Nick Fitzsimons
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nickfitz.bsky.social
Nick Fitzsimons
@nickfitz.bsky.social
210 followers 480 following 900 posts
Software developer based in Leicester, UK.
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nickfitz.bsky.social
OK, found it in the Internet Archive and it’s even more 80s than I remembered: a utility downloadable from Ceefax which generated a Welsh BBC BASIC ROM image from your existing ROM, that you then had to burn to a chip and install yourself! archive.org/details/micr...
Part of a scanned page of issue 68 of “The Micro User,” a 1980s magazine for Acorn computer users: Cymraeg Dataun Crewr Datadau Geiriad Pedwar Saesneg Meistr Hyffor Use BBC Basic, but program in Welsh. This amazing utility will allow you to translate your existing Basic 1, 2 or 4 into Welsh by producing a sideways rom image of the Welsh version. From then on, use the Welsh Basic keywords as listed in the dictionaries Geiriad and Saesneg.
November 2, 2025 at 11:51 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Went for a walk in the country, where I was confronted by this looming cattle trough.
View up a steep grassy slope leading into a pasture. At the top of the slope and some distance away, a stone cattle trough is silhouetted against the sky. The field stretches out on either side of it, ridged and uneven from ploughing in mediæval times. To the left are a couple of distant trees, almost bare of leaves Above, the sky is almost completely covered by low stratocumulus clouds that seem to sweep in a curve towards the viewer, with just a few patches of blue sky visible. In the top right, the ends of a couple of branches of a nearby ash tree bear clusters of seed pods.
October 22, 2025 at 4:43 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
The man who said "Tap's fine, thanks."
Cartoon by H.M. Bateman. A man is asking a waitress for something in an ornate room. She is recoiling from him in shock; all the other people seated in the room are turning to stare at him, or staring at each other, with expressions of incredulity, anger, and contempt. The original caption is "The man who asked for a double Scotch in the grand pump room at Bath."
October 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
My school had a PDP8/e like this. Ours had a high speed punch tape reader that sat on top. There were two Teletypes and a VDU connected to it, and it was usually running a BASIC interpreter based on DEC BASIC, but rewritten to add multiuser capability via timeslicing by one of the teachers.
A Digital Equipment Corporation PDP8/e minicomputer. The front panel is in shades of light and dark orange on a black background. There are several rows of twelve lights with a rotary switch with six labelled positions. Along the centre bottom of the fascia is a row of twelve large toggle switches, alternating colours in sets of three. To the left, a key in a lock has three labelled positions. To the right, more switches: a group of two, a group of five, and one on its own.
October 6, 2025 at 8:10 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
It's Friday night! Remember to follow medical advice 🍻
A clipping from an old print publication. At top, a black & white drawing of a doctor, identifiable by his stethoscope, balding head, spectacles, and suit & tie. The style suggests it's from the 1940s. Beneath, the caption: DOCTOR: "Beer is an appetite builder, often prescribed for convalescents. It's mild and wholesome... a beverage of moderate people. You're not likely to get yourself in trouble if you stick to beer."
October 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
WTF?! I have been home ALL DAY! 😡
Card with the heading "Heavenly Host Logistical Solutions". The body of the card reads: "We came to rapture you but you were out. To arrange salvation, please call 0909 8790666 (Premium rates apply) or enter your deliverance code (overleaf) at loser.heavenly-host.god".
September 23, 2025 at 4:46 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Do you know the "no blue plaque required" house in Cheltenham commemorating Edward Wilson of Scott's Antarctic expedition? maps.app.goo.gl/AVHbZNTfmH3z...
Street View screenshot of a house faced with stone blocks in Montpellier Terrace, Cheltenham. Engraved in large letters in the stone, between the ground floor windows, are the words "Edward Adrian Wilson, Antarctic explorer. Born here 1872. Died with Scott 1912."
September 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
And though they're neither herbs nor spices, I'm always happy to give a shoutout to my vegetable Oxo cubes that were BBE Jan 2006.
Back of a box of twelve Oxo vegetable stock cubes showing a Best Before date of Jan 06.
September 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
I had a clear out a week or so ago, but luckily I haven't yet got around to cleaning and recycling the jars of old herbs and spices. Due to the printing of the date being slightly broken up, I'm not sure if this jar of Provençal herbs were BBE Nov 2010 or 2018.
