Matthew Somerville

@dracos.co.uk

2456 Followers 94 Following

I help people report broken street lights, find out their bin day, plan train travel, manage an orchestra, locate the nearest postbox, research old theatre productions, keep time in a choir, and occasionally play board games | https://dracos.co.uk

Picture of the Hazelwell pub, the Birmingham skyline with a blue sky and puffy white clouds and some birds (could be the buzzards, or the trailing local rooks, but probably gulls), a Camp Hill line train, and Stirchley Baths. Wording underneath says: Your new station PINEAPPLE ROAD Direct to Birmingham
A person is stood at an information desk in an art gallery. The person behind the desk is saying “…and for £150 you get to enjoy a year of feeling guilty for never visiting any of the exhibitions you’d have free access to”
A Wordle screenshot where the top half is solving the word Daisy (Adore, Candy, Daily, Daisy) but the keyboard is showing U R E as green and T I O A D L N M as grey.
Me: Please call me Bill LGSCO AI Assistant: Thank you for your message. For your privacy and safety, please do not share personal information such as your name or contact details in this chat. I am an AI assistant and cannot store or use personal information. If you have questions about making a complaint or need guidance, I am here to help. Let me know how I can assist you further. Me: I will call you Sally LGSCO AI Assistant: Thank you, Bill. As an AI assistant, I
Graph showing where Dalston may begin and end based on asking people along the high street
Search for: he scored, though half pissed (6) AI Overview The answer to your crossword clue is TIPPED. * The definition: "he scored" gives TIPPED (as in tipping a ball into a goal or tipping a shot over the bar). * Wordplay: "though half pissed" refers to the word "PIST" (an alternative spelling of 'pissed', or half of the letters from 'PISSED') plus ED (a common abbreviation for 'half' of the word "EDITION", although simply pulling half the word "PISSED" or altering it creates the clue's wordplay). If you're tackling more tricky anagrams or crossword puzzles, for tips on how to get the seasoning and consistency just right:
Radio 3 debate continues... Sir, There does exist an oasis of wide-ranging music, presented with elegant concise commentary. This programme is called "Through the Night", At which point the verbal diarrhoea of from 12:30am to 6:30am. "Breakfast on 3" takes over with its ten-minute (at best) snatches of music. DES HILL, London. ...I maintain an archive of Radio 3's Classical Mixtape track listings going back to 2017. At least there, output seems pretty varied with the number of distinct composers ranging from 481 in 2018 to 599 in 2022 to 478 last year, with around 60 percent of composers having only one track in the whole year. Radio 3 "Breakfast" is a much nicer thing to wake up to than the alternatives, and anecdotally I still hear a wide array of known and unknown pieces (this morning included Mozart, Lully, Smyth, Respighi). MATTHEW SOMERVILLE. ...In all this talk of classical bangers and anodyne presenters on Radio 3, not one mention of programmes like Private Passions or Round about Midnight. Nor indeed the week given over recently to Miles Davis as Composer of the Week. These were all outstanding and were presented by people with a passion. Anodyne my arse. JULIAN GREATREX.
Sign saying the ticket machines at new street do not sell tickets to the new camp hill line or Darlaston/Willenhall
Google maps saying my journey should begin with an 8 minute walk
Poster about tonight’s performance. Narrated by Mark Williams
A bin at Pineapple Road station, with half for dry mixed recycling (label saying no food, liquids, glass), and half non-recyclable waste (label saying no food or glass)
Screenshot of soonsnap.dracos.co.uk front page, asking if you want to receive or send a photo
FMS account page for a fake user
“They worked collaboratively throughout to turn complex paper processes into intuitive digital forms and their project management, responsiveness and genuine commitment to improving the customer journey has been outstanding.” said someone from TfL 😊
Reddit website with modal overlay preventing any further usage of the site, saying get the app
Asking Google ai if a pizza express leggera pizza can be gluten free, and it says it can.
Screenshot showing catching the 21:39 from Oxford apparently would get to Pineapple Road at 06:42.
