Ray McCarthy

I usually won't follow accounts that mostly just boost posts.
A writer living in the Mid West of Ireland.
Formerly an Electronics Engineer with expertise in RF, programming and IT.

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raymaccarthy@mastodon-ie.mostr.pub

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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Last Notes

2026-08-23 19:21:17 UTC

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@nprofile…gent Sounds like Larry Niven, though I've read all the Ringworld, I've not read the smoke-ring books.
Ringworld and Dyson Spheres need magic anyway.
Easier to make a Mobius strip at home than a Klein bottle. Fun to cut in half, twice.

2026-07-23 14:46:36 UTC

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@nprofile…v2v2 @nprofile…pfuj
Another problem with Uber and every (?) American Franchise is that all the profits are exported. Of course some other US Corporations export all the profits too.
Mechanism such as "patents" (and the USPTO is broken since 19th) and thus untaxable royalties are used to avoid tax. Even coffee Franchises such as Starbucks.
I will only buy local things / food from places not US Franchise.
Franchise is one of the more parasitic Capitalist ploys.

2026-07-23 11:52:03 UTC

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@nprofile…pfuj
These are the giant companies that pay so little that the people working for them need food stamps?
Do they even pay a "living wage"?
Also Uber is a parasite.

2026-06-30 13:44:34 UTC

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@nprofile…vuvh
If you want secure email or internet at public wifi (even school, university or hotel, library) Then run a VPN server at home or your office. We used port 80 on the router forwarded to the normal port on an NT 4.0 Server decades ago. The sons at Uni had their Windows VPN client use port 80, so the Uni couldn't block it. We used a dynamic DNS, or even someone rang and "What IP address are we right now?"
It seems the 3rd party ones are mostly to bypass Geolocation & sometimes blocked.

2026-06-29 12:21:56 UTC

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@nprofile…x9t9 @nprofile…sema
Overpriced at €200
Easy to screw apart doesn't mean easy repairability.
It's one of the most stupid designs of BT speaker I've seen. Also poor ergonomics, no physical knob or disc for volume is poor. Even a rotary encoder is poor. No visible volume setting when off.
Green & Geek washing hype.

2026-06-29 12:16:10 UTC

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@nprofile…x9t9 @nprofile…sema
I've designed both audio & RF in the day job. Also design & install of studio & PA gear.
This is over complicated mechanically, electrically and software.
Stereo is pointless in a box that size.
Should use a generic speaker.
A simple 2 layer PCB with a 1/10th of the PCB parts is possible.
Material is not eco-friendly or acoustically good.
Open source in this case is irrelevant as there are far better starting points to do your own. Not worth copying, so safe to Open Source!

2026-06-28 15:21:33 UTC

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@nprofile…xwug
Fine, but how is it funded?

2026-06-28 07:33:39 UTC

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@nprofile…d98r
Been like that for a couple of versions at mastodon.ie for me on Linux. A 27″ 4K screen with browser full height & about 1/3rd wide on Linux Mint.
It seems to the height limit rather than particularly a portrait issue.

2026-06-23 20:17:55 UTC

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@nprofile…5876
OCR is about 45 or 50 years old and gradually getting better. About 40 years since it was independent of font?
The LLM/Generative AI is nothing much to do with other technologies that traditionally have had an AI label. It's a dead end.

2026-06-21 19:58:40 UTC

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@nprofile…8mxe @nprofile…rxg6
No, he's not a socialist. He's a conservative. More of the same.
Just better speeches.

2026-06-19 10:11:35 UTC

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@nprofile…ndxd
But LLMs/ Generative AI is a toy. The output needs 100% expert checked. Useless.
So the arguments about RAM and local miss the point.
There are working things with an AI label, but LLMs are not included.
As for "Agentic"? Total madness.

2026-06-18 17:53:33 UTC

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@nprofile…7au3
Me:
10,000 ebooks (most from Project Gutenberg) on both phones, tablets and 7" & 8" Kobo ereaders.
Not a TBR pile, but a library on the Tardis principle. I'll never read them all, but I have choice.

2026-06-17 06:56:04 UTC

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@nprofile…xkhf
And it's not Greek?
I take it that's modern Turkish using the Roman-Latin alphabet. I think Peter the Great wanted to do that with Russian. I can't imagine what St. Cyril & followers were thinking of.
I'm impressed.

