Lets talk about 2025, seeing as it’s the 1st January!

Below you’ll find an outline of what I hope to achieve next year and also my top three technical and political predictions. Hopefully we’ll all still be here next year to find out just how wrong I was!

Personal

From a personal stand point, 2024 has been about solidifying what I have. I’ve climbed further out of the “burn out” hole, my little house feels lived in and cosy, and I even got back into writing little side projects like thoughtstream.me (plug plug nudge nudge go check it out!). I even attended a meet up for the first time in roughly 5 years.

So I’d like 2025 to be about moving forward. Using the amazing foundation I have with my partner, my home, and my friends, I want 2025 to be about taking “The next step”.

Goals and resolutions

Yes yes I know folks don’t tend to keep resolutions, but I always set them every year. Some stick, some fall by the wayside very quickly. These two I feel are pretty achievable:

1. Write a blog post once a week
2. Learn one new song on guitar a month

I’ve really enjoyed bringing harrywinser.com back to life, and would love to flesh it out with more technical musings, silly little project ideas, and maybe sharing my photography and music. Hugo is an excellent static site generator, and I look forward to exploring more about it as I post.

As for learning more music; in 2023 I got very into playing in local bars in and around Plymouth. However 2024 has been a bit of a hiatus for me and I’d love to get back into it. So I want to use this as a way to push myself into practising and getting back out there to perform. The itch is certainly there and I know my mental health will appreciate getting back into music.

2025 predictions

Lets break this down into two; technical and political.

Technical

2024 was a bit of a weird year. A.I. became all the rage, crypto might be leaving it’s “winter”, Google might have to sell Chrome, a toaster is probably now an Xbox, and the Games Industry layoffs seem to be continuing.

With that in mind, here are my three tech predictions:

1. A.I. will fizzle out - A.I is everywhere, but it’s not proven actually useful. They lie hallucinate making trust a real issue. The text prediction/writing is proving useful, but I think we’re in for a major rebalancing of expectations this year as to what users expected, and what A.I can actually do.
2. There will be a Trump crypto bounce - pretty obvious one, and I’m not the only one making this prediction, but I expect to see an all time high for Bitcoin by the end of January, as Trump is sworn in. Post that, I think it’ll be rocky, depending on what Trump actually does. (Please do not mistake this prediction as an endorsement of Crypto).
3. Apple won’t release anything exciting - 2024 had the Apple Vision Pro, Mac Mini, and a bunch of other releases. I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything like a foldable. I reckon incremental upgrades, and potentially Apple Intelligence will be downplayed (as per prediction 1.)

Political

2024 was a big year for politics watchers. Obviously Trump being elected was a biggie, but closer to home here in the U.K. we finally threw off the 14 years of bad Tory management. And replaced it with, arguably, Tory Light ™️ (there’s certainly more to say on this topic, so look for a blog post on this soon).

With those in mind, lets do my three political predictions:

1. Starmer will still be in number 10 - the UK has had a lot of Prime Minsters in the last 14 years. Bar any major disaster, I think Starmer will still be in charge by 2026.
2. Reform will consume the Conservatives (whatever that means) - when Kemi Badenoch became the head of the Conservative party, there was a sense of “Oh no, what have they done?” and since then, she’s done nothing to dissuade those feelings. Reform has moved the Right much more Right, while Labour has pulled the Left to the Centre. This leaves the Conservatives as not being Right leaning enough for the fanatics, and not Centre enough for those looking for traditional conservative values. The question being; what do they bring to the table?
3. Trump and Musk will fall out - we can already see this happening. But two people with massive egos don’t work well together. It’ll be interesting (in a painful way) to see what will win out. Infinite wealth, or the most powerful seat. Either way, I don’t think they’ll be best friends by the start of 2026.

I wish you luck and fair weather for 2025

And with that I shall leave you to ponder what 2025 might bring your way. Whatever it does bring, I wish you health, wealth, and happiness.

