Iain Shepherd
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lainshep.bsky.social
Iain Shepherd
@lainshep.bsky.social
630 followers 2K following 1.7K posts
he/him. Bunurong land / Melbourne Australia.
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lainshep.bsky.social
Lord of the rings movies capture. Bilbo Baggins playing with the ring (that is playing with him)
November 10, 2025 at 7:50 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
still regarded as a hero in 🇩🇪
A German railways train with DB on the front
November 7, 2025 at 5:22 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
💯 A huge trouble with LLMs is they can’t know when they’re wrong, AND even if YOU do, the correction process (retraining) costs an earth AND won’t necessarily fix the error.
Quote from Tim Bray’s article: ‘Take-away • Wikipedia is, to quote myself, the encyclopedia that "anyone who's willing to provide citations can edit". Grokipedia is "the encyclopedia that Elon Musk's LLM can edit, with sketchy citations and no progressive argument left un-attacked." ‘So I guess it's Working As Intended?’
October 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
I don’t vote for transphobes but also why would anyone vote for these people? they don’t stand for anything.

Here’s what they stood for in 2020 and now in 2025 they’re Diet ReformUK. What is the point of them
Observer? website article from 15 Jan 2020 Labour can win again if we make the moral case for socialism Keir Starmer The values I hold are our true values. I want to win the next election and establish a new, fairer economic model
October 8, 2025 at 10:55 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
A tiny slice of the stuff that interested me from 1960s and prior. They also have many things from 70s, 80s through to 2010s - much of it running! - the older stuff interests me more. no I’m not old shut up .. #AustralianComputerMuseum #retrotech
Front panel of the PDP-8 at the Australian Computer Museum. This was the genesis of the minicomputer. They are restoring it! Side view of the PDP-8 showing the innards. There are lots of disc packs around holding from 10 MB to 300 MB on removable platters. A DG Nova on the right, and some analog plug monstrosity in the centre. You can program the monstrosity by arranging wires. Then you can “save” your program by taking the front panel with you! Cool mechanical calculator by Facit, and a tutorial book of how to do multiplication. We got a demo!
September 27, 2025 at 9:34 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
If you see this, post a bridge.
YouTube thumbnail. An old grey plastic box with “digital LAN Bridge 100” printed on it. Caption “THE FIRST BRIDGE”
September 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
I’m not the only Cassandra about human #Mars exploration. Saw this comment on a @spacenewsinc.bsky.social article from one Paul Vondra.

I don’t understand what the payback is. Our robots are so much more capable
This is, as usual per "imminent Mars expedition" articles, pure fantasy. No one has been outside the Earth's protective magnetosphere for longer than about 10 days. Now suddenly we're talking two years, aboard a spaceship that has yet to complete a fully successful mission in low Earth orbit. What provisions are going to be available for astronauts to adjust to .4 g on a virgin planet after about a minimum of 6 months in 0g? When or if they do manage to get Starship with its fuel from - how many, again?- refueling missions out of low Earth orbit, will they land that tall, thin projectile on a surface covered with varying sizes of rock or shifting dunes without tipping over? What if the elevator gets stuck halfway down (I suppose I speak from my prejudices as a former messenger decades ago in NYC)? Are there provisions for medical emergencies days, weeks or months from home? Psychological emergencies? Interpersonal tensions? I could go on for pages about the multitude of hazards that seem to be being neglected beyond the narrowest technological issues, which are themselves quite formidable, but lack of space prevents me. Im 68 now and I will die 15-20 years away from the first Mars landing, just like we were back in 1969.
September 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
Someone pulled this out of it.

