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Colin Watson

@cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy
4 followers 4 following 102 posts

Irish geek. Happily married, father of four, polyamorous, left-wing, Reform Jew by choice. Debian and Ubuntu developer and freelancer, mainly working for […] [bridged from mastodon.ie/@cjwatson on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

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Reposted by Colin Watson
laura lemay @lemay.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
Thinking about how for years teenagers and curious nerds were prosecuted and thrown in jail because poking at a web site was a clear sign of being a ☠️ CR1MIN4L H4CK3R ☠️ Now it's all like oh no! the computer did an oopsie! no one is to blame, nothing can be done! ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
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Reposted by Colin Watson
flere-imsaho 🇺🇦 @mawhrin.fedi.circumstances.run · 20/09/2026
RE: circumstances.run/@mawhrin/11730233… think i'm exaggerating? the money put into the the autoconfabulator investments goes into fucking multiple trillions (order of magnitude: 10¹²). divide that by a million, and you get the order of magnitude of fucking millions. and […]
circumstances.run
Original post on circumstances.run
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
Well, that's done, I guess. Goodbye, Dad. David Watson 1938-2026 #funeral
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Reposted by Colin Watson
The Man in Seat 61 @seatsixtyone.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
BREAKING: Today, Eurail (established 1959) & Interrail (established 1972) merge into a single European railpass range for EVERYONE regardless of nationality or country of residence, called INTERRAIL. Read why I think this is excellent news here: www.seat61.com/news.htm
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026
Free software activity in August 2026 LLM GR, OpenSSH and PuTTY updates, and the start of Python 3.15 packaging work. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
chiark.greenend.org.uk
Free software activity in August 2026
LLM GR, OpenSSH and PuTTY updates, and the start of Python 3.15 packaging work.
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Reposted by Colin Watson
highly praised and little read @hannah.posts.rat.pictures.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026
The most popular pattern on ravelry right now is simply called The Garment
It’s a hilarious massive floor length circular cape thing
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 23/08/2026
GSS-API support split out from main Debian OpenSSH packages In an option review I did in 2024, shortly after the xz-utils backdoor, I explained that having GSS-API authentication and key exchange support in the main OpenSSH packages is problematic. The key exchange patch is large and intrusive […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026
RIP David Watson, my Dad, on Monday, aged 87. I'll miss you so much.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 11/08/2026
Free software activity in July 2026 More preparations for OpenSSH GSS-API split; the usual round of Python packaging work. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
chiark.greenend.org.uk
Free software activity in July 2026
More preparations for OpenSSH GSS-API split; the usual round of Python packaging work.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 22/07/2026
Watching (or in my case rewatching) #Buffy with one of my kids. _Becoming_ still holds up remarkably well despite the dodgy 1990s effects. Some lovely comic moments amid the rather obvious tragedy. Spike and Joyce sitting awkwardly in the living room (and TBH any scene containing Spike). Giles […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Reposted by Colin Watson
elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Listen, I agree there’s loads of good signs re Burnham, but taking a firm pro-immigration stance should be a basic requirement for an ostensibly progressive politician. And sorry for being biased here as an immigrant myself. Mahmood made me want to leave the UK and keeping her is incredibly hurtful.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 16/07/2026
I am really fucking bored of having gallstones. #ow
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Matthew Dockrey @attoparsec.clacks.link.ap.brid.gy · 11/07/2026
I've had this ridiculous idea bouncing around my head for years, and tonight I finally did it. Take that, overhanging greenery! #biketooter
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 03/07/2026
Free software activity in June 2026 OpenSSL 4.0, pytest 9.1, and Python 3.14 as default. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
chiark.greenend.org.uk
Free software activity in June 2026
OpenSSL 4.0, pytest 9.1, and Python 3.14 as default.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 26/06/2026
Ooh, after leaving windows open for several hours my bedroom might actually be at an inhabitable temperature. Maybe I'll sleep tonight. (It's hard to leave my bedroom windows open overnight because we face onto a main road: only a single carriageway through a village, but all the same the […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Glyph @glyph.im · 24/06/2026
Sigh. It's go time, folks: github.com/twisted/twisted/issues/1…
github.com
clearly forbid LLM-generated contributions · Issue #12676 · twisted/twisted
Now that we are starting to get LLM-generated contributions (#12665, #12673) we should have a clear policy so that people do not waste their time generating code with LLMs for inclusion in Twisted....
