Richard Downer
@richard.downer.tech
Hello. I'm new here. Interested in #AWS, #SoftwareEngineering, #RetroComputers especially #Commodore #Amiga, #TerryPratchett books, #Parenting, #UKPolitics, #Synthwave music. Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Reposted by Richard Downer
In 1908 Jack London wrote "The Iron Heel" which is arguably the very first dystopian novel.
The plot is also ridiculous... extreme wealth disparity causes socialism to become popular, so the oligarchy class uses their wealth to put politicians they own in power, who brutally repress any dissent.
The plot is also ridiculous... extreme wealth disparity causes socialism to become popular, so the oligarchy class uses their wealth to put politicians they own in power, who brutally repress any dissent.
November 28, 2025 at 7:42 AM
In 1908 Jack London wrote "The Iron Heel" which is arguably the very first dystopian novel.
The plot is also ridiculous... extreme wealth disparity causes socialism to become popular, so the oligarchy class uses their wealth to put politicians they own in power, who brutally repress any dissent.
The plot is also ridiculous... extreme wealth disparity causes socialism to become popular, so the oligarchy class uses their wealth to put politicians they own in power, who brutally repress any dissent.
Reposted by Richard Downer
Sleek, simple to use, powerful, and boots directly into games when required but is also a versatile machine capable of running desktop software? Plays nicely with TVs and monitors? Great controller support? It can only be...
Huh? You were expecting a photo of a Steam Machine?
Huh? You were expecting a photo of a Steam Machine?
November 20, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Sleek, simple to use, powerful, and boots directly into games when required but is also a versatile machine capable of running desktop software? Plays nicely with TVs and monitors? Great controller support? It can only be...
Huh? You were expecting a photo of a Steam Machine?
Huh? You were expecting a photo of a Steam Machine?
The absolute selfishness of tech bosses 😡 creating this tech, pushing it in our faces, overhyping it, putting up our prices to justify it, and setting us up so that if it fails, we all to suffer.
Google boss warns 'no company immune' if AI bubble bursts - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Google boss warns 'no company immune' if AI bubble bursts - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Google boss Sundar Pichai warns 'no company immune' if AI bubble bursts
Speaking exclusively to BBC News, CEO Sundar Pichai said the artificial intelligence boom had been an
www.bbc.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
The absolute selfishness of tech bosses 😡 creating this tech, pushing it in our faces, overhyping it, putting up our prices to justify it, and setting us up so that if it fails, we all to suffer.
Google boss warns 'no company immune' if AI bubble bursts - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Google boss warns 'no company immune' if AI bubble bursts - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Richard Downer
I can’t believe how stupid everything is
November 17, 2025 at 11:27 PM
I can’t believe how stupid everything is
I'm trying out ESP32 programming for the first time (early impressions: pretty impressive). I accidentally caused a crash bug and was very surprised to see the below appear on the serial console - Amiga is clearly still influential in modern computer systems! #Amiga #Commodore #GuruMediation #ESP32
November 11, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I'm trying out ESP32 programming for the first time (early impressions: pretty impressive). I accidentally caused a crash bug and was very surprised to see the below appear on the serial console - Amiga is clearly still influential in modern computer systems! #Amiga #Commodore #GuruMediation #ESP32
Back on retrocomputing this evening, writing some new code for the Amiga - this time, for the new (to me) ReAction GUI toolkit that is now the OS-supplied standard for UIs!
October 16, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Back on retrocomputing this evening, writing some new code for the Amiga - this time, for the new (to me) ReAction GUI toolkit that is now the OS-supplied standard for UIs!
Reposted by Richard Downer
discord is the most exhausting social media app ever to be created. I can't stand it
October 15, 2025 at 3:27 AM
discord is the most exhausting social media app ever to be created. I can't stand it
Reposted by Richard Downer
Really REALLY starting to understand the tech landscape today as the age of "loss of consent". My settings don't stay set. Features are forced on me either forced upgrades or by inclusion with a critical security patch. I increasingly have ZERO CHOICE in my interactions with computers.
