Quixoticgeek

https://social.v.st/@quixoticgeek

Geek, Dyke, Brewer, Rider of Bikes, Maker of Things, Quixotic, Generally Curious, Mostly Harmless, she/her.

Location: somewhere in Europe.

Public Key

npub1egewfnyqxxphn0lu8y5hhuexya605fuxun7ng3nmsrlcq5fc6f7qxhvd5r

NIP-05 Address

quixoticgeek_at_social.v.st@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsv5vhyejqrrqmehl7rj2tm7vnzwa86y7rwflf5geacpluq2yudylqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsl555f8

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1egewfnyqxxphn0lu8y5hhuexya605fuxun7ng3nmsrlcq5fc6f7qxhvd5r

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Last Notes

2026-06-16 10:37:53 UTC

If you order some copper online, but what is delivered is low quality, are you obligated to write the complaint to the seller in cuneiform on a clay tablet ?

2026-05-19 16:42:24 UTC

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illegal in some countries tho.

2026-05-19 16:42:00 UTC

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note. They are illegal in the UK. Just for any one in the UK reading this and wanting to have a go.

2026-05-19 16:06:08 UTC

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I had a colleague tell me you need balls to be able to work in tech.
So I bought a pair of 25mm steel ball bearings.
"No not like that, you know nuts!"
So I bought a pair of M24 nuts, put them on my desk, and balanced the ball bearings on them...
I have the balls to play this game, and mine are made of steel...

2026-05-19 09:39:00 UTC

Yesterday I replied to a toot someone posted. Their toot was boggling at how trans women were excluded from the challenging physical sport that is darts. My reply pointed out that chess is also gender segregated, at least at lower levels.
Lots of people replied to me asking why. And the reply is simple.
Men don't like being beaten by a girl. Chess is gender segregated to protect fragile men.

2026-04-04 17:14:48 UTC

RE: https://masto.hackers.town/@zwol/116347295189546354
When people said "learn to live with COVID" what they meant was dramatically improved indoors ventilation with heat recovery. A cafe or restaurant should be changing all the air several times an hour, and filtering it, maybe with some UV cleaning.
The government should have been giving businesses grants for such things.
But no. Society failed.

2026-04-03 23:39:05 UTC

RE: https://c.im/@BBC/116343374063075664
Only if the energy shock is in 10+ years time.
Want electrical generation capacity now? Solar. Ok waiting a couple of months? Wind.
Both are going to be online way sooner than anything else.
#note1vyc…fx6n

2026-03-30 13:39:16 UTC

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some do. It's not a requirement tho.

2026-03-30 11:47:05 UTC

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you can put solar panels on your roof. No grid issues then.

2026-03-30 11:10:02 UTC

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no choke points on the sun... Or wind.

2026-03-30 10:16:43 UTC

Our world economy seems to depend on a single 40km wide bit of salt water not being used as a battlefield.
And people thought this is a good system...

2026-03-29 11:55:26 UTC

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Am very grateful for the 6 people who came to my aid, picking me up off the platform, then catching me when I fainted from the pain. Interestingly, the train conductor wasn't one of them.
It's 2026 why the fuck do we not have level access trains?!?!

2026-03-29 11:53:38 UTC

You know how I bang on about the importance of level access?
I just got a first hand reminder of why it's so incredibly important.
I just fell down the stairs of a NS DDZ train onto the platform. I've hurt my ankle pretty bad. It's not broken but it really fucking hurts. Level access is a safety thing as much as an accessibility thing.
I'm lucky. I landed on the platform and didn't fall between the train and the platform.
Really hurts tho.

2026-03-29 10:37:24 UTC

Controversial UK public transport opinions.
- HS2 needs to built. All the way to Scotland.
- HS3-13 also need to be built.
- We need another rail connection to the continent.
"But how do we afford to do that ?" I can already hear some of you racing to type.
To which I ask one very simple question.
"How can we afford not to?"
#Trains #GBRailways

2026-03-26 17:24:52 UTC

Nerds of Amsterdam. In the next few weeks the apple trees will blossom. I really want to try and take a good picture of some apple blossom. Are there any apple trees that are publicly accessible in the Amsterdam area? Or alternatively do you have an apple tree in your garden and don't mind a geek from the fediverse spending an hour on a sunny day in April trying to take photos of the apple blossom ?
#Amsterdam.

