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Duncan MacGregor

@aardvark179.bsky.social
53 followers 38 following 226 posts

Mostly active as aardvark179@mastodon.scot

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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 7m
I laughed at this way more than I should have. youtu.be/egc2ciXSdmo?...
youtu.be
Only in Death: 40,000 Ways to Die
YouTube video by Warhammer 40,000
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 55m
I’m not sure whether to be incredibly impressed with this joke or to just sigh heavily. mas.to/@sinvega/117...
mas.to
Sin Vega (@sinvega@mas.to)
halloween costume: bdsm collar & leash, leather harness, wolf mask and claws, papyrus scroll and quill "I'm a lycan sub scribe"
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 4h
So today I went and saw Digger. I’ve seen a bunch of reviewers comparing it to Synecdoche, New York and Eyes Wide Shut, and I think those comparisons are entirely reasonable, and whether you like the film is going to depend, like those, on whether you enjoy them being entirely up their own arses.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
A negroni delivered to your seat is a sign of a civilised cinema.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Oh dear lord! ``` // Another workaround! The JRE doesn't seem to know about DST // before year 1 AD, so we map to equivalent dates for the // purposes of finding DST. To be safe, we do this for years // before 1970. ```
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
OH: “Heh, <famous person> hasn’t got, ‘the thing,’ yet. Could you get <other person> to send it to them, because it’s her ‘thing.’” Well, now I want to work out what they’re making.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Found and submitted fix for intermittent build failure. Build failed for a different reason, so found and fixed that. Now the build is failing for another reason, probably to do with networking. This isn’t frustrating AT ALL.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I never knew the Egyptians wore socks with sandals.
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Vajra Chandrasekera @vajra.me · 30/09/2026
My third novel, HERO COME HOME, officially has a cover! Preorderable from the usual places us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
The cover of my third novel, HERO COME HOME. Four human figures centred, the main image being that of a bearded man looking back over his shoulder (that's Oro, the protagonist), with a circle of symbols behind him. We can see a swan and a key. In the foreground are three people: two women, one with a mysterious marking? scar? who knows!? on her cheek and the other carrying a sword, flanking an older, balding man holding up a pistol. The possibly-scarred woman looks ever so slightly amused, and that is certainly very like her. Everybody else is not happy to be here, or indeed, anywhere
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Just saw folk who join the uncritical rush towards AI referred to as "LLMings", and I am stealing that.
static.klipy.com
Vintage Pixel Game: Lemmings
Alt: Vintage Pixel Game: Lemmings
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I once thought about doing a joke graph about podcast production values vs the chance people would listen to them. My joke left hand end would have been, “Low recording level combined with distortion and voices so far apart on the sound stage that each speaker is only in one head phone.”
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
There is something joyful about hearing a broad Glaswegian accent asking, “So them guys said you had meed.”
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Glasgow Eastercon 2027 @eastercon2027.org · 28/09/2026
This month’s Weegie Word is one that we hope will describe Unconfined: Hoachin'! We’ve had many bustling Eastercons in Glasgow, and we hope 2027 will be another! Meaning very busy, even overrun, when fans swarm in, cramming the halls and bar, we'll be able to say it’s hoachin!
The frame of the fantasy version of the Unconfined convention logo. A silhouetted skyline of Glasgow in dark blue is arced across the top. There is a mirrored skyline below in yellow of a fantasy city skyline. In the centre, between the two horizon lines are the word ‘Hoachin’ in yellow letters.
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Eric Williams @geoliminal.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
T.S. Eliot's birthday, so why not go and read H.P. Lovecraft's satire of "The Waste Land," his actually-pretty funny "Waste Paper" www.hplovecraft.com/writings/tex...
hplovecraft.com
"Waste Paper - A Poem of Profound Insignificance" by H. P. Lovecraft
'Waste Paper - A Poem of Profound Insignificance' by H. P. Lovecraft
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Okay. Breathes deeply. Nothing that has been causing me stress is insurmountable. I am going to try and knock the most urgent and easily resolved ones off my list by the most expedient ways I can. And then I am going to eat chicken wings, way too many chicken wings.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I considered writing about why I am stressed and grumpy, but decided it was better to go for a walk and browse in the second hand bookshops. Somehow this has resulted in me owning a book about the changes in book illustration technology in the 19th century.
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Absolutely fucking amazing. Mike Harrison is on the Booker shortlist.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Currently state: screaming harder than Prepotente.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Been rereading this because of John Crowley’s recent death, and I had forgotten just how good it is. Little, Big is one of my favourite books ever, and makes it easy to forget just how good the rest of his oeuvre really is.
La: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Yme by John Crowley.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Hearing @kermodemovie.bsky.social saying, “Six months of punk,”is giving me a Too Drunk to Fuck earworm.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
So I always thought I worked late on a Friday because I was working with Americans who were 8 hours behind me. But it turns out I work late even when we’re in the same time zone.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Nothing like doing.a two hour or so deep dive on a subject t to remind yourself how valuable teaching skills are. Taking a breather before diving back into meetings.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Congratulations to @hugogirlpodcast.bsky.social for winning the Hugo for best fancast.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Signs you might have been suffering from exhaustion: jet lag doesn’t cause your sleep to be disturbed, you just crash and wake up 8 hours later.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I bought a book from @davekellett.bsky.social at LAcon V. I should have probably bought more, but that is a mistake I can correct.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