2026-06-17 06:48:48 UTC

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@nprofile…xkhf
Didn't 18th C. say
"She's increasing"?
That euphemism sounds interesting. Is it English or Hungarian or?

2026-06-15 15:08:08 UTC

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@nprofile…gu7x
windows 5.x is old & dusty.
Win11 isn't.
This is a stupid design mistake.
Also people should not automatically assume they should have Bitlocker.
The information of most people is of no interest to most laptop thieves, vs difficulty of using the SSD / HDD with a different mobo/laptop if computer fails.
Some people really do need bitlocker or similar. But how secure is bitlocker from the State seizure of the laptop?
I have recovered files on a dead PC from an HDD that had bitlocker.

2026-06-14 12:47:11 UTC

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@nprofile…600e
Is the tarp. down yet?

2026-06-09 18:56:37 UTC

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@nprofile…7yuj
Shockwave Rider
John Brunner
1975

2026-05-31 22:47:28 UTC

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@nprofile…jfq8
Yes, it was terrible, but it is now in history books and taught in schools.
Citation for 3000 killed or bombing?
Facebook is not a source. It's part of the problem on Planet Earth.

2026-05-23 15:20:59 UTC

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@nprofile…vzsp
Tom's hardware is wrong.
This and Prompt API are malicious use of your computer by Google.
So is Gemini on Android.
You can maybe select Google Assistant instead of Gemini on Android. Assistant App can be disabled, but Gemini can't be.

2026-05-20 19:11:59 UTC

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@nprofile…x9tq
The sane way for social housing is the State borrowing, building and then owning.
An "investor" wants profit and likely pays more to borrow than a Government.
Thatcher was crazy.
See also the stupidity of toll roads, tunnels and bridges here in Ireland where significant funds are lost in cost of collecting the toll and the Private partner makes a profit. Abolish tolls and "car tax" and simply tax the fuel, which is over 60% tax anyway here. Fairer too.

2026-05-20 07:59:29 UTC

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@nprofile…qvan
I'd be sceptical anyone was reprimanded as it almost entirely automated, not much different to sending a PDF to a duplex laser printer.
The $12 fee is unfortunate 😞

2026-05-19 15:39:23 UTC

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@nprofile…qvan
See lovely D2D proofs in my Profile.
KDP is terrible.

2026-05-19 15:37:58 UTC

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@nprofile…qvan
Amazon sacked most of CreateSpace, the company formed from two they bought for POD.
They are poor quality, poor CS, poor design limits.
Use 24BookPrint, D2D (Draft to Digital), Lulu or even Ingram.
The 24Bookprint, D2D and Lulu are exactly as the PDF.
I check PDFs on Okular on Linux (4K screen) and Pocketbook on Android (14.25" TCL 14). Create via export from LO Writer & make sure fonts embedded.
As D2D now does ebooks to Amazon as well as paper, you can ditch KDP.

2026-05-10 12:40:46 UTC

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@nprofile…x9tq
Is that just England?

2026-05-07 09:57:59 UTC

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@nprofile…55vq @nprofile…pfuj
The Turing Test (not a real test) was never serious.
Alan Turing died in 1954. Chess, thought originally to need AI, didn't. He wrote one of the first.
The Eliza Chatbot was developed 1964 to 1967.
13 yrs?
The main limitation was that the data could not easily be extended. It "passed" the Touring test for some naïve users. The Doctor version is in Linux emacs. Run it, hit escape, type x and then type doctor.
The current LLMs have huge datasets, so seem more realistic.

2026-05-05 08:36:42 UTC

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@nprofile…dfpn
AI summaries need to be illegal.
AI in search needs to be illegal. Return a real URL and start of text directly from it.
Mostly shortens and often totally wrong.
Test with stuff you are expert on.
Should I sue DuckDuckGo for totally wrong synopsis of my "Jewels and Rooks"? The returned text was like from a Scandi Noir mystery and unrelated to any of my novels or the blurb (which is online).

2026-05-04 16:55:39 UTC

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@nprofile…e5jr
I learned C++ after Modula-2 and before C.
I learned programming earlier.
Learning a programming language isn't learning programming (extracting requirements, specification, design, coding, test etc).
I looked at Rust. C++ certainly has got too complicated since 1987, but I wonder does Rust *only* help with memory safety?
Main memory safety in general relates to using pointers that are invalid, accessing arrays out of bounds and past the end of strings.
Partly bad libraries & design.