2026-03-22 14:53:10 UTC

I saw a comment the other day about how renewables and EVs are only viable cos of subsidies. I wish it was better known by the general population just how much governments subsidise the fossil fuels industry. In .NL it's something like €40bn a year. Now imagine if we spent that on district heating, and public transport, and heat pumps? And actually built the offshore wind farms that noone tendered for.
This all seems so fucking obvious.

2026-03-16 18:39:37 UTC

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what's the end user for this H2?

2026-03-11 11:43:24 UTC

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incidentally, I saw this display case and thought of you.
Info on what I'm looking at is sparse, but if I understand your toots correctly you're an expert in such things.
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/116/210/361/958/986/441/original/659769975c2151cc.jpg
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/116/210/362/183/550/905/original/3937109439359bfc.jpg

2026-03-11 11:19:02 UTC

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see the reply to the toot for the punchline...

2026-03-11 11:10:59 UTC

Based on this one display case alone it's possible to extrapolate the number of artifacts the museum has...
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/116/210/231/856/562/645/original/4389d3611ce8eae0.jpg

2026-03-09 16:58:55 UTC

Wtf is the story of the down escalator on platform 14a at Amsterdam Centraal? It's off, and two people in high Vis are stood at the top stopping anyone even using it as stairs... It's been like this for a couple of weeks. Everyone has to walk further to some stairs. Is this woke kind of NS welcome to the Netherlands thing? Cos this platform is primarily the sprinter to/from Schiphol.
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/116/200/266/519/391/817/original/aaa7893c5cbf9606.jpg

2026-03-08 09:46:47 UTC

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the words you're looking for are "women and girls" *not* females. Female is an adjective and needs a noun to go with it.
But more than the grammar police side. The use of "females" like this has a dark history in medical experimentation on black slave women and the "scientist" doing it didn't want to humanise his test subjects by calling them women.
And of course it sounds like a Ferenghi from stat trek...
Female engineer. Female scientist. All fine. Females, not good.

2026-03-01 12:20:37 UTC

Where you live, within a 15 minute walk of your home, is there anywhere public that:
- two or more people can sit and talk
- sheltered from the wind
- sheltered from the rain
- doesn't require any purchase to be there (so no cafes, etc...).
?

2026-02-26 12:15:01 UTC

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this is the case if you're trying to generate electricity from geothermal. But if you instead try to use it for space heating, then a lot more of the UK has geothermal availability. Big heat pumps fed into district heating systems would be a great way of using geothermal and improving the livability of UK homes. And about ~20% of emissions are from heating/cooling buildings.

2026-02-25 14:59:41 UTC

The only thing I want Wed Streeting to announce is his resignation.

2026-02-19 18:59:00 UTC

And even when a satellite fully burns up in the atmosphere. The material they made up the satellite doesn't cease to exist. It's still there, as aluminium molecules in the upper atmosphere fucking with things and causing damage.
Burning up on re-entry was a semi acceptable way to EOL a satellite, when it was only a few that would re-enter. But now it's not just thousands, but tens of thousands, it's not sustainable.
https://mstdn.social/@ar387/116075957879366620

2026-02-18 15:31:06 UTC

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Post script:
- European transport minister person has to travel from Stockholm to Lisbon by train. Without using interrail. For every euro over 200 it costs, they have to pay €1000...