Bottom of the jar of Sainsbury's own brand herbes de Provence. The "best before" date has been printed on the glass with a dot matrix device, along with a couple of batch numbers. The date is either "Nov 2010" or "Nov 2018" but the printing is slightly distorted at that point, possibly by the curvature of the glass towards the edge of the base, so it's hard to be sure which. Slightly grubby jar of Sainsbury's own brand herbes de provence. A couple of teaspoons of herbs are left at the bottom of the jar.
September 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
In today's post and hot off the press, this thing of beauty by @rickardsisters.com 🙂
Cover of Scarlett & Sophie Rickard's new graphic novel based on “This Slavery” by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth. The cover illustration depicts two women in the centre, standing back to back in the middle of a cobbled street, with terraced houses on each side. They are both turning their heads to face the reader. The woman on the left has long blonde hair, and wears an orange-brown shawl wrapped around her shoulders over a long, light blue dress. She has a violin and bow, clasped in front of her. The woman on the right has long brown curly hair and is wearing a thick, dark overcoat with the collar turned up, over a blue dress with a pattern reminiscent of tartan. Around her neck, a large mortice lock key hangs on a length of cord. A small white and brown terrier peeps out from behind her with a curious but amiable expression. Behind the women, the street of terraced houses stretches away, built of stone blocks in a style typical of certain industrial areas of northern England. From one of the houses on the left, a working man looks down towards the women; he has a red neckerchief, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up his brawny arms, a brown waistcoat, and a flat cap. In the background, the tall chimneys of numerous factories rise into the sky against a backdrop of distant hills. Smoke pours from them and is blown across the sky to the right. The sky immediately above the hills is red and orange; higher, there are dark clouds massing, though their tops are catching some rays of light from the unseen sun.
September 5, 2025 at 12:18 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Using one photo already on your phone, what is the announcement tomorrow at 2?
Screenshot from S1E1 of "The Thick of It". Closeup of Ollie in the back of the car taking the Secretary of State to make an important announcement to the media during a visit to a school, which 10 Downing Street has now told him not to do. The subtitles say "What if the announcement is… there's no big announcement."
September 2, 2025 at 7:49 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
I've got that recording of "The Planets"! Cost me £1.25 at Boots, probably around 1980.
Cover of LP of "The Planets" by Gustav Holst, recorded by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by James Loughran, and released on the Classics for Pleasure label. The cover image shows a starfield with a large transparent circle in the centre whose circumference transitions through the colours of the spectrum of visible light. Closeup of the price label on the LP's sleeve. It has the Boots logo from circa the 1970s in a repeating faint red diagonal pattern with the price "£1.25" stamped on it. The label is scuffed, faded, and a little grubby with age and handling.
August 19, 2025 at 12:32 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Been a while since I baked sausage rolls #SausageRolls
Six freshly baked sausage rolls resting on baking parchment on a baking tray. The egg-washed puff pastry is glistening and golden, while juices from the sausage meat have oozed out of the ends and browned. The top of each one has three diagonal slashes that allowed steam to escape during baking. Each one is between four and five inches (10 - 13 cm) in length. They look absolutely delicious.
August 11, 2025 at 1:20 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
"Two red buttons" meme. Frame 1: a white-gloved finger hesitates between two red buttons. The left button is labelled "Post on BlueSky that I will never use AI for anything." The right button is labelled "Use the facial age recognition AI so I can post on BlueSky." Frame 2: The owner of the hesitating finger mops sweat from his brow, his face contorted with indecision.
July 11, 2025 at 9:50 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Amazing stuff from Google Maps Q&A.
Question: "Are towels and hairdryer available in each apartment? Thanks." Answer: "There is a lift." Below, a link to "See 6 answers" with the additional text "5 years ago."
July 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Happy Summer Solstice! Last time I was at Stonehenge for the occasion was 20 years ago; and 20 years before that, I was some miles away at Westbury, being chivvied by Wiltshire Constabulary in the antagonistic period after the Battle of the Beanfield. This photo is from my less-chivvied 2005 visit 🙂
The light of the rising Summer Solstice sun bursts through a trilithon at Stonehenge. In the lower foreground, barely visible in the glare of sunlight, are the heads of a dense crowd of people.
