Jonty
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fairless.xyz
Jonty
@fairless.xyz
940 followers 1K following 870 posts
Service designer, mechanic, & cargobike charity trustee. Used to work night shift. 📍Edinburgh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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fairless.xyz
Scenes from an autumn run. Definitely up there as one of the top four seasons
A short tree with vibrant yellow leaves stands in a dark clearing in a pine forest Trees with yellow and orange leaves reach towards the forest canopy Late autumnal light filters through trees on a ridge, illuminating dew on the grass of a sloping field. An old gate stands in the foreground. An old holloway bordered by trees runs down a hill. A sunlit vista of fields stretches across the horizon.
November 9, 2025 at 5:12 PM
fairless.xyz
Is the AI bubble gong to be as bad as 2008? @dsquareddigest.bsky.social says it'll be bad, but structurally less catastrophic.

2008 collapsed the foundations. But AI assets are still held as risk assets - meaning less essential stuff relies on them.

backofmind.substack.com/p/are-we-hav...
A screenshot of text. It reads: "A lot of what is worrying the regulators is that this market is not transparent and has grown very fast. My perception is, though, that although there will be overlapping and circular exposures, this stuff is mainly being held institutionally on the basis that it is a risk asset, which ought to mean that capability has been allocated to manage it when it goes bad)."
November 9, 2025 at 9:59 AM
fairless.xyz
Had a drink with the local window cleaner back in March. He already did our windows, but we swapped numbers.

Haven't met since, but he keeps in touch. I think it's my favourite friendship.
A series of text exchanges with me. They read: 6 May: Hi mate. Getting windows done tomorrow 👍 18 June: Getting windows done tomorrow mate 4 August: Be there tomorrow for windows bud 5 August: Ran out of time mate. Be there tomorrow I reply 'no worries' 16 sept: Doing windows tomorrow bud. I reply 'nice, thanks' 27 Oct: Be there tomorrow for windows mate
October 27, 2025 at 10:18 PM
fairless.xyz
Happy to report the Scotland East data centre successfully received its Lego v2 architecture update while meeting 100% SLAs throughout
A small black thin client pc, bristling with wires, is attached to a black wall with Lego blocks forming the mounting structure.
October 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
fairless.xyz
Another vote for Rotring. I've had this old 600 knocking around my office for the last 10 years. Metal body, brass mechanism, Never missed a beat. Lovely thing.

www.rotring.co.uk/pens-pencils...
A black mechanical pencil lies on a pale wooden surface. Red text on the hexagonal barrel of the pencil reads 'rotring 600 | 0,5mm'
October 19, 2025 at 10:30 PM
fairless.xyz
*Record scratch*
*Freeze frame*
Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here...
"Synchronised Fishing" by Qingrong Yang - a perfectly timed shot of a ladyfish snatching its prey from right under a little egret's beak in Yundang Lake, Fujian Province, China. Bird behaviour category winner for 2025's Wildlife Photographer of the Year A small fish above the surface of the water, about to be eaten by a larger ladyfish. Crop of a pic 'Synchronised fishing' by Qingrong Yang, a category winner in 2025's Wildlife Photographer of the Year
October 15, 2025 at 2:33 PM
fairless.xyz
Windows 10 goes out of support today. My fave useless fact about w10 is that the iconic blue desktop background is a *photograph* - not CGI.

Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...
Three images showing photographers in a studio, standing around a black curtained area with a projector and a 'Windows' logo etched onto a glass pane. The lower image shows a version of the iconic blue windows background, with blue lasers outlining and passing through an angled Windows logos against a dark background.
October 15, 2025 at 10:54 AM
fairless.xyz
Bike spots not always great at HW, but theres usually space on the bike railing under the Lord Balerno building, right next to the James Watt centre front door.
A split Google maps / Google street view interface. The top half of the screen shows a surface level pedestrian passage through a dark brick building, with a bike railing on one side with bikes locked to it. The lower half of the screen shows a Google satellite view of a university campus, with the streetview viewpoint annotated.
October 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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I live down this way @deleriad.bsky.social... If it were me, I'd probs get to Wester Hailes, then take Westburn Ave / Bab mains hill over the bypass, before following the (v quiet!) Baberton mains / Baberton rd down to the campus.

Still mostly unlit, but far fewer canals to fall into
A close up of a cycling route map. A doglegged path from right to left is highlighted with broad light red highlight
October 14, 2025 at 6:45 PM
fairless.xyz
Spottedthe Urban Arrow in service at Balerno Farmers' market this weekend! Doing a great job couriering crates of apples from around the village right up to the apple day press. 🍎

A van could never.
A large apple press stands in a busy market square, surrounded by children. A man is turning press handle, and golden liquid is being funnelled into a bowl at the base of the press.
October 13, 2025 at 8:09 AM
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She only misses me cos she's not allowed to chew anyone else in the family
A large, white, slightly scruffy curly-haired poodle-cross lies on a sofa, head in the camera person's lap, looking up at the camera.
October 10, 2025 at 12:54 PM
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I made 16 highlights and yelled 'OMG yes' each time
A screenshot from a bookmarking app (Raindrop.io) showing 16 highlighted passages within a blog post
October 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
fairless.xyz
A graphic by the designer Teenage Stepdad. It depicts a blue monstertruck jumping out of an explosion. Dynamic, stylised typefaces reminiscent of 80s toy packaging read (in various arrangements around the truck image): 'Fuck Modernism', 'Use more fonts', 'Make everything look cool again', 'Drop out of design school Don't use Futura Take Drugs'
October 6, 2025 at 9:12 AM
fairless.xyz
Bike struggled to rev over 5k rpm. Pulled carbs, found the issue.

