket flap text reads: Victor Kiam is going for it again! Just in case you thought it might be time to take it easy, the king of entrepreneurs has put together a second colourful cocktail of advice and anecdote to keep you up and running with the best of them. Victor Kiam is known to millions as 'the man who bought the company'-the man who liked the Remington shaver so much that he bought the entire corporation that made it. He took a loss-maker and made it profitable-then wrote Going For It!, the bestseller that explained how it was done. End of story? By no means. Victor Kiam is an entrepreneur, a man who knows that if you stop developing you're not just standing still-you're going backwards. In Keep Going For It! Victor Kiam explains how to succeed as an entrepreneur-and then keep on succeeding. Whether your pitch is a market stall or a conglomerate's boardroom the principle is the same -recognize your potential, maximize that potential and keep on maximizing that potential. Just what should be done when it seems every tangible asset's been exhausted and a project still won't rise off the ground? What happens when it seems that every potential buyer for your brilliant new idea just can't see past the first trifling hurdle? What can be done when a new scheme falls flat-even crashes into failure? Keep Going For It! offers hardnosed solutions to each of the above- and more - with specific examples drawn from a lifetime of successful risk-taking. If you're a true entrepreneur then business is the great adventure-but only if you Keep Going For It!
August 18, 2026 at 1:44 PM
matteason.me
Remembered I have a proper camera halfway through the eclipse. Are you meant to put a filter on the lens? Probably!
Photo of the eclipse - a sliver of sun on a dark background, with silhouettes of trees beneath
August 12, 2026 at 6:54 PM
matteason.me
GitHub currently chasing the elusive "no nines" of availability
Simpsons meme, three panels. Top panel, Bart's classmates look towards the camera. Caption "Say the line, Github!". Second panel, Bart looks downtrodden. Caption "We are investigating reports of degraded performance". Third panel, Bart's classmates and teacher throw their hands up in delight
August 12, 2026 at 4:27 PM
matteason.me
I've been holding out on getting a Switch 2 until they start releasing the special editions. I've decided there's going to be one for the Ocarina of Time remake so if whoever's uncle works for Nintendo could make that happen that would be great, thanks
August 10, 2026 at 10:00 PM
matteason.me
Kudos to HMRC for fixing this - they now randomise the results to ensure they can't be gamed with nonsense punctuation. And, entirely coincidentally, Coconut Free have decided their name actually doesn't start with a random exclamation mark.
Snippet of Making Tax Digital search results page reads "Results have been put in random order to ensure fairness when displaying software choices." Coconut Free listing on search results page reads: Coconut Free Price Free version Type of software Software that creates digital records, Software that connects to your records (bridging software) Income sources Sole trader, UK property Quarterly updates Ready now Tax return Ready now Find out what Coconut Free provide now and what they’re developing
July 31, 2026 at 12:57 PM
matteason.me
Good example of poor colour blindness accessibility on UKHSA's heat health alerts map. 'No alert' and 'Red alert' are practically indistinguishable if you have protanopia

ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/weather-heal...
Map of the UK from heat health alert map with protanopia colour blindness filter. England is divided into eight regions in various shades of yellow-brown. A key shows the colours for no alert, yellow, amber and red alerts. No alert and Red alert are very similar shades of brown The same map without the colour blindness filter. No alert is green and yellow, amber and red alerts are their respective colours.
July 28, 2026 at 2:17 PM
matteason.me
"Visualised podcast"? Sir that's a chat show
July 26, 2026 at 8:07 PM
matteason.me
Imagine being forced to publish this on your own website and then _cutting_ customer service staff
Humiliating screenshot from British Gas website reads: Our Citizens Advice score Our score is 2.3 out of 5 stars. Citizens Advice compares energy suppliers across 3 different categories and ranks their customer service See how we compare (link)
July 24, 2026 at 2:31 PM
matteason.me
Thames Water texted that they're introducing a hosepipe ban for "all customers", except it doesn't apply to wastewater-only customers, and I'm a wastewater-only customer. They're just shit all round
Due to the hot and dry weather, we're introducing a hosepipe ban for all customers. Please use water wisely. Details at: thameswater.co.uk/hosepipe-ban
July 22, 2026 at 6:15 PM
matteason.me
It's hardly the biggest issue in all of this but this machinery of government kerfuffle is going to expose the short-sightedness of tying the GOV.UK brand to a DSIT brand that's about to go in the bin - the horrible cyan was taken from DSIT's logo
Snippet of Department for Science, Innovation & Technology homepage on GOV.UK, with 'This organisation is changing' banner. The dot in GOV.UK is the same cyan as the coloured line down the side of the DSIT logo
July 20, 2026 at 10:45 PM
matteason.me
Spare a thought for our GDS friends, who look like they're going to have to endure yet another machinery of government change
rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · Jul 18
Feels like the answer to improving DSIT is some decent policymaking, rather than retiring it (wch would be a huge drag - shuffling departments takes up a lot of time and energy). The problem ofc is that Labour doesn't have a v strong SciTech talent pool to draw on giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
As business secretary, he could be given greater responsibility for science policy at the expense of the existing Department for Science, Innovation and Technology set up three years ago. Some officials and party figures expect parts of DSIT will be moved to the business department with the rest shifted into the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. "It needs to be mainstreamed and there is the sense that DSIT has not been firing on all cylinders," said a senior Labour source.
July 18, 2026 at 9:27 AM
matteason.me
This is fantastic for accessibility - Wimbledon's Inclusive Feed adds spatial audio cues and a high-contrast overlay showing the ball's path, bounces, serve speed and calls, for blind and partially sighted fans

On iPlayer here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
July 8, 2026 at 11:15 AM
matteason.me
Good luck to all those limbering up for the Bayeux Tapestry ticket war
July 1, 2026 at 8:41 AM
matteason.me
Well she lived a... what's the phrase?
BBC News headline: The Good Life actress Dame Penelope Keith dies aged 86. 29 June 2026
June 29, 2026 at 11:28 AM
matteason.me
Content nerds, how do we feel about "Mails"? "Mail", surely?
Post Office opening times with "Banking, Mails, Travel" banner at the bottom
June 27, 2026 at 4:29 PM