Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
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instantiator.bsky.social
Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
@instantiator.bsky.social
710 followers 1.1K following 300 posts
Tech lead, senior developer at Nesta, fellow at Newspeak House, keen escape room and puzzle gamer. (he/him)

https://instantiator.dev

#CivicTech #Volunteerism #OSS #RetroComputing #Tzedakah #Vegan #BLM #CollectiveIntelligence #CI #ProDemocracyTech #PDT 🌱
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instantiator.bsky.social
Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱 @instantiator.bsky.social · Jan 5
New year, new tweaks to the blog! 👋 Hi folks, I'm a tech lead and senior developer. I'm super interested in #CollectiveIntelligence, #Volunteering, #OpenSource, and #Democracy. I create tools and the odd experimental game 👉 instantiator.dev
#CI #Volunteerism #OSS #Games #IndieDev #IndieGames #Intro
instantiator.dev
tech, volunteers, public safety, collective intelligence, articles, tools, code and ideas
instantiator.dev
instantiator.bsky.social
Is this happening to anybody else? When using the "add suggestion to batch" option in the GitHub code review interface, I see this error. It suggests an issue with a backend service, but everything else about GitHub and the code review interface seems fine... #GitHub #Bug #CodeReview
A screen capture of an error messages generated by the GitHub web interface. It says "Changes cannot be loaded. The page is unavailable due to a system error. Try reloading the page, or if the problem persists, contact support."
November 14, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
bylinesnetwork.co.uk
In 1889 a judge called Toby “pestilential” and jailed its editor. But the East End Watch-Dog – a Victorian citizen journalism newspaper – had already done something remarkable: it showed working people *they* could challenge power in print. Read its story ⬇️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk
Rise and silencing of the East End’s pioneering paper
“That’s the way to do it!” Toby, a paper named after Punch’s dog bit back at power – until satire, scandal and love brought it to heel
eastangliabylines.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 8:09 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
.NET 10 introduces file-based apps and it feels like it is going to be very useful. This is Sharp-Script the way I always thought it should work, and it brings C# much closer to being competitive with other modern languages again...
www.reddit.com/r/dotnet/s/i...
From the dotnet community on Reddit: New Features in .NET 10 and C# 14
Explore this post and more from the dotnet community
www.reddit.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:03 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
In conversation today, I was once again reminded of The Codeless Code, case 163. thecodelesscode.com/case/163
A screenshot from The Codeless Code, case 163 - Vacation: On first cool day of autumn, a messenger had come to the Temple bearing urgent news. To her puzzlement she found every courtyard vacant, every hallway and common-room empty. Not a soul was to be found. Passing an open doorway, she heard the clattering of keys from within. Inside she found an old scribe staring hard at a monitor. “Where—” began the messenger. “Vacation,” said the scribe without turning around, waving absently in the direction of the rest of the temple. “Not you?” asked the messenger. “I, too,” said the scribe. “But on your screen—” said the messenger. “Yes,” said the scribe. “The ugliest, buggiest, most obstreperous PHP code you will find in the Seventeen Provinces.” “Then why do you labor on it?” asked the messenger. “Because,” smiled the scribe. “It is not the Temple’s code. It is mine.”
November 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
Sometimes a thing reminds you of a thing, and all you can do is put them side-by-side.
A photo from the Manchester Evening News shows a man in a blue suit lying on the road, drunk, but looking posed. To his right, 2 police officers restrain a person lying on her back on the road. It's general drunk chaos in the background, people standing around, a woman kibbitzing the restraint. How things are laid out look like a bit of a mirror image of the other photo on this post... Donald Trump stands by a table, looking unstable, disengaged, inept, and a little confused. In the background, several men are holding the body of a colleague who has passed out on the floor. Feels a little familiar when compared to the other photo on this post - a drunken night out from the Manchester Evening News.
November 7, 2025 at 12:50 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
Not to overshadow this or take the wind out of anyone's sails, but next year we will be celebrating Sandwich Guy's taste of freedom on Nov 6th. 🥖💪
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/dc-san...
November 7, 2025 at 12:32 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
It's Four Seasons Total Landscaping Press Conference Day!
🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤
❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️🖤❤️
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Se...
Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
adamserwer.bsky.social
Look I get publishing a broad spectrum of opinions but I already fed them this morning
Parody of Times headline "Did Humans Going to Work Ruin Everything?" Dek: That wasn't enough wet food, I'm STARVING
November 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
UK address data is expensive, hard to access and hard to correct. This holds back businesses and organisations that rely on address data.