June 21, 2025 at 3:17 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Just arrived from @biggreenbooks.bsky.social is my copy of @mirandakeeling.com's new book "The Place I'm In"! I received number 2 of the first 200 signed copies, which means I also received a nice little notebook to record my own observations. I wonder who got book number 1? 🥰
A new, open book. On the verso page is a drawing of a child flying a butterfly kite, with the caption "To Bea and Duncan, who fill my heart with joy." At the top of the recto, title page: "Miranda Keeling". Below: "Illustrations by Adam Beer". Centre: The title "The place I'm in" with subtitle "What I see when I stop to notice". Beneath that, Miranda's autograph written in pen. Foot of page: logo of Leaping Hare Press. At the top right, also written in pen: 2/200. A notebook with the same cover illustrations as the book, but in place of Miranda's name it says "Inspired by Miranda Keeling's "The Place I'm In" and the title and subtitle read "The place you're in: what do you see when you stop to notice?"
June 18, 2025 at 11:17 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
This in www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... seems disingenuous to me. Somebody skim-reading will register the large figures cited for the event referred to in the preceding paragraph and assume they are for yesterday's event. The "well below that" without figures in the next paragraph is easily missed.
The last US military parade was held by President George HW Bush in June 1991, celebrating the US-led victory in the Gulf War. A crowd of 200,000 people attended the parade to cheer on veterans, peaking at 800,000 who watched the fireworks display, the LA Times reported at the time. The numbers at Saturday's event was well below that, partly due to wet conditions and the forecast of heavy rain.
June 15, 2025 at 9:36 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Obligatory:
Image in three tiers. The first tier shows dinosaurs with an arrow pointing to a chicken. The second shows the same chicken with an arrow pointing to diced chicken meat. The third shows the chicken meat with an arrow pointing to chicken meat formed into dinosaur shapes and coated in breadcrumbs. The caption, split across the first and third tiers, reads "And yet a trace of the true self exists in the false self."
June 11, 2025 at 6:30 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
I got these beautiful notebooks featuring the Pennine Tower at Forton Services on the M6 from @gailmyerscough.co.uk's shop. Go and do likewise 🙂
Four ring-bound notebooks, two A4 and two A5. The front covers bear a design showing the Pennine Tower at Forton Services, viewed from across the M6. The style uses flat colours in shades of grey and grey-blue, with a large yellow-brown sun at top right.
May 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Seems legit 🙄
Text message reading "Hello, I am Jennifer from the TikTok Human Resources Department. We have reviewed your resume, and it aligns perfectly with our requirements. We are pleased to invite you to become our part-time partner, with a salary of £300-£800 per day. Please contact me for job details: {dodgy link}".
May 12, 2025 at 9:24 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Mine still shows evidence of my father not bothering to take it down before painting the door one of those weird mustard shades that were popular in the mid-1970s.
Ceramic nameplate for mounting on a bedroom door. It bears a drawing of a red vintage Austin car, and the words "Nicholas' Room" in a fancy typeface. The edges of it have mustard brushstrokes intruding here and there.
April 9, 2025 at 10:30 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Just arrived and hot off the press, @hallierubenhold.bsky.social’s latest book, about the infamous Dr. Crippen 💀
Cover of “Story of a Murder: The Wives, The Mistress and Doctor Crippen” by Hallie Rubenhold.
March 27, 2025 at 4:58 PM
nickfitz.bsky.social
Five year ago today, Sainsbury's had no eggs, and no flour on the shelves on the other side either. But you could get a case of Corona for only £10! 🦠 🍻 #coronavirus
The middle of a Sainsbury's superstore. In the background are empty shelves with a sign above saying "Eggs" while in the foreground, a special display is piled high with cases of a dozen bottles of Mexican beer Corona, which a red promotional label announces are only £10 each. It appears that many cases have already been sold.
March 19, 2025 at 8:44 AM
nickfitz.bsky.social
I see the market’s opened across the pond.
Screenshot of the iPhone stocks app open at the one day chart for TSLA. A red line descends steeply at the left, most of the chart being empty as trading has only just begun. It’s down 10.31.
March 13, 2025 at 1:57 PM