October 14, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Really REALLY starting to understand the tech landscape today as the age of "loss of consent". My settings don't stay set. Features are forced on me either forced upgrades or by inclusion with a critical security patch. I increasingly have ZERO CHOICE in my interactions with computers.
Reposted by Richard Downer
As a parent with a kid who’s starting to play games on the iPad, I’m so pissed at the predatory state of kid’s games.
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
October 9, 2025 at 9:05 AM
As a parent with a kid who’s starting to play games on the iPad, I’m so pissed at the predatory state of kid’s games.
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
1. I pay $7 to remove all ads from this game. Yet catch my kid watching ads - even after paying they are offered to watch for in-game rewards. WTH
2. (cont’d)
![Cartoon strip by me who is Stephen Collins. The imagery of the comic starts off with a single electron and then each panel zooms out one step - first to the microchip, then the OLED screen, then the iPhone, the person holding the iPhone, and onwards
Script:
An electron, forged in the first fire of the Big Bang
Courses through a deeply intricate maze of transistors and diodes
mined with unfathomable ingenuity from our planet’s deep geological past
and assembled from all over the world
Into a device perfected through centuries of technological evolution
to perform a beautifully synchronised pixel dance on an OLED screen
in an intricate moving pattern of shifting light
[Show a phone screen with an Instagram post featuring Ryan Gosling and bearing the legend:]
WATCH RYAN GOSLING EAT A PASTY FOR THE FIRST TIME!
whose choreography is powered by an global information network of unknowable complexity
which is specifically tailored to the interests of the being observing the screen
who is a member of the most advanced species on Earth
[Show a shlubby looking GUY idly looking at the Ryan Gosling/sausage roll Instagram reel on his phone while sitting in his pants and a stained t-shirt and eating a massive bag of crisps]
with a brain perhaps more capable of reconfiguring these signals into conscious thought than any other for billions of miles around
[Guy has a thought]:
“Mmm…"
in this endless, silent void.
[Pull back to show the Earth as a tiny blue dot among the stars with a thought bubble coming from it]
"… I want a pasty.”
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreib3pvgcc2tqqiiqs7tlguoez3mhdsmfscnwyxffltcsm4mxbgcyw4@jpeg)
Taylor Swift launch day, and wife and daughter have been listening to it for the last hour while making friendship bracelets! Radio 2 have just played Fate of Ophelia and it's exactly the kind of sounds I'm in to. LP is in the post and cinema tickets for the launch party tonight are ready!
October 3, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Taylor Swift launch day, and wife and daughter have been listening to it for the last hour while making friendship bracelets! Radio 2 have just played Fate of Ophelia and it's exactly the kind of sounds I'm in to. LP is in the post and cinema tickets for the launch party tonight are ready!
Reposted by Richard Downer
Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell.
Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass.
That, right there, is the problem.
Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass.
That, right there, is the problem.
September 5, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Angela Rayner accidentally pays less tax than she should have, resigns, and the media gives her hell.
Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass.
That, right there, is the problem.
Nigel Farage deliberately pays less tax than he should have, and the media gives him a free pass.
That, right there, is the problem.
Reposted by Richard Downer
Logical fallacy detected 🤖
Artist credit: Michele Rosenthal michelerosenthal.com
Artist credit: Michele Rosenthal michelerosenthal.com
September 4, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Logical fallacy detected 🤖
Artist credit: Michele Rosenthal michelerosenthal.com
Artist credit: Michele Rosenthal michelerosenthal.com
Reposted by Richard Downer
Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09...
Microsoft Releases Historic 6502 BASIC - Microsoft Open Source Blog
Explore the original 6502 BASIC—now open source! Dive into retro code, history, and emulators. Fork it, run it, and relive computing's roots.
opensource.microsoft.com
September 3, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Microsoft’s 6502 BASIC is now Open Source opensource.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09...
"And after that, collapsing on the sofa to watch TV only to doze off halfway through an episode. My musical tastes include K-Pop Demon Hunters and Taylor Swift because that's all I ever hear these days."
