Jonathan Sanderson
@jjsanderson.bsky.social
Family roboticist/STEM engagement academic/digital tinkerer/film maker/general-purpose geek. Enthusiastic about (but not necessarily good at): bicycles, photography, sustainability, kites, parenting. Newcastle, UK.
Yelland on Today doubling down on his “it was a coup” view. Oof. The BBC is infuriating but essential, and we all know how hollow the ‘leftie BBC’ clamour rings when Reform has been so heavily platformed for so long.
The BBC has always been remarkable in reporting on itself, and this contains some remarkable accusations about the BBC Board (with other, 'balancing', viewpoints). I wonder if its journalists will be able to continue to do this king of thing
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Katie Razzall: A seismic moment that shows rift at top of BBC
There may be more to this than meets the eye, says the BBC's culture and media editor.
www.bbc.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Yelland on Today doubling down on his “it was a coup” view. Oof. The BBC is infuriating but essential, and we all know how hollow the ‘leftie BBC’ clamour rings when Reform has been so heavily platformed for so long.
This week’s “46% in error” figure is already ten times larger than last week’s. Based on our experience, it’s likely to be a wild underestimate of the final figure - there must be many, many cases which are still live. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
HMRC trial of child benefit crackdown wrongly suspected fraud in 46% of cases
Exclusive: Almost half of families flagged as emigrants based on Home Office travel data were still living in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 6:07 PM
This week’s “46% in error” figure is already ten times larger than last week’s. Based on our experience, it’s likely to be a wild underestimate of the final figure - there must be many, many cases which are still live. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Still up there amongst ‘most interesting systems I’ve used’. I must dust mine off and get it working again.
Twenty eight years ago today, Apple released the #MessagePad 2100, the last device created for the Newton platform. It would be discontinued less than four months later, along with all remaining Newton development.
#AppleNewton
#RetroComputing
#LiveFastDieYoung
everymac.com/systems/appl...
#AppleNewton
#RetroComputing
#LiveFastDieYoung
everymac.com/systems/appl...
Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 Specs: EveryMac.com
A complete guide of Every Mac and MacOS-Compatible in the world, with detailed technical, configuration, and pricing information.
everymac.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Still up there amongst ‘most interesting systems I’ve used’. I must dust mine off and get it working again.
There is, one suspects, quite a lot carefully hinted at between the lines here.
November 6, 2025 at 7:45 PM
There is, one suspects, quite a lot carefully hinted at between the lines here.
Collected this with @nustem.bsky.social colleagues last night, at the @iop.org awards dinner. Woop Woop! Very proud to add my name to the list of recipients, several of whom I worked with back in my formative days or have known since. Inspirations all.
Blog post & links: nustem.uk/blog/news/20...
Blog post & links: nustem.uk/blog/news/20...
November 6, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Collected this with @nustem.bsky.social colleagues last night, at the @iop.org awards dinner. Woop Woop! Very proud to add my name to the list of recipients, several of whom I worked with back in my formative days or have known since. Inspirations all.
Blog post & links: nustem.uk/blog/news/20...
Blog post & links: nustem.uk/blog/news/20...
My comfortable contentment that Windows has largely settled down in recent years and become vaguely stable has been utterly shattered by an Asus ROG Ally. Great device, love ‘portable Game Pass,’ but connecting/disconnecting monitors and input devices carries ~1 in 3 chance of total freak-out. Sigh.
November 1, 2025 at 10:29 AM
My comfortable contentment that Windows has largely settled down in recent years and become vaguely stable has been utterly shattered by an Asus ROG Ally. Great device, love ‘portable Game Pass,’ but connecting/disconnecting monitors and input devices carries ~1 in 3 chance of total freak-out. Sigh.
The voting system is pretty good, the recommended candidate list looks reasonable, and giving the chair your proxy votes against the ‘Restore Trust’ (🤢)-backed insurance motion, which is frankly unhinged.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight.
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Log In
Welcome to the National Trust 2025 voting website, hosted by independent voting service provider Civica Election Services.
secure.cesvotes.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:33 PM
The voting system is pretty good, the recommended candidate list looks reasonable, and giving the chair your proxy votes against the ‘Restore Trust’ (🤢)-backed insurance motion, which is frankly unhinged.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
Takes seconds. Please vote.
Ghost biscuits! Made with my kids, just now.
Thanks @robives.bsky.social for the cookie cutter download. 👻👍
Thanks @robives.bsky.social for the cookie cutter download. 👻👍
October 31, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Ghost biscuits! Made with my kids, just now.
