Andrew
@generalising.bsky.social
Not another one to try and remember. We'll see.
Librarian. Scholarly communications, historic MPs, Wikipedia, inter alia other things. Misplaced Scot.
Librarian. Scholarly communications, historic MPs, Wikipedia, inter alia other things. Misplaced Scot.
This has been the big Wikipedia debate for the last week or so - eventually closed with a decision to get rid of all ~700k links arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
Archive.today CAPTCHA page executes DDoS; Wikipedia considers banning site
DDoS hit blog that tried to uncover Archive.today founder's identity in 2023.
arstechnica.com
February 20, 2026 at 8:49 AM
This has been the big Wikipedia debate for the last week or so - eventually closed with a decision to get rid of all ~700k links arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...
This feels right up there with "the fleet is all lit up" in the annals of highly successful live commentary www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Gaffe-ridden Olympic commentary prompts Italy's Rai sport chief Petrecca to resign
Paolo Petrecca, whose gaffe-ridden commentary of the event went viral, stands down from his job.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 19, 2026 at 7:53 PM
This feels right up there with "the fleet is all lit up" in the annals of highly successful live commentary www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Andrew
People talk about this stuff in terms of how much it'll suck for gaming and I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached.
WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
WD and Seagate confirm: Hard drives for 2026 sold out
Hyperscalers are tearing hard drives out of the hands of manufacturers. Prices are therefore also rising for SSDs.
www.heise.de
February 17, 2026 at 9:12 PM
People talk about this stuff in terms of how much it'll suck for gaming and I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached.
Local building site inspector is working late
February 17, 2026 at 6:22 PM
Local building site inspector is working late
Hard to read this & not feel a certain visceral repulsion
Meta has patented AI that can run a dead person's account, continuing to post and chat on their behalf
It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data
It can message and video call by replicating a user's online behavior using their past data
February 17, 2026 at 8:23 AM
Hard to read this & not feel a certain visceral repulsion
Reposted by Andrew
*You might say, "retrofuturist curio," but I'm inclined to say that this diegetic prototype of 1968 was doing a really good futurist job
*So good a job that it had to be cut out of Kubrick's movie because it was carrying too much techno-speculative freight
*So good a job that it had to be cut out of Kubrick's movie because it was carrying too much techno-speculative freight
February 16, 2026 at 7:13 AM
*You might say, "retrofuturist curio," but I'm inclined to say that this diegetic prototype of 1968 was doing a really good futurist job
*So good a job that it had to be cut out of Kubrick's movie because it was carrying too much techno-speculative freight
*So good a job that it had to be cut out of Kubrick's movie because it was carrying too much techno-speculative freight
Reposted by Andrew
The surprisingly modern look of cyclist Gabrielle Etéogella, 1896. "Organizers were sent to Paris to recruit riders, who were provided with free travel to England, discounts on first class rail travel and free hotel accommodation.[5] Adverts may have also been placed for the racers –
Le look étonnamment moderne de Gabrielle Etéogella (1896).
February 14, 2026 at 9:03 PM
The surprisingly modern look of cyclist Gabrielle Etéogella, 1896. "Organizers were sent to Paris to recruit riders, who were provided with free travel to England, discounts on first class rail travel and free hotel accommodation.[5] Adverts may have also been placed for the racers –
Reposted by Andrew
You may be having a bad day but at least The Independent didn’t refer to you as the figurehead of the modern literacy crisis.
If I got this review I would simply disappear into a puff of dust.
If I got this review I would simply disappear into a puff of dust.
February 14, 2026 at 3:31 PM
You may be having a bad day but at least The Independent didn’t refer to you as the figurehead of the modern literacy crisis.
If I got this review I would simply disappear into a puff of dust.
If I got this review I would simply disappear into a puff of dust.
It pays to read the small print carefully lest you somehow get the wrong impression from a result of "Starmer: 44% definitely or probably would".
For leaders. It could be illuminating if they had put more extreme people than Trump on this too
February 13, 2026 at 6:16 PM
It pays to read the small print carefully lest you somehow get the wrong impression from a result of "Starmer: 44% definitely or probably would".