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Reposted by Colin Watson
abadidea @0xabad1dea.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 12/06/2026
Okay. I FINISHED THE TRANSLATION. Fifty entire pages of modern Chinese philosophy about Western philosophy. It's nominally about "artificial intelligence" but in typical philosophical fashion, it's actually about, uh, colonialism, Catholicism, Van Gogh's […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]
“Western Philosophy from Chinese Perspective: What To Do About Artificial Intelligence?”

An unauthorized, noncommercial translation of 西方思想讲演录:从中国看世界 Lectures on Western Thought: China Looks Out On The World Chapter 2: 如何应对人工只能 “How should one respond to artificial intelligence?,” originally published January 2026; translated June 2026
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
Free software activity in May 2026 OpenSSH security and IPQoS backports; the usual Python packaging work. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
chiark.greenend.org.uk
Free software activity in May 2026
OpenSSH security and IPQoS backports; the usual Python packaging work.
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Space Hobo @spacehobo.teh.entar.net.ap.brid.gy · 03/06/2026
Tridge has responded to ThE DiScOuRsE via the medium of...medium. medium.com/@tridge60/rsync-and-outr…
medium.com
rsync and outrage
Comments
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Space Hobo @spacehobo.teh.entar.net.ap.brid.gy · 29/05/2026
I actually worked at the same place as Andrew Tridgell, over a quarter-century ago. I got to know a few of the OzLabs folks during their immediate post-IBM years, and always had the highest respect for them in that way where you feel acute impostor syndrome when they're in the room. Tridge […]
teh.entar.net
Original post on teh.entar.net
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Reposted by Colin Watson
daniel:// stenberg:// @bagder.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/05/2026
Pasting a huge AI generated explanation to a problem in an issue or pull-request is nothing but RUDE. Don't do it. You look stupid and the receivers of that feel insulted. We are humans. We communicate like humans. Fine, use the tools you like, but don't insult us.
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Reposted by Colin Watson
nosfe @nosfe.kamu.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/05/2026
so, umm, this is a 16 bytes intro 16 bytes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvycyU-kLjg #demoscene #intro
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Larvitz :fedora: @larvitz.burningboard.net.ap.brid.gy · 13/05/2026
Several years of Deutsche Bahn business travel taught me something unexpected: eventually you stop fighting the system and start learning its moods, failure domains, and hidden virtues. I wrote down the practical folklore that actually helps: apps, routing habits, delay survival, seat choices […]
burningboard.net
Original post on burningboard.net
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 11/05/2026
Free software activity in April 2026 groff, OpenSSH, and parted updates; helped with dput-ng data loss fix. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 07/05/2026
I might have some #Django friends who have experience with this sort of thing. I spent a good chunk of today doing #PostgreSQL query optimization: not indexes, but rather "if this query had a different but semantically-equivalent structure, the planner would understand how to make it an order […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Reposted by Colin Watson
abadidea @0xabad1dea.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 29/04/2026
the ghost of Beethoven: tell me, how fares the future? do people still enjoy my music? me: oh yes, quite often actually. and sometimes creative young composers intentionally mislabel their work as yours, so that the robots which patrol our libraries day and night don't burn the manuscripts […]
infosec.exchange
Original post on infosec.exchange
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2026
This is, like, 4000x more petrolhead than my usual scene. But it's quite a fun weekend out #DoningtonPark
The Porsche Sprint Challenge at Donington Park.  It's a nice day, and we're on top of a hill with a view of a pretty decent section of the track.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 19/04/2026
I have rarely seen a more striking example of Betteridge's law.
A card for a BBC Health article with the headline "Should you really trust health advice from an AI chatbot?".
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026
Free software activity in March 2026 A few security updates, but otherwise mostly routine Python work. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
chiark.greenend.org.uk
Free software activity in March 2026
A few security updates, but otherwise mostly routine Python work.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 08/04/2026
Loconundrum #24 ⬜🟩⬜ 🚂🚂 🟩🟩🟩 Quite pleased with that! Getting it in one (as was the case a few days ago) is obviously just luck; this is more satisfying.
