iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

My fundamental grievance is that shapefile should be relegated to a museum, beside steam engines, morse keys and punch tape.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 29/09/2026

Corollary: any technology you can’t understand can be attributed to magic (if you’re sufficiently ignorant & credulous). That’s a conversation I had with Sir Arthur in Colombo. He’d have understood exactly what Trump is doing, and detested him for it: he opposed this throughout his life.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 29/09/2026

Agreed but he’s left too much as hostage to fortune and dissembling.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 29/09/2026

We’ve had a couple of nights when it’s hit 4°C, which make for a chilly start to the day!

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 29/09/2026

Finally cracked: put part of the heating on. Managed a week later than last year at least.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 29/09/2026

I thought it rather vapid and lacking real substance

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

Supports what I’ve maintained all along: that Labour (LINO) is now well to the right of Thatcher’s Tories

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

Dropped bike off with Ducati mechanic in Leith, excellent coffee had, now on brand new Ember.to electric bus directly home to the highlands. Fast, quiet, 100Mb/s+ from WiFi - if it weren’t for Edinburgh’s sub-third world roads, this could be the 21st century…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

‘Leith Walk’ it says, so walk Leith I did. Leith reminds me of SF in the 90s: low-rise, a tad shabby, with lots of good local coffee & craft shops, community enterprises & a counterculture vibe. Entirely unlike the Corporate Concrete Wastelands of the centre of Edinburgh. Long may it stay that way

Leith Walk, Edinburgh, in a sunny September day

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

Update from the OP: this was devolved funding and the AI triage was NOT carried out or condoned by UKRI. Their policy of no GAI assessment stands. Good.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

Thanks for clarifying - asssessors for UKRI are explicitly told not to use AI in assessents, so the initial inference that they might be using it in triage was very disturbing.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

Authoritarian insanity at its most egregious…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 28/09/2026

One of my favourite places: from the cool hill country of the south to the steaming plains of the north - and wonderful people.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 26/09/2026

Agreed: fundamentally crap product architecture. They took a PoC and put it straight into production without embedding it in a validated and tested delivery architecture.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

That is completely unacceptable. I am a UKRI assessor for AI and we are rightly told not to use AI in our assessments. I’ve actually been building an AI-based assistant for assessments, designed to support assessor consistency. I would not use it as a replacement. I will take this up with UKRI

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

That is just crying out for biblical levels of sarcasm in response

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

It is, and we are the demons.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

Sounds about right: we went fully EV 7 years ago and our costs have plummeted.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

If only we had a really smart person at the BoE, possibly even a Canadian…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

If ‘godlike’ is in the Greek or Norse sense, then there’s a comparison to be made: pantheons of capricious, selfish, venal beings who reflect the worst and - occasionally - the best of humanity: because that’s what we train them on… www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

theguardian.com

Nick Clegg plays down fears ‘godlike’ AI could exterminate humanity

Former deputy PM now involved in tech industry says many within sector are ‘winding themselves up into a lather’

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

We absolutely have to decouple consumer energy prices from all sources from the global wholesale price of gas. That will also help Scotland - which generates >100% of its domestic consumption entirely from renewables yet has the highest energy costs in Europe, to realise just how badly it is treated

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

I believe that, canonically, it’s, “take are cuntry back”…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

Great analysis from Dan 🤣

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

I have zero time for the Roderick Spodes of this world.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

I’ll take a great deal of evidence-driven convincing that the UK (ie England) can have a sensible discussion here. Until and unless proven otherwise by events, I will continue to advocate for the secession of the three smaller nations into their own European futures.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

We even have the modern equivalents of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

The issue isn’t LLMs per se - it’s a combination of fundamentally misconstrued product architectures, inappropriate use by the lazy & venal and - now - the fact that AIs are feeding off uncurated output from previous generations of AI.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 24/09/2026

This entire so-called debate is inappropriately framed. I largely stay out of it, despite several decades in the field. If you want to have a sensible discussion about the behaviour of LLMs, you can’t start from here.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 23/09/2026

Applying the “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” argument to structures of sand built on sand.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 23/09/2026

