“Tool” is a euphemism, in English. This post is not about that kind of tool. It is about things we use to help us perform a job, the job, in this case, being writing on a computer. It requires a tool because almost any time a human is writing for a computer they are writing a draft that will be tweaked in one way or another by a computer before it appears on a screen.

The point about it being on a computer is that nothing else separates the presentation from the content quite so thoroughly. For example, if I want to emphasise a word by making it bold I need to know how you might be reading it. If you’re reading it in a web browser, I want the browser to receive <strong>bold</strong>, knowing that it will present it to you as bold. If I plan to make the text available as a PDF, I need to take other steps to make the text look the way I want it to.

Moved on to the downtube shifters, which are a bit of a mess. The clamp is Huret-Sachs, the shifters Shimano SY20, a very early index shifter that I dimly recall asking the bike shop to fit for me. YouTube told me that the clamp probably had to be re-tapped to accomodate the larger Shimano bolts. Anyway ...

Restoration of the old Raleigh is starting to pick up a bit of speed. I had to pay money to get the stem and bottom bracket removed by a professional with a blow torch and an angle grinder, but the frame is now ready to be rubbed down and touched up (Oo-er, Missus!) There have also been a couple of interesting discoveries.

It was "the most boring, uneventful adventure in the entire history of geocaching". But it was mine to bag. No point saying more than that.

See those beans? They are “iron-rich”. Why the “scare quotes”? Lots of reasons, some trivial, some much less so.