Here are the questions and answers to the Quiz of the Year 2024

News from 2024

1. In January, what scandal caught the publics attention after an ITV drama?
   1. Post office Scandal
2. In February, a Willy Wonka experience opened in Glasgow. It was a disaster but has since been recreated in LA, as well as spawning a musical. How much was a ticket? (£35)
   1. £35
3. In March this year, which country became the first to make Abortion a Constitutional right?
   1. France
4. In April, what birthday did BBC 2 celebrate?
   1. 60th
5. On 22nd of May, Rishi Sunak announced that a general election will be held. What was happening, as he stood outside of number 10?
   1. Raining, music playing - I’d accept a few answers here
6. On the 4th of June, a woman was arrested for throwing what at Nigel Farage?
   1. A Milk Shake
7. Who became British Prime Minister ?
   1. Sir Kier Starmer
8. The Olympics were held in Paris, France. How many Medals did Britain get?
   1. I’d accept +-10 for this answer, which was 65
9. In September what well known restaurant chain, which mostly concerned itself with Fridays and religion, went into administration?
   1. TGI Fridays
10. Name the two super hero movies released in October; both were sequels, and one was from DC and the other from Sony/Marvel.
    1. Joker: Folie à Deux, Venom: The Last Dance
11. In November who became the leader of the Conservative Party?
    1. Kemi Badenoch
12. In December, what time of day does this person (from the previous answer) think sandwiches should be eaten?
    1. Breakfast

Nerd + Tech round

1. Name at least one of the top selling games in the UK this year
   1. 1.EA Sports FC 25 2.Hogwarts Legacy 3.Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 4.EA Sports FC 24 5.Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 6.Super Mario Bros. Wonder 7.Minecraft 8.Nintendo Switch Sports 9.The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom 10.Super Mario Party Jamboree. Allow for some rough guesses / answers. For example, just Zelda would do.
2. What numerical version of the iPhone was released this year?
   1. 16
3. Please write down what’s wrong with this statement: According to the rules of Quidditch, throwing the Quaffle though an opponent’s hoop earns 10 points, hitting an opponent with a bludger earns 0 points, and catching the golden snitch earns 50 points and ends the game.
   1. It’s actually 150
4. How Many sides does a d20 have?
   1. 20
5. Fireball can be cast using what minimum level spell slot?
   1. 3rd level
6. What is the full name of the Grifindor ghost?
   1. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington.
7. Please write down what’s wrong with this statement: In Star Wars, in order to free young Anakin Skywalker from slavery, Qui-Gon Jinn first uses a Jedi Mind Trick to convince his master Watto, a Toydarian junk merchant, to allow him to pod race.
   1. Mind tricks don’t work on Toydarians
8. What year was Windows 11 released?
9. 2021
10. Dumbledore has a scar above his left knee. What does it resemble?
    1. A map of the London Underground.
11. Who invented the World Wide Web?
    1. Tim Berners-Lee

Chaos round

1. Spell “Ore” - in a sentence: “you could use an oar or a shovel, to get at that ore”
2. Spell “There” - in a sentence: “Their yours, and they’re all the way over there”
3. How tall does insert friend here think the Eiffel tower is in meters?
   1. Actual answer is 330 m, but whatever they wrote is the answer
4. What does A.B.C stand for? (A.B.C was shown on A.B.C and on A.B.C) - Airway Breathing Circulation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, American Broadcasting Company.
   1. I’d accept Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but most inventive answer wins.
5. What well known song has the chord progression C, G, A minor, F (Loads use this progression, and so pick your favourite - for example, “Let It Be” by The Beatles. You might also decide that the most interesting song wins).

Below is the quiz I’ll be running for some friends at this year NYE party. It’s very British and quite nerdy, as I’ve tailored it towards who will be there.

You can find the answers to this quiz here: Quiz of the Year 2024 - answers.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

News from 2024

1. In January, what scandal caught the publics attention after an ITV drama?
2. In February, a Willy Wonka experience opened in Glasgow. It was a disaster but has since been recreated in LA, as well as spawning a musical. How much was a ticket?
3. In March this year, which country became the first to make Abortion a Constitutional right?
4. In April, what birthday did BBC 2 celebrate?
5. On 22nd of May, Rishi Sunak announced that a general election will be held. What was happening, as he stood outside of number 10?
6. On the 4th of June, a woman was arrested for throwing what at Nigel Farage?
7. Who became British Prime Minister ?
8. The Olympics were held in Paris, France. How many Medals did Britain get?
9. In September what well known restaurant chain, which mostly concerned itself with Fridays and religion, went into administration?
10. Name the two super hero movies released in October; both were sequels, and one was from DC and the other from Sony/Marvel.
11. In November who became the leader of the Conservative Party?
12. In December, what time of day does this person (from the previous answer) think sandwiches should be eaten?

Nerd + Tech round

1. Name at least one of the top selling games in the UK this year
2. What numerical version of the iPhone was released this year?
3. Please write down what’s wrong with this statement: According to the rules of Quidditch, throwing the Quaffle though an opponent’s hoop earns 10 points, hitting an opponent with a bludger earns 0 points, and catching the golden snitch earns 50 points and ends the game.
4. How Many sides does a d20 have?
5. Fireball can be cast using what minimum level spell slot?
6. What is the full name of the Grifindor ghost?
7. Please write down what’s wrong with this statement: In Star Wars, in order to free young Anakin Skywalker from slavery, Qui-Gon Jinn first uses a Jedi Mind Trick to convince his master Watto, a Toydarian junk merchant, to allow him to pod race.
8. What year was Windows 11 released?
9. Dumbledore has a scar above his left knee. What does it resemble?
10. Who invented the World Wide Web?