So I was rewatching Ghost Dog and I wonder if this sequence should be required viewing for all software engineers. No explanation, just make them watch it and then chat about it. youtu.be/dWnZ2OdJzi8?...
youtu.be
Ghost dog: boat scene - escena del barco
YouTube video by Pazenlasnubes
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
If like me you write Java in something like Emacs with an LSP running in the background, and you're in the UK, then… happy partial Eclipse day!
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
You know you’re feeling emotionally exhausted when a failing GitHub CI run can knock you for six. I mean a failing CI run is the expected result these days even if the code is perfect.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Civilization was a mistake.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Listening to @aptshadow.bsky.social and @emmanewman.bsky.social talking about Soldier of the Mist reminds me of how this is the most on point book for this age of LLMs. All of these new rooms are like Latro.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I love it when somebody I a different time zone asks a question and assumes there will be enough context. I will be able to offer an opinion on the candidate when the message includes a link to the candidate in some form.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
That scene in Kill Bill where Uma Thurman punches her way through a coffin lid with repeated focused blows of her fist, but with a desk and my head.
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groove @wefeelgroove.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
oh hell here we go
An Elder Thing from At The Mountains of Madness
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Sometimes a super hero movie is just the thing you need after a long week.
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Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I just saw a meme that said “get in losers, we’re reclaiming the emdash”. People. PEOPLE. Where are your STANDARDS? It CLEARLY should be “get in, losers — we’re reclaiming the em dash.”
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Chekhov’s teleporting dog is not a phrase I thought I’d ever be reaching for, and yet here we are.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I may never eat again.
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Andrew Ducker @andrewducker.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Astronauts returning from six-month missions describe a persistent 'observer' sensation — the feeling of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame, weeks after they're back on the ground
spacedaily.com
Astronauts returning from six-month missions describe a persistent 'observer' sensation — the feeling of watching their own lives from a half-step outside the frame, weeks after they're back on the ground
Astronauts returning from long ISS rotations consistently describe a half-step-outside-themselves sensation that flight surgeons recognize as part of the post-mission readjustment curve — a perceptual cost of spending six months in a body that had to learn a different world.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Does anybody know what the LD50 of roast duck is? I may have eaten quite a lot, and there are a load of pierogi just within reach.
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Two Lines Press @twolinespress.com · 15/06/2026
For our general submissions call, Two Lines Press is looking for translations of full-length prose works, from any non-English language into English. At this time, we're only considering pitches for novels, novellas, story collections, and literary non-fiction. www.twolinespress.com/submissions#...
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Scottish soft-power strategy: give up on the football, and just pick a random world city every couple of years and send ten thousand folk in kilts to win hearts by drinking all their beer and putting things on top of other things. I don't understand _why_ it works, but the evidence is compelling.
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
This is... I mean, just read it. Whether you like football or not.
theplayerstribune.com
Dear Roxane | By Yan Diomande
I wrote this because I can’t speak about it. I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
@octothorpecast.bsky.social so it turns out that decoding London place names as spoken by @bohemiancoast.bsky.social is hard, and it wasn’t correct in the transcript either.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Having one of those days where I cannot remember the name or artist of the album I want to listen to, so have to find it by navigating from something similar I can remember and navigating through similar albums from there.
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RadHom @radhom.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
WIP. Custodes rocking the ancient Terran heraldry of Pride. I'm loving the new TMM metallics from Vallejo. Very vibrant. What are you painting at the moment? #Warhammer #Nerdlings
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Given their reaction to trailers I give the people behind me 15 minutes before they leave the film in disgust.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
The Tuner was just the right level of crime drama to watch today. I think the final act had one more complication than was strictly necessary, but other than that it was superb.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
How many times can you change your travel plan while on the actual journey? I’m on a train, I have a seat. I refuse to go through n different permutations to try and optimise my arrival time by a whole five minutes.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Nerd sniping the ticket inspector because new station codes are weird is a fun thing.
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Duncan MacGregor @aardvark179.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
It’s always slightly annoying to me that the Forth bridge is pretty much the worst place from which to get a picture of the bridge, but it’s the most common way I get to see it.
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