2026-02-18 15:29:56 UTC

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Maybe if the C suite and transport ministers from the various countries understood what it's actually like on the ground, with the accountability of a filming it, then just maybe, maybe, things might improve. If not we've tortured some rail C suite people for entertainment. Oh well.
4/4

2026-02-18 15:28:40 UTC

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- Belgium, have to travel across the country immediately, while in a wheelchair. (This would actually be a challenge in most nations too)
All of these highlight the short comings of the various national rail systems. SNCF don't understand timetables, Renfe don't understand you might want to travel with more than clothes, NS seem to have speed bumps, DB are well; DB, and UK you need a mortgage to take a train without booking in advance, likewise Thalys/Eurostar.
3/n

2026-02-18 15:25:53 UTC

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- NS/ProRail, they have to travel from Sloterdijk to Utrecht, wearing their most expensive suit, and holding a very hot, very full mug of coffee
- DB, they have to take trains across the country, for every minute of delay for a train they are on, they have to pay €1000.
- UK, they have £20, from London Euston then and there, they have to travel as far as possible. Fo each km under 100km they travel, they have to pay £1000.
- Eurostar, they need to travel Paris to Amsterdam, right now.
2/n

2026-02-18 15:22:55 UTC

I want to make a video series about trains. The idea is we take the directors from national railways, and set them each a challenge.
- SNCF, they have to get to a board meeting in a very small town at 10am, and another in a different town at 1400. They have to use trains, they can't use hotels.
- Renfe, they need to get a box of tools from Vigo to Valencia to help with a DIY project.
Cont...
1/n

2026-02-15 15:25:11 UTC

You know what this Sunday needs?
More naps.

2026-02-15 13:15:38 UTC

This is perhaps one of the worst designed objects I have the displeasure of interacting with on a regular basis. It's a symphony of bad design choices. A vile hateful piece of equipment that makes my day a little bit worse every time I use one.
What is it? It's an NS ticket gate. In this case photographed at Sloterdijk Station, but they are installed at many stations across the Netherlands.
Why is it so badly designed?
Thread time.
1/n
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/116/074/812/703/440/676/original/261bdbc7407480c9.jpg

2026-02-12 10:40:52 UTC

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and even in countries that are considered to have done ticket gates well (i.e. .nl) the ticket barrier design is one of the most awful pieces of design I've ever seen. An absolute bloody nightmare. Would not recommend.

2026-02-10 10:14:25 UTC

"so what's the alternative to discord then?"
"Unable to decrypt message"

2026-02-05 09:51:21 UTC

So my toot about helmet laws increasing heart disease has got a few replies by people wondering wtf. The way it works is that mandatory helmet laws reduce cycling, fewer people cycling results in an increase in obesity related illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.
One of, if not rhe best, things that a government can do to improve health at a population level is increasing active travel (walking and cycling).
1/n
https://theconversation.com/ditching-bike-helmets-laws-better-for-health-42

2026-02-01 11:30:24 UTC

There are currently about 12600 satellites in orbit. As a result on average every day 3 fall out of space, dumping metals and other nasties into the upper atmosphere.
If we continue that rate of satellite loss, 1 in 4200, and extrapolate it to 1,000,000. That would be ~238 satellites PER DAY, falling out of the sky and spreading the materials they are made up of in the upper atmosphere. With some more substantial chunks hitting the surface, and possibly people.
That's just bonkers
1/n

2026-01-25 13:52:59 UTC

In the Mastodon app when you click on a profile, you get "posts" "posts & replies" and "media". What it really needs is a 4th one, which is posts without boosts. Boosts are critical to the fediverse working (one of the reasons I boost a lot). But if you're looking for something a user wrote, finding it among the boosts can be a pain.

2026-01-25 12:35:47 UTC

A couple of weeks ago, I was sat on the sofa when the ceiling lights came on. I don't use these lights very often. Having come on, they then cycled through all the colours. This is alarming. The lights are IKEA Tradfri bulbs, and I have a Tradfri gateway so I can control the lights via the app. My immediate concern was maybe someone had compromised my network and was experimenting with the API the gateway exposes. I started to do some debugging and network analysis.
Today I discovered...
1/n

2026-01-22 23:03:12 UTC

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my concern is that I lose the ability to use the apps I need to survive.

