Author | Lightnews

Reposted by Matt Fozard

Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 11h

... not to mention, AWS themselves has UK data centers!

Using US infra means data subject to US regulations + government access.

Kind of problematic for something like tax record, PII etc

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · 3d

A brief review of my waterproof gear after 45 minutes commuting in heavy rain: Berghaus Stormcloud jacket ✅ (and *such* a good hood), Rab Downpour trousers ✅, Merrell Moab Speed 2 gore-tex boots - left ✅ & right ❌ - time to dry my socks off #loveukweather

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b3ta @b3ta.com · 6d

Artist: Ninj https://b3ta.com/board/11422013
From the 'Ruin A Bond Poster' challenge https://b3ta.com/challenge/ruinabondposter/popular/ #RuinABondPoster

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Kelsey Hightower @kelseyhightower.com · 11d

🎯

Grady Booch @booch.com · 11d

I’m not anti-AI.

I am, however, anti the rapacious tech bros who selfishly hype AI for the purpose of increasing their wealth and power at the expense of our humanity.

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Andrew Lawrence @ndrew.bsky.social · 12d

every single tech idea is like “soon our robots will be capable of playing catch with your kid, freeing you up to spend more time working on your employers’ spreadsheets”

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · 12d

Run report: full english breakfast not the best fuel for running but the South Downs making up for it

Orange autumnal trees and bushes on the South Downs ridge, looking down towards Winchester UK

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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 15d

And a nice writeup of the story here: www.science.org/content/arti...

Big U.S. West Coast earthquakes could come as a one-two punch

Cascadia and San Andreas fault zones appear to generate synchronized earthquakes

www.science.org

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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 18d

"There are currently one to two Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every day ... Soon, McDowell told us, there will be up to 5 satellite reentries per day." 😳

1 to 2 Starlink satellites are falling back to Earth each day

earthsky.org

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · 23d

Just remembered Microsoft Visual Source Safe and how terrible it was at actually keeping your source safe #codinginthe90s

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Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · 27d

Now this is Content

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Steve Batty 🟢 @stevebatty.bsky.social · Sep 18

There's a great Substack piece by Adam Rutherford debunking all this nonsense.
arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...

Dire wolves remain very extinct

Despite what you are being fed, de-extinction is a con, full of gloss, bullshit and ghoulish greed.

arutherford.substack.com

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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · Sep 15

The science of volcanoes and their relationship with the climate is hard to keep up with. Why do some volcanoes give us little warning before they blow? Are we ignoring the next big eruption?

Hidden volcanoes: are we ignoring the next big eruption? | Aeon Essays

The next global disaster may be triggered by a catastrophic eruption. How can we prepare for the fire beneath our feet?

buff.ly

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Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · Sep 14

Look, I’m not saying that this photo of a really pleasing dry stone wall in front of spectacular mountain scenery will improve your morning even a tiny bit but yes actually that is exactly what I’m saying.

I’m adding alt text even though really there’s little to add. The stone wall is light grey and with the kind of satisfying asymmetry these things often have. Behind, the mountains are mostly the traditional pyramid shape, with a couple of dramatic pillars in the centre ground. The sky, what you can see of it, is blue with a few smeary white-grey clouds.

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Alex Spahn 🌋🌪️☄️ @spahn711.bsky.social · Sep 12

Sharing my favorite cloud/storm of all time for #CloudAppreciationDay.

Hard to believe its already almost the two year anniversary of the Ada, OK storm.

A supercell thunderstorm at night with pancake-stacked structure and lightning protruding out from the clouds in a few directions. A clear, starry sky sits to the left, and a gravel road extends out to the horizon.

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Sep 12

Upon asking for improvements it made a series of changes that I pointed out were wrong in some way and I was "absolutely right!" each time, before it re-generated the original code as if it were a completely new idea. The future 🫠

Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Sep 12

Big up Copilot and Claude 4 this morning for generating an invalid python string interpolation then failing to be able to count the arguments it generated or to find any problem with it.

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Sep 4

There’s a bit of weather in South Hampshire then

A distant bright white towering cumulonimbus cloud

Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Aug 29

See also github.com/Raphire/Win1...

GitHub - Raphire/Win11Debloat: A simple, easy to use PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customize, declutter and improve you...

A simple, easy to use PowerShell script to remove pre-installed apps, disable telemetry, as well as perform various other changes to customize, declutter and improve your Windows experience. Win11D...

github.com

Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Aug 29

Windows 11 reminds me why I use a Mac for actually getting work done, but here's a helpful article for making 11 less punchable www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/w...

Windows 11 hacks to regain productivity

HANDS ON: Fight back against Redmond's productivity sinks

www.theregister.com

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Aug 28

Every day is a school day

Nige Tassell @nigetassell.bsky.social · Aug 28

After 40 years of wondering (albeit not to the extent of actually looking it up), I now know what the Old Grey Whistle Test means.

Reposted by Matt Fozard

Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · Aug 26

People make fun of AI “hallucinations,” but this is 100% accurate.

was 1995 30 years ago

Al Overview

No, 1995 was not 30 years ago. If today is July 25, 2025, then 30 years ago would be 1995. So, yes, 1995 was 30 years ago.

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Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · Aug 22

My favourite international name for a Mr Men character will never not be the name for Mr Bump in Norwegian, which is Herr Dumpidump. Tragically, the books with that title are now out of print. I’ll therefore be spending much of my remaining time in Norway searching antique bookshops for an old copy.

A cover of Herr Dumpidump by Roger Hargreaves that says "Herr Dumpidump by Roger Hargreaves" and with an illustration of Herr Dumpidump looking especially dumpidumpish (forgive me but I can't stop repeating the word dumpidump... DUMPIDUMP!)

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Johnny Nice Painter ⬛🖌️ @johnnynicepainter.bsky.social · Aug 21

The UK isn't doing great at the moment. Can we though take a moment to to reflect on something that IS great? Ordnance Survey maps. Absolutely fucking magnificent. The amount of detail and information packed into something that is also beautiful in and of itself:

A screen grab of and Ordnance Survey map.

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 19

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · Aug 19

Good thing no one uses Microsoft Excel for anything related to legal, regulatory or compliance business functions

www.theverge.com/news/761338/...

Microsoft Excel adds Copilot Al to help ...
theverge.com
The Verget-4.1-mini Al model | 5
successor to the LABS.GENERATIVEAI function Microsoft started experimenting
with in 2023.
Microsoft notes that you can combine its new Al function with other Excel functions, including IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS. The company adds that information sent through Excel's COPILOT function is "never" used for AI training, as "the input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output."
The COPILOT function comes with a couple of limitations, as it can't access information outside your spreadsheet, and you can only use it to calculate 100 functions every 10 minutes. Microsoft also warns against using the AI function for numerical calculations or in “high-stakes scenarios” with legal, regulatory, and compliance implications, as COPILOT "can
give incorrect responses."
Copy Share Select all Web search Dictionary
...

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Matt Fozard @elfoz.bsky.social · Aug 17

The king should intervene … with wolves?

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