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Mark Norman Francis

@cackhanded.net
449 followers 309 following 1K posts

Internet boffin.

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Reposted by Mark Norman Francis
ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · 27/09/2026
When you tell people that ITV used to fill gaps in the shows with some music featuring robots in baroque clothes playing classical music while a spacecraft kidnaps them and steals the city they're in, and people look at you as if you're mad... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Fr...
youtube.com
Rondò Veneziano - La Serenissima
YouTube video by randomVHStat
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This man has gotten more done in 9 months in office than most politicians achieve in their ENTIRE CAREERS all with that extreme good-muppet energy and that's why everybody else can't stand him because he gets it done, has receipts to back his words, and then just moves on to the next.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Gerry Doyle @mgerrydoyle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
this is weird because I have never heard of the song or artist until just this second
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Weirdly, it's why Disney's Robin Hood is arguably the most "faithful" adaption. Because it lifts whole chunks of its plot directly from the Geste of Robin Hood. The very first printed version. it's the animated fox, not any subsequent gritty reboot, that has the strongest claim on authenticity 🫪😆
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Andrew Thatcher @andythatcher1.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Good work Battersea!
Battersea Dog and Cat billboard titled with The only borders we care about. And three images of a border collie
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Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 21/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/media/2026/s... An open goal here for Labour who will promptly punch the referee, trip over the ball and say that Meta deserved to win.
theguardian.com
Meta launches legal challenge against UK media regulator over Online Safety Act
Action against Ofcom comes as social media companies are being accused of using courts to slow down implementation
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Matt Round @mattround.com · 20/09/2026
Happy to announce that the internet’s no.1 crisp sandwich stock site will be getting an update in time for Crisp Sandwich Day, a whole new category of content vole.wtf/buttystock/
vole.wtf
ButtyStock 🥪 free crisp sandwich stock photos
Photos, illustrations, videos and 3D models featuring varied crisp (potato chip) sandwiches, all under a CC0 public domain license.
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Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19/09/2026
The RNLI is the closest you will ever get to actual Batman. When rescue is visibly, viscerally, obviously impossible; when the water is a smothering, thundering black wall and the wind is screaming straight from Hell; when you are absolutely going to die: someone’s hand pulls you out and you don’t.
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Matthew Somerville @dracos.co.uk · 19/09/2026
Fixed it for you
“Google says its Gemini AI model hacked three other companies” but with “Gemini AI model” crossed out and replaced with “subcontractor”
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
happy #caturday
tortie peeking out from box with warning on it that says "warning: if left empty and unattended this box will contain a cat
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Liam Thorp @liamthorp.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Lord give me the arrogance of a tax exile who feels the right to comment on the tax policies and general running of a country who you have deprived of billions by registering yourself in Monaco
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
We told everyone that programming wasn't the hard part, but no one believed us. The reason LLMs can excrete sort-of-okay code is that sort-of-okay code has been a commodity good for 20+ years. Then, just like now, the bottleneck was understanding what people actually want.
nytimes.com
Opinion | A.I. Slopware Is Everywhere Now. Nobody Is Using It. (Gift Article)
Just because A.I. is revolutionizing coding, doesn’t mean it will automatically revolutionize our apps.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 16/09/2026
Reading proofs from book & remembering what I wrote in 2015: "I am very concerned about the future of AI. Not because of the risk of rogue machines taking over. But because of the homogeneous, one-dimensional group of men who are currently involved in advancing the technology.”
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Patrick W. Reed @patrickwreed.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
this is the thing with "patriots" - they hate the people of this country, they hate the government of this country, they hate the BBC, they hate the National Trust, they hate the RNLI, they hate our universities, they hate the NHS. At some point, someone needs to ask them what they're so proud of.
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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I did a somewhat deep dive into the recent OpenAI and Anthropic "hacks" for an upcoming interview. IMO, the AI companies are better off running with the "rogue AI" story because the real story is actually pretty embarrassing. Like making your Wi-Fi password "wifi" embarrassing. 🧵
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Jonathan McDowell @planet4589.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Apparently the commander of the International Space Station brought her dancing pants to space with her
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Kippy Woo @tygerwhocame2t.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Can't believe it's been 27 years since them slags blew the moon out of its orbit, it still freaks my nut out to this day.
Danny Dyer
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Museum of Twitter @museum-of-twitter.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Bare minimum for holding a conversation: Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television, North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe. (posts i make after midnight don't count)
@SufiPervert

