iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 02/10/2026

Duolingo still can't do basic math. Apparently 1+1+1 = 2

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 12/08/2026

Maximal coverage from Cambridge.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 12/08/2026

Partial solar eclipse from Cambridge.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 20/07/2026

Found the weirdest thing when we stopped for ice cream after a waterfall hike. Apparently it's the "first confirmed UFO experience" in MA (not independently verified by me).

A plaque signed by then Gov of MA, Charlie Baker acknowledging the off world experience of Thomas Reed: "ON BEHALF OF THE CITIZENS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, I AM PLEASED TO CONFER UPON YOU THIS GOVERNOR'S CITATION IN RECOGNITION OF THE OFF-WORLD INCIDENT ON SEPTEMBER 1, 1969, WHICH ENGAGED THE REED FAMILY, WHICH HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED. YOUR DEDICATED SERVICE TO THE INCIDENT WAS FACTUALLY UPHELD, FOUNDED, AND DEEMED HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT AND TRUE BY MEANS OF MASSACHUSETTS HISTORIANS. THE RECORDS HIGHLIGHTING THE HISTORIC EVENT ARE NOW OFFICIALLY PART OF THE GREAT BARRINGTON, MA HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S COLLECTION AND YOUR RECENT INDUCTION INTO MASSACHUSETTS HISTORY.

THIS THIRD DAY OF NOVEMBER IN THE YEAR 2015"

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 02/07/2026

Well @duolingoverde.bsky.social still can't do math. Finish 2 daily quests but they only count 1.

A screenshot of the Duolingo quest page. The completion bar at the top shows 1/50 quests while the bottom section shows two completed quests.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 14/06/2026

This was my entry. I used Einkorn which is a typically very hard grain to work with, but tastes amazing. I used pepitas and black & white sesame for my seeds. I didn't rack in the top 3, but am looking forward to feedback from the judges sometime in the next week.

A loaf of sandwich bread on a metal cooling rack with a vase of flowers just above it. Both are on a wooden table. The flower vase has mostly green leaves of different types and a small bunch of small white flowers of a type unknown to me.
The sandwich bread is arranged horizontally with a wavy pattern of black and white sesame seeds running across the loaf on the lower half of the top face. The pattern ends at a score line running the length of the loaf. The loaf is a rich brown color with a slightly darker shade along the lip of the score line.

A side on view of a loaf of sandwich bread with a white and black sesame seed pattern of stripes on the right side and a pronounced lip along the score line on top.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 14/06/2026

Le Grand Prix Elmendorf du Pain starts in East Cambridge in just over an hour from now. I dropped off my seeded sandwich loaf earlier this morning. #bread #sourdough #ecba #elmendorf #cambridgema eastcambridgeba.com/le-grand-pri... img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/6a...

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 11/06/2026

This is the error I get and it's only for that particular photo.

Screenshot of a dialog box.
Title text is: Can't load some photos
Body text is: Please try again later. Your photos will be available once the issue is resolved.
Bottom right action button: OK

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 01/06/2026

Seeded sourdough Einkorn sandwich bread.

A loaf of sandwich bread placed horizontally on a wire rack. The loaf has alternating diagonal stripes of black and white sesame about 2 inches each along the top surface.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 27/04/2026

Watching Evelyn Hammonds in conversation with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@chanda.blacksky.app) at Harvard University about Chanda's new book The Edge of Space-Time.

Evelyn Hammonds in conversation with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein at Harvard University.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 23/04/2026

First attempt at seeded rye sourdough.

A face on view of three slices of seeded rye bread on a bamboo cutting board. Some of the seeds visible are pumpkin and sunflower.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 09/04/2026

Grape Hyacinths and Forsythias in bloom. #spring #newengland #boston

Several stalks of light blue grape hyacinths with white tipped petals in full bloom.

A close-up of bright yellow forsythia flowers in full bloom. The dark brown stalk and light green leaves and sepals offer a stark contrast.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 02/04/2026

Spiced whole-wheat sourdough fruit buns.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 18/03/2026

Is Marriott not interested in letting people book online? I don't think they're on bsky.