Thanks @robives.bsky.social for the cookie cutter download. 👻👍
Thanks @robives.bsky.social for the cookie cutter download. 👻👍
Bug of the year for me: this Word document, on my iPad, won’t let me type the last ‘e’ in ‘developed.’ Letter either side: fine. Any other word: fine. But ‘developed’? Nope. ‘Developd,’ every time.
Happens with both the Magic and software keyboards.
Whu-what?!
Happens with both the Magic and software keyboards.
Whu-what?!
October 28, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Bug of the year for me: this Word document, on my iPad, won’t let me type the last ‘e’ in ‘developed.’ Letter either side: fine. Any other word: fine. But ‘developed’? Nope. ‘Developd,’ every time.
Happens with both the Magic and software keyboards.
Whu-what?!
Happens with both the Magic and software keyboards.
Whu-what?!
Thread: they withdrew an NSF grant application because the required anti-DEI clause was untenable. Excellent.
TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-...
🧵
🧵
The official home of the Python Programming Language
www.python.org
October 27, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Thread: they withdrew an NSF grant application because the required anti-DEI clause was untenable. Excellent.
Very this.
If you want your thing to last, and you can make your thing into a static website: You should.
Not because it's less infrastructure. Not because you love javascript. Not because self-hosting. Not because offline.
Because it can be archived and preserved for the future.
Not because it's less infrastructure. Not because you love javascript. Not because self-hosting. Not because offline.
Because it can be archived and preserved for the future.
October 27, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Very this.
Stories I really should write up at some point: that time I was moving a sofa with a guy who turned out to be a Nobel Laureate.
October 23, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Stories I really should write up at some point: that time I was moving a sofa with a guy who turned out to be a Nobel Laureate.
I should probably repost this, since it’s about… er… me.
Yay me!
Yay me!
📣Researchers from our @nustem.bsky.social
outreach group are celebrating after winning a prestigious @instituteofphysics.bsky.social
award recognising their work with children and young people across the North East and beyond. 🥇
#STEM #outreach #NorthumbriaUniversity
💡Discover more:
outreach group are celebrating after winning a prestigious @instituteofphysics.bsky.social
award recognising their work with children and young people across the North East and beyond. 🥇
#STEM #outreach #NorthumbriaUniversity
💡Discover more:
Northumbria University STEM outreach project wins Institute of Physics award
Researchers from an outreach group at Northumbria University are celebrating after winning a prestigious 2025 Institute of Physics (IOP) award recognising their work with children and young people acr...
www.northumbria.ac.uk
October 21, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I should probably repost this, since it’s about… er… me.
Yay me!
Yay me!
"We've redesigned the Office icons so they sit together more cohesively and look more approachable and playful. Except Teams, that's still way off doing its own thing and looking like an early-00s groupware settings panel."
— Microsoft, apparently.
— Microsoft, apparently.
October 20, 2025 at 2:41 PM
"We've redesigned the Office icons so they sit together more cohesively and look more approachable and playful. Except Teams, that's still way off doing its own thing and looking like an early-00s groupware settings panel."
— Microsoft, apparently.
— Microsoft, apparently.
Interesting thread about what we’ve lost with the sidelining of old TV production techniques. From my perspective as a sometime factual ents guy, I put a lot of blame on Avid. Nonlinear offline editing made it possible to ‘fix it in post’. Huge advantage… but also huge excuse for avoiding decisions.
The death of multi-camera TV: a thread. I know most of you will know the technical parts of this (and may have read it in the other place) but bear with me. 1/ 🧵
October 12, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Interesting thread about what we’ve lost with the sidelining of old TV production techniques. From my perspective as a sometime factual ents guy, I put a lot of blame on Avid. Nonlinear offline editing made it possible to ‘fix it in post’. Huge advantage… but also huge excuse for avoiding decisions.
The physics a-level films Alom and I made are still - fifteen years later - widely used. That’s absurd.
Anyone wondering why there aren’t more of them would be surprised at the story there. I still don’t know what happened myself, and I was in the room.
Anyone wondering why there aren’t more of them would be surprised at the story there. I still don’t know what happened myself, and I was in the room.
What’s depressing to me is that lots of us predicted this was going to happen YEARS ago but none of the education publishers / institutions acted on it and instead left it to random people to produce and profit from educational content with no quality control. (Some of it is very good nowadays)
On train listening to obviously smart teenage boys discussing homework on “how is conflict presented in Romeo and Juliet” and one boy says to another “I’ll send you two good videos on this” and I am not sure teachers are fully aware of how young people revise etc these days.
October 10, 2025 at 9:29 AM
The physics a-level films Alom and I made are still - fifteen years later - widely used. That’s absurd.