“My hobbies include: driving my kids to piano lessons, driving my kids to sports clubs and school shoe shopping”
August 22, 2025 at 8:39 AM
"And after that, collapsing on the sofa to watch TV only to doze off halfway through an episode. My musical tastes include K-Pop Demon Hunters and Taylor Swift because that's all I ever hear these days."
Reposted by Richard Downer
Just remembered this flowchart I made many years ago for Twitter. Still very relevant to BlueSky.
August 10, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Just remembered this flowchart I made many years ago for Twitter. Still very relevant to BlueSky.
Fowl Language is a great webcomic about the funny infuriating aspects of being a parent. During a subscription purge a while ago I cancelled, but I've now resubscribed and am enjoying catching up again!
Today's comic is exclusive for paying subscribers because, sweet-mother-of-god we need to figure out a way to keep the lights on at Tinyview! Please consider signing up if you're able! social.tinyview.com/6fPLGOFzVUb
July 12, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Fowl Language is a great webcomic about the funny infuriating aspects of being a parent. During a subscription purge a while ago I cancelled, but I've now resubscribed and am enjoying catching up again!
As a bearded middle-aged man who recently got a record player, there's a whole new genre of #AchievementUnlocked moments ahead of me
July 6, 2025 at 10:36 AM
As a bearded middle-aged man who recently got a record player, there's a whole new genre of #AchievementUnlocked moments ahead of me
I've had to deal with striations like this - although fortunately nowhere near as complex - and it's not fun. K8s is great, but it *is* a treadmill, and teams have to plan for regular upgrades throughout their product's life. My experience: cloudsoft.io/blog/cloudso...
July 5, 2025 at 8:04 AM
I've had to deal with striations like this - although fortunately nowhere near as complex - and it's not fun. K8s is great, but it *is* a treadmill, and teams have to plan for regular upgrades throughout their product's life. My experience: cloudsoft.io/blog/cloudso...
Reposted by Richard Downer
![4-panel comic. (1) PERSON 1: This stick is one meter long. PERSON 2 WITH SHORT HAIR: Cool. PERSON 3 WITH WHITE HAT: That’s a nice stick. (2) PERSON 1: This rock weighs one pound. PERSON 2: I’d believe it. PERSON 3: Looks like a normal rock. (3) PERSON 1: This battery is one volt. PERSON 2: Seems fine. PERSON 3: Might need a recharge. (4) PERSON 1: This capacitor is one farad. [2 and 3 leaning away attempting to shield themselves] PERSON 2: *AAAAA! Be careful!!* Person 3: Put it down!!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreih7d3cewqllnapj5oi7cdxjj6qentr2s3tdbijwaik7shmbtrxiji@jpeg)
Reposted by Richard Downer
Some 100 private jets will fly to Venice for Jeff Bezos' wedding, and I recycle yoghurt cup lids.
June 24, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Some 100 private jets will fly to Venice for Jeff Bezos' wedding, and I recycle yoghurt cup lids.
Reposted by Richard Downer
I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
June 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM
I expect that consumer-facing AI programs will continue to improve and they may become much more useful tools for everyday life in the future.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
But I think it was a disastrous mistake that today’s models were taught to be convincing before they were taught to be right.
More Amiga software development tonight, this time writing code to take over the display hardware and work directly with the custom chip registers - something I never did back in the day as I didn't have the sacred text that is the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual!
June 16, 2025 at 10:42 PM
More Amiga software development tonight, this time writing code to take over the display hardware and work directly with the custom chip registers - something I never did back in the day as I didn't have the sacred text that is the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual!
Been spending time writing Amiga "Installer" scripts for a #retrocompuing project I'm working on - a peculiar Lisp-inspired language, and not the easiest thing to debug!
June 12, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Been spending time writing Amiga "Installer" scripts for a #retrocompuing project I'm working on - a peculiar Lisp-inspired language, and not the easiest thing to debug!
Reposted by Richard Downer
I understand why it's like this, but I will never forgive the web for shifting to a form where the two paragraphs of information I need only exist as a ten-minute video.
May 15, 2025 at 3:02 PM
I understand why it's like this, but I will never forgive the web for shifting to a form where the two paragraphs of information I need only exist as a ten-minute video.