Andrew MacKellar
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hansoliton.bsky.social
Andrew MacKellar
@hansoliton.bsky.social
340 followers 1.4K following 1.1K posts
More physics puns
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hansoliton.bsky.social
Might have finally overdone it a touch this year, lads and ladies #ThoughtBubble
A photograph of my sofa, almost overflowing with many, comic books and prints and zines. Central is a Thought Bubble branded t-shirt with tote bag above it. I promise I'll actually list this stuff this year in a post later.
November 16, 2025 at 9:07 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Weekend at QEDcon init
A photograph of a stage, with a crowd of seated people to the lower and left of the field of view. Central are three screens showing the QED logo and camera live feeds of the speaker Michael Marshall awarding the "Rusty Razor" award for disservice to science and reason to reform uk.
October 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Someone has given me a cold. Right before a long weekend. Which is the first weekend I've had the chance to go into Newcastle and wander around the markets for months.

Deeply, deeply unimpressed.
A photograph of the author. He is balding, with a big ol' beard, both salt and pepper. He is wearing a Flo Mask that he bought from the USA that has replaceable n95/fp2 or whatever filters. This mask is handy because the replacement filters are cheaper than buying whole disposable masks, and it doesn't mess up his beard nearly so much. He is looking at the camera, with an expressionless expression that nevertheless somehow communicated that he is absolutely done with having a cold, despite having had it for less than half a day. In the background is his lab, with the optics guards up. To the left is a set of shelves with lots of secret science things in repurposed boxes.
August 22, 2025 at 9:48 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Very fun day at Glasgow Indie Games Festival. Has vibes of the old EGX Rezzed.
A photograph of a large double-height room in a building with a cylindrical-domed glass roof. The photograph is taken from the upper floor balcony overlooking the space. In the distance is a stage with a large display screen overhead. On the ground floor are ~20 indie games set up on booths with many people playing. On the upper floor a few people are crowded around a couple of PC monitors.
August 9, 2025 at 6:45 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Pleased to announce that I continue to be on my bullshit (Sheffield Gaming Market).
A photograph of lots of games in white plastic containers. A photograph of a shelf containing old video game consoles. To the right after lots of old games in white plastic containers. A photograph of some old video game consoles for sale in the market. Another photograph of some video game consoles in the market.
August 3, 2025 at 3:57 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Special shout out to the ghost who wrote a message on my bathroom mirror *after my shower on day 1, but before my shower on day 2:
A photograph of a bathroom mirror. Someone has written "Love you, Big yin *unreadable script*". This appeared after my shower on day 2, but not after my shower on day 1. Room's haunted.
August 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Got for the princely sum of £590 ~five years ago, because apparently they weren't popular?!? People are bizarre.
A photograph of a red guitar, sitting upright on a sofa. It is a Gibson Les Paul, Double Cut, cherry coloured with a matte finish on the body, with the wood grain visible underneath. It has two P90 pickups in a two-control volume+tone configuration.
August 1, 2025 at 6:34 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
What an extremely serious scholarly work this consultation is. Fuck off.
Another screengrab of the EHRC consultation. It reads: "13.1.17 An athletics club chooses to organise an athletics event that includes women and trans women. The trans women who participate are significantly faster and have a physical advantage. A woman may be able to bring a claim for indirect sex discrimination due to the provider’s decision not to limit or modify the participation of trans women placing her at a particular disadvantage."
June 29, 2025 at 10:51 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Good grief sections 13.3.1 - 13.3.3 of the EHRC consultation are fucking horrifying. Wanna be trans-inclusive? Well fuck you, I guess.
A screenshot of the EHRC consultration section 13.3.19. It reads: "13.3.19 If a service provider (or a person providing a service in the exercise of public functions) admits trans people to a service intended for the opposite biological sex, then it can no longer rely on the exceptions set out at paragraphs 13.2.3 to 13.2.22. This means that if a service is provided only to women and trans women or only to men and trans men, it is not a separate-sex or single-sex service under the Equality Act 2010. A service like this is very likely to amount to unlawful sex discrimination against the people of the opposite sex who are not allowed to use it. A service which is provided to women and trans women could also be unlawful sex discrimination or lead to unlawful harassment against women who use the service. Similar considerations would apply to a service provided for men and trans men."
June 29, 2025 at 9:45 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
...probably. In principle as early as the end of this week, maybe. Figured I had to pivot to clearing the space for it and getting the TiSapph routed and filtered into the cell alongside the other six lasers.
I also cable-managed that overhead bit that's been driving me batty for years:
A photograph of my (still messy) lab. Central is the main optics bench, enclosed in black aluminium laser guards and black palite plastic outer guards, all in a black metal frame. To the left and right are work benches. The left one has a lab computer monitor and keyboard sitting on it, and it has been mostly cleared up to be usable. Farther away above that left desk is a set of shelves recessed into the wall, which caontain repurposed boxes of equipment and optics and electronics and things. Above the shelves in the camera view is an overhead strut used to reinforce the optics bench enclosed. This used to have random cables wrapped around it that dangled down into head-height, and this bothered the hell out of me. It has since been fixed so the cables are held out of the way. To the right of the image is still enormously messy; a shelving unit low and to the right of the camera is covered in boxes and equipment that still needs to be sorted and given places in the lab to live. Behind that shelving unit on the right is a black metal optics preparation bench, also covered in miscellaneous boxes and instruments that need to be sorted and organised. Behind *that* is an optics bench that holds a different experiment. We don't talk about that. Above this is yet another black metal strut, on top of which is fixed a white tube trunking that carries power the the Type-G sockets on the optics bench canopy. The cables along this strut are messy A.F, as is the space on top of the canopy. Under the optics bench is a whole buncf of unsorted boxes and metal vacuum components and a pair of really scary several-hundred-ampere power supplies.