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
This was a fucking masterclass in interviewing. Crucial for any of us whose work has become fodder for AI churn in this dystopian hellscape but also just a hell of an interview for ANYONE on capitalism and exploitation, and what CEOs really think of you:
theverge.com
Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me
Superhuman CEO Shishir Mehrotra responds to the Grammarly “expert review” controversy, and whether AI is extracting more value than it creates.
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Reposted by Colin Watson
defnull @defnull.chaos.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/03/2026
The 'multipart' #python library got an independent #security audit and I only know about that because they found something -> CVE-2026-28356 This is great, actually! Someone looked into it so thoroughly that they found an obscure single-character issue in a regular expression ... and didn't […]
chaos.social
Original post on chaos.social
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Daniel Keys Moran @fatsam.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/03/2026
This is huge for Who fans. The first and third episodes of The Dalek Master Plan have been found. www.the-independent.com/arts-entert…
the-independent.com
Two ‘lost’ Doctor Who episodes found in donated tape collection
Recovered episodes are from third season of hit sci-fi series
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 09/03/2026
Free software activity in February 2026 Even more pkg_resources wrangling, minor OpenSSH security updates, and a BTS mail-handling tweak. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 07/03/2026
Good night
A Staffordshire terrier sleeping on a blue sofa.
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Tom Chadwin @tomchadwin.en.osm.town.ap.brid.gy · 03/03/2026
RE: en.osm.town/@openstreetmap/11616533… This is an immaculately written response. It has calm, quiet authority, and seeks to respond not in the terms of the other interested party, but in a scope of worldwide community openness and empowerment. It does so with complete respect […]
en.osm.town
Original post on en.osm.town
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 15/02/2026
It sucks that Netflix is removing _She-Ra_, but I did at least manage to finish it five days before the deadline. It is _so good_.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 10/02/2026
@neil Re neilzone.co.uk/2026/01/dealing-with…, your approach here apparently only works by coincidence (because /usr/bin/1 doesn't exist). I think you'd be better off looking at the unfortunately […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Reposted by Colin Watson
Jennifer 🍄 @jenyetagain.beige.party.ap.brid.gy · 09/02/2026
in 2017 a popular twitter game was to type a partial phrase then see what your phone auto-completes it with. this proved so popular that it is now the only business model in the US.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 08/02/2026
Free software activity in January 2026 More Python 3.14 and pkg_resources wrangling. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 05/01/2026
Free software activity in December 2025 Mostly chasing Python 3.14 problems. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 29/12/2025
On a more cheerful note, we went ice-skating today, for the first time in ages in my case. I had an awkward fall towards the end and pulled my hip slightly (no great harm done, just a bit of an ache), but otherwise really enjoyed it.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 29/12/2025
[ukpol] My letter to my MP regarding the case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah: I write concerning the case of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, a dual citizen of the UK and Egypt. There are reportedly calls to have his UK citizenship revoked based on past tweets (www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0l93lx…) […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 20/12/2025
I haven't been doing good candleposting this year, so happy #Chanukah!
A chanukiah with eight differently-coloured lit candles.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 18/12/2025
Preparing a transition in Debusine A walk-through of preparing changes to multiple packages using Debusine. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
chiark.greenend.org.uk
Preparing a transition in Debusine
A walk-through of preparing changes to multiple packages using Debusine.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 15/12/2025
Good night
A white Staffie/mastiff cross with brown patches snores gently on a blue sofa.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 07/12/2025
Today I disposed of some old bank cards in my wallet that expired in 2021. Fear my productivity.
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 04/12/2025
Free software activity in November 2025 Beginning preparation for OpenSSH GSS-API split, but otherwise a fairly routine month. Blog post: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~cjwatso…
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Colin Watson @cjwatson.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 30/11/2025
I haven't even watched the video, but I reckon that's enough internet for today.
A 46-second BBC News video captioned "'Mr Tumble made me have the snip' - Wayne Rooney"
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