RIP me who was mostly lurking for a lot of my years there 😁
Scala code. Part of a function in the X algorithm. “reduce pagerank of users with low followers but high followings”
September 12, 2025 at 11:44 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
I have the best family, I’m so thankful. #FathersDay at The Counting House, Mornington VIC
Dining table with food for four sat around it. A Happy Father’s Day card in the centre.
September 7, 2025 at 3:26 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
I want to go see Northerly Island because I spent a lot of formative years there when it looked like this 🤣
Screenshot of Microsoft Flight Simulator 3 (early 1990s). The top half has solid colour polygons depicting a Learjet 45 on runway 36 at Meigs Field with some Chicago skyscrapers on the horizon. The bottom half is a simulation of aircraft instruments and a moving map.
September 6, 2025 at 11:44 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
I think @simonpegg. bsky. social gets it phwoarr
Post from The Independent where a fit man is eating an ice lolly reading Harry Potter, but the book cover has been edited to: “Eating Ice Lollies For Dummies”
August 27, 2025 at 11:20 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
I missed the party. Rest in piss
Bluesky error: “Not Found. Account is deactivated. Try again”
August 23, 2025 at 1:40 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
Little Orphan Annie is singing the parent post. This meme might make sense to a Gen X, or maybe not.
August 23, 2025 at 9:20 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
Work on perfecting my delicacies?
A slice of toast cut in two, topped with a thick layer of Nutella, and some cookies out of a packet
August 16, 2025 at 12:23 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
Not now apple core
Cored centre of an apple. It’s kind of bendy and standing at attention.
July 23, 2025 at 10:53 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
I was wondering “how do I look” then I remembered @clearsky.app
Screenshot of clearsky.app showing history of @rudyfraser.com with a lot of handle changes including to an external PDS blacksky.app
July 18, 2025 at 8:51 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
And I still don’t know why @katie.bzky.team is prejudiced against _italics_ but I intend to research it now
The cover of “The Elements of Typographic Style” version 2.4 by Robert Bringhurst
July 16, 2025 at 4:25 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
It’s here woohoo! We love #DetectiveBeans 😺
May 28, 2025 at 12:45 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
Reading on… yeahhhh

May this be the unique case where the conspiracy Trumpy bs turned out plausible? and the (2020) scientists been the ones leaping to conclusions?

honestly heartbreaking
Head of a balding man standing on a leafy path The man from “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point”
April 28, 2025 at 11:37 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
Really nice office for a couple hours 🛩️

The chairs aren’t designed for an all day stay but why would they be 😄

Flight Deck Bar & Grill at Moorabbin Airport @moorabbinairmuseum.bsky.social
A MacBook and a beer, at the Flight Deck Bar & Grill Shot of a cafe table and chairs at the Flight Deck Bar & Grill at Moorabbin Airport. In the background is the fenced off airside area with some general aviation planes and a prop.
April 11, 2025 at 3:51 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
@chinnyvision.bsky.social I saw these two icons and I thought of you.
www.independent.co.uk/tech/how-lor...
article in The Independent from 2014. "Was Alan Sugar the UK's Steve Jobs? How the Amstrad CPC 464 changed computing "Thirty years ago this week Amstrad went up against Apple and launched the back-to-basics home computer" There is a B&W photo of hairy besuited Alan Sugar on the left, and a sexy colour photo of Steve Jobs on the right. Alan is leaning on a cheap CRT TV, and Steve is leaning on a CRT monitor.
March 4, 2025 at 8:54 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
Got whiplash from this skeet lol
The right doesn't wait for facts. They immediately started blaming non-white folks. We have to fight fire with fire. No waiting or "if it was this...' It happened on Trump's watch after he just gutted safety boards. It's his fault. Don't be mealy mouthed.
January 30, 2025 at 9:10 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
Head shot of a white woman. She tilts her head to the side with a fixed grin expression.
January 26, 2025 at 9:13 PM
lainshep.bsky.social
This is what we’re up against
Guardian ad “You've read 18 articles in the last year This is what we're up against Advertisement
January 19, 2025 at 2:57 AM
lainshep.bsky.social
The Cuphead Show giving our 8yo intensive reading training in the word #miscreants @quotescuphead.bsky.social
Still from The Cuphead Show showing the opening of a book chapter. Here is what the auto text recognition makes of it 🫣 solas CHATTER BIGHT The Rendevouz ne majestic parate ship selled into the open see. tea by the belt of a mighty hero A hero so leone bord, clever, and dengerout, but algo quite handsome. The great Captern Mugbeard He was heendary pirate with a crew of mis-Chalice-beard, beard. croonta. Tara way cup-beard. Ketie beard, and Mugbeen one te miscreants, and as he aid he wool dered why e dond weton though and declied freque dye look tito coote die case poisito anouga probab carsing with the mis n no winn the mone miseren miscreants ants would react. incort Mugbeard imagined cor and ntentionally umme the word naps he coula woontert curious how the co after rewould be theoneter thary ture of made up lavos ants desertbe to the mierent that Mated by the ing daliting misser for Mugbeardthe Sne tan of metal on matal the wene tog he foundation or an rechen anarene no 15 nite he naded on this a peen ant ween about to be reunited with his toon Asane a nichigeard
January 12, 2025 at 12:12 AM