Jonty
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fairless.xyz
Jonty
@fairless.xyz
950 followers 1.1K following 910 posts
Service designer, mechanic, & cargobike charity trustee. Used to work night shift. 📍Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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fairless.xyz
Tiny mechanic's win to start the new year!

The transalp had no spark. And with a wiring loom from before the fall of the Berlin wall, the fault could've been *anywhere*.

But: turns out it was just a bad connection at the kill switch! Scrub w/contact cleaner, and it fired right up. Bulletproof ♥️
A close up of a couple of wiring connections behind the front fairings of a 1987 Honda Transalp motorcycle. The front right fork stanchion shines silver in the foreground A 1987 Honda Transalp motorcycle in a garage, stripped of all plastic fairings, exposing the forward wiring, headlights and clocks, alongside radiators.
January 5, 2026 at 3:32 PM
fairless.xyz
This dog is DONE
A large white curly-haired dog sleeps in her back at full stretch on a grey sofa, tangled in cushions. A soft toy turkey lies on a cushion in the background.
December 25, 2025 at 9:29 PM
fairless.xyz
I got a Mallard for Xmas last year. Popped it in the spare bedroom. Honestly LOVED IT, but personally found the forward visibility just too restricted, so ended up returning it. YMMV.
The front of a LNER 4468 'Mallard' locomotive, in a large museum shed. An iron railway bridge arches over the engine. An LNER 4468 'Mallard' locomotive, in a large museum shed, sitting alongside a brown steam engine. The view forward from outside the firebox on an LNER 4468 'Mallard' locomotive, in a large museum shed. The view forward from inside the firebox of a LNER 4468 'Mallard' locomotive, in a large museum shed.
December 24, 2025 at 11:13 PM
fairless.xyz
I spent Christmas Eve in the Water of Leith and under the castle. Edinburgh really is the nicest place I've ever lived.
The Water of Leith - at the point, a broad fast-flowing stream - races between overhanging trees. A pale yellow glow filters through the bare branches. Stark buildings and walls of Edinburgh Castle cling to a steep volcanic outcropping, looming over bare silhouetted trees. The buildings are illuminated in red, and set against a wide, pale, cloudless evening sky.
December 24, 2025 at 8:15 PM
fairless.xyz
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: Parents Horrified as Kids Rewrite Entire Santa List on 23 Dec
Two children sitting at a kitchen counter, writing studiously
December 23, 2025 at 2:45 PM
fairless.xyz
Nice! I'm going the opposite direction - I'm giving up my lovely old MacBook Pro, and getting some kind of black plastic rectangle for the new job.

Thoughts and prayers for my switch to Microsoft 🙏

(Pictured: every presentation I make in 2026 probably)
A picture of a broadsheet newspaper comics and classifieds page. Taking up a quarter of one of the pages is a large picture of a surprised looking cat, beneath which is the text 'oh god how did this get here I am not good with computer'
December 19, 2025 at 11:23 AM
fairless.xyz
After 15 years of riding bikes around London and Edinburgh, Google street view finally caught me.
A screenshot of Google street view. A cyclist (me) and a couple of cars on a wet, sunlit Edinburgh road.
December 19, 2025 at 10:58 AM
fairless.xyz
Snap! (but make the dog bigger)
A large white dog with a close-cropped curly coat sits on a grey sofa.
December 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
fairless.xyz
The Dog has finally reached an age and temperament that she'll happily just sleep in my office all afternoon. It's lovely.
A cosy scene. A large curly-haired white dog lies curled up in a yellow armchair in the corner of a small room, next to a large cabinet crowded with books and junk. The walls are covered with pictures, postcards and art, alongside a polished steel bicycle frame mounted on a pair of hooks.
December 17, 2025 at 2:22 PM
fairless.xyz
We're doing favourite small-to-medium enterprise branding today
A long wheelbase van in a car park. The hoarding on the side shows a large woodcut-style illustration of trees and people carrying branches. The business name 'Respect your elders tree surgery' is emblazoned across the side in a weathered, old-world serif typeface.
December 12, 2025 at 3:11 PM
fairless.xyz
The inverted face lick: a story in three acts.
Three smiling people - two children and an adult - hang upside-down from a pair of low level parallel bars in a forest. A white dog is entering the frame from the left hand side. Three people - two children and an adult - hang upside-down from a pair of low level parallel bars in a forest. A white dog is licking the face of the middle upside down child. Others are in the process of falling off the bars. Three people - two children and an adult - sit beneath out hang haphazardly upside-down from a pair of low level parallel bars in a forest. A white dog is leaving underneath the bars, having licked the face of the middle child.
December 6, 2025 at 1:06 PM
fairless.xyz
Early morning squirrel patrol
Looking up at a large, curly-haired white dog, wearing a maroon fleece warmer, standing on a ridge in a forest. Dead leaves litter the ground.
November 20, 2025 at 8:43 AM
fairless.xyz
Scenes from an autumn run. Definitely up there as one of the top four seasons
A short tree with vibrant yellow leaves stands in a dark clearing in a pine forest Trees with yellow and orange leaves reach towards the forest canopy Late autumnal light filters through trees on a ridge, illuminating dew on the grass of a sloping field. An old gate stands in the foreground. An old holloway bordered by trees runs down a hill. A sunlit vista of fields stretches across the horizon.
November 9, 2025 at 5:12 PM
fairless.xyz
Is the AI bubble gong to be as bad as 2008? @dsquareddigest.bsky.social says it'll be bad, but structurally less catastrophic.

