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Brian Ronald

@brian.ppcis.org

171 followers 55 following 2.3K posts

Spellwright. Practitioner of technomancy. Ally.

Posts Replies Media

Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 17/09/2026

Bought The Rose Field by Phillip Pullman. Unfortunately, what with all the illustrations, this #ebook is more than my venerable BeBook can handle! It just reboots when I try to open it. It works on more modern hardware. #TheSecretCommonwealth #eBooks #booksky

2009 vintage BeBook e-reader showing a folder full of Philip Pullman books. There's a folder for His Dark Materials (contents not visible), and the three books in the Book of Dust trilogy. The Secret Commonwealth is 5MB. La Belle Sauvage is 607KB. The Rose Field is 106MB.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 19/08/2026

Ridley Tortoise chose to spend part of his morning in his breakfast.

Tortoise nestled in his breakfast bowl. Lots of brown in this image, a few salad leaves scattered about.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 10/06/2026

Broken chain! I couldn't quote-post mine.

The Fellowship of the Kin (cropped).
A bunch of the photographer's family walk silhouetted in single file against a winter horizon. Barbury Castle, Wiltshire, UK, 26th December 2016. © Brian Ronald, CC-BY-SA 3.0

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 24/03/2026

@steampowered.com @steamdeck.com I love it when this works. Magic.

Blue banner, "TRANSFERRING GAME FILES ON LOCAL NETWORK TO DEVICE : BRIANSDECK"

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 19/03/2026

I saw a blue and white budgie in a tree on my way home. Heard him first. If you live near Leam Lane, South Tyneside, that's where he is. Ordnance Survey NZ 3395 6370, in a tree right by the pedestrian crossing east of Lindisfarne Junction. #budgie #birb #escaped #lost (likely). osm.org/go/evyucEUqF

Photo of trees near the pedestrian crossing over Leam Lane, east of Lindisfarne Junction, South Tyneside. A cycle route sign is in the foreground for context, and houses are visible behind. About half way up the middle tree is a nest, which has a blue and white budgerigar near it. Near them both is a pigeon.

Cropped digitally zoomed photograph of a blue and white budgerigar sitting near a nest in a tree.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 03/03/2026

Your worm moon was bigger than mine.

Bearded man in a coat and hat, with a bit of a frown, faces the camera. Behind him, a non-descript white dot is visible in the sky.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 19/12/2025

It's right there on the home page. I'm nowhere near Leicestershire.

Screen-grab of today's BBC News home page, showing various headlines, including "Woman's shock as goose smashes through front door"

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 15/11/2025

A really good reason not to choose Café Nero is the lack of respect they have for people who want coffee but not caffeine. The decaf is pre-ground and open to the air, and stale as a result. We saw this in a couple of their branches, but didn't order any decaf after the first one.

Photo of the coffee machine in a Café Nero store. In front of it is an open bucket, labelled "Café Nero decaffeinated coffee". Below that bucket is the rubbish bin, which is where that bucket's contents should go.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 30/06/2025

We even have this great circular. I'd love to close every through-route to cars within this loop. The Tyne Tunnel can carry on going underneath it, I don't mind that.

OpenStreetmap screenshot, showing the loop of Chaytor Street, Priory Road, the A185 and Ellison Street in Jarrow, South Tyneside.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 27/03/2025

I recommend checking the box against "Require alt text before posting" within BlueSky's Accessibility settings.

Screen-snip of Bluesky's Alt text accessibility settings, as seen in a desktop browser. The "Require alt text before posting" option is selected and enabled.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 13/03/2025

Post a photos you took with no context to bring some zen to the timeline.

A juvenile herring gull stands both in the centre of the frame, and in the middle of the nearside lane of a quiet tarmac road, half way between the white lines in the middle and the double yellow "no parking" lines by the kerb. The road surface is wet from recent rain. There is some litter in the gutter on the opposite side. There is a manhole cover visible on the nearside footway to the right of the image. No scenery is visible, but the indistinct reflection of a building can be made out in the wet surface.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 03/03/2025

This is the way. I bought a stainless steel cover for my gas range, and the induction hob sits on that. The cool thing is I get to use the same kettle that I used on the gas range, except that it boils in a quarter of the time and doesn't make the entire kitchen hot.

A whistle kettle, sat on a portable dual induction hob, sat on a stainless steel cover. It's lit from above, which is the light in the hob's extraction hood.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 23/02/2025

Go to the layers menu, which is the fourth icon down on the right, and scroll its menu down. Un-tick the "Map Notes" option.

Screenshot of OpenStreetMap's mobile browser page showing the layers menu, slightly scrolled down

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 17/02/2025

My sister bought it! You all should, it's brilliant. @rosemarykirstein.bsky.social is on here.

The Steerswoman (paperback), by Rosemary Kirstein, photographed in a hurry by the look of it. ISBN 9781311589682

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 13/02/2025

Reported.

"Select Moderator" screen from bluesky.app, showing the Bluesky Moderation Service, the AI Imagery Labeler and the Art Theft Labeler. The latter is highlighted.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 10/02/2025

Assuming that this means you're unlikely to use AI imagery yourself, you might want to appeal this label, which was applied to your account by @aimod.social.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 08/02/2025

Tortoise emoji like the one Tolly used, but with a wincing expression

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 20/12/2024

@vkc.sh This old trick doesn't yet have a decent work-around, though. At least I alt-texted it - I'm not a monster. In all seriousness, I'm prepared to remove this post on request.

Select-screenshot of Veronica's Bluesky post, timestamped eight hours ago, saying "You can't respond to this post and that's glorious"

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 19/12/2024

Very little has changed here. Between platforms, there is still route signage for Bank Foot and Benton, Heworth and South Shields, the original termini.

A photograph of a beige wall in a passageway. Yellow signs point left for Benton, Bank Foo,t and Whitley Bay; right for Heworth, and South Shields. Taken within Gateshead Metro Station at platform level.
© Brian Ronald, 2014, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 27/11/2024

I saw it...

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 20/11/2024

That book doesn't mention him 🙁

Photo of the book in El Reg's post, in front of that post.

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Brian Ronald @brian.ppcis.org · 18/11/2024

This is all we see right now. Bluesky shows only what you tell it to.

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