Bare minimum for holding a conversation: Dante, Goethe, Homer, Tolstoy, Aristotle, Pushkin, Blake, Lermontov, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Cellini, Thucydides, Tacitus, Montaigne, Virgil, Shakespeare, Stendhal, Cellini, Machiavelli, Melville, Milton, Conrad, Rimbaud and Hölderlin.
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Mikel Reparaz @wikiparaz.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
PAUL: What’s in the box? REVEREND MOTHER: Pain. [PAUL hesitantly puts his hand in the BOX, then FROWNS IN CONFUSION. He pulls out A BAGUETTE.] REVEREND MOHER: Hōn hōn,
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 12/09/2026
no
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Matt Round @mattround.com · 10/09/2026
🥪 Crisp Sandwich Day is next month, so please do get in touch if you want to do something daft for it, whether it’s a workplace thing or you run a pub/cafe or you’re going to run around in a crisp sandwich suit, whatever
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D r e a m k i d @dreamkid83.com · 11/09/2026
I don’t wanna be biased and I know all trends come and go but the 80s will never die. The visuals, sounds, heart and emotion is unmatched and it will never not be cool, I’ve said what I’ve said 😂
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Del - Martian Observer @martian-observer.net · 08/09/2026
Ea-nāṣir would absolutely love these times
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 07/09/2026
I grew up with Classic Space Lego. I wanted but couldn’t afford the Model Team series where they made airfix-equivalent detailed models of things like 18 wheeler cabs. Lego is more detailed and inventive than it was in my day, everyday sets now have the detail that premium sets had in my childhood.
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 07/09/2026
@koboldpress.com Hi! I’ve been spending some time turning the Black Flag RD into Markdown. Is there a place to send feedback on errors I find that’s more helpful than just using support.koboldpress.com?
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 07/09/2026
@wolfgangbaur.bsky.social Hi! I’ve been spending some time turning the Black Flag RD into Markdown. Is there a place to send feedback on errors I find that’s more helpful than just using support.koboldpress.com?
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Sam Whyte @samwhyte.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Last week, I had the following exchange with a Deliveroo rider: "Thanks for the tip, by the way. It's over a week since anyone tipped" "What?? Seriously??" "Yeah. It's not even that unusual to go a week without" What the fuck? Tip your underpaid gig slaves, you horrible bastards.
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Game Shows @gameshows.cackhanded.net · 05/09/2026
Gonk #PS5Share #StarWarsZeroCompany
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Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
British media accurately describe a fascist mob challenge.
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 05/09/2026
Geeks love… #daily #tshirt norm.hasworn.com/tshirts/geek... — This is the 11th time I've worn this since October 2012. It is my 135th most frequently worn tshirt. And I wear it every 5th September in memory of its designer, Cindy Li. Gone too soon.
A brown tshirt with a design featuring pink stylised glasses, a heart, and an asterisk — to denote “geeks love everything” (but with a second, secret, meaning too).
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Stefscribbles @stefscribbles.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
im lemon
sexy peach happy apple and angy lemon
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 03/09/2026
Superb work! Now if only we could see the same behaviour from @dndbeyond.com who still haven’t delivered on promises to release content over a decade old.
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Matt Thrower @mattthr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If she can resign her dream job, you & I can certainly do without watching the TV show.
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Alison Charlton @alicharlo.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Hand drawing of Mr Coyote holding a blank sign. 

Q: here i made you a template, you can keep it

do you think i could be an animator someday, my mom says this is a masterpiece.

A: Photo of Mr Coyote holding up hand drawn sign
Q: Hand drawn template with image of photo of Mr Coyote holding up hand drawn sign
A:  Photo of Mr Coyote holding up hand drawn template with image of photo of Mr Coyote holding up hand drawn sign
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Matt is Just Trying His Best @thegrampus.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Whoever decided to promote Coyote vs Acme by letting Wile E do an AMA using only signs deserves all the praise.
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Maureen Johnson @maureenjohnsonbooks.com · 02/09/2026
The pipeline between all things Harry Potter and hurting trans lives is just that--one pipe. Straight line. Direct funding. Not a complicated diagram. When you don't watch the Harry Potter preview, that helps. Not getting the views helps.
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Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 02/09/2026
Non-tech people maybe won't be aware, but we've now crossed a line where oligarchs fund the (broken, crappy) open source projects of their favourite programmers and get it lots of hype. A bad, insecure, vibe-coded Linux distribution run by fash just raised $14m. The community is furious.
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UK Government Petitions @petitions.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Rejected petition: "Make full eclipses an annual occurrence in the UK and a Public Holiday." #RejectedPetition
petition.parliament.uk
Rejected petition: Make full eclipses an annual occurrence in the UK and a Public Holiday.
Eclipses are an awesome phenomenon and it is unfair that Spain had a full one and we didn’t. I want a full eclipse in the UK every year and for it to be a Public Holiday.
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zaratustra @zaratustra.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 29/08/2026
Cool for finding a side project I never did much with. My fist open-source contribution predates GitHub by 15 years, however.
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Mark Norman Francis @cackhanded.net · 29/08/2026
Bruce Willis tries to get a coffee.
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Toss @stevenspoints.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I really cannot think of a greater honor than to have the Muppets say this about you upon your passing
Instagram post from the official Muppets account: Few humans have earned the title of honorary Muppet more than the legendary Tim Curry. As a performer he was unparalleled - witty, charming, unnerving, and deeply funny. We will always consider it one of our greatest treasures to have been part of Long John Silver’s crew. Thank you for everything, Tim.
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Jason Song Quinn (Comms Open) @hulkhoquinn.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Think about Miss Piggy. She lost a best friend and now an ex-lover in matter of 24 hours.
Miss Piggy and Dolly Parton in fancy dresses posing together photo of Tim Curry surrounded by muppets, smiling for a photo. A quote from curry is added “it didn’t go very well. It didn’t survive the shoot. She felt I wasn’t being faithful to her” it’s him discussing his ill fated affair with miss piggy
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Tyson @lscpunk.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If Dolly was our constant reminder that it was Good to be Good, Tim Curry was our reminder that it was Good to be Weird. Embrace your strangeness, sing with Muppets, wear your lingerie with a leather jacket, and fuck with uptight people who hate anything that makes them remotely uncomfortable.
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austin (e/accordion 🪗) @thebadcode.com · 26/08/2026
“computers can’t be held accountable” joke but it says “a computer can never wear a giant white tuxedo / therefore a computer must never ask itself well, how did i get here”
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
in a world of JK Rowlings be a Dolly Parton
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Microplastics Sommelier @leastactionhero.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RIP to a legend
rob dubbin @robdubbin

MY MAN: (comes home)
ME: (nervous) how was the store
MY MAN: fine
ME: oh thank g-
MY MAN: ran into jolene
ME: oh no
MY MAN: she mentioned you left kind of an intense voicemail

12:50 AM • Jul 29, 2019
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Jack Feerick @jackfeerick.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
What Dolly taught us is that it is in fact possible to be wealthy beyond your wildest dreams of avarice but still be a fundamentally good person with a strong moral compass, and the only reason more rich people aren't like that is because they don't want to be.
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mySociety @mysociety.org · 25/08/2026
If you're organised, proactive, efficient, resilient, sensitive to nuance and have experience in providing excellent user support, come and join the mySociety team! Find more details and apply at apply.workable.com/mysociety/j/...
We're looking for a collaborative, efficient, organised, resilient, kind, experienced, proactive User Support Officer at mySociety
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