As a bit of a machine learning veteran, I hope I’ve a usefully sceptical handle on it: ~60% of the time, current LLMs boost my productivity by 300-1000%; 20% of the time I lose focus & effort trying to wrangle it into shape & the remaining 20% disappears into a zero-divide of frustrated rage…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 23/09/2026

Iran’s is a truly evil regime. So it’s taken an incredible effort by Trump and his sycophants to make the entire rest of the world (bar Netanyahu) support Iran in this needless war.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 23/09/2026

Yes to the first, and I’d call it a score draw on the second - both fantastic landscapes, but very different: Scotland’s visible geology is some of the oldest on the planet, while Iceland’s is still happening 😁

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 23/09/2026

So, total UK social spending is less as a % of GDP than most European peers spend on pensions alone?

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 23/09/2026

I’ve cycled and camped across Iceland, in rain, hail, gales and sunshine. I love the place and can’t wait to go back. But then I’m Scottish…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 22/09/2026

Why would he even try? That would only further degrade the UK’s perception in the world, seen as a weak, vacillating sycophant of US bullying and terrorism

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 22/09/2026

Has he started banging his shoe on the lectern yet? That’s usually a bit of a giveaway…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

I spent one day at Ames in 2000. I was inspired for years and, even now, when so much vicious human stupidity fills our daily vision, I just remember that there are many really, really smart people out there, focussed on furthering civilisation

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

I appear to be 40 years ahead of this trend!

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

It’s a truism that society lags science, legislation lags society and bigots lag everything, including compassion. Nowhere is that more evident than in trans legislation. So, in an otherwise fairly facepalmish LibDem conference, this is a small ray of hope www.libdems.org.uk/news/article...

libdems.org.uk

Restoring Trans Rights

The Liberal Democrats will continue to stand in solidarity with trans and non-binary communities, defending equal rights, personal dignity and safety for all.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

One of my favourite concert venues - good acoustics and still small enough to feel special. Staff are always friendly & helpful, which is a bonus

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

Lest we forget: there are still real journalists at the BBC. Global Eye demonstrates that, and Steve Rosenberg does a masterly job of reporting from Russia, treading the line twixt factual journalism and being summarily thrown out of the country. youtu.be/SebfRk_0jzg?...

youtu.be

Russia's "Special Election Operation" and growing pessimism in Russia

YouTube video by Steve Rosenberg

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

Russia has been through the FA stage and is now FO. The USA has been supporting Russia throughout Trump's tenure (and, through fear, effectively during previous administrations). So now we see Trumpistan entering that same FO stage. More popcorn, please…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

If these are offline, pre-planning systems, then you use a combination of classical routing analysis with a range of Machine Learning systems to optimise it. Which is fine. What you do not do is use probabilistic systems in primary critical path ATC.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 21/09/2026

The UK completely ignored the opportunity whilst in the EU to be the bridge between it and those former UK colonies with whom we still had good relations. Extremely ironic that Canada/Australia/NZ are moving closer to the EU, while the UK locks itself out in the cold. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

UK should 'team up' with Canada in new Europe alliance, Canadian minister says

It comes after European Commission President proposed "opening the door" for Canada to become an associate member of the EU.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 20/09/2026

It always is unfair. And you don’t get over it, but the sum of your memories of him enter the core of your being - you never leave them behind but that very fact makes you a real human being. Much care.

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 20/09/2026

Wasn’t it just? Quite amazing performances from all the artists, and incredibly moving

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 20/09/2026

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, conducted by the man himself. Really looking forward to this… #karljenkins #glasgow

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 20/09/2026

Belated #caturday post: I am being forced to lie in, as I have a large, convalescent twerp athwart me. He’s had cat flu for a month, is just starting to emerge from it and is knackered, poor lad.

Image of an orange maine coon cat wrapped in an alpaca blanket. He’s recovering from illness and must knit be disturbed. My legs have gone to sleep…

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Richard Harris @beeblebrox.com · 20/09/2026

Ah, all makes sense now. The Beatson does a fantastic job. We spent several months commuting there 5 days a week, and they did a wonderful job with care and compassion

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