2026-01-20 13:29:04 UTC

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for those who don't want to "accept all or pay" to read the article.
https://archive.ph/Zsbm7

2026-01-20 12:48:52 UTC

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yep.

2026-01-20 12:46:59 UTC

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I have a fairphone, but I have stock android on it because lots of stuff like banking apps only work on stock android...

2026-01-20 12:27:12 UTC

Question for geopolitical nerds and tech nerds.
If you have a stock android phone, it's almost impossible to use it without a Google account. If your nation becomes what is essentially at war with the US, or is under sanction. Does the whole country get their Google accounts blocked, thus rendering their phone almost unusable (without rooting it or reflashing the os etc?).

2026-01-14 12:28:17 UTC

UK has awarded contracts for over 8GW of offshore wind power. Which is awesome. More of this please.
I notice in the article "The awarded capacity will power the equivalent of almost 10 million homes."
Or 3 large AI data centres.
Which puts into perspective just how much energy these facilities can use.
Wind power good. AI datacentres bad.
https://windeurope.org/news/uk-awards-8-4-gw-in-europes-largest-offshore-wind-auction-ever/

2026-01-12 21:36:11 UTC

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yikes. Where abouts in .nl is this? We had our supply in Amsterdam upgraded from 1x25 to 3x25 for free a couple of years ago.

2026-01-11 21:50:01 UTC

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wishing you the best of luck for this.

2026-01-07 12:24:51 UTC

Another to add to the list of things ruined by sparkling autocarrot.
A wedding. Well actually not legally a wedding anymore, cos sparkling autocarrot.
https://nltimes.nl/2026/01/07/court-zwolle-rules-couple-married-chatgpt-written-ceremony

2026-01-06 14:34:53 UTC

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and *that* is just the sort of comment that makes it even worse. Wtf do you expect to achieve with this comment? seriously? wtf are you trying to do here?

2026-01-06 14:27:36 UTC

Another day, another pile of utterly fucking nuts python dependency hell. *sigh*

2026-01-06 14:11:13 UTC

In what is probably yet another example of optimism over experience. Have filed another bug report on an opensource project. I await finding out what unusual method this project uses to make the end user feel like shit this time...

2026-01-06 00:10:21 UTC

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macports solved my python issues. I then made the mistake of trying to install something entirely different via home brew, and it's compiling it, and has been since yesterday...

2026-01-05 22:32:13 UTC

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too much effort. Way too much effort.

2026-01-05 21:45:46 UTC

Right, lets see if macports is better at this shit than homebrew...

2026-01-05 12:38:43 UTC

In order for public transport to be a viable alternative to driving. It needs to work even when it snows. Yes it's expensive to make infrastructure resilient but it's also really expensive not to. If NS trains don't run, society at a large loses out. That doesn't show on the NS balance sheet. When you take that into account, the economics of making the infrastructure more resilient change. Substantially.

2025-12-24 14:55:53 UTC

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just a botanical

2025-12-24 14:46:44 UTC

In what has become a bit of a tradition. For Christmas eve I get myself a Lego set, then settle down with a mug of tea and build it. So far am about a quarter of the way through the build. Have fun out of tea, gonna have to move to the cider soon.

2025-12-20 09:25:51 UTC

I've seen a few people post on Mastodon about how they would love a model railway, but can't, cos of space limitations. What if I was to tell you that you can enjoy model railways, even if you live in a tiny apartment.
This is a thread about standards and community.
1/n

2025-12-18 18:30:24 UTC

No googling. Do you know how big a hectare is? I.e. if I have you a tape measure and some markers, could you mark out a hectare on this field here ?

2025-12-17 13:43:26 UTC

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One of the reasons this has become my favourite cafe, is I come here partly to practice my Dutch. The staff know this, they don't automatically switch to English, and they also have as much joy as I do when I get things right.

2025-12-17 13:40:12 UTC

Having finally worked out how to say "my usual please" in Dutch at my favourite cafe. They have a new waitress, so I had to order fully.
The look on the waitresses face when I switched from talking to my friend in English to ordering in Dutch was lovely.

