Sunday 28 July 2013

Zero-Hour Contracts: Letter to my MP

Earlier this evening, I read the Guardian article about Sports Direct's zero-hour policy for their part-time staff. After my wife pointed out that a bitchy outburst on Twitter wasn't going to change anything, I decided to write a letter to my MP, Kate Hoey, using the excellent WriteToThem service.

If this issue (or any other) winds you up as much as it does me, I would recommend using some of your self-righteousness to write a letter to your MP. How I did so is enclosed below.

Dear Kate Hoey,
You may recently have read in The Guardian about Sports Direct's policy of keeping all of their part-time employees on zero-hour contracts[1].                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                            
I feel like zero-hour contracts are unacceptable, as they leave employees with no sick pay, holiday pay or guarantee of future earnings. This sort of security is something that I feel an employer should provide their employees with.
I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on this matter which I consider very important.
Yours sincerely
Daniel Watkins
[1] http://m.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/28/sports-direct-staff-zero-hour-contracts

Thursday 11 July 2013

Sushi Go! Unboxing

A few months ago, I supported Sushi Go! on indiegogo. Sushi Go! is a set collection card game, similar in mechanic to 7 Wonders (one of my favourite games).

Today, it arrived! I haven't had a chance to play it yet (as I'm writing this at work), but here are some photos.

The Box


The box is very small, and very pretty. I'm pretty sure this is the cover design which I voted for, but I am obviously in no way biased.

Opening the Box

To give you some idea of the size, the cards are slightly smaller than standard playing cards (but big enough for my large hands to handle comfortably, I think!).

The Rulebook


The rulebook is smallish but, again very attractive!

Everything Side-by-Side


Some of the Cards


All in all, I'm a very happy camper!

Sunday 7 July 2013

Version 3 of sphinx-git Released

I've just pushed the latest release of sphinx-git to PyPI.

sphinx-git extends Sphinx, adding a directive which allows you to embed a git changelog of your documentation within the documentation itself.

sphinx-git is developed on GitHub where you can find an example project. Issues, comments or pull requests welcome!