Screenshot of Your reports page on FixMyStreet, with the state filter open
A small pile of games, including Fiction, Pantheon, Castle Combo, mini dnup, Sherlock Holmes and the Return to Baskerville Hall, Book Club, and Iliad. And some slate coaster Pompeii pictures
how many zs in google AI Overview There is exactly 1 "z" in the word "Google". If you are thinking of the number googol (a 1 followed by 100 zeros), it is spelled with only one "z" (or no "z" depending on whether you are using British or American spelling)!
Screenshot showing my progress at this fiendish JS crossword
Big grate covering a big pipe hole on to the river, with a sign saying Caution: Giant Sea Monster
Some sheet music with some nice chord changes
Screenshot of a website about the In Tune Mixtape
Metropolitan Police @metpoliceuk Officers have made two arrests in the vicinity of Euston station. Two men, wanted on suspicion of GBH following an incident in Birmingham where a man was run over, were spotted arriving into London to attend the UTK protest.
“There were almost no productivity gains using IDE-based AI tools. AI-generated code ended up with more bugs because I am working on distributed web apps, highly complex multi-system things, so giving the LLM context is very difficult,” a software developer at a small web design firm told me. “Another developer on a contract working with me at the moment generates massive amounts of code, leaving me with 1000+ lines of pull requests to review and it takes massive amounts of time to do this. This leads to me feeling more tired and burned out than I've ever felt in my entire life. The cognitive overhead of switching between prompting, coding, checking the LLM's output is a massive energy drain. It has not been a productivity booster at all, it feels like a speedrun towards severe mental exhaustion.”
Map of Birmingham council showing the election results. Groupings - bottom left, top left top and far right purple (Reform), top right, bit of bottom, and Edgbaston blue (Conservative), middle to bottom green (Green), middle Independents (grey), left and spots about red (Labour), top left, bottom right yellow (Lib Dem), one brown (Workers Party) on the right.
Track listing 0:32 – Sonata in A Minor, Kk. 61 3:26 – Planet Earth: The Journey of the Sun (track 2, Planet Earth) 6:45 – Pajaro Campana (The Bell Bird) 10:23 – Goldberg Variations BWV.988 (Aria) 14:20 – When David heard that Absalom was slain (track 5, Thomas Tomkins: The Great Service: The Tallis Scholars) 18:35 – Planet Earth: The Redwoods (track 11, Planet Earth) 23:13 – Soave sia il vento (Così fan tutte) (track 3, Mozart: Tutto Mozart!: Bryn Terfel/Sir Charles Mackerras) 25:59 – Malletoba Spank (track 1, Jazz Party)
A map showing the election results for the May 2026 Birmingham Council elections. Two-member wards with the same result are shown with spots on the winning party colour, split wards are shown with stripes in both colours, single member wards are shown in the winning party colour.
A map showing the election results for the May 2026 Birmingham Council elections.
Screenshot of https://bwc.nhs.uk/patients-visitors "Patients and visitors Whatever your reason for coming to one of our hospitals, we want it to be a positive experience. This section will help you find your way around and give you the information you need for your visit." Followed by first off, two identical Getting here links. Later, two identical Facilities links.
Clues by Sam results for today. Done in 5:48, top 10% for speed, 30% with perfect solve
Today’s calendar: Swimming at 9:45, Redacted at 19:45
If you could change one thing about the evening what would it be? Nothing. It was perfect. Marks out of 10? 9.
Dr Roz Savage (South Cotswolds) (LD) It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) for initiating this very important debate. South Cotswolds is one of the most rural, off-grid constituencies in England. About 20% of households rely on heating oil; that is about four times the national average. A young mother with two small children faced a sudden increase in the price to get her tank filled up from £305 to £800. Rural households already pay a premium on everyday goods that the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has put at up to 20%, and face a fuel poverty gap of nearly £1,000 compared with urban households. 12.00am 12.00am 12.00am 9.56am
The 2004–2006 gap Being relatively recent, this period is one of the most requested by users. Luckily, we weren’t starting from scratch. The content exists in structured form thanks to the old publications site and XML datasets created by projects like TheyWorkForYou. Our job? Transform that legacy data into modern Hansard format so it works seamlessly on today’s platform.