2025-12-16 15:31:40 UTC

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I am reminded tho of the Dutch newspaper article where they interviewed drivers in the queue at Rokin, one of them was driving from near Rai to Rokin, and had taken over an hour. Dutch people can be car brained too unfortunately :(

2025-12-10 20:44:52 UTC

I ordered a new accessory for the mill at the makerspace. Except I forgot to change the delivery address, so it ended up at my home. Normally not a major issue, except this one is 16kg, too heavy for Brompton+train. Fortunately an email to the makerspace mailing list, and a fellow member who was nearby for work, has just dropped by with a car to pick it up and take it to the space.
Yay for community.

2025-12-08 20:18:47 UTC

Reminder, because its come up again. Unless you have a very sudden death while young, disability is something all of us will experience in our lives. It's an inevitability. For some it may be temporary i.e. a broken leg. For many it will be a Chronic condition that becomes part of the rest of our lives.
Accessibility is important for everyone. The dropped curb that makes it easier to cross the street? That's an accessibility device that makes life better for everyone.
Accessibility matters.

2025-12-05 01:44:42 UTC

The only way AI is going to be transformative in the next couple of years is by tanking the whole global economy...
https://mastodon.social/@axios/115664390770913182

2025-11-29 11:14:55 UTC

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when doing coffee with friends, we've all put our card on the scanner and let the machine pick which one to charge... Worked surprisingly well.

2025-11-25 17:39:41 UTC

Beautiful nerds of the fediverse. What sustainable alternative to wrapping paper are we all using for presents this year ?

2025-11-22 19:30:53 UTC

Ok fedi. Weird question time. What colour are your plates and bowls? As in the ones you eat dinner off. If you have a colour other than white. What made you pick that colour?

2025-11-22 15:29:32 UTC

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reality is they probably just did a remote power cycle...

2025-11-21 14:52:01 UTC

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just be careful. The majority of the deaths from the Spain outage were from CO poisoning from generator exhaust.

2025-11-21 14:15:45 UTC

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In the event of a wide scale outage, radio is often the only remaining source of information (radio stations often have independent power and resilient systems). For this reason I have this radio/lantern combo. It runs off the same batteries as my power tools, and runs for over ten hours as a light and radio. I can also use it to charge my phone, not that I might actually have phone signal... Can also use it as a Bluetooth speaker if I want to listen to music while waiting for power return.
3/n
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/115/588/094/031/806/560/original/10ef55c88fd08b4d.jpg

2025-11-21 14:11:55 UTC

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Battery life is several hours. And it's easy to keep a few spare batteries. Candles might be the first goto for blackouts, but they massively increase your fire risk, not to mention they have really poor light output. A lantern like this can be kept on a shelf where it's easy to reach even in the dark. If turns on simply. And with these batteries, you have long shelf life of your emergency kit. You don't want to find out during the blackout that your batteries have degraded...
2/n

2025-11-21 14:09:05 UTC

Seen a few videos recently about the April '25 Iberian peninsula power outage. Whilst I'm not going to go into the cause of the outage. I am going to talk about some of the things I have for dealing with long blackout like this.
1st item is this lamp. They are about €15-20 from your favourite online retailers. They turn on simply by pulling the top up. I power mine with non rechargeable Lithium batteries (pictured). These have a 10 year shelf life. Other batteries may leak or self discharge
1/n
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/115/588/067/194/502/259/original/aea07778c9adb279.jpg

2025-11-21 03:40:07 UTC

When over 2000 people have worked together for over a year to conduct a continuous relay church Mass, maybe, just maybe, it might be that deporting these people who are clearly a part of the community now, is a bad idea.
Just a thought.
https://exquisite.social/@thomholwerda/115584272638551212

2025-11-16 10:32:34 UTC

So according to some people on Mastodon in the last few days.
If high speed trains go at 450kph, everyone dies. Tho speeds far in excess of this are fine if you're flying. Obviously noone has told the French, Chinese, or Japanese about this...
Trains don't work when it's >35°C. I hope someone told the Spanish, they have a lot of high speed rail and it gets hot in Spain.
Trains don't work at -7°C. I wonder what the swiss have to say about that one...
Wtf people?!?!