Reposted by Andrew
FOR THE RECORD: one year on, I lay out clearly how Elon Musk FRS has breached the @royalsociety.org’s code of conduct, why the Society’s failure to defend its values has been so damaging, & what they need do to recover their standing in the scientific community. occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/...
February 11, 2026 at 6:39 PM
FOR THE RECORD: one year on, I lay out clearly how Elon Musk FRS has breached the @royalsociety.org’s code of conduct, why the Society’s failure to defend its values has been so damaging, & what they need do to recover their standing in the scientific community. occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2026/...
I have one of these inspiring quotes on the bookcase (thankyou @latriviata.bsky.social)
February 12, 2026 at 7:56 PM
I have one of these inspiring quotes on the bookcase (thankyou @latriviata.bsky.social)
Stumbled across this the other day: an 1885 advertising pamphlet extolling how wonderful, economical, and easy to use the new "type-writer" was babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nn...
February 12, 2026 at 6:56 PM
Stumbled across this the other day: an 1885 advertising pamphlet extolling how wonderful, economical, and easy to use the new "type-writer" was babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nn...
Reposted by Andrew
It’s day 4 of Love Data Week 💕
Confused about copyright or how to licence your research data? Don’t worry, today’s blog post by @christined.bsky.social from UCL Library Services Copyright team guides you through the essentials💡
Have a read 👉 buff.ly/N85GTdk
#LoveData26 #UCL #Copyright #Data
Confused about copyright or how to licence your research data? Don’t worry, today’s blog post by @christined.bsky.social from UCL Library Services Copyright team guides you through the essentials💡
Have a read 👉 buff.ly/N85GTdk
#LoveData26 #UCL #Copyright #Data
Love Data Week: Research Data and Copyright | UCL Open@UCL Blog
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
February 12, 2026 at 2:15 PM
It’s day 4 of Love Data Week 💕
Confused about copyright or how to licence your research data? Don’t worry, today’s blog post by @christined.bsky.social from UCL Library Services Copyright team guides you through the essentials💡
Have a read 👉 buff.ly/N85GTdk
#LoveData26 #UCL #Copyright #Data
Confused about copyright or how to licence your research data? Don’t worry, today’s blog post by @christined.bsky.social from UCL Library Services Copyright team guides you through the essentials💡
Have a read 👉 buff.ly/N85GTdk
#LoveData26 #UCL #Copyright #Data
Reposted by Andrew
Going to get buried in everything else, no doubt, but this is promising: it's always been a bit baffling to me that the government of the day can effectively create as many peers as it wants but no-one can practically sack them again.
Can't work out what the 1425 precedent is, though.
Can't work out what the 1425 precedent is, though.
February 9, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Going to get buried in everything else, no doubt, but this is promising: it's always been a bit baffling to me that the government of the day can effectively create as many peers as it wants but no-one can practically sack them again.
Can't work out what the 1425 precedent is, though.
Can't work out what the 1425 precedent is, though.
Apropos of nothing, the proposed Artemis III landing will require SpaceX to launch a lander (not yet built) into orbit (not yet achieved) and refuel it (not yet demonstrated) with an indeterminate number of tanker flights (as above).
Anyway, that's all scheduled for 2024, uh, 25, ... 26? 27? Yeah.
Anyway, that's all scheduled for 2024, uh, 25, ... 26? 27? Yeah.
SpaceX to focus on Moon settlements instead of Mars?!? Wow, it is hard to overstate what a change -- what a climb-down -- this is for Musk. It has always been Mars for him. Full stop. Supposedly the goal behind *everything* he does.
February 9, 2026 at 9:39 AM
Apropos of nothing, the proposed Artemis III landing will require SpaceX to launch a lander (not yet built) into orbit (not yet achieved) and refuel it (not yet demonstrated) with an indeterminate number of tanker flights (as above).
Anyway, that's all scheduled for 2024, uh, 25, ... 26? 27? Yeah.
Anyway, that's all scheduled for 2024, uh, 25, ... 26? 27? Yeah.
Reposted by Andrew
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
February 8, 2026 at 10:23 PM
I'm convinced AI is our generation's radium - a discovery with genuinely useful applications in specific, controlled circumstances that we stupidly put in everything from kid's toys to toothpaste until we realised the harm far too late where future generations will ask if we were out of our minds.