Anyone wondering why there aren’t more of them would be surprised at the story there. I still don’t know what happened myself, and I was in the room.
Anyone wondering why there aren’t more of them would be surprised at the story there. I still don’t know what happened myself, and I was in the room.
Backstreet blues.
October 8, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Backstreet blues.
This shelving unit isn’t how I’d intended to spend my Saturday, but it’s quite satisfying and will solve several problems I hadn’t quite realised I had. Tomorrow I hope to fit wall mounts for bicycles, off the right of this shot.
October 4, 2025 at 9:07 PM
This shelving unit isn’t how I’d intended to spend my Saturday, but it’s quite satisfying and will solve several problems I hadn’t quite realised I had. Tomorrow I hope to fit wall mounts for bicycles, off the right of this shot.
This epic endeavour deserves wider exposure.
Quiz! What early 90s computer and/or video game magazine am I reading? I would guess it’s ST FORMAT. Can we find it? Would be fun to read it again.
October 4, 2025 at 9:01 PM
This epic endeavour deserves wider exposure.
Trying to set up something apparently a bit complex in Apple Home. So far I have Zigbee hardware, Docker on a Raspberry Pi, an MQTT broker, HomeBridge, and now I’m reading about the limitations of stateless switches and HomeBridge virtual devices. All of this for [checks notes] a light switch.
September 30, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Trying to set up something apparently a bit complex in Apple Home. So far I have Zigbee hardware, Docker on a Raspberry Pi, an MQTT broker, HomeBridge, and now I’m reading about the limitations of stateless switches and HomeBridge virtual devices. All of this for [checks notes] a light switch.
The stories of Tim Hunkin's exhibit builds are invariably sparse, charming, and filled with the quiet pain of nothing ever working properly until it does. All the hidden bits of making, laid bare. www.timhunkin.com/a269_making-...
the Secret Life of Machines
www.timhunkin.com
September 30, 2025 at 10:12 AM
The stories of Tim Hunkin's exhibit builds are invariably sparse, charming, and filled with the quiet pain of nothing ever working properly until it does. All the hidden bits of making, laid bare. www.timhunkin.com/a269_making-...
Reposted by Jonathan Sanderson
Why are ICE officers so bad at their jobs? This paper gives the reason: they were ALWAYS mediocre, incompetent, or dishonorable cops. Signing on to the secret police, being willing to do the "ugly" jobs, gives them a career advancement path those qualities blocked under more moral systems.
September 27, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Why are ICE officers so bad at their jobs? This paper gives the reason: they were ALWAYS mediocre, incompetent, or dishonorable cops. Signing on to the secret police, being willing to do the "ugly" jobs, gives them a career advancement path those qualities blocked under more moral systems.
Pleased as I am to see a retrospective of landmark ITV productions, I’m also disappointed there’s no mention of any children’s programmes. A key part of the network’s public service remit … overlooked. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
Hard to believe it happened! 70 unforgettable (and unforgivable) shows from 70 years of ITV
From TV so controversial the Foreign Office tried to ban it … to Emmerdale Farm. As the broadcaster hits 70, we look back on the highlights – and lowlights
www.theguardian.com
September 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Pleased as I am to see a retrospective of landmark ITV productions, I’m also disappointed there’s no mention of any children’s programmes. A key part of the network’s public service remit … overlooked. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
This should be fun.
My inaugural lecture for Northumbria University, State of Play: A History of Playful Learning in Ten Video Games, will be on 15 October 2025 online and in-person. All welcome.
Guest appearance by everyone's favourite badger and drinks somewhere afterwards.
www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...
Guest appearance by everyone's favourite badger and drinks somewhere afterwards.
www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...
State of Play: A history of Playful Learning in 10 Video Games
State of Play: A history of Playful Learning in 10 Video Games
www.northumbria.ac.uk
September 20, 2025 at 3:05 PM
This should be fun.
Inventions I would like to see no. 216: the snagless coat hanger.
Bonus points for the smart version which reads an RFID dot sewn into the garment label, and (a) can tell you where that shirt is, (b) pings you when you take items which really don’t go together.
Bonus points for the smart version which reads an RFID dot sewn into the garment label, and (a) can tell you where that shirt is, (b) pings you when you take items which really don’t go together.
September 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Inventions I would like to see no. 216: the snagless coat hanger.
Bonus points for the smart version which reads an RFID dot sewn into the garment label, and (a) can tell you where that shirt is, (b) pings you when you take items which really don’t go together.
Bonus points for the smart version which reads an RFID dot sewn into the garment label, and (a) can tell you where that shirt is, (b) pings you when you take items which really don’t go together.