2025-11-15 13:56:04 UTC

I need to get a sheet of plywood (~1.2m x 1.2m) from Amsterdam to Leiden. It's 18mm thick, and rather heavy.
Am trying to work out if I could get it here by train/bus...

2025-11-12 09:45:19 UTC

Drop crocs... Cos the drop bears aren't terrifying enough...
Ah, Australia. Never change.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2lpyrnjleeo

2025-11-10 10:38:35 UTC

Train nerds of the fediverse, how far in advance does NS/Pro Rail announce major construction works like this weekends closure of Rotterdam Centraal? We want to plan another weekend of #JetlagTheGame and it would be good to try and avoid having a key hub of the network offline.

2025-11-05 22:13:54 UTC

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ugh. The inherent ambiguity between voting reform and voting Reform?

2025-11-05 12:55:49 UTC

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that labour didn't end the 2 child benefit cap the first opportunity they got is a massive unforced error that is unforgivable. Ending winter fuel payments was another massive unforced error.

2025-10-31 19:23:02 UTC

Anyone else having problems with Wikipedia? It seems very very slow...

2025-10-30 14:20:07 UTC

"In hindsight, we should have checked the spelling more closely when we agreed the collective bargaining agreement with the union. The s in independence days would turn round and bite us. We never specified which independence day we were making a holiday for our employees, instead we made all of them a holiday."
"Why's that a problem?"
"Have you any idea how many countries have independence from the British empire?"
"Oh."
"Turns out our staff get over half the year off work. Paid"
#MicroFiction

2025-10-29 17:40:12 UTC

MS is having DNS issues. So the Dutch railways are having issues. Critical national infrastructure should not be on cloud systems owned by foreign companies. This is resiliency 101.

2025-10-29 16:31:43 UTC

Ordered in a restaurant in Dutch. The waiter didn't switch to English. If the meal I think I ordered is delivered. I'm gonna consider this a success.

2025-10-22 16:20:33 UTC

Just imagine. If all the money that's been poured into the sparkling autocarrot industry, had instead been poured into education, and feeding people. We could have solved world hunger. We could have dramatically improved education across the whole planet.
Instead? We're burning the planet down and using all the water cos some people are too last to write their own emails.
FFS.

2025-10-21 20:08:06 UTC

I really like apple pies and crumble. But peeling the apples is an absolute faff. So I don't make them as much as I'd like to. I finally caved and treated myself to one of those gadgets where you skewer an apple, turn a handle, and if peels, spirals, and cores the apple. Wow is it a game changer. Soo so so so so much easier.
I can see a lot more apple crumble in my future.

2025-10-14 19:45:44 UTC

I wonder how many members of the house of commons would be able to pass an A level in English...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8679q0pe57o

2025-10-11 10:57:19 UTC

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As legislation like The Clean Air Act (1956) started to reduce the burning of coal for heat and energy in our cities, urban air quality has improved dramatically. With the reduction of combustion engine cars through schemes like Ultra Low Emissions Zones, and the general reduction in car use, the levels of particulate pollution in are cities is dropping to levels we've not seen in centuries. We no longer need our street trees to be self cleaning.
3/n

2025-10-11 10:53:18 UTC

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A layer of black soot coated every surface. Making the city look dark, and dingy, and dull. And while those with money could afford the staff to clean the surfaces of their homes, inside and out. Cleaning trees, less easy.
Enter the London Plane. It's a hybrid of the oriental plane, and the American Sycamore, and it's unusual bark shedding is ideally suitable to coal burning cities. As each layer of bark sheds, it takes with it the built up soot and dirt. Leaving a clean underneath.
2/n