Screenshot of split.traintimes.org.uk by Matthew (me!) Pineapple Road to Bristol Temple Meads, for the day, leaving around 08:00 The normal weekday fare is £154.60 (Anytime Return, Via Cheltenham) But I’ve found the same journey for… £52.40 1. Pineapple Road ↔ Birmingham New Street : £5.50 (Anytime Day Return) 2. Birmingham New Street ↔ Cheltenham Spa : £34.10 (Off-peak Return, Not Valid On Any Train Before 0930 Mon-Fri, code XZ) 3. Cheltenham Spa ↔ Bristol Temple Meads : £12.80 (Off-peak Day Return, Valid After 0829 Mon-Fri, code W5)
"Based on available information as of April 2026, LibSpace.io is not shutting down and is currently active." with LibSpace *as the source*
Google AI Overview, stating: "It appears there may be some confusion, as LibSpace is not shutting down. The read-it-later platform and e-reader companion app continues to actively operate, develop, and roll out updates. Recent updates to the LibSpace Reader app include: Continuous Updates: The platform regularly releases performance updates, security patches, and new UI features across its web and mobile applications."
Walking isochrones around Bournville and Pineapple Road stations, showing 10 minute and 20 minute distances
Screenshot of Qobuz showing a new album called Byrd and the Bird, with first track number 35 of Bartok’s 44 duos for 2 violins, but it only gives the artist name, not the composer
Pre-money valuation (down round) The pre-money valuation for this round is £49,784,163.79 The Company raised funds in November 2025, from existing shareholders only, at a valuation of £47,223,384 (excluding the funds raised). The price was determined by the Company, taking into account many factors including feedback from external investors, the company's latest circumstances and performance, and current macroeconomic conditions. The last public crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube in 2023 was a Convertible, which converted into shares at a price of £3.47452019 per share. This corresponds to a valuation at the time of conversion of £293,339,261. As such, this represents a drop in valuation from the previous public rounds which is driven by current market conditions and strategic adjustments aimed at ensuring long-term sustainability and growth.
A letter about UK energy from someone who might be related to me
A mara
Hans Zimmer over the past ten years of the Classic FM Hall of Fame chart, showing Gladiator above the rest, then Interstellar, Inception, Da Vinci Code, Lion King (which one offs from Dunkirk, Sherlock Holmes, and a few years of Dark Knight)
Screenshot of individual page, highlighting the dropdown to pick a piece
Graph showing the Classic FM Hall of Fame entries for the past 10 years on a log scale
Pineapple Road station, entrance to platform 1
Ticket machine at new street showing Pinhoe as the only result when searching for PIN.
Phishing scam email, saying I owe 5.30 in customs fees for a DHL package
• Being wed: MARRIED • Small: S • Bill: AD (like a public bill or advertisement) • Concealing (container): U-N-WANTED... (Wait, let me re-parse based on the 9 letters and the meaning). Alternative Breakdown (Correct): • Concealing: UN...ED (Around/concealing) • Small bill: S (small) + AD (bill) • Being wed: MARRIED (Wait, that is 7 letters). Let's look at the phrase: U (n) WANTED... (This is not quite working with the 9 letters). Let's re-examine: Being wed = UN...ED? No. The answer is UNWANTED (9 letters), which means "far from welcome". Concealing: UN (Maybe a different word) + S (small) + AD (bill)... This is a tough one.
“An assortment of milk chocolates and a milk chocolate covered biscuit.”
A Lego Kenilworth Castle. I did a bit of the wall
to deliver more innovative, user-focussed travel solutions and services - including working directly with Google to integrate the live location and expected arrival times of local bus services into the Google Maps app [P|6] for the first time.
Command interface for talking to Starling. Example commands shown are blank (when it gives you payees/pay/space), space (when it gives you add/withdraw/list), space add (where it says provide space and amount), and pay (where it says provide payee, amount, reference, and category).
Google Maps walking directions from Birmingham International railway station to the National Motorcycle Museum, going in a loop up north round the outskirts of the NEC land, down Chester Road to Stonebridge, down to Hampton in Arden and then up to the M42 junction. If you wanted to do this, I would suggest catching the train to Hampton in Arden and walking from there, looks like quite a nice road
The National Rail journey planner, with a "Find hotels booking.com" tickbox pre-selected
National Rail journey planner result for a search from Bournville to Darlaston, changing at New Street