Reposted by Andrew
@loweringthebar.bsky.social
'1. The issue in this case is whether “gold pieces” as a form of wealth in a video game constitute property within the meaning of s. 4 of the Theft Act 1968.'
(Answer: Yes.)
R v Lakeman [2026] EWCA Crim 4 www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC...
'1. The issue in this case is whether “gold pieces” as a form of wealth in a video game constitute property within the meaning of s. 4 of the Theft Act 1968.'
(Answer: Yes.)
R v Lakeman [2026] EWCA Crim 4 www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC...
February 8, 2026 at 12:34 PM
@loweringthebar.bsky.social
'1. The issue in this case is whether “gold pieces” as a form of wealth in a video game constitute property within the meaning of s. 4 of the Theft Act 1968.'
(Answer: Yes.)
R v Lakeman [2026] EWCA Crim 4 www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC...
'1. The issue in this case is whether “gold pieces” as a form of wealth in a video game constitute property within the meaning of s. 4 of the Theft Act 1968.'
(Answer: Yes.)
R v Lakeman [2026] EWCA Crim 4 www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC...
A thing I did not discover until today but somehow makes perfect sense: in the 60s local papers would report their own local record charts, by the same method as the national ones: ring up the shops (sometimes, shop) and ask what's selling well.
February 8, 2026 at 6:30 PM
A thing I did not discover until today but somehow makes perfect sense: in the 60s local papers would report their own local record charts, by the same method as the national ones: ring up the shops (sometimes, shop) and ask what's selling well.
Reposted by Andrew
Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks.
He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.
Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...
He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.
Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...
February 8, 2026 at 7:44 AM
Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks.
He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.
Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...
He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger.
Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...
Delighted to learn that the phrase "gung ho" was borrowed from Chinese by someone who did not check the meaning very carefully.
![Gung ho (/ɡʌŋˈhoʊ/) is an English term with the current meaning of "enthusiastic or energetic", especially overly so. It originated among World War II-era American marines, who borrowed it from the Chinese 工合 (pinyin: gōnghé), understood by them as a slogan meaning "work together". The Chinese term in fact denotes a kind of labor organization, being an abbreviation of 工業合作社 (pinyin: gōngyè hézuòshè), literally "industrial cooperative".[1][2]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:phyrjqtsscocqllqjsw2jnqn/bafkreigytp4oyjjpkyv5ionc34i3g4yhnppcppj67f2u2quypbfguuqcs4@jpeg)
February 8, 2026 at 10:04 AM
Delighted to learn that the phrase "gung ho" was borrowed from Chinese by someone who did not check the meaning very carefully.
Reposted by Andrew
This is another reason why I think the information retrieval push, even pre-LLM, to shift from 10 Blue Links to retrieving contents, answering questions, etc. may be a mistake. We lose important things when we unmoor information from authorial & organizational grounding (and cites aren’t enough).
Sobering assessments from the just released NATO Stratcom brief on information risks.
stratcomcoe.org/pdfjs/?file=...
stratcomcoe.org/pdfjs/?file=...
February 7, 2026 at 1:36 PM
This is another reason why I think the information retrieval push, even pre-LLM, to shift from 10 Blue Links to retrieving contents, answering questions, etc. may be a mistake. We lose important things when we unmoor information from authorial & organizational grounding (and cites aren’t enough).
Reposted by Andrew
"Rob, you once spent a day following Peter Mandelson round Blackpool. Did you take any pictures that, even at the time, you thought might one day come in handy?"
February 6, 2026 at 2:02 PM
"Rob, you once spent a day following Peter Mandelson round Blackpool. Did you take any pictures that, even at the time, you thought might one day come in handy?"
Reposted by Andrew
the Spectator accidentally recycled a subhed from a previous day’s article about Tehran
February 6, 2026 at 6:07 PM
the Spectator accidentally recycled a subhed from a previous day’s article about Tehran
Reposted by Andrew
Peter Mandelbrot. It’s just infinite scandals the more you zoom in.
February 4, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Peter Mandelbrot. It’s just infinite scandals the more you zoom in.