2025-10-11 10:50:28 UTC

If you live in an urban area in Europe with large street trees. There's a very high likelihood that the older, larger trees have bark that look like this.
This is a close up of the bark of a London Plane tree (Platanus × hispanica). These trees became the street tree of choice during the industrial revolution and in the years that followed it due to an unusual characteristic of its bark.
It sheds.
When every home had a coal fire burning, and industry belched out giant plumes of smoke...
1/n
https://social.v.st/system/media_attachments/files/115/355/122/375/432/881/original/26fdf7039436ea43.jpg

2025-09-26 20:00:07 UTC

Dear #Makers and #Engineering nerds of Fediverse. This evening I've realised not only do I not own a set of spanners. But I really should own some spanners. Which spanner sets do y'all recommend ?
Something nice and compact, but good quality would be good.

2025-09-23 10:35:54 UTC

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And this is before we get into the whole cooling and water usage of a facility this size. I need to double check the maths, but this is the sort of scale of facility that will change weather patterns in the area. It is that huge. If it's using a quarter the electricity of the UK. Just imagine how much water that's gonna be. And you just know they're gonna want to build this in a desert.
All so some manager doesn't need to write a full email.
Ye fucking gods.
7/7

2025-09-23 10:33:18 UTC

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What about gas? This is likely what they are going to use, it's just the quickest way they can deploy the amount of power needed. But even then, the largest gas power plant in the world is 8.8GW according to Wikipedia. So still not big enough to power this one DC. And the CO2 emissions would be mind boggling (literally, I'm really struggling to calculate a number for this). Geoff's talk explains what's happened with Musks 150MW DC and it's trailer mounted gas generation kit. And that's tiny
6/n

2025-09-23 10:26:55 UTC

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We established that this would need 3 Hinckley point C or sizewell C size nuclear plants, each if which takes many years to build and cost tens of billions. (No I don't want a debate on the rights and wrongs of nuclear here). Realistically this is the way that DCs can be powered without totally thrashing the atmosphere. Geoff Bennett has a great talk on the usefulness of nuclear for DC power. I recommend a watch.
https://youtu.be/giR_a3-WoHo
5/n

2025-09-23 10:23:44 UTC

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667 15MW wind turbines would take up rather a lot of space. Fortunately theres a lot of sea for offshore wind to be installed in. The UK is actually doing this. But it's not a small install. And requires the DC be not too far from the sea. But we're ignoring capacity factors and what happens when the wind doesn't blow. The whole reason the UK wants so much wind is that it's unlikely for Scotland and Kent to be equally not windy. It's about resilience.
This 10GW DC isn't gonna use wind power
4/n

2025-09-23 10:19:41 UTC

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So it's fair to say, this ain't gonna be solar powered. So what about wind? Well here the news is actually good. Taking the UK as an example (I know the data better than anywhere else, I know the DC isn't going to be here, I'm just using it for numbers). We actually have 70GW of offshore wind in various stages of construction. Spread variously across the north sea and other coastal waters. 15MW wind turbines are a norm now. Ignoring capacity factors, that's only 667 of these turbines...
3/n

2025-09-23 10:16:33 UTC

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So how could we power this site?
Let's start with solar. Assuming it's not being built in a very sunny desert (which with water requirements, would be an utterly fucking stupid place to build it). Let's assume 1KW of sun per square meter. (Gonna ignore the whole night problem here). And a 20% efficiency for the panels. With everything else being "optimum". That's 50,000,000m² of panels. That's 50km². But that assumes perfect weather... And ignores night. And terrain...
2/n

2025-09-23 10:07:35 UTC

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I know right. It's at a scale that's just beyond comprehension.

2025-09-23 10:04:44 UTC

Nvidia and openAI are talking about building a 10GW data centre.
So. We gots a big number. Let's look at it.
How much is 10GW? Well the UK has a typical day time electricity consumption of ~40GW. Meaning that this one single data centre is looking to use the same amount of electricity as a quarter of the UK. In a single installation. A quarter of the electricity of the 6th largest economy in the world. A single data centre.
Or put another way. It needs power from 3x sizewell C nuclear plant.

2025-09-17 13:22:49 UTC

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i tried the web interface on mobile.