Lawrence D’Oliveiro
ldo17.bsky.social
Lawrence D’Oliveiro
@ldo17.bsky.social
Geek
I was looking up Timothy Leary, which led me to something Abbie Hoffman said:

“Don’t do needle drugs. The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.”

Seems adaptable to the present day, somehow ...
November 27, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Came across this old SF story which views society as being divided into those who want to rule others, those who want to rebel against order, and the normals, who just want to get on with life. So the normals worked out a system to keep the other two factions in check.

www.baen.com/Chapters/143...
- Volume Paa-Pyx
www.baen.com
November 15, 2025 at 10:51 PM
“My Incredible Achievements” by Billy Vitornot

#BookTitles
November 6, 2025 at 9:29 PM
“The Joy Of Tunnels” by Warren “Rabbit-Hole” Burrowes

#BookTitles
November 1, 2025 at 10:08 PM
“Learn To Fly The Easy Way” by Kara Shand-Byrne

#BookTitles
October 31, 2025 at 7:53 AM
“Our Invincible Military” by Isa Render

#BookTitles
October 30, 2025 at 8:54 AM
In a black hole, gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape. For something to escape, it would have to travel faster than light, which is impossible.

Gravitational-wave detectors work because gravity propagates at the speed of light.

So how does gravity come out of a black hole?
October 25, 2025 at 4:59 AM
One US corp that has been making a killing (literally) from the Israel-Palestine conflict is Caterpillar. They supply the bulldozers that the Israeli forces use to destroy Palestinian homes, roads etc. And I see a bunch of them being sent to Gaza to help with the reconstruction there. “Win-win”?!?
January 24, 2025 at 4:14 AM
My candidate for Peak 1980s: Pointer Sisters, “Jump”. What’s yours?

Just today heard the 12” mix, and wouldn’t you know it actually ends without fading out?

Ah, those days when FM stereo was new, and 12” mixes sounded so good ...
January 24, 2025 at 4:01 AM
Is there some mini-two-step revival going on in 🇳🇿?

Yahyah — Run — www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo85...
Lee Stuart — Clover — www.youtube.com/watch?v=s86m...
YAHYAH - RUN
YouTube video by YAHYAHmusic
www.youtube.com
January 11, 2025 at 8:29 AM
“Iditarod.”

“Did you, indeed? And all by yourself, too!”
January 11, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Spammer currently trying to appeal to my sense of “honor” to push their product: message titles “experience strength and honor”, “the power of honor on wheels”, “power and honor in every pedal”, “the power of honor and strength” ...

.. stay tuned for more variations, if/when they appear.
January 11, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Are there any other countries (besides 🇯🇲, obvs) that love reggae as much as 🇳🇿?
January 11, 2025 at 4:59 AM
I like to put butter on poppadoms.

Am I a heathen, or merely acknowledging my own cross-cultural origins?

(Could be both...)
January 7, 2025 at 3:31 AM
Just idly wondering the other day how you could inject additional filesystem mounts into the namespace of an already-running container. Discovered that Linux has a whole additional mount API that can do this and other things.

So I did the linuxmount module here.

gitlab.com/ldo/python_l...
Lawrence D’Oliveiro / python_linuxfs · GitLab
Some useful Linux-specific filesystem functions not (yet) in Python standard library
gitlab.com
January 3, 2025 at 5:57 AM
🇳🇿 has a “Steampunk capital” -- who knew?

*Smug* Does your country have one?

www.oneroof.co.nz/news/oamaru-...
‘No one’s judgey’ - The ‘out there’ town where Kiwi buyers are ditching the mortgage
NZ’s steampunk capital has cemented its reputation as a friendly spot for first-home buyers.
www.oneroof.co.nz
January 3, 2025 at 2:58 AM
I remember, as a child, seeing the partially-painted-out letters “DUCATI” above a group of shops, and being proud of myself at figuring out that there was a previous sign saying “EDUCATION”.

On the other hand, looking back, maybe it had been a motorcycle dealership ...
January 2, 2025 at 3:10 AM
My mother picked up some Chinese New Year tradition (lots of Chinese friends), and applied it on the Gregorian New Year as well: no sweeping the house on New Year’s Day, because then you sweep away the luck for the New Year.
December 29, 2024 at 1:15 AM
Ode to a sign left behind after unfinished roadworks:

“You picked a fine time to leave me ... ‘Loose Seal’.”
December 28, 2024 at 6:41 AM
Without rancour, the canker on the anchor of the tanker just sank ’er.

Yes, I will have another of those oddly intriguing cookies, thank you.
December 28, 2024 at 2:28 AM
I could of been a English major.
December 27, 2024 at 5:58 AM
Might I inquire as to how to acquire a quire for the choir?

What was that I just ate?
December 27, 2024 at 3:41 AM
“The Princess Bride” is on 🇳🇿 TV this evening.

Just thought I’d point that out to anybody who hasn’t seen it. Or if you have, spread the word.

Happy Carisma Sieve.
December 24, 2024 at 1:27 AM
Just got blocked by somebody offended because I pointed out the ridiculousness of the non-Open-Source licence on their software.

So, if somebody uses it to murder children, the developers are going to sue them for copyright infringement?
December 21, 2024 at 11:32 PM
Why is the French President named after a diacritic mark that doesn’t even occur in his name?

His name should be “Mācrōn”. Who’s with me?
December 21, 2024 at 7:02 AM