36 years of vibes had abraided the CV carb slides in their holders in such a way that the front slide hit a teeny tiny friction increase halfway up.

Cleaned & swapped the slides between carbs (not the needles!): problem fixed.
A carburettor with the float bowl removed, revealing the float and jets A top down view of a partially stripped-down motorcycle with the fuel tank removed, sitting in a messy garage. The carbs are exposed. A white, vintage dual-sport motorcycle parked by a sunny stone wall.
October 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
fairless.xyz
Storm Amy may disrupt a lot of things, but it also blasted the UK grid with 20gW of wind power and made my electricity free for like two days, so it's impossible to say if it's bad or not.
A piece chart of UK national grid electricity generation from today. Renewables make up 75% of the electricity generated at 21.8GW An % area graph showing electricity generation over the day. Renewables makes up 70-80% of generation throughout most of the day. A pie chart showing energy distribution in North Scotland. The current carbon intensity is 0gCO2/kWh. The pie chart shows 100% energy coming from wind. A bar chart showing half-hour energy pricing. A significant number of half hour periods are below 0p.
October 4, 2025 at 9:49 PM
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Stressful week gone. Stressful week to come. But spending the in-between meandering through quiet autumnal forests helps a bit.
Tall pines filter pale autumnal sunlight onto a vibrant green forest floor. A boy standing on a wall in the foreground looks into the forest. A piece of distance forestry machinery is just visible between the trees in the middle distance. A wide needle-strewn, sun dappled forest path recedes away from us. Small beech trees are illuminated by afternoon sunlight, appearing to almost glowing bright green on the right hand side of the path. On the left of the path, dark trunks of tall pines. A woman, a dog, and two children are silhouetted and framed by trees against a bright reservoir. A distant dam wall bisects the image. Late afternoon sunlight falls between trees onto a tangle of verdant undergrowth around a small stream.
September 28, 2025 at 7:49 PM
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OMG Becca's at a "drink 'n' paint" meetup and has created ART
An amateur oil painting with rich brown and orange hues. A white dog-like creature, carrying a stick, runs towards the viewer. A field gate and trees are in the distance.
September 26, 2025 at 9:00 PM
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Back from a work trip (with a photographer) and I've just found out what my 'resting work face' actually looks like 😬

Thoughts and prayers for colleagues and clients who have to be around my furious demeanor.
A man looks at a laptop, with an intense, almost angry expression.
September 18, 2025 at 7:10 PM
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Asbestos may kill a lot of people, but its also got a big Helvetica warning sign which slaps, so, it;s impossible to say if its bad or not,
A warning sign for asbestos. A large white lower-case 'a' in heavy Helvetica is placed above a bright red square with a warning message on it.
September 16, 2025 at 4:24 PM
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Broke my nose colliding with this venue in Newcastle. Absolutely baffled by their inscrutable heading and velocity.
A picture of a two story flat-roofed building next to a road. The building has been painted in a design reminiscent of black and white 'dazzle' camoflage; lots of angled black and white lines and patterns.
September 15, 2025 at 9:44 AM
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September evenings ✨🤌
A dog frolics down a farm track, dramatically backlit by the low evening sun
September 11, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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Tonight, we're mostly out corrupting the local youth with ideas like 'what if bikes were longer?'
A group of kids on bikes, standing on a gravel path. The front cargo bay and handlebars of a cargo bike project into the foreground ahead of you. From this viewpoint, it's as if you yourself were sitting astride that glorious machine.
September 9, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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Made it. Didn't drown.
A white 1988 Honda Transalp motorcycle rests on its side stand in the stone entryway of a country house.
September 3, 2025 at 3:40 PM
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After weeks of droughts and heatwaves, the one day I *need* to ride a motorcycle 100 miles across lowland Scotland this happens
A weather radar outlining the Northern British isles. A lurid green and blue splodge - indicating heavy, slow moving rainfall - is sitting over southern Scotland.
September 3, 2025 at 7:50 AM
fairless.xyz
Messages you don't want to pop up on a screen share during a teams call.

Subsequently had to explain the dog's ongoing beef with my neighbour's robot lawnmower. She HATES that thing.
A screenshot of a WhatsApp message. It's from Becca, and reads: "Cookie just did a massive poo. While not breaking eye contact w the robot lawnmower. Real power play"
September 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM