iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026

When I was first in California, having freshly (and a bit traumatically) ripped up my UK life, I attended a session on news design at the d.School. Boy, was that foreshadowing for the fifteen years that came afterwards. Today I’ll be spending the day there again.

A Foursquare checkin saying I haven’t been to the Stanford d.School since July 2011.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/08/2026

Any classic phone nerds here? I think this is a ringer extension, but I'm not positive. I need to buy a cover (it's 4.75"x3"). Any thoughts?

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/07/2026

I retrieved a valuable possession from the office.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/07/2026

Truly, it's a pretty good playroom.

A playroom with wood floors, a tent, a cushion, small table, and a blooming pink grape myrtle tree outside the window.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/07/2026

While packing up the house I found the comic books I wrote when I was a kid. I guess this is normal eleven year old stuff.

Nihilistic science fiction comic strip panel.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026

My Great Grandfather, David Monas, was General Manager of the Pennsylvania Joint Board of the Amalgamated Shirt Workers. I grew up with union songs. To this day, I believe being anti-union is one of the worst things you can be.

David Monas with the Pennsylvania shirtworkers.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/06/2026

Every so often my high school year book emerges, like a cicada. Today was one such day. Not sure how to feel about it.

Ben Werdmuller 13HB
Maths, Physics and Theatre Studies

How would you describe Ben's personality? Well, one person said: "It's the kind of personality you would like to cover in olive oil and then heat with a naked flame." If you don't know what they were talking about, don't worry, nor do we, but if it's an accurate description it probably means that he's friendly, charismatic and always ready to help. One thing that sets him apart is that he never loses his temper; we have never, ever seen him raise his voice in anger. Ben's main hobbies have always included computing which he regards as "geeky", but he's also interested in acting and a spot of writing (he has always wanted to be a journalist). he likes to get involved in anything and is always willing to have a go. He is also a big fan of Weird Al: some of whose music has been heard in the common room on rare occasions (never again).

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2026

It really has, but I’m not ready to celebrate the death of my mother, thanks all the same, Apple.

A notification: has it really been 5 years? Time to celebrate.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/06/2026

Here for the launch of the European Social Stack: “We [are moving] away from large monopolistic platforms with their authoritarian governance and editorial positions, and are joining forces to establish a diverse and resilient information infrastructure in […] [Original post on werd.social]

Some of the founders of the European Social Stack, announcing the initiative at PublicSpaces 2026.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/05/2026

The garden absolutely wrecked me today. Lots done but I hit my limit. Dinner will correspondingly be “grazing from things we have in the kitchen” - luckily we’ve got a bunch of Fishwife tins that need to be open, crackers, etc etc. And wine. A decent way to end a […] [Original post on werd.social]

The author, a mid gardener, mid gardening.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/05/2026

It is pronounced “America bouquet”

A stack of buckets that say “America 250”

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/11/2025

Good morning, New York City. Just a normal day here, right? Nothing in particular going on?

A warm sunset over the Manhattan skyline.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/10/2025

It's terrible, of course, but strikes me as quite a good meme format.

NYT Headline: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire Burrito

NYT Headline: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire Democracy

NYT Headline: White House Changes Course and Will Demolish Entire Crunchwrap Supreme

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/08/2025

[Cursed image] This is the most cursed image I've seen in quite a while.

An advertisement for "an evening with Nick Clegg", advertising his book "How to save the Internet".

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/08/2025

This is really smart and avoids a major open source pitfall that I fell into with both Elgg and Known.

Ghost's official production stack is now Ubuntu 24, Node 22, and MySQL8. Footnote: Ghost does work with other operating systems, node versions, and databases - but as a small team, we document, test and support one narrow stack that we know works really well. OSS contributions are always welcome.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/08/2025

Now I've unified my blogs, I have access to drafts from decades ago. Some of them are completely baffling to me.

A screenshot of a draft post that reads: "Pheed has the potential to be the new MySpace - in the best possible way."

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 20/07/2025

Trying a new sleep tracker. Bottom line: I need more sleep. #toddlerlife

Screenshot from AutoSleep, showing I got 6 hours and 36 minutes of interrupted sleep.

Screenshot from AutoSleep, showing I'm going to be pretty low energy today.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2025

Amazing to me that this is a real profile and not a parody.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/06/2025

I cannot believe they're running targeted ads right now. Just got this.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2025

No, funnily enough, this page doesn't cut it.

The Firefox profiles screen, which looks like it may have been developed in 1998.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2025

Really really great to see the open social web in the big hall at #ijf25.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/04/2025

Very excited to be at an in-person @Mastodon aperitivo at #IJF25. @andypiper is welcoming us all and setting the stage. The #fediverse can help build a more free, more international, more democratic social web.

Andy Piper at the official Mastodon event at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/03/2025

I know I've been slow on this, but I was a New York Times subscriber until today (for the games and the recipes, mostly). This graph was the final straw.

A horrible graph where New York Times columnists and writers rated what mattered in Trump's first full month, including marking abolishing DEI as a positive impact.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/12/2024

Two-way fediverse interactions landed on Threads today. This is cool. (Hi, @ben.werdmuller)

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/12/2024

TFW your cross-country flight is canceled and you’re rebooked but in the process you lose the extra legroom seat you paid for and you’re 6’4”. If the person in front reclines my knees are, and this is true, toast.

My knees on the plane. I have no legroom.

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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/10/2024

I started my week by tidying my desk. (This is what a tidy desk looks like in my world.) Through taking this photo, I realized I badly need to water my plant.