iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 02/03/2026

I dropped $0.69 on the NYT Games crossword subscription sale. Remember this when we're wondering why March had an unusual peak of reference desk stats.

020

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 25/02/2026

Love that #slopwatch was trending for #Unpacked today. My favourite part was the way they addressed privacy concerns with new AI phones by making it so that you can't see the screen from an angle.

020

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 12/09/2025

Spread the word! Eat the rich† †contains: gluten

031

Reposted by Dan Phillips

Ben MacLeod 馬志斌 @benmacleod.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Oh The Urbanity: "Show me a city with a legally protected mansion district near downtown and I'll show you a city that hasn't really taken the housing crisis seriously." Halifax:

An aerial view of Halifax overlaid with colour blocks and text. It focuses on the South End, noting that the zoning for the area is "Established Residential" and that residents "successfully lobbied the city to neuter a limited upzoning proposal in 2024. Traffic suffers because we prevent students and health-care workers from living in the most walkable part of the city, forcing them to commute. The prevailing zoning does not preserve 'neighbourhood character' because old homes are being redeveloped into mega-mansions on a significant scale anyway". The image highlights major employment centres flanking the South End, including Dalhousie University (6,000 staff, 21,000 students), Saint Mary's University (850 staff, 6,000 students), the IWK Health Centre (4,090 employees), and the QEII Health Sciences Centre (7,700 employees). The image also highlights the South End's proximity to Downtown Halifax.

1422172

Reposted by Dan Phillips

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

You are now required to have a cellphone to citizen. That should not be allowed. You should not be required to have a cellphone to work. But many employers make a cellphone a de facto requirement. It’s anti-poor. But it’s also anti-democratic.

321978420

Reposted by Dan Phillips

Obsidian @obsidian.md · 20/02/2025

Obsidian is now free for work. Starting today, the Obsidian Commercial license is optional. Anyone can use Obsidian for work, for free. Explore the organizations that support Obsidian on our site. obsidian.md/blog/free-fo...

obsidian.md

Obsidian is now free for work

Starting today, the Obsidian Commercial license is optional. Anyone can use Obsidian for work, for free. Explore organizations that support Obsidian on our new Enterprise page.

10763206

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 03/12/2024

It's three in the morning and I'm still thinking about the new Black Diamond resealable package.

010

Reposted by Dan Phillips

emma zhou @emmz.bsky.social · 25/10/2024

does everybody know about my favorite website, the embroidery tips page that forgot to close its <h3> tags

web.archive.org

Embroidery Trouble Shooting Page

Embroidery Trouble Shooting Answers to all your questions about Embroidery problems

34780443469

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 17/10/2024

E. H. Shepard died in 1976. While his works are in the public domain in the US, they won't be in Canada for another 23 years. That's to say nothing of the Hundred Acre Wood map, which attributes Shepard as having only "helpd" Christopher Robin to create it. We'll get that one in the late 2060s.

110

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 04/08/2024

I like that this company's Market Research Help Desk email is "mrdesk". It makes for a very personal experience when I reply. --- Dear Mr. Desk, Please unsubscribe me from your mailing list. I hope you have a chance to get out of the office on this long weekend, Dan

100

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 12/07/2024

My feed is turning into "Creatures I found on my balcony."

A crow on a cornice casts a covetous consideration upon a crust.

This picture is as much a work of art as this descriptive text, which is to say that it falls short. With the black bird silhouetted against an overcast sky and the bleached-out crust set against a dark tree, there is a noticeable contrast. Out of frame, a poet in a Westminster grave turns over.

050

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 07/07/2024

I've resumed the petsitting circuit as friends go on vacation for the summer. This is Lucy. If you saw my Twitter account before it was purged, she may look familiar. At 21 years young, Lucy cries for me to come back when I go downstairs to feed Finnegan, her brother.

A senior calico cat on a bed. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how a viewer can tell that she's a senior cat. It may be a combination of her large eyes, her head-to-body ratio, or the way her fur tufts.

020

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 26/06/2024

Logi, although you've done a terrible job explaining it to customers, your Unifying technology is great. Tell me... why are there so many AI features in a dongle-syncing application?

010

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 10/06/2024

Love me a little free library!

Vernon Street Stick Library. It's like a Little Free Library, but for dogs!

010

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 10/06/2024

Does anyone have a GitHub Pages Jekyll site that references .md files hosted on S3? * How do you reference those files? * Does S3 handle access from GHP securely so clones don't access your .md files? * Do you use Actions to rebuild the site automatically or push a commit? #GitHubPages #S3 #jekyll

100

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 03/05/2024

Meet today's work-from-home coworker. I call her Georgia.

A raccoon sleeping in a knocked-over trash bin.

In the background stands our intrepid photographer. He holds the end of a broomstick which, out of frame, is taped to a selfie stick to hold the camera from a safe distance.

020

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 02/04/2024

It's been a year since #Reddit announced fees for API calls to third-party apps. I stopped using it; the first-party UI is awful. Even if third-party app pricing is reasonable, the pay-per-call model itself scared me off. How has user generated content changed as a result of API fees (if at all)?

100

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 11/03/2024

I live in Nova Scotia and work remotely for Saskatchewan. Daylight Saving Time is throwing me off so much today. (Saskatchewan doesn't observe it.) I had a 9 am meeting at noon. This is crazy.

150

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 02/01/2024

An ornament spotted on a good friend's tree at their New Year's gathering. It took me a moment to realize why it has this shape.

A hand-painted Christmas ornament. It looks like Santa's head with a slightly pointed hat and a large round beard.

But ho ho hold the phone! Something is subtly fishy with this ornament. It is painted on a clam shell!

020

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 24/12/2023

Our third annual game of Pasagi in mid-December 2023. This year we had over a dozen participants in a single game!

A game that looks similar to table tennis played without a net.

000

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 23/12/2023

Members of my trivia team were invited to a cookie exchange last week, so I 3D printed a cookie cutter from our mascot: The Loyal Bisonslug.

A cookie made from a custom made cookie cutter. It's fully unrecognizable, but it's the thought that counts - right?

A cookie cutter is shown along with the image it was made to look like. The image is a cross between a bison and a slug.

000

Dan Phillips @danphillips.ca · 21/12/2023

We got our mugs back from the kiln! I didn't take a before-firing picture with "flux" (drippy glaze) applied to my mug - but golly, look at that difference.

The "Before" photo in a series of two images.

A stone mug that has been painted an orange colour. The paintwork looks a bit rough around the edges.

The "After" picture in a series of two images.

This image shows three mugs side by side. They have been fired. In context with the "Before" picture, the mug on the far left would hardly be recognized as the same mug: the reddish glaze has turned green on the kiln.

The center mug is painted to look like an ocean meeting the shore, and the right mug on the right has a blue-on-red-wine colour over a honeycomb pattern.

020