2008 collapsed the foundations. But AI assets are still held as risk assets - meaning less essential stuff relies on them.

backofmind.substack.com/p/are-we-hav...
A screenshot of text. It reads: "A lot of what is worrying the regulators is that this market is not transparent and has grown very fast. My perception is, though, that although there will be overlapping and circular exposures, this stuff is mainly being held institutionally on the basis that it is a risk asset, which ought to mean that capability has been allocated to manage it when it goes bad)."
November 9, 2025 at 9:59 AM
fairless.xyz
Happy to report the Scotland East data centre successfully received its Lego v2 architecture update while meeting 100% SLAs throughout
A small black thin client pc, bristling with wires, is attached to a black wall with Lego blocks forming the mounting structure.
October 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
fairless.xyz
Another vote for Rotring. I've had this old 600 knocking around my office for the last 10 years. Metal body, brass mechanism, Never missed a beat. Lovely thing.

www.rotring.co.uk/pens-pencils...
A black mechanical pencil lies on a pale wooden surface. Red text on the hexagonal barrel of the pencil reads 'rotring 600 | 0,5mm'
October 19, 2025 at 10:30 PM
fairless.xyz
Windows 10 goes out of support today. My fave useless fact about w10 is that the iconic blue desktop background is a *photograph* - not CGI.

Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...
Three images showing photographers in a studio, standing around a black curtained area with a projector and a 'Windows' logo etched onto a glass pane. The lower image shows a version of the iconic blue windows background, with blue lasers outlining and passing through an angled Windows logos against a dark background.
October 15, 2025 at 10:54 AM
fairless.xyz
Bike spots not always great at HW, but theres usually space on the bike railing under the Lord Balerno building, right next to the James Watt centre front door.
A split Google maps / Google street view interface. The top half of the screen shows a surface level pedestrian passage through a dark brick building, with a bike railing on one side with bikes locked to it. The lower half of the screen shows a Google satellite view of a university campus, with the streetview viewpoint annotated.
October 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
fairless.xyz
I live down this way @deleriad.bsky.social... If it were me, I'd probs get to Wester Hailes, then take Westburn Ave / Bab mains hill over the bypass, before following the (v quiet!) Baberton mains / Baberton rd down to the campus.

Still mostly unlit, but far fewer canals to fall into
A close up of a cycling route map. A doglegged path from right to left is highlighted with broad light red highlight
October 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
fairless.xyz
Spottedthe Urban Arrow in service at Balerno Farmers' market this weekend! Doing a great job couriering crates of apples from around the village right up to the apple day press. 🍎

A van could never.
A large apple press stands in a busy market square, surrounded by children. A man is turning press handle, and golden liquid is being funnelled into a bowl at the base of the press.
October 13, 2025 at 8:09 AM
fairless.xyz
She only misses me cos she's not allowed to chew anyone else in the family
A large, white, slightly scruffy curly-haired poodle-cross lies on a sofa, head in the camera person's lap, looking up at the camera.
October 10, 2025 at 12:54 PM
fairless.xyz
I made 16 highlights and yelled 'OMG yes' each time
A screenshot from a bookmarking app (Raindrop.io) showing 16 highlighted passages within a blog post
October 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
fairless.xyz
A graphic by the designer Teenage Stepdad. It depicts a blue monstertruck jumping out of an explosion. Dynamic, stylised typefaces reminiscent of 80s toy packaging read (in various arrangements around the truck image): 'Fuck Modernism', 'Use more fonts', 'Make everything look cool again', 'Drop out of design school Don't use Futura Take Drugs'
October 6, 2025 at 9:12 AM
fairless.xyz
Bike struggled to rev over 5k rpm. Pulled carbs, found the issue.

36 years of vibes had abraided the CV carb slides in their holders in such a way that the front slide hit a teeny tiny friction increase halfway up.

Cleaned & swapped the slides between carbs (not the needles!): problem fixed.
A carburettor with the float bowl removed, revealing the float and jets A top down view of a partially stripped-down motorcycle with the fuel tank removed, sitting in a messy garage. The carbs are exposed. A white, vintage dual-sport motorcycle parked by a sunny stone wall.
October 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
fairless.xyz
Storm Amy may disrupt a lot of things, but it also blasted the UK grid with 20gW of wind power and made my electricity free for like two days, so it's impossible to say if it's bad or not.
A piece chart of UK national grid electricity generation from today. Renewables make up 75% of the electricity generated at 21.8GW An % area graph showing electricity generation over the day. Renewables makes up 70-80% of generation throughout most of the day. A pie chart showing energy distribution in North Scotland. The current carbon intensity is 0gCO2/kWh. The pie chart shows 100% energy coming from wind. A bar chart showing half-hour energy pricing. A significant number of half hour periods are below 0p.
October 4, 2025 at 9:49 PM