2026-04-30 15:36:04 UTC

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@nprofile…vuvh
Nothing to do with Neurotypical, but malicious massive corporations.
The original search implementations were informed by study of computer science and mathematics. CS is practically dead now, having been replaced by churning out code-monkeys that never learn programming but only a programming language.
Even if you don't use "AI Search" , Seach parameters are broken even on Qwant. Even the "-" prefix for exclude now fails.
It's greedy capitalism.

2026-04-27 20:17:18 UTC

Jewels and Rooks
(Published 30th April 2026)
Celtic Otherworld XIII
Marion is concerned about the Detective agency that has opened across the street. Neamhain wasn't always the third member of the Morrígna. Originally the leader was Anand, not Badb. In this case it's not "mór" meaning big, greater or older, but an obsolete Gaelic prefix "mor" meaning terror, so Morrígna means Terror Queens. Morrígan is the singular Terror Queen.
About 77,850 words.
All major ebook stores.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonie/media_attachments/files/116/478/666/486/465/969/original/39138019e92ad571.jpg

2026-04-24 16:39:47 UTC

I wonder does the UK RSPB have figures for dirty bird tables?
At least put bells on your cats. They are nearly as bad as humans.
#nevent1q…7vy9

2026-04-12 19:24:58 UTC

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@nprofile…c7z3
The last one was allegedly non-binding and:
Voted for remain in NI, Scotland and less English parts of Wales.
Didn't meet any democratic standard.
Massive lies by Leave, without any Electoral Commission objection.
And Cameron wanted to leave, to keep the UK money laundering via IoM, Ch Is & BOTs. That needs to stop.
Also IoM & Ch Is need to be in the UK. Democracy deficit.

2026-04-12 19:19:29 UTC

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@nprofile…c7z3
Or rejoin and then you get a vote on any rules?

2026-04-11 16:03:24 UTC

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@nprofile…08qr
Older Notepad++ does work on WINE (I don't know about newer ones).
KATE is very similar and maybe better. I used Notepad++ on WINE (2017), and then changed to KATE.
Deleted Windows partition in 2017.
I used this (instructions are wrong)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd
on an 2002 XP Laptop and a 2015 Win7 tower (Legacy boot) to make files for Oracle Virtual Box on Linux, but I hardly use them. I also used the BIOS Win10 Key (can be read in Linux) as key to install Win10 also as a VM.

2026-04-09 09:35:08 UTC

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@nprofile…e92q @nprofile…x4xw
The pink screen and blue text screen are unusual. Never seen those.
I've seen an Epson in late 1970s similar to m/c on left.
8" Floppy drives.
Never seen a green terminal with an Apple II style logo. It looks like it's connected to an Epson computer, maybe the one below it with the larger built in printer, not seen that.
There is recent design lighting remote on the right.
The big 132 Epson DMP looks yellowed.
So if not AI, it's a recent photo of a mix of old & new stuff.

2026-03-06 20:12:51 UTC

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@nprofile…zmd6
Maybe true if you wrote 35 years.
In 1998 I have NT 4.0 and Linux dual booting and by 2002 I had Windows XP and Linux.
Win 7 & Win 10 are inferior productivity.
I can't think of many professional computer skills outdated in 25 years.
Before 1994 we had DOS, CP/M, UNIX, CROMIX, Windows 3.x.
No Linux or NT (though Linux Kernel and NT 3.1 came out in 1993).
We got a Web Browser in 1994, but had email from 1987.

2026-02-20 13:06:36 UTC

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@nprofile…ugpy @nprofile…fwu9 @nprofile…u7p7
But Google Docs anything is rubbish.

2026-02-20 13:05:32 UTC

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@nprofile…fwu9 @nprofile…u7p7 @nprofile…ugpy
At best 40% junk, but unless you are so expert you don't need it, you can't know which is plausible rubbish.
Would you play Russian Roulette every day for hours?

2026-02-20 09:11:24 UTC

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@nprofile…xl60
Are Musk, and his assistant Grok, registered Medical professionals?
Why isn't this a criminal act in the USA? It is in many countries.

