Andy Mabbett
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pigsonthewing.org.uk
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing.org.uk
Man of many talents-some of them useful. Multiple monomaniac. Author, 'Pink Floyd: The Music & The Mystery'.

Also Wikipedia, Wikidata &c. OpenStreetMap. Birds. Birmingham. Open data. FoI. Art. Architecture. History. FRSA.

Everything is interesting.
An excellent choice!

Congratulations to @merrileeiam.bsky.social and @archive.org
The #InternetArchive welcomes Merrilee Proffitt as director of Democracy’s Library, US! With decades in digital libraries & open knowledge, she’ll expand free access to government research & boost transparency, equity & engagement.

More ➡️ blog.archive.org/2025/11/18/m...

@merrileeiam.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
Unpowered SSDs slowly lose data | Discussion
The unpowered SSDs in your drawer are slowly losing your data
SSDs aren't ideal for long-term data storage
www.xda-developers.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Who doesn't hang their Hanukkah stocking next to their Hanukkah tree?
Pretty amazing AI-generated item available on Amazon.
November 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
We all know many orgs prefer to push us to use synchronous (chatbot, phone) rather than asynchronous (email, text, SM messaging) contacts.

Why is that?

Asking while on hold for ten minutes and rising to ask a bank to send something by post that could have been requested in a 30-second email...
November 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
Are YOU the most depressing book plate ever? YES, You ARE!
July 25, 2025 at 6:04 PM
We all know many orgs prefer to push us to use synchronous (chatbot, phone) rather than asynchronous (email, text, SM messaging) contacts.

Why is that?

Asking while on hold for ten minutes and rising to ask a bank to send something by post that could have been requested in a 30-second email...
November 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
"bishops of the Catholic Church made bonfires of the Maya and Aztec manuscripts, a terrible loss to history. Calendars on wood and painted paper books made of the leaves of the maguey all blazed together. May these bishops expiate their crimes in the purgatory of biblioclasts!"
-Athenaeum 2954, 1884
November 23, 2025 at 10:26 AM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...
November 22, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
My review of my evenings entertainment, the Willy Russell musical Blood Brothers.

Wrapping £80 around a cat and setting fire to it would be a better use of your money, and result in better tunes.
November 22, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
So, I'm really kind of fucking annoyed and disappointed with Mozilla enabling AI in Firefox by default and not giving users a simple opt out switch.

I have disabled it in my firefox via 'about:config' , if you want to too, here's how to disable it completely or enable certain bits you find useful
How to Disable AI Features in Firefox Browser
Are you looking for clean user experience in your Firefox browser? Here's how you can disable AI features in Firefox for a simple, no-nonsense usage.
gadgetstouse.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Stunning ten-minute video of an even more stunning subject.
November 22, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
It’s the seventh anniversary of the publication of ‘Everything is awesome: Don’t forget the Lego’ in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, which told how six “paediatric health-care professionals were recruited to swallow a Lego head” and measure how long it took to ~ahem~ pass through them
November 22, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
Hello BlueSky! Starting this account to showcase the ever growing list of radical online archives and collections. Nearly 1000 collections from the around the world are listed at the link below.

Please follow for updates and collection highlights!

hatfulofhistory.com/radical-onli...
radical online collections and archives
I am very interested in the growing amount of radical literature from around the world that is being scanned and digitised. As there are so many and from many different places, I thought it would b…
hatfulofhistory.com
October 12, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Masterpieces indeed - so why don't the authors of this article name any of the artists?
November 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
A simple little hack for laundering Ordnance Survey Grid References so as to get to locations on Google Maps, Bing Maps, OpenStreetMaps, and others which have no truck with OSGR, is to search in Geograph.org.uk and use its excellent mapping links page.
November 21, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
You don't necessarily want to use the exact same alt text each time a specific image is used. Alt text must consider the context of the image and why it's being included on a site, post, article, etc. In other words, alt text depends on where you're including the image and why.
November 20, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
Status update: fiber cut between data centers - trucks are rolling. Services are slow but functional, except for the Wayback Machine, which is still offline.
The Wayback Machine, openlibrary.org, and some other archive.org functions are offline because some network gear has failed.

We apologize and are working on it. More as it happens.
November 20, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
The power of Wikidata is its community. Joining a WikiProject is the best way to find your corner of it. Connect, collaborate, and create with us. Find your people: www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikida...
#WikidataWikiProjects
#FindYourPeople
November 18, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Grokipedia now says "The 2025 Dutch general election was a snap parliamentary election held on 29 October 2025..."

But with a hatnote saying the article was fact-checked on 27 October.

Still no article on UPS Airlines Flight 2976.
Grokipedia still saying "The 2025 Dutch general election is a snap parliamentary election scheduled for 29 October 2025" and "The 2025 New York City mayoral election is scheduled for November 4, 2025".

Zohran Mamdani article has not been updated.

Has no article on UPS Airlines Flight 2976.
November 20, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
Our collection of parrots, watercolour on velum, from Eleazar Albin's 'Natural History of Birds', mid 18th century
November 18, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
lol, PM&C released a low-res version of the king's flag but refused to release a high-res one under FOI. www.righttoknow.org.au/request/his_...
November 20, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
Something I mention in today’s piece is the wider pressure and undervaluing of libraries and archives. Even less well known than the issues facing the British Library are the worrying proposals for the BBC Written Archives Centre. More here observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
November 18, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered.

He was calling for free expression in the Arab world. You can read it here :

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/glo...
Opinion | Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression
The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Andy Mabbett
BBC News: "the government believe refugees are deliberately bringing their children to avoid deportation"

As opposed to doing what with their children??
November 17, 2025 at 10:11 PM