Chris Oldwood
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chrisoldwood.bsky.social
Chris Oldwood
@chrisoldwood.bsky.social
skeet = reinterpret_cast(life)
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#Introduction

@chrisoldwood = IT ∩ Dad Jokes

Author of far more than 97 puns every programmer should know…

Sets from Lightning talks:

[2016] Continuous Delivery & Becoming a Bitter Programmer
chrisoldwood.blogspot.com/2016/04/stan...

[2017] Wit Limits
chrisoldwood.blogspot.com/2017/12/wit-...
Are anybody else’s kids as clumsy as mine? It seems like they get a new phone every week. I can’t keep up with all their new numbers!

:P
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
Rosalind Franklin
Leaving her notes in a pile
That she keeps by the door
Who is it for?
Awful James Watson
Stealing the credit
And snaffling all the awards
Misogynist bore
November 7, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
OldVersion.com Archive Facing Shutdown Due to Financing Issues
OldVersion.com Archive Facing Shutdown Due to Financing Issues
Finding older versions of particular software can be a real chore, all too often only made possible by the sheer grace and benevolence of their creators. At the same time …read more
hackaday.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:00 AM
I asked Meghan Trainor to explain the joke about there only being 10 kinds of people in the world. For some reason she started singing “it's all about the base”.
November 8, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Apparently Git is 20 years old this year, but nobody really knows for sure because all the rebasing has blurred the history.
November 7, 2025 at 3:55 PM
“[AI] is useless. It only [pretends to] give you the answer” — Pablo Picasso
November 6, 2025 at 7:52 PM
There are 10 kinds of AI. Those that can regurgitate existing programming jokes.
November 5, 2025 at 4:23 PM
When provisioning cheap networks, load balancers, and servers in the cloud, I always do it in batches of 100. As the old saying goes “infra penny, infra pound”…
November 5, 2025 at 8:11 AM
There’s some world class bike-shedding in here :o).
November 4, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
(comic) When you get a chance
November 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
[article] Afterwood — Occupational Hazard

accu.org/journals/ove...

My irreverent back-pager for the latest ACCU Overload journal explores programmer job titles.
Afterwood
The plethora of names for our profession is an occupational hazard. Chris Oldwood considers those he’s encountered.
accu.org
November 3, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
I've been getting back into the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series after many years, and the most relatable part is how everyday objects like doors and elevators have been imbued with artificial intelligence and it just makes them obnoxious and frustrating to use and everyone hates it.
November 1, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
The Somerset carnivals are the most extraordinary folk art we have in England and no one knows about it. Start at 52 minutes in and come and see the real thing next week.
November 1, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
How every history and science textbook should start
November 2, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Given the recent outage by AWS it’s probably time for a reminder of that seminal late 90’s paper from Richard Cook:

How Complex Systems Fail

www.adaptivecapacitylabs.com/HowComplexSy...
www.adaptivecapacitylabs.com
November 1, 2025 at 2:41 PM
[2023] Afterwood — Ghosts in the Machine

accu.org/journals/ove...

A Halloween themed back-pager by me from two years ago.
Afterwood
Halloween has been and gone. Chris Oldwood therefore takes time to consider the ghosts in the machine.
accu.org
November 1, 2025 at 11:24 AM
So Strava are now displaying the recording device right in the activity heading. Does that mean Strava & Garmin have kissed and made up?
October 31, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I can't believe it's a coincidence that since the Microsoft outage the OneDrive icon looks like a storm cloud...
October 31, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
I'm writing another book, and the first few chapters are available through Manning Early Access now! For 50% off!

hubs.la/Q03Q9PGP0

More details, and the story of how I came to write it, are on my blog at

ericlippert.com/2025/10/30/i...

It feels great to be writing again after a long break. :)
Fabulous Adventures in Data Structures and Algorithms - Eric Lippert
Author Eric Lippert introduces fabulous solutions using uncommon algorithms and data structures. There’s a lot more to algorithms than the useful-but-boring recipes you recite for every interview. Th...
hubs.la
October 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM
If you fall for the allure of cheap computing, the only thing that’ll end up in the cloud is your judgement…

:P
Microsoft: Operation failed, X is unlicensed, good luck figuring out what licence you need, (won't be called X).

Google: Operation failed, you've hit a hard quota, good luck contacting a human to fix.

Amazon: Everything worked, but good luck figuring out why you're paying 10x what you expected.
October 31, 2025 at 9:10 AM
LOL, the embedded AI tool in Confluence lists the answer for itself -- Confluence -- at the bottom of the list.
October 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
If I write a program in the Pony programming language that produces itself as output would that be an equine?
October 28, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Chris Oldwood
Consider the possibility that, in software development, communication and feedback is the work, and coding is the interruption.
October 27, 2025 at 5:32 AM
Saving "Daylight"...

████████████ 100%
October 25, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Back in 2018 we had the FFS Tech Conference where every talk started “FFS…”. If the current state of the industry doesn’t demand another one then I don’t know does 🤷‍♂️.

ffstechconf.org
FFS Tech Conference
The Tech Conference that only has sessions entitled “FFS …”. Follow @FFSTechConf on Twitter. To be held on 19th September, 2018 in City of London, UK
ffstechconf.org
October 24, 2025 at 10:42 AM