A screenshot of the marriott.com website showing a "401 Authorization Required" generic nginx error page.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 27/12/2025

Is this a thing now where the Korean text is just the English transliterated into Hangul?

A box of Douce Romance Butter Waffles with the Korean text 버터 와플 and the English text Premium Dessert written in English. A picture of 3 people having tea is on the left and a close up of 3 waffles on the right.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 25/12/2025

Someone needs to tell Google Weather that snowflakes have 6 branches, not 4.

Screen capture of the snowflake icon in Google weather showing a snowflake with 4 branches.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 22/12/2025

Tried to make Panettone but ended up with Volcanotonne. Apart from the shape, it came out well. 50% whole wheat and used my own strain of yeast extracted from the skin of a mango. The overflow was due to excessively deep scoring.

Photo of a loaf of Panettone in an aluminum tin on a wire rack. The Panettone has spilled over on one side of the pan.

Photo of the inside of the Panettone with the crumb and dried fruits visible.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 18/12/2025

This week's sandwich loaf.

A loaf of whole wheat sandwich bread on a wire rack. The loaf is arranged horizontally and is covered with black sesame, white sesame, and flax seeds. There is a horizontal tear across the middle where the loaf was scored.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 02/12/2025

PyData Boston 2025 (@pydata.bsky.social) -- Happening Dec. 8-10 at the Microsoft NERD Center. Details here: py- data.org/boston2025/ #PyDataBoston25 #PyData #NumFOCUS

View of Memorial Drive, the Charles river, and the Boston Skyline from a tall building in Cambridge. The Hancock building and the Prudential tower are visible.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 26/11/2025

Nobody told these tomatoes that the growing season is over. Just harvested and there are more on the plants.

8 tomatoes of 3 different varieties in the palm of a hand.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 16/11/2025

Currently reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan. It talks about the issues with food industrialization and de-localization. I know many of you will enjoy it and learn from it.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 24/09/2025

Made apple spice bread for the start of fall. Spices include cinnamon, clove, allspice and ginger. Happy with how this came out because it's generally hard to work with fruits that leak water into the dough while it bakes. #bread

An angled top down view of a loaf of sandwich bread placed left to right on a wire rack. A long score runs horizontally along the length of the loaf while a partially visible design is scored over the top.
Pieces of caramelized apple peek out through the main score.

A head on view of the cross-section of a loaf of sandwich bread. Pieces of apple are visible across the inside while swirls of spice cover the crumb.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 14/08/2025

Amazon music should really figure out how to format time... And no, there aren't 1.6 million minutes left in this playlist.

The control panel of the Amazon Music app on Android showing a remaining time of 1,662,248 minutes and 34 seconds. The time is circled with a red pen mark.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 07/08/2025

Don't use AI to design your circuits.

An AI generated image of electronic components with 4 resistors with identical irregularly spaced color bands Black, Yellow, Red, Red and with labels below each. The first states 470 Ω (using the greek symbol for ohm), the second states 470 ohm (using the english letters), the third and fourth both state 220 ohm.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 16/07/2025

There is a fairy hollow on Bow St. in Somerville, MA (Union Sq). This one is has 3+ levels. A sign says they are at @fairyhollowsomerville but I don't know what service that's on.

The lower end of a tree trunk with a fairy hollow built into it. There is a floor (made out of a wooden shelf), a door in the trunk, some mushrooms and play animals, and wooden stair steps going up. Green LED lights light up the stairs.

The middle end of a tree trunk with a fairy hollow built into it. There is a floor (made out of a wooden shelf) with a railing, a door in the trunk and two windows above it, some play animals, and wooden stair steps on the left going down. Green LED lights light up the stairs. Two signs above the door say, "Fairy Hollow Somerville" and "Like & Follow @fairyhollowsomerville".

