Articles

30. September 2026

AI Tools for Live Transcription

AI tools for automated speech recognition (ASR), otherwise known as transcription, have become quite popular recently, especially with the advent of Wispr Flow, for example. There are several free alternatives to that which I wanted to experiment with in my workflow. I’d also like to offer and introduce a custom option of my own - Whisper Clip - which is free to run locally, and very performant with the right hardware.

20. July 2026

Pi Morse

Dash dash dot dot! This project combines a Raspberry Pi mini computer with USB-connected peripheral devices - a simple button and a basic speaker - to create a functioning Morse code keyer that works from switch-on time.

This fun side project combines hardware and software to create a wonderful, tactile educational device that practices several skills at once: listening, concentration, coordination. This device has certainly been a hit with my children! In this article, I’ll describe how I built the project and walk you through some of the key concepts involved.

20. April 2026

Ubuntu's Popularity Over the Years

With the highly anticipated new release of Ubuntu due out later this week (26.04 LTS), it’s a good moment to review the landscape of Linux distributions and ask: “is it the right operating system for me?”

I have been using Linux Ubuntu as my primary operating system (OS) for more than 15 years and it’s fair to say, I’m hooked! My enjoyment of and productivity using Ubuntu goes far deeper than it’s free and it has a great window management, though these are key benefits.

19. February 2026

ZL Labs Partners with Laboris Solutions

I am delighted to announce that ZL Labs will be partnering up with Laboris Solutions, helping them on their mission to build brighter futures and better companies, by recruiting the best talent that Oxford has to offer!

As part of this venture, we will be expanding Laboris’ coverage to new territories: AI and Software Engineering. I will be using my expertise and network in these fields to compliment the years of recruiting excellence that Alex, Laboris CEO, brings to the table.

22. December 2025

Pick-A-Partridge: A Festive Game On Reddit

On a rainy November weekend, I decided to test drive the Devvit framework, designed for creating apps and games within the Reddit ecosystem. Within a day or two, I had built the first version of Pick-A-Partridge. It’s a festive game of memory, themed around the Twelve Days of Christmas, which will become clear from the backing music when you come to play it.

The game now has its own subreddit, r/pick_a_partridge, which is where you can play. A lot of people are!

28. November 2025

AI Agents for Automated Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) is an intensive endeavour that feels very repetitive to humans. In this article, we explore the potential of using Agentic AI to automate this process. In particular, we’ll apply this methodology to a real-world example: ensuring that parallellm.com (the “target website”) runs smoothly, round the clock. Any issues that do arise will be flagged very quickly.

The application of Agentic AI to QA has great potential, since traditional website scanning is notoriously difficult. Their HTML layouts are liable to change at any moment. AI Agents, when set up in the right way, can tolerate such changes, whereas traditional heuristic rules are hard-coded and brittle against this effect.