June 29, 2025 at 4:25 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Two days of cleaning up the optics bench, and I think it's just about ready for the new equipment. Time for the rest of the lab...
A photograph of the optics table in my lab. There is an enclosed metal table surface with many small (m6) screw holes in a square grid. There are many optics screwed into the table between many lasers. Threading between the various components are a nest of cables and wires.
June 27, 2025 at 1:19 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
@jamiebgall.co.uk I love how you have these packaged together! The little branded card backboard is such a neat touch.
A photograph of a package from Jamie Gallagher. Four pin badges are shown - a set of test tubes in ace colours, a rainbow brain, an earth surrounded by pride colours, and a rainbow delta that is definitely not from Star Trek.
June 26, 2025 at 9:00 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Your shelves are significantly more grown up looking than mine, haha - and you have some absolute bangers in there. I submit to the gallery:
A photograph of my Saturn games collection. Up close is Thunder Force 5, with Thunder Force Gold Packs 1&2 and Layer Section and Nights into Dreams sitting on top of Resident Evil. Standing upright in the background is Space Hulk, Bubble Bobble & Rainbow Islands, Tunnel B1, Marvel Super Heroes, Tomb Raider, Alien Trilogy, Fighters Megamix, Virtua Fighter 2, Panzer Dragoon 2, Exhumed, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Sega Ages Vol.1, Sonic Jam, Sonic R, Sega Rally, Manx TT Superbike, Wipeout 2097, and Soviet Strike. On top of those are Sega World Wide Soccer, for which my brother traded in my copy of Burning Rangers. We don't talk about this.
June 24, 2025 at 8:50 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
It'll certainly come in handy with my retro setup nearing completion.
A photograph of my retro games setup. There is a set of four shelves shown central in the image. On the shelves from top to bottom are a Mega Drive 1, a slightly yellowed Dreamcast, a Sega Saturn with a Saroo HD loader in, and a silver fat PS2 and Nintendo Wii. To the right is a Retrotink5x connected to a multi-scart switch. In front of the Retrotink is a switch less region-modded Mega Drive 2 with a Mega Everdrive plugged in.
June 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Oops I forgot about this one @sonicyoda.bsky.social #AfterBurner
A sign in the local market that reads "Walkers Fabrics", in the Afterburner font
June 21, 2025 at 11:57 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
And another flying visit to Scotland comes to an end. I hate saying goodbye to the ginger floof.
A photograph of my mum's 17 year old pet cat Tink. He is bigger than average, and very ginger. He is lying down in my mum's arms, head resting on her shoulder. His eyes are slightly closed as he dozes.
May 26, 2025 at 12:26 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
@sonicyoda.bsky.social Oh nooo (yes?) it's the Afterburner man
A photograph of a black van belonging to Brancepeth Builders. The company logo/name is written on the side and rear doors of the van, in the Sega Afterburner font.
April 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Do you have any examples that do work? I can see how I might be able to start in a corner and completely fill all the adjascent connections, but I don't see how I could possibly enter a corner on the second visit?
A graph diagram showing my problem with connecting all of the adjascent edges without starting in the corner.
April 21, 2025 at 11:03 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Shouldn't those all work for n x m : m = n+1? You can slide your co-ordinate system by a half-diagonal to put the nodes on the corners of each square or the centre?
A copy of Dr Logic's diagram above, showing various space-filling curves, except I've drawn white dots to represent the nodes, and added an extra row to 'close' each loop.
April 21, 2025 at 10:43 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Yeah that seems to work. Unless I'm really misunderstanding something?
A modification of the folded spiral pattern to fit on an 8 x 7 grid
April 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Do these meet your criteria?
A diagram of a graph (I think? Dammit Jim I'm a physicist not a doctor, wait... ) of a 4x4 grid, with alternating columns connected. A diagram of the same alternating columns idea, except that they're all folded into a spiral pattern.
April 21, 2025 at 10:13 AM
hansoliton.bsky.social
And it still works post clean! So I can dismantle and put it back together without problems. I just need to buy all the bits now and actually do the thing.
A screenshot of Thunder Force 5 for the Sega Saturn. The image is of the first level, shortly after heading underwater. A huge purple and grey robot snake thing is approaching the RVR-01 Gauntlet from the lower right of the screen.
April 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Okay, this shouldn't be *too* difficult to region mod.
A photograph of the main board of my current disassembled Sega Saturn. Numerous semiconductor chips are located on a green PCB with many quite-fine copper traces. It is a VA9 model. It needs a clean, to be honest. Also a new battery.
April 20, 2025 at 6:16 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
For realises, this *is* how it feels to have additional cognitive abilities just unlock post Elvanse. ADHD is a fucking pain in the arse, but this bit is kinda cool, even if it does always come with a day-long headache.
Another screenshot of One Piece. Luffy beats his chest as he activates Gear 5th. He shouts "I can feel it! Feel it! Feel it!".
April 20, 2025 at 12:22 PM
hansoliton.bsky.social
Finally back on the ADHD meds after a week without 'em. Time to do things.
A screengrab of One Piece. Luffy is using his awakened Devil Fruit, and the screen shows a graphic representation of his heart beat when activating Gear 5th.
April 20, 2025 at 12:12 PM