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 08/06/2025

Made demi baguettes for Le Grand Prix Elmendorf: eastcambridgeba.com/le-grand-pri... #cambridge #cambridgema #fête-du-pain #baguette

Photograph of 3 demi baguettes arranged side by side on a wire rack with a 12 inch wooden ruler to the left of them. Viewing from the pointy side.

A baguette partially cut horizontally to show the crumb. There are a large number of uneven holes visible.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 23/05/2025

Don't beat yourself up about bugs in your code. Even 21 years later, Gmail still has off by one errors. I guess they don't have tests for mostly empty mailboxes.

A screenshot of gmail's pagination view that says "101-116 of -1" followed by left and right navigation arrows. The left arrow is enabled and the right arrow is disabled.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 11/05/2025

Made sourdough cinnamon buns for Mother's Day. 30% whole wheat / 70% APF, 60% hydration with milk & butter. I only used about 35% of the sugar called for, and it's the right amount of sweetness for us.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 27/03/2025

@dbelson.com speaking at the Boston Web Performance meet earlier today. Hosted by me at Akamai.

A birds eye view of David Belson speaking at the Boston Web Performance meet hosted at Akamai's HQ in Cambridge. The picture is taken from one floor up with the audience sitting theater style along the stair seats.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 22/01/2025

Fidelity going out of their way to make the Chrome browsing experience feel like IE7. In case you weren't around then, on old versions of Internet Explorer, select boxes were a different kind of window element than other HTML elements and had to be carefully managed for proper z-indexing.

A screenshot of a navigation menu on a web page and a select box titled "Retirement Goal" just below them. One of the menu items titled "Fixed Income Analysis" is open with three sub items. The sub-items are only partially visible because the menu expands behind the select box.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 21/12/2024

The Internet is out and I just turned off all the morning alarms on my phone. Someone remind me to turn them back on in 2 weeks.

Several potted plants - 3 mums and 2 marigolds - covered with snow at night while fairy lights shine in the back.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 09/12/2024

20 Common Performance Mistakes by @paulcalvano.bsky.social, speaking at Akamai HQ for the Boston #Webperf Meetup. #perfmatters

Paul Calvano sitting at a high table with laptop in front, speaking about Performance Mistakes at the Boston Web Performance Meetup with his title slide saying 20 Common mistakes on the screen behind him. The window behind him reflects the room in front.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 13/11/2024

My son & I peeled and hand ground a large amount of cardamom.

A large number of empty green cardamom shells.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 10/11/2024

I wonder what templating engine Experian uses that resulted in such a weird Spanish translation.

Screenshot of text that says, "¿Speak español? Download a printable copy of your informe de crédito en español. Get informe en español"

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 13/10/2024

We saw Comet C/2023 over Magazine Beach in Cambridge yesterday.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 18/07/2024

Picture of me speaking on the final day of #juliacon at Philips Stadium in Eindhoven. Thanks to Joris Kraak for the photo.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 19/04/2024

Those are not strawberries.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 29/03/2024

Made Hot Cross(less?) Sourdough Buns yesterday. The crosses are technically the venting slits I made on top of each bun but they aren't as pronounced due to the marmalade glaze. The buns are 95gm each, filled with two types of raisins, yuzu peel and mixed spices.

A set of 9 buns with cross-shaped venting slits cut into the top. Each bun is approximately 95gm, is filled with two types of raisins, yuzu peel, spices and glazed with orange marmalade.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 27/03/2024

Tried a new shape of sourdough loaf. Not sure I like how wide it turned out though. Will try baguettes again for Easter.

A loaf of seeded sourdough bread, somewhat oval in shape, sitting on a breadboard with horizontal slats for the crumbs to fall through.

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Philip Tellis @bluesmoon.info · 25/03/2024

I've been working on a vega-lite spec to visualize the time taken by our unit tests. This has already led to significant improvements over the last 2 weeks. The spec, with some sample data, is available at gist.github.com/bluesmoon/78... 1/2

Gannt chart with blue bars running horizontally. Most bars also have a single element pie chart at the end signifying code coverage. A legend on the right specifies the colours for Pass, Fail and Error status of each bar, and the colours for code coverage of the pie chart.

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