One tiny act of rebellion: Go add the addresses near you to OpenStreetMap using MapComplete. The more of us who do it, the more useful it becomes. 🙌 #OpenData
November 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
"Unlike most countries, in the UK our address data is not maintained by the government and free. Instead, it’s owned and managed by private companies and public sector bodies, in a complex and costly tangle of intellectual property rights and contracts." -- openaddressfile.uk #OpenData
Home
A campaign for open addresses in the UK.
openaddressfile.uk
November 6, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
atrupar.com
Mamdani: "New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant."
November 5, 2025 at 4:40 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
We have finished watching Adventure Time and now it is time for an early afternoon nap. Follow me for more mental health and self-care tips.
Suki and Momo, a tortoise shell and black cat, both about a year old, are curled up together on a blanket on a sofa. Photo is taken from above. They are fricking adorable and you have fallen in love.
November 1, 2025 at 1:07 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
OH THANK GOODNESS WE WERE ALL SO WORRIED
November 1, 2025 at 12:57 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
Empathy is alive and well. The @bemyeyes.bsky.social app is a tool for blind people to ask volunteers to describe what they see. Anyone can join. There's a ratio of just over 10:1 volunteers to blind members. #BeMyEyes #CollectiveIntelligence
A screenshot from the BeMyEyes app showing the current statistics. There are just over 920-thousand blind members, and 9.4 million volunteers.
October 30, 2025 at 9:31 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
It's spooky season and I'm starting a new book this morning. @dfdubz.bsky.social's "Six Conversations We're Scared to Have". 🎃
An audiobook screenshot for Six Conversations We're Scared to Have by Deborah Frances-White. Track 1 of 17. The book is just over 11h long in audio format.
October 29, 2025 at 7:16 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
At the Centre for Collective Intelligence at Nesta, we've developed Zeitgeist, a tool to deliver consistent, scalable, seamless, deliberative workshops. We're using it to help our partners figure out what people want and, more importantly, why... 👉 www.linkedin.com/pulse/conver...
Conversational deliberation, at scale
I've been leading a software development team at the Centre for Collective Intelligence at Nesta for a couple of years now, and I'm lucky enough to work with some brilliant people. Amongst the things ...
www.linkedin.com
October 28, 2025 at 10:12 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
She loves the Sisko.
Suki, a perfect little tortie cat, lays on a blanket watching a laptop screen. Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, is on screen making it perfectly clear to Michael Eddington that he's going to help them find the cloaked missiles heading for Cardassia. She's in love.
October 27, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
bylinesnetwork.co.uk
Stop demonising migrants, Keir Starmer

Despite denouncing Farage’s views, there’s little difference between the rhetoric of Labour and Reform UK | Vov Griffiths
@sussexbylines.co.uk
Stop demonising migrants, Keir Starmer
Despite denouncing Farage’s views, there’s little difference between the rhetoric of Labour and Reform UK
sussexbylines.co.uk
October 16, 2025 at 12:40 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
Yesterday was a double celebration! 🎉
Ada Lovelace day 🤝 Demise of Windows 10

Ada was a mathematician and the first programmer. She was writing software before computers existed.

We also celebrated the end of life for Windows 10! Visit endof10.org to give your computer a new lease of life.
A painting of Ada Lovelace. She looks composed, and she looking into the painter's eyes (cripes, I almost said camera!) She's got a pale complexion, curly brown hair, brown eyes, and she's wearing some kind of yellow headband / fascinator with a yellow flower on it. The "End of 10" logo is four squares, arranged in 2 by 2 grid, but slightly displaced as if they're disrupted. Text over the top reads "End of 10" in capital letters. The image is also labelled with a website link: endof10.org
October 15, 2025 at 8:45 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
Left: Momo
Cute, shy, goes out around the house, likes to pat mice on the head, never more than the sound of a crinkling packet of treats away, has a little crush on Betty from next door

Right: Suki
Crossed a 60-mph road today because she thought she might have a try at catching a horse
Two beautiful little cats sit on a sofa. Left, Momo is a little black cat. Right, Suki is a tortoise shell. Both are looking at the camera.
October 13, 2025 at 5:41 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
What if there was an alt-text in EXIF standard?
October 12, 2025 at 10:36 AM
instantiator.bsky.social
He earns his keep as a status symbol.
Momo, our sweet little black cat sits on the front of our "surprisingly affordable" refurbished car looking for all the world like the Jaguar hood ornament.
October 12, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
bookshop.org
If it’s worth banning, it’s worth owning.
#BannedBooksWeek
October 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Lewis Westbury 💛💙🌱
carnegro.bsky.social
Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...
Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows "exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation," with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty." Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down." The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote. Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."
October 9, 2025 at 1:25 PM
instantiator.bsky.social
Find me a better boy. I'LL WAIT.
Momo, a very handsome little black cat with two little white wisps on his chest stands on a bench under an apple tree looking for all the world as if he is Very Proud of the 2 apples next to him. He didn't used to like pets or people and now he loves pets and people, so you can take that to the bank.
October 9, 2025 at 9:05 PM