Chaos round

1. Spell “Ore” - in a sentence: “you could use an oar or a shovel, to get at that ore”
2. Spell “There” - in a sentence: “Their yours, and they’re all the way over there”
3. How tall does insert friend here think the Eiffel tower is in meters?
   1. Actual answer is 330 m, but whatever they wrote is the answer
4. What does A.B.C stand for? (A.B.C was shown on A.B.C and on A.B.C) - Airway Breathing Circulation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, American Broadcasting Company.
   1. I’d accept Australian Broadcasting Corporation, but most inventive answer wins.
5. What well known song has the chord progression C, G, A minor, F (Loads use this progression, and so pick your favourite - for example, “Let It Be” by The Beatles. You might also decide that the most interesting song wins).

On far too many occasions I need to parse CSV files to extract the data. I’ve found over the years that also converting them to TypeScript objects is a big help.

I’ve written variations of this code over and over again, and I’m getting annoyed at myself for forgetting / losing previous versions of it. So today, I’m going to share my “janky” yet simple way of parsing a CSV to TypeScript objects.

As with all code on the internet; please make sure you read it and understand it before jamming it into your projects!

The code

import * as fs from "fs";
import * as path from "path";
import { parse } from "csv-parse";

interface ReadCSVOptions {
  columns: string[];
  delemiter: string;
}

const readCSV = async <T>(
  file: string,
  options: ReadCSVOptions,
): Promise<T[]> => {
  const csvFilePath = path.resolve(__dirname, file);
  const fileContent = fs.readFileSync(csvFilePath, { encoding: "utf-8" });
  const csvParser = parse(options);

  return new Promise<T[]>((resolve, reject) => {
    const results: T[] = [];

    csvParser.on("readable", function () {
      let record;
      while ((record = csvParser.read()) !== null) {
        // ignore the row if it equals the same as header
        if (record[options.columns[0]] === options.columns[0]) {
          continue;
        } else {
          results.push(record);
        }
      }
    });

    csvParser.on("error", function (err) {
      reject(err);
    });

    csvParser.on("end", function () {
      resolve(results);
    });

    csvParser.write(fileContent);
    csvParser.end();
  });
};

A few items of note

1. While I’ve used it personally for little scripts, if you plan to use it for “production” code, PLEASE TEST IT!
2. I’m aware there are probably npm libraries out there for this exact thing, but I couldn’t find a working one.
3. It relies on csv-parse - which looks pretty well used and is well supported.
4. This will load everything into memory. So maybe avoid using for very large CSV files.

Finally, after far too long (and a whole lot of cryptic posts on Mastodon), I’ve finally released my little side project; ThoughtStream.me.

I started this back in September (and even got a new laptop so I could write it), and naively thought I’d be done by mid October. Little did i know how long it would take! But we’re here now, and I thought I’d write up a little blog about it, where the idea came from, and maybe what’s next.

What is ThoughtStream.me?

Earlier in the year, I found myself wishing I could just “stream” my thoughts onto something like Mastodon or Bluesky, but without worrying about other people reading them. So I asked around and to my surprise I couldn’t find anything like it. I tried using Obsidian, which I use for all of my notes, but found it just wasn’t quite right. The “conscience stream” style of writing just wasn’t quite the right fit. It felt awkward and messy.

So decided that if it didn’t exist, I should probably put those years of programming experience into building something for myself!

But what is it?

Essentially, ThoughtStream.me allows a user to create small notes, that are then displayed in a timeline.

But why would this be useful?

Well, for example, I have it open during meetings to add little comments about interesting things that come up. I also find it an excellent way to keep me present in the meeting, as it keeps my hands busy.

I also keep a daily “stream”, where I just stream thoughts as I have them into it. I find this incredibly useful when writing complex code or trying to debug something difficult. Essentially treating it a little like a rubber duck.

What’s Next?

I’ve got a load of ideas for the project, which include:

• Ability to download thought streams as markdown files
• Better searching and tagging
• Linking between thought streams
• “Enter key” submission which can be toggled via user settings

This is very much the first iteration of the idea. It’s been a very long time since I last wrote any amount of code “for fun”, and I’m somewhat proud of actually getting this out there and released!

So please sign up and take a look, then share whatever feedback you have with me!