2026-02-04 20:14:01 UTC

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@nprofile…7nkt
A copy of twitter started by a founder of twitter turns out to be like twitter?
The processing and storage can be distributed, but it's centrally controlled. Not federated, nor distributed control.
If you set up a Bluesky server you are simply subsidising the Bluesky management.

2026-02-03 15:41:57 UTC

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@nprofile…u7p7
What do you think of Qwant?

2026-01-31 20:13:03 UTC

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@nprofile…a4ar @nprofile…600e
Cooling stuff in space is actually really hard. No evaporation cycles, convection or conduction. Only IR radiation on the "dark" side.

2026-01-30 13:26:25 UTC

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@nprofile…k4yr @nprofile…vf35
It's a phishing attack, not a vulnerability test!

2026-01-27 19:56:41 UTC

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@nprofile…7q3z
Decades ago when I read Dune I thought the Butlerian Jihad against computers was the silliest thing in it.
Suddenly it makes sense. The sooner the LLM AI bubble bursts the better!

2026-01-25 17:44:06 UTC

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@nprofile…gcx5
Sadly most of the West has abandoned SW.
Romania & China are on it in English
Approximately 4MHz to 9 MHz after dark and above 7 MHz during daylight. Upper 15 MHz to 25 MHz varies with solar conditions.

2026-01-12 09:30:13 UTC

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@nprofile…a2xl Now ditch Threads & Facebook.
Zukerberg isn't much better than Musk, though smarter.

2026-01-08 18:22:00 UTC

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@nprofile…m7l3
My last job before retirement I had a clause that after X time all the design (electronics, programming, writing) would be non-exclusive and only at that duration the Employer had exclusive. Also 1% royalty on sales using the technology.
I argued that any work done for them was based on developing existing tech and my years of experience and training. Most employers treat creative employees like serfs. Also the immoral attempt to control your work after leaving.
Now I write fiction.

2026-01-08 14:57:35 UTC

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@nprofile…m7l3
A flat rate for a novel or textbook is IP theft. It's only acceptable for newspaper column or serialised text, and if you retain copyright, or writing as an employed journalist.
It's simply exploitation of the weak by those with power.

2026-01-06 13:31:21 UTC

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@nprofile…5rsp
In contrast, Hegseth has ordered criminal acts. As has RFK jr, Vance and Trump. Others too.
The entire top tier of Trump administration should tried, after closure of the Supreme Court of USA, which is now not fit for purpose.

2025-12-06 23:47:03 UTC

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@nprofile…czr6 @nprofile…t06q
No, I've removed the 5A sockets when fitting XLRs. Never seen 5A sockets in a church or hall for mains electricity.

2025-12-06 19:42:32 UTC

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@nprofile…t06q
The three pin 5A is common in churches and halls for microphones!
The 5A is also still common for lighting in Ireland, which also has used the German socket.
I think the UK & Ireland shaver sockets take the 2 pin 5A UK, 2 pin Europlug and also the US two blade. The transformer is 2K V isolated and lamination design with a thermistor limits power to less than 20W.
I've not seen the 2A for decades. Often on fireplace mantles for a mains driven clock.

2025-12-04 16:40:39 UTC

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@nprofile…2pyj
"Because taking down one giant datacenter…"
Physical sabotage, or an genuine accident with a digger!
No Silver Lining
“If an in-house system fails, only one bank, or one retailer or one supplier is affected,” insisted Louise. “If everything is outsourced to the Cloud, even if it’s a hundred times more reliable it’s an apocalyptically bad event because you lose everything at once. There are too few cloud providers, who are too similar and too big.”
11 years ago!
https://www.corvidspress.com/fiction/otherworld-series/no-silver-lining/

2025-12-01 18:54:53 UTC

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@nprofile…yap8 @nprofile…998y
Irish regulators have got to be amongst the worst in Europe. Financial, Communications & Data Commissioner captured long ago.

2025-11-25 09:33:48 UTC

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@nprofile…hzyj
The problem with aviation fuel tax is partly everyone needs to do it.
Remove / refund fuel tax (and road tax?) on all public transport and since competition on that is senseless have only one rail operator and one bus operator, that may or may not be state owned.
See also the waste of mobile radio spectrum by not having one wholesale operator.
Abolish tolls (Ireland) and road tax but put up tax on fuel. Local congestion / pollution taxes need to stay.

2025-11-23 11:07:15 UTC

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@nprofile…xdym
"Google couldn't verify your identity" is probably the nicest thing that a corporation has ever said to me.
https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/google.html

2025-11-22 13:54:06 UTC

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@nprofile…ppe2
No need to post a Deluxe Gamer Mouse to the Finance Director then?
USB and especially USB HID is so wonderfully insecure.

2025-11-20 00:40:44 UTC

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@nprofile…6zuf
What's worse is the ones that say we won't let you refuse any unless you pay.
Then of course they still track you.
Never put the "sample" code for a typical social media icon on your site. It's a malicious tracker.

2025-11-19 19:23:46 UTC

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@nprofile…mrzh
No it wasn't.
Not unless it was Windows 95 or ME.
Or the version of Word on Win 3.x that leaked memory.
CP/M was fine with Wordstar & Supercalc.
DOS 3.11 was fine.
Even Windows 3.1 could run all day if you didn't use MS Office and and have decent 32 bit drivers.
NT 3.5x could run all year.
So could Cromix, BSD, UNIX and even MS Xenix.

2025-11-18 17:33:20 UTC

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@nprofile…dn6z
I was setting up TB with Exchange up 20 years ago, if I couldn't migrate them to a saner mail server. Nice it's now built in.
The big problem with Thunderbird is that Mozilla has progressively wrecked the UI; now it completely ignores the OS style/theme.
Plugins killed off
Account Interface much worse than it used to be.
More awkward to migrate content to a new install, with the annoying 1st time Wizard.
It's much harder to use a Gmail account, but that's Google's fault.

2025-11-17 13:45:19 UTC

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@nprofile…8eua
He made Elon Musk rich.
He's not someone I would take guidance from.
https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-what-the-company-does/
In LOTR if any normal person messes with a Palantir they see the Eye of Sauron and are lucky if they only go mad.
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palantir_Technologies

2025-11-17 11:24:41 UTC

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@nprofile…cj6p
And the biggest UK problems are:
Rich people avoiding tax.
Franchises exporting all the profits offshore
USA owned media companies exporting off shore
Brexit
Farage
Tories
Pink Labour pandering to Farage.
Years of under-investment in housing, Education and NHS.
Racism in Met.
Stupid investments: HS2, AI
Hiring Palanteer.
Neither refugees nor migrants are the problem.
England 1st with Wales, Scotland, NI, Cornwall 2nd.
IoM & Channel Is have no MPs. Tax havens.

2025-11-09 23:55:22 UTC

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@nprofile…mxzg @nprofile…xdym
55, 65, 75% ?

2025-11-09 20:47:54 UTC

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@nprofile…xdym
Reached about 11% in Ireland. ChromeOS down 1.2% (Apple dominates schools here)
Amazing.
I wonder how much of the 67% Windows is Win11?

2025-11-02 11:25:19 UTC

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@nprofile…hzyj
Libertarian (nothing to do with Liberal) and Right Wing since Regan / Thatcher is about freedom, and a level playing field for own national, for large Corporations. About making the top 1% richer. Not personal freedom.
Trickle down economics is the lie that justifies it.
So it's the philosophy to outsource everything. Not to have a single State ownership for strategic resources that really there is only one of. Not to have capital expenditure on housing, schools, hospitals etc.

2025-11-02 06:20:53 UTC

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@nprofile…9ake
OLED is shorter life than LCD or QLED (which is really LCD) because they are more like electroluminescent dots and use phosphors rather than monochromaitc real LEDs (though real LED screens exist).
None of my TVs do adverts because there is no Wifi/ethernet. I use them as monitors if I want Internet streaming etc from laptop, tablet or phone.
My laptop so called FHD (1920 x 1080 less use than my 2002 1600x1200) poor so I have a portable QHD screen for it.
Monitors have no ads.

2025-10-31 16:34:37 UTC

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@nprofile…f5ux @nprofile…3awy
Why is it the "World Series"?
It also seems similar to British "Rounders".
I read Peanuts, but those parts never made sense. 😀

2025-10-31 09:01:01 UTC

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@nprofile…23yn
I'd been telling people since 1995 